Employee Engagement Rants x 6
by David Zinger
What gets to you about employee engagement? Here are 6 things that are getting to me right now:
Let’s stop calling it employee engagement. It seems when we call it employee engagement that we blame employees for not being engaged, we are blind to the fact that leaders and managers are also employees, and employees feel that engagement is something done to them rather than something that enriches them. I will still use the term but in my mind I am thinking work engagement rather than employee engagement.
No more carrots, no more sticks, no more motivational tricks. There is not a magic panacea to engage people at work. Lets appreciate the complexity and diversity of work while engaging in personal and interpersonal action to foster authentic, real, and robust engagement.
Face the fear. Let’s get fear into the open to see how it actually operates and inhibits performance. If you don’t think fear influences engagement then I think you are wearing organizational or personal blinders. Fears range from negative judgments – to being fired – to more work if successful – to what if I fully engage but still don’t perform up to expectations, etc.
No more rules of engagement. I am tired of people writing rules of engagement. The rules of engagement are about war and work needs to stop being war and we need to stop telling people there are 5, 8 or 10 simple rules they must follow for successful engagement.
Social media is not THE answer. Yes, social media can be a good response to foster more engagement but people can also use social media to avoid work and become disengaged with people right in front of them. Social media is a powerful tool that can be engaging or disengaging. It is all about how we use this tool rather than the tool itself.
Engagement doesn’t measure up. Measurement can be useful in engagement but measurement does not equal engagement and we spend far too much money on measurement when we could make our measures simple while making our interventions robust.
How about you? What is your mini employee engagement rant? I encourge you to write a mini rant comment. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
If we can’t call it Employee Engagement, you better change your Blog title 🙂
Here’s my rant:
Stop treating employees as kids…let them be the adults that they are.
You do this one thing, and you will see a vast improvement in how employees work and the results they deliver. Quit telling them to be in at 8 and out at 5…let them set their schedule. Quit telling them about work/life balance..let them build their own balance. Quit measuring efficiency, productivity and the like…measure the results.
All one needs to do is look at companies like Best Buy, Anchor Brewing, W.L. Gore and Semco to see what this type of approach can do. These organizations treat their employees as people and allow them to live their life rather than force them to live a corporate life.
Hi Eric:
I have thought of changing the title yet I think so many of us refer to “it” as employee engagement.
I appreciate your mini rant on respect and employees are not children.
You made a lot of sense in your rant.
David
David, I whole-heartedly agree that the term “employee engagement” is just not cutting it. I’ve been pleading with the deciders at my company to call it something else… no luck so far.
Your point about fear is also very good. Just yesterday a co-worker told me that no one in her area completed our recent engagement survey because they were convinced that their answers could and WOULD be tracked back to them and that there would be negative ramifications. You can see we’re dealing with a world of fear in our current climate… but no one seems to want to acknowledge that the whole system needs to change. They’d rather go for quick fixes like the carrots and sticks you mention. Argh!
Jennifer:
Good points. What we call things is quite important. I like the term engaged performance but that is not quite it either. I think for general discussion employee engagement works but for the program or specifics it would be good to be more personal or specific. I hung out with two Australian in New Zealand back in the 1970’s. They always said: Go For It and Give It Heaps. That might work.
David
Great rant David – I like all your points, and particularly enjoy the one on tools – i.e. the social networks. Too often we think a tool can solve our problems. It’s so easy. Buy the tool and problem solved. Check it off the list.
Unfortunately very rarely is that the case. In fact, as you mention, so often the tools can make things worse, often bringing about the complete opposite of the intended result.
Nick,
I every so often just need that ranting. I love social media but it is, as we both know, just a tool and can be used to enhance or inhibit engagement.
Stay cool with the penguins.
David
David,
I hope that rant was cathartic because it reached all the way down here and calmed the waters around Philly.
Once one starts talking about, then institutionalizing, and “Employee Engagement” program, by definition it becomes an “us” and “them” proposition. So I like your idea of “work engagement.”
That said, I’ve begun to wonder about the whole notion of “engagement.” It seems to be that any measurement should simply be on agreed-upon results. If the results are there, then where does and issue of “engagement” come in? If the results aren’t there, then it’s the managers job to find out why and mediate the situation: maybe it’s not enough info, or sub-par equipment, or misunderstanding about the standard–any number of things. To claim that an employee is not engaged is akin to telling your spouse, “I don’t think you “feel” strongly enough about me today.”
Try that one out some time and see what it gets you:-)
Steve:
You were instrumental in helping me with my first blog rant…two parts and I never got to the second part…I disengaged. I like the work engaged and connected but it has to be more than emotional connection. By the way, I feel good about you Steve!
David
David, excellent insights, as always. I do agree particularly with your post on “No more carrots, no more sticks, no more motivational tricks.” As we’ve said for years, a simple and sincere “thank you” can go so much farther in helping colleagues realize their own value and feel fulfilled in their roles/efforts at work. If that helps motivate them to greater performance, fine. But that should not be the goal.
Thanks for your comments Derek. Your comments and others, makes me realize I should probably rant a bit more.
Our employee engagement survey underwent a significant overhaul last year and the number of questions in it reduced from high 90s to somewhere around 50. What do you think about that? Personally I was pushing to get the number of questions waaaaay down, somewhere between 10 and 15. So, I failed in my quest. Sorry, I’ll keep trying though. Reduce, reduce, reduce.
I wonder why we believe that if we measure enough stuff, some of it will stick? Spray questions and then pray the answer will be in there somewhere perhaps? I feel that if our business leaders need to ask me sat here in middle management land 50 plus questions then we’re in trouble. Are they really that far out of touch with us that they need to ask that many questions? I dread to think what the front line thinks? Oh hang on a mo, I know where to find the answer, it’s in the survey responses…..if only someone was looking eh?
OK – rant over. I’m a firm believer in meanginful employee engagement, trouble is I think we’ve become hung up on measuring, and we’ve forgotten to engage. The surveys become contaminated by their predecessors and the whole thing gums up. I don’t believe this is malicious in any way, it’s just kinda happened. Phew – I feel a bit better now, thanks for the opportunity to rant.