Employee engagement is at crisis levels in some companies – sure, maybe your people show up physically (or perhaps not, depending on your telecommute policies) but do they show up mentally? Are they willing to give their maximum effort to your company for what you are paying them, or are they just going through the motions and phoning in their job, waiting to jump to the next company that they may be more interested in (don’t worry, there are only a few of those, so chances are low).
How do you take your employees and ratchet up their engagement levels? How do you get them to genuinely care about your company, and exceed your expectation of them in their roles? Driving this kind of passion requires a few things you may or may not already have – here are some things which help:
- Do you have a strong vision, articulated by your leadership, for the company?
- Does this strong vision talk about getting rich, or helping your customers realize their dreams?
- Do you have a visible leader who provides this kind of guidance?
You would be surprised at how few companies frame a compelling vision, or have a vision that is not financial or competitive (we strive to be the number 1 company in the XYZ space), or have a strong, visible leader who espouses this vision (or versions of this vision). Does your leadership talk about denting the universe, or blowing through your next quarter’s numbers?
Does your leader inspire, or make matters worse? How would you feel if your leadership signed off all of their all-hands meetings with “OK, you can all go back to your naps.” Sure, maybe he thought it was funny, but do the workers, toiling for long hours to keep the company going, feel the same?