Should employers care about employee engagement?
The simple answer to this question is YES! First, we need to understand how we attain employee engagement. Employee engagement can come from motivation – either intrinsic or extrinsic … or perhaps both. An example of intrinsic motivation (i.e. intangible rewards) that relates to employee engagement is a feeling of accomplishment that you have helped someone through your work. Another intrinsic motivator is a desire to learn which can be connected to providing new experiences at work or challenges to an employee. Both of these examples require that an employer understand what motivates each employee. This is easier to ascertain if you have fewer employees to supervise – but it is still a challenge. In order to learn about an individual’s intrinsic motivation, you must have conversations that assess employee goals and then understand why they are setting the goals. The “why” helps to create an understanding of the intrinsic motivators. Then, you must create opportunities for the employee to engage with these motivators – i.e. find that sense of accomplishment or learn something new. When these intrinsic motivators are felt, the employee will engage. Providing extrinsic motivators – such as rewards for accomplishments – is nice, but is less sustaining than connecting to the intrinsic motivator for the employee. It is important to note that rewards can tap into the intrinsic motivation and help employees acknowledge the importance of their work to themselves.
As a result of creating employee engagement – from intrinsic and/or extrinsic motivators – employees often tap into more creativity, productivity and overall performance. This can provide great results for the organization in terms of profit or levels of service. But an even better outcome is the employees’ sense of well being. The opposite of employee engagement for an organization can be failure of providing service or lack of a competitive edge in the market (equaling low profits). For the individual it can mean burnout, health and absentee issues and quitting. These examples represent two ends of the spectrum where an employee is engaged and where an employee is not engaged. Engagement does not happen overnight. It can evolve over time as well as ebb and flow. Thus, the process of encouraging employee engagement by emphasizing opportunities for employees to be intrinsically motivated requires ongoing care and concern by management along with repetitive inquiry into the connectivity that the employee is feeling to the work he or she does. This statement emphasizes the need to have continuous conversations related to performance management throughout the year – not just at evaluation time.
If you are interested in improving employee engagement as well as good organizational health and performance, contact WPI to continue this conversation about your individual and organizational needs.