The Mystical Concept of Employee Engagement
Employers want employees who are positive towards the organisation they work for and its values. They want employees who identify with the goals of the organisation as their own and strive to achieve these goals. The common solution: Pay them well and they will stay and work hard and be happy.
Despite the mounting evidence that money doesn’t buy you love or happiness, many employers continue to be shocked when their well paid employees leave for greener pastures or just aren’t happy with a generous pay check. Viewing an exiting employee as a forgone conclusion as ‘they were never the right fit’ ‘or ‘they obviously got offered more money elsewhere might lessen the blow but not the reality that unless an employee is engaged there will always be greener pastures. Money doesn’t buy employee engagement either, it seems.
What is employee engagement?
The mystical concept of, employee engagement can be more helpfully, broken down to characteristics that employers seek in the ideal employee/employer relationship. The following characteristics are commonly sought in an ‘engaged’’ employee
- belief in the organisation
- desire to work to make things better
- understanding of business context and the ‘bigger picture’
- respectful of, and helpful to, colleagues
- willingness to ‘go the extra mile’
- keeping up to date with developments in the field.
Most importantly, engagement is two-way street: organisations must work to engage the employee, who in turn has a choice about the level of engagement to offer the employer.
Engagement challenges
Some interesting facts or challenges of employee engagement:
- engagement levels decline as employees get older – until they reach the oldest group (60 plus), where levels suddenly rise, and show this oldest group to be the most engaged of all
- managers and professionals tend to have higher engagement levels than their colleagues in supporting roles, although people in the latter group appear to owe greater loyalty to their profession than to the organisation in which they practise their craft
- engagement levels decline as length of service increases
- having an accident or an injury at work, or experiencing harassment (particularly if the manager is the source of the harassment) both have a big negative impact on engagement
- employees who have a personal development plan, and who have received a formal performance appraisal within the past year, have significantly higher engagement levels than those who have not.
Organisations must work hard to prevent, and minimise the impact of, bad experiences. They also need to ensure that employees’ development needs are taken seriously; pay attention to, and value the roles of, support staff; and to maintain the interest of longer-serving employees.
What drives engagement?
The strongest driver of engagement is a sense of feeling valued and involved. This has several key components:
- involvement in decision making
- the extent to which employees feel able to voice their ideas, and managers listen to these views, and value employees’ contributions
- the opportunities employees have to develop their jobs
- the extent to which the organisation is concerned for employees’ health and wellbeing.
Managers clearly have important roles in fostering employees’ sense of involvement and value.
Where to start
The following areas of focus are a good place to start in terms of improving employee engagement.
- good quality line management
- two-way communication
- effective internal co-operation
- a development focus
- commitment to employee wellbeing
- clear, accessible HR policies and practices, to which managers at all levels are committed.
Fostering employee engagement requires effort and commitment to ensure that all of these basics are in place and working well.
HR Business Direction can assist you in developing employee engagement strategies for your business.
Christina Willcox MHSc; PostGradDip OHS; BBus(HRM)
Workplace Health & Safety Specialist
christina.willcox@hrbd.com.au
07 3890 2066
www.hrbd.com.au
