Employee Engagement Is More Than Communication

When people hear ‘employee engagement’ most people think of ‘communication’ because if companies are communicating with employees, then employees must be engaged, right? “Not exactly” cautions Janice Hyslip, a Human Resources leader with extensive employee engagement experience. She defines employee engagement as a willingness to give discretionary effort. Employers don’t want team members to solely show up and put in the hours; they want employees to come to work and give their best efforts every day. High engagement looks like inspiring employees to give their best. Far too often companies measure engagement by looking at voluntary attrition. They assume since attrition is low, morale must be high, right? Wrong. Attrition is the lowest level of engagement. While low attrition means that people are deciding to stay, high engagement indicates that employees are not only staying but also going above and beyond every day.  

How to Achieve Employee Engagement  

Establish senior leadership buy-in and support 

Just like any other Change Management initiative, senior leadership buy-in and support is crucial to achieving employee engagement. To gain senior leader buy-in, these leaders must understand how employee engagement has an impact on the bottom line of a company. According to Gallup, a workplace consulting and global research firm, research shows that improving employee engagement scores results in better productivity and lower absenteeism. To get senior leaders to buy-in, it’s important to highlight pertinent data. To maintain senior leadership’s support, you must illustrate how employee engagement improves over time by providing preliminary and post-engagement metrics. 

Use an employee listening tool 

By surveying employees, you will be able to measure key attributes that scientifically tie to engagement. Gallup’s Employee Engagement survey includes 12 questions that employees answer to share their feelings and opinions. Perception is reality in the world of employee engagement, so to gauge employee engagement a survey should be sent to employees with questions such as: “Do I know what is expected of me?”; “Are my colleagues committed to quality?”; “Does the mission statement inspire me?” Companies should use this perception data to complement objective data. For example, while training data may show that 75% of employees have attended at least one training course during the year, you can’t establish if employees are engaged until employees answer questions such as “Do I feel like there’s a commitment to my development?” The results of the employee listening tools provide insight into employee perception on topics that drive their emotional commitment to the organization: the level of employee engagement. 

Engagement can’t be solved at the top 

Too often, companies gather data from employee engagement surveys and try to solve the problems at the senior leadership level. You cannot solve employee engagement issues from 50,000 feet; it requires a team-level discussion.   

We know from Gallup research that 70% of employee engagement drivers are influenced by the direct supervisor. Unless the direct supervisor is having employee engagement discussions with their immediate reports, you’re not going to move the needle on engagement. A dialogue about the survey results is crucial because too often, supervisors make assumptions about why something is rated very high or low. Janice shares an example that she uses when conducting employee engagement training with people managers:  

After conducting an employee engagement survey, a nursing unit leader assumed that she knew what was driving nurse dissatisfaction, when she actually had it wrong.  The nurses scored “I have the tools and equipment I need to do my job right” very low. As a result, the nursing unit leader took inventory on the high-dollar equipment in their unit, put together a plan of how to upgrade it, and got the expensive equipment updated. The next year, the scores were still low. The leader then went to her team and asked, “What's going on? I did multiple things to improve the equipment, but you’re still unhappy. What am I missing?” The nurses explained that their concern was actually with the supply cabinet (e.g., band-aids, gauze) not being stocked. Had the nurse leader met with the nurses in the unit before making improvements, she could have avoided making assumptions about costly changes and increased employee engagement. 

Supervisors must have a conversation with their employees before putting together an employee engagement action plan. However, some leaders are uncomfortable – or simply unequipped – with reviewing employee engagement survey results with their employees. Supervisors should be provided with a step-by-step process that includes how to facilitate conversations, questions to ask employees, and how to facilitate brainstorming to get everyone’s ideas of how to improve employee engagement. Step-by-step guides help managers feel confident that they know how to have productive action-planning discussions with team members. 

Hold supervisors accountable 

Senior leaders need to hold supervisors accountable for developing a team action plan based on survey results, implementing the action plan, and tracking the plan’s progress. Typically, this is done through an online performance tracking tool. While you can’t solve employee engagement from the top, it can be supported from the top. Once supervisors have completed action planning through the tracking tool, senior leaders should review the trending issues. Let’s say 40% of supervisors want to recognize their employees more. Perhaps senior leaders could support the supervisors by creating a structured recognition program. Or if a high percentage of managers are struggling with people saying that they don't know what's expected of them, senior leaders could support a structured goal setting program across the organization. This way, senior leaders are coming alongside supervisors and supporting them and what they need to do rather than solving it from the top.  

If employees aren't inspired to give their best, it will negatively impact the company’s bottom line. Having a mindset that excellent business performance starts with strong employees that give their best work is why everyone should care about having high employee engagement. Companies that land on ‘Best Places to Work” lists typically have engaged, high-performing employees that naturally results in a better bottom line. As Doug Conant, internationally renowned business leader and former CEO of Campbell’s Soup, said “To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.”   

Contact ChangeStaffing to learn how to successfully achieve employee engagement to improve the company’s culture and have a positive impact on the company’s bottom line! 

A very special thank you to Janice Hyslip, Human Resources leader with extensive employee engagement experience, for her thought leadership and for collaborating with us on this blog.  

Written by Kylette Harrison