In my opinion, engagement is more often studied than practiced. Over the last number of years the terms satisfaction, engagement, survey, assessment have become interchangeable when discussing employees. This is wrong. We need more than the shades of gray that employee satisfaction surveys provide about how employees are feeling. Surveys offer only a snapshot of how an employee felt on a particular day. The way I often describe it is that employee engagement is not a project or an annual campaign, but rather a program. There's no beginning or end, engagement is every day.
Once you've assessed employee engagement, one of the best ways to actually address it is to get employees involved. We’ve seen firsthand what can happen when brainstorming sessions - as an example - are moved out from behind closed doors to a collaborative platform where there is no limit to participants or ideas.
I think it's about engineering a culture that values dialogue but also values action. I spend a lot of time espousing the value of a two-way dialogue. But ultimately, dialogue without action is just talk. Giving employees several opportunities in the space of their work day to declare their opinions, compare themselves to others, collaborate, recognize each other for their progress, and wrap their arms around the mission vision and value of the organization in their own way are the foundations of a culture poised to engage employees.
Read our road map on employee engagement to learn more.
