Employee Engagement - Where to start?

How much PRIDE do your colleagues have in the business you work for?

Now I know this may sound like a simple question but when it comes to finding out how motivated or engaged people are in their work and the business generally, it certainly packs a punch.
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If you ask your staff that question via a feedback session or a simple questionnaire, bear in mind one word of caution: if you do decide to ask everyone you work with how much pride they have in the business, be prepared for answers that range from the good, to the bad and the downright ugly. It is one of those questions that tends to illicit the truth and sadly, sometimes the truth is not pretty.
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On the positive side it is the perfect question to ask if you want to understand just how engaged your colleagues are and if, per chance, the results are not what you expected, say the measurable ‘pride factor’ ranges from 0-50%, then you must be prepared to take action. Dig deeper and found out the five ‘whys’.

If people feel proud of the company they work for, that seeps out: they talk to others, they may not move jobs, but if they are not proud then their discontent will be known (and it will be known loudly and widely). In a competitive business climate reputation is everything and often measured by the ability to recruit the best in their field; to get that new project or piece of business; close that sale or be seen as a company that promotes innovative, market-leading thought leadership.

With organisations around like Glassdoor it is remarkably simple to find out what others think of your business – from customers to employees – so you can’t hide behind anonymity, this stuff counts, and you need to start the process of influencing the tide.

Feedback on employee experience is important. Everyone that works for you has the potential to be an influencer for your company – why would you waste all that potential?

Your task going forward – should you choose to accept it – is to make sure that everyone in the business feels valued, engaged and trusted.

Not quite as easy as it sounds. As people we all have different needs, different responses, different motivators; so, understanding the people you work with is key. By this I don’t mean the rather shallow ‘I know she likes cooking, has two children and is good fun at a party’. You need to know: why she works for the business; what she enjoys about her job; what her ambitions are; what motivates her and what her full range of skills are, not just the ones she demonstrates on a daily basis but the ones that are not necessarily needed in her current role.

As an example, we worked with a company that discovered one of the team was excellent at speaking sign language. Once this was discovered his colleagues asked him to give them some lessons during lunch breaks. What a success! He was able to share his unique knowledge with others and the pride he had in himself and in the business for soared, as he was allowed to contribute to the business in a new and unique way – it’s not always about sales. It’s about finding out what you don’t know and not relying on what you do now.

Fully engaged colleagues, staff, workers can increase productivity in any business by up to 22% according to Gallup data. The Workplace Research Foundation also found that employees who are engaged are 38% more likely to have above average productivity.
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So, perhaps the question you need to ask yourself is: what don’t I know?