Employee Engagement: Where Does It Start?

The transparent nature of today’s workplace provides challenges for both employer and employee. Engagement is a shared responsibility and in the more successful workplace environments employers and employees embrace an organisational culture to create a high performance team with a competitive advantage. Alternatively, getting this wrong can be the Achilles heel of an organisation.

Successful employee engagement starts with the values portrayed by a business leader and how those values are absorbed and breath within the company. The style of leadership will define the culture and transition into the employee brand. How an organisation is portrayed in the employee market place determines its ability to attract and retain the right talent and be seen as an employer of choice.

Employee motivations have changed. Today’s workers have a new focus on purpose, mission, and work-life integration. Research shows that a variety of complex factors contribute to strong employee engagement, including job design, management, work environment, development, and leadership. Today, more than twice as many employees are motivated by work passion than career ambition (12 percent vs. 5 percent), indicating a need for leadership to focus on making the work environment compelling and enjoyable for everyone. ¹

Engagement of employees is about understanding their drivers. As a business owner or manager the key to success of your business is your people so it makes sense that you spend time working your people.

Here a 5 things you can do be successful in engaging your employees.

1. Recruit Wisely – value match, on board correctly, take your time
2. Communicate Regularly – transparency, feedback, appreciation, share business plans
3. Leadership Development – up skill yourself and your managers
4. Performance Develop (not review) Employees – develop career plans, goal setting, provide regular feedback, create a learning culture
5. Transparent Remuneration – develop a transparent remuneration plan

It’s not all one-way traffic and the transition of employee engagement is under way. The onus is no longer purely on the employer, employees are expected to be aware and be mindful of their own engagement throughout the life cycle of their employment. A subject to be explored another time!

Brad Pense
Managing Director

^{1 “Culture and Engaement- The Naked Organisation by Deloitte University Press”}