So you’re sitting in the conference table, a large cup of caffeine by one hand and your smartphone by the other. Your laptop sitting between the two. Your colleagues are filing in. They seem just as excited to be here at 4:00 P.M. on a beautiful day. Their hands are loaded with laptops, smartphones, and liquid enthusiasm (coffee).
Everyone is bracing themselves for yet another meeting. Everyone avoids looking out the window at the day’s possibilities going by while they consider the next hour of Powerpoint slides ( in color!) detailing the results from the most recent 52-question employee engagement survey prepared by that very expensive consultant or your communications people.
The CEO is there, as well as her assistant and the heads of the other departments. Everyone is deferring to the CEO—watching to see which department head jockeys for an edge or risks a question. Heads nod in assent, urgent to end this meeting and get on to what engages them.
Next month, you will do the same. And the next month. And the next month. And those employee engagement scores will stay the same. So will your revenues and cash-flows.
Maybe you’ll bring in a different consultant, one whose program offers discount cards and prizes and monthly plaques, priced at a discount for a company as large/small as yours. Oooh, they have a dashboard with colors and spinning dials. Your CEO loves that stuff.
Who’s not at that meeting? Look closely. It’s employees—the ones the meeting is about, not with. The ones whose engagement you claim is lacking. You’re disengaged from them in an effort to improve their engagement.
If you want to improve employee engagement, then engage with employees more. It’s your choice. You can sit in a meeting about them or go engage with them in a conversation about their work, their roles, their needs and what resources you can bring to help them achieve their goals. A conversation that is open-ended and unscripted.
Meet with them, don’t survey them. Ask for their suggestions, don’t mandate yours. Listen to their ideas, not yours. That’s employee engagement.
And you can skip those meetings, too.
