Do you ALWAYS wake up with a desire to jump straight out of bed and meet the
day? I doubt it. Even if you do so more often than not, there will still be
times when you simply feel like you would rather turn over and go back to
sleep. I bet, however, that you would resent being labelled a lazy layabout in
those circumstances.
And that’s the problem with employee engagement. Whatever your definition of
employee engagement (and there are so many to choose from) the fact is that it
is an attitude and thus will vary from moment to moment. Not only is it
personal, but it depends on so many factors such as:
- What you have to do;
- How
you are being treated; - What else is happening in your life;
- etc. The list is
virtually unlimited.
Yet we seem be becoming obsessed with employee engagement with numerous surveys
and much research trying to measure just how engaged employees really are. At the
very best all this does is give you a snapshot at a particular time. It is rather
like the speedometer of your car, constantly changing. Even in the finest
luxury motor car with the most sophisticated cruise control, you would not
expect to drive at a constant speed all the time. So, are we misguided in the
emphasis we are placing on these tools and the way we are using them?
I fear that we may be. In failing to recognise the nature and dynamics of
employee engagement we are, possibly, making too much of it as a topic? Perhaps
your employee engagement initiatives are misplaced, mistaken or misdirected.
Now, I am definitely not saying that employee engagement is not important! I am simply pointing out that it is not a
project. Attitudes are shaped by perceptions and perceptions are shaped by
behaviour. Thus you cannot shape your people’s attitudes without shaping the
behaviour that builds them.
So if you want engaged employees you need to move beyond seeing engagement
as a project or a programme of projects. Employee engagement is not a one-off. It
is an on-going activity; it is the effort to engender and embed a corporate
culture that is centred around the value and importance of your people. A
culture where the employee has a voice and feels free to use it and where they
feel they can, and do, make a difference, and are appreciated for what they do.
Even on those days when getting out of bed takes extraordinary effort.