Are Your Employees Engaged?

Nope! Not according to the Ivey Business Journal. In fact, they say 54% of employees are essentially “checked-out” of their work day.

With statistics like that it’s no wonder that increasing employee engagement has become a talent management priority for 2008.

Why Does Employee Engagement Matter?

There are countless studies that link employee engagement with productivity and retention and although I know that Michael Haberman would argue, I tend to agree based on my own personal career experiences.

People define employee engagement in many different ways but to me it’s about caring about the future of the company you work for and being passionate and enthusiast about the work that you do.

Measuring Employee Engagement

To measure employee engagement companies need to ask employees for their opinions and feedback on multiple issues that influence their attitudes at work. Metrics can be derived in multiple ways including:

Employee opinion surveys such as the Gallop Q12
Employee focus groups
Manager Interviews
Direct employee observation

If you ask for feedback, actively take steps to improve employee engagement levels based on the feedback you’ve received. Asking for feedback and then ignoring it is far worse then not asking at all.
7 Steps To Improve Employee Engagement

Understand your employees.
Give your employees challenging work.
Provide training and opportunities for career advancement.
Communicate company vision and goals.
Effectively convey expectations.
Provide feedback & mentoring.
Reward & recognize employees in a ways that have meaning to them.
Create an environment that fosters trust and collaboration.

Your employees are your organizations greatest assets. Their ideas, feedback and passion for what they do helps your business grow and succeed. How does your company stack up when it comes to employee engagement?

Comment by Ray Towle on January 30, 2008 at 8:43am: Nichole,

A great post and certainly food for thought . . . IF and organization wanted to make a commitment to do this, I'd suggest that for every executive, manager, and supervisor, these items would be an essential within every performance appraisal.

Way to Improve Employer Engagement with Employees:
1) Make understanding their employees, a true condition of employment. (More than just "ya really oughta wanna.")
2) Ensure that their employees have the belief and the perception that their work is truly challenging.
3) Ensure that all employees have whatever they need to do their jobs well, office space, hardware, software, training, and developmental opportunities for their career goals. (Their perspective, not management's.)
4) Ensure that all their employees have the understanding and belief in their company, vision, values, goals, and objectives. (It's more much than just telling them.)
5) Ensure that their employees understand and believe, in the the employees can expect of their superior. (e.g., "This is what you can expect of me as your boss.")
6) Provide two different types of feedback both Immediate and then, later on, a more thorough review and evaluation. (Immediate positive feedback is not common).
7) Find and use innovative ways to recognize and then employees in a ways that have meaning to them. (Never underestimate hoopla)
8) Create and maintain a work environment that fosters real trust and true collaboration.

And if bosses really did these things well, recruiting would become very difficult, because we tend to feed on employee discontent.

So, for me, the question becomes . . . how likely is this to happen? HMMMmmm . . . .

All the Best!

Ray "VirtualSourcer@comcast.net" Towle
+++

Comment by Keith D. Halperin on September 28, 2017 at 10:17pm: Are Your Employees Engaged?

Maybe. I think some are married, some single, some divorced.... ;)

But seriously: why should they be?