October 30, 2006 Getting Engaged: How to Energize Employees to Realize Untapped Potential By Janet Dean, President, Advance Corporate Training Ltd. 25 per cent of your organization’s employees are fully turned off by their jobs. A further 50 per cent do just enough work to get by. Only 25 per cent of your organization’s employees are enthusiastic. Surprised? Sadly, those numbers represent a typical organization. Several recent, similar studies by highly respected research and consulting organizations have reported that roughly half of all Canadians in the workforce show up, do what’s expected of them and go home. They don’t go the extra mile, don’t get creative and aren’t motivated to produce great work. It should be noted, however, that these employees want to go that extra mile. Something, such as a feeling of insignificance, is preventing this from happening. This immense, untapped potential is not being addressed. Your organization is running at 30 per cent efficiency. Many organizations are under the false impression that their employees are engaged and giving their best effort because these workers also put on fake smiles and hide their displeasure. The Fall of Engagement Employee engagement levels have experienced a significant decline over the past generation. Previously, lifetime employment coupled with solid benefits and opportunities for personal development were almost guaranteed for competent workers. However, today neither organizations nor their employees expect a long-term relationship. Employees are changing jobs and even careers more frequently than ever before. Employers are equally happy to be rid of workers who aren’t meeting expectations or are leveraging experience for a better job in the future. Management strategies have shifted from paternal to partnership relationships. Many organizations judge loyalty by old, outdated definitions that simply do not apply to today’s younger generations. Boosting Engagement Levels Developing this engagement is neither difficult nor expensive. Much of it can be performed by frontline supervisors and managers. Additionally, it isn’t about these employees’ salaries or satisfaction. Engaging these employees has a lot to do with how these employees feel about their work experience. It’s all about their emotions. The studies mentioned above found that these emotions are related to, and thus drive, the bottom-line success of an organization. Organizations can begin to boost employee engagement by showing they care about their employees. They can also give employees challenging work, demonstrate fairness, provide training for professional development and give opportunities for advancement as well as shared responsibility for decisions. While part of the responsibility will always fall on the employees, it is the employer’s duty to help them see how they add value to your organization. The reality is, there will always exist a percentage of employees who will only do the minimum, despite the best efforts of their organization to engage them. Conversely, the majority of employees want to commit to a successful, thriving organization because doing so satisfies the basic human need of self-esteem. It is up to today’s organizations to recruit, train and retain good managers. These managers are responsible for such things as dealing with complaints, delegating workloads and providing motivation – key drivers of employee engagement. Dealing with their employees’ emotions can be a daunting, unpredictable task for many organizations. Asking employees how they feel is not a cover-up step designed to make employees forget about their problems for a few minutes. It is a diagnostic tool to determine what limits productivity and implement corrective actions that demonstrates a longterm commitment toward improving an employee’s work experience. Focusing on the larger group of employees who do the minimum – and not on the quarter of your organization’s employees who are completely disengaged – is how improvement can be developed. The Results Unfortunately, there is also a negative result organizations face when enhancing employee engagement. The training that develops higher engagement levels also gives employees more opportunities to leave for other jobs. This dilemma can be offset by considering what will happen if they aren’t trained and stay with your organization. Wish these employees luck and hope they return. Another aspect of building employee emotions is empowerment. Frontline managers may feel threatened by giving their workers more responsibility, however, with proper training, these supervisors will see that production, along with individual accountability, will increase. Credit will also be shared. Overall, the positive end results of increasing the engagement levels of your organization’s employees will dramatically offset any negative consequences. Your organization will enjoy higher creativity levels, better dedication and work efforts as well as increased morale. Organizations facing low engagement levels – and a majority of them are – need to take charge and be proactive. Engagement drives recruitment and retention and impacts such things as customer service and motivation levels. Today’s most successful organizations will remain at the top because they have recognized the relationship between bottom-line profits and employee engagement levels.
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