When I hear the term employee engagement, in my head I see a scene like the photo above; engaged people satisfied with their work. I thought engagement was synonymous with satisfaction, but no. An engaged employee is probably also a satisfied one, but a satisfied employee is not necessarily engaged.
What’s the Difference?
Satisfied employees do their job, but don’t look for ways to contribute to the mission or vision of the company. They’re satisfied with short term incentives like a raise, and dissatisfied when the work gets stressful. Satisfaction is how happy employees are, which may include things like getting paid for doing as little work as possible. Satisfied employees avoid accountability, try to maintain the status quo, and resist change.
Engaged employees are enthusiastic about their positions, dedicated to the company, and work beyond their job descriptions. They believe in the company’s mission and actively promote it. They’re both mentally and emotionally dialed in to their work, teams, and organizations and expect a long-term relationship with all three. They embrace change; taking the initiative to seek out processes that can be improved and improving them.
Why is it Important?
Eighty-one percent of business leaders said engaged employees perform better than satisfied ones. They’re more productive, less absent, attract new talent, and stay with the company longer than satisfied employees. This results in growth and innovation in a thriving economy and the ability to bounce back after a recession. Engaged employees know their role in the company’s objectives. When an employee knows their purpose, they filter their work through it. The company can then harness and channel this energy to reach its goals.
How Do You Do It?
Communication: Employee engagement starts at the top. Senior leadership should authentically view employees as their most valuable asset and prove it by:
- Casting a vision for the company, clearly and repetitively stating it, and lead accomplishing the company’s mission by example
- Giving organization-wide updates on the health of the company including changes. Disclose what leadership is doing to improve the current conditions
- Focusing constructive feedback on employees’ performance (not the person) and following up
- Offering a process for anonymous company-wide feedback and implementing employees’ responses
- Publicly recognizing engaged employees and giving them a system to publicly recognize each other
Cultivation: Business moves at the speed of trust. Senior leadership can build trust with employees by:
- Defining what success looks like to the company and how to reach it with honesty and integrity
- Providing clear expectations, holding people accountable, and focusing on delivering results
- Making enriching employees’ lives a company value and acting like it (e.g., supporting employees’ career development with both money and time)
- Developing cross-functional teams to complete projects. Pro-tip: When coworkers do projects together, they organically bond and create positive team memories because they achieve communal success
Contribution: Engaged employees want to feel like they’re instrumental to the success of something bigger than themselves. Senior leadership can tap into that desire by:
- Matching roles to employees’ strengths
- Giving employees tasks they find both interesting and challenging
- Sharing ownership of the company’s mission
- Reiterating how the work employees do contributes to the company’s success
A company with engaged employees experiences less turnover, higher sales, and more customer satisfaction. When an employee quits their job in America, it costs the employer about $5000 to replace them. It was hard enough to find good employees pre-COVID-19. It’s so challenging now that it’s simply a wise business decision to invest in keeping the ones you have.
Does your company have an employee engagement strategy? How does it work? Please share in the comments below.