High employee engagement in a company is a highly desirable state. Engagement is closely and positively related to the productivity and high quality of an individual’s work and loyalty to the employer.
Unfortunately, the results of a global study conducted by the American research agency Gallup in 2017 (Gallup’s 2017 State of the Global Workplace) show that nearly 9 out of 10 employees are not engaged in their work in their organization. What does this result in? According to Gallup, a significantly higher level of absenteeism than in companies with engaged employees, and consequently significantly lower productivity, revenues and profitability.
Does the lack of employee engagement result from wages that are too low in their opinion? Not necessarily. According to Harvard Business Review (2018), 90% of employees are willing to earn even less if the work they do has more meaning for them.
And here, the intuition and personal observations of many managers are confirmed by research. Employees feel a stronger sense of meaning in their work if they have a sense of community, which is bonded by the implementation of a common goal and similar experiences. In addition, the feeling that the work they do contributes to their own professional development significantly strengthens the sense of meaning in this work. If an employee sees in their work the significant significance of an element of expert knowledge (know-how) that they can share, then a sense of co-creation is born.
A well-designed workplace and appropriate leadership lead to a situation in which the work itself becomes a reward for the employee. When, while carrying out their tasks, they have a sense of “full immersion” in their work, they achieve a state that the famous psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls the flow state. Traditional reward and punishment systems not only do not help to achieve this optimal state, but in some cases they can even make it impossible to achieve.
At Factor Consulting, when implementing development projects for our clients, we place great emphasis on designing positions and work tools as well as internal systems in the organization that will maximize employee engagement. To this end, we use the 5W principle, i.e.
- Sound (sense of meaning).
- Community (sense of belonging).
- Freedom (sense of autonomy).
- Growth (sense of development).
- Influence (noticing positive effects).
When designing optimal solutions for our clients, we ask ourselves the following questions: Does an employee performing tasks in a given position perceive the meaning of what they are doing? Does the employee see themselves and others see them in the context of the organization’s mission and vision? How has their role been built into the organization’s strategy?
- Does the employee performing tasks in a given position perceive the meaning of what they are doing? Does the employee see themselves and others see them in the context of the organization’s mission and vision? How has their role been built into the organization’s strategy?
- Does the employee feel part of a larger whole, and if not, what prevents them from doing so? Organizational structure, evaluation and reward system, information and decision-making processes?
- Does the employee have some freedom in organizing their work and carrying out tasks? Do the procedures and standards applied in his or her work position not constitute too rigid a corset, which, instead of supporting the achievement of goals, has a paralyzing effect on the employee, eliminates initiative and has a demotivating effect?
- Does the employee feel that with each day spent on carrying out tasks he or she becomes a better specialist, an expert in his or her field, broadens his or her horizons and competences, and even becomes a better person?
- Finally, does the employee see the positive effects of his or her work? Can he or she enjoy the fruits of his or her labor? Are they appreciated in the organization, do they constitute an added value for the internal or external customer?
