Employee Engagement - What the heck even is it?

Employee engagement is a term you hear a whole lot these days. You hear it in reference to all this turnover we’re experiencing now. You hear companies fretting about employee engagement as they’re trying to attract candidates to fill their open jobs. Employees are looking to find organizations and roles that keep them engaged. Managers worry about their remote teams seeming less engaged than in-person teams. Businesses teeter on the brink of disaster as their employees weigh the pros and cons of quitting. It’s a conversation that’s happening in any one of a million boardrooms across the country. But what the heck even is employee engagement? In this article, we'll define employee engagement in basic terms, and then talk about how to get started on improving it.

A basic definition

The term “employee engagement” can be a little confusing. Broadly speaking, if we look at it in context, employee engagement is a way of describing the discretionary effort an employee puts into their work. That’s it. It’s basically a question asking, is your employee so committed that they consistently go above and beyond? If yes, you could say they’re engaged. If no, you’d say they’re not.

Why do we care if an employee is highly engaged or not engaged? Well, firstly, I’d rather everyone got the chance to feel such a strong commitment to a great company, because it’s just a better way to live. I think everyone deserves it. But secondly, from a business standpoint, employee engagement is important because it has an effect on business goals, like revenue and profit. As an example, let’s talk about an employee base that is not engaged.  

An employee base that is disengaged has low productivity and high absenteeism. Employees view coming to work as a necessary evil and when they do get in, they start watching the clock. They’re doing only as much as is necessary to stay out of real trouble. You might see someone hustling but it’s most likely because they’re afraid of some sort of punishment, or missing a deadline, or scrambling to catch up. Maybe the team doesn’t work well together and are at each other’s throats. Eventually, employees will do themselves a favor and quit, and the company now has to source and hire new employees (at a significant cost) to continue the vicious cycle. It’s not a good place to be as an employee, and it’s not a good place to be as a business. Imagine the lost progress as the company slowly burns out from the inside.

In contrast, when you walk into a building with a highly engaged team, you can feel it. People are hustling, but not because they’re scared. They’re hustling because they’re giving their best. There’s great communication. People know the company’s vision and encourage each other to succeed. There’s great recognition because people achieve, and others gladly celebrate their achievements. They speak in a shared language of values, which is intrinsic to the company’s DNA.

A team that knows exactly what it has to do to win, and is putting in the discretionary effort necessary to do so, carries that business across the finish line on its shoulders. That’s employee engagement.

Which company on average would you expect to do better, the one that has a highly engaged employee population, or the one that has a disengaged employee population? We know that a business is only as effective at executing its goals – revenue, profit, productivity – as its people make it. A company’s strategy only turns into tangible business results through the efforts of its people, and that’s why it’s vital they are performing at their peak.

How to make a difference with employee engagement

Just like the definition of employee engagement, the answer to improving it in the workplace can be a little complicated. There are thousands of ways to move the needle incrementally when it comes to engaging a team, each of which has merit and value in the right context. However, in many cases we fall prey to believing that by implementing one or two of those smaller gestures we’ll suddenly correct a systemic engagement issue. For example, does a ping-pong table in the breakroom add a lot of value when it comes to engagement? We all used to think so, and I know some of us even thought seriously about getting one. But unfortunately, if you took that disengaged team I described earlier and gave them a ping-pong table, it probably wouldn’t be the magic catalyst to suddenly turn their culture around. Eventually, it’s likely to be the place people put their coats, or that old box of unused plastic holiday plates, or the vast stockpile of lost-and-found Tupperware lunch containers.

Man, I wouldn’t want to work at this place I made up, would you? It’s pretty bleak. But luckily, there’s a solution. A bright and shining secret key to employee engagement. Ready?

The secret to winning the employee engagement battle relies simply on a change in approach from the leadership team. As we noted, the ping-pong table is not the first step. The first step is a leader considering getting a ping-pong table because they’re worried about their team. Why? Because they’re thinking about their team’s engagement. They care enough about a.) their people and b.) their business goals, that they’re trying to come up with ways to improve it. And that change in approach is the secret: A leader who is thinking about employee engagement has already begun the process of improving it.

So once a leader has realized they need to address their engagement concerns, there are a few bigger items that can make a good difference right away. Consider these things the bigger rocks in the bucket, and then all those many smaller items can then fill in around them.

Feedback

First, a leader admitting that they’re a little worried about employee engagement and asking for help from their people is a good place to start. It’s also a tough place to start, but it’s generally a healthy exercise. A leader should encourage open, constructive feedback from their people. They should be prepared for some really straightforward criticism if they do it right- that’s good. The more feedback a team gives a leader, the more they’re showing them that they’re not already lost. In turn, this gives their leader the chance to fix it for them, which is a beautiful thing. For managers, both receiving and providing feedback to their people is important. Ensuring that there’s an environment of well-meaning feedback, framed in a way that makes people feel valued, helps teams realize that the organization is committed to them. For example, highly engaged organizations generally don’t rely on an annual review as their only feedback touchpoint over the course of the year. If they do have an annual review, employees are usually not surprised by the feedback they receive, because they’ve heard it before. Feedback is a gift. Through it, each leader shows they’re committed to their people’s progress and development the same way their people are committed to the organization. That’s a great place to be.

Communication

It’s interesting, a lot of the people I help feel uncomfortable being open with their direct reports. Yes, being a little too open can be a bad thing. However, employees love the chance to hear about the company’s strategy, how it’s faring out there in the marketplace, and how they make a difference from where they’re sitting. Openly discussing wins and progress and allowing the team to be proud of the organization they belong to, is critical.  Also, knowing that their specific role is critical to the delivery of an organization’s strategic goals is empowering to an employee. And lastly, a leader shouldn’t be afraid to discuss their strategy. They should make sure employee engagement is a big part of it, let everyone know it, and ask for solutions on how to move forward together. They should communicate that success involves the efforts of every employee, and they’re fully aware that the results they want are in the hands of the team.

Talent Planning

A leader who is committed to improving employee engagement should frequently take a good look at their talent, and ask themselves if their strengths are being leveraged properly. We know that a lack of career development is one of the biggest drivers for turnover. The inverse is also correct, in that employees thrive in environments where they feel there’s a plan for them, and their skills are being utilized to their full potential. So leaders should ask themselves, is each individual’s strength being applied properly? If not, what would cause them to be more effective?  An employee who knows the company’s goals and strategy, and knows how they can make a difference using their unique superpower, is a powerful asset. Can you imagine a full team of superhero workers channeling their strengths to achieve a common goal? Again, a great place to be.

Hug it Out

Maybe don’t really hug it out. Or do, I don’t know your organizational culture. Either way, definitely hug it out metaphorically. The easiest way for a leader to celebrate a team is to do it around the strategy and values of the organization. In order to achieve a common goal, recognizing the individual contributions of the folks that are moving the ball forward is important. Not only will they become more engaged, but their peers will want to be recognized too. And as this progresses, people will begin to speak in the language of the organizational strategy and values. Recognition doesn’t have to have a monetary component, either, as long as it’s direct and relevant to an individual performing well. Appreciating progress, recognizing hard work and results, and reinforcing everyone’s shared values goes a long way. A really long way.

To sum it up...

To sum it all up, employee engagement affects business results. If a team goes above and beyond, they generally win when it comes to goals and strategy. It makes sense. In turn, a leader who is thinking about their people in terms of their engagement has started down the path of making a difference. By changing their stance as it relates to more open communication, feedback, leveraging strengths, and reinforcing goal and value-supporting behaviors, a leadership team can make progress to improve their organization’s employee engagement. This progress adds business value, as well as fulfilling some of each leader’s duty to take good care of their people. The momentum has started with these bigger items, and now the smaller gestures can be filled in here and there to continue its progress. And yes, one day far down the road… it might even be time for that ping-pong table. 

Patrick Ingham is the founder of John Patrick Consulting Group, helping businesses optimize their results through their people. He has almost 20 years of experience helping business leaders find success in employee engagement (whether remote or in-person), reducing turnover, finding and hiring talent, and improving internal talent bench. He proudly hails from a dairy farm in Northern New York, where apples, honey, and maple syrup are still produced.