Supporting Employee Engagement in Your Organization

Managers are the lynchpin to employee engagement.

The future of any company is tied to how fully its employees are engaged. When workers are invested, they show up with their whole selves. If they love their work, they make additional discretionary effort. To effectively manage your human capital, you need to create an environment that encourages and supports employee engagement.

You can start by talking to your employees. If they lack engagement, find out what’s keeping them from being engaged. One resource is the Q12 survey by The Gallup Organization (see below).

After you have opened up communication, plan to do something about the roadblocks you uncover. Be prepared to clarify job expectations, restructure an unsafe work environment, or provide better resources. It’s vital to have communication strategies in place, which speak to both an employee’s emotional and rational (i.e. wages, benefits) sides, if you want to encourage their engagement. Towers Perrin (2003) cautions companies not to confuse “information” with “communication.” Make an investment in both talking and listening.

Employee engagement is directly connected to how employees relate to their boss. Managers are the lynchpin of employee engagement. You need inspirational leaders who participate in regular feedback and dialogue with their team and let them know that they are important contributors to the company’s success. Companies also need to flatten their decision-making hierarchies to give employees and first line managers more authority and autonomy. Collaborative leaders, who coach, listen, confront, and resolve issues, are essential.

Building trust is one of the keys to employee engagement. Employees who don't trust their leaders are, by definition, not engaged. Jay Gordon Cone's article on Leadership and Trust [2] [3]can be helpful if this is a reality in your organization.

Reinforce the DNA of employee engagement in your company by measuring what you value in the performance plan. And make sure that money spent developing your people isn’t just for “training.” Leaders need to go beyond the idea of training and actively care about their employee’s growth. The idea is to make sure they are becoming more skilled and evolving in a direction that is satisfying to them.

Finally, statistics show that when companies move in the direction of a higher purpose rather than just profit, employee engagement increases. A strong commitment to philanthropy and volunteerism enhances the community where employees work and live. These efforts in community social outreach give employees and employer alike ways to connect, to feel pride for their organization, and to make strides towards making the world a better place. Feeding directly into the push for Corporate Social Responsibility is that many Boomers are retiring, and before they do, they want to make a difference.

If you want your company to make a difference and be financially successful, supporting employee engagement is imperative.

The Q12 Index

1) Do you know what is expected of you at work?
2) Do you have the materials and equipment to do your work right?
3) At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
4) In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5) Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?
6) Is there someone at work who encourages your development?
7) At work, do your opinions seem to count?
8) Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?
9) Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?
10) Do you have a best friend at work?
11) In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?
12) In the last year, have you had opportunities to learn and grow?

NOTE: The Q12 is the property of the Gallup Organization, and only used here as an example.