Every business is a relationship business.
It is shocking!
I just read Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2022 report. In 2021, only 21% of the world’s employees were engaged at work.
21%!!!
What about the other 79% of employees in your companies?
The 79% who are not particularly committed to their job, their team, or the organization.
Who are not bought in on the vision and strategies you drive to bring about change.
Who are not fired up about the work they do.
Who don’t talk about their work and the organization with a sense of pride?
Yet this 79% of employees maintain relationships on behalf of your company.
They talk to your customers about your products and services.
They talk to the people in their teams.
They talk to your suppliers and other key stakeholders.
If people are not engaged, what’s the energy level they bring into these conversations?
Right - pretty low.
So how do we increase Employee Engagement?
Employee engagement is an EXPERIENCE that can be CREATED in the RELATIONSHIP between the leaders of the organization and their employees.
A common way organizations try to increase employee engagement is by increasing compensation. The reason that doesn’t work is that a higher salary will NOT cause employees to take more OWNERSHIP. It will NOT change an employee’s EXPERIENCE of the RELATIONSHIPS in their daily work life.
There is no quick fix to increasing employee engagement. It’s a longer-term process that takes effort and investment and focuses on deepening the RELATIONSHIP with your employees and building more TRUST.
What can be helpful is understanding that all employees essentially want 3 things:
- They want to be SEEN.
- They want to be VALUED.
- They want to GROW.
If you want to CHANGE the relationship with your employees, talk to them about these 3 aspects.
Let’s do a little quiz and see if you can answer the questions below about your people.
If you can’t, that’s probably an indication that you want to have more conversations about these topics with your people. Rephrase these questions to make them about your team members, and they are great conversation starters.
If you can, great, but keep having these conversations anyway. Over time, organizations change, and people’s needs change. What was true last year may not be true this year:
• What are their future goals?
• Where do they see themselves going?
• Where are they today?
• What essentially needs to change to fill the gap?
• What are they most concerned about?
• What’s the impact they’d like to make at work?
• How clear are they about their role and what they are supposed to do?
• What support do they need from you or the organization?
• What’s still missing?
• How well do they feel aligned with the organization's mission?
• Do they see the purpose of their work?
• How well do they know where their work fits in realizing the company’s mission?
• What role does their division/department/team play in the organization?
• How do they see their division/department/team progressing?
• Describe the team’s culture.
• Why do people like to work in their teams?
• Why do people tend to leave?
• What must remain in place to be/remain successful?
• What needs to change to be/remain successful?
• What are their challenges?
• What are their opportunities?
• What other important factors influence their future success?
• What are they most proud of?
• What is their reputation as a division/department/team?
• What do they value most at work?
• What would they like to see differently?
These conversations will give you all the ingredients you need to start taking ACTION to support your people to be SEEN, to feel VALUED, and to GROW.
When you DEEPEN the relationship with your employees, trust grows, and everything shifts. It will increase their loyalty, productivity, fun, the feeling of fulfillment, and their ENGAGEMENT.
A closer relationship with employees will also have a ripple effect on their RELATIONSHIPS with their colleagues, their teams, your customers, and all your company’s stakeholders.
“Every business is a relationship business.”
