In Search of Employee Engagement:
The Key to the Empowered Workforce and a Whole Lot More
(Part 1 of 2 part series)

I recently had lunch with a client of mine to discuss progress with his company's year-old employee empowerment initiative. "So", I asked, "how are things going?" “Great”, he replied. “Well, sort of”. As it turned out, the company was only making modest headway with the efforts. Some facilities were doing great. Others, not so great. The initiative had plenty of visibility and support throughout the corporation, but something, it seemed, was missing. The excitement and momentum that was so evident in one facility could not easily be replicated in another. 

As we talked further, I began to see a common thread. Employees aren’t machines. You can’t just flip a switch, issue a plant-wide edict, put up some shiny banners on the walls and instantly become an empowered workforce. The truth is that becoming empowered takes work and commitment. While we try to sell employees on greater autonomy, they know it also means more responsibility, more ambiguity and usually more effort. Who would want that?! Well for starters, I would. You probably would to. In fact most people would…as long there is something in it for us.  That “something” is now the hottest game in town. Welcome to the world of employee engagement. 

While there are many definitions out there for employee engagement, most miss the boat. Some define it as “winning the hearts and minds” of their employees, but that’s a result of…not the thing itself. Perhaps the very best definition of employee engagement that I know of comes from my colleague Theresa Welbourne, Ph.D. Theresa is the CEO of eePulse, Inc. and an adjunct professor for the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She has been studying employee engagement for over 15 years and has approximately 2 million surveys to back up her conclusions. To her, employee engagement is a surrogate for energy and engaged employees are simply energized. Not too little and not too much…just the right amount. The concept is deceptively simple; its power is in its nuances and implications.

Think about a time when you came home from work truly energized. You were likely tired, but in a good way. You worked hard, maybe had a few “wins” that day and, most importantly, felt like you made a difference. You liked what you were doing, your effort was valued, you personally felt appreciated, you enjoyed the people you worked with and you had fun. Chances are that you had a smile on your face that day and, more importantly, you were looking forward to going back the next day. This is the essence of what it feels like to be “engaged”. This is what employees (and managers) need before they’re willing to become empowered.

Like all concepts of this nature, the devil is in the details. Once we recognize just what it is we’re seeking, then we have to figure out how to get there and who will have ownership for the effort. In next month’s newsletter, we’ll take a look at employee engagement from the tactical perspective.  How does it align to business objectives? How do you measure it? Who has to drive it? What tools can you deploy to increase it? Most importantly, we’ll look at the implications for leaders and managers and explore the crucial role they play in either energizing or depleting their associates.

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