Are Your Employees Engaged?
Several weeks ago on a flight, a fellow passenger sitting next to me asked for advice on the topic of employee engagement. After we introduced ourselves and exchanged business cards, Jim, the CEO of a large professional services company inquired, “You’re in the organizational performance and leadership coaching business, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct; for the past sixteen years.” I replied.
“My VP of HR showed me the results of the latest company-wide management survey and employees are saying loud and clear that they don’t value their manager! I don’t understand. How can that be?” Jim inquired in a frustrated tone.
I replied, “The research shows that the top three reasons why employees become disengaged and leave their job, even in this down economy is because of lack of career growth, they dislike their job and employees don’t value their manager. What are you noticing from your vantage point?”
A frown appeared on Jim’s face as he relayed how employee morale was down four points year-to-year. Surveyed respondents’ scores were consistently lower in the areas of inclusiveness and diversity, opportunities to improve skills with challenging assignments, and developing innovative solutions to solve pressing customer issues. What really concerned Jim was a common theme emerging from the write-in comments – a systemic lack of what’s being labeled as “Employee Engagement”.
Jim looked over at me inquiringly and asked, “Becky, if you were my coach what would you tell me to do?”
I shared with Jim, “Well coaches rarely, if ever, tell their clients what to do, but I will share with you, Jim, some questions you must ask yourself and your senior leaders right now to get things back on track:
1. How are you and the other C-Suite execs “showing up?” How are you engaging with your employees through town halls, web and conference call exchanges, one-on-one and one on many meetings? How visible are you and you senior leaders to your employees these days?
2. Does it seem like your employees are tuning in more and more to radio station “WIIFM”… What’s In It for Me?” Do employees understand why they are being told to do discretionary work above and beyond their normal assignments? Do they clearly understand how these activities align with the company’s goals? If not, are managers and employees given an opportunity to question the value of doing this discretionary work?
3. Are you and you senior leaders creating a corporate culture built on shared values, trust and empowerment, valuing diversity and team work? Or has the company climate become restrictive, no collaborative, and mistrusting where people are perceived as being commodities rather than assets?
4. Are you taking a multi-cultural view of inclusiveness and diversity where people feel valued for what they’re bringing to your company rather than feeling like they have to conform and fit into an uncomfortable mold?
5. Are you providing your employees with examples where individuals and teams have gone above and beyond the call of duty to overcome a challenging business problem or exceed client’s expectations? Story telling is a critical way for a manager to help employees relate to what needs to get accomplished with real live examples
6. Are your managers helping employees sort through all of the myriad of tasks and priorities so the urgent doesn’t overwhelm what’s important needing to get accomplished?
7. Lastly, Jim, are you and your management team proactively soliciting your employees on how to make things better, improving customer relations and leveraging their innovative ideas for competitive advantage?
Jim mused over my questions with such a pensive air that it felt like all the oxygen was being sucked out of the cabin. “So the problem with employee engagement starts with me and my management team?”
“What do you think?” I replied. The silence was deafening.
The dialogue I had with Jim is a common one that I have with many leaders and executives. This trend caused SHAMBAUGH to provide innovative and results focused programs and targeted coaching for organizations and their leaders for tackling this issue before it begins to hinder their organizational performance, ability to retain their top talent and maintain their competitive advantage.
To find out if your workforce is having Engagement issues please visit www.shambaughleadership.com and learn more about SHAMBAUGH’s approach for re-energizing your corporate culture so employees spend less time tuning into WIIFM and more time sustainably driving business results.
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