Leaders Own Employee Engagement

…and the Importance of Employee Commitment

In the process of moving homes after 20 years, I’ve learned two very important lessons. First, the amount of stuff you keep is directly proportional to the space you have. My advice is, if you want to avoid some pain, start purging and organizing early. Second, no matter how hard cable companies try to provide good customer service they just don’t seem to get the little things right.

Last week I returned our cable equipment back to one of our cable company’s locations. I was greeted by a pleasant young woman who introduced herself as Beth. She scanned in my cable equipment, handed me a piece of paper and told me I would be called by the next service representative. My first impression was very good. I settled into a comfortable chair convinced I’d be done in record time. Not the case. The longer I watched the service representatives’ snail pace, the faster my patience faded.

Eventually I asked Beth if I could just leave and then call customer service later on. The response was “no.” I thought to myself, they have the equipment… what else do they need??? I rarely take “no” for an answer, so I pressed. When we got to the “can I speak to your manager” part, her response was “LOOK, I am just a temp worker. You have to wait for the service representative. There is nothing I can do for you!” I relented and decided to wait.

Although my impatience was certainly a factor, this is prime example of a disengaged employee. In the role of greeter, Beth has the opportunity to make or break the customer experience simply by how she handles difficult interactions. In my case, she clearly did not feel empowered by her training nor was she armed with how to address the situation. There was almost a sense of helplessness, which could have been avoided easily.

Temp worker or full-time, it is the leader’s responsibility to create an environment where employees are not only well trained, but also feel that they belong, making them want to go the extra mile. Employee engagement is all about people; people who fulfill their workplace contract by fueling an organization’s successful operations.

Decades ago, when employees were often considered part of a workplace “family,” an employee would find a position within a company and remain at that company throughout their entire career. The employee may have been secure and settled within his or her position, but a company rarely would put much effort into determining what made any of their workplace family happy and productive. Performance was simply expected from every employee and was, therefore, freely given without question.

In today’s environment where lifelong commitment to an employee is more rare, employees might not consider the gold watch and retirement dinner an ideal reward for service well rendered. Loyalty now has to be earned by an employer rather than assumed, yet organizations often still anticipate that committed and engaged employees will remain an integral part of the workplace family indefinitely.

Understandably, the most productive employees are those that are committed and loyal; those that are engaged. Leaders who own their role in fostering employee engagement tend to generate loyal employees.