Over the
last decade employee engagement levels have barely budged since Gallup started
tracking them. This flat result comes in
spite of extensive research identifying the logical links between the engagement
and organizational success. Maybe more
importantly, it comes in spite of the billions spent on motivational speakers,
leadership gurus, coaching, engagement surveys, technology, communication, training,
rewards and recognition. So where have
we gone wrong?
The
state of employee engagement today might be best described by using the hiking
term “false summit.” That’s the disappointment
one feels when reaching the crest of a ridge, only to discover that the real
summit looms high above. The good news
is that despite the apparent lack of progress, the path to significant improvement
in employee engagement remains, as more and more executives have a greater
appreciation of the role of engaged people.
The Question Is Always How?
In
decades of working with clients in the incentive rewards and recognition
industry, we know the easiest way to begin a strategic connection between employees
and the engagement needed to deliver your brand promises is to implement the principles
contained in the employee behavior model. Executives, especially in HR are
aware of the principles that great psychologists such as Watson, Skinner,
Maslow and Thorndyke taught. But it
seems that the traditional thinking surrounding behavior has been set aside in
favor of new approaches of the consultants of today that permeate the C-Suite.
Through decades of implementing successful employee award systems that followed
the simple approach of the behavior model, we know you can produce results.
Employee Recognition Will Produce
Results
If
you design and implement the right employee award system you will definitely
engage employees. You don’t have to make it any more complicated than
that.
The
sense of a false summit comes from the fact that the industry is replete with gurus
delivering leadership advice, various performance apps, wellness programs,
feedback surveys, all types of rewards and recognition items, and other
measures to engage employees. HR and related technology trade shows and
conferences feature education topics and exhibits on all manner of ways to
engage employees—and yet employee engagement levels remain stuck well below 50%. Why?
People
come to work each day because you’ve provided a contract of income to get them
there. But this contract doesn’t
necessarily motivate them to perform at their highest level once they are
there. That’s where the connection to
improved performance by implementing a well-structured reward and recognition
system should begin.
Where Have All the Experts Gone?
The
Reward and Recognition Industry began employee engagement long before it was ever
titled that. The successful incentive
rewards houses made large investments in expertise in all the facets of the
behavior model, and gave that expertise away in order sell their commodities of
merchandise and travel. Those companies
became the floor upon which the entire recognition and reward business was
built. But the industry has changed, the
new companies didn’t bring the expertise and now merely sell the rewards as
consequences to behavior without regard to the other behavior pieces. Studies from the Incentive Research Foundation
clearly show that the vast majority of companies never look at their award
supplier as someone who can assist them in building a strategic connection with
their employees. We believe that’s the
first place you should
look.
Some Problems Still Exist
If
you want to break the 50% engagement barrier, you need to think in terms of
systems not silos. When you entertain experts,
who remain firmly planted in their own curriculum you will not be able to connect
all the behavioral dots. When was the
last time you had a training company present measurement and feedback coupled
with rewards as part of their solution? When was the last time you had a
technology company present an app or IT solution which included communications,
feedback analysis and rewards necessary to make it effective? When was the last time you had a recognition
or awards salesperson concerned about anything other than how many awards you
needed and when?
There is no
one cure-all for employee engagement. It
has so many facets and levels that it is difficult for any company to
achieve. The ones that have it didn’t
get there overnight, and are constantly tweaking the pieces. We’ve watched companies grapple with how to
begin and spend countless hours arguing over the important pieces that make up
the foundation and how to start. If you
want to delve into the world of employee engagement, look through the lens of
the behavior model and you’ll find the best way to build it for yourself. You’ll
know what pieces you already have, which ones you do well and which ones are
missing, and if they are working in unison to produce your desired results.
