Buzzwords in business are overused to the point of becoming fads at times. We hear phrases daily such as “culture”, “engagement”, “wheelhouse”, “synergy”, “incentivizing”, “strategic”, and the list goes on and on. When these buzzwords become so common in our workplace, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear so many managers and executives misusing these terms to suit their own agendas, while confidently speaking as experts on achieving each.
In fact, get any group of executives together in a business setting such as a roundtable discussion and you could play Buzzword Bingo listening to leaders claiming to have achieved cultures of “transparency” with teams that are “fully engaged”, “highly motivated”, and “driven to succeed”!
When you listen to these claims, especially when they come from executives whose brands are not favorably portrayed by their employees online, you can’t help but wonder if these terms mean the same thing to each of them?
What does it actually mean to have employees who are fully ENGAGED?
Surprisingly, Employee Engagement does not actually mean your employees are happy or even satisfied! Employee Engagement 2.0 and Forbes author, Kevin Kruse defines engagement as “the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.”
This means that in a company with engaged employees, each individual on the team is not working to simply pay their bills or support their livelihood, but is also working to help the company achieve its mission and vision. Using that definition, can each of us confidently state that our employees, or even our management team as a whole, are fully engaged?
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The 4 Key Factors of Employee Engagement
When looking at ways to calculate the level of engagement, there are four key components that are relevant for an organization to use to quantify the level of engagement of their workforce:
- Culture of Engagement: Does your organization have a culture that motivates, empowers, challenges, and respects employees?
- Motivating and Relating: Do managers motivate their employees to give their best? Are managers building strong relationships and developing a cohesive team?
- Strategic Alignment: Do employees understand where the organization is headed and how they contribute to the organization’s success?
- Managing Execution: Are managers clearly defining expectations, holding employees accountable, and focused on delivering results?
Engagement is not simply creating a feel-good environment or one where company executives often state, “we are one big family here”. While it may be true there is a feeling of family within your workplace, this does not mean your employees are engaged or even happy. Utilizing one of the favorited Buzzword Bingo words, being “strategic” means consistently measuring where your company stands as it relates to the four key components of engagement; and statistically, the best results for this are by utilization of engagement surveys.
When was the last time you gauged your employee engagement?
As an HR best practice, it is recommended that organizations conduct surveys annually to measure employee engagement. For instance, at Helios, we offer our clients an Employee Engagement Survey which offers 50 benchmarked and statistically validated survey items that directly correlate to the four key components of engagement.
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, stated it best, “We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.”
