3 Disturbing Employee Engagement Trends and 4 Ways to Turn The Process Upside Down

Recent Trends Mean HR Needs to Turn the Employee Engagement Process Upside Down

Most Human Resource and Talent Management Leaders are convinced of the importance of employee engagement to increase productivity and retention. But many are not aware of three disturbing employee engagement trends reported in a recent survey by Bain & Company that make it clear that HR must turn the employee engagement process upside down to get lasting results:

• Employee Tenure
  The first of the disturbing employee engagement trends showed engagement tends to decline with tenure so your longer-term employees are, on average, less engaged than your newer employees.
• Job Title
  The second disturbing trend showed engagement decreases as you move down the org chart so lower level and front line workers care less on average than more senior employees.
• Sales and Service
  The third of the disturbing employee engagement trends showed sales and service employees who have the most contact with customers are, on average, the least engaged of all employee groups.  This is a tough employee engagement trend for any company looking to build a customer-centric culture.

The Impact of the Employee Engagement Trends
Just think about what an impact these employee engagement trends have, not only on your productivity and turnover, but also on those who keep you in business — your customers.

After twenty five years of assessing organizational culture and leading in the field of employee engagement training we advocate that you turn your employee engagement process upside down to truly help employees be advocates, give extra discretionary effort, and intend to stay over the long-haul.

How to Turn the Employee Engagement Process Upside Down to Get Lasting Results

1. Line Leaders
   Make employee engagement the responsibility of line managers and leaders, not just human resources. Provide the necessary engagement tools, monitor progress, and manage performance accordingly.
2. Skill Building
   Consistently provide your managers with the communication, decision making,  and conflict management skills and tools required to have open and constructive two-way conversations with their team about improving employee engagement and retention.
3. Check-ins
   See that managers check in regularly with their entire team — both formally and informally — to assess engagement levels, gather feedback and handle problems while they are still small.  Engagement pulse checks can also be used to gather more frequent employee engagement trends.

   Listen to your customer-facing employees for their thoughts on how to keep their morale high and how to delight your customers.

The Bottom Line
If you are a talent leader, you should pay attention to these three disturbing trends and focus on engaging tenured employees, front line workers and everyone who touches your customers.

To learn more about how to turn the employee engagement process upside down, download the Top 10 Most Powerful Ways to Boost Employee Engagement