Who owns employee engagement? Learning and development? Organizational Development? HR? Individual Managers?
The answer is….
wait for it….
The employee!
All departments and functions can support engagement, but we can’t force a person to be engaged. Regardless of what we do, we can only encourage them by providing tools and resources such as offering a culture that encourages engagement. So while you may have been told that you have to improve engagement all you can really do is to provide the environment for people to be engaged.
I would go a bit further and say the employee should be accountable and responsible for their own engagement not necessarily HR or any other department. Employees can set the environment as well. They can find ways to become engaged again if they have lost some ground as we all do from time to time or to become engaged for the first time.
So when you do surveys that measure engagement, let’s ask, does the organization allow and encourage employees to find opportunities for improving engagement? More importantly, what have you as the employee done to promote your own engagement? This is a good sign of a high performing employee.
It’s time for employees to be responsible and be accountable for being the best employee they can be and stop waiting for someone else to do it for them.
Look at it this way. As an employee, you are being paid (you may think not enough for the hours you are working) but we all are compensated for the value we bring to the table. So show your value. Stay engaged and increase your value.
There are several ways to get engaged. For example, find a problem, come up with a solution and offer to lead the initiative. Take a professional development course to improve your skills or take on some type of leadership role such as mentoring new employees. Talk to your manager and ask, for a special project to get yourself motivated again. More than likely, they will be thrilled, you asked for so many different reasons. Most importantly, find ways to challenge yourself in your current role. You will stay engaged and grow at the same time.
What do you think?
I nice post on employee engagement I have to say. But how do you think a question should be formulated that asks whether the organization allows one and encourages one to find opportunities for improving engagement? I personally don’t think that all employees in any organization are able to put the link between what drives engagement and engagement itself. That’s why most questionnaires focus on those items that drive engagement instead.
Emile
Thanks for the question. The question could read something like, “Does the organization offer opportunities that engage you? More than a question, I believe it is needs to be hardwired in the culture. When hardwiring occurs, the employee looks for opportunities. Of course you are correct that not everyone will take advantage of those opportunities.
A nice post*