The UK is returning to work after the combination of Easter and May Bank Holiday. There will be a good few people I am sure, wishing that they didn't have to go to work today for their current employer! My daughter,was one of them. She is a classic gen Y, and while she works hard, put in the hours and has good performance reviews for her employer (a global PLC), she is not engaged in any way shape or form!
I meet and talk to HR and recruitment teams for companies large and small, and many of them believe that they have an engaged workforce. But what is the reality? And quite frankly, without expensive employee engagement surveys, is it even possible to measure it accurately?
I came across a blog post on MindFlash and liked the way that they break down employee engagement into five levels, shown below:
I love the definition of the middle ground of engaged employees - Hamsters - they spin their wheels on the non-essential tasks! [people who have medium to high satisfaction with their employer that have a low contribution level]
So where do you sit in the scale of 1 to 5? >> Go on, be honest with yourself!
Can you honestly say you're fully engaged with your employer and happy with your work? If you are 'Crashed and Burned' or 'Disengaged' , are you even going to do anything about it?
Employee engagement should be a core business strategy. Personally, I am not convinced that the majority of companies even think about it, and of course then wonder why they have a staff retention issue.
So, back to my daughter. What's she doing about it? She is gen Y employee stuck in a very large 'traditional' organisation, that talks about being focused on its employees, but is ultimately reliant on the calibre of their local managers. If these managers are not bought into company philosophy on employee engagement (if there even is one), then what hope do the employees actually have.
You can make your own mind up, in regards to what she plans to do, but it isn't hard!
Do companies actually care whether they have engaged employees? After all for the past few years, they have been able to recruit people easily enough from the masses. But what about the future - surely they will be the first to suffer, won't they? And what do you do as an employee, with an engagement level of 4 or 5 (from above) - do you stay, know you are unhappy but doing enough to stay in your job, or do you do something about it?
Or maybe you are content to sit nicely snug in your hamsters wheel?
[For the full infographic from Mindflash click here]
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