Is Employee Engagement the New Buzzword?

May 7th, 2011 by Skywalk Group Categories: business, Business Coaching, Company Training, Customer Service, Customer Service Training, Down Economy, Employee Development, Employee Retention, Human Resources Management, Management Development, News, Skywalk Group, Staffing and Employment, Supervisory Training, Team Building Tags: employee engagement, leadership, organizational development

In working with organizational leaders and individuals, the topic of employee engagement regularly surfaces.  Several questions generally arise including:

1. What is employee engagement?
2. What does high performance/engagement look like?
3. What are the roles of the individual, manager, and company in employee engagement?

What is employee engagement?

The answer to this question may shock you depending on what role you play in your company.  In many ways, it is easier to talk about what employee engagement isn’t.  Plug your ears, CEOs and human resources professionals!  Generally, the success of the overall organization doesn’t make the top of the list when discussing engagement.  In fact, it appears that as a company grows in size, the “organization” or executive leadership and HR team can actually do more to hinder than help engagement.

Here is a working definition of employee engagement:

The ownership and passion that employees have for their roles and responsibilities and
the ability to understand how they fit into the big picture.

It turns out that if employees feel like they are responsible for the work they do, enjoy doing that work, and clearly understand how they are adding value to the entire process, they can be highly engaged.  Relationships can directly impact engagement too.  For many people, if they are a part of a cohesive work group and/or have a strong relationship with their direct leader, they are even more engaged.

What does high performance/engagement look like?

The characteristics and traits of high performers and highly engaged individuals are quite similar regardless of the type of business, industry, or position.  When you ask employees to describe a high performer/highly engaged team member, the behaviors demonstrated look and sound a lot like the following:

• Goes above and beyond
• Ability to change as needed
• Serves as a knowledge resource
• Asks questions
• Cares about the product/service
• Is passionate and prideful about the work

What are the roles of the individual, manager, and company in employee engagement?

It turns out that the individual, manager, and the company all play a certain roles when it comes to engagement:

• The Individual:  Needs to be open to new ideas, ask for help when needed, look for new and challenging assignments, be a good team player
• The Manager:  Needs to provide recognition, support, and guidance as needed, provide challenges and opportunities, serve as a role model
• The Company:  Needs to provide the basics such as pay, vacation, benefits, etc.  Most importantly, the company needs to avoid creating processes that cause disengagement.

Have you thought about what engagement looks like in your organization?  Consider utilizing the organizational development experts at Skywalk Group to craft an employee climate assessment for your business.

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