How to Make Employees Co-owners of Engagement

Natalie Morera -  5/6/11

Tweeted by Janet Symmons B.Ed

Having employees take charge of their own engagement may be the newest and wisest method companies can utilize.

Keeping employees engaged is a challenge for many learning leaders, but if an organization makes employees own their own engagement, the game may change.

The co-ownership begins when an organization states from the recruiting process that it wants and expects its employees to be engaged and to own that engagement.

According to Don MacPherson, president of survey technology and services provider Modern Survey, a company may further dialogue with new employees at this point, learning what recognition and personal accomplishment mean to them and how they want to be developed, then tailoring the engagement process to these preferences.

“This is where the empowerment comes in,” MacPherson said. “When your leader is not fulfilling the things that you’ve agreed on, you need to call them on that.”

From this process, the relationship between leader and employee turns into more of a partnership.

“This is a big shift in how engagement is talked about,” MacPherson said.

Kevin Sheridan, chief engagement officer of HR Solutions International Inc., a human capital consulting firm that specializes in employee engagement, said employees not co-owning their engagement is one of the core problems in employee engagement.

“There has never been a solution in place to get the employee to privately see how engaged they are and get tips on what they could do to become more engaged,” Sheridan said. “We’ve created this lopsided look where it’s always up to the management team.”

In addition to inspiring their employees to co-own their engagement, organizations can do more to ensure employees are engaged. If a company has a clear set of values that is known to all of its employees, it is more likely to have engaged employees.

“The reason why values [are] the most important is it’s almost an enabler for engagement,” MacPherson said, adding that if a company doesn’t have it, it’s almost impossible to engage the employees.

Modern Survey surveyed 1,000 working adults in February, releasing the results in a report titled “Employee Engagement in the U.S. Workforce.” The survey found that people who responded yes to the question “Does your company have a clear set of values that people know about and understand?” are 17 times more likely to be fully engaged than those who answered no.

How to Make Employees Co-owners of Engagement - Chief Learning Officer, Solutions for Enterprise Productivity