Employee
engagement is getting popular each day. Even the modern concept of it has been
first appeared almost three decades ago -Kahn, William A (1990)-[1]; Organizations
tend to lean on engagement of an employee more often nowadays since they
realize how it affects their business. There are various explanations about
employee engagement, Wikipedia says; “Employee engagement is a property of the
relationship between an organization and its employees. An "engaged
employee" is defined as one who is fully absorbed by and enthusiastic
about their work and so takes positive action to further the organization's
reputation and interests”[2].
My definition is simpler; it is an emotional bond to create dedication, passion
and willingness of employee to do his or her best for the company. It is an
interesting thing that employee engagement cannot be seen, felt or easy
converted to figures but we all know it exist and we sense it in our workplace.
That’s why there are professional companies research and strategic consulting
to large organizations for identify and advice to help organizations to convert
the emotional feelings in to analytics. Gallup and Gallup's Q12 survey are the
one of the most popular one around world.
I
always like to draw a picture when talking about engagement. Imagine you are an
army general in ancient times. You have infantry, foot soldiers, cavalry,
archers etc. under your comment. Size of your army, speed, tactics, individual
battle experience, skill level, armament is crucial. But that is not all! Effectiveness
of your army depends on how much your soldiers dedicate and will to fight and
die for their general. Let’s keep imagining; in our imagination army we have a
tool that we can figure out the engagement level before going a war. In our
best case scenario; your commanders and soldiers are ready to dedicate 100
percent (5 out of 5) themselves to your army. This means in a war of concurring
a land (Gaining a market share) your army will follow your lead without any
hesitation and almost every men and women will take their place in the war. Most
of the time they will do more than expected because they believe in your course
and they want to give everything they have. Needlessly say, the possibilities to
win the battle are in favor of you.
But
what if your commanders and soldiers have doubts and don’t want to be part of
your cause? What if they don't want to fight or defend? Let’s say in our worst
case scenario; our imaginary tool shows that 60 percent of your army supports
you (3 out of 5). In other world we can expect, during march or battle it is
highly possible 40% of your guys will disappear, escape and leave you alone in
the battle field. Odds will be against you. Short of soldier sources in
critical moments will hit you really hard.
In
fact in our daily work life we are facing the exactly the same. Organizations with
high level engagement outperformed low levels units by 22% in profitability,
and 21% in productivity. “Gallup finds that the strong correlations between engagement
and performance are highly consistent across different organizations from
diverse industries and regions of the world.”[3]
“Gallup's
research also shows that companies with engaged workforces have higher earnings
per share (EPS). Factors such as EPS, profitability, productivity, and customer
ratings are all key indicators in determining a company's health and its
potential for growth.”[4]
Below
table (The
2012 meta-analysis) tells us the how far the outcomes can be different
between high (top quartile) and low (bottom quartile) level engagement
As
engagement level goes up productivity and profitability go up together. This is
because highly engaged workers do not simply go to their work. They are putting
their time into their jobs, with their energy and passion. But also engagement
is strongly linked to turnover. Employees with the highest level of commitment
are 87% less likely to leave the organization[5]
Unplanned
employee turnover comes at a high price. The most obvious consequences are the
costs of ongoing recruitment and assessment, as well as orienting new employees
to their job. But workforce fluctuation also leads to a loss of know-how -- and
it can even cost a business its most profitable customers if they follow their
trusted contact person to a new company.[6]
Most
of the time it is underestimated or not focused very well but when the
engagement level drops there will be impact on expenses. -Organization expenses
will somehow increase. Because any employee cares his/her business thinks twice
before spending company’s money. Guess who doesn't? It is not a surprise
expenses increase while engagement level drops.
If
engagement is so important, you probably think most organizations should and
are working hard to increase the level. In fact most organizations are not
doing their best. They think they work on it but not the way as it should be.
Figure from Gallup (2016) says worldwide, only 13% of employees working for an
organization are engaged. For US it is 32% and for Germany 16%.
Although
efforts to improve engagement are well-intended, in reality, when companies
focus exclusively on measuring engagement rather than on improving engagement,
they often fail to make necessary changes that will engage employees or meet
employees' workplace needs[7]
Most
of the time organizations try to find solutions for previous year problems.
(Organizations don't solve the problem when it happened but after the
engagement surveys- these surveys done once a year and it takes 3 -4 months to
have the results. This is an alarm signal for companies. By time results
announced, we started to understand something happened before the survey and
try to find out where it is coming). The very best solution offers are to have
a “barbeque party”. We all like to go out and socialize however engagement
crisis needs deeper approach than a barbeque party. It needs an evolution to
culture of engagement from top to bottom.
Like
the ancient army general who needs his/her army full support, any leader who
seeks to grow or enhancement the organization has to have encourage
implementing engagement culture to the organization for better results. It is
very fragile and requires a lot of effort to build such culture. Needlessly say
it is not going to happen in one night. Rome was not build in a day! I have
seen many managers failed just because of not believing the benefits of employee
engagement bring to success and happiness to a workplace. Leaders must
seriously consider the engagement when they have ambitions.