Employee Engagement: Results That Matter

Employees as hamsters. A recent large scale employee engagement survey categorized some workers as hamsters: “those working hard but at the wrong things.” Initially I thought it was a cute image to understand engagement. Later I began to wonder about the appropriateness of using the term hamster to refer to employees.

112 responses. 112 people responded to the following question:

Do you believe it is appropriate to refer to a category of employees

from an employee engagement survey as hamsters

(working hard but at the wrong things)?

54 participants said yes and 58 participants said no.

Here were some of the yes comments:

• If the story line helps to understand the behavior it probably is appropriately used notwithstanding that it does not make us warm and fuzzy inside.
• It’s all in how you say it. I think it’s pretty funny, and would disarm people a bit, and at the same time they’d get it.
• It’s an image that people can immediately grasp, and is therefore a powerful one.
• MOST SUITS ARE HAMSTERS
• I don’t have a problem with the reference (though I’m just not sure that a hamster is the right animal metaphor for this group)…but then it’s all in how it’s used as a way to help organizations and employees…if it’s used in a derogatory way then it’s inappropriate.

Here were some of the no comments:

• As I read leadership blogs, I see managers referring to front line staff as though they’re a different species. I hate to see anyone being *that* obvious about it, though.
• Engagement properly understood is not about the employee at all; it’s about the organization and how well the org is ENGAGING its… hamsters. 
• We should refer to the leader of that group as an Ostrich.
• Yeah…referring to people as rodents who poop in wood shavings is such a way to inspire them. Yeesh.
• Whereas the behavior may parallel that of hamsters, people are intelligent, sometimes misguided, confused, or mismanaged, people are not without willpower.
• Oh my gosh!  I can’t imagine how negative the reaction would be if any of those employees saw that category!

My thoughts. It seems like the overall response is quite divided. My own response has been influenced by this. If the term was seen negatively by even a small percentage of the sample then I will not use it. I believe it was an attempt at a playful and “sticky” categorization but it is viewed by many as disrespectful.

R- E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means. Without respect, conversational safety it at jeopardy in the workplace. I will avoid references to people as small furry animals as these are the people I want to work with to achieve full engagement. Of course I also don’t like people being referred to as resources or capital as in human resources or human capital.

Just human. Perhaps we can just leave humans as humans!

Photo Credit: I have to think the through now by http://flickr.com/photos/annia316/488876291/

Have a sweet break from work.

Drawing by Elizabeth Perry:

http://www.elizabethperry.com/woolgathering/2008/05/watermelon.html

The raw material of employee engagement is energy. Are you an energy gain or energy drain for your organization?

Leaders are the stewards of organizational energy - in companies, organizations and even in families. They inspire or demoralize others first by how effectively they manage their own energy and next by how well they mobilize, focus, invest and renew the collective energy of those they lead. The skillful management of energy, individually and organizationally, makes possible something that we call full engagement. ~ Loehr & Schwartz, The Power Of Full Engagement.

Photo Credit: light show 05 by http://flickr.com/photos/krassycandoit/2436740107/

Do you see the light? The Hawthorne effect is something most first-year university psychology and business students learn about.

The Hawthorne effect describes a temporary change to behavior or performance in response to a change in the environmental conditions, with the response being typically an improvement. Some of the early studies involved changing the lighting conditions within a factory.

According to Wikipedia:

Although illumination research of workplace lighting formed the basis of the Hawthorne effect, other changes such as maintaining clean work stations, clearing floors of obstacles, and even relocating workstations resulted in increased productivity for short periods of time. Thus the term is used to identify any type of short-lived increase in productivity. In short, people will be more productive when appreciated or when watched.

The lengthy Wikipedia article goes into the specific research and concerns with research methodology and conclusions from the research.

I am not here to critique the research, I am here to encourage each of us to think of the impact on productivity of people we work with when we appreciate them and pay attention to what they are doing. Attentive and communicated mindfulness of how others are working may have a positive impact on their engagement.

Go ahead, turn the light on in your workplace and strive towards more enlightened engagement as you pay attention and connect with others.

Photo Credit: Flaming lightbulb by http://flickr.com/photos/repoort/320223818/

A recent large scale employee engagement survey categorized some workers as hamsters: “those working hard but at the wrong things.” Initially I thought it was a cute image to understand engagement. Later I began to wonder about the appropriateness of using the term hamster to refer to employees.

What do you think? Should we refer to a group of employees as hamsters? You make the call.

Take 3 seconds to click the button below and vote yes or no.

There is additional space to write a comment. I will write about your responses to this survey next week.

If you are looking for other locations to read David’s perspectives visit:

1. Die Happy Today. David’s personal site focused on happiness and asking the question: If you were to die today, would you die happy?
2. Slacker Manager. David writes 1/2 of this blog for B5 media. We have 5000 daily readers and 9000 RSS readers.
3. The Employee Engagement Network. David founded and hosts this terrific social and informational network on employee engagement.
4. Joyful Jubilant Learning. David is one of the regular contributors at this site. This month the blog is going to the movies and David wrote a post on The King of Hearts which will appear on Monday May 5th.

I have been reading John O’Donohue’s Anam Cara. My business partner, Denise Bissonnette, resonates strongly with his writing and so I was motivated to go right to the source.

I enjoyed O’Donohue’s topics and expressions. Here is a very short section that has really stuck with me (it also made me think of all the work Micheal Stallard is doing on connection):

“The mountains never meet, but people can always encounter each other.” It is strange that two mountains can be side by side for millions of years and yet can never move closer to each other. Whereas two strangers can come down these mountains, meet in the valley, and share the inner worlds they carry. This separation must be one of nature’s loneliest experiences.

Photo Credit: Mountain #2 by http://flickr.com/photos/evergreenkamal/498102329/

Employee engagement obviously has a strong emotional component and it is heightened when authentic emotional connections occur at work. Emotional suppression or lack of authenticity can weaken, damage or even destroy engagement.

Daniel Goleman, the leading author on emotional intelligence, wrote a wonderful book on Social Intelligence.

Carefully read the following snippet from his section on, radar for insincerity:

Forthrightness is the brain’s default response: our neural wiring transmits our every minor mood onto the muscles of our face, making our feelings instantly visible. The display of emotion is automatic and unconscious, and so its suppression demands conscious effort. Being devious about what we feel — trying to hide our fear or anger — demands active effort and rarely succeeds perfectly.

The employee engagement moral to this snippet: We must be genuine in our connections with others if we expect our connections to have a positive impact on employee engagement and our moods and emotions will be communicated in all our interactions. Watch your own mood and be careful about emotional contagion at work.

Photo Credit: Radar by http://flickr.com/photos/benfrantzdale/1056282822/