Employee Engagement is Not Just for HR
There’s no questioning the fact that everyone’s involvement is crucial for employee engagement to be successful. Much of the past has been targeted at getting the HR department to successfully drive employee engagement and the subsequent results to the company’s bottom line. Now that the business world has more or less agreed that employee engagement across all levels triggers the greatest business results, let’s take a look at the roles that everyone has to play to make employee engagement a success – and I guarantee you, it’s not just the HR department.
1. The Employee
No matter where you work, the fact is that unless you, as an employee, want to be engaged, no amount of engagement programs and tools are going to increase your engagement levels. Employee engagement is a two-way street and employees must play their part. The key responsibilities of any employee for employee engagement are:
Being engageable is a mindset which involves positivity, a can do attitude, avoiding office politics and a few more key characteristics. Put yourself in this mindset to get you the opportunities you want.
If you know what drives and frustrates you, the company will be able to help engage you – provided that you share this information.
Nobody is perfect and neither is any organization. If and when your boss makes a mistake regarding your engagement, inform them quickly and provide a solution.
2. The Line Manager
People don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Take it one step further and it becomes, “People aren’t engaged by companies, it’s their line managers who do the engaging.” Some steps that line managers can take are:
Managers must remove barriers which can stop an employee from reaching their desired goal. Meeting weekly to discuss hurdles and accomplishments is a great way to do this.
Rewards set standards for colleagues and promote healthy competition. Of course, every effort and result shouldn’t be rewarded equally; that would defy the purpose.
If employees are expected to share their drives and frustrations, line managers better be providing a listening channel.
3. The CEO
You may wonder how someone who’s supposed to be looking at the overall success of the organization can affect how people work on a daily basis. This is how any CEO can positively impact employee engagement:
An exciting vision gets people going, but one which is co-created almost ensures that everyone is going to do their best to achieve it.
Once people believe in your vision, you need to get them to work together with full, personal commitment. Everyone needs to understand why their role is important.
Many employees, especially new ones, may not understand why your playing golf on a weekday is critical for getting more business. Make sure that you actions work towards being a role model.
4. The HR Department
If everyone’s doing their part, the job of the HR department becomes much easier for employee engagement. They become custodians of the efforts and not the nagging drivers. What remains to be done includes:
Everyone else is going to get caught up in daily operations. HR needs to keep reminding everyone why it’s important to step back and make sure everyone is engaged.
HR should be able to tell everyone why engagement is so important, have tips on achieving it, measure it and provide everyone feedback.
Employee engagement is no joke, but HR can inject fun into any company. Through BBQ’s and annual team competitions, they can remind everyone how work can be fun.
Get Everyone on Board
To summarize, there are 4 people with key roles to play in creating a successful employee engagement program. It’s far from being HR’s responsibility only. So let’s get everyone on board, stop pointing fingers at the HR department and have everyone play the strategic role they have to play to meet all our goals!
