Last week I wrote about the need to include Employees in the decision making process if Employee Engagement was a goal. This week I read an article about this year’s WorkTrends Report by the Kenexa Research Institute. According to this Report, based on an international survey, Employees are engaged by:
• Leaders who inspire confidence in the future.
• Managers who respect and appreciate their employees.
• Exciting work that employees know how to do.
• Employers who display a genuine responsibility to employees and communities.
This is more of the same vagueness with which most companies approach Employee Engagement. The reality is Employee Engagement begins with one item: Trust! My focus on Trust as the basis for Employee Engagement rests solidly on the last forty years of the instability caused by the WorkQuake© of the Knowledge Economy.
First, consider that The Industrial Economy Workplace – the Workplace of the Boomers - was all about promises. Promises were made by Employers to Employees about lifetime job security, increasing wages, cost free health care and a secure retirement plan. In return, Employees made promises to Employers of long term loyalty and daily servitude.
The Boomers entered the workplace with an understanding of that Social Contract: leave the brain at home, show up for work, perform adequately while doing a boring job, accept a Command & Control work environment and tolerate Theory X supervisors and managers, all for the promise of The Good Life and a retirement where Boomers could begin to do what they really wanted with their lives. While this Social Contract stifled industrial innovation and creativity and caused employees to die at an early age out of the frustration of knowing they had spent a life doing mind numbing, repetitive tasks it still provided security to an entire generation of Employees and guaranteed Employers a workforce that, while not committed to the company, showed up everyday and did the job. But make no mistake, the Boomers Commitment to the job did not and does not mean they were/are Engaged by the job.
Now consider that The Workplace of the Knowledge Economy is all about broken promises. The Social Contract of the Industrial Economy is gone, shattered by the The WorkQuake© of the Knowledge Economy. Generation Y is entering the workforce is fully aware there is no more Social Contract. The promise of employment stability rings hollow to the Gen Yers who have seen their parents laid off from multiple jobs because of globalization, who have seen the promises of improving health care dissipate as ever increasing health care costs have been passed along to their parents and who have seen the promise of their parent’s secure retirement dissipate with the elimination of defined benefit pension plans and retirement based on the vagaries of the stock market’s effect on 401(K)s and IRAs.
Is it any wonder Gen Y-ers enter the workplace with an attitude about work that is so markedly different from the Boomers? And is it any wonder Boomers are disillusioned with Employers? Today no one in the workplace Trusts the Company to take care of their needs! And until there is a regeneration of Trust between Employees and the Employer there will be no Employee Engagement that results in that all important discretionary effort from Employees. Instead Employees of every generation will continue to ask W.I.I.I.F.M.? every time they are asked to go above and beyond and if there is no satisfactory answer to that question there will be no Employee Engagement. And without Employee Engagement the Workforce will not delivers superior results, higher quality and improved customer satisfaction, better revenue growth, and increased profitability.
The Bottom Line: Trust occurs when Company Leaders
1. Do what they are expected to do;
2. Do what they say they are going to do;
3. Recognize and reward effort; and
4. Involve Employees in the decision making process on any and every item that directly affects the Employees.
Until every Company Leader, from the Executive Office to the Front Line, commits to developing this level of Trust don’t expect Employee Engagement.
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Recent Comments | 14 Total
September 22, 2008 at 12:16am by John Reddish
This is a very good article, a thinking piece, demanding a look in the mirror from those of us who would lead (in our various capacities). Getting to trust, though, involves more than good behavior by the Company Leaders going forward.
Trust springs from "hope." Disengaged employees may not notice a change in leadership performance right away unless it's heralded in some way, nor should they be expected to notice. First leaders must get their attention and generate some hope - hope that things will get better; hope that leaders will do what's expected, and so on. This will both speed the process and encourage improvement. Everyone will be watching. When trust has been eroded, any change in behavior by leaders is often greeted with skepticism and may be seen as a potential "you did it to me again" when it's not repeated. Positive behavior repeated brings trust a little closer. It is said that it takes three rounds of promises fulfilled (sometimes more) to build a little trust. And trust has been missing for a long time. John Reddish, Succession Expert and Speaker
October 28, 2008 at 3:25pm by David Rueckert
The status of a business as a corporation exists based on the government's trust that the leadership will make decisions that benefit all stakeholders involved: employees, shareholders, government officials, customers, citizens in the community within which the corporation operates. Holding corporations fully accountable for their betrayal of stakeholder's trust becomes essential if the next generation of business leaders is expected to value trust and work mightily to gain the trust of stakeholders. I think the new trend of transparency in corporate decision making will go a long way in building trust in the midst of skepticism and resentment directed toward big businesses.
November 11, 2008 at 9:14pm by Sampath Srivatsan
Employee engagement is a new buzz word in the corporate world. Business leaders have realized that it constitutes a major step in increasing productivity thereby also increasing profits. How can this be implemented in organization which has two types of supervisors as Paul mentioned?
Success of an organization is based on how the employees are treated by its supervisors at work. Trust factor as mentioned is very important and there needs to be transparency at all levels of organization. As of today in most organizations, employees feel their views are not taken and direction of work always trickles top down resulting in low morale at work. “Employee engagement” can change this monotonous work nature if leaders inspire their workforce with more active involvement from bottom to top. Changes in the Organizations should make employees feel they are part of decision making process, which makes them part of the team resulting and to trust colleague and supervisors in the line of the business.
November 16, 2008 at 12:54pm by Heather Sherbert
The reason that employee engagement is so hard to implement is that it will only work if an entire corporation is on board. One person not supporting this being implemented can completely impede the process. If corporations want their employees to trust them, they have to have management willing to change and make the steps necessary. In addition, they have to realize that building trust takes time, it cannot be done overnight, especially if there are employees that have already worked many years in the company and are used to the way it currently operates.
November 24, 2008 at 5:28pm by JT Slayton
It’s also important to have the proper training for management regarding the treatment of employees in a variety of situations. If those in management receive extensive training, they will be able to maintain trust with the mentality of Boomers as well as Gen Y. For example, a supervisor may think that optimal job-performance is maintained through bullying employees or threatening their job security. Many employees do not respond well to intimidation. Company leaders, management and employees must use sensitivity, consistency and transparency to effectively build trust as well as a team environment.
November 25, 2008 at 11:01pm by Sampath Srivatsan
I agree with Tiffany, The program employment engagement in any organization is a team effort from leaders and employees. Programs such as 360 assessments employ survey need to be conducted periodically to gauge the feedbacks from colleagues and co-workers. These feedbacks help to shape an individual’s development in character as well as work environment. Every employee should be energized with the 3 C’s. Competence, Confidence, and Credibility are three primary attributes that help leaders Increase productivity and be connected with employees. There needs to be a trust at all levels. Good process will not help. It needs built with relationship, hard work and dedication from all employees to provide a long term benefits for the company’s growth.
November 25, 2008 at 11:03pm by Sampath Srivatsan
I agree with Tiffany, The program employment engagement in any organization is a team effort from leaders and employees. Programs such as 360 assessments employ survey need to be conducted periodically to gauge the feedbacks from colleagues and co-workers. These feedbacks help to shape an individual’s development in character as well as work environment. Every employee should be energized with the 3 C’s. Competence, Confidence, and Credibility are three primary attributes that help leaders Increase productivity and be connected with employees. There needs to be a trust at all levels. Good process will not help. It needs built with relationship, hard work and dedication from all employees to provide a long term solution for the company’s growth.
November 25, 2008 at 11:05pm by Sampath Srivatsan
I agree with Tiffany, The program employment engagement in any organization is a team effort from leaders and employees. Programs such as 360 assessments employ survey need to be conducted periodically to gauge the feedbacks from colleagues and co-workers. These feedbacks help to shape an individual’s development in character as well as work environment. Every employee should be energized with the 3 C’s. Competence, Confidence, and Credibility are three primary attributes that help leaders Increase productivity and be connected with employees. There needs to be a trust at all levels. Good process will not help. It needs built with relationship, hard work and dedication from all employees to provide a long term benefits for the company’s growth.
November 25, 2008 at 11:25pm by JT Slayton
Excellent point, Sampath, there should be periodic feedback surveys to gauge employee/employer relations. I think it should occur consistently (at least four times per year), anonymously, and be distributed throughout the company for maximum transparency. This would give everyone an opportunity to feel that their needs and voices are addressed, and it would give those who were using non-productive techniques a chance to modify their behavior without being humiliated. Also, management should reassess its approach to employee relations with each report. Attention paid to maintaining transparency and evolving practices of mutual respect will quickly lead to a trusting, team work environment. At that point, less energy will be wasted on internal issues and disputes, and productivity will probably increase.
November 25, 2008 at 11:53pm by Sampath Srivatsan
Tiffany you are right. Transparency is an important building block in the employee engagement. Once the trust is built between employees, then the results are drastic. There is positive energy around the work place with employees devoting valuable time to increase productivity. Transparency need to exist at all levels of the workplace and it is a crucial factor to build trust. The fruits of engagement are achieved only when the attributes of transparency, trust, and reward are applied together in a workplace.
November 26, 2008 at 12:07am by JT Slayton
Another factor in increasing employee trust could be employee engagement in the form of leaders or management spending time with each person to see what their job entails and which improvements they would make. At that point, if the employee’s suggestions were carried out, the employee would feel more involved in the company and job efficiency would be increased. I once met a small business owner that used this technique and it lead to a dramatic increase in productivity.
November 26, 2008 at 7:56am by Heather Sherbert
Tiffany, an important point you touched upon is that employee's suggestions are carried out. Working as an HR consultant for several years, I have seen NUMEROUS times in which an employer will go to the effort to do climate surveys and poll their employee's on the changes that they would like to make, to then take either year's to implement or not implement them at all. Through this delay, it showed the employee's that their opinions are not important to take action. It made the employee's feel like their opinions did not matter. If employers are going to carryout a survey and make changes, it has to be closely aligned in time to each other to have the best possible effect.
December 1, 2008 at 10:16pm by David Rueckert
Recently at work, I was asked to join a discussion panel as a Baltimore representative in a corporate effort to find ways to satisfy employees where survey results presently said our employer was falling short. I have emailed the leader of the group twice, and called him once, to ask when and where our meetings would be held. I have not heard back yet. Naturally I feel that this employee review group is just posturing by my employer and that it will take a very long time to see anything, if at all, from this initiative. I guess I'm more cynical than I originally thought. Trust seems to be a fragile thing in the business world today.
December 2, 2008 at 8:49am by Paul Glover
Interesting comments all.
I am especially interested in the views expressed about attitude surveys and 360 degree reviews.
In my experience there are two types of feedback: to your face and behind your back. However, most of my clients are reluctant to do attitude surveys. Perhaps it is cost or perhaps it is fear about the results.
And I absolutely agree that once you ask for answers to issues something positive had better happen or the erosion of trust will have begun.
Comments and experience with overcoming "survey reluctance"?