“Employee Engagement”, “Employee Engagement”, “Employee Engagement”… it’s everywhere. Corporate sages, consultants, bloggers, webinars… everyone is talking about it, tackling it, and trying to master it and optimize it.
And, “it” always feels OFF.
So many consulting companies, software companies, magazines, talking heads are so very ready to sell,
“How to increase employee engagement”
“What is employee engagement? Definition and How do you Optimize it!”
And, “it” always feels OFF to me.
I have this visceral sense that we are constantly underestimating the effort, over-simplifying the solutions, and just misguided in the words and focus. It’s kind of like trying to optimize culture or morale. How the hell do you do really do that, besides by working on EVERYTHING?
Here’s why it’s off…
Employee Engagement is a result.
Employee engagement is THE result of leadership engagement and company engagement.
Human beings WANT to be engaged, because engagement feels good! We are emotionally designed to connect, to add value - so we are emotionally designed as human beings to being engaged.
So, said another way… employee DISengagement is a result of leadership DiSengagement with the employee. Hmmm… that doesn’t sound nearly as sexy! I’m not sure that will sell many software platforms.
There are two paramount challenges to creating healthy “ORGANIZATIONAL engagement” (a new term I just coined - capturing not just employee engagement, but also leadership engagement, because the latter begets the former).
For profit companies in a capitalistic society tend to be hyper-focused on short term growth and profitability. And, short term growth and profitability demand from the company and leadership the exact same resources (time and money) that are required investment for leadership and company engagement to employees. It tends to be a zero-sum game, and short term profitability and growth tends to win.
Leadership skills on the “human” side of management is seldom a core competence in companies & seldom considered as a priority for improvement & investment. For many reasons (heavily for reason 1 above) we tend to give priority to talking and working on the “business’ rather than working on the “people”.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a capitalist. I believe fully in a for-profit world. And, I hold myself accountable for profit and growth. And, it is because of that, that I intimately understand the challenges that it represents when trying to achieve those AND “employee engagement”.
So, what do we do? Do we go back to a win-lose, employer-takes-all world? No way! That bus has left the station, there are too many companies doing it right, and there are too many employees who know the difference. And, there are too many leaders that know the difference as well. Driving “employee engagement” is not just a current fad. In my opinion, it is our moral responsibility as human beings, and it is good for business… in the long run.
A higher level of engagement from the organization drives a higher level of problem solving, client satisfaction and growth! Why? Because you have more people more focused on the higher level goals as they are less distracted with low level frustrations and dissatisfactions. And they are fighting with you - not against you as “leadership” or “the company”. The interests are aligned.
If you want to drive “employee engagement” in the company, I recommend we focus on driving “leadership and company” engagement in the employees. And, that requires adressing both of the challenges above.
Make a sound business case for improving the value offered to employees.
We need to quantify the trade off between slightly higher short term compensation and attrition.
We need to prioritize employee requests for benefits and policy changes and quantify them and consider them with other corporate priorities.
We need to make decisions including the criteria of longer term (1 - 3 years) growth and profit, not just the current quarter and year.
We need to invest in our “human” competence and skill sets - and be thoughtful in every aspet of leadership.
We need to make time for the “soft” conversations becaues they add up to “hard” numbers.
We need to be THOUGHTFUL in every policy that we publish and issue, and not work to only minimize liability and risk to the company, but also optimize the employee experience and show our team that we are all of equal importance. (this one often doesn’t even cost money).
We need to be more deliberate about “human results” not just “financial results” - and hold ourselves and our fellow leaders accountable for growth on both fronts.
If we are designed to default to “engagement” - what causes “disengagement”? In my mind, its simple - a lack of empathy, a lack of curiosity, and a lack of clarity and, at times, courage from us as leaders.
When employees do not feel valued, heard, seen - it becomes an us vs them.
When employees feel valued, heard and seen - we are in it together!
That does not mean companies need to do EVERYTHING employees ask for - of course. But it does mean, that those requests need to be taken seriously. And that there needs to be a give and take - and transparency. We need to help our colleagues understand the real cost and consequence of some of the requests so that they can see how they are not affordable or do not make business sense.
I’ve heard “expert consultants” say that companies should not ask about compensation on employee engagement surveys. Do we not think that "compensation” weighs into the employees equation of being valued? Why are we so afraid to engage candidly in a highly important to conversation with employees? I assure you they will be discussing it with their new employee when they decide to leave.
I like to say, “It’s about people, everything is.” It’s my way of trying to focus us on the human side of the equation - because its behind everything we do. The narrative and tone is set in every conversation, by every coach and every manager. Every leader has a responsibility and an opportunity to create engagement in every decision, interaction and communication - and the higher up you are on the chart, the higher the level of your influence and impact.
I am convinced many of the most important things we can do to drive leadership and company engagement with employees don’t require much money, some none. But, they do require deliberate thought and a little bit of time.
Employee engagement is the achievable, moral, advantageous and compelling business-smart consequence of an empathetic, curious, honest and long term growth focused leadership and company.
To be more engaged, we need to be more human… in the best sense of the word.
It’s that very simple.
And, it’s that crazy hard.
In harmony,
Nestor