Do I Really Want To Work Here? What Are You Doing To Keep Me Engaged?

Many of us have experienced that moment - that moment when the excitement of a new job or new role begins to wane and we feel less than enthusiastic about going to work every day – the engagement decline.

When you get that “Ugh, I so don’t want to come to work today…” feeling, often the catalyst can occur for many different reasons.  It could be changes within the organization, or the impact of outside environmental factors. Perhaps a lack of feeling challenged due to poor skills to role match, leadership changes or managerial style played a part, or maybe a technology or cultural change was the catalyst. Regardless, employee engagement has begun to decline.

“Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”
~ Anne M. Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox

So – what can be done about the decline in engagement before it gets worse?

Building a successful business requires more than just saying you value employee engagement – it requires creating a culture of high engagement. If you want people to be engaged they need to feel valued, heard, and appreciated. They need to see where they fit into the organization, feel that what they are doing is making an impact to overall organizational performance, and feel as though the opportunity exists for ongoing learning and development. Simply put – they need to enjoy coming to work every day (ok, almost every day) and be inspired to give 100%.

So how do you prevent that moment when the excitement begins to disappear - the engagement decline – and show those working within (and with) your organization that you do in fact have a culture of high engagement?

High level – we’ll offer a few qualities that may trigger an engagement decline and a few that help create cultures of high engagement.

Low Engagement	High Engagement
Unclear performance goals and expectations	Clear performance goals and expectations
Non merit based pay and promotion	Merit based pay and promotion
Lack of leadership interest in employees	Leadership takes interest in employees
Minimal opportunities for learning and development	Ongoing opportunities for learning and development
Un-collaborative environment	Collaborative environment
Not all people feel equal and valued	All people feel equal and valued
Poor communication and feedback(voices not heard)	Frequent feedback and open communication (voices heard)
No recognition for performance	Recognition for performance
Lack of alignment of values and culture	Alignment of values and culture
Minimal interest in customer satisfaction	Concerned with customer satisfaction

Organizations are quickly recognizing that having a strong and committed workforce is a key success factor for creating a high-performing organization. Yet many are still uncertain about where to start designing employee engagement and recognition programs.

So how do you create an organization of high engagement?

For starters, here’s a thought – ASK YOUR PEOPLE! Many organizations have not actually elicited employee feedback regarding these types of programs. What do your people think – have you surveyed the workforce on their thoughts? Successful engagement and recognition programs require employee input. If you’re a leader, have you asked your employees what motivates them? If you’re an employee, has leadership in your organization asked what motivates you? If yes, has the organization taken your feedback and turned it into actions?

Short answer – use the 3 steps below to develop and excel in the “High Engagement” qualities listed above.

• Ask your employees what they want, listen, and take action. What types of knowledge and learning opportunities can help them better perform their jobs? What types of knowledge and learning opportunities make them feel challenged as individuals?  Why are the highly engaged so engaged? Why are the low engaged not more engaged? What would make them more engaged? Collect the data and act on it. Offer options based on employee input. One of the quickest ways to increase performance is to increase engagement. One of the quickest ways to increase engagement (or at least so we’ve found) is to make sure your employees feel heard, valued, and appreciated.

• Provide opportunities for learning and development. Brown bag lunch and learns, webinars – take advantage of various formats available for employees to share knowledge and interests with others who may benefit– to challenge others and feel challenged. Providing employees the opportunity to transfer knowledge increases an employee’s communication skills. This is an easy way to provide recognition, which contributes to making employees feel valued and heard, increasing engagement.

• Hire people who fit your culture and share your organizational values. When hiring people don’t just hire based on skills and experience. Hire also based on cultural fit. All people are different, some may excel in certain cultures and some may not. If you’re a creative entrepreneurial organization that doesn’t have an overly rigid structure, then hire people who thrive on that type of environment, not people who thrive in a more overly structured environment. Values alignment is imperative. Hire people who share the values of your organization not those who may be in conflict with them. Many tools and technologies are available to help in the assessment of cultural fit of new hires.  Once you hire people, who are skills and cultural fit, communicate early and often. Let people know where they fit into the organization, and make sure they understand how and what they are doing is making an impact to overall organizational performance.

• Understand your needs and admit you don’t know what you don’t know. If specific learning and development or organizational changes are requested by employees, and are of value to the organization and customers, and you don’t have the capability in house to deliver then look outside. Partner with other organizations or outside resources on learning and development, organizational communication and change, and leadership development and coaching offerings (not to toot our horn, though c’mon it is our blog, Tolero Solutions can help with designing learning and development programs and delivering employee engagement recognition strategies – contact us for more info)

“You shouldn’t be looking for people slipping up, you should be looking for all the good things people do and praising those.”
~ Richard Branson, founder of Virgin

Here’s hoping that most of you desire to have a culture of high engagement –and strive to create and maintain an organization where people really want to work!  What triggers your engagement decline feelings? What do you think are the impacts, if any, of not focusing on engagement and retention?

About Scott Span, MSOD: is President of Tolero Solutions - an Organizational Improvement & Strategy firm.  He helps clients to facilitate sustainable growth by developing people and organizations to be more responsive, focused, productive and profitable.

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