Employee Engagement: One Employee’s Perspective.

Employee engagement cannot work effectively when it is an organizational imposition.

 I strongly encourage you to read the article: Employee Engagement  from the blog,  Yearning Mice on Fire: Random Ravings From the Midnight Hours.

Here are some of Dee’s words:

Employee engagement. It is the latest and greatest corporate buzz phrase, at least for the corporation I work for. But what does it mean?

If you ask the company it is a quotient based on what an employee says about the corporation, their strivings to do for the company, and whether the employees are staying with the company over the long-term or not. If you ask the employee, especially the ones who have been deemed “not engaged”, it is the level of abuse you are willing to put up with for the salary and benefits you receive.

Just like the abusive parent who sits at the table with the liquor and smokes while moaning that their children just don’t love them, the corporation’s board of directors spends a great deal of time wondering where it all went wrong. Surveys are done and staff meetings are called to go over the results. The presenter always says the same thing, “We just don’t know why you’re not engaged.” Anyone who tries to explain it to them is quickly shut up and shuffled out the door.

You’ve probably guessed by now that I am “not engaged” at work. It’s hard to care about the corporation when the corporation has made it clear that they don’t care about you. Programs put into place to benefit the employee are used instead to control and manipulate them. Incentives are used to create tension and discord between employees. The contract is interpreted and re-interpreted constantly until very few of us are even sure what the words mean anymore. Information in place to be used by all employees is instead withheld and/ or requests for information are instead funnelled to your manager who berates and threatens you. Pride in a job well done has been twisted to mean that we must give 150% effort in 50% of the time and for 30% of the costs.

I encourage you to read the full post by Dee and determine how you would respond to her if you were a leader in the organization she talked about.

By the way, I believe this is much more than just one person’s perspective on employee engagement – I believe that many employees feel this way.

David Zinger specializes in employee engagement.

Email David at dzinger@shaw.ca

7 Organizational Inputs into Employee Engagement: MMP#26

Employee Engagement: Monday Morning Percolator #26

To achieve full levels of employee engagement, efforts must come from organizations, leaders, and employees. This issue of the Monday Morning Percolator will outline 7 actions organizations can take to foster higher levels of employee engagement.

1. Assess and remove any roadblocks or hurdles to employee engagement. Ask employees what could be removed or lessened to increase their level of engagement with the organization.
2. Create a culture where employee engagement is valued, discussed, shared, and lived. Employee engagement needs to be both recognized and appreciated.
3. Ensure that the top leaders within the organization are committed to employee engagement, engaged themselves, and they are willing and committed to investing organizational resources into the engagement initiatives.
4. Move beyond measuring employee engagement to taking action on those measures. Attend to your metrics but focus on your people.
5. Help employees see the benefit of employee engagement for themselves and their customers. Don’t let your engagement initiatives become organizational manipulations to merely squeeze out more productivity and discretionary effort from employees.
6. Study your highly engaged employees to determine the vital behaviors they perform that contribute to their high level of engagement. Once those behaviors are determined work at spreading those behaviors to other people within the organization. Strive to make employee engagement a viral phenomenon for the organization.
7. Educate leaders and managers within the organization on how to foster employee engagement and help leaders understand and leverage their key role in employee engagement efforts.

The next Monday Morning Percolator will be: How leaders can contribute to employee engagement.

Contact David Zinger to learn more about employee engagement.

Picture Credit: Chicago from Above by http://flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/409484853/

Employee Engagement

Engagement in a different key…

Patricia Digh writes one of my favorite blogs, 37 days. She is much more than a blogger, Patti is a natural teacher through her informative and inspiring blog posts. Her blog began with the question: What would you be doing today if you had only 37 days left to live? This was based on personal  experience in a close relationship.

I don’t think we can look at employee engagement as being divorced from all the other facets of our life (and death). Patti wrote a post on “be thankful for brick walls” about Randy Pausch and his last lecture. Randy Pausch is dying yet he is really living!

Click here for a link to a 4 minute video on Randy.

Visit Patti’s post if you would like to find out more about Randy or you would like to be inspired by a skillful, insightful, and authentic writer.

What would you be doing today if you had only 37 days left to live?

Picture credit: Track 37 by http://flickr.com/photos/mukluk/264106290/

David Zinger can be found at www.davidzinger.com

 

How to Transform Employee Engagement into Workplace Engagement: MMP #25

Employee Engagement: Monday Morning Percolator #25

There are a plethora of methods and approaches to fostering and enhancing employee engagement. Actions can be launched by individuals, leaders, and organizations. When all 3 are working together we move beyond simple employee engagement to workplace engagement with engagement for all!

Yet, the workplace of today is asking more and more from everyone with less and less time to stop and determine what to do and how to do it. If we are given too many things to do we may give up or avoid them simply because we are overwhelmed and there are too many things to do already. It can be a challenge simply to remember to focus on employee engagement.

I recommend a 2 x 2 x 2 design structure:

1. What are 2 actions organizations can take to enhance employee engagement?
2. What are 2 actions leaders can take to enhance employee engagement?
3. What are 2 actions individuals can take to enhance employee engagement?

When everyone is taking action and working together we move beyond employee engagement to workplace engagement with engagement for all. You also get the multiplier effect as 2 x 2 x 2 = 8. The multiplier effect from a systems perspective means: changes in one field of human activity (subsystem) sometimes act to promote changes in other fields (subsystems) and in turn act on the original subsystem itself. This becomes full workplace engagement when we are seeing actions from leaders, employees, and the organization.

In the next 3 Monday Morning Percolators I will outline the actions of each of these groups. In the interim I encourage you to think about what are the 2 most powerful actions you can perform to create high levels of engagement.

Picture Credit: 2 x 2 x 2 = fun by http://flickr.com/photos/bofh/30900799/

Breakthrough to Employee Engagement: MMP#24

Employee Engagement: Monday Morning Percolator #24

How do you create a breakthrough to achieve fuller employee engagement for yourself and the people you work with? Often we feel stuck or disengaged. We want a breakthrough. But we are not sure how to proceed or even get started.

Lisa Haneberg offers a solution in her book: Two Weeks to a Breakthrough.

Lisa moves beyond simplistic pop psychology or self-management and offers a very practical and explicit method to get fully engaged.

She recommends taking 2 weeks to create the breakthrough and gives you guidance each day on how to proceed. The daily practice is the key to move beyond dreaming of change and breakthroughs to zooming towards your goal.

Each day is configured slightly differently but the practice consists of 3 fundamental components:

1. Share your goal with others
2. Take action that support your goal
3. Make request that will help you move towards your goal

Share-Action-Request makes our breakthrough method public, tangible, and connected. I know one of the first times I tried this method I let the sharing part of the method slip. I thought I could just do it on my own. I now realize how important this was to create what I call an accountability allies – others who will both support and challenge me on my work.

Here is a short outline on the approach if you are a leader striving towards creating more engagement in your workplace:

• You will get specific about what you are trying to achieve.
• You will be talking with many people about your plans and actions to foster fuller employee engagement.
• You will be taking multiple actions to increase engagement.
• You will be requesting help – full employee engagement can not be achieved on your own.
• You can monitor the progress and results.

One thing I love about Two Weeks to a Breakthrough is how short it is. If you did not get the results you hoped for you can start again with a fresh two weeks and use what you learned from the last breakthrough approach to ensure more success.

Fostering high levels of employee engagement will be both a service and a contribution you make to your employees and the organization.

How about it? What are you planning to do for the next 2 weeks? I hope you make a break for full employee engagement.

Get Perking:

1. Read Lisa’s book: Two Weeks to a Breakthrough.
2. Visit and engage in Lisa’s breakthrough blog.
3. Learn from your own experience, apply the method and monitor results.

ZENgagement: Dream about Employee Engagement

 

Are you engaged in your dreams of employee engagement:

Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind wake in the day to find it all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes and make it possible.   ~ T. E. Lawrence.

Picture Credit: the finish line by http://flickr.com/photos/modern_nomad/1238087772/

David Zinger will participate in Globoforce’s International Roundtable Webinar on Employee Engagement

David Zinger will be joining Derek Irvine and Andy Parsley in Globoforce’s International Roundtable Webinar. This webinar will focus on employee engagement. Topics will range from differentiating employee engagement from employee satisfaction to why are engaged workforces so vital now.

Come join us on Tuesday September 18th at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time for this informative international event.

 

The 3 Participants:

Derek Irvine	Vice President, Global Marketing & Client Strategy with Globoforce is originally from Ireland, and now working with global clients throughout Europe and the USA, helping them to realize their recognition and engagement ambitions. Derek has worked with such world class clients as Dow Chemical, Avnet, and Procter & Gamble.
Andy Parsley	Director of Green Lion, an organization of consultants and associates specializing in helping companies engage both their customers and their employees. Andy is a regular writer and speaker on employment issues, and a frequent contributor to BBC Radio News. He also is a contributor to the BBC TV’s 2001 documentary series “Predictions: The Future of Work.” with Sir Alec Reed and Professor Richard Scase.
David Zinger	B.A. M. ED., has twenty-five years experience in education and training. David, currently living in Winnipeg, MB Canada, is an exceptional presenter whose workshops are inspirational, current, informative, entertaining, humorous, and practical. He is active in writing about employee engagement and leadership. David writes a Strength Based Leadership Blog, an Employee Engagement Blog, and is ½ of the Slacker Manager Blog – a blog with about 8300 subscribers. David offers exceptional services, resources, and tools to foster and enhance development. He has also customized and delivered more than 1000 courses and seminars across North America to both large and small audiences. These courses range from strength based leadership and employee engagement to crucial conversations.

Click here to get more information and to join the 3 of us from the United States, Great Britain and Canada as we discuss 6 key factors in Employee Engagement.

Click here to register.

Zengagement: A Happy September New Year

Happy New Year. 

At Slacker Manager I recently wrote about September 1st. as New Year’s Day.  I offered 5 keys for a New Year. I wish you full engagement in the coming year…

Another fresh new year is here…

Another year to live!

To banish worry, doubt, and fear,

To love and laugh and give!

William Arthur Ward

Photo Credit Jason Hightower: http://flickr.com/photos/jasonhightower/180314680/