Lately we have been doing quite a bit of work with clients focused on helping them create workforce alignment behind the brand and the customer proposition, and inevitably we have turned to the subject of employee engagement.
This is a subject that’s had a lot written about it, so I don’t intend to go over old ground other than to say that there is now a wealth of tangible evidence linking employee satisfaction and engagement to motivation, productivity and business results.
My focus here is to provide an outline regarding our approach to employee engagement. We believe that among all the many things an organisation can do to build engagement and satisfaction at work, one of the core things it can focus on is more effectively managing relationships at work. After all, we know that the greatest source of inefficiency in most organisations lies in working relationships.
Q: So why is it so difficult to get working relationships right?
Well, there are going to be several factors and several answers to this question, but one fundamental answer is that as human beings we are all different. We are different people, with different attitudes, different values and beliefs, and different views on the world and the people in it.
What can happen is that it’s easy to fall into what we call the “I’m right / you’re wrong” thinking trap. This can get us into trouble because while I may be convinced that my view is right and yours is wrong, the other person is thinking the same way. This “yes but” argument mode – my view is right and yours is wrong – produces strong emotional responses which is a waste of time and has an emotional cost. Think about it. When is the last time you heard anyone use the phrase at work – “I don’t agree with you, but I might be wrong?”
Another trap that we can also fall into is what author Tony Allessandro calls the flawed Golden Rule. This rule is a strongly influential one that many of us have been brought up with. It goes like this.
You should always treat people as you would like to be treated. The fundamental problem with that golden rule is what may be good for me, may not be good for you. This golden rule would only work in reality if we were all the same – but we know we are not.
Let me be very clear here. I’m not talking about not treating people with common courtesy and respect. That would be really tough to argue against. No. What I’m talking about is meeting other peoples needs in ways that builds trust and engaged relationships. Not proactively understanding this can lead to tension in the relationship. Not everyone wants to be treated as I do.
For some people being appreciated is very important, while for others less so. For some feeling they have been given time to think things through is critical, while others just want to get on with things. Not realising this and understanding how to meet those needs is the real tragedy.
We believe that in organisations this needs to be checked out on a regular basis and not wait for the employee survey every 18 months to 2 years, or the appraisal conversation – which is mostly about my work objectives – to ensure that our relationships are OK.
It’s a bit like car maintenance. The engine will work less efficiently if it doesn’t get regular TLC. So too relationships at work – which are dynamic and often contextual – need looking after.
Q: What is so difficult about treating people how they want to be treated and building employee engagement?
The challenge is that we tend to work in our own comfort zone and make lots of assumptions about others – not appreciating enough that someone else may have different internal drivers and motivations.
When we up-skill clients on empathy, the biggest challenge participants have is not intellectually understanding the need to get into someone else’s shoes. The biggest challenge is getting out of their own shoes for a bit. It’s difficult because we are talking about what natural behaviour – what makes us comfortable as a human being. So fully appreciating someone else’s drivers and motivations may seem strange because their not our own.
Organisations do all sorts of things to build employee engagement. And employee engagement is created through a number of channels – communication and training, reward and recognition systems, performance management, team working etc. They put effort into these structures because they want to build commitment to whatever the organisation is trying to achieve. What we have found, though, is true engagement exits when an open culture of feedback is built and people feel that their personal needs are being met – by my work mates and by my immediate boss. Typically we have found that the quality of feedback in most organisations is not great. This may sound like an over generalisation, but often managers we have dealt with aren’t skilled at giving feedback. And do it in a way that is valuable to the recipient. Often what this means is that what is heard by the receiver is some form of criticism – “you should behave in this way”, or “why can’t you try doing this”?
The secret of providing high quality, valuable feedback is to deliver it in ways that meets people’s needs and doesn’t sound like a criticism. Feedback has to be a good experience. This culture of open communication, where feedback is valued creates an atmosphere of trust and feeling good about being here.
And this connects us to employee engagement because, in addition to all the systems and processes that may be used to build engagement, engagement operates at the smallest unit of the organisation. The team and the one-to-one relationships, including my boss. Employee engagement, therefore, is a leadership issue.
There is plenty of evidence to show that feeling valued and high self-esteem environments correlates to high performance. A high esteem environment is a high performing environment. It’s an environment where people feel good, and people feel open. It’s an environment of trust where they can discuss the undiscussables, and they feel more motivated.
So we believe that there are some clear and significant factors in building employee engagement. When people feel valued, they are more likely to be open.
If they work in a climate of openness, they are more likely to feel safe about giving and receiving feedback. When people feel valued and are open, and feel willing to engage in feedback, they are likely to feel more motivated and willing to discuss differences.
In this open and trusting environment, where differences get discussed and people feel they have a voice, they are more likely to take ownership for getting their needs met and feeling satisfied at work. Rather than waiting for management to do something, they take personal responsibility with others to make it happen. When people feel valued, work in open environments where they feel they have a voice, they are also better able to deal with conflict.
Conflict can be constructive if it’s about ideas and the way forward. Conflict that is about a clash of personalities can be destructive. This kind of conflict is only ever constructive if as a result we have a greater understanding of each other, or a greater willingness to meet each others needs. Inter-personal conflict is fundamentally an unmet need.
When we create a work environment where people feel valued, they have open discussions and provide quality feedback to one another, people feel motivated and willing to discuss differences, take ownership and manage potential conflict more effectively. When this happens everyone can take joint responsibility for engagement and for creating a better place to work.
When people are working in this kind of work climate, employee engagement levels are high. People feel they can give the best of themselves. They feel involved and work more effectively across the organisation. Productivity, innovation and customer service goes up, and ultimately the business does well and flourishes.
