Employee Engagement

There has been a lot written lately about this topic of employee engagement.  I frequently hear comments from business owners like “good people are hard to find”, or “people don’t seem to want to work anymore”.  There are several ways to interpret comments like these.  It could be a generational disconnect, for example, meaning that the younger generation just acts differently, and the owner is not comfortable with those behaviors.  (Didn’t our parents tell us we weren’t going to make it?)  Or it could be that the comment is simply an excuse for a poor employee recruitment strategy. Or, it may be that there is accuracy to these comments due to changing social expectations about work.  Whatever the meaning, the fact is that businesses still need dedicated, engaged workers to help the business accomplish its mission.  And the responsibility for making that happen rests primarily with the leader/owner of the business, no matter how difficult the worker environment might seem.

A recent Gallup study, “State of the Global Workplace Report (2013”) reported an amazing and disturbing finding that “actively disengaged workers — i.e., those who are negative and potentially hostile to their organizations — continue to outnumber engaged employees at a rate of nearly 2-1.”  Per Gallup, the engagement rates in the United States and Canada are the highest in the world, but even in those two countries only 29% of employees are engaged in their jobs.  No wonder business owners and CEOs fret over lack of worker engagement!

So what is a small business owner to do when even large businesses struggle with this problem?  Well, like many other aspects of business, sometimes getting back to sound basic practices can yield a solution.  There is no single “silver bullet” here, but rather the answer seems to lie in a collection of important practices or “systems” that collectively encourage engagement.

·        Strategic Planning – Often done only be the small business owner themselves, or a couple of key managers, strategic planning can aid engagement if the whole team is involved, by communicating openly the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, challenges, goals and strategies of the firm.  Getting individual employee commitment to personal strategies in support of the organization’s direction is also amazingly helpful in generating employee interest.

·        Team Meeting Rhythm – I know, I know, meetings can sometimes seem counter-productive.  But that is usually a sign that the meeting is being poorly organized or managed.  A rhythm of team meetings is crucial for strong communication, continued alignment of effort to objectives, and accountability to make sure individual performance is supporting company direction.

·        Key Performance Indicators – The numbers make a difference.  Sharing the right numbers with a team acts like a dashboard that helps everyone know how the business is performing.  KPIs have the amazing ability to create a desire to improve, or “beat the numbers”, so that overall management becomes easier and employees tend to act in unison to achieve higher results.

·        Employee Recruitment System – Hiring in small business is no longer as simple as running a classified ad and hiring the first or second responder.  Hiring should be done with more care, supported by tools such as a well-thought-out Position Description, and behavior analysis, as well as two or three interviews and checking of references to make sure that initial impressions are valid.  Think of the important mantra, “Hire Slow, Fire Fast”.

·        Training – It doesn’t seem as easy as it once was to find the candidate with exactly the right set of skills to match company needs.  So be prepared to spend some time training for the skills you need.  It is more important to hire for attitude, work ethic and aptitude than specific skills.  Put yourself in the mindset of many professional football teams who draft “for the best athlete”.

·        Sound Leadership – Ultimately, employees who don’t work out, do so not because of the job requirements, but because of the relationship with the boss.  How we appear as leaders makes a big difference in the level of engagement our employees exhibit.  It’s important to look in the mirror once in awhile, or get some outside, objective feedback about our own leadership style and how that might impact employee performance.

Although these basic systems represent an important, fundamental part of the solution, there are other more in-depth strategies that can be considered as well.  But if you’re looking for a place to begin in creating a stronger level of employee performance, take a look at your usage of these critical areas.