The Road to Engagement

More than a time-tested formula, what helps while engaging employees is constant passion and an understanding of their needs and psyche.  A good mix of objective and subjective approach can help the world of work in comprehending the finer nuances.The group of executives was listening carefully. They were all about to start their life in a new part of the part of the world – a geography they were not familiar with. That was part of the criteria that we had kept in mind while building this elite group of global leaders.This was to be their last day in a class room, attending lectures. Normally they would all get a little restless when asked to attend any lecture. They had left their days in B-School behind and were in no mood to be lectured on what they had done so many times before. They looked at the Professor. He had silver hair and walked with a limp. His voice was raspy and almost sounded like a loud stage whisper.”The first lesson to learn is that motivation is internal. You are the only one who understands what motivates you. Why do you come to work every day? Is it just to earn a salary? If you were paid to do something worthless every day, but were paid your regular salary, would you feel motivated?”The man in the last row whispered to his neighbor, “I believe he is a psychologist who specializes in understanding motivation and employee engagement. I come to work because I have a family to feed. If I had a million stashed in my bank account I would lie on a beach and just relax.”It seemed as if the Professor had read his mind. “If money is the only reason why people come to work then billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet would not be putting in the long hours at work they do. There are employees of so many corporations who have made their money from stock options and do not need to earn anymore and yet they come to work every day. Actually, money is not the reason why people work. They work to be able to find meaning. Meaningful work is by itself the greatest motivator.” He stopped to sip a glass of water.”If only he would finish his class fifteen minutes early he would have the most engaged group of execs ever. Nothing motivates me more than time off.”The Professor’s raspy voice continued, “Take a sheet of paper and draw a flower. Don’t worry; it is not attest of your drawing skills. You have ten minutes to draw the prettiest flower that you can. Don’t forget to sign your artwork.”The group of executives looked amused. What kind of childish stuff was this? They had crayons and pencils on their table. They started drawing the flower. They did not realize when the buzz in the class had faded off and given way to silence to be broken occasionally by the rustling of crayon on paper. These successful executives drew flowers and started to color them. The flowers were varied. Someone had drawn a bouquet of roses. One of them had drawn purple and red tulips. Someone had drawn a flower bed of daisies. They had lost track of time. They signed their name and walked up to hand it over their artwork to the Professor.”That’s beautiful.” He said to the first one who handed it over. “It reminds me of the sight I saw while trekking through the Valley of Flowers. It is a sight I could never forget. You are pretty amazing. Have you taken lessons in art? You should. You could be really good at painting, you know.”The executive nodded shyly. “Why don’t you draw another one and take it home.” Before the sentence was complete the man was already busy working at his second work of art.With some of the drawings he was less effusive. He just looked at the drawing cursorily and said a single “hmmm”.With those who came later he was less generous. “That is quite childish. My granddaughter could draw better.” That took the participant by surprise. He went back annoyed and told his neighbor, “He first said it was not a test of drawing and now he wants me to be as good as Picasso.”With the last five, the Professor seemed to have lost patience completely. He did not even look at the drawing and simply crumpled the piece of paper and kept it aside. He tore off one saying it was really so badly drawn that it was unbearable to look at. That was the last straw.The last person whose art work had been shredded stood up and collected his laptop and said, “I have not come here to get insulted. I refuse to participate in this class.”The Professor looked at him and smiled. “Do you see how it takes just one insensitive comment to disengage us? On the other hand, just one word of appreciation can motivate us to go above and beyond. As leaders you can affect the level of engagement across the Organization. Do you create a culture of innovation or is the relationship that you have with your team members purely transactional? The role of the leader is to create meaning in the work. According to the recent research that is one of the six important elements that makes it a workplace of your dreams. “He picked up one of the crumbled sheets of paper and asked, “Who is the artist who has drawn this?”A young lady in first row put up her hand. “You didn’t think much of my work. I studied art for two years when I was in school. I had won a few competitions as well. You crumbled the paper without even glancing at the drawing. Now you call me an artist! That really hurts.”The Professor addressed the group, “Recognition of the individual’s contribution is an important part of employee engagement. Sometimes that could mean just spending a few minutes commenting on the work and asking the person what they feel about it.”The lady in the first row nodded her head and said, “Meaning in the workplace? Most of us do not know what we stand for. It is hard to find meaning if you don’t feel a certain sense of pride in the Organization. That’s a tough one, given that most people are very different at work than what they are at home. The rules come in the way. Rules get made to address one percent of the people who misuse the trust that is placed in them. But the rules get made that hinder the rest of the ninety nine percent.”Dipped engagement scoresOrganizations around the world are grappling to understand why their employee engagement scores are dropping.Employee engagement is a measurable degree of an employee’s positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organization that profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform is at work. An employee who is engaged demonstrates it by putting in discretionary effort. It is this end result that we will try to explore today.The business case Scarlett Surveys says, “Employees we classify as positively engaged have higher than average individual productivity and innovation events plus they remain with the company longer than disengaged employees. In addition, the discretionary efforts of the fully engaged are of higher quality and of a more positive intensity than other less-engaged employees: their economic contributions to the business consistently exceed their employment costs. From a quality of work life perspective, positively engaged employees are often energetic and enthusiastic which makes them more productive in group efforts and makes them enjoyable to work with and for customers to do business with. Our research also shows that fully engaged employees consistently solve problems and have lower incidences of absenteeism.”What drives engagement?An employee’s engagement has to be at two levels – the role that the person is performing and the culture of the organization where he or she is working.  Aon Hewitt’s study tells us that the top 3 engagement drivers are career opportunities, brand alignment, and recognition. If you checked with Gallup, they will have their own formula. What is the simple answer to this question?The larger purposeTo feel engaged and to put in discretionary effort into anything we need to feel a sense of ownership with the task and the organization. Having the right manager can make a big difference in a person feeling engaged with the task. The manager can create meaning in the task and answer the big question, “Why is this task important?” What is the larger purpose behind the task? So the role of the manager is to take it beyond the transaction to a more meaningful level.The same question has to be answered for the organization. Why does the organization do what it does? This has to be stated beyond describing the product or the service being offered. Disney had articulated its vision very simply, “We make people happy” and then everything in the theme parks had to be congruent to that vision.Google states on its homepage that “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” A purpose that can be stated in a manner that does not need to be memorized for accuracy is a good yardstick to know if the company has articulated the idea in a simple manner.So the starting point of engagement is to make sure the employees know what the company’s purpose is and the manager needs to continuously help the employee understand the purpose of the role in the context of the organization.All about intangibles When the relation between the employee and the employer is purely transactional, it is not going to result in discretionary effort. The employee will simply follow directions and do what he has been told to by the manager. The employee does not own the outcome or the eventual success or failure of the idea.Every employer has a set of tangible things they offer to the employees. That includes the pay, the benefits, the rewards and recognition processes etc. These are necessary but not sufficient. The intangible and invisible things make up the culture and the manager of the employee plays a vital role in that. Pride in the organization and the task; feeling respected, valued and wanted; feeling appreciated and having an employer brand that the employee feels proud of is part of the intangible package that builds engagement.Building employee engagement is then based on looking at the employment experience from the eyes of the employee. The greater the level of intangibles in the role, the greater is the level of engagement. The formula is simple to understand, but hard to execute.I spent the last five years trying to understand the concept of successful hiring. The role of the hiring manager is to ensure that the person is has the ability and willingness to do what it takes to perform the role proficiently. That creates role fit.In addition, it is important to see if the personality of the employee has a good fit with the culture of the organization. That means the culture of the company values the same things that the person does. For example if the person has a need to get individual recognition for a job well done and the organization only recognizes teams, then the person will always feels unappreciated for the achievements and very soon that will lead to disengagement. So while hiring, don’t just hire for competencies, but also hire for a fit with the values.To sum up: Employee engagement is an outcome of the organization’s ability to address the intangible needs of the employee. Building a sense of pride in the organization and the role of the employee depends on finding meaning in the workplace. The manager plays a significant role in making that connection. Finally, while hiring don’t just hire for competencies, also find a way to assess for a fit with the organization’s values. It is that kind of emotional resonance that creates an engaged workforce.In EssenceA purely transactional relationship between a leader and an employee works against the spirit of employee engagement. The role of the leader is to create meaning in the work. Engaged employees have greater productivity levels, display greater innovation and stay with their organization longer- Scarlett SurveysCareer opportunities, brand alignment, recognition, and a sense of ownership happen to be some of the biggest engagement drivers. A key formula that ‘greater the level of intangibles in the role, the greater is the level of engagement’ is although simple to understand, yet hard to execute.—————First Published in the June 2013 issue of Human Capital MagazineDownload the pdf of the article <click here>Join me on Twitter @abhijitbhaduri