Just What Is Driving This Thing?

2 mins

Published on May 21st, 2014By The Survey Initiative

One of the most important factors for effective employee engagement is that the employees must be willing to participate, regardless of the size, shape, location or type of organisation.

Whilst it’s accepted that there will always be some resistance to change or new concept amongst employees, it is also true that the more employees who are enthused and inspired by changes and actively engage in them, the more probable the unenthused will be influenced and encouraged to ‘join the ranks’.

It might sound harsh, but when an organisation is going through such a major change, employees who are disengaged and detracting become an obstacle to the cause and hinder the outcome of change.

So what actually encourages people to be engaged? What drives them?

There are many factors that have an influence on employee engagement, job satisfaction, pay and benefits, career and training opportunities for example. But here we take a look at three quite powerful drivers for employee engagement:

Leadership

Having a clear, shared vision for the organisation that is communicated well from the top down is at the heart of employee engagement. Employees need to understand not only the purpose of the organisation they work for but also how their individual role fits into it.

Visible leadership can also be crucial. Leaders that ‘talk the talk AND walk the walk’, live by the values of the organisation and encourage advocacy and belief in the organisation have significant effects on employee engagement levels.

Engaging Managers

When an organisation sets out on a programme of employee engagement the first thing they need to consider is their senior and middle management as well as other people who hold managerial roles; in the end, if these people are enthusiastic and ‘on board’ with the process and actively involved, it makes marketing the idea to the rest of the workforce considerably easier.

The role of the manager is also key to driving employee engagement in that they help employees to understand how to do their jobs and complete them and encourage belief in the importance of it and how it fits within the organisation overall.

Being Heard

Another driving factor is listening. Where an organisation that listens to the views and opinions of their employees and ensures their workforce, through effective communication, that these count and make a difference. Employees feel they are able to voice their ideas, are confident that they are being listened to, feel that their contributions are valued and recognised and have involvement in workplace decision making. Here employees are very often highly engaged.

It is clear that having committed and engaged employees perform better and more likely to support an organisation through change, therefore, it is in the organisations interest to understand the drivers of employee engagement.