Does employee engagement mean employee happiness to you, too? In fact, not only you, but many people, including employees, think so. Let’s think about this first. While employee engagement describes the enthusiastic participation of employees in their work, happiness may be an emotion that employees experience within themselves. In fact, an employee who is very satisfied with his job and workplace may not be committed to either of them at all. He’s paid high, his working conditions are comfortable, his retirement is imminent, or he’s in a good mood because he has a completely different plan for his career, but he doesn’t feel any enthusiasm for his work. It may seem surprising, but it’s a very common example.
Although employee engagement is defined with different words, it always indicates the same point:
Forbes writer Kevin Kruse defines engagement as “employee’s emotional attachment to the organization and its goals”, while in the business dictionary we read the sentence “Emotional belonging that an employee feels towards the organization and that tends to affect both his behaviour and work level in his work-related activities.” What they have in common is pretty obvious, isn’t it? Emotions, emotional attachment
If we form our own definition, we can summarize it as follows: the enthusiasm that an employee’s job and workplace evokes in him, the desire to participate, and the emotional intimacy that drives him to do better.
What does an engaged employee do differently?
Think about your own feelings and reactions when answering this question:
- How much do you care if a customer problem is solved quickly and the customer expresses his satisfaction out loud? Customer satisfaction is one of the most important outputs of their work for engaged employees.
- Does it make you proud that your company earns more, grows, succeeds and makes a difference? The engaged employee feels his share and presence in this success, is proud of it and shares it.
- Do you recommend a former colleague or acquaintance that you think would be a good fit for a position at your company? Engaged employees do this often and do not avoid being a bridge.
- Do you think that you are serving a purpose that makes you get out of bed in the morning not only fast, but happy and excited? Getting up in a hurry is not always a happy one; engaged employees get to work enthusiastically – whether in the office or remotely.
When we talk about engagement, we don’t talk about the best schools finished, or about talents and competencies. It’s about what we make the employee feel and what it evokes in him. It’s about emotions and it’s more important than you can imagine.
What are the factors that create high employee engagement?
If we are talking about the enthusiastic engagement of employees and their passion, trust and love for their jobs, we cannot think of all these separately from the managers. Research shows that “good leadership” is one of the most important factors that create high employee engagement. We consider good leadership as the first factor because concepts such as trust, feedback, appreciation, learning-development, autonomy, equality, inclusiveness and well-being provided/supported by the good leader constitute employee engagement, and strengthen it even more if it exists. The people who lead teams have such a strong influence on engagement.
In an organizational structure, we cannot exclude the culture of the institution out of the issue. No matter how excellent the business leader is, if the goals and values of the organization are not aligned with the team leaders and therefore the teams, engagement is still not possible. If the business leader cannot align the corporate culture and his own culture, he remains only the person who is loved and appreciated by the employees but cannot create the change. We have to see the risk here that sometimes such leaders take their own teams and leave the company. Together with employees who believe in him but do not believe in the company’s values, who lose their ties even though they may be engaged…
Who is responsible for employee engagement?
Employee engagement requires an integrated effort. The culture of the organization, the competencies of the leader and the willingness of the employee: Employee engagement occurs when all these factors come together successfully. Working with business leaders aligned with the goals and values of the organization naturally increases the engagement rate of the teams that these leaders create by recruiting the right person for the right job. In companies that prioritize the issue of employee engagement, all processes, from selection and placement to leader training, are shaped by a culture that will ensure common and enthusiastic participation.
We will evaluate in more detail the business results in companies with high employee engagement in a different article, but let’s note the following result in advance: High employee engagement provides companies with 23 per cent high profitability.
How about it? Don’t you think it’s worth considering?