Organisations want more employee engagement. HR is busy planning informal gatherings, competitions, CSR activities and team parties. Employee engagement is translated into Engagement for Employees. What is lost is Engaging with the Employees.
In our programs with managers, instead of sitting around talking about engagement, we get each manager to ask their team members- ‘’What are some things I can do to increase engagement within our team?’’ The managers are reluctant at first.
Most are surprised at the responses. The most common answer: Talk to us more often. Interact with us. Connect with us regularly to help understand organisation vision and business direction. Give us regular feedback on what is going well and where to improve. Provide learning opportunities. There were several other good ideas to increase true engagement. Team members didn’t raise what managers feared most, topics of compensation and promotion. And everyone said they really enjoyed interacting with their team members.
Interacting and asking is simple but not easy. It is giving up some control and inner notions of power. It is overcoming some fear. But if you truly desire more engagement, start talking. Start asking. Engagement is not a program; it is the emotive result of connecting with the people. emotive result of connecting with the people.
#interact #Tuesday2cents