DEFINITION: Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals. This emotional commitment means engaged employees actually care about their work and their company
WHAT IT IS NOT:
1. Employee Happiness - Someone might be happy at work, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are working hard, productively on behalf of the organization. While company game rooms, free massages and Friday keg parties are fun - and may be beneficial for other reasons - making employees happy is different from making them engaged.
2. Employee Satisfaction - Many companies have "Employee Satisfaction" surveys and Executives talk about "employee satisfaction" but that isn't enough. A satisfied employee might show up for his/her daily 9-5 without complaint. But that same "satisfied" employee might not go the extra effort on his/her own, and will probably take the headhunter's call luring them away with a 10% bump in pay. Satisfied isn't enough !
* Engaged employees don't work for a paycheck, or just for the next promotion.
Gallup recently released a report titled "The State of the American Manager" which showed that a strikingly low number of managers feel engaged at work - only 35 %. The rest are either not-engaged - 51% - or "actively dis-engaged," which means 14% of managers couldn't care less and have one foot out the door.
Kevin Sheridan, a Chicago-based expert on employee engagement and author of the book "Building a Magnetic Culture: How To Attract and Retain Top Talent to Create an Engaged, Productive Workforce." He broke what it means to be an engaged at work into four parts:
1. The Engaged Employee has an emotional and intellectual bond to the organization and its mission and purpose.
2. The Engaged Employee isn't going to leave at the drop of a hat or when another employer waves a dollar more per hour in their face.
3. The Engaged Employee is willing to take on new tasks, mentor others and put in extra time whenever needed.
4. The Engaged Employee is a willing owner of his/her own engagement Sheridan also believes and focuses on the manager-employer relationship as a key component and often overlooked.
Kevin Kruse, author of "Employee Engagement" writes the ROI of Employee Engagement comes from what he calls the Engagement-Profit chain:
Engaged employees lead to....
higher service, quality and productivity which leads to....
higher customer satisfaction, which leads to....
increased sales (repeat business and referrals), which leads to....
higher levels of profit, which leads to....
higher shareholder returns (i.e. stock price)
In summary, it's a simple concept, really. If you like your job and care about your job and feel invested in the work you're doing, you'll work harder and the company will retain quality workers.