Increase Employee Engagement

Through Communication

According to a recent poll by Gallup, it is estimated that only 22% of the American workforce is engaged in the work they do.  The poll goes on to say that employee engagement is a $350 billion a year problem in American companies.

When we speak of engagement we are talking about two aspects.  The first aspect of engagement is the emotional component.  Emotional engagement is much like a fan is emotionally engaged with the team they follow.  This emotional identification can also be achieved in the workplace.

The second component of engagement has to do with discretionary effort.  Discretionary effort is when an employee contributes to the organization based on their own free will versus what is required.

An example of discretionary effort would be when an employee is walking down the hall, sees a piece of paper on the floor, picks it up, and throws it in the trash can.  Picking up a piece of paper is not in the employee’s job description, but the employee recognizes that a piece of paper on the floor is not congruent with where the organization is going.

One of the best tools to create a culture of employee engagement is communication.  The question is what do you communicate to create employee engagement?  Here are three critical things to communicate that help create an employee engagement culture.

The Organizational Strategy – The old saying, “if you don’t know where you are going then any old road will do,” is totally accurate for business.  If your team does not know the strategy, how can they possibly see how they fit in to making the organization successful?  Organizational strategy needs to be communicated often to serve as a reminder of what the organization is all about.

The strategy needs to be communicated in simple, straight forward words that everyone can understand.  The litmus test to check on how well you have communicated your organizational strategy is to go ask the first five people you see what are the top 3 to 5 priorities.  If you don’t get the same answers from each person, then there is more work to be done in this area.

Performance – Everyone likes to keep score.  Set up the metrics, reports, and data that you want to communicate to the team on how well the organization is doing in reaching its goals.  People are more engaged when they see the results.  And, when the results indicate what is working well and what is not working as well as it should be, people are more responsive.  They will be motivated  to continue with what is working or take corrective actions for areas that are not working.

Recognition – Communicating successes is a way to acknowledge not only individuals and groups, but also to reinforce the desirable behaviors you want to see in the company.  Recognition does not have to be an elaborate system.  It does have to be fair and consistent.   Use all the avenues available to communicate recognition.  That would include newsletters, staff meetings, website, bulletin boards, etc.  When recognition is communicated, engagement increases.

Make every effort to create employee engagement a way of life in your organization.  By implementing the ideas above, you will be on the way to creating a high degree of engagement that leads to increase profitability and shareholder value.

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