I recently read the results of a survey about employee engagement in Australia, with over 2,000 participants across 22 industries. The net percentage of people who would promote their employer (those who recommend them minus those who dislike them) was -10%. This means a whole lot of people across all ages have got a negative sentiment towards their workplace. This outweighs the number of people who are happy in their jobs. Does this surprise you? It doesn’t for me, because I see it in my clients. But what can we do as employees to improve this statistic?
The big worry here is that what really matters to us staff is rarely found in our jobs: the highest rated dimensions for staff were core values, accomplishment, work-life balance and future thinking. If you saw an organisation delivering all this, wouldn’t you sign up straight away? Yet our workplaces tend to be driven by profit goals, and moving resources around. They blur the lines between work and life, and the same decisions are made over and over. Proper innovation is hard to execute, and frankly too risky in a tight economy.
So what can you do if you are in one of those places? First up, you need to know your core values and your strengths. If you aren’t clear, take a strength test on-line (like the VIA Survey) or look at lists of values to select your top 5. Then you need to define your deal-breaker boundaries regarding work and your life. This is so important, yet so often overlooked like it’s a bonus if we find it afterwards. But you don’t get work life balance by chance, you design it and create it. So what does this need to be for you? What working hours? How much travel? What expectations regarding your e-mails? What else?
Future thinking is an interesting one, because it’s becoming so much more relevant right now. We even have to think of us as staff into the future: how our jobs will change, how recruitment is evolving, how competitive the market is becoming (I wrote about this here). So beyond thinking about us, we should also infuse the workplace with a sense of curiosity about the future products or services people will need and want. How can we push the envelop? If we turned our thinking upside down, what would it look like? The world needs your creativity, so use it.
On the other hand, the dimensions which weigh in highly negatively on employee engagement were all linked to management. Employees see their leaders as disconnected, absent, not providing support and making poor decisions. Do you experience the same? It’s easy to criticise from the outside. There is no doubt our leaders need to engage with their staff more. They need to care more. Ask more questions. Gather people around them. But, what if they don’t change?
It’s up to us to drive that change, and raise our own engagement to some extend. That is today’s reality. But we have the tools, the networks, the information. If your workplace has some employee feedback forum, make sure you contribute. Send notes to leaders after their presentation highlighting what you took away and further queries you have. Make suggestions in the team meeting. Create a social club or sporting club or anything club. Have you thought of a new quick report that would improve decision making? Do you have a coffee catch-up with your senior boss every few months? If the bosses don’t come down to us, we need to come up to them and meet them halfway.
I know this may sound controversial. For years employee engagement was the responsibility of the organisation. Not anymore. We have joint responsibility, like in a marriage. We need to pick the places that align with our values, the roles that play to our strengths and get clear on our boundaries. Then we need to keep communicating and contributing. Employers on the other hand need to provide an environment conducive to creativity, engage with their staff more and in most instances treat them better. It’s never perfect, but both parties need to work at it. Are you doing your share?
