Love Makes the World Go ‘Round: Successful Employee Engagement

There is only one way to attain engaged employees: make them feel important.

That should be easy because they are important! After all, if an employee is not important, it means they are not contributing to the success of the company and then, by definition, they should not be an employee. It therefore makes sense that we demonstrate this to them, per the fundamental psychological need for recognition. Yet, somehow, this relatively easy act often gets lost or pushed down on our “to do” list.

So how do we make it happen?

Let’s start by differentiating between engaged and retained. The former does not guarantee the latter; the former is about productivity and the latter about longevity. While engagement is a factor in retention, there are various other components which influence likelihood of retention including work atmosphere, location/commute, compensation and stability. Engagement is primarily measured through productivity and the quality of that productivity. Do you know what your employees are doing with their time? Do you know what they should be doing? If you asked them to talk with you about their days and where their time goes, would they respond with panic or pride? (Let’s keep in mind that the former may come from a desperate need for help).

As managers, we must be equipped with the right questions and communication skills to accurately assess the situation. As managers, we need to be involved in their lives, care and have a genuine interest in their (work) lives. (I’ve found that acknowledging birthdays and saying ‘good morning’ are fantastically appreciated by all). As managers, we should understand that the art of acknowledgement is that it varies per person and personality, as it does (or should) per child.

In this vein, a manager is comparable to a parent and I believe the bulk of the responsibility for garnering engaged employees lies with him or her. Their job is to instill values, to guide and to provide feedback throughout. One tool utilized to achieve this is performance reviews. A Wall Street Journal article headlined “Get Rid of the Performance Reviews” claims they “destroy morale, kill teamwork, and hurt the bottom line.” Samuel A. Culbert, whose credentials include being a professor of management at the UCLA Anderson School of Management in Los Angeles, comments on the faulty promise of the traditional performance review which is intended to produce an objective evaluation to help determine compensation and let employees know where they can do better. However, since compensation is more determined by economic conditions than any other factor, keeping the two together ultimately makes it difficult to achieve the objectivity which should exist during the review process. Culbert’s article emphasizes the need for this meeting to be an exchange of perspectives and an alignment of expectations in order to help the line manager and the employee work together more effectively.

I am an avid believer in and practitioner of this approach in a more expansive manner. Adopting this mode of interaction as the norm and constantly re-aligning expectations ensures we fulfill some of our responsibilities vis-à-vis our employees like enabling their progress. Both components are vital to the success of all relationships and inculcate frequent opportunity for expressing appreciation. ..and feedback.

So while it can’t all be love, it can all be loving.

Mistakes are made and growth can (should) result therefrom. In 1967, Herbert Otto published “A Guide to Developing Your Potential.” In it he notes that “only by risking ourselves throughout the range of our interpersonal encounters and by taking this calculated risk…can we grow significantly and increasingly realize our potential.” While I wish it wasn’t so, mistakes are inherent to growth because growth means doing something other than the usual which, in turn, means risk. It’s like stock market principles- we invest (read: risk) in the hopes of profiting (read: growth).

Unfortunately, it seems these positive behavioral fundamentals of cultivating interpersonal relations are countered by almost everything around us. TV shows thrive on conflict and characters who do not smile. Ever. The ‘news’ is not really the ‘news’ but the bad news. The bullying that goes on in schools, society and our surroundings has found its way to the workplace. A wave of articles about the pre-dominant trend of companies to hire only those currently employed has me doubtful their in-house policy can be nurturing. After all, if you know you can ‘steal’ this person, then odds are they can be ‘stolen’ again so why invest (read: take the risk)?

Nevertheless, I encourage you to do so keeping in mind that, as is the case with parenting, we can only do so much. One of my favorite business writers, Jeffrey Fox, has a chapter entitled “Don’t Expect The Personnel Department to Plan Your Career.” And none of us should! Culbert concurs and concludes his article by reminding us that “Improvement is each individual’s own responsibility.” Only we can make ourselves better.

It’s also true that not everyone can be made or kept happy but I believe employees will be as engaged as we encourage them to be. Ultimately, all relationships are give and take, and sometimes, all it takes is a smile and a little love to make the world go ‘round.