Think about it.
- Did you join an organization expecting others to engage you? Or did you join because you felt the organization fit with your values and you offered skills that could possibly improve the success of the firm?
- Did you expect to be waited on by others to deliver results? Or did you join because it offered you an opportunity to make a lasting difference?
My blog post – Is ‘Entertainment= Employee Engagement?’ received interesting viewpoints from many readers. Thank you everyone for taking the time to share your comments.
Yes, organizations do have a role to make the culture conducive and to fulfil employees’ potential. Likewise, managers have a role to provide support, line of sight, remove obstacles from the path of employees who can deliver great work and share opportunities for growth and learning. For inputs on these thoughts, please refer to presentation slides I shared during an employee engagement masterclass at Praxis 2013.
Every piece of work can be engaging and it is for leaders and managers to help employees see it that way. It may not always be fun but if they know ‘why’ it is being done and how the stakeholder is impacted for the better – they can definitely gain from that experience.
Here are a few approaches that can help you put the ownership and focus on employees:
Dig deeper: Often we get caught up in the semantics. Have we asked employees what they really want to be effective at work? What is their definition of fun? Is it making work fun or having fun at the workplace? If work pressure is a concern then that needs to be tackled first rather than help they distress with another set of initiatives.
Ask the right questions: Will any employee ever say they don’t want to be entertained? Instead ask – what is that they need to be most engaged at work? When have they been at their best? What helped them stay in the ‘flow’? Tap those levers rather than craft a new bunch of initiatives that will stress out everyone involved!
Hiring right: If you need to engage your employees consider if the hiring process is robust enough. Asking the right questions can also help you sort and seek appropriate talent. It helps to set expectations upfront and early so that there are no misplaced feelings after your employees join.
Appeal to the inner self: Help employees think about why they work and what motivates their actions. If they can be their best at work they the chances of them being engaged are high. Provide challenging work, enable employees to deliver more, provide opportunities to learn and grow. Never forget to recognize real-time and often.
Give employees ownership: Allow employees to define and own ‘fun’. If it works for them and they continue to deliver the best, it should be fine. No amount of fun and entertainment has ever got business results. Hard work has – if the work was interesting and engaging.
Focus on what matters: Companies are in the business of doing great work and serving their customers and if resources are allocated for organizing events and entertainment there is very little room for focusing on initiatives that can truly improve employee engagement.
What are your views?
