Employee Engagement Archives - BETA Coaching & Consulting

Engaging Employees: More Than Just a Trend

September 13, 2024September 13, 2024

Our society is at an inflection point. To thrive in this new era, both employees and employers must redefine their relationship. Employee engagement, a topic explored extensively in academic articles, is no longer a passing trend. It’s a critical factor in organizational success.

To navigate this landscape effectively, we must understand the nuances of employee engagement. This knowledge will guide our actions and highlight the importance of a deeper understanding of this vital aspect of organizational dynamics.

By fostering a supportive environment that prioritizes and supports employee well-being, organizations can significantly boost engagement and enhance the overall employee experience.

Although employers recognize the link between well-being and employee satisfaction and retention, they often struggle to keep employees engaged in well-being programs. This is not merely about providing superficial benefits like mindfulness and yoga classes or gym reimbursements.

It is about effective well-being strategies that are both inclusive and tailored to employees’ individual needs. This approach not only benefits employees but also the organization. By leveraging data and implementing strategies that support both parties, organizations can create a more positive and dynamic work environment.

Building on this foundation, let’s explore the role of organizational culture in fostering employee engagement.

Organizations are made up of individuals and groups with shared identities, norms, and purposes. Employees are more likely to feel motivated and engaged when they are empowered to contribute meaningfully, connect with their colleagues, and work for an organization that treats them fairly and ethically, while rewarding them for their contributions.

Engagement is a function of the cultural value-add — shaping the energy, behaviors, and attitudes over and above personal preferences and styles.

Finally, let’s consider the crucial role of leadership in unlocking employee engagement.

Effective leadership is essential for unlocking employee engagement. Leaders must understand their team’s needs and create an environment where employees feel valued, supported, and motivated. This involves actively listening to employees, providing clear expectations and feedback, and demonstrating a commitment to work-life integration.

By prioritizing their team’s needs, leaders can create a positive work environment that fosters employee retention, motivation, and engagement. This also empowers employees to feel a sense of agency. When employees feel valued, recognized, and supported, they are more likely to:

Feel appreciated and rewarded: Both financially and psychologically.
Be motivated and enthusiastic: To achieve personal and organizational goals and to utilize their strengths.
Take ownership: Of their professional development and well-being.
Engage in open and honest communication: With their leaders and colleagues.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to employee engagement. Given the diversity of the global workforce, organizations must tailor their approaches to meet the unique needs of their employees. However, certain behaviors can help foster engagement across the board. These include:

Active listening and clear communication: Understanding employees’ needs and providing clear guidance about the organization’s needs.
Collaborative partnerships: Creating a sense of mutual respect and shared responsibility.
Professional development: Investing in employees’ growth and career advancement.”

For me, choice is at the heart of employee engagement — saying yes to an organizational value because it aligns with one’s values. It is about meaningful interactions and curating a mutually beneficial partnership.

How are you building the bridge to cross and deepen your understanding of the employee engagement landscape at your organization?

Request a copy of BETA Coaching & Consulting White Paper: The Power of Connecting Purpose, which offers approaches to cultivating an ecosystem to support employee engagement, by emailing novelette@betacoachingconsulting.com.

Beyond the business turnaround detailed in James Rhee‘s Red Helicopter: Lead Change with Kindness, the book beautifully showcases the immigrant perspective that shaped his successful leadership at Ashley Stewart. Rhee’s approach, grounded in kindness and strategic thinking, not only saved the company from bankruptcy but also serves as a heartfelt tribute to his parents.

I have flagged many pages in the book — sharing these two standout excerpts below:

To undermine agency. … How many of us have ever been properly taught about the interconnectedness of systems like wellness, cognitive science, finance, economics, and corporate law?

Few bosses slow down long enough to ask, what is my intent here? … Can people do their best work and keep their eyes on the future when fear overcomes their bodies and triggers their fight-or-flight reflex?

This book acknowledges the multiplicity of human existence, which does not always get sufficient airtime in our culture, especially in the business world.

By emphasizing qualities such as kindness, interconnectedness, the balance of jeong (affection) and han (deep sorrow), and agency, organizations can create a culture of care and trust that drives success.

And yes, Rhee affirms we can lead with kindness and still positively impact the bottom line.

He offers many business analogies — framed both from the organizational and individual perspectives. I was personally taken with the T-Account (below is a snapshot from the book):

And I look forward to completing my T-Account this fall.

What will you include in your T-Account?

Books that nourished my mind this summer:

What Have You Read This Summer That You Loved?

Harmoniously Working Together

July 10, 2024July 6, 2024

Billions of individuals, including yourself, are busy working. Many toil away in environments that are not supportive of their values, talents, and skills. And a small percentage of these individuals are flourishing.

What is the secret sauce for those who flourish?

Or could it be less of a secret sauce and more of a consistent, constructive effort on the part of all parties—leaders, people managers, human resources managers, and employees—to shape the organizational culture we all feel engaged?

A tall order—yet very doable!

Although engagement is linked to performance (such as quiet quitting, performance appraisal scores, and turnover), it does not directly impact individuals’ performance; it is an organizational imperative involving all stakeholders.

Consider that you will veer off course as you experiment with how you want to interact with and within your organizational culture, given this is a huge learning experiment involving novel—and not so novel—concepts of working together harmoniously.

Be prepared for failure as new terrains are navigated.

In her book, The Right Kind of Wrong, Amy Edmonston writes, “Failures are all but guaranteed when uncertainty is high,” and experimentation is necessary to make progress.

Experimentation requires time, given the rapidly changing global and diverse workforce we are part of!

Engagement is a function of the cultural value-add—shaping the energy, behaviors, and attitudes over and above personal preferences and styles.

It is important to understand how the organization’s stakeholders function and collaborate, while considering varying social identities and values, to serve the organization’s mission and values.

Strategies and ideas for enhancing employee engagement were discussed at BETA’s The Engagement Factor virtual event last month.

After reviewing the Employee Engagement Framework below, consider how you are meaningfully engaged in your work life.

An Employee Engagement Framework

Organizations represent individuals and groups with shared identities, norms, and purposes.

People generally feel more enthusiastic about their work when empowered to achieve something meaningful to connect with others.

This framework provides a structure to build upon, creating milestones, and resulting in a clear strategy for how you might wish to engage with your workforce.

It is perfectly imperfect.

Attention needs to be given to the individual parts and how they relate to one another. At times, it can be beyond our ability to predict or control all the parts.

Yet we are receiving useful information for consideration on how and where you would like to experiment next within the framework—pivoting.

Missed the virtual event?

Here is a summary of what the participants shared…

Email novelette@betacoachingconsulting.com to receive a copy of the white paper.

Any time of the year is a perfect time to slow down and enjoy the moment. Yet summer is a particularly sweet time to sit under a tree and get lost in a book or the beauty of the natural landscape.

Check out my reading list for the summer—and please share what is on your list!

Wishing you a summer filled with people, events, and activities (no activities) that jazz you up.

Stepping into the Realm of Possibilities

June 12, 2024June 7, 2024

The level of employee engagement hinges on their sense of fulfillment in their contributions to the organization, their colleagues, and their own growth. This is equally influenced by the organization’s demonstrated behaviors and actions.

Saying they have created a culture of care where employees can be themselves and contribute fully isn’t enough for an organization. Their actions throughout the company must consistently reflect this value.
How employees choose to engage will depend on their need to feel fully realized in their contributions to the organization, their colleagues, and themselves.

As well as the organization’s demonstrated behaviors and actions.

I have had the good fortune to collaborate with fabulous leaders professionally. Leaders that honed their leadership, intrapersonal, and people skills, in a manner that enabled their direct reports to contribute meaningfully.

Engaging fully!

Company culture: a balance of what you say and do

And there were those leaders, through their behavior (from micromanagement and bullying to sexist and racist tropes), that resulted in my stepping back in how to choose to engage.

Resulting in a self-protective mechanism of armoring and then camouflaging.

You may be thinking that I might have been overly sensitive. And I could have been. Yet, the environment did not feel trustworthy.

For me, at the heart of employee engagement is choice—saying yes to an organizational value because it aligns with one’s personal values.

This belief holds that choice exhibits one’s personal power in an ecosystem that has cultivated multiple pathways to engage.

Engagement is about meaningful interactions and curating a mutually beneficial partnership.

My experiences with these ineffective leaders helped me define the kind of leadership and work environment that fosters my ability to contribute my full potential; bringing my best self to work.

There are safe enough environments to experiment with novel ideas, stepping into the realm of possibilities. People riff off each other in a supportive, cross-functional, collaborative manner, using time and space to create.

Do you feel that you’re engaged meaningfully in your work life?

There is no universal formula for engaging employees. Given the workforce’s global nature and diverse needs, some behaviors can help amplify engagement across an enterprise.

You’re cordially invited to The Engagement Factor, an interactive virtual event that offers approaches to cultivating engagement across your organization.

I have greatly enjoyed serving on a Board with Anu Gupta at BE MORE with Anu (BMA). I have seen first-hand his passion for providing individuals and organizations with ancient wisdom, blending it with modern science, to bridge understanding and strengthen compassion across differences.

Anu brings mindfulness-based and science-backed DEIB, antiracism, and wellness training to organizations of all sizes to build more equitable and inclusive workplaces and beloved communities.

His BMA Organizational Coaching Program is a unique opportunity to collaborate directly to drive tangible behavior change, understanding, and compassion.

Registration is open!

I invite you to check it out: BMA Organizational Coaches | BE MORE With Anu — BE MORE with Anu.

Employee Engagement: It is clear something is not adding up

April 28, 2022July 14, 2023

There is a lot of buzz around the concept of employee engagement with more than 1,500 academic articles published in 2020. Personally, I was curious about the connections between the great resignation and the study of engagement. It seems that there is no single definition for engagement and translating science into practice might require a little more nuanced than saying happy employees are engaged. Happiness is too simplistic a perspective, and monetary rewards do not lead to lasting feelings of connection. Let’s consider that this complex process requires a deeper understanding of values, contributions, and mutual success.

The Origins of Engagement Surveys

The origin of the employee engagement survey dates back to the U.S. military World War 1 morale surveys. Companies then utilized the survey to figure out how to fight unions. Then, employers wanted to determine how satisfied their employees were with pay, benefits, and work schedules. The 1980s analyses indicated that satisfaction was not a predictor of positive job performance. Researcher William Kahn explored the concept of the employee bringing their “full selves” and energy to their jobs.

Given the diversity of the workplace, what would it take to bring one’s full self and energy to work now? The latest news about the Amazon unionization indicates the force that employees have to change work culture. What is the bridge that we need to cross to deepen our understanding of the employee engagement landscape? As a society, we are at an inflection point, and understanding deeply what both the employee and employer need to function in a mutually beneficial way is being redefined.

Who completes the engagement surveys?

When asked, “how engaged do you feel at work rated on a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high) engagement?”, typically:

An employee who is overwhelmed and works beyond their scope might feel very engaged, rating their engagement at a 10, but needing a break.
An employee who feels they’ve struck a relatively good work-life integration, rates their engagement at 5, believing that’s an ideal amount of engagement.
An employee who feels that they are being micromanaged and not able to contribute at their potential, does enough to get by and rates their engagement at an 8 given the situation.

An executive reviewing these data points might determine that a high engagement score is indicative of happy and satisfied colleagues. However, data provide clues not insights, meaning individuals are more complex than a survey response.

Many employees do not respond to employee engagement surveys because they fear that their comments might be misused, not be taken seriously, or that nothing will change. In fact, individuals completing these surveys are a self-selecting, non-representative sample, and not a true representation. Remember that surveys have limitations, and mostly measure perceptions rather than root causes.

Drawback Of Overly Engaged Employees

Garrad & Chamorro-Premuzic note that there is a potential drawback to overly engaged employees. They warn that there are four potential threats to high levels of engagement:

Embracing the status quo: it is possible that proud and motivated workers resist new ways of doing things because change seems counterintuitive or even suspicious.
Pushing employees into burnout: studies have found that highly engaged workers tend to suffer work/family harmony and those who fail to take downtime often face health challenges.
Giving an unfair edge to certain personality types: employees who are naturally more optimistic, positive, emotionally stable, agreeable, and extraverted tend to be more engaged regardless of their circumstances.
Undermining the benefits of negative thinking: defensive pessimists often perform better because they prepare for worst-case scenarios and try harder to remediate them.

A balanced approach to employee engagement

Organizations are a representation of individuals and groups with shared identities, norms, and purposes. In general, people feel more enthusiastic about their work when they are empowered to achieve something meaningful, connect with others, and the organization treats them fairly and ethically, while rewarding them for their contributions. Engagement is a function of the cultural value-add – shaping the energy, behaviors, and attitudes over and above personal preferences and styles. It is understanding how the representatives of the organization function and work together given their varying social identities and value in the service of the organization’s mission and value. The exploratory question is where is the synergy?

Although engagement has been tied to performance (example: absenteeism, turnover, performance appraisal scores, self-reports of performance), it doesn’t directly impact individuals’ performance.

There is no universal formula to engaging employees, yet there are leadership behaviors that serve as a bridge to amplifying engagement. They include leaders who

communicate well and provide clear direction with their team members
can inspire and generate loyalty, commitment, passion, and enthusiasm
excel at creating a positive work environment
engender trust by “walking their talk” and showing that they can be trusted
focus on helping team members see themselves in a very positive light
ask for feedback from others and work to make improvements

As Steve Jobs noted, “Your work is going to fill a larger part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” In what ways are you doing what you believe is great work?

At the heart of engagement is choice – saying yes to an organizational value because there is an alignment with one’s personal value as well as for an organization to go beyond thinking a happy employee (given a survey result) is an engaged employee. It is about meaningful conversations about how to curate a mutually beneficial partnership.