Employee Engagement The Next Big Thing

I have had an issue with the topic of "productivity". While it is indeed a hot topic in Singapore because we are constantly offering incentives to drive companies to be more productive, I also find that there are other antecedents to productivity, particularly Engagement.

"INCREASE REVENUE, REDUCE LIVELIHOOD"

Not too long ago, I heard of a company that was doing very well in its public light. It had plenty of coverage and lots of press, and ironically, the income it was making was relatively huge. I happened to bump into one of the employees praising the company, and unfortunately, during the conversation that ensued, all I heard was how poorly paid he was. At first, I thought it was merely a typical complaint, until I saw this guy's pay advice. The entire organization was not only cutting employee pay for revenues, it was being done at a level that did not affect the top management's pay (they cut the staff pay but not their own).

ENGAGEMENT: FAIRNESS IN PROCESS AND DISTRIBUTION

One concept in organizational psychology that has been written about over the last 10 years or so is FAIRNESS. Many people, as the saying goes, join companies but leave their bosses. A lot of it is due to the idea of perceived unfairness. It is about how much work that has been done that has gone unnoticed; it's usually about why they were passed up for promotion when someone else more incompetent was promoted, etc.

Unfortunately, the fact is that many organizations practice this without realizing that "simple steps" will be able to gear them to more effective justice in the organization. By doing these, your engagement levels will not only be high, but also resilient in the face of uncertainty and change because employees will trust in the actions of the management to rectify things effectively.

STEPS TO ENGAGEMENT

"#1 - Establish Authentic and Transparent Leadership"

In an organization I worked with, transparency and genuineness were among the top two values they worked toward. Employees felt their managers were hiding things from them and being secretive about performance and promotion issues. It took some time for the change to be effective but their employees could find that the managers were starting to demonstrate sincerity in their openness. This included sharing why performance improved or not, and giving them a chance to improve their scores without manipulation or threat. The last thing you want is to have your employees write you off like the boy who cried wolf each time you talk about performance. Provide evidence, and provide solutions that they can work on. Invite possible alternatives as a discussion point, and then test to measure the level of effectiveness in relation to the level of value that the employees feel in carrying out such activities.

"#2 - Connect and Build Opportunities to Deepen Relationships "

The last thing you want to do is to alienate anyone. I had taught a class of people neurolinguistic programming and one of my participants came up to talk about a detrimental working relationship that he had in the office with one of his assistants. The problem came about because of the inability to build a positive working relationship. On one hand, he felt inadequate. On the other hand, his colleague was feeling frustrated with it. By developing effective social skills (as supported by research in social psychology and practically tested in NLP), the relationships you have can improve, which enhances the sense of cohesion, trust and authenticity within the work environment. A positive working relationship is also what drives engagement behavior and performance at the workplace.

"#3 - Communicate Without Presupposition"

I've always taught people the power of perspective. As a psychologist, I share with others that we always make assumptions about people. In a recent article captured on a media site, a little boy is seen carrying his uncle's heavy army pack. Snapped and broadcast, the blogger conveniently presumed that the uncle was exploiting his kid nephew. It was later clarified that the little boy himself wanted to carry it, feel its weight and had positive prospects and views about defending the country.

In engagement, no matter how ludicrous something may sound, it is essential never to put someone down, nor to let someone feel the ideas they have are not worth listening to (even if you think they are irrelevant or immature). Focus on the positive intention, use rapport building techniques, and converse in a manner that will assist in developing the idea or helping the individual understand the merits and disadvantages of the idea, so that the nature of the engagement will help you as a manager to be seen as fair and also help educate your people.

CONCLUSION

Some of these ideas have been around for a long time, but only recently are organizations beginning to put measurements on them. Managers who do not have these skills in engagement are likely to fail badly in the Information Age and in the age of Social Media. New mental maps have to be developed because information becomes dated over time. Even the way we use information can be re-purposed and re-interpreted so that as an organization, we become wiser as we mature.