Why Employees Resent True Engagement

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 by Martha Forlines & Thad Green

Employees Resent Engagement

Recap of Leader Quick Tip: A truly engaged workforce is not a realistic goal

Why?

EMPLOYEES DON’T WANT TO BE TRULY ENGAGED! At least most of them don’t.

Being truly engaged isn’t worth the effort. Sure the company benefits from heightened employee engagement, but seldom do employees.

At least not in equal measure to what they give.

And besides, employees have a life outside of work. Getting more engaged means getting more work. Every employee knows this. The more they produce, the more they’re expected to produce.

No, employees don’t want to be truly engaged. Why? It’s simple. Leaders tend to have a one-way focus, and it’s not toward the employee. An “employee first” perspective is hard to find.

So how realistic is a “truly engaged” workforce? The answer is NOT VERY, and not surprisingly.

True engagement is not likely until management adopts a “true two-way street” attitude. This is where “truly engaged” begins… not with employee engagement surveys and initiatives.

If you want to really tackle employee engagement, give us a call at 678.576.5207.

Tags: employee engagement, employee engagement surveys
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BSI Experts Lambast Traditional Employee Engagement Surveys

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 by Martha Forlines & Thad Green

Recap of Leadership Quick Tip: Engagement surveys are nothing more than employee opinion surveys by another name

Here’s how they are the same:

1. Survey items are around the same old employee satisfaction stuff;
2. Engagement surveys are completed anonymously too;
3. Data continue to be aggregated for reporting;
4. Survey results continue to show problems that are too pervasive, too elusive, too demanding, too costly, and too easy to let slide and
5. Good intentions to take action (based on results) lose momentum like usual.

Perhaps the biggest issue, aside from the surveys themselves, is this: If managers haven’t been held accountable to lead effectively in the past, who is going to hold them accountable now?
So what’s a leader to do, if you want to crank up employee engagement a notch or two on your team…

Call us for proven engagement solutions that work for your team or larger organization at 678-576-5207.

Martha Forlines and Thad Green

Tags: employee engagement, executive coaching, Executive Leadership, performance
Posted in Employee Performance, Executive Leadership | No Comments »