People’s Engagement…The Name of the Game

Engagement is defined by Scarlett Surveys International as “the process of leading people by enabling them to want to do whatever is necessary to ensure the continuous high performance and success of the business. From the employees’ perspective, engagement is their attitudinal and emotional state developed from experiences perceived to be controlled by management. These experiences or “drivers” determine engagement level. By managing these drivers to be positive experiences, leaders can stimulate an intrinsic desire for employees to consistently do their best work".

Companies that thrive on success keep their employees engaged at all times.  They keep an ear open for people’s thoughts, ideas, creativity, change, needs and opinion.  They use several known tools to measure the satisfaction rate and engagement in the Company.  They are highly sensitive to the people’s emotions.  Thus, those organizations are emotionally intelligent.  They build their capabilities around people to help them drive growth and change.  They understand that change is the only constant that will remain as it is part of the human evolution.  The result is always employees that are satisfied and engaged.

There are 4 types of employees:

1.       Satisfied and Engaged (well and well)

2.       Satisfied and Disengaged (satisfied with the package and the environment, but disengaged from work)

3.       Unsatisfied and Engaged (unsatisfied from the job but hoping for better opportunities within the company in the future)

4.       Unsatisfied and Disengaged (those are people who are not satisfied nor attuned to the company.  They will leave if a better opportunity comes through.  They also may ruin the company work environment as they may spread rumors through the grapevine and set as bad examples for others)

Every organization will have a mixture of the 4 types above.  The question is how to minimize the lower 3 and retain the top 1. 

Employees that are satisfied but unengaged are not bad employees, but are employees that were put in the wrong job, against their desire, whom could be talented and their talents are not put into implementation, employees that have bad managers or alternatively employees that are having personal problems and so forth. 

Smart Companies will pick those out of the bunch and describe the right antidote for them.  This could be in the form of job rotation, change of job, job enrichment, follow-up, or simply analyzing or assessing their capabilities, and providing them with the right solution(s).  They will also capitalize on their strengths if they were talented. 

Nevertheless, if the problem is due to having a “bad” manager as the deal in many cases, we should think positive and look for solutions, especially if the “bad” manager is a good performer, rather than pointing the finger and exchanging blames. We have to understand that they are not bad people, but rather task oriented people. They do things right rather than doing the right thing.  Therefore, the only antidotes with this type of people are to shift their mindset from task to people and show them tangible results. 

One way of doing so is through continuous coaching, counseling and mentoring over a period of time.  Another way is through training them in people’s management skills, while maintaining their motivation level.  All this should be done in a positive atmosphere, in order to reach a win-win solution.    

Conversely, there are those, who are disengaged, due to personal problems and should be listened to.  In fact, studies have shown that by just listening, many solutions will surface and accordingly engagement will be attained.

Smart companies will also explore those, who are unsatisfied but engaged, because ultimately it engagement that leads to triumph.  Unsatisfied employees are employees that are not up to their full potentials.  In other words, they are temporarily deactivated. 

Consequently, the first step to activate them back is to listen to them either through face-to-face interviews, if they are identified, or through a survey.  Sometimes, they are the unsung heroes that we search for, but opportunities have skipped them.  May be it is time to do a whole organizational restructure or review their cases on personal basis.  Train them for a different job that has a better opportunity or shift them to a different department if the opportunity is lacking in theirs. 

The final group is those who are unsatisfied and disengaged.  They sit idle in the shadow and are not interested in any type of work, unless it comes cross them or are given.  If they are not dealt with in a timely manner, they can affect the morals of people and slowly convert many to their type.  One of the solutions is to hold their managers accountable for their “dysfunctionality”. 

Pay, job or anything that is keeping them unsatisfied should be met with clear and SMART goals.  They should also be mentored and coached continuously, in order to ensure the manifestation of learning and change in attitude and work.  They should feel that they are part of the "big family" (the company) and not merely another number in the records.  They should also be warned from spreading any news through the grapevine. 

The human being is the most complex thing in the universe.  Organizations ultimate goal is to have their people engaged and synchronized to achieve the strategic objectives and grow.  However, to reach out for the people, you will need more than systems, words, policies and procedures.  Knowing the type of people you are dealing with will ultimately help you design the right antidote for them.  Certainly everybody has a key to be unlocked and turned on, the question that puzzles many organizations is HOW?!!