The Trojan Horse of Employee Engagement

I found the article a bit ' strange '' and it made me feel that ' surveys consultants' are stitching a cloaks in their own way to 'dress employees' to look like the way they ' expect them to look ' to conclude and present results to the orginaztion, where surveys purpose and resultsthe is far beyond tha ,( I believe). I have been involved in conducting such surveys (internally for our organization ) for 4 years and with outside consultant - for our organzation for 3 years- and have researched the topic , humbly, through different websites for confirmation of information, as well- to the result of being convinced of their importance- in today's economy- ups and downs I will answer your 7 questions as below: 1. If I am not engaged... : Engagement is not about training to be involved , as engagement surveys is rather to "assess" employees satisfaction, commitment and loyalty for an organization, than to train for it, as by the end that organization should build the training /improvement process - based on their own culture. If employees are not involved for a reason or other ' such reasons are explored & sorted' where I assume by the end. organizations have their commitment to the results as well as employees at all levels , including managers. Moveover the employees who are assessed for their engagement come under this ,either they agree to stay under ( average staff level ,performance wise) with no incentives or rewards, or wish to move to high performers level - where , even they work hard, they should know very well how to maintain balance in their life to enjoy. It is up to 'people' to make the change and no one forces them to go for it . 1- / If I am excited about my work, is engagement training a waste of time? : No it is not, it paves the way for me to use more of my capabilities through different ways to achieve more success and to build positive relationship with others who share with me what is best for us to survive and succeed , whether in our own organizations we are employed at , or at any place we wish to go and work. 2. What happens if the company's and he consulting firm's definition......./ Most companies who condut surveys ( I have gone thoroughly through HGI model and Gallup and others as well), and found that their definition of the engagement model more or less is similar, once you reach results; and is based on Engagement and Enablement factors- which are the influencing factors for an employee's (decision to stay or not to stay or work ) for any organization. 3.....to feel engaged despite o a stressful job.... It may happen sometimes driven by the employee's commitment to the organization as a whole, hoping circumstances will change , one day, but not all the time. It will be impossible with - I do not call him , a boss I do not like, instead I say with a boss who is not considerate or appreciating to what I was doing , and not recognizing me for going beyond his expectations for the objectives, we agreed together for and I acheived. Humans work in both directions. Life is tough and not everytime there is a good job 'tailored ' to our wish. 4.If you happen to feel engaged..... Why should I feel so? on the contrary, I will feel happy on the day of the survey ,and not engaged, (since engagement is a result). This is because I will feel that there will be someone there hired by our organization to assist them in knowing what bothers us, to eliminate the same through focused plans. This is where we can grow together, our capabilities and our companies success. 5. Is engagement a continuous process..... The ultimate purpose of 'engagement surveys' , as I said earlier, is to assess employees satisfaction , commitment & loyality, in an environement of work, to establish plans to remove barriers to their success - in making better environment , which in turn helps organizations to achieve their goals. Moreover, for the success of any organization, it is important that this kind of (diagnosis for what is wrong and what is needed to change) is a shared benefit for employees and employers for current and future time, results wise, monetary wise, profits's wise & fulfilled dreams for employees as well. Organizations do need to maintain that "engagement fluid" as you call it as out of necessity to their survival if they wish to get maximum results from their employees. If I am not satisfied nor committed and not even loyal and am tortured by my boss and the organization remains ignorant , this is really a disastor. The key is Maintaining- successful engagement facotrs. If the circumstacnes of our work is healthy we stay so, if not we say goodbye . Engagement is not a goal, it is an "assessment & diagonsis process" the company undertake to guarantee its own survival / or competivteness in the market- building its expectations on their employees capabilites , energies etc.. 6. Can the energy surge generated by engagement ....... We are talking about (individual interests ) here , where we should decide either of the following: a. to keep competent employees, teams and to motivate them towards areas and higher roles of interest , etc ...or to plan to burry them alive by ending their roles despite the success they brought to our organization! anyway, as I said, it is my decision to explore by the end whether to stay or to go , if things turn into the wrong direction, results wise. Indvidualistic and instinctive wishes should never be directed negatively at all. 7. How does enaggement relate to the ...: .Engagement is an assessment, diagnosis as earlier defined , it reflects what organization is having and doing and how employees react to the same, and how they figure a better change for them. How is related to the employees sense of what's right or wrong- this is should be judged in how this 'Organization' , is performing and whether they adopting the right standard of (Ethics in Business Dealing) internationally spread now, and to the fact as where the employees stand in their knowledge of this. I should know my companies goals and adopted well known international standards to be able to judge by comparing facts to facts. As you know the 'economic turndown' , came with horrified stories on business lossess, worldwide , and now try on pciking with right standards in place, to prevent such recurrance, to keep stable healthy economy prospering void of catastorphies . Finally, yes, MY BOSS is either who pushes me higher or lower- but "dealing with this boss" requires a massive action across the organization, so all will apply the righ measures to improve such environment.
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Report Abuse   jdzar 09/03/2010 3:29:22 PM EDT Your comment, I believe, is longer than the original article. You have several good points, but I think it would be better if you could narrow down your focus a bit.

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This “geek” is glad you asked (funny omission by the way…“beware of g[r]eeks with gifts).” These types of questions come up all the time – and they are good ones. At Questar (www.questarweb.com), we are always up for a game of devil’s advocate, so here is my reaction to your 7 questions. First a bit about engagement. Sure, productivity is becoming increasingly important. But it’s not just about getting employees to work harder. It’s about retaining the best talent, aligning behind values, and helping employees grow with changing needs of the company. All things I/O Psychologists strive to help organizations do better. It’s about the antecedents, the experience, and the outcomes. I think that is why it has had such great success in practice. People get it – even if it’s not a neat and tidy construct. 1. “Engagement training” doesn’t work at an individual level. You can’t teach someone to be excited about their work. Knowing what levers to pull to boost engagement (say having the ability to do what you do best), though, can help organizations. 2. While the desired outcomes are fairly universal, the drivers of engagement may differ from one company to the next. Surveys should reflect the values and culture of the organization. 3. Sure. Some of it has to do with personality traits. We can’t change those, so let’s focus on what we can affect to get the biggest bang for our buck. 4. Let’s talk level of analysis here. We are measuring at the organizational level. Yes, any one person might feel a little differently about their job a month from now. With surveys, we are looking at an overall picture, so these fluctuations become less important. 5. See the response to the first question. 6. Not in my book. In fact, in a sense, it is the antipode. If we look at it from a JD-R (job demands-resources) model, it would be too much demand on an employee with out the resources that is causing stress and burnout. Engagement is about providing those resources. 7. Part of fostering engagement is about having values and a mission employee’s can get behind. Our research shows feelings about the organization’s image does impact employee engagement. Thanks for the post - interesting topic. Check out our thoughts on employee engagement and other topics @ http://www.questarweb.com/Thought_Leadership/Thought_Leadership.html
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This article brings up a good point about Engagement being too focused on the organization as a whole, rather than the individual. Currently, many Engagement consultants and survey vendors focus on raising Engagement levels by looking at the organization as a whole. Managers are told that their employees are not Engaged, and that they hold the responsibility for making their employees more Engaged. This shows the current imbalance in the way that organizations approach Employee Engagement. Management holds all of the responsibility for Engaging their employees, rather than having management and employees share the responsibility for Engagement. At HR Solutions, we believe that employees should be responsible for their own Engagement. With our newest product, PEER®, the Personal Employee Engagement Report, employees can individually learn about their own level of Engagement and receive personalized tips on how to improve their Engagement. For more information, visit www.hrsolutionsinc.com/peer.cfm
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I enjoyed this article's questioning of definitions of engagement. Without clearly defining it, how can we know if it is good or bad? Like the author, I think there is a lot of confusion over the meaning of engagement and it is at risk of being watered down to mean everything and nothing. On the one hand, it sounds like a re-packaging of what we once called employee motivation. On the other hand, it seems to suggest involvement - but involvement in what? Your own job? Or the aims of the whole organization? I tend to see it as a form of involvement and the key means of fostering it as managers asking employees regularly, what they think, both about the employee's issues but also with regard to the manager's strategic decisions. For more on this theme, see my article: "How to Engage Employees" and related articles: http://www.lead2xl.com/talent/how-to-engage-employees
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