The Importance Of Employee Engagement

Debbie Laskey is my trusted resource for expert advice on marketing, customer service and leadership. I've had the honor of featuring her on my blog in the past. And, today, Debbie shares her keen insights on the importance of employee engagement.

As background, Debbie has nearly 20 years of marketing experience and an MBA Degree. She developed her marketing expertise while working in the high-tech industry, the Consumer Marketing Department at Disneyland Paris in France, the nonprofit arena, and the insurance industry.

Question: How do you define employee engagement?

Debbie: Erika Andersen (@erikaandersen on Twitter), author and leadership expert, defined employee engagement in a post for Forbes, and it has stuck with me:

“If a company’s focus is ‘How can we give our customers what they want,’ then that company needs great employees to come up with the ideas, to make the great products, to interact with the customers. Employees aren’t a begrudged necessity in that kind of company – they’re what makes it possible. And if my company feels like that about me, and treats me that way, then I’m most likely to feel that way about my company and treat my company that way. Voilà: engagement. AND productivity, reduced turnover, attracting top talent. AND delighted customers, great products and services, big profits.”

To me, employee engagement is, perhaps, the most important aspect of an organization. If employees are not engaged, then the entire organization will suffer, and possibly fail.

A key driver of employee engagement is having a shared sense of purpose and a clear understanding of the impact each person has in the work they do.

Question: How do you believe the pandemic has impacted employee engagement?

Debbie: From the outset in early 2020, the pandemic caused uncertainty about people’s health. Then the uncertainty impacted people’s jobs, family life, hobbies, and more. Once the quarantine started lasting months in Q2 2020, and people’s jobs were at stake, it was difficult for leadership teams to maintain close relationships with their teams in the same way that they did in person. This put an emphasis on employee engagement on the back burner for many organizations.

Question: What do you recommend a leader do to help ensure home-based employees are engaged and feel a part of the company culture?

Debbie: For home-based employees to feel engaged and a part of a company’s culture, leaders should have regular check-ins with their teams, one-on-one check-ins and team check-ins. Leaders should also ask their team members how they would prefer to work at home, so that everyone can be most productive. Some people prefer working early in the day, while others prefer working late at night. Since there are family obligations at home, it’s necessary for everyone’s schedule to be respected.

It’s also important that all employees have all the tools they need to be productive, just as they would in the office. This may mean that they need a new laptop or printer, or a desk with good lighting. If a leader does not provide employees with the tools to do his/her/their job, then engagement goes out the window.

Lastly, it’s important for leaders to ask their teams how best to communicate during the time employees are working from home. This may mean texts are preferred, or emails, or phone calls. Bottom line, the leader should not assume that one way is best for everyone – or easiest for the leader. Again, this will result in no employee engagement. It is also critically important that leaders share regular project updates with all members of their teams – just because people may be away from the office does not mean that they should not be regularly informed about projects.

According to Dan Cable (@DanCable1 on Twitter) of the London Business School, “As leaders, it falls to us to build a sense of collective purpose. It falls to us to remind employees about how their contribution fits into the bigger picture and to share a vision of the future that inspires them to feel connected to what they do and to make a sense of it.”

Question: How does having fully engaged employees improve customer service and the overall brand experience?

Debbie: I saw this recent quote by Roy Osing (@RoyOsing on Twitter), Executive and leadership expert, and it answers this question perfectly:

“How employees feel about the organization they work in is a major predictor of how customers feel when they do business with the organization. If the brand promises to ‘go the extra mile’ for customers, for example, and leadership doesn’t do the same for employees, it’s unlikely that customers will get the brand value. It’s the job of leaders to make employees aware of the brand promise and also to ensure they have an intimate understanding of what actions they must take to deliver it. Leaders must provide a direct line of sight from the brand strategy to every function in the organization.”

Question: What can an employee do to be more engaged with their company?

Debbie: Employee engagement, similar to onboarding, is actually an employee’s responsibility too – not just the responsibility of an organization. Employees should read the HR Manual, and also recommend ideas for improvement. Employees should read the Brand Style Guide produced by the Marketing Department so that they understand what makes the organization unique as well as what the brand promise is. All employees should also be able to use a suggestion box whereby the ideas are reviewed by the C-Suite rather than simply ignored. Employees should participate in team events rather than complain if a company picnic falls on a Saturday. And employees should offer to switch places with colleagues in other departments for a day in order to learn what other departments do. For example, at The Walt Disney Company’s theme parks, members of management spend a week as cast members in the parks to mingle with customers/guests and gain personal perspectives of the guest experience.

Question: What are you learning about yourself during the pandemic?

Debbie: Like many of us, I miss the social aspect of working in an office environment, but I definitely do not miss the noise. The pandemic has allowed me to capitalize on how I work best, which is in a quiet environment. I enjoy Zoom meetings because they allow participants to focus and stay on point. I’ve also found leadership book clubs and participated via Zoom, and I’ve also had time to participate in more Twitter chats.

About Debbie Laskey: Her expertise includes brand marketing, social media, employee engagement, leadership development, and customer experience marketing. Since 2002, Debbie has served as a judge for the Web Marketing Association’s annual web award competition. Her Blog has been recognized as one of the "Best 21st Century Leadership Blogs" and also as a "Top 100 Socially-Shared Leadership Blog." An active member of the Twitterverse, Debbie has been recognized as one of the "Top 50 Branding Experts" to follow on Twitter @DebbieLaskeyMBA. Visit her website at and her blog.

Image credit: Debbie Laskey

Comments

The Benefits Of When Everyone Leads

It’s only January and the new book, When Everyone Leads , could likely be my pick for the best new leadership book of 2023. It’s that good. There’s still nearly a whole year ahead of us so we’ll see what other books debut. In the meantime, add this book to your must-read list. You’ll learn that: Leadership is an activity, not a position. Leadership is mobilizing others to make progress on the most important challenges. Leadership is interactive, risky and experimental. Leadership comes in moments. Leadership is always about change. When Everyone Leads , by Ed O’Malley and Julia Fabris McBride , presents a revolutionary approach to leadership; not based on position or authority, but an activity that anybody can undertake by learning to spot opportunities for improvement and taking the initiative to engage others. “It can be unfamiliar and uncomfortable, but in a culture where everyone leads, organizations start to make progress on their most difficult problems,” explain t

Effective Listening: Do's And Don'ts

Here are some great tips from Michelle Tillis Lederman's book, The 11 Laws of Likability . They are all about: what to do and what not to do to be a leader who's an effective listener : Do : Maintain eye contact Limit your talking Focus on the speaker Ask questions Manage your emotions Listen with your eyes and ears Listen for ideas and opportunities Remain open to the conversation Confirm understanding, paraphrase Give nonverbal messages that you are listening (nod, smile) Ignore distractions Don't : Interrupt Show signs of impatience Judge or argue mentally Multitask during a conversation Project your ideas Think about what to say next Have expectations or preconceived ideas Become defensive or assume you are being attacked Use condescending, aggressive, or closed body language Listen with biases or closed to new ideas Jump to conclusions or finish someone's sentences

Five Must-Read Business Books To Read This Summer

Stumped for what business books to add to your summer reading list? Here are five must-read books for leaders well worth adding to your list: Lead With A Story -- A Guide To Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince, and Inspire . Author Paul Smith explains why storytelling has emerged as a vital skill for every leader and manager. In the book, you'll find over 100 ready-made stories you can use as templates to tell your stories. Stories are so powerful because they are simple, timeless, demographic-proof, contagious, easy to remember and inspiring. Most important, they put the listener in a mental learning mode. What's The Future Of Business? (WTF?) -- Changing The Way Businesses Create Experiences . This book, by Brain Solis, details the incredible transformation happening in business today, driven by new social and mobile technologies. And, he explains how experience design helps your business and how you can harness its power for business growth. This book

How To Make The Leap To Becoming A Leader

Here’s another must-read book to add to your list as you transition from manager to leader. It’s The Leap to Leader , by Adam Bryant . As the creator of the iconic “Corner Office” column in the New York Times , Bryant has spoken with more than a thousand leaders over the years about the challenges and nuances of leadership. Many of his discussions are included in his interview series on LinkedIn. “The goal of this book is to provide an intensely practical guide to making that transition by sharing insights, stories, and approaches from hundreds of leaders to build the skills you will need to make the leap to leader,” explains Bryant. He adds that the book is useful to everyone who is interested in leadership, regardless of where they are in their career. The book covers: The central paradox of leaders: selfless vs. self-centered. How to perfect the do-to-say ratio. Ways to navigate office politics. Tactics to making better decisions. The crucial art of compartmentalizati

Seven Tough Questions To Ask Your Team

High-functioning teams can disagree and still produce excellent products and results. Team members can also disagree and still care about each other. And, they can challenge each other to think differently. Best-selling leadership book authors Scott J. Allen and Mitchell Kusy recommend that leaders ask seven tough questions of their teams to help maximize their results. Here are those questions to ask each team member: What are some obstacles affecting this team? What are opportunities we could take advantage of that we have been largely ignoring? Where can you take greater ownership on this team? Where have you let this team down ? Compared to other teams with which you are familiar, how are we doing ? When was the last time you complimented the team or one of its members? How open are you to giving direct feedback to team members?

How To Listen Effectively

Here are some great tips from Michelle Tillis Lederman 's book, The 11 Laws of Likability . They are all about: what to do and what not to do to be a leader who's an effective listener : Do : Maintain eye contact Limit your talking Focus on the speaker Ask questions Manage your emotions Listen with your eyes and ears Listen for ideas and opportunities Remain open to the conversation Confirm understanding, paraphrase Give nonverbal messages that you are listening (nod, smile) Ignore distractions Don't : Interrupt Show signs of impatience Judge or argue mentally Multitask during a conversation Project your ideas Think about what to say next Have expectations or preconceived ideas Become defensive or assume you are being attacked Use condescending, aggressive, or closed body language Listen with biases or closed to new ideas Jump to conclusions or finish someone's sentences

How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated To All In

Here is a book that provides workplace leaders an urgently needed methodology for helping companies to reduce worker loneliness, and it delivers a blueprint for building strong, high-performing workplace teams. The book is, Connectable: How Leaders Can Move Teams From Isolated To All In , by Ryan Jenkins and Steven Van Cohen . “72% of workers suffer from loneliness. And, what was once a simmering problem shifted to a crisis when COVID-19 and the sudden transition to remove work isolated workers from each other as never before,” report the authors. “Loneliness is the absence of connection,” explain the authors. “Loneliness is not defined by the lack of people, because someone can be lonely even while surrounded by others. We require more than the presence of others. We require the presence of others to dream, strategize, and work toward commons goals.” Furthermore, “workplace loneliness is defined by the distress caused by the perceived inadequacy of quality connection to team

The Benefits Of When Everyone Leads

Today's FLASHBACK to earlier in the year: It’s only January and the new book, When Everyone Leads , could likely be my pick for the best new leadership book of 2023. It’s that good. There’s still nearly a whole year ahead of us so we’ll see what other books debut. In the meantime, add this book to your must-read list. You’ll learn that: Leadership is an activity, not a position. Leadership is mobilizing others to make progress on the most important challenges. Leadership is interactive, risky and experimental. Leadership comes in moments. Leadership is always about change. When Everyone Leads , by Ed O’Malley and Julia Fabris McBride , presents a revolutionary approach to leadership; not based on position or authority, but an activity that anybody can undertake by learning to spot opportunities for improvement and taking the initiative to engage others. “It can be unfamiliar and uncomfortable, but in a culture where everyone leads, organizations start to make progress on

A Playbook For How Women Advance Within Business

Describing the new book, In Her Own Voice , by Jennifer McCollum , Anne Chow (former CEO of AT&T Business) says that “for women, the book does a beautiful job of explaining not just what to do to advance in your career, but also what to expect. For leaders, it helps you recognize the gap between what you think women seeking advancement want and what they really need.” Chow adds, “the book is based on the experiences of tens of thousands of women, with guidance that is applicable to every one of us, no matter where we are on our own unique journey.” McCollum divides her book into three parts: Understanding the hurdles to women’s advancement Overcoming the hurdles Eliminating the hurdles She professes that women have unique gifts and abilities. “Businesses need talented women, now more than ever. We need to do everything possible to engage, develop, and inspire them—and to advance them into leadership roles, all the way to the C-suite and board positions, if they so c

How To Be An Inclusive Leader

“No matter your title, or how advanced you already consider yourself to be as an inclusive leader, I believe this book will help you evolve and motivate you to take action,” says Jennifer Brown about her book, How To be An Inclusive Leader: Your Role In Creating Cultures Of Belonging Where Everyone Can Thrive . The book is the second edition of the bestselling title from 2021. This newest installment includes a new introduction and addresses challenges posed by the pandemic—including remote work, flexibility, and mental health. “It also gives increased attention to embedding equity, empathy, and anti-racism in the inclusive leader framework,” shares Brown. “I’m proud that this second edition will help leaders and organizations respond to the changes unfolding around us in relevant, culturally competent ways and take action to address systemic inequities that persist in the workplace.” In her book, Brown explores how power and authority are changing fundamentally. She explains tha

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog