The propensity to overcomplicate employee engagement
Whilst reading some recent articles around employee engagement, I came across a paragraph from Linda Dulye, who has written an article on Fox Business.
“In the end, engaging employees to give their best starts with top bosses sharing the game plan, followed by managers ensuring great two-way communication. After that, empower associates to partner in solving business challenges, then demonstrate sincere appreciation and stay on track through continuous measurement and improvement.”
I think this paragraph wonderfully captures the simple essence of employee engagement.
Now, I know there will be many people who think/ voice the fact that employee engagement is complicated, that there are many factors that will affect someone’s likelihood of being an engaged employee. Indeed, this is somewhat the case – although in actuality many of those factors are outside the control and scope of an organisation.
The fact remains however, that if you look at the many different views, opinions and research on employee engagement a lot appear to over complicate, what is, in reality, a simple and straightforward premise.
Human nature…
It is our nature to over complicate and the challenge for those working in the area of employee engagement to is avoid this, as much as possible. When working on your employee engagement strategy or project and even when you are researching levels of engagement within your organisation, remember – the concept of employee engagement is simple. Try, where possible, to keep your actions as simple, clear and concise as the premise itself.
As Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”