“Should I bother with this employee engagement/wellbeing/organizational health stuff?” Probably not.

You’ve seen some articles about wellbeing and employee engagement, know it’s supposed to be important, even heard about research that shows it increases productivity. You don’t have anyone on staff who knows about this stuff, you really can’t afford to hire someone, and you’re heading into your busiest time of year and nobody really has time.

Should you bother giving the whole engagement/wellbeing/organizational health thing a go?

If that’s your starting point, the answer is, ‘probably not.’

Improving organizational health, by finding and fixing the courses of employee frustration, is an investment that takes time and resources. It needs senior staff to champion and support the initiative not just when things are going well, but when enthusiasm stats to flag (and it will) or things don't go as planned (about 70% of the time).

Starting an initiative without a clear goal and plan, or the determination to see it through is worse than not starting at all.  

Too frequently, some form of organizational change is heralded with much fanfare and excitement. Staff are convinced of its value and despite their existing workload and pressures, agree to complete another survey, or attend another planning meeting, or contribute to a listening session, or take a risk by sharing why they feel excluded and unheard.

Time passes. Nothing happens. The organizational change isn’t mentioned again. The work keeps piling up and everyone moves on. Until the next big organizational change idea and staff are asked to share again, but leadership are shocked that willingness to engage has almost halved.  

Employee trust, social capital and willingness to engage is finite. Starting a change initiative that you’re not 100% committed to and will get dropped when something ‘more important’ arises or will be cut when resources are tight, burns through this employee goodwill and risks the success of future initiatives too.

So, if you’re asking, “should I bother?” Do your staff a favor, and wait until you’re ready to commit to success.