Entitled vs. Engaged- Just because your employees are happy doesn’t mean they are engaged.

So many leaders look around their company, see smiling faces and employees who have had their demands met – and see a culture of engagement.

Unfortunately happy people doesn’t necessarily equal engagement. Employee engagement is defined in terms of how well employees and teams are aligned with achieving the organization’s objectives, goals, and success. This goes well beyond smiles and even beyond structure, systems, and processes – it touches on values, how each person sees the world, and individual beliefs.

An engaged employee is someone who is motivated beyond the normal duties of their job description, is driven by the organizations vision, understands their value in the organization, and consistently demonstrates the behavior to support the organization’s interests.

What does it look like?

Engaged employee behavior is characterized by…

• Willingness and desire to grow professionally by learning new skills
• Commitment to the organization
• Demonstrated effort to improve the organization
• Ability to influence others through respect and trust building
• Understanding of how they contribute to the company’s value proposition

“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.”

– Stephen R. Covey

Employee Engagement Starts with Leadership

Competition for customers and the best employees has never been greater than it is today. Companies face not only the usual pressures of a global economy, new and current competitors, innovation, economic upheavals, evolving customer demands, among others, but also the pressures of an evolving set of employee expectations. It is on the shoulders of the leaders to create a culture of accountability and trust so that in good times and in bad, employees believe in the organization, promote the organization’s products and services, and have direct impact on competitive advantage and financial success.

Make the investment to see the reward.

The key benefits of growing a culture of engagement include:

• Increased retention. An increase in retention and improved ability to recruit the best people for each role. Engaged employees see the value in finding others to join their organization and tend to ignore employment offers from competitors.
• Optimized business performance. Engaged employees implicitly understand the company’s value-stream and are always on the lookout for ways to improve productivity.
• Improved customer satisfaction. Engaged employees know the value of the customer relationship and go the extra mile to deliver exceptional customer service.
• More effective communication. Engaged employees understand that effective communication is the key ingredient to trust building and strong relationships – this helps build a sound working culture and promotes a success oriented mind-set.
• High performance teamwork. Engaged employees make better team members. They leverage their influence skills to drive exceptional team performance and connect team charter with the company’s strategy, processes, systems, culture, purpose, and goals.

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