Identity and Employee Engagement
Understanding identity and employee engagement is critical to successful businesses, but what does that actually mean? For as long as we can remember, society has been changing but we have finally started to recognise that individuals go through different life experiences. Whether that’s how we live on a daily basis, how we were socialised in our childhood, the type of people we meet, particular events or milestones and even the career direction we choose to follow. In addition, although individual identities have been prominent throughout time, it’s only more recently in the 21st century that certain identities have been viewed as socially acceptable.
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Identity and employee engagement
When thinking of identity and employee engagement, it is important to try and understand how individual personal experiences and individual identities can impact employee engagement. This means organisations understand what may boost employee engagement for one person, may not work for the other.
C.Wright Mills, a sociologist author, suggests that an individual’s social milieu can give indications of patterns in behaviours; particularly if this stems from personal trouble or social issue. In other words, if an individual’s own circumstances changes (whether that is in the public sphere or private sphere) that may affect how they engage at work.
Having a personal connection to an organisation may mean that an employee is really engaged. For example, those undertaking charitable work towards a particular goal such as challenging violence against women and girls, or aiming to defeat homelessness in the UK. A person who has experiences relevant to the charity or an individual who personally knows others that have been subjected to violence or homelessness may feel personally connected to that kind of organisation. Whereas, those who don’t feel a personal attachment to the cause because neither they nor their close circle have experienced this global issue, may not be as engaged in their work.
Moreover, having a professional attachment to an organisation can also have a huge influence on the employee engagement of particular employees. A person with a professional or academic background surrounding a certain subject, relevant to the organisation is likely to be highly engaged. Whereas individuals who don’t have this background could find their work painful and dull. Therefore, an individual’s professional and academic experience, or lack of it, can deeply impact the level of engagement at work.
As we have learnt, it is because of this diversity of purpose and the wide range of different experiences and identities that surround us, that building employee engagement can sometimes be chaotic and unpredictable. So, to fully understand identity and employee engagement, get to know your employees! Show a level of interest in who works for your organisation – it will benefit both them and the organisation long-term.
We hope that this has been helpful. If you wish to discuss how identity and employee engagement can help your business, or you want to discuss our employee survey services, including our bespoke staff surveys and other surveys for employees, contact our expert team today.