4Cs Blog: Happy Employees = Happy Customers

The Value of Employee Engagement

In recent years, many organizations have made an effort to improve working conditions in ways that would allow employees to actually enjoy their work. These positive changes are often in response to research suggesting that, as employee engagement improves, so does organizational performance.

Job satisfaction and employee engagement are related, but separate, measures of the vitality of an organization’s work environment. They tend to be correlated and many of the changes in a workplace that improve one measure will improve the other as well. This does not, however, mean that they are identical, which is why we recommend measuring both.

Simply stated, job satisfaction summarizes an internal emotional state that employees may or may not feel. It is possible for an employee to feel quite satisfied with their job but not feel a strong sense of loyalty to their organization or see the need to innovate, be creative or give other types of discretionary effort to their work. This means that job satisfaction is a foundation on which engagement can be built, but it is not the same as engagement.

It may be one of the least practiced skills in the workplace due to increasing job demands and fast-paced corporate environments; however, one of the most important responsibilities of today’s managers is coaching for success. No other time investment delivers the productivity savings for the manager who wishes to create a cohesive team optimized and motivated to achieve accelerated results. To put it simply, if you are not coaching, you are not managing.

 A survey of CEOs, business owners, HR directors and frontline managers identified the following eight characteristics as those looked for most often when determining both which employees are worth hiring and those who deserve additional career advancement. These employees tend to:

1. Understand and demonstrate the value they bring to the organization,
2. Have a positive impact on the company, its customers and their colleagues,
3. Embrace and initiate positive change,
4. Communicate openly and directly,
5. Commit to lifelong learning,
6. Deliberately look for opportunities to build their leadership skills,
7. Learn to ask for help when they need it and work with their company on how to solve problems, and
8. Not only work harder but also smarter, faster and better.

Managing Change Successfully

Many managers who have not been trained to be effective change agents often see introducing changes into the workplace as a “tell and sell” exercise, usually done by calling a team meeting or sending a group email, all the while assuming that the essence of the problem and the need for change to occur is evident and obvious to everyone. Some managers assume that a problem is solved when employees verbally agree to a change. Others assume that a problem is solved when employees do not voice any questions, discussion or objections to a change. It may become evident only later that the employees neither accepted nor adopted the changes that were implemented due to denial, confusion or resistance. How can you, as a manger, become an effective change agent?

Employee engagement matters

Engaged employees believe they can make a difference in the organizations they work for and there is proof that organizations that do a better job of engaging their employees also outperform their competitors.

In our most recent white paper we discussed the 10 C’s of employee engagement and we felt it was important to look closely at each one and break it down into understandable and actionable ways to actively engage employees.

Connect: To connect is to join or be involved with another person. Employees know if their organizations and managers mean it when they say 'our employees are our greatest asset', so it is vitally important that connections occur and have meaning.

The importance of trust

In recent months, trust has surfaced as a key determining factor in employee engagement. For the people who work for you, it's your trust that matters most to them. You're the one having everyday impact on their work life and the trusting relationship you build is not only a requirement for employee engagement, it has to be nurtured constantly and maintained by many small actions over time. Trust is also built by telling the truth even when it is difficult to do.

But how can people trust you when you have to deliver bad news, or worse, fire someone? Our research shows that no more than six-in-ten employees feel their senior managers are telling them the truth and providing them with information that is clear and complete. Depending on how you communicate bad news, however, you could turn this into an opportunity to build trust instead of risking or eroding it.

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