Chapter 1

The Quest for Engagement

In This Chapter

Uncovering what employee engagement is

Recognizing why engagement is important

Exploring ways to best impact engagement

Employee engagement has become an ever elusive holy grail in the management of human resources. It seems that the more companies strive to attain it, the more it slips from their grasp. But the quest continues because the topic is too important to ignore. Without an engaged staff, managers have a tough time accomplishing anything' let alone the best work possible. To reach and surpass business goals, managers and executives must make sure their employees are active, inspired, and feel good about their work.

Despite its importance, few organizations understand what employee engagement is and how it can drive business outcomes. According to the Aberdeen Group (a research firm specializing in employee engagement), engagement levels are dangerously low for many organizations. Now is the time to fix that. In this chapter, I give you a general overview of employee engagement and explore how some of the best organizations are addressing this topic with much success.

Why Engagement Is Important

Some say that employee engagement is simply the use of discretionary effort by employees. Others say it's all about employee connection or productivity or retention. Still others say that it's simply a score on a survey. I feel employee engagement is the alignment of individual and organizational goals and values to better drive business results.

Engagement leads to productivity

As human resources consulting company Towers Watson has noted, "Four out of every five workers are not delivering their full potential to help their organizations succeed." A big reason for that is that workers aren't fully engaged. According to the Gallup Organization, when you compare nonengaged employees to highly engaged ones, you see that the highly engaged employees are

• 27 percent less prone to absenteeism
• 62 percent less likely to be involved in job accidents
• 51 percent less likely to leave their jobs
• 31 percent less likely to leave in high-turnover organizations

Organizations that make employee engagement a priority see increased organizational productivity, flexibility, and employee retention. Productivity doesn't depend on the number of hours someone spends at work; what really matters is how engaged your employees are during those hours. Employees who are engaged in their work have a greater desire to work harder and are thus more productive.

Engagement creates trust

Most organizations need greater flexibility and agility to handle a changing competitive landscape. Employee engagement creates trust between the organization and its employees so that employees are more apt to be flexible and adapt to changing business circumstances and needs.

Sixty-five percent of hires in a recent year were contingent employees, that is, part-time or project-based workers. This trend is projected to represent 30 to 50 percent of the workforce in the future. In addition, 75 percent of all current organizations have employees who work remotely, and 45 percent of companies anticipate increasing that number. This increase in independent workers is forcing organizations to consider how best to manage both full-time and contingent workers within the same organization. Regardless of how their work is structured, organizations will continue to need workers who are engaged and dedicated to do their best to meet or exceed the needs and expectations of their jobs (I talk more about engaging contingent and other nontraditional workers in Chapters 4 and 5).

Engagement helps you retain top talent

As the U.S. economy continues to improve, and as current employees seek new job opportunities, holding on to talent will be critical, and doing so can have a major impact on the success of any organization. Engaged employees are more likely to stay longer in their jobs and bring resilience to their organizations. Top employees who are truly engaged remain more committed to staying in their organizations and are less willing to seek other opportunities. Head to Chapter 17 for more on how to better engage and retain high-potential employees.

A few definitions

Here are a few key terms related to employees and the workplace that you'll see throughout this book. If you are uncertain of their definitions, read on:

Engagement: The simplest definition is tapping into employee discretionary efforts, that is, an employee's willingness to go above and beyond in doing his or her job. A definition that's a bit broader is offered by Wikipedia: "Employee engagement is a property of the relationship between an organization and its employees. An 'engaged employee' is one who is fully absorbed by and enthusiastic about their work and so takes positive action to further the organization's reputation and interests.

Recognition: Recognition is a positive consequence provided to a person for a behavior or result. Recognition can take the form of acknowledgment, approval, or the expression of gratitude. It means appreciating someone for something he or she has done for you, your group, or your organization. You can give recognition as someone strives to achieve a certain goal or behavior or upon completion of that goal or behavior. Using recognition, organizations can build engagement and drive success for the company, including all stakeholders. Recognition comes in all shapes and sizes, but the major categories of recognition include the following:

• Interpersonal recognition: A personal or written thank you from one's manager or peers.
• Social recognition: Acknowledgement, public praise, or thanks provided on social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
• Tangible recognition: A certificate, plaque, trophy, paperweight, coffee mug, or other memento.
• Intangible recognition: The granting of more involvement in decision-making, autonomy, flexibility, or choice of working assignment.

Reward: Something with monetary value (but not necessarily money) that is provided for desired behavior or performance, often with accompanying recognition. A reward can be an item or an experience. Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter defines a reward as "something special - a special gain for special achievements, a treat for doing something above-and-beyond."

Incentive: Recognition or a reward that is promised in advance for an anticipated achievement that meets certain criteria. Incentives create anticipation and excitement and thus can result in stronger, clearer motivation.

Motivation: The internal human energy available to inspire a person to act.

Motivator: Anything that increases motivational energy.

Demotivator: Anything that reduces motivational energy and/or triggers negative behaviors.

Looking at Factors Impacting Employee Engagement

There are many factors that impact the design, rollout, and effectiveness of employee engagement efforts. Here, I present an overview of six drivers of employee engagement; in Chapter 2, I discuss specific strategies and actions that companies are taking to most improve in these areas.

Employee fit: Alignment of employee's goals with organizational goals

The number one factor impacting employee performance and engagement is how well an individual employee's performance (and personal) goals align with the overall organizational goals, mission, and core values. This factor is so crucial, in fact, that it might be hard for you to gain support for engagement initiatives unless they are directly tied to performance goals that drive the organization's success and profitability. Therefore, as a manager, you have to act as a liaison to connect the organization's strategic mission with individual values and behaviors of employees.

Having a process in place by which employees and managers agree on performance goals helps drive significant organizational performance. Top-performing companies even support managers with tools and technologies to help initiate performance and goal-setting conversations that better result in this link between individual efforts and organizational goals.

Moving toward a more engaged, accountable workforce doesn't happen overnight. It requires continual and ongoing effort to change ingrained beliefs and behaviors about the role of employees and leaders in an organization so that employees eventually can say - and truly believe - the following:

• "I play a vital role in this organization and am responsible for what happens here."
• "If I see a problem, it is my duty to fix it."
• "My job is justified only if I make a valuable contribution."

Employee communication

Communication is the lubricant of any well-run organization, and it's especially vital for successful employee engagement. In my research, communication ranked highest...