I agree that at time the big engine of business forgets about the oil that keeps the engine humming along. That oil is the hearts, minds, and hands of the workers who produce products or deliver outstanding services in the name of profits.

Over the last half decade I have worked hard to change the culture at one large aerospace manufacturer. What I find from the shop floor is frustration. The workers are flat frustrated with change. They feel slighted, dupped, or lied to. Is it a real concern? May and maybe not. I think they need to vent for the most part.

So, with the change efforts I have been leading I always take a heart-based approach to change (employee engagement) by connecting my message to each employee at a personal level. I am almost an evangelist for change that matters most at work and away from work. What I teach is transferrable to the home life as well as work life.

I am truly reaching out to the employees and asking them to find their WIIFM and connect that to the means to an end called the employer with the paycheck. See, even if you hate the company. Even if you distrust or dislike leadership. Even if you feel used. Get over it! Your engagement is important because it supports loyal customers support, increased revenue and profits, and stability of the paychecks coming in that help you support your WIIFM in life. It is a fine balance. The trick is getting the people of the company engaged in understanding the reasons why a company needs better engagement, involvement, and productivity. It is all about you!

I bring balance to change and to employee engagement. It has to be about the person first and the company second. If you get the person moving because it benefits them personally it will ultimately benefit the business. Call me for information about Team-Based Competitiveness.

Call it engagement. Call it morale. We can even call it a scam if you would like – this is your page. Bottom line is employees are not too happy at work these days and in too many cases are not being utilzed in the way they should. Their talents and creativity are being squashed. Their ideas aren’t given any consideration; forget serious consideration.

When employers start looking at the contributions available to them in every person on their team, stop labeling people for one mistake and find out what excites people, we won’t need to come up with the phrase du jour – like employee engagement, but instead focus on building kick-ass companies.

What does an employee get from being fully engaged in a job? They learn faster, they grow more, they contribute more, they have better skills to leverage when they look for another job. I am in the business of growing employees. I am not here to engage employees so that they remain with my company. If they find another job, that provides them with other opportunities, I am 100% in favor of them taking it. As an employer I am committed to “employer engagement.” I pay 100% of what is owed to each employee, and I provide employees with the opportunity to grow and become more while at my company.

I am certain there are organizations that use the term “employee engagement” as some feel good, rah rah, strategic marketing plan to get employees to give more.
If that is an organization’s intent, then I agree 100% with you posit.

However, to lump all “employee engagement” into a “scam bucket” is a nonsensical point, probably designed to get people to disagree over a point that is so skewed that it makes little sense to even discuss.

For me, the distinction is the motivation behind EE in the organization. Is EE something you are trying to DO to employees — yet another “initiative” being foisted upon them? Or is ee (small letters intentional) something you are hoping to foster in the org? It’s the latter we believe in more.

To me, you cannot create, encourage or incent EE. You can only create a work environment in which employees may choose to engage. Think about it. In my career I’ve worked in positions where I simply did not see the point of what I was doing or what the company was trying to achieve. In those positions, why should I care? Why should I give my all and more? Why should I “engage?”

Then again, I’ve also worked in positions and companies in which I not only understood where the company was going and what they were trying to accomplish in the world, but I also fully understood how I could help get us there and how my efforts mattered and were appreciated in accomplishing that. In these situations, I didn’t have to “be engaged” by some initiative, I chose to engage myself and yes, give discretionary effort, because I personally understood and believed in what was going on.

Those are two very different scenarios. Companies considering EE need to step back and take a deep, hard look first at what they are communicating to employees, how they are aligning company strategic objectives with personal tasks, how they are making company goals real in the daily work of every employee.

That’s the magic dust, but there’s no magic in it. Just good, solid business practice. We believe the most positive way to effect this is through strategic employee recognition that specifically and deliberately recognizes employees when they demonstrate a company value in contribution to achieving a strategic objective. (The two need to be intertwined to eliminate deviant behavior, but that’s a different discussion for another day.) When you do this consistently and frequently, and you allow and encourage every employee to participate, then you help employees make the connection between their work and the company purposes, lending meaning and value to what they do.
.-= Derek Irvine, Globoforce´s last blog ..A New Model for Recognition * Give Them What They Need AND Want =-.

Here at the Flex+Strategy group we have successfully used strategic flexibility in how, when and where work is done and life is managed as a lever to achieve not only many traditional engagement outcomes BUT also to improve the ability of individual employees to optimize their work+life fit. In other words, it’s that win for the business AND the person.

Here’s data from one of our clients after we created a shared vision of flexibility, developed readiness within all levels and 6 months after we helped the client facilitate a nationwide orientation about the process guiding the day-to-day execution of the strategy:

BDO Flex Strategy Survey Six Months Post-Orientations, January 2009 (35% response rate)

Personal work+life fit and understanding of flexibility–Percentage of respondents saying the BDO Flex strategy “positively impacted:”

• 72%: My ability to manage my work+life fit as a BDO employee in a way that meets my needs and the needs of the business
• 72%: My knowledge of how flexibility benefits the business
• 71%: My knowledge of the BDO Flex tools and resources available within the Firm

Employee engagement measures—Percentage of respondents saying the BDO Flex strategy “positively impacted:”

• 72%: My willingness to recommend BDO to others
• 71%: My desire to stay at BDO
• 70%: My job satisfaction
• 63%: My motivation
• 62%: My productivity—working smarter and better

I have never understood how any organization can fully “engage” only the work 1/2 of an employee. The example above shows that addressing individual work+life fit objectives as part of a broad, business-based flexibility strategy process results in a focus on the “person,” you get more and give more, and what the employee gets in terms of a better work+life fit they can take with them.

Here is link to entire BDO Flex key metrics case study:
http://www.worklifefit.com/sites/default/files/AwardwinningBDOFlexStrategyKeyMetrics.pdf

Thanks, CV! Excellent conversation.

Cali