Employee engagement is multifaceted, but revolves primarily around the following six components:
- Clear priorities – Do we know what is important to be doing or learning?
- Regular feedback – How well are we doing our work? What can we do better?
- Resources – Do we have resources we need to be successful?
- Relationships – Do we have a strong, productive relationship with our supervisor, as well as others in our team or organization?
- Opportunity – Do we have career opportunities within the organization?
- Value – Do our contributions make a difference? How?
When employees can answer yes to these questions, they will be highly engaged. Organizations can use these components as a foundation for building a culture that will foster engagement.
How is employee attrition impacting employee engagement?
Absence of key drivers in employee engagement (mentioned above) leads to the low engagement rates we see throughout the workforce. Results of the SHRM Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement – Revitalizing a Changing Workforce in 2016 reported some disturbing results:
- Respect was rated very important by 67% of respondents. However, only 31% were very satisfied with how respect was demonstrated in their organizations.
- Relationships with supervisors were very important to 53%. However, only 40% were satisfied with those relationships.
- Recognition of job performance came in at 48% as very important. However, the satisfaction level was only 26%.
Work itself can be overwhelming. Deadlines, lack of resources, long hours, stressful environments. If it is coupled with a lack of respect, indifferent supervisors or lack of acknowledgment for work done, it can be completely demoralizing. Adding to the environment at work, people are struggling to balance the demands of their personal lives – caring for children and/or aging parents, poor health, making ends meet, and more. With those daily challenges at work and at home, people can become disengaged employees, who try to ride it out, but have little energy left to drive production, innovation, learning or growing. While these employees will stay even though they are not engaged, the best will go to other organizations that do a better job of meeting their engagement criteria. Either way, the organization loses – either by unproductive employees or loss of top talent.
One might say that the size of organizations is a contributor to this disengagement. It’s easier to be lost among many groups and departments. But the same kind of disengagement can be seen in smaller organizations. It’s all about relationships. Unfortunately, many managers, the real lynchpins of engagement, are overworked and undertrained in the skills of coaching and relationship building.
Is employee engagement important for the organization?
Yes! Tipping the engagement scale can have significant financial implications both bad and good.
According to the 2017 Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report by The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), decreased engagement leads to higher turnover and lower productivity. Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Report (2019) says that only 30% of employees are engaged at work. About 16% are actively disengaged. These are people who are miserable and voice their opinions about it freely, disrupting the work and productivity of the engaged group. Sadly, there are 51% of the employees who are just there – running under the radar and doing as little as possible to stay employed. We used to call this ‘group retired on the job’. This lack of engagement is costing businesses $483 Billion to $605 Billion in lost productivity annually.
Let’s look at the flip side. In the State of the American Workplace, Gallup also found that organizations that had a higher level of engagement had:
- 10% higher customer satisfaction
- 17% increase in productivity
- 20% higher sales
- 21% higher profitability
Beyond these stats, organizations with higher engagement have a lower rate of turnover, more effective recruiting efforts and a healthier workforce.
How is employee retention crucial to employee engagement?
Engagement is key to retaining employees. In the TINYpulse 2018 Employee Retention Report, they found that there is a “direct correlation between how employees feel about their supervisors and how likely they are to look for employment elsewhere.” In fact, they report that 40% of employees, who rate their managers poorly, probably interviewed for a job in the last 3 months. Gallup has added even more quantitative analysis of the impact of managers. In their new publication, It’s the Manager, they report that “70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager.”
Because relationships are so essential to engagement, there is also another layer beyond the statistics. What happens when relationships are disrupted by turnover? The consequences can be a significant disruption of morale. When a co-worker leaves, whether by choice to find a better opportunity or is terminated by the organization, the remaining employees can begin to question whether they want to stay. In a marketplace where talent is short, it is easy to find another place to work. Following a co-worker or supervisor may be very appealing. In addition, organizations often encourage new hires to bring teammates with them if they fit the needs of the organization.
Employees who have been highly productive because of strong relations can drop into the 51% when those relationships are disrupted. Or drop even further into the actively disengaged if the change was due to the action of the organization.
How important is employee feedback in the organizational scheme of things?
Since the crux of employee engagement is relationships, communication is essential. We often use “feedback” as the vehicle for communication. The tricky part is what feedback means. For many of us it is negative, focused on telling us what we did wrong, so who can blame us for cringing when someone offers us some “feedback.” The real value of feedback comes when it is delivered not as judgment but as coaching. Marcus Buckingham posits that when we ask for feedback, we really want attention. What we are asking for is help. “Help me figure out how I’m doing and how I fit.” We are looking for coaching, not just being told what to do.
This kind of coaching feedback doesn’t come from annual reviews, but in regular interactions that build relationships. Buckingham suggests weekly check-ins. In these quick check-ins you can ask:
- What are your priorities for the week?
- What can I do to help?
This isn’t checking up on people, but checking in with them. It’s a “How are you doing” touchpoint. The beauty of the questions is that they require people to think for themselves about their priorities and what they need, instead of having the manager telling them what to do. This helps people take ownership of their work and priorities, a great first step in leadership training.
Beyond the quick check-ins, we need to create opportunities for more comprehensive coaching/feedback interactions to build engagement. Here are additional levels that can add deeper, longer-term results:
- Follow up – These conversations are more detailed and could include workload, goals, successes or need for resources. This gives managers and team members the chance to ensure they are on the same page and working together to meet the goals.
- Coaching/Mentoring – Here the focus is on the team members’ future opportunities. It’s a time to consider development projects, training or mentoring that can keep team members engaged and connected to the manager and organization. These discussions may only last 30 minutes or so, but more importantly, can have a lasting impact on people’s lives.
- Annual Review – This is a time to formally review performance over the past year, but more importantly it is a time to focus on the future. Much of this conversation relates to where the team member wants to go or grow in the organization. The manager and team member can collaborate on ways to work together to help the team member and the organization reach their mutual goals.
How can businesses measure employee engagement?
When trying to measure engagement, we sometimes confuse it with job satisfaction. In the 2017 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey, the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) defines the two concepts this way:
- Job Satisfaction focuses on the work environment – respectful treatment throughout the organization, compensation, trust between senior management and employees, job security and ability to use their abilities at work.
- Engagement focuses on the relationship between the organization and the people in it.
For your consideration:
- Is the environment collegial or competitive; inclusive or exclusive; collaborative or authoritarian?
- Do employees feel that the work they do adds value to the organization? Is the work challenging and helping them accomplish their career and personal goals?
- Do they have a good relationship with their supervisor? Do they have connections to others in the workplace?
The two can’t help but overlap. In an organization that is disrespectful of employees, the environment will not be one that genders engagement. The two really need to be taken together to create a full picture. While job satisfaction is easier to quantify, Gallup has created an assessment called the Q12 that helps organizations assess where the gaps are in their engagement strategy.
When managers are involved in effective feedback sessions with their team, they will know when someone is disengaged. Managers, because of their relationships with employees, are in a unique position to be able to address disengagement at an individual level. Coaching conversations can reveal issues and find ways to help employees find solutions. Managers are also in the best position to leverage highly engaged employees to continue to grow and contribute in the organization.
What employee engagement strategies should be implemented in businesses?
- Assess and Benchmark the Organization
Use survey tools, focus groups, and/or individual conversations to determine both the job satisfaction and engagement levels in the organization. Be transparent with the results. Engage people throughout the organization to participate in developing strategies to address the issues. As always, have buy-in from senior-level executives. Their participation and support will help drive change. A word of caution, if employees don’t see any results or change based on the survey outcome, they will be less trusting and open with surveys in the future. Before you begin a survey process, make sure you are willing to act on the results before you begin the process.
- Create an “Engagement Culture”
Communicate the value of engagement and the commitment of the organization to create a culture where employees can grow and succeed. Communicate the importance of engagement at every opportunity, in executive communications, team meetings, and one-on-one conversations. Make engagement goals meaningful and describe what success looks like to help employees become invested in outcomes. Celebrate successes and share best practices among teams and throughout the organization.
- Build Communication Skills Throughout the Organization
Give all leaders the tools to be good coaches. Provide training in soft skills, such as communication, giving and receiving feedback, collaboration and problem-solving. Be sure that employees feel that communication runs both ways and that they are welcome to bring concerns and ideas to their managers. Don’t forget to engage middle managers. They need the same coaching, growth opportunities, and resources as their direct reports. Include team engagement and productivity as part of managers’ coaching sessions with senior management.
- Create Structures to Support Engagement
Additionally;
Ensure that the crossover ties between job satisfaction and engagement are addressed in the organizational processes.
- Define engagement goals for every leader, as well as the organization as a whole.
- Address job satisfaction issues; compensation, benefits, job roles and responsibilities, equality and fairness.
- Build robust training opportunities for job skills and personal growth at every organizational level.
- Develop creative ways for people to learn and grow in their career path inside the organization.
- Celebrate successes of individuals, teams and the organization.
- Create opportunities for employees to participate in activities that make a difference in the community and build relationships.
Communication
Our book ‘Revolutionary Conversations: The Tools You Need for the Success You Want‘ introduces not just a concept but a new way of communicating: the S.H.A.R.E.™ Tools. This is no fly-by-night or quick program but has been 25 years in the making and Revolutionary Conversations™ features just the level of expertise needed to assure readers of the program’s validity and real-world applications. There are plenty of examples of such throughout the book, demonstrating how these Tools can fit into and change virtually any conversation, from business to personal.
Available on Amazon.