Understanding Why Employee Engagament Matters

Strategic initiatives, deliverables, and many other words have become common place corporate jargon including, employee engagement. Employee Engagement has become a buzz term that is frequently used during annual company assessments, performance reviews, town halls and road shows, while at other times it can be considered a dormant concept.

Employee Engagement can be defined as the implementation and maintenance of programs, benefits and communication vehicles that enhance employee happiness and productivity. To discuss this in every day terms, Employee Engagement, simply means that employees are happy about their jobs, their co-workers, the company and posses a sense of belonging and commitment to the organization. Happiness can occur in some or all of these areas but the bottom line is that employees are committed and motivated on the job.

I cannot tell you how many stories I have heard where major killers of employee engagement happened. One manager shared frustration with his work load and faced daily challenges as a result of being overwhelmed with meetings that required his presence. He would come in early and leave late and still be short on time needed to get the "actual" work done, you know - he work agreed upon during the many different meetings he attended. He felt shortchanged and the lengthy hours began to impact his family life. Could it be that he simply needed to manage his time more wisely or could management impact this situation? In discussing more, the problem was identified as being under-staffed. His management team was stringent on budgeting and could not bring relief fast enough. He requested more opportunities to work from home since his family life was being impacted, but his requests were denied. This continued for two more months before he found another job.

In another situation, an employee was being micro-managed, meaning that her manager oversaw every minute detail of work, leaving no room for growth and freedom. She wanted to enroll in company courses that could enhance her career and educational growth, courses that needed approval from her manager. The approval was received; however, not for the ones she requested. "Other" courses he felt she could benefit from were recommended. With a desire to learn and gain more skills, she felt stunted as a professional and also as a team member. This directly led to an unengaged employee in a training aspect.

Yet another example of a disengaged employee happened when a natural disaster hit the area where she lived. She wanted her work team or organization to donate funds or items to help the recovery efforts. Management advised her to help on a personal level, but from a company perspective, a donation of that sort was not in the budget. Although this did not stop her efforts, she expressed disappointment in her company’s response.

A company’s reputation along with many other factors can influence employee engagement. Let’s face it, how many people do you know would jump to work for a company with a negative reputation of frequent lay-offs, little to no employee benefits or poor management? Those aren’t the companies that make it on Fortune’s ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ and they are certainly not being bombarded with job applications like those that do possess a good reputation.

Understanding and utilizing employee engagement, equates to a skilled applicant pool of candidates, longer employee retention and a work force that is willing and committed to work harder and smarter for your organization. The end result - more profits, marketability and better positioning for you - the company.

Alternatively, having a disengaged employee does not mean that the work will go undone or that an employee who is disengaged in one area would quit. It simply means that as an organization, maximizing the full potential of your workforce is not being done. Statistics show that when companies score high on employee engagement, they yield better results.

Previously, it has been hard to quantify the results of employee engagement, since unlike employee retention; the cost to re-train and hire new employees is readily accessible. A 2006 organizational study, led by James Oakley, an assistant professor of management at Perdue University, linked an organization’s financial performance to employee satisfaction. The results of the study proved that employee satisfaction increases financial performance for an organization.

John Gibbons wrote a 2006 report titled, "Employee Engagement, a Review of Current Research & its Implications," where he shared what he considers to be key drivers of employee engagement. They include:

• Trust and integrity
• The nature of the job
• How the employee work performance has contributed to the company performance
• Career growth
• Pride about the company
• Employee development and training
• Relationship with manager

To sum it all up, one question that should come to mind when thinking of employee engagement would be: At what rate and effort will the work be completed? Will it be minimalor additional?