Employee Engagement: From The Neck Up

This post outlines an article on employee engagement in the hotel industry. It will focus on the Engage part of the Zinger Employee Engagement Model:

Engage. CARE ends with the E of engage. We so often talk about “engagement” and substitute the verb of working (engage)  for a static noun (engagement). Engage focuses on the actions of engagement. Engagement is not a one time survey measure or a steady state. To engage is to fully experience and contribute to the dynamic elements of work.

Edna Larkin wrote a short and effective piece on employee engagement at Hospitality Net.  I appreciated the workshop vignette she wrote about:

An interesting incident occurred during a workshop which I recently delivered for employees working in a busy hotel. During an ideas session on how to improve business performance, one talented, but extremely de-motivated employee, surprisingly suggested several positive things which would make a difference. When later asked why he had not previously told his manager about these ideas, his response was fairly blunt, but very revealing: “I don’t get paid from the neck up”.

Larkin has identified a number of “C” drives of engagement for leaders in the hotel industry:

• • Culture
  • Composition
  • Clarity
  • Competence
  • Cooperation
  • Control
  • Communication
  • Challenge
  • Conflict
  • Compensation
  • Change

Click here to read the original post on the challenge of employee engagement.