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Does crisis change employee engagement? Print E-mail

Research completed before the economic crisis began stated that approximately 71% of employees are not fully engaged in their work. These employees were more interested in what they could take from their jobs than what they could give. 

Now that jobs are more precious, some managers have noticed some employees are less likely to miss work or be late on projects. However, are employees more engaged or are they simply scared?

I argue that the current fear is not enough to sustain the type of creativity needed to get us through the crisis and beyond. Employees need something beyond fear to keep them engaged.

Prior to the crisis, the #1 thing low contributors were asking for was more of the "What" and "Why." Employees needed a better understanding of the priorities and the reasoning for those priorities. 

If this was important before the crisis, imagine how much more critical it is for employees to have clarity now. Employees who are fearful are craving clear direction.

When employees have clarity of "what" and "why," they can make decisions easier, even when you aren't there.

Try a simple test at your next staff meeting. Ask all your employees to write down the top three priorities and reasons for those priorities. If they don't agree don't blame them. Just mutually clarify. And then keep clarifying.

The crisis has made your employee engagement efforts more critical. And the good news is that many of the levers that increase employee engagement are fully within your power to control.

 

 

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