Employee engagement is a term you hear everywhere these days, particularly in the world of work and HR. We measure it through surveys, talk about it in leadership meetings and often look for new initiatives that will help improve it.
But after working with different businesses and teams, I’ve found that engagement is rarely about one particular program or initiative. It’s much more closely tied to what people experience in their day-to-day working lives:
- Do they know what’s expected of them?
- Do they feel comfortable raising concerns?
- Do they get feedback?
- Do they feel their manager notices the work they do?
- Do they have some understanding of where the business is heading and how they fit into it?
These things can have a much bigger impact than we sometimes give them credit for.
Engagement isn’t about keeping everyone happy
There can be a tendency to confuse employee engagement with employee happiness and they’re not the same thing.
People can enjoy coming to work and get on well with their colleagues without feeling particularly connected to the organisation or motivated by what they’re doing. Likewise, an engaged employee isn’t necessarily someone who agrees with everything the business does.
In fact, some of the more engaged employees I’ve come across are the ones who ask questions, challenge things and suggest ways of doing things differently.
That can be uncomfortable for managers at times, but it’s generally a much healthier sign than having a team that simply says yes to everything. People who care about their work tend to have opinions about it and challenge the status quo when it matters.
Start with the everyday experience
When businesses talk about improving engagement, there can be a temptation to look for something new to introduce – a staff event, a recognition program, another survey or a wellbeing initiative. These can all have their place but if the everyday experience of working in the business isn’t great, they’re unlikely to make a lasting difference.
Instead, think about the basics:
Does a manager make time to speak with their team, even when things are busy?
When someone raises an issue, does anything happen afterwards?
Do employees know when they’re doing a good job, or do they mainly hear from their manager when something has gone wrong?
Are decisions communicated clearly?
Do people have opportunities to learn and develop?
None of these questions are particularly groundbreaking. But when I’m working with a business, these are often the things that tell me far more about employee engagement than a morning tea or poster in the staff room ever will.
The manager makes a difference
I’ve worked with some great organisations where employees have genuinely enjoyed their work, but their experience has been very different depending on who they report to.
That’s not unusual.
Managers have an enormous influence on the day-to-day experience of employees. The way they communicate, give feedback, deal with problems and involve people in decisions can make a significant difference.
The challenge is that many managers haven’t necessarily been taught how to manage people. They’ve been promoted because they’re good at their job. Suddenly they’re responsible for a team, and they’re expected to know how to have difficult conversations, give feedback, manage performance, deal with conflict and keep people motivated.
It’s not surprising that some struggle with it.
Supporting managers with these skills is therefore one of the more practical things a business can do to improve engagement. Not through another initiative, but by helping managers become more confident and consistent in how they lead their teams.
Be careful what you ask
So where do employee engagement surveys fit into all this?
Well, they can be a really useful tool and can definitely help to identify themes that management simply wasn’t seeing from their side of the business.
But there’s one thing I think businesses sometimes underestimate: Once you ask employees for their views, you must be prepared to hear things you may not like as well as the good stuff.
That’s not a reason not to ask – quite the opposite. But there’s little point asking employees for honest feedback and then quietly putting the results in a drawer because some of the issues raised are difficult to address.
You won’t always be able (or want) to fix everything employees raise. Sometimes there are financial, operational or practical reasons why something can’t change.
What you can do is acknowledge the feedback, explain what you can and can’t do, and keep people informed about what happens next.
In my experience, employees are generally pretty realistic. They don’t expect management to fix every problem overnight, but they do notice when nothing seems to happen — or when their concerns aren’t even acknowledged.
Engagement levels can change
Another thing worth remembering is that engagement isn’t fixed.
Someone can be highly engaged one year and completely disconnected the next.
A new manager, a restructure, changes to workload, personal circumstances, a lack of development or simply feeling overlooked for too long can all change how someone feels about their work.
That’s why employee engagement should not be treated as something you measure once a year and then move on from. It’s more useful to think of it as something you keep an eye on and check regularly.
Pay attention to what you’re hearing from employees. Look at turnover and absenteeism. Notice when people stop contributing to meetings or when good employees start looking elsewhere. Ask managers what they’re seeing within their teams.
Often, there are signs well before an engagement survey picks them up.
So where should you start?
If employee engagement is something your business is thinking about, I wouldn’t start with a new initiative. I’d start by talking to your people and asking them:
- What’s working well?
- What gets in the way of them doing their job?
- What they think the business could do better?
And then listen to the answers without immediately trying to defend or explain everything.
You may find that the issues are bigger than you expected. You may also find that some of the things employees value most are surprisingly simple.
And that’s probably one of the things I’ve learnt from working with different organisations: employee engagement isn’t always about doing more. Sometimes it’s about doing the basics consistently well which means:
- Giving people clarity.
- Keeping them informed.
- Supporting managers.
- Recognising good work.
- Listening when people raise concerns.
- Following things through.
Nothing particularly complicated but it does take attention.
And perhaps that’s the part that’s easiest to overlook when we start talking about employee engagement as a strategy rather than what it actually is – the experience people have when they come to work every day.
