 Your Employee Engagement Program Doesn't Work |  |
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Get everyone on the same page - click here to email them a copy of this article It's amazing how buzz phrases come around. Now, it's all about 'employee engagement' - really a cover-up makenice for 'How do I keep folks productive when life stinks for them right now?'
Don't get me wrong - I like it when businesspeople (real, actual people, with names) genuinely care about their employees and want to improve their level of engagement with the organization - even when it's done for the most mercenary of reasons (simple productivity).
This is rarer than you'd think ('employee engagement' meaning real managers really caring about their real employees). More common, and much less useful (in fact, useless), is that the concept of 'employee engagement' develops like a mold within an organization, and takes on a life of it's own, unattached to any real, actual people (except maybe some poor schmuck in mid-level HR who, once overjoyed at finding something that promised so much, is now trudging through focus group after focus group, slowly getting the message that nothing actually actionable is going to come out of any of this).
And sadly, that's exactly what most so-called 'employee engagement' programs are - misbegotten, unwieldy, ineffective rolling caravans of impractical or never-going-to-be-implemented PowerPoint presentations, usually spawned from an equally bankrupt exercise in so-called 'benchmarking'.
Engagement in the Real World
It doesn't work that way, folks. Employees don't get 'engaged' because HR read somewhere that it's important. More importantly, you're probably using that 'employee engagement' program as an exercise in denial.
Look around you. Find one actual real business where actual real people are actually, really engaged. No, really - I mean it. Do it today - find an actual business: your dry cleaners, or local coffee shop, or a supplier or a customer, or maybe (gulp) your previous employer - somewhere - anywhere - where you know from actual experience that real actual people are really, actually engaged.
I'd be prepared to bet a guest writing slot on this blog that if you do identify such a business (a real business that you personally know, not some case study in a book or article) where the employees are genuinely happy and productive - that one thing will be missing. There'll be no 'employee engagement program'.
They don't work, folks. Not in the real world. Sure, they make for good reading and fill speaking slots at conferences, but out there where actual people work, employee engagement programs are bankrupt exercises.
The Problem Isn't With Your Employees...
In fact, like most diets, they actually have a negative impact. Sure, you lose a few pounds at first, but in the long run, those pounds come back - and some. Similarly, your huggy-feely employee engagement program gets employees expectations up and for a while everyone's engagement goes up a notch (maybe), but over time, your ponderous questionnaires, ineffective follow-up and gosh-darnit, just the sheer weight of corporate lethargy sends the engagement indicator back to where it was (if you're lucky - and further down than previously, in most cases).
Why? Because people aren't engaged by programs - they're engaged by people. This isn't rocket science. People are engaged by people. Simple. In that real business you identified, the employees are engaged because they like the people they work with and for.
So when someone approaches me for help in designing an employee engagement program, my first question is this: 'What's wrong with your managers?'. Because, sure as shooting, if you need an employee engagement program, the reality is this: the problem is with your managers, not your employees.
And the truth of it? No employee engagement program - however well designed, focus-grouped or externally facilitated - is going to fix that. In fact, it will probably make the situation worse.
So, cancel your employee engagement program, pull on your big boy / big girl shoes, and go start working on the real issue: developing your managers.
Do You Need To Engage With Your Managers?
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Alternatively, feel free to call Les McKeown direct on (+1) 617 237 0235 .
Les McKeown
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