Rethink Employee Engagement -- Already?

Employee engagement continues to be a hot-button issue for employers and HR professionals worldwide.

Some of the questions swirling around this issue include: How, exactly, should we define employee engagement? Does engagement really drive productivity? Are employee satisfaction and happiness part of employee engagement? And, of course, how can we improve our engagement levels?

Last year, Forbes published an article with the provocative title, “It’s Time To Rethink Employee Engagement.” While many organizations had just begun seriously thinking about engagement, the article declared that we already needed to rethink it. To be fair, the author makes a number of points worth considering. For instance, for companies conducting employee engagement surveys: “Don’t treat every opinion the same. Listen to what your top performers tell you. They’ve proved their value and earned their credibility, so go ahead: play favorites.”

Naturally, whether to think (or rethink) about employee engagement is something each organization must evaluate on its own. And there’s plenty of research available to help. (Just cruise through some of our past posts for links to a variety of helpful reports and sources.) But as we all give thought to engagement, here’s a summary of specific items that have the greatest impact on employee engagement, as ranked by 6,000 HR professionals who participated in a 2013 SHRM/Globoforce survey.

• Appreciation by direct supervisor – 71% 
• Opportunity to advance – 41% 
• Salary and bonus – 36% 
• Ability to be effective in one’s job – 35% 
• Company’s care for employees’ well-being – 30% 
• Confidence in executive leadership – 29% 
• Relationship with peers – 22% 
• Belief in company’s mission – 18% 
• Appreciation by peers – 11% 
• Job title – 4% 
• Other – 2%

Again, it’s your decision whether to rethink your organization’s employee engagement. But here’s an interesting quote from William Werhane of Hay Group, the global management consulting firm: “In the current economic environment, high performing organizations have remained focused on employee feedback, and as a result, have achieved significant business results through enhanced levels of employee engagement and enablement.”

That’s something worth thinking about.

Are You Ready To Create the Organization of Your Dreams?

It’s not beyond your reach!

Not according to the authors of a 2013 Harvard Business Review report, “Creating the Best Workplace on Earth.” They affirm that you can indeed create your dream organization—i.e., one that operates to its fullest potential and gets people to deliver their best work day in and day

out—if you nurture six key attributes:

1.     Let people be themselves.

2.     Unleash the flow of information.

3.     Magnify people’s strengths.

4.     Stand for more than shareholder value.

5.     Show how the daily work makes sense.

6.     Have rules people can believe in.

The authors identified these attributes by talking with and surveying hundreds of executives across the world over the course of three years. They admit that few organizations possess all six attributes … that there are costs and complexities associated with implementing them … and that creating a dream organization is definitely “aspirational.”

Even so, these attributes are found to varying degrees within the most productive and successful companies on the planet. So they represent a useful blueprint for those of us striving to transform our organizations into dream organizations. By choosing a few of these attributes and doing what we can to nurture them within our own companies, our employee engagement and commitment levels could soar.

And, as the authors of the HBR report point out, focusing on employee engagement and commitment can pay powerful dividends:

“Research from the Hay Group finds that highly engaged employees are, on average, 50% more likely to exceed expectations than the least-engaged workers. And companies with highly engaged people outperform firms with the most disengaged folks—by 54% in employee retention, by 89% in customer satisfaction, and by fourfold in revenue growth. Recent research by our London Business School colleague Dan Cable shows that employees who feel welcome to express their authentic selves at work exhibit higher levels of organizational commitment, individual performance, and propensity to help others.”

Creating “the organization of your dreams” or “the best workplace on Earth” might sound like pipedreams to some but the potential rewards are very real. And that makes these dreams worth reaching for.

The Correlation Between Employee Satisfaction & Company Success

You probably already know this, but sometimes it is nice to have a simple reminder on why employee satisfaction really matters. A key area for any company is the level of customer service being delivered by its employees.

Generally speaking, satisfied employees make for satisfied customers. In other words, if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers. This seems easy right? Well many companies fail to follow this simple rule and customers do notice....sometimes in a big way. Dissatisfied employees tend to relate that dissatisfaction in some way when interacting with customers.

For an employee to do an outstanding job, they need to believe in the company and they need to feel good about the company. After all, they are the people interacting with the customers every day and you want them to represent the company in a positive, professional manner.

Little things can make a big difference for employees. A positive relationship with a supervisor, for example, can lead to positive vibes from the employee to your customers. Recognition of a job well done through viable feedback, incentives, unexpected wage increases, PTO, promotions, etc. can make all the difference in the world in your employees' morale and performance.

Remember that a satisfied employee is more willing to elevate their performance and promote the company.