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What makes up the core of a company? It’s not the CEOs and the VPs in the higher ups but the people who work for them. Yes, believe it or not, the employees give these CEOs their 6-figure incomes. But let’s not condemn them first. Remember, not everybody can be a CEO. We need to have the rank-and-files and the middle managers, too!
The Secret Ingredient
It would be disastrous if companies overlook the importance of its employees. They carry the load of the operations on a daily basis. Undoubtedly, companies would fold if the employees are neglected. So how do CEOs and other company visionaries keep the employees happy? Here we coin the phrase, employee engagement.
Employee Engagement might just be the secret ingredient that makes a world of difference in business. In hindsight, if your employees aren’t engaged, what do you have then? It is obvious that employee engagement is dependent on the employee but at the same time it is motivated by the employer.
Optimus Prime Would Make A Great President
We can throw in all the incentives, bonuses and rewards for top achievers but if our employees are not motivated by their managers and higher officials, you will always have disgruntled employees. They will either receive their reward unwillingly or they will be jealous employees who will always wonder “why him?” Which is why motivation is key. But optimistic employees are key-er. Take the case of the 5 welders all doing the same job. Once one of them excels, he instantly becomes the manager of the group. You are now left with 4 “weak” welders unless the new manager can motivate the others to be like him in training or motivation. This optimism creates the belief that goals can, not only be pursued, it can be achieved. Much like Optimus Prime, he had so many positive views; people started calling him Optimist Prime.
Ask And You Shall Receive
Another part of being an engaged employee is to voice out opinions, ideas, suggestions and the inevitable complaints to the rightful person in management. You will wonder at how much the company can save just by listening to their employees with what they have to say. It can be as simple as asking the employees to stay 45 minutes longer each weekday in order to avoid having to come on half-days every Saturday. It became a win-win situation because the employees enjoyed their weekends earlier than normal and the company saved on electricity during Saturdays. This was a suggestion made by an employee who had a second job during the weekends. Or how about avoiding a financial crisis by listening to your employee’s stats and figures. Rumor has it that NASA engineers knew of the flaws in the O-rings that melted in the rocket boosters and caused the Challenger disaster but they just could not persuade anybody. And we all know the outcome of that non-persuasion.
Changing The Behavior
If by chance, your company has a complicated set of operations mixed with intricate sets of rules and regulations, then you are adding to what employees do not want to have from the moment they agree to work with you: fear. On the day of signing you are asked to read a 9 volume manual on the company’s dos and don’ts. Wouldn’t that scare your wits out? That’s only the beginning. What if this fear causes the employee to have bad behavior every time he comes to work. He then might make irrational decisions out of this fear. If companies want their employee’s behavior to change for the better, they must address the fear.
Lastly, employee engagement should answer the question: To what extent do I, as an employee want flourish and succeed in this company? If he sees it, he envisions it, he can expand how engaged he wants to be to his company.
Image by Steve Wilson via Flickr
