A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Imagine yourself playing a mobile game that you

absolutely love.
You are just about to level up when your phone rings.
Do you take the call? Or ..
Simply ignore the call and continue with the game,
focussing on gaining that last power-up required to top the
charts?
Why is the phone call (that may be important) suddenly
not important enough to stop you mid-way like you do
while working on something unintersting and divert your
attention?
It’s because you are engaged with the mobile game.
This engagement is what all organizations are trying so
desperate to achieve in their workplace. With Generation
Y fast approaching the frontline of the workforce, it’s time
to understand what makes them tick and outperform in
their work. How to keep them engaged and cash in on
their advanced multi-tasking abilities?
A recent survey by Gallup indicates that 60% of the
millennials are open to new job opportunities, thus
making them less loyal to organizations and biased
towards the quality of work content.
Now more than ever before in the history of organized
employment, employee engagement has become so
critical that it has caught the attention of CEOs worldwide.
They believe Employee Engagement is the core driver
behind employee-satisfaction, and hence, retention.

“Always treat your employees exactly as you

want them to treat your best customers.” –
Stephen R. Covey, Keynote Speaker
Stephen R. Covey, author and keynote
speaker says that treating employees like
customers is the only way to move forward. An
unhappy employee will eventually result in
unhappy customers.

So, how do we keep employees from abandoning the ship

or shifting decks?
Thankfully, there are proven strategies to keep employees
engaged and make them willing contributors for the
overall objective of a company.
At the end of this guide, you will you will get the Top 5
strategies that you can implement to achieve employee
engagement & what’s more – these are absolutely FREE
!!! So, without much ado, let’s jump in.
What is Employment
Engagement?
If you search for employee engagement on Google, you
will come across a dozen definitions of employee
engagement, each more complex than the previous one.
Wikipedia defines employee engagement as a
fundamental concept in the effort to understand and
describe, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the nature
of the relationship between an organization and its
employees.
Difficult to comprehend and makes you want to leave this
topic for next day, right?
Well, read this before taking a decision. Employee
engagement is simply the emotional commitment the
employee feels towards the organization and its goals.
In other words, the personal involvement that makes work
matter to the employee.
“Employee Engagement is actually not a ‘thing’
but an outcome. I have often stated that
engagement is an outcome of a mutual
commitment between an organization and an
employee where the organization is helping the
employee reach his/her potential, while the
individual is helping the organization also be
successful.”
–Bob Kelleher, President and Founder, The
Employee Engagement Group
How is Engagement
different from
Employee Satisfaction?
Did you know according to a survey by Society of Human
Resources, more than 85% of the employees are satisfied
with their work but their engagement is at moderate
levels?
On a scale to 1 to 10, the average engagement is 3.8
compared to an all-time high in job satisfaction.
While the terms satisfaction and employment are used
synonymously, but are, however, very different. It’s true
that all engaged employees are happy, but all happy
employees are not engaged. The difference between the
two lies in their performance. The paradoxical numbers
can prove to be a nightmare for any manager, but don’t
worry at the end of this guide I will help you with five
strategies to not only achieve employee engagement but
ensure that it lasts.
So, what is the difference between the two?
Think about an employee who ticks the box very satisfied
in the survey, he is the employee who comes in late,
takes an additional hour off for lunch, completes half his
targets, takes the full paycheck and exhausts all his paid
leaves. He is a very happy employee but is he engaged?
Well no, he isn’t an engaged employee for his efforts and
performance are not leading to any advancement in the
company. The efforts of an engaged employee go beyond
the mere contentedness of their job, their objective is to
help with the advancement of the company.The two
concepts are related, as employee satisfaction provides
the basis for employee engagement to come about.
Satisfaction in the job can be viewed as the minimum
entry ticket requirements to achieve engagement. The
survey suggests that the top contributors to achieving
satisfied employees are benefits provided and the
treatment received, however, the ones contributing to
engagement are opportunities to use skills and
relationship with co-workers.
Why is Employee Engagement
important?
All conversations have highlighted the concept of
engagement and what it means to the employee. But why
is it so central for an organization to engage the
employees?
Undoubtedly engaged employees are an asset to the
company. For, highly engaged employees are:
• More customer-centric, creative with their work and take
less time off sick;
• Inclined towards the realization of future goals and put in
greater efforts for achieving them;
• Inspired to do their best, and this motivation helps fulfill
objectives and reach goals.
These characteristics definitely help create a workforce,
full of happy and productive people. What does this
engaged workforce then contribute to the company?

Taking a look at the flip side:

To understand this better, let’s see
how an unengaged workforce slows
down the organization:
• Poor Decision Making: Unengaged employees have a
limited outlook on the company and its goals.In short-
term their contributions may not be a cause for alarm,
but it affects the decision-making process and
participation levels in the company.
• No Focus or Drive: Participation is a pillar for the
growth of a company. However, the unengaged
employees feel no drive to run the extra mile. For
them, it’s just another job paying their bills. This
attitude leads to stagnation and ultimately decrease
productivity. Leaving little or no room for innovation.
• Unwillingness to Train: Organizations spend a lot of
time and money in training their employees. This
ensures the building of a workforce which can be
trusted with work and projects. Unmotivated
employees are engaged half-heartedly in these
training sessions, leading to poor quality of work
which therefore brings down the morale.
• Over Hiring: Engaged employees are willing to work
and help the team as a whole. Thier motivation and
attitude create less need for bigger staffs in
 segmented departments. This advantage is lost if
your workforce is unengaged.
• Return from Employees Decreases: The enthusiasm
of your employees to novelly solve problems,
decreases when they feel disengaged. The “aha”
moments, and ultimately their performance takes a
hit for the worse.
Thus, a team of disengaged employees results in over
hiring, providing additional training that does not change
outcomes and paying higher salary with the burden of a
stale work environment.
Thus, employee engagement helps you avoid these
obstacles and also minimize speed brakes on your drive
to succeed. They may contribute as score boosters and
power-ups in the following ways:
•Loyalty Booster:
A thriving environment with a vibrant culture, enthusiastic
and involved employees is more likely to retain
people.Creating a workspace unique to your company
culture will make employees want to spend their time
there. Low engagement and turnover have been proven
to be correlated time and again.
How can you create this office space which reflects your
company? Too complicated a job?
Well, Think again

Here are a few tips which can help you:

• An office with no cubicles and an open plan helps create
an environment that’s non-hierarchical, where open
 communication and new ideas can be fostered.
• Is creativity central to your business? Try painting walls
with blackboards to help employees work on their
ideas, whenever and wherever they get one.
• Consider adding natural light with skylights or large
windows, to create and maintain a fresh attitude.
• Infuse fun in the workplace by adding a ping-pong table
or foosball table. Helping workers take the stress
down a notch, will help you raise profits by more than
a notch.
• Make sure, you don’t overdo an idea. The idea is to
create a mix of places, which has something for all
employees. A quiet place to reflect on ideas, a fun
space to let out energy and solitude for moments of
peace.
• An energy drink for better
performance:
Employee engagement can be seen as a power booster
fuel for the engine of the company. Engagement affects
every person inside your organization, and their individual
performance affects the productivity of your organization.
Research establishes a link between profitability,
customer loyalty, and employee engagement.
•Ultimate power-up for success:
The passion of employees about their work builds a
company’s reputation. This passion comes from the
feeling of engagement they feel. It serves as a proof for
the new talent joining the company that they will be
respected and valued. It also reflects a that the team of
managers and culture of the company.
So, now you know, employee engagement is not just a
trend, it’s the building blocks required to run a great
business.
How do you identify
low employee
engagement?
The survey of Gallup reported that an astonishing 68% of
US employees are not engaged in their current roles.
While 17.5% within this group characterize themselves as
actively disengaged. Actively disengaged employees are
actively working to undermine the success of their
organizations.
These surprising figures incline you to understand how to
identify them. Low engagement is like a plaque, which
drags down the productivity of the companies.
However, at the end of this guide, you will get 5 free
strategies which you can implement to achieve employee
engagement.
So how can you tell if employees are disengaged? How
can you take stock of your workforce and determine
whether or not the engagement is truly an issue?

Let’s go over some tell-tale signs of disengaged

employees and a few methods for identifying them.
1. First, take stock by
Conducting a Survey
A survey is an excellent way to gage and take account of
disengagement. Gallup offers a disengagement survey,
as do several other companies. You can also design your
own survey.
These surveys, however, should be anonymous. This
means that you won’t be able to pinpoint specific
employees who are disengaged. But it will help
understand the big picture which is immensely valuable.
2. Stay on the lookout for
dropping productivity
When the graph goes in the other direction and doesn’t
show growth, its a sign of disengagement. From the
organization’s view, it is the most serious and costly
consequence of disengagement.
Afterall, productivity is a result of individual contributions
and day to day work. This makes identifying long-term
trends essential. If the graph is showing a continuous
decline it may be because your employee is disengaged.
3. A decrease in Quality of Work
Less output, when bundled with low quality, becomes a
warning signal for the company. Disengaged employees
not only produce less output but often the work they are
performing is below standard.
A brief increase in errors may be because the worker is
overwhelmed, either at work or on a personal level.
However, a steady rise is often the sign of an employee
disengaging. This because they simply are caring less
and less about their work.

4. Change in Employee
Behaviour
If you notice an employee who was otherwise involved
suddenly withdrawn there is a chance that he is becoming
disengaged. They may be going into their own zone and
pulling out of work. Of course, some of them are naturally
quiet, so make sure you measure them accordingly.
Another thing to look out for is the duration of this
withdrawal period, if it’s for multiple days or seems
indefinite, there is a high chance of disengagement. The
best way would be to take a cue in short periods as it
might hint at problems.
5. Spike in Anger outbursts
An employee who is expressing his anger towards his
team, or managers may be a tell-tale sign of feeling low
satisfaction or other issues. If these issues are not
resolved, or if he feels unimportant for the company it
might cause his to become disengaged.

6. Increase in time spent away

from the Desk
Disengaged employees tend to wander away from their
desk more frequently. The time spent in taking bathroom
breaks or water cooler may increase.
They are consciously deciding to stay away from their
responsibilities. Therefore, keeping a general eye on the
workspace and checking for such signs can help identify
disengagement.
7. Taking frequent “rain-
checks” from office events
If an employee who was mostly present at all events and
office-lunches, suddenly shows no interest and avoids
events may be disengaged. If it happens for a short time it
may be because of other reasons, but if it continues you
may want to talk to the employee.
One way to understand this would be to invite him out.
8. Early to leave and late to
rise?
Missed an alarm? Too much traffic? Had to run an
errand?
This may happen to everyone, but if these excuses are
used too frequently it might hint at disengagement.
Another sign would be frequent family functions, personal
commitments, or simple procrastination used to leave
early from work.
9. No Sick days left?
It’s perfectly normal for an employee to experience frail
health and take off from work to get better. However,
disengaged employees use their sick days as often as
possible.
Constant calls on a Monday or Friday by an employee
who was relatively looking healthy before he called? This
might indicate that he is disengaged and doesn’t want to
work or end his weekend.
10. Reluctant to Take
Challenges
Engaged employees are always on the lookout for more
challenges and are often eager to take on new roles and
responsibilities. A disengaged employee will, on the other
hand, try to avoid any additional work or challenge. do
the opposite and will try to avoid any new opportunities or
challenges. They might complain about the burden of their
work or simply turn down an opportunity.
But, monitoring disengagement isn’t enough. You have to
take action, this doesn’t mean firing the disengaged
employee but actively making efforts to remove
disengagement.
What are the Key
Challenges faced in
Engaging Employees?
Employee engagement can be seen as a holy grail for the
company, then why aren’t companies doing more to
engage employees?
What are the forces which stop managers from putting in
the effort for employee engagement? Yes, pay and
benefits or even simple apathy can be the strong reasons.
There is, however, more to that.
Here is a list of five key challenges an organization
faces:
• Communication Mediums Used — Sending an email,
writing an article in your newsletter, and handing out
flyers may seem like a lot of work. But these methods
are not effective. Not every employee takes the time
to read and understand the message, so the
meaning of the content is lost. These tools though
easy to disseminate, are often not very timely. In
fact, they are often ignored.
• Top-Down Communication Only — Today’s employee
communication is top-down in nature. The hierarchy
is visible, in the way employees interact. This leaves
little or no space for sharing innovative ideas, or the
company does not actively implement ways for the
same. They need to be able to interact in a timely
manner with peers, subordinates and most
importantly the superiors.
• Non-White Collar Employees — Not every employee
can have access to the computer, this may be due to
lack of resources or lack of training. Companies face
serious challenges in delivering strategic content to
the non-white collar employees. This becomes more
of a hassle, for companies involved in packaging,
delivering or manufacturing.
• Physical distances and Language differences —
There are a various number of offices, and
establishments owned by multi-national companies.
This increases the mix of employees of different
nationalities and cultural backgrounds. This results in
a need for specialized tailored employee
engagement plans. These plans also may find
hurdles, as the language and perspectives then
become issues. The information and concepts
shared may not hold the same meaning for all,
making it difficult to have a common vision or goal.
• Effective Communications starts with an Effective
Leader— The two main controllers of employee
engagements are the Human Resource Managers
and Internal Communicators. These two sectors
need to be working together more cohesively to
ensure effective communication.With this, they
should ensure a close working net of managers from
the IT, marketing, social media and public relations
teams to maintain uniformity and avoid confusions.
“Employees don’t trust management. Why?
Because employees see managers as deaf to
their concerns and uninvolved in making
improvements to the workplace environment.”
– John Baldoni, President, Baldoni Consulting
LLC
If companies want to build employee engagement
programs that, the first step, would be to address these
five challenges. The content they curate will be more
easily communicated and consumed ensuring a higher
return on investment.

How to overcome the

challenges faced?
Identifying the problems is the first step to any solution.
Remember your mathematics word problems?
Understanding the challenges faced in employee
engagement is just as important as understanding if the
sum needs to be computed in simple interest or
compound interest.
What’s more? Employee disengagement causes the
American economy $450-$550 billion a year. The belief
that having a good manager will take care of engagement
is outdated and a lot more efforts need to be made.
#1) Overcoming the
Communication Hurdle
The importance of good communication can’t be
overstated. So what appears to be a complicated ball-of-
yarn problem can be solved using better communication.
The various ingredients required for employee
engagement, like the company values, well-defined roles,
recognition require communication to bind them.
Most companies make the error of relying upon and
trusting the email system. While email is a fantastic tool,
and more a necessary office tool, it’s not the best way for
every communication type. There are a number of other
communication tools which can be used- some are high-
tech, some are simple.
Here’s a rundown of the best:
The Morning Team Hurdle:
For offices, especially smaller ones, morning meeting can
be as effective as a morning coffee. It ensures that
everyone is on the same page for the day or week. A
central meeting space can be used to gather everyone
and make use of this tactic.
Need a bigger space for accommodating all employee?
One possible way is to have an “all-hands” meeting. For
bigger organizations often, this is marked as an essential
part of the communication weaponry. A town-hall style
forum can be used, led by senior managers, where, the
updates, vision, current targets can be discussed. A great
way to ensure high efficiency would give employees an
opportunity to ask questions in a public forum.

Open Sign for the CEO’s Office:

The CEO’s of big companies are availing the idea, of
being available for a certain duration of office hours. This
is done so that any employee can drop in or schedule
time with the CEO, to ask questions, suggest changes or
even pitch new product idea.Employees appreciate the
accessibility and feel that their ideas and they matter to
the organization. For the Ceos, these sessions create
value, by giving him an outside perspective and insights
into the brand and product. So, this strategy is a win-win
situation for both.

Explore the Power of Social Media:

Facebook and Twitter might be synonyms for Social
Media, but here I am referring to platforms built for office
communication. The information shared on these
platforms not only go viral but is the perfect solution for
communication problems.
You can install software like GroSum Mobile
Feedback, Yammer, Slack, Tibbr, Jive, Salesforce Chatter
and others, specially curated with the purpose harnessing
the power of social media in your office.

#2) Overcoming physical

distance and the language
barrier
It’s important to foster a culture in the company, where
each employee feels valued and cared for. This problem
is so difficult to overcome in small companies, having
offices at one location. This same problem becomes 100
times more difficult with a company having offices at not
only different locations but in different countries.
So, what should these companies do? Should they take a
global approach or a local one to build engagement in its
global workforce?
Research finding indicates that the drivers of engagement
for each country are different along with differences in
employee perceptions about work-often very drastically
different. But, a core set of drivers for engagement is
emerging globally.

Tips for achieving an Engaged

Global Workforce
a) Build “inter-cultural” sensitivity in
all employees:
“Intercultural sensitivity” is about understanding the
deeper impact of cultural difference on how we interact
with other people and the effect this has on one’s own
perceptions of other people. This concept is equally
important for individuals, teams and entire organizations.
To gain the necessary awareness and competence, a
combination of formal training and on-the-job exposure is
required. A person’s experience of cultural difference both
helps form understanding and constraints on how the
individuals interact with other people. Moving beyond
these individual experiences is important for the
development of intercultural competence. Understanding
the stages of cultural sensitivity will help remove common
obstacles.

b) Additional training programmes:

To transform the “foreign” workers to “domestic
internationals”, requires them to be trained in different
languages, in the do’s and don’t to another culture,
preferred way of communication in a culture. In a way
which overall increasing their cultural intelligence.The HR
managers can make it a smooth sail for any “Outlander”
by ensuring enough training and practice grounds. For
instance, they can organize a global leadership
development course, which consists of mentoring
programmes, virtual multicultural teams, and opportunities
to visit global worksites.

c) Increasing the bond:

Making friends at a workplace is important, but making
friends in a new country is necessary for your own
survival. The manager’s effort to build a good relationship
with a new entry, and helping him fit-in will go a long way
in making him engaged. One great way to start this
process would be learning to pronounce your employee’s
name. Or maybe sharing food with your new employee.
You never know you might discover a delicacy which
surpasses your favorite meal?

#3 Overcoming Challenges of
Leadership
A good leader can be the catalyst you are looking for, to
make the magic happen. But who is the best leader to
lead your team? How can you harness his or her power?

“Leaders engage their teams by giving them a

sense of purpose, providing them opportunities
to develop and advance, and putting them into
positions where they can be successful.
People are not afraid of hardworking, they’re
afraid of failure, and that fear of failure can
make them become disengaged. If their leader
doesn’t care about them being successful, then
why should they care.”
– Gordon Tredgold, CEO & Founder,
Leadership Principles LLC
Good managers exhibit:
• Clear Vision
• Good Decision-making skills
• Assertiveness
• Takes responsibility for his actions
• Team building skills
• Self Awareness
• Empathy and Emotional Intelligence
• Ability to Inspire and Motivate
No, I am not referring to eight different managers, but one
manager with all these qualities.
Seems impossible, right?
Well, the list of characteristics, include simple skills which
can be easily developed. The strategy should be to look
for potential leaders, train them and fill gaps-if any.

Why Should you

Measure Employee
Engagement?
It’s already established that happy and engaged
employees lead to higher productivity. A study by Wyatt
Watson found that companies that have highly engaged
employees produce 26% higher revenue per employee.
But what does highly engaged or disengaged mean? How
are these levels defined? Why is the definition of these
levels important? Why isn’t it enough to just ask your
employee if he is engaged or not?
No, because by committing to measure and improve
engagement, you’re showing employees that you are truly
concerned.It shows that you are making efforts to ensure
their well being.
Measurement is the first step of the ladder to reach
employee engagement. You can’t fix something if you
don’t know it’s broken. Measuring engagement and
understanding the levels will help you analyze the factors
working in favor or against your efforts to achieve happy
and invested employees.
The surveys and methods utilized to measure employee
engagement highlights and bring to limelight the human
side of the organizations. This is a reason why it has
become an essential part of a manager’s toolkit. It allows
drawing insights into the employee’s head, the same
people who create the magic inside any company.
With this is the detailed breakdown of data in terms of
division, location, manager, or team will enable to remove
hurdles causing a slowdown in performances of
employees and identify drivers of employee engagement.
How to Properly
Measure Employee
Engagement?
If you were asked how engaged are you in activities at
home? Is it more than your involvement in your
workspace? What’s the rate of these engagements on a
scale of numbers? If you answer 6, what does this mean?
Finding it difficult to answer, right?
This is because engagement is an emotion. It’s difficult
to put a number on emotions.
Consider being asked about experiences in the activities,
What made the activity interesting? Or did you at any
point feel like leaving it and concentrating on something
else? Or were you feeling happy while working on a
project?
These questions help infer your involvement. This is why
the most common method to measure employee
engagement is using surveys. The surveys employed
can be off the shelf, proven employee engagement tools
or it can be a made to order solution suiting needs of your
organization.
The off the shelf approach:
Using generic, well-proven employee engagement tools
such as Gallup Q12, enables you to draw on a broad
database of comparative data that can be used to
benchmark engagement of employees against similar
organizations. It’s an excellent measure for validating the
effectiveness of employee engagement programs.
However, this effectiveness comes with a hefty price tag
on it.

The Made to Order approach:

A bespoke employee engagement survey enables
absolute flexibility as it measures exactly the most
important elements of employee engagement within your
organization. A clear picture can be obtained as to how
employee engagement is evolving by repeating the same
tailored survey at regular intervals.
The drawback is that it is not possible to accurately
benchmark against any other organization-wither
internationally or by sector.

But what questions should

you ask your employees?
After in-depth interviews with managers in over 400
companies, Gallup Organization said that measuring the
strength of “engagement” in a workplace can be
simplified to just 12 key questions (Buckingham and
Coffman, 1999), as follows:
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my
work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best
every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or
praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care
about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my
development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me
feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to
me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to
learn and grow?
Is a survey enough to measure
engagement?
“Ultimately, it’s the pulse of the organization,
what people are saying, feeling and believing
about the company. If you’re not sure to ask
your employees- “What’s working? Would you
like to see differently?” If employees speak
transparently with you it’s easy to determine if
your workforce, in general, is engaged.”
–Amber Lloyd, Global Leader HCM Strategy &
Customer Engagement, Infor
Asking your employees, once or twice a year about their
feelings and activities is not enough. In this day and age,
when all of us have the pulse to get on with new trends
and live it all up.It’s important to know the “pulse” of your
employees, to keep them interested and involved. And,
surveys alone are not going to hack it.
What are the Ways to
Measure Employee
Engagement?
Read on, to know a few ways you can use to measure
employee engagement on a regular basis.
1. Absenteeism and Turnover:
A student who likes attending school has good
attendance records and better grades. The attendance
percentage and overall performance are directly related to
his involvement in school.
Unsurprisingly, the same hold trues for employee
engagement. A study suggests that you should aim for
10% or lower for employee turnover.
2. Pulse surveys:
Like the name suggests, pulse surveys are quick
surveys designed to understand the health of the
company. It’s super easy to administer and score. The
number of questions ranges from 5-10, asking employees
about how they feel working in the company. The
frequency of the survey should depend on the
effectiveness of the company to act on the feedback
gathered.
3. One on One Discussions:
One on one meetings is a great way to foster better
employer-employee relations. It proves as a great
measure for measuring employee engagement. For these
meetings are safe and more details.Allowing you to get a
real sense of what’s going on with them. The key is to
remove fear so that the employees can open up. This
step by step guide will help you crack the code.

4. eNPS
eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) is a snapshot of
employee loyalty and engagement within their company.
By asking a simple question “On a scale of zero to ten,
how likely is it that you would recommend this company
as a place to work?” you are able to classify employees.
The ones who score, 9-10 are “Ambassadors”, 7-8 are
“Passives” and 0-6 are “Detractors”.
5. Stay Interviews:
It’s important to know what you can do to improve
employee engagement, but it’s equally helpful to know
what you’re already doing correctly. Conduct interviews
with your already engaged employees, to answer the
question why they stay? Exit interviews are great to
collect formal feedback, but it is too late for you to do
anything for the outgoing employee. On the other hand,
having a casual conversation to understand the
motivation of your employees helps.
Here, are questions you can ask:
• Do you think you share a friendly relation with your
manager?
• Describe your perfect workday?
• What is the one thing that gives you “Monday-blues”?
• Will you recommend your friend to work with us??
What are the Drivers of
Employee
Engagement?
What’s next? Measuring was the first step. As an
organization, you need to ensure continuous improvement
of engagement. You need to understand the drivers of
employee engagement for improvement and keeping
disengagement minimum.
1. My Company: Discovering
the why in pride
It’s a simple concept, you’re proud of your company so
you will work hard to continue being proud of it. This pride
comes naturally if you ensure alignment of your
employee’s vision and long-term goal with that of the
company. For this, the “why” of the company has to be
clearly defined. For some companies, their objective of
why they work can be summed up in a line, and for some,
it’s more implicit. This objective should be made the
reason for employees to ditch their beds and get to
work. Simon Sinek demonstrates in his widely popular
TED Talk the power of this ‘WHY’ and how it can be used
to drive the What and How.
2. Personal Growth: What’s in it
for me?
Employees need to feel that they are continuously
growing and improving, both personally and
professionally. If the work-force feels like the work is
stagnating and hitting a plateau, they will not feel like
giving in their best. For, there is no rise resulting from
their efforts. Like most factors, there is an emotional
component to personal growth which supports
engagement directly. The growth of the company and
community is desired, but you have to look after their self-
interest as well. This makes an atmosphere of continuous
growth not only desirable but necessary.
3. My Team: Relationships with
colleagues
The work culture has evolved from being authoritative to
being inclusive. Making executives comfortable to be
themselves. Likewise, individual employees are also
relaxed. This comfort of being “true selves” enables to
build personal bonds. Recently Gallup found that close
work friendship boosts employee satisfaction by 50%,
while people with a self-described best friend at work are
seven times more like to be fully engaged.
4. Feel good factor: Giving
something back
Corporate social responsibility is on the rise, its place in
business is often questioned. Skeptics argue that building
the core value of social impact is against the nature of
profit making. But valued employees-like human beings in
general- love to feel that they are helping others. Altruism
is on its own a reward, enabling employees to use their
social conscience at work. This, in turn, fosters feelings of
growth, meaning, and pride. A study found that
management consultants who participated in a voluntary
social impact initiative at their firm were up to 32% more
likely to stay with the company as engaged employees.
5. Being fair: Pay structure and
benefits
Do you think your employees are paid fairly? are you paid
fairly? Do your employees know that they are paid fairly?
The perception of employees towards their work is as
important as how they perceive the returns they get. It’s
common for employees to feel that their pay is less
compared to the efforts they put in. Or that their
colleagues are getting paid more for the same work. How
do you then change this perception? The only way is to
be transparent. The employees should know how is their
pay decided? How can they maximize it? Another way is
to increase incentive pay, this not only improves
engagement but also makes the employee feel
recognized and valued.
6. Well-being: Striking a
balance
Showing concern for your employee’s health is not just
limited to being a nice gesture. The Harvard Business
Review found that on average, employees who invested
in comprehensive health and wellness initiatives saw a
nearly 3 to 1 return in money saved. The health
campaigns are a brilliant idea, as it plays a role in creating
the oh-so-important emotional connection between
employers and their employees. One caution is to
encourage participation in these activities but always keep
it voluntary. In order to build this, the campaigns have to
become a part of the fabric of the company’s culture.
Focusing on one-off perks won’t yield benefits.
7. My Manager: People don’t
quit jobs, they quit managers
The quality of your management team holds the power to
make or break employees willingness to be engaged.
Great managers make bad environment bearable, and a
great manager with a great environment-trumps all
card.This is because the relation employees feel with their
managers is directly related to their feelings of
belongingness.
“Again, effective drivers can vary significantly
between organizations, industries,
geographical regions and countries. However,
my first point of call for most organizations
would be line managers – they have a
disproportionate impact on employee
productivity and giving them the basic skills to
manage employees is never money wasted.”
–Guy Ellis, Director, Courageous Workplaces
Limited
Thus, by focusing on hiring and training stellar
managers, you can harness significant
increase in engagement and retention
capapbilities of your company.
8. Leaders: The drivers of the
company
Leaders are the ones who steer the company’s growth by
providing it direction and a sense of purpose. If the
employees don’t have faith in the leader, they will always
be apprehensive about giving their all. The daily habits,
demeanor, participation levels, and communications of
CEO’s and senior managers set an example.This
example has a trickle-down effect and ultimately,
influences everybody engaged in the company.

“Leadership is about action and not a position;

hence it is critical for leaders to build a culture
to harness talent. Leaders who can be trusted
upon, processes that are realistic and
meaningful create an engaged culture.”
–Micky Chopra, Independent Consultant and
Advisory
Employee Engagement
Myths
You read a dozen articles, came up with numerous
strategies to try, but still, you calculate that the employee
engagement in your office has not increased?
Nothing can be more frustrating than not achieving
desired results.
So what did you do wrong? Maybe nothing or everything
The myths of employee engagement are a common
reason why Managers despite all efforts, and researchers
cannot crack the code to employee engagement.
Here, are pins of myths to break your bubble:
1) Providing space flexibility to employees improves
engagement:
While providing opportunities to employees to work from
home on their discretion, may benefit them for short time.
Ultimately, this leisure backfires as they are not
connected with the day to day activities with the company.
It sure does avoid hassles of traffic, and neat code, it also
results in missed opportunities and low motivation.
Research shows that remote workers with flex time
schedules receive less coaching and mentoring. This
results in less institutional knowledge and in turn, low
productivity.
2) Money equals Engagement:
Money is a strong incentive for people to work, but it is not
the only initiative. Also, it should be understood that fair
and equal pay is not a bonus, but a necessity to maintain
good work culture. For years, managers have tried to
increase the economic incentives to solve problems of
retention and engagement. But, this may work for a
handful of people. Most organizations are finding that
employees are looking for more than just good pay for
their jobs.
For people want a workplace which rewards them in
terms of more educational opportunities, challenging
projects, and a sense that their career path is growing.
3) Providing Freedom to Employees is a necessity:
“With great freedom, comes great responsibility”. This
dialogue, from Spider-man, holds true. It’s true that some
amount of space should be given to each employee, to
showcase their individual strengths and innovations in
their work, but complete hands-off management will leave
them directionless, and prove to be de-motivators.
Also, it should be realized that not everyone prefers
autonomy. For some employees it may turn out to be a
true benefit, for some a nightmare, making them feel that
their work is a burden. Um, confused?
Well, it’s simple, get to know your employees, and what
works for them before you decide to give them complete
freedom.
4) Assuming a Job is just Work:
I have already emphasized the importance of value
creation and personal growth the Millennials are looking
for in their jobs today. An employee spends around 10-12
hours of his 24 hours daily in office, if he feels it’s just a
job he will never evolve. This feeling of stagnation is the
worst nightmare of the workforce today. The work has to
add meaning and purpose to their lives. This is the mantra
which should be followed by engaging employees.
5) Limiting the positions and roles for employees:
It’s absolutely true, that the employees should know their
roles and duties for better connection and productivity.
But, if this job profile stays the same and doesn’t get any
additions, in the long run, their performance will start
going down. Imagine you go to the gym daily and do the
same set of exercises for more than a year, your body will
eventually stop transforming because it is used to the
work given to it. The same happens with the employees
When employees feel that a company is invested in their
growth, they are more committed to their role and more
connected to how they impact the success of the
company.
6) Too much emphasis on the Company’s Brand:
The final bubble which I want to pop is that a brand name
is not enough to keep and engage employees. Sure, if
tomorrow you go and purchase a Jimmy Choo heel, you
will be inclined to use it or gift it to your partner. But,
imagine, if the leather chips off? Or the heels break?
Will you still continue buying from Jimmy Choo? Well, I
hope not.
It’s essential for the brand to live up to its name, ALL the
time. Otherwise, employees will shift loyalty. After all,
employees are your first customers.
A well thought out, employee engagement program
considers the individual strengths and weaknesses of the
employees, tries to customize work assignment
accordingly and build the employee’s career while
building their Company’s castle of dreams.
How do the Leading
Organisations keep
their Employees
Engaged?
Why is that some companies are considered great places
to work? They have a stellar reputation, and to add to that
the employees of the company never have a complaint.
Do these companies have some magic solution to
employee engagement?
No, because there is no magical solution. If you try to
replicate the efforts of these companies, without
understanding your own employees you will never receive
the same results.
But these giants do have something in common- they
understand that employee engagement is a key business
strategy which is a responsibility of everyone and not just
the employee.
It’s worth reflecting and understanding what made the
employees of these corporations tick.

Here are some which I found was food for thought:

TRANSPARENCY IN AND BY
GOOGLE:
Google has been very careful of the culture which they
create inside their organization. One big chunk of this
culture is that it is based on transparency. They have
successfully implemented breaking down of barriers. This
has helped employees, to feel empowered and share their
creativity. Google, has formalized that employees should
spend 20% of their time, not working but engaging in
activities of their choice. Ultimately the idea is to create a
culture of getting work done the right way.
Organizations which focus on transparency, engage
employees more than those of who don’t. Employees like
being a part of something where they are kept abreast of
developments and shortcomings, this makes them feel a
personal connection with the company.

FOCUS ON BEHAVIOUR IN AND BY

AMERICAN EXPRESS:
Today, when it’s about competing and getting things
done, companies often overlook “how” were things done.
American Express changed the trend 25 years ago, by
equally weighing the “how” and the numbers. In order to
create a proud culture, one needs to understand the
impact of their behavior. It may not be possible to reach
the top otherwise.
Behaviors are a mirror to how we think and act with
others. Understanding the impact of behaviors helps
understand employees at an emotional level, which is
where engagement takes birth. Successful businesses do
pay attention to this factor and therefore, learn to value
employees as people. You can’t have someone bringing
in the bread for the company and then behaving really
badly with others. It simply destroys harmony and culture.
Thus, the high performers in big companies understand
the responsibility they shoulder.
EMPOWERMENT IN AND BY JOHN
LEWIS
A word can have strong influences- this fact was proven
by John Lewis. He calls his employees partners, this
instantly shows how much he values and cares for his
employees. Immediately the employees feel like a part of
something big. The message that they share a
responsibility towards the company and its customers is
packed in this one word-“partner”. Also, this company
makes efforts to make them feel like one by involving
them in decision making, and problem-solving. Thus, they
are empowered to create great customer experiences
Employees who are invited to be involved do feel more
empowered and are eager to take on more
responsibilities to achieve the best for the company.
EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT IN AND
BY HYATT
Hyatt- the Hotel chain, has cracked a full proof way to
engage their employees and keep them engaged. They
empower each employee, by listening to them, and the
guests too. Employees are encouraged to come up with
solutions and solve problems using novel ways., making
the associates and guests feel special. Hyatt is known for
high employee turnover. And the focus it gives to the
development of each associate plays a big part in this.
The commitment placed on employee development helps
trigger their inner motivation. Also, continuous
improvement with constant change helps inch closer to
success.

LISTENING IN AND BY VIRGIN

The Virgin company has more than 39,000 employees,
working across 35 different companies. Despite being a
multi-industry organization, the unity of this name upholds
is commendable. Virgin, has found that listening to their
employees, goes a long way in showing them that they
are valued. Encouraging healthy debates, help to
exchange ideas and continuously innovate.
Listening is a two-way street, people cannot only listen to
respond, but to understand. It creates a win-win situation,
as the organization keeps learning, and the employee
feelings of recognition increases.
All these tactics, and strategies, have one common
central part. You know what it is?
Yes, that’s correct, the way you perceive and treat
employees. If you treat your employee as a human first,
and workforce next, you are more likely to triplicate their
engagement.

“Employees want their voice to be heard, so

you must build a two-way communication
culture where people can express their ideas,
opinions, feelings, and complaints.
Why? When an employee thinks their voice
matters, they feel validated and important.”
– Jill Christensen, Employee Engagement
Expert, Jill Christensen International
What can Start-ups do
to Achieve Employee
Engagement?
Let’s be honest, hiring an HR professional may not be a
top priority now. It may seem like hiring a maintenance
crew when the rocket is not ready to launch. Developers,
marketers, and coders are the ones getting the
appointment letters as of now.
But at the same time, you are aware of the importance of
a driven team, and its ability to make or break your hot
business idea.
You may be falling short or funds to spend on employee
relations now, but you know you need to convince your
talented crew to work at their best possible front.
Fuelling them becomes all the more important, because of
their lower salary and uncertainty of the company’s future.
It will be easier in the initial months, for they share your
vision, but the challenge will be to keep this flame from
burning out.
So, What can you do?
Here is a list you can choose from:
Build Your Team
The priority is to make your employees feel they belong.
In order to achieve this, building teams are the foremost
thing to do. Encourage teams to have their own values,
assign group projects and take those team photos.

Make Work Fun

Create an environment, where employees can use work
and fun in the same sentence. Have board games
stacked up in the canteen so that people can bond over
those Taboo words, and Poker faces?
Another fun way would be to have theme office days. For
instance, have a pot-luck luncheon at your office once a
month.
Celebrate All-Big and Small
Achievements
Recognition is one of the primary driving forces of
employee engagement. Recognize efforts of your
employees and acknowledge them. Address these
achievements in your morning meetings, make them feel
like they are making a difference. Or, have a green board
put up so that these efforts can be rewarded.
Make Your Office More Quirky
Nothing can be more demotivating than seeing old office
spaces, with no color around. Add color to your office
space. It can be small changes like colored coffee mugs
instead of the boring white ones. Or, simply adding
colored post-its and papers for jotting down discussion
points.
Give Your Employees Space
Expecting employees to give you all their time is
unrealistic. Make sure you encourage their individualities
and support them to work on their personal projects and
hobbies. This makes them feel cared for. Another great
way to create a win-win situation would be to make
employees discuss their personal projects with others.
This will help them discuss new ideas, which may benefit
them to brainstorm ideas for your company.
Ensure, however, that these ideas are implemented in
addition to work done. It cannot only be about coming to
the office to win a round of your favorite game. A balance
has to be struck between duty and fun to keep them
engaged.

5 Key Employee
Engagement Strategies
to implement today?
Without much further Ado let me share with you the five
strategies you can use. What’s the bonus, you must be
wondering, these are cost-free.
#1) Be the No.1 Fan of Your
Company
You may already feel you’re one, if you do, you are
halfway there. The next step is to know how to show it.
Let your excitement be contagious so that people catch
on with it. Whether you are the sole member or a team of
co-founders. You have got to promote your company and
skyrocket your idea to your employees in your own unique
way.
When you do this, however, keep your expectations a
reality. It’s not possible to make your employees feel the
same amount of drive you feel towards your company.
View it like having a baby, you feel the need to obsess
over it because it is yours, others will find it adorable and
attaching but can never reach your pedestal. The key
here is to find people, who already feel 50-60% attached
to your company so that you can cultivate that to a 70-
80%.
Here are a couple ways which you can try:
• Do-Not Micromanage but Do get Actively Involved:
The idea is to show you care and are there to offer inputs
when needed. Take time out and find what’s motivating
your employees to work, and why they perform better in
one task and not the other. If you think it is too time-
consuming, let me assure you it is worth it.

• Don’t Flatter but Do Compliment:

The best way to make an employee recognized is to
notice their efforts and boost it by appreciating them. You
could install an Employee Shout-Out board, to track their
big and small achievements. But do ensure you don’t
over-do to an extent that the employees don’t feel the
need to improve.
“Employees do not want recognition, but to feel
appreciated. Really appreciated. This is an
area where most organizations fall short.”
–Brad Federman, Chief Operating Officer, F&H
Solutions Group
• Don’t nit-pick but Do Assess Critically:
Reiterate your position as a leader, by focusing on team
building, don’t be a bully or an annoying professor, who
finds flaws for the sake of it. Do critically evaluate
business meetings and ventures, encouraging inputs from
all employees along with suggestions.
You may think of a dozen criticisms while the presentation
is on, but hold on to it, structure your feedback and deliver
it in a holistic manner. This makes the employees feel that
you listen and are not trying to undermine their efforts.

#2) Have Fun with Your

Employees
Don’t be the boring boss, who pushes employees into
activities where they attend a seminar half-asleep. Be the
fun boss, who caters to their interests and well-being.
How do you know but what your employees want?
Simple, ask them.
Arrange activities according to their interests and not your
own.
A tip: Be impulsive, don’t make it a Friday evening
ritual.
Find fun activities which all your employees will love, how
about a game of poker over lunch? Or maybe plan a day-
out to the gaming centers?
Team up and build teams in the process.
Regardless of what activity you choose, ensure that a
good engagement will take place, if:
• It appeals to employees interests
• It makes employees interact with each other
• It’s sheer fun and not a sugar-coated way to make them
work.
#3) Don’t be a Hero, Do
Delegate
It’s important for you to be in contact with the
development and happenings of your baby’s life, but it’s
equally important for to you to pick the right person and
delegate the responsibility. The people you hire should be
mature to handle situations of conflicts and crisis.
Hence, for this having the morning meeting, I spoke about
earlier may prove to be the most noteworthy of
approaches.
Afterall, you only have two hands.
#4) Don’t Pamper, Do Care
It’s emphasized again and again to treat employees as
people first, but go a step ahead and treat them as your
own people. Remember their birthdays, give them sick
leaves, add bonuses if they impress you. These small
things and efforts go a long way to make your employee
feel social and cared for.

Another strategy would be to celebrate cultural festivals

and give them small gift hampers. This will not show your
cultural intelligence, but also create a culturally competent
environment.
#5) Don’t Be Greedy, Do Share
the Limelight
Who doesn’t like being recognized for their efforts?
Being a manager and the driver of your company engine,
it’s up to you to make sure everyone gets their chance to
be on stage and feel indispensable. Small rewards will
create huge impacts. Put in place a reward system for
“employee-of-the-month”, you could award this individual
with a small trophy or medal to commemorate his
success. Or, ensuring a fair system where hard workers
are identified and promoted will also help motivate others
to perform.
Employee Engagement
Trends to look out in
2018
Being trendy is synonymous with being up to date and
informed about the world around. So, what is the talk of
the town on employee engagement? What new strategies
have been brought to light? And more importantly, which
ones have become outdated?
Spotlight on Career Paths
Not having a clear career path, makes employees
apprehensive about their growth and like I mentioned,
stagnation is a nightmare. Companies are finding out that
the workforce which senses that there are no more
opportunities to grow in the company are more likely to
leave.
Focusing on this line of thought this year can help you not
only retain, but create a symbiotic situation for both your
company and your employee.
Make an effort to talk to employees about their dream
careers? Their dream work-spaces? And accordingly,
facilitate whatever opportunity you can.
Old Is Gold
Research suggests that re-engaging old employees is
25% cheaper than to create new engaged employees.
What’s more? The old employees are experienced and
are already an asset to your company. It’s equivalent, to
rediscovering your old savings account and finding that
you have a bonus interest payment from your bank.
The older employees with their expertise can make
excellent mentors and role models for other employees.
With the new age realization of investing in one’s health,
this year rediscovering the magic of old is gold, can help
create value for your company.
Balance of Work-Life
I know it’s not a new concept- then why is it a trend?
It’s rediscovering its importance, not in form of table
tennis tables, and break rooms, but in form of actually
incentivizing work-life. More and more employees want
the flexibility of working from their area of comfort, to not
be too engrossed in work, and to catch up with their lives
outside the office.
And a new trend of applying for consultancy jobs or
freelancing is to achieve this flexibility. The Millennial, I
guess, want to be in control of their time and life always.

The Burial of Annual Surveys

Being more engaged requires effective and regular
communication. In this year, where people turn to new
fads and influences every day relying on one annual
survey, will not break any deals. Another factor adding to
the death of these surveys is that with social media,
employees are more involved in each other’s lives, and
the need to fill out a formal survey just for the sake of an
H activity, let’s face it, is not appealing nor honest.
Talking about feelings of employees in one to one
meetings, and collecting constant feedback in a non-
judgemental culture, is the way to move forward.
So get your pulse surveys in place, and purchase more
open signs for your CEO’s office!
What did you learn?
Summing it up
So, that’s it. Now, you know the ABC’s of Employee
Engagement.
Engagement is more than Satisfaction-Measure employee
engagement to improve it-Use your Office Space cleverly-
Balance it out in payments-Take care of your employees-
Identify Inspiring Leader-Learning from the giants can
never go wrong-Knowing is not enough-Act on it!
You can start by selecting small ideas, and see their
effect on your employees. Make sure you measure before
you draw conclusions. Ask your employees what they
want, and start working with them!
Let us know if you have innovative strategies for engaging
your employees, and how you came up with the ideas?