Three approaches to improving employee engagement

There’s an increasing awareness of the importance of employee engagement in organizational impact. When figures like ‘US employee engagement hits 11-year low’ are circulated on social media, leaders often respond in one of three ways.

The ‘head-in-the-sand’ approach is exactly what it sounds like. You choose to ignore the whispers, the air of discontent, the fact that turnover is higher than usual because terms like ‘engagement’ or ‘wellbeing’ are a little too fluffy and, when it comes down to it, people just need to get on with things and work harder. For you, this approach is a winner because it requires no effort or expense. The only downside is that instead of going away, six months later the problem is worse, and the whispers are getting louder and harder to ignore.

If you’re the kind of leader who recognizes there might be something to this, but it’s not a huge priority and the easiest option is to sign everyone up for one-off training or an app you’ve heard works – congratulations, you’ve discovered the ‘off-the-shelf’ approach! You’re not too concerned about establishing exactly what the problem is or why it’s happening, but your actions are proof that you care enough to do something. Box checked! Until, that is, six months go by, the app is largely unused, and your employees don’t seem to be any more engaged.

If these don’t seem familiar, then maybe you’re in the smallest group. You’ve heard about quiet quitting and coffee badging, worry that the culture isn’t what it once was, and decide to embrace the ‘let’s-measure-it’ approach. Using a diagnostic tool like our w@w Employee Survey, you notice there’s an issue around role clarity that’s causing a lot of tension and has resulted in duplication of effort and gaps in service delivery. Now that you’ve established what the problem is, you can develop and implement a solution, re-run the diagnostic in six months, and determine how well this has addressed the problem.

It’s true that, in the short-term, the ‘let’s-measure-it’ approach takes more time and effort than the ‘head-in-the-sand’ or ‘off-the-shelf’ approaches. In the long-term though, data-driven diagnostics are the only way to make changes that improve employee engagement and organizational productivity.

If you’d like to chat about what the ‘let’s-measure-it’ approach might look like for your organization, or how our w@w Employee Survey might be of value, get in touch!