In the Fast Lane: What Drives Employee Engagement

In the Fast Lane: What Drives Employee Engagement

Why building the trust relationship is the most important employee engagement investment a leader makes 

One of the benefits of cleanly defining and measuring employee engagement is that it allows researchers to test whether significant relationships exist between employee engagement and related ideas. Recently, I described some of the outcomes leaders can expect from investments in employee engagement, including business performance.  Today’s post is dedicated to exploring the antecedents, or drivers, of employee engagement.

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Before I share the dozens of antecedents I uncovered in my research and reading on employee engagement, I want you to think about a time you were really engaged. Now, think about the one thing in your work experience that, had it changed, would have most influenced your engagement levels. You don’t have to tell me just yet: just keep it in the back of your mind…

Practitioners I interviewed for my research described a number of drivers or elements leading to engagement, with one calling precursors a “recipe.” Ingredients include: reciprocal trust, two-way organizational communication, recognition, satisfaction with pay and benefits, access to training, support of personal or professional development, strong communication from line managers, job security, and safety to express one’s true self in one’s job. In addition to these, literature suggests engagement levels can be sensitive to: teamwork and cooperation, immediate management, friendships at work, family friendliness, fair treatment, health and safety, performance and appraisal, and job satisfaction.

Is your head spinning yet? One might get the impression from the above list that just about everything in the work environment can influence engagement. And technically, one might be right. But that isn’t very practically useful because investing in all of these things would cost more than the GDP of a medium-sized country. So what’s a leader to do? Here’s where my research can help.

To understand how to prioritize antecedents, I’ll suggest you think back to the one thing that can influence your own personal engagement levels. For almost everyone I interviewed, their personal answer can be classified in one or more of these three (highly related) categories: reciprocal trust, authentic two-way communication and recognition (feeling valued by the organization).

But let me simplify it even further: it’s all about trust. And managers, both direct supervisors and senior leaders, are the primary focus of the trust relationship for employees. Authentic, transparent communications from the organization, as well as a perception of being heard by the organization, are how the trust relationship is built and maintained. Recognition is tangible evidence that the relationship is reciprocal. Recognition, by the way, can occur in numerous forms, from large-scale awards to small acknowledgments by managers for a job well done.

So as a leader seeking to improve employee engagement, what are the top things you can do starting today?

1. Do what you say you will do. Trustworthiness is fundamentally about keeping commitments. And in situations where that isn’t possible...
2. Communicate openly with your employees about what’s going on and why. Talking to employees like they are adults instead of mass-market consumers to influence through marketing campaigns is fundamental to authentic communication.
3. Listen to your employees. I mean, go out to seek feedback and actively listen to what is shared. Repeat back what you hear. Use a neutral third party if needed.
4. Say thank you. Run an experiment: send just one thank you note to just one team member each day for a month. Chances are, you’ll be so happy with the results you’ll start doing the same thing for your spouse.

Of course, these are just starting points. But they are incredibly important first steps without which other efforts may not succeed.