A shorter more simple definition of employee engagement
It has taken me about 8 years and 10,000 hours to get to a definition of employee engagement that is both simple and elegant. I am discouraged with emotional and attitudinal surveys as I have become increasingly behavioral in my views of work and engagement. My definition puts engagement in the hands of each employee — I can choose to do this everyday while also being enabled and encouraged by my leaders, managers, and organization.
We are each responsible for our own engagement as we are accountable to each other for the impact we have on making engagement easy or difficult for others.
I define employee engagement in 8 words as:
Good work done well with others every day.
Good work means consistent quality and good is also a pathway to great while great is a by product of good. Good can be good enough. Good is sustainable while also being fused with gumption and grit rather than the hype and hyperbole of the continual and debilitating pursuit of great. Putting work in the definition means the focus of engagement is less about liking an organization or having a good attitude and more about our tasks, project, and specific work. Without work in the definition employee engagement is practically meaningless. Of course, sometimes our work extends beyond task and requires us to work on building robust relationships focused on achieving results.
Done well means we perform well and that good work can make us well.
With others acknowledges our connections and even a solo performer has inputs and interactions with other. We need to stop thinking that we work for someone or an organization, rather we work with someone or with an organization. We are joined and not subservient. We are all “social workers” these days.
Every day refers to enduring and sustainable work. Engagement is not a biannual survey it is something we focus on every day, and we can change engagement for the better any and every day.
So let’s keep it simple and ensure employee engagement is good work done well with others every day.
David Zinger is an employee engagement speaker and global expert who does his best to engage fully with work every day while helping others ensure employee engagement is not so much mumbo jumbo but an enriching experience of the time we spend working.
David
You’re right that your definition is both simple and elegant, and I’m grateful for the energy and time you apply to thinking through engagement, which I’m also passionate about. But it leaves me wondering, is it an outcome statement, rather than a definition? It seems to me to have more to do with performance (ie how well someone is doing at work, rather than their drive to do something at work). It is what will happen when employees are engaged, but I suggest that engagement come first, then the outcome. Or did I miss the point?
Regards
Steve
Steve: Good point. In some ways it is a process and an outcome. The outcome I am looking for is the achievement of results and the building of relationships.
David, absolutely! Vis-a-vis building relationships and achieving results, you might be interested in a model developing employee engagement I co-created, called the extraMILE. It’s all about creating alignment between organisation and individual, and relationships and performance are key to it. You can read about it here, if it’s of interest: http://www.emenex.co.uk/extra-mile-model/
What a meaningful and elegant definition of employee engagement! The “with others” fragment of this definition is especially important. Most workers place great emphasis on professional relationships and connections, making them very valuable in the work environment. When organizations, in return, also emphasize interpersonal relationships, both individuals and organizations will experience the extremely rewarding benefits. Thanks for sharing your perspective, David.
Thank you for the comment Jon.
Good work Steve.