The buck stops with the boss—how leaders can solve the employee engagement crisis…
No matter how many employee engagement initiatives HR implements, few of them work if leaders don’t take #ownership of the level of #engagement of their #team.
With employee engagement stats hovering at 66% DISengagement, it is imperative that leaders pay attention AND become part of the solution.
So, how can leaders improve employee engagement?
They first have to understand where employee engagement comes from…
There are 4 pillars of employee engagement…
#1 INDIVIDUAL (personal) values alignment—can your employees safely bring “who they are” to work?
#2 MISSION alignment—are their daily duties connected to a larger purpose? Do they believe the company is headed in the right direction?
#3 BEHAVIOR alignment—are leaders walking the talk? Do your behaviors line up with what you “say” your company values are? Do you allow (or worse yet – endorse or reward) bad leadership behavior?
#4 STRUCTURAL alignment—Do organizational policies/procedures, systems, and processes align with and support your stated company values?
Here are some common examples of MISALIGNMENTS…
→ You say health and safety are core company values, but employees are overworked and have no work/life balance.
→ You say everyone’s ideas are important and valued, but meetings are rushed and people do not feel safe to disagree.
→ You say care about your people, yet you allow supervisors and managers to be disrespectful and overly-aggressive simply because they get ‘results’.
These are just a few examples, and I’m sure you can think of others.
Even if there are good intentions, it’s important to make sure that the GOOD INTENTIONS of leaders are lining up with what the employees are ACTUALLY EXPERIENCING in order for them to be engaged.
A thriving company #culture and high levels of engagement are a #competitiveadvantage. Are you addressing each of the 4 pillars of employee engagement in your company?
If the answer is ‘not quite’, or if you know that it could be better, contact me to set up a time to talk! I’d love to help you strategize ways to improve employee engagement.