Engagement: The Key To a Company’s Success

What is engagement? so Gallup defines engagement as productivity, profitability, and retention. So let's break that down a little bit –

When we talk about productivity we're talking about tools, behaviors, and habits for getting things done: how many widgets are we producing, what is the quality of our intellectual property, how competitive are we in terms of solving customers’ needs in the marketplace.

When we talk about profitability obviously, we're talking about are we making a profit. Do we have efficient process flow are we in the right market where we can create enough revenue versus our costs?

And then finally retention and retention is keeping your talent. Now when we talk about that in terms of the cost of not retaining an employee, we're talking about the cost of recruiting people, interviewing people, hiring, training, and onboarding them, and holding on to them for longer than at least a year and ideally many more than that.

How does Gallup measure these three factors of productivity, profitability, and retention? They have a tool called the Q 12 and it's an amazing tool for most organizations across the US it is essentially the same as something that in my old company we called the voice of the workforce survey, measuring generally how pleased employees are to be working there.

The Q 12 is comprised of 12 questions that are organized into four areas what do I give? what do I get? can I grow? and do I belong?

All of these factors regarding engagement can be influenced heavily by coaching. I'm in the business of coaching because I want to coach leaders leading people and I want those people to be engaged, growing, thriving and my shortcut for that terminology is making work fun again. I want people to have a good time at work. It's the majority of the time we spend. It is how we provide for our families. It's a big part of our purpose and I'm going to get into more of that in just a moment.

Engagement is extremely important in fact I would think it's the most important thing, yet the research shows greater than 66% of employees (pre-COVID) are not engaged at work.

What does that mean? It means they're showing up punching in, coasting at some level, and punching out. They're collecting a paycheck without really having skin in the game and it might be satisfactory- C-level work versus an A.

Interestingly enough, Dan Pink did a lot of research in this area in his book Drive and a study that was replicated in many geographies around the world showed that once employees were satisfactorily paid- meaning it wasn't an issue for them, they weren't complaining about their pay, the pay was no longer the driving factor for them at work. That's not what kept them motivated- what kept them motivated were three other factors -which I think are related very closely to the Gallup measures-

purpose -why do we do what we do it was mastery -can I get better at this thing that I call my vocation, my calling, my career? autonomy can I determine how I do what I do? or am I being forced fed a process that does not allow for creativity innovation etc.

Coaching also affects all of those factors. I'm in the business of what I do because I think that engagement is that very thing that makes us pay attention and give our intention to our time and effort. It's the thing that pulls us to work smarter, learn more, take risks to grow, and endure the discomfort, like growth and challenge and HARD goals.

How does coaching work with these things? When I am called into an organization and I'm there to help them with their engagement this is where I start. I look at how employees are answering these kinds of questions: do they have the proper tools and training to do their work what are they allowed to give can they submit ideas innovation are their opinions listened to but the factor that I think is the most important in these times is can I grow?

because all of us feel like we're in a slump or stagnant or we're in a holding pattern with COVID.

and do I belong?

Relationships are more important than ever and that's why we're seeing a huge part of the great resignation. People feel like their work doesn't have meaning, it's not important. They'd rather be at home helping homeschool their kids or caring for elder parents, or just jumping off that hamster wheel of the rat race so that they can reinvest in themselves, restore their health, restore their sanity, and get to a place where they do feel belonging.

When I'm consulting with an organization about their engagement I start asking questions. I do that feedforward exercise What can the organization do to improve your relationship with your leaders? The processes you have in the organization -and if you don't think that you're analytical enough to look at this spend a few hours in the urgent care or immediate care or emergency room of your local health care facility you will find that the bureaucracy of insurance checking coverage etc. really gets in the way of providing healthcare the processes do not make sense because they're not driven by the customer, they are driven by the pay system.

As a coach, I want to look at the leaders and how they create productivity within their teams. What are the routines or habits? What are the behaviors that they are exhibiting within those routines or habits? and what tools do they rely on to communicate?

When it comes to retention I want to look at how well they're engaging new employees from day one: are they showing up to work on day one without a computer without a cubicle without an assignment without a mentor if so how welcoming is that what kind of message does that send? Do they have a safe place to go and ask questions that they may not feel so comfortable asking their manager is it a coach is it a mentor I'm not too particular on that I think coaching is super effective, but it is nice to have someone on the inside saying “yeah the poster says we do it this way but here's how we really do it”

When it comes to profitability I'm going to look at those process flows. What's process engineering? do the posters on the wall say what we actually do? or are we talking out of both sides of our mouth?

I hope this information has given you several different flavors regarding the theme of engagement I encourage you to go out and check out Gallup’s Q12 and look at those questions in detail answer them for yourself for your organization do you feel like you can give do you have the right setup can you grow do you belong do you have a best friend at work all those things are super important

I would also really encourage you to listen to Dan pink's Ted talk for drive my favorite version is the RSA animate version very fun to look at that ---and personally super excited Dan pink has a new book coming out I'm a big fan

but let's hear your questions about engagement: let's hear from you in terms of what pulls you into work smarter what excites you enough to want to learn more what is it about the environment that says yeah I'm I'm willing to be uncomfortable a bit and take a risk so I can really grow what is it that makes you pay attention and apply intention

If you’d like to learn more about HOW COACHING IMPROVES ENGAGEMENT: or want to schedule a full 2-day COACHING SKILLS workshop for your team email me: shawna@shawnacorden.com

This brings us to our tool of the week: check out Dan pink’s RSA animate drive TED talk what does it inspire in you, what actions do you want to take after hearing that talk