Employee engagement has been one of the most important strategic issues in business for a long time, yet nearly 70% of the American workforce is not engaged and it’s costing $450-550 billion a year in productivity according to Gallup’s 2017 State of the American Workplace.  Looking back at Gallup’s 2013 report, the numbers were almost the same.  Clearly, we are not moving the needle, despite all the data collected and engagement plans implemented.  Have we been focusing on the wrong things? What’s the missing piece? Maybe, we overlooked the most important ingredient. 

Engagement is all about winning hearts and minds.

So how do we do that? Is that something we should even be thinking about at work? Isn’t that a personal matter? It turns out that relationships, especially with managers, is the key to real engagement. Interestingly enough, the Millennial generation has been pushing us to change and recognize how important human connection is in business. In The Way Millennials Want to Work and Live, a report by Gallup in 2016 identifies what drives this generation:

1. “A purpose – not just a paycheck
2. Career and personal development – not job satisfaction
3. Coaches – not bosses
4. Ongoing conversations – not annual reviews
5. It’s my life – not just my job”

These are all very personal things and are tied to relationships and conversations, many of which are within the purview of the managers.

In the TINYpulse 2018 Employee Retention Report, they found that there is a “direct correlation between how employees feel about their supervisors and how likely they are to look for employment elsewhere.” In fact, they report that 40% of employees, who rate their managers poorly, probably interviewed for a job in the last 3 months. Gallup has added even more quantitative analysis of the impact of managers. In their new publication, It’s the Manager, they report that “70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager.”

That’s a very heavy load on managers!  It calls for a change in perspective from reports and metrics to people and conversations. We will have to redesign our expectations of the role managers play. That’s a big change, so what might this look like? To be successful in this new model, managers will need to be a coach of people, as well as a manager of production and process. As a roadmap, Gallup identifies five coaching conversations that are essential:

1. Role and Relationship Orientation – This is the beginning of the relationship. It’s a way for the manager and team member to get to know each other. Goals, development, team structure, and the objectives of the organization can all be a part of orientation. Plan to spend significant time on this as it gets people off to a good start. A similar conversation should precede the progress reviews (the fifth conversation).
2. The Quick Comment – Not to be confused with micro-managing, these are short, frequent interactions that let team members know their manager is interested. Managers can use these to give praise, answer questions or do a quick course correction on a project. Consider doing this once a week for up to 10 minutes.
3. Check-In – These conversations are more detailed and could include workload, goals, successes or need for resources. More formal than the Quick Comment and usually lasting up to 30 minutes. This gives managers and team members the chance to ensure they are on the same page and working together to meet the goals.
4. Developmental Coaching – Here the focus is on the team members’ future opportunities. It’s a time to consider development projects, training or mentoring that can keep team members engaged and connected to the manager and organization. These discussions may only last 30 minutes or so, but they can have a lasting impact on people’s lives.
5. Progress reviews – This is a time to formally review performance over the past year, but more importantly it is a time to focus on the future. Much of this conversation relates to where the team member wants to go or grow in the organization and how they can work together to help them achieve the goals.

This is the personal touch that makes a difference to people. It sounds like a lot of time, but ultimately it will save time as team members can work effectively to accomplish the goals, without getting sidetracked into unproductive efforts or unproductive policies.

Conversations are at the heart of engagement

Clearly the Gallup emphasis is on conversations. It’s the glue that holds relationships together and makes for highly engaged teams. But when it comes to training, we often focus on technical skills, business strategy, data analysis and fail to provide the same kind of in-depth training on relating to and developing people. But as Stephen Covey wrote, “You cannot continuously improve interdependent systems and processes until you progressively perfect interdependent, interpersonal relationships.”  For some of us, relationship skills are just natural, but many more of us have no idea where to begin, which makes metrics and analytics so attractive. The good news is that there are resources to help everyone find a way to connect. Consider these ways to get the journey started.

Self-awareness

“Self-awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes. It enables you to keep growing.” ~ Larry Bossidy

 To build good relationships, personal or at work, it is essential that we understand ourselves. Learning more about how we respond to various situations are key factors in relationship building. Assessments are a good starting point because they can give us information that is objective and data based. There are many good assessments available and they vary in complexity. Here are some that are easy to understand and apply:

Strength Finders – This assessment, developed by Don Clifton and Gallup, identifies 34 natural talents that we all possess to greater or lesser degrees. Our top ten talents are where our strengths lie. When we are working in the top ten, we are fully engaged, time flies and we feel a deeper sense of satisfaction.

As an individual, this assessment can be very enlightening. When we identify our strengths, it can help us find ways to be more productive and satisfied. For managers, it is a resource to create highly effective interdependent teams. As team members know and understand colleagues’ strengths, they can work seamlessly to achieve their goals.

The DISC – This assessment helps us see our personality traits and those of our team members. The four letters are:

• D – Dominance – strong, forceful
• I – Influence – sociable, talkative
• S – Steadiness – gentle, accommodating
• C – Conscientiousness – private, analytical

Through this assessment, we learn more about how we respond to or influence others, the pace of work we prefer, our response to rules and procedures, in general how we behave in the workplace. Clearly, when team members respond from different perspectives, it can be disruptive. By having a better understanding of each other’s perspectives, we can pause in any situation to acknowledge our natural response and consider how our team member might respond. It gives us all a chance to come to every situation in the spirit of understanding.

Profiles PXT Select – In this assessment, our natural behaviors are paired against job benchmarks. There are nine behavioral traits, five thinking style categories based on verbal and numeric data, and six occupational interests. This very helpful, not only in understanding each other, but as part of a career development process. It can be a starting point for exploring future options, as well as a coaching and management guideline. When all team members take this assessment, it is possible to get multiple reports that will assist in team building and leadership development.

All of these tools provide comprehensive resources based on individual results, including how to improve our interactions and relationships with others. These reports also include management reports to help guide and coach our teams. One of the best things about them is that they provide a common ground for conversation. Talking with each other about the assessment outcomes can be a powerful relationship and team-building experience. As we learn about who we are, not what we do, we begin to touch on the heart of engagement.

Communication skills

“Life is a matter of dealing with other people, in little matters and cataclysmic ones, and that means a series of conversations.” ~ Deborah Tannen

Everything in life is about conversations. We all talk, but do we connect? How do we handle conflict once we’re in the middle of it? How do we help others be their best? There are tons of books about communication to help build on the talking skills we already have. They can all be great reads, but to really put them to work, it is essential to follow up with workshops and other interactive training. These tools only work if we practice them! The good news is that communication skills are contagious. Once someone starts making changes and achieving better results, it will catch on.  And, when the change comes from the top, the process accelerates. 

Some interesting books to consider:

• Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes Are High
• Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace
• Revolutionary Conversations: The Tools You Need for the Success You Want
• 75 Ways for Managers to Hire, Develop and Keep Great Employees

Communication training can be designed for individuals and/or teams. It should be a formal part of all professional development plans. A starting point could be a book club. Reading and discussing the books can be a team builder and opening for self-awareness.

Leadership skills

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” ― Simon Sinek

In It’s the Manager, by Gallup, they identify five traits of great managers:

• Motivation – inspiring teams to get exceptional work done
• Workstyle – setting goals and arranging resources for the team to excel
• Initiation – influencing others to act; pushing through adversity and resistance
• Collaboration – building committed teams with deep bonds
• Thought process – taking an analytical approach to strategy and decision-making”

Consider making these the core competencies for everyone in the organization. This gives clarity to what is expected and can help people chart their course. Coupled with management reports from behavioral assessments, it is possible to identify those who are suited to be managers. Training and development can be customized to the individual based on both personal and corporate goals. Giving people a chance to perform by leading a project is a great Millennial motivator.  These kinds of opportunities, even in early career stages, can boost engagement and retention.

When choosing new managers, avoid the time and grade trap. Don’t let artificial dates and tenure define who is promoted. Promoting people who are not interested in management and/or do not have the core skills can lead  to poor performance and disengagement. Instead create opportunities for them to continue to do what they do best and reward them for their contributions. They have much to give if they are in a position where they can shine.

Can we move the needle on engagement?

Yes! It’s time to walk the walk when we say people are our most important asset. We need to truly focus on the relationships and the people first. Performance will follow. It all starts with a conversation.