Employee engagement has been an area of focus for organizations for quite some time. Low engagement rates, which is common place, impacts productivity, presenteeism, retention and more. It’s important to understand the manager/leader’s role in driving engagement. In fact, Gallup finds that 70% of a team’s engagement is influenced by managers. There are many definitions of employee engagement. Kevin Kruse describes it as “the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.”

Staying Connected

How are you as a leader focusing on employee engagement, or more importantly, maintaining connection with your direct reports and helping them to feel that they are contributing in meaningful ways? Or, if you are not managing others, how do you feel your organization’s leaders are helping you to feel connected, engaged, and involved in the successes of the team and the overall business?

Connecting with a Remote Workforce

With many organizations having shifted to a remote work environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a new focus on how to help employees feel connected has emerged. In companies that are working mostly or fully remote, there is a lack of unplanned interaction, such as running into someone in a common location in the workplace, thus finding new ways to create interaction is necessary.

I have heard most from many of the leaders with whom I work that engaging employees when working remote is “hard”. Everyone has unique needs. Leaders need to spend time learning these individual needs early – and if they haven’t yet, they need to do so. It’s important to tune into each direct report as an individual – how they are doing with work AND how they are doing personally. When focusing on the work, time spent connecting with your employees is not just about their updates and how they are contributing to the team’s success. It’s also important to keep them connected to updates with the organization to keep them emotionally connected.

Of course, companies also need to bring their broader organization together to help them feel connected as a whole, but this will not happen as often as the one-on-one check-ins that leaders need to invest in with their reports.

I’ve also heard the challenge from my clients in leadership roles that they don’t want to “bother” their direct reports. As such, they are meeting less frequently. One of my clients, mentioned that her direct supervisor checks in once a month at most, and typically the check ins are through email. How does this client feel you might be wondering? This client is looking to leave the organization! Disengagement is a result of this lack of attention from the direct supervisor.

Ways to Drive Connection and Engagement

What can organizations do to help drive a more connected and engaged workforce – now? A few ideas include:

1. Ensure people managers know the importance of regular check-ins (one-on-one and as a team)
2. Help managers learn that understanding the unique needs of their direct reports will help them to tailor their approach to how often to connect, and how best to connect (email, phone, video conference such as zoom)
3. Create a culture of transparency, open and honest communication and feedback.
4. Encourage ERGs (employee resource groups) or other opportunities to create peer networking groups or other types of forums to provide spaces for employees to gather, share, learn, and create together. Also, gatherings to have fun together!
5. Invest in your leaders to ensure they are equipped to not only create a safe space for their direct reports, but also to engage them through various means (including the above suggestions) and to model this behavior to drive change in the organization.

I partner with organizations to help their leaders achieve results and help them to engage and retain their talent. If this is an area of opportunity for you or your organization, let’s connect.

“When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.” – Simon Sinek