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Employee engagement is all the rage these days. Id even go as far as to call it the management fad of the millennium. But heres the thing. Its just a rebrand of something thats been around forever -- employee satisfaction -- and its not at all clear that the surveys do companies a bit of good. Sure, we all want our employees to care about their jobs and the success of the company. But some experts say theres no compelling evidence that employee engagement surveys and strategies improve business results. One even flat out called employee engagement a racket. And I happen to agree. So why have so many companies jumped on the bandwagon? Because, thats how management fads like this work. Its popular, it sounds good, and its easy. You just hire Gallup, do a survey, announce some strategies, and poof, instant engagement. Companies do half-baked stuff like that all the time. I've seen it over and over. Half the time it backfires because they're not measuring the right factors, they don't make the right changes, they fix one thing and screw up another, or they dont follow up at all. In reality, theres a high risk of actually losing credibility with employees. And get this. When it comes to management priority, Id say that employees should be more or less at the bottom of the list. Yeah, I know thats not a popular sentiment and its probably going to piss off a lot of people, but just hear me out. A couple of weeks ago I did a mock interview with an executive Im coaching. One of
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the interview questions I posed was this: You have employees, external customers, internal customers (stakeholders or peers), and your boss. Put them in order of priority in terms of serving their needs. Regardless of the type of company or organization, heres the answer and why: 1. External customers The purpose of any company or business is to win and keep customers. Without customers, theres no business, no shareholder value, and no jobs. Since there are a finite number of customers, in practical terms, they are irreplaceable. Theyre always the highest priority. 2. Your boss Your boss is more important to the success of the company than you and your peers. You may not like hearing that, but in just about every case, its true. You may think youre more competent than your boss and you might even be right. But that doesnt change the fact that his function incorporates yours and is higher up on the org chart so, by definition, his needs top yours or your peers. 3. Internal customers (stakeholders or peers) Each and every one of you has peers, stakeholders, internal customers whose functions are intertwined with yours and whose needs are important. Marketing folks, for example, should count product groups and sales as their stakeholders. You should make it a priority to meet with them periodically and ask them how youre doing. Next to paying customers and your boss, theyre needs matter most. 4. Employees So, here we are. The dirty little secret no executive, business leader, or manager ever wants to admit. Nevertheless, its true. Employees are at the bottom of the totem pole in terms of how important their needs are to their management. Thats all there is to it. Dont get me wrong. Creating a culture where employees are empowered, challenged, and supported, where they can really make a difference, should be huge for any company. But all things being equal, as priorities go, employees come in dead last on that list. Sobering as that sounds, its entirely as it should be. Push comes to shove, guess who gets the short end of the stick? Which is precisely why each and every one of you should take complete responsibility for your career, your success, and your happiness. At the end of the day, nobody else cares about you anywhere near as much as you do.
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Steve Tobak is a management consultant, executive coach, and former senior executive of the technology industry. He's managing partner of Invisor Consulting, a Silicon Valley-based strategy consulting firm. Contact Steve, follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. @SteveTobak
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Employees make many small decisions each day. One small decision may not impact the corporation, but if 10,000 employees chose to make a bad decision (or no decision), it's going to hurt. It's death by many small cuts. The company isn't hitting it's objectives and it doesn't understand why. Engagement is the process of getting each employee to make a choice to go the extra mile, either for their company (or more likely) for their colleagues. Regarding your point that there is no compelling evidence that engagement impacts corporate performance, I suggest you look at the TowersWatson Global Workforce Study (2008) and later editions which document the direct relationship between financial performance and the level of employee engagement.
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