The Rules of Employee Engagement

The other night I was at an event with dozens of my former employees. As we chatted about what’s going on in our lives, I heard a recurring theme. One woman told me about her most recent job, “I was hired to replace two people who left.” She started out handling the workload of two people, and did it so well that she eventually got handed the workload of three.

Another friend told me how the more successful he is at his job, the more responsibility he gets. Of course, that’s normal, but what was happening to him seemed a little extreme. He started out overseeing 20 websites for his employer and now handles 96, “I’m just glad they hired some people under me.” But with his duties increasing exponentially, he’s struggling to keep up.

These employees are singing a familiar song, one I heard echoes of in the latest Global Workforce Study by Towers Watson, a global professional services firm. The study, which found almost two-thirds of U.S. workers are not fully engaged in their work, defined three types of engagement:

1. Traditional engagement: Employees’ willingness to expend discretionary effort on their jobs.
2. Enablement: Having the tools, resources and support to do their jobs effectively.
3. Energy: Having a work environment that actively supports physical, emotional and interpersonal well-being.

Overall, just 37 percent of U.S. workers are highly engaged in what Towers Watson defines as a “sustainable way” (meaning they scored well on all three elements of engagement). Here’s a more specific breakdown:

• About one-fourth (27 percent) are unsupported, meaning they are willing to go the extra mile but don’t have the necessary enablement and/or energy.
• Thirteen percent are detached, meaning they feel enabled and/or energized but aren’t willing to go the extra mile.
• Nearly one-fourth (23 percent) are totally disengaged, meaning they score poorly on all three aspects of engagement.

Why the lack of engagement? Towers Watson says it’s:

“The result of almost a decade of pressure to do more with less and respond to the challenges of global competition, ever-evolving technology and the ongoing need for strict cost management.”

Sounds familiar, right? More specifically:

• Only 43 percent of disengaged employees say their supervisors have removed obstacles that prevent them from doing their jobs well.
• Just 26 percent say management involves employees in decisions affecting their lives.
• Less than half (48 percent) feel the amount of work they are required to do is reasonable.
• Only 40 percent say they have enough staff on their team to do a good job.

The employees who reported being highly engaged were far more likely to be positive about these areas.  When you look at what sustainable engagement requires you to give employees, it’s really pretty simple:

• Enough support from their supervisors to do the job well.
• The tools and resources they need to do the job well.
• Enough staff to do a good job.
• Mental, emotional and physical downtime so they can come back and keep doing their jobs well.

What is at risk for your business if your employees aren’t engaged? This isn’t just a feel-good thing. In some related research, Towers Watson looked at sustainable engagement scores for 50 global companies and found that companies with high sustainable engagement had operating margins almost triple those of organizations with a largely disengaged work force.

There are other risks, too. Remember my friend who was doing the work of three people? When she found out her employer was about to take on another huge project that she’d be in charge of, that was the last straw. Not ready to do the work of four, she quit and is now her own boss for the first time in decades. “I’m so glad I did it,” she told me.

How engaged do you think your employees are – and what are you doing about it?

Help Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

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Who Holds the Real Keys to the Organization, Anyway?

What is the narrative of your movie reel?

The rank-and-file workforce had weathered layoffs, had their commissions slashed, and on top of that, their salaries had been frozen over the past five years.

However, the chief executive’s decision was this — let’s have the senior management team take a lavish trip down to Bermuda and live it up.

That was the story over at Benjamin Moore, where the CEO and top executives recently took that fateful trip.

How does clueless look?

The results were not pretty. Warren Buffett, who owns Benjamin Moore, made the decision to oust the CEO basically for being clueless. He flew in a group of officials and they fired Benjamin Moore CEO Denis Abrams on the spot. They even humiliated him by giving him just a few minutes to pack up his things before escorting him from the building.

Incredulously, it was noted that he kept asking what he’d done wrong. ”They told him to clear his stuff out while they stood and watched every move he made.”

It has gotten to the point that I have become jaded with corporate behavior. Nothing fazes me anymore. I heard the Benjamin Moore story on the radio as I was driving home. My reaction? I just shook my head and moved mentally to something else.

Reality and the new world order

The company is in bad shape. No salary increases, commissions slashed, and the decision as soon as the first quarterly sales increase since 2007 comes into view: Fly the senior team down to Bermuda, charter a yacht, have a sumptuous meal, and live large to celebrate.

That is the way it used to be done, but welcome to reality and the new world order. Those types of celebrations are relics of the “Mad Men” era.

I had a friend call me during the past Christmas holiday. His firm had just gone through another round of layoffs. He told me how despondent everyone was and that the CEO had just taken a seven figure bonus. Although their company was really struggling, this leader still took the money.

In a divorce, I have always said there are three sides: husband, wife, and the truth. In the corporate world there are also three sides: CEO, HR, and the employees. Instead of assuming what your employees want, just ask them.

Assumptions can no longer be made

It seems that there is no connectivity between the three aforementioned prongs of an organizations. CEO’s and their team see it one way, while HR has another view — and the key to it all is people.

Want to know who has the keys?

• Employees matter, more than any other entity within the organization — be it products or hard assets.
• Employees are the ones that will innovate and build the products.
• Employees are the ones that support and serve the organization’s customers.
• Employees create value.
• Employees undermine value.
• Employees cultivate relationships and, by the same token, can kill relationships. Employees drive success but they can also undermine success.

The power of energized & motivated employees

Regardless of what the organization’s goals are, if they are in the hands of mistreated, misinformed, and forgotten people in the process, it is not going to happen.

There is no comparison to being in the hearts and hands of energized, informed, and motivated people.

Organizations are ever-changing and are dependent on the engagement, talent, and energy of their people to operate successfully.

At a companies own peril, they can ignore the mental well-being of your people and culture. Step inside any company, no matter the size, stage of development, or level of success, and the culture is either driving the strategy or undermining it.