Employee Engagement Means Treating People As You'd Want to Be Treated

There is a lot of advice out there telling people what to do to engage employees. It ultimately boils down to something very simple. Engagement is about treating people as you would want to be treated.  It’s nothing more complex than that.

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Don't believe me? 

Consider this scenario. 

Imagine you're the head of a department at the company you work for and one of the directors has asked you to fetch the coffee. How do you feel? Do you ask your assistant to do it or would you be quite happy to do it yourself? 

Commands get results but at what cost?

What if that same director demanded you to get the coffee, making it seem like your job would be in jeopardy if you didn't obey the rules? 

You might do it, but how would you feel afterwards? Contempt? Mistrust? Desire to leave?

Ask me nicely and I'll do it, but...

What about if the director said to you: ‘we really need help today, Jason our assistant is off sick, and someone has to get the coffee. Please, can you do it?’

Perhaps you'd feel better at being asked rather than commanded, but you might still be a bit put out. At the end of the day, it’s not your job, and there are more junior people than you who could do it in place of Jason.

What if it was part of your job?

What if you had a rota where everyone in your organisation did the coffee run once a month. The ethos being that nothing is beneath any employee whatever role they get into. It keeps you grounded.

Perhaps this would feel more comfortable because it spreads the responsibility, but maybe you'd be thinking 'why do I have to waste my valuable time doing pointless things like getting the coffee?'

What if it was the norm...

What if the CEO said to you, Jason is off, and we really need coffee, but the marketing team are in the middle of getting that roadshow finished for kick off tomorrow. I’m off to get the coffee, but I could get it done in half the time with your help. Would you mind giving me a hand? 

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How do you feel? Motivated to get the job done? Happy to help? Inspired by the down to earth nature of your CEO? I know I'd be all of those things. 

Why does it work?

Sadly in today's working world senior employees who are prepared to muck in with anything that needs doing are hard to come by. Fortunately, these types of managers are on the rise but there is still a long way to go.

Luckily people are beginning to recognise that managers who get involved in the everyday running of the business have more engaged employees. People feel connected to the leadership, and because they see senior people getting involved they are more likely to do the same themselves when faced with a similar situation. The senior folk set the example for how others will be treated. 

Suddenly fetching the coffee doesn’t seem like such a big deal does it...