Who owns employee engagement development within your company?
In our last two articles, we introduced the concept of Employee Engagement and gave you an idea of where to start to improve it within your organization. If you missed these pieces, be sure to check them out on our blog, here.
Seeing that Engagement is such an important part of our business and has the potential to increase profits, shouldn’t we have somebody dedicated to ensuring that we maximize it? Who should we entrust with this task? Who will be responsible for engaging employees throughout the company so that they not only stay with you, but enjoy what they do and give that extra discretionary effort?
Should it be the Company i.e. the leaders of the organisation? Should it be the Human Resources department (HR)? Should it be the employee’s direct manager (Manager)? Or should it be the employees themselves?
Now, the Company might say that HR, the Manager and the Employee are responsible for Engagement. HR, however, could say that it is the Company, the Manager and the Employee who are responsible. The Manager may also counter with it being the Company, HR and the Employee who are responsible for Engagement. The Employee could be taken aback and insist that the others are responsible. Which one of them has gotten it right?
In Week 2’s article, we saw that Managers can have the most impact on Engagement but that does not mean that responsibility for it lies solely with them. While it may be a good starting point to appoint people with the specific task of increasing Engagement throughout the organization, the correct answer is that everybody is responsible for Employee Engagement. It should not fall to only one department or the other to drive Engagement throughout the company, because we are all responsible for Employee Engagement and we each have a part to play in developing it.
You may be wondering what impact you could have on Engagement throughout your company. How can you make a difference? As a start, you could take responsibility for your own engagement by using self-awareness and empathy in your daily interactions with those around you, and demonstrate emotionally intelligent (EI) behaviour.
According to the International Coach Federation, “by developing the EI of its leaders as a single engagement driver, an organization could see a lift of 18 to 22 engagement points on a 100-point scale”.
Research has also shown that the more EI demonstrated by an employee, the higher their levels of Engagement. By simply adjusting your behaviour towards your co-workers and superiors, you can not only increase your own Engagement but theirs as well. Imagine the ripple effect it could have if everyone were to take this small step towards self-responsibility for their engagement!
So remember, Employee Engagement is everyone’s responsibility. You can make a difference simply by exercising a little Emotional Intelligence.
Go ahead, start the Engagement revolution!