Employee Engagement: Why most improvement efforts miss the mark and what to do instead

Employee Engagement

Some people say that employee engagement is the number one factor in determining if a business will be successful. Yet, Employee engagement is something that most companies struggle with. 

Do you have employees that are just going through the motions, not enthusiastic or engaged, waiting to be told what to do?

Have you tried to improve engagement with social events, team building events, rewards for accomplishments, free food and drinks, open spaces for collaboration, more communication on goals and performance or personality tests? These are what most companies try to help improve engagement. 

And the results? Not great. Companies in the US spent over $3 billion dollars in 2018 to improve engagement and engagement rates only went from 33% engaged to 34% engaged.

Why are these efforts not getting the desired results?

Most of these efforts work on the assumption that if I make my employees happy then they will be engaged.

People can be happy at a social event like a happy hour, but does that last until the next day? Does it impact their day-to-day work activity? No, not really.

A Different Approach

I believe a better approach to improve engagement is this….

Set people up to be successful and then they will be engaged. Who doesn’t want to be successful after all?

So, the obvious next question is “What does it take to set people up to be successful?”

Based on decades of my own management experience and research into what top performance coaches consider the driving forces that dictate people’s behavior and success. I’ve created the Key Engagement Driver framework.

There are 5 Key Engagement Drivers that make up the VIGOR framework.

o  Vision

o  Independence

o  Growth

o  Outcome

o  Relationships

Let’s go through them one at a time.

Key Engagement Drivers - VIGOR

Vision – What is your purpose, your why, your driving force, your just cause?

A lot of companies have vision statements. But often the vision statement is filed away somewhere and becomes only a second thought, if it is thought about at all. 

Your vision should be in the forefront of people’s minds and should drive your decisions and goals.

Many vision statements are general or vague making them not very compelling. Vision statements that are specific can conjure up a picture in people’s minds – a vision of what the goal looks like. They are far more compelling.

How is your vision statement? Does it create a picture? Does it inspire?

Note: You don’t have to be the owner of the company to set a vision - each group can have a vision for itself. (Although the group vision should be supportive of the corporate vision.)

Independence – Do people have some level of autonomy and independence?

No one wants to be a cog in the wheel, just doing what they are told. Everyone wants to be able to make an impact and feel good about their contribution. Everyone wants to be able to have some control and influence over their environment.

It is a little bit counterintuitive but the more structure you have around roles, responsibilities, communications, decision making and escalations, the more autonomy people can have.  

That’s because when people are not sure where their roles/responsibilities begin and end – they hesitate – aren’t sure, or they “keep going until someone tells them to stop”. Problems and conflicts often occur with lack of clarity.

When someone confidently knows where their role begins and ends, understands what decisions they can and can’t make then they have the freedom and confidence to be creative and innovative in the role they have been given.

Growth – Is there a chance to build skills, a chance for variety and challenges?

Everyone wants to challenge themselves and improve – just look at any viral computer game – where the goal is to get more points at increasingly difficult levels – people play for hours trying to improve their skills and their scores. We get absolutely hooked.

The key is to have the growth be challenging without being too overwhelming – you want to provide growth and success. You don’t want to give people big challenges without support and help.

Something to try: If you are a manager and feeling like you have too much on your plate, ask yourself – “Is there something I am doing that could be delegated down as a stretch activity for one of my employees?“ If so, don’t forget to train and support them.

Outcome – Can people take pride in their work, and does it align with the vision?

At the end of the day, people want to feel good about how they spent their day – did they make a difference? Did they have a positive impact and contribution?

Did they provide the value, service or product that they said they would? Did they live up to their commitments?

If people aren’t happy with their daily outcomes, then it is hard for them to be engaged. This engagement driver can cause high employee turnover if not managed well.

How does your staff feel at the end of their day?

Relationships – Do people feel connected with their peers, company and customer?

Let’s start with peers. Do people feel like their peers have their back? We evolved to live in tribes because that gives us the best odds of survival – to have people who will help and support you when you need it. Do you have a tribe? Or is it competitive? Is it each person for themselves? People are more relaxed, creative, innovative and engaged when they feel safe, supported.

Do people feel a relationship with the company? Do they feel recognized, appreciated, valued? Or do they just feel like a number?

Do people feel that they are making a positive impact on their customers – whether they are internal or external customers? Or is their impact too hard to see? Do they come to work every day to make other people’s lives better?

Summary

When these 5 drivers are managed successfully on top of foundations of strong leadership and trust then you will have engaged employees. 

If you have engagement concerns, ask yourself, which of these areas needs the most attention? What can I do this week to improve it? No matter how small, doing something now, will help build momentum. Don’t put off doing something.

You don’t have to tackle it all at once. Every engagement driver that you can improve will impact employee engagement.

Managing these engagement drivers is best and most easily done if there is a foundation of strong leadership and trust. If those are lacking then, you may need to start by building those first – especially if relationships is an area where you have issues.

To read more about how to build foundations of strong leadership and trust, see my previous articles: Are you Leading or Managing: What your conversations say about you and Trust : Key to Agility, Engagement, Innovation and Growth. How does your company rate?

Not sure where to start, email me at gretchen@dynamicbc.com and I will send you a free employee engagement assessment to take. (I send it as a pdf, so no one sees your results but you.)

About the Author

Gretchen Richards is CEO of Dynamic Business Capabilities, a management consulting firm dedicated to helping growing and emerging companies get to their next level with great execution and engagement.

For questions, comments or more information please email gretchen@dynamicbc.com