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So, what exactly is employee engagement?
Why should you as a business leader or a manager care about it?
Over the next few minutes I'm going to define it using what we call
the x-model of engagement to talk about how you can build a more engaged workforce in your organization
to help drive performance.
Let's start by looking at what your organization is trying to achieve - your success.
Success is defined by your business goals and most likely your financial targets,
and how well you achieve those goals - your performance.
Core values are also an important part of your strategy since they help guide the daily actions of your organization.
To stay competitive your organization needs individuals who are willing
and able to perform at higher levels to give more at work
to give maximum contribution to the organization
but it's not something you can mandate or delegate to your managers and it's not easy.
Increased contribution is the prize of a more engaged workforce
but it's only one half of the story.
It's just one half of what we call the engagement equation.
Individual employees are on a separate path toward their own and unique definition of success at work.
It's based on personal values, goals, career aspirations,
and work-life needs and it could be defined as greater compensation,
professional growth, greater work-life balance but unlike the organization there's no one answer,
there's no right answer.
Individuals are all looking for work that works for them personally
and they're looking for maximum satisfaction.
when I say individuals I mean everyone - executives, managers,
and individual contributors. They're all pursuing their own individual
definitions of success and ultimately they need to take control of their own engagement.
So the organization is pursuing its definition of success and individuals are pursuing theirs.
These two strategies intersect daily at a place we call the job.
This is the point where what the organization needs employees to give
and what employees want to get from the job come together.
We define full engagement as the intersection of maximum contribution for the organization
and maximum satisfaction for the individual. This is the apex in our model,
a sustainable level of high performance that mutually benefits both parties.
Of course, as we look across any organization not everyone's at the apex,
certainly not all the time there's a wide distribution in terms of contribution
with high performers on one end and people who are contributing much on the other.
Individuals, too, don't always get what they're looking for.
There are different levels of satisfaction.
Some people are fortunate enough to be at the apex,
high on both contribution and satisfaction.
We call this group "The Engaged."
Now let's look at some other scenarios.
Some people are high on satisfaction but they aren't contributing fully.
There are few things that might be going on here.
A person might be new the organization or new to the role.
Although satisfaction's high, they're not yet fully up to speed.
We call this group "The Honeymooners."
We also find people that are incredibly busy here.
they're working hard but on the wrong things
or people who have found a nice cozy spot in the organization
and are content with minimum contribution.
So, whether they're running *** an exercise wheel
or tucked away somewhere cozy, we call this group "The Hamsters."
On the opposite side of the model we have individuals who are delivering great results
but for one reason or another not getting what they want from the work.
we call this group "The Crash and Burners" and you need to pay close attention to this group.
clearly their level of contribution needs to be sustained
for the organization to succeed but left unmanaged
these individuals will eventually find one of two exit routes from this unsatisfying situation.
They might quit at a great known cost to the organization
or more likely will simply pull back on their contribution
and drift into the lower part of the model. In effect, they quit and stay.
The impact of drifting isn't as obvious as when they leave outright
but the impact on performance could be substantial.
Here they join the disengaged - low on satisfaction and contribution
where no one is getting what they need from the relationship.
Disengaged employees often have turned an emotional corner
and their attitudes and behaviors can be contagious to the other groups.
Here the partnership between the company and the individual is clearly
in need of a fix but your existing
performance management processes have failed to address the situation.
So what about the people in the center?
this is an important group we refer to as "The Almost Engaged."
Important because they tend to be a large part of the employee population
doing a decent job and reasonably satisfied.
They're more employable than the disengaged
and more likely to consider a new employer than the fully engaged
and because they're decent performers it's tempting to focus
your coaching efforts elsewhere.
So, the challenge for your organization is managing this dynamic.
aligning individuals to your goals to achieve maximum contribution
while at the same time supporting individual employees
past a personal success at work.