The Engagement Process from Satisfaction to Dissatisfaction
“To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.”
Doug Conant
Key Points
A Gallup study covering 30 years and 17 million workers found there are three key types of employees: Actively Disengaged, Actively Engaged, and Not Engaged
Engaged: This type of employee works with passion and feels a profound connection to the company.
Not Engaged: Checked out, sleepwalking through the day, putting in hours instead of energy. In other words, zombies that are eating your profitability instead of brains.
Actively Disengaged: Simply put. People who are miserable at their jobs. They actively undermine coworkers and sabotage projects.
By Tracy Maylett, DecisionWise
Auto-engaged (5%): This employee is innately inclined to find meaning, purpose, connection, and fulfillment in almost any work.
Engagement optimal (20%): This employee does not engage as instantaneously as the auto-engaged employee, but does not require a great deal of encouragement to do so.
Motivationally engaged (50%): Most will fall into this category. These employees are willing to engage if their motivational and satisfaction needs are met—if they are paid fairly, given appropriate perks, feel emotionally safe in their roles, shown potential paths of advancement.
Engagement hesitant (20%): This employee would rather not engage, but is not opposed to it, either. They are likely to regard her job as something that pays her expenses and nothing more.
Auto-disengaged (5%): These are the lost causes, the people who are unlikely to engage regardless of what the organization does. This employee cannot view work as anything more than a paycheck, and he is likely to hold an adversarial view of his employer.
According to DrivenLeadership, Inc.
• Every business leader wants a team of engaged employees. Employee engagement has to start at the top. If the leadership team isn’t engaged nobody else will buy it either.
• Mission and vision statements mean nothing. They are something written for a website, slapped up on the wall, and quickly forgotten. The effort that went into creating that means nothing unless the mission and vision are lived authentically by leadership.
• HR focuses on the bottom line instead of employees. Engaged employees don’t feel like they have to choose work or life.
• Poor communication. If your employees aren’t hearing from you regularly they assume you have forgotten about them.
• Lack of feedback. Nothing turns a company around faster than a great feedback program. Yet all too often we hold employees back by not providing critical information to let them know how to improve and remind them that we know they exist.
• Little or no planning. An employee knows when the ship is drifting along. Initiative fades quickly when management isn’t sure if an idea fits into the plan, or if the course of the company changes so frequently that previous work proves to be a waste of time and energy. Leadership needs a thoughtful, committed strategic plan designed to guide the company and the employees toward the larger vision.
Notable Quotes
“There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow.”
Jack Welch
“Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.”
Kevin Kruse
“Engaged employees are in the game for the sake of the game; they believe in the cause of the organization.”
Paul Marciano
“Highly engaged employees make the customer experience. Disengaged employees break it.”
Timothy R. Clark
Suggested Reading
Employee Engagement 2.0: How to Motivate Your Team for High Performance by Kevin E Kruse
The Art of Engagement: Bridging the Gap Between People and Possibilities by Jim Haudan
Point of Reflection
“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.”
Stephen R. Covey