Employee Engagement and Shared Value

SHRM and other renowned human resource management organizations consider employee engagement the root of an organization’s growth and expansion. However, it is shocking to know that employee engagement is sometimes placed at tenth row. Employees are sometimes seen as a secondary capital, automated by the organization’s regulations and protocols, and driven by segmented considerations.

When employees keep forgetting to follow up on agreed actions, are more engulfed in matters that are irrelevant to the pipeline of work, feel alienated from the development processes, do not seek out resources to facilitate their work and create value, red flags emerge. The crux of the challenge floats to the surface when business owners, principals, directors, and managers notice their employee’s complacency, but think that this is occasional and there is no urgency for worrying.

One of the leading global analytics firms is Gallup, that helps leaders and organizations solve their challenging problems. Gallup uses a host of tools to assess people’s practices in groups and as individuals. One of their significant tools is Gallup Q12®, one of the most effective surveys to measure employee engagement through 12 elements: overall satisfaction, knowing what’s expected, materials and equipment, doing what one does best, receiving recognition, someone caring at work, someone encouraging development, opinions counting at work, mission/purpose, commitment to quality work, best friend at work, talking about progress, and learning and growth.

Out of sheer acknowledgment of what humans can do, business owners, principals, directors, and managers can more intelligently stir the core of their employees by building their loyalty, a sense of belonging, purposeful presence, and desire for continuous growth. They can enable their employees to present themselves as human power, invaluably active and innovative.

However, the Debris?

What do business owners, principals, directors, and managers sometimes fail to consider?

1. Lack or partial measurement: Segmentation and data analysis, in this case, measuring employee satisfaction and engagement, usually drives the study of the success factors, but this segmentation remains ineffective if it is not based on real-time clear analytics. Measurement always needs to cover a specific period, such as by month, quarter or year, and then compared regularly to monitor status. This not only mitigates risks, but also provides insights of how to progress.

2. Talent strategies do not exist or hardly realized: Highly performing employees, who are keen at raising their professional baseline, are always dedicated to go the extra mile in building with the organization, start to allow the dwindling of their enthusiasm, effort, and creativity. They feel and sense that these latter become useless as they become unnoticed or not fully acknowledged. People who know they are talented, treasure their talents and expect that these talents platform them to be the best versions of themselves. When talent strategies are absent or hardly realized, engagement becomes less authentic and consequently, loses its momentum.

3. Risk of Losing alignment: This follows the lack of talent strategy in an organization because with no talents adequately fostered, there is a loss of motivation. Here the consistency falters, and gradually employees lose orientation. This is the way when lines are drawn in the sand. They are quickly wiped by a few waves.

4. "Upskilling" postponed or ignored: It is not difficult to put a person on track, but it is difficult, even, defenseless when these people, in this case the human capital that drives the organization, are left to perform the same tasks in the same old way. The skills of the workforce must progressively be future proofed so that they are always rising to meet the advancement of every industry and field. Professional development is the guarantee for a sustained competitive advantage of any organization.

5. Job crafting not activated: While business owners, principals, directors, and managers are most of the time held accountable for employee engagement, they should not be the only players in this area. Employees themselves can reflect on their performance to detect the slivers of partial engagement or disengagement. Reaching deep into their points of strength, skills, and attributes can help connect the dots for better understanding of their inability to be fully or most of the time engaged.

The landscape of work has substantially changed and, unlike the past decades, there are areas that demand a different type of attention and a deeper type of engagement. There needs to be shared value. Resistance to change does not serve the organization and the absence of the right tools do not guarantee the productive orientation of it. Humans are the only ones who create vibrancy, creativity, and grounded dynamism.