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...

Treat people with respect and they will repay you in kind

• What would you do if no one collected your rubbish for eight weeks?
• What about if your local doctors surgery shut down and you had to wait six weeks for an appointment at the next nearest surgery 30 miles away?
• What if A&E no longer existed? Or it did but ambulances didn't? 

Without our public sectors workers, all of this could be a reality. 

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Public sectors workers get a raw deal

In the last few years, the outlook for local government workers has gone from upbeat to bleak. Due to vast reductions in public spending, workers have had the pensions they've worked their whole lives towards slashed, there are office and department closures left, right and centre, and pay deductions from already low salaries.

It doesn't stop there

So often we see power get the better of people; everything becomes urgent because it will save a buck or two here and there or because 'that's what the rules say'.

I remember a couple of stories I heard around Christmas time; firstly, a worker putting tinsel on top of their monitor and being asked to remove it because 'these are hot desks now, you can't get too comfortable'. Next, news received just before the Christmas break - 'we are making cuts in your department and so all of you will need to reapply for your jobs, you will find out if you still have a role the week after Christmas'. Happy yuletide everyone.

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What happened to a bit of festive cheer? What happened to caring about your staff, realising they have feelings, families, lives, just like you do? Perhaps the tinsel on the monitor would have been a nice surprise for the next person at that desk, was there a reason to squash the Christmas spirit? Couldn't the news of job cuts have been left until early Jan, allowing people to enjoy their Christmas? We have to ask ourselves...

"Are people truly delivering their best work when they are being treated in this way?"

Perhaps not. 

Our public services have never looked in a worse state, the NHS is in the papers almost daily, premature deaths here and huge waiting times there, not to mention the constant hospital closures and ward reviews. Our care services are flailing, with frequent reporting of mistreatment across both elderly care, with reports of closing care homes and shortages of nurses, and even further concerns for vulnerable children across fostering, adoption and front line social work services.

Without cash what can be done? 

As I write this I realise that there are no quick fixes here; no easy answers or one size fits all solutions. But, as people working in the engagement field, it's our job to look for the small actions that, if managers take on board, could help staff in the difficult times ahead. 

- Don't let power get the better of you. An adult being told that they must remove tinsel from the top of their monitor because it is 'against the rules', is completely unnecessary and is likely to make them feel threatened and utterly demotivated. With something as innocent as this example, just allow people to be; it'll do wonders for motivation.

- Say thank you. When people are doing the best they can in less than favourable conditions, a simple 'thank you, we really appreciate your work' can help people to feel they are making a difference to a broader cause despite difficulties in their personal situation. 

- Listen to people. So often, when times get tough, managers become power crazed bulldozing in with solutions they believe to be best for the team, or best for themselves, in difficult times. It's when times are tough that managers should listen most to their teams. Those that have helped you get to where you are today are those that will help you in the future. They have a lot of knowledge so don't exclude them, bring them on board to help you to make stronger decisions that can benefit everyone in the short and long term. 

Small changes can make a big difference

There are no easy solutions to huge cuts in spending and, therefore, less money to pay our public sector workers, but small changes can help to keep the people who provide essential services for society motivated. Without them, we'd be in dire straits.

Maybe if our public service leaders began to see the value in the people that deliver these vital services, by showing some respect and appreciation for workers in these vital professions, we would have less of the difficulties we have in our public services today. 

I'm hungry, are you?

We're all hungry.  Hungry for information, data, updates, something to inspire and excite us... it's an epidemic.

In today's technological world, it's so easy to find your latest fix. We only have to pick up a mobile phone and we're greeted with a world of knowledge, where we can find out anything about everything.

How many times have you been in a conversation with someone and they say "hang on, let me just Google it." It happens everywhere; we're hungry and thirsty for any soundbite we can get our fingers on.

"So if we're so hungry why is it so difficult to get people to engage in your content?"

If you want people to read what you want to share the information needs to be:

• Relevant
• Interesting
• Delivered by someone who inspires the reader 
• About a topic the reader needs / wants to know
• Short and to the point - with regular headings / subheadings / breaks and interludes. 

"As a writer it's easy to get lost in the art of writing what I want to write; the goal is writing what your audience wants to read." 

In organisations, we experience a similar problem. 

We often misjudge how much information we need to give employees when changes are afoot. The message has always been 'communicate, communicate again and then communicate some more.' This is true, it is vital to keep people informed if you want to keep them engaged, but if you want them to absorb the information, make sure your message is succinct.

Ask yourself:

• Who do people want to hear from?
• What do they want to hear? 
• Do they really need to hear it?
• How succinctly can I say it?
• Will an image say it better?

Communicate well and your few words will tell a much bigger story. 

Are some people just unable to change?

A couple of days ago I came across a mini-film about a guy who used to be in the RAF. After many years serving he injured an injury that doctors said had left him permanently disabled. He was told he would never walk unaided again. He was obese and chronically depressed; there seemed to be no hope. The film showed his search for a yoga teacher who would take on his plight and help him to walk again. The film finished with him running in his local park. Somehow, he managed to turn his life around.

As I watched the video, I couldn't help wonder where he got his strength, both physical and mental. I wondered what made some people fight towards a goal and others give up and accept defeat.

I started to think about the things that stand in the way of us making changes in our lives; things like:

• Finances
• Education
• Confidence in yourself and your goal
• Support from those around you
• Environment - where you live or work.

There are likely many more reasons you or I could come up with, and every one of them would be a valid reason. 

The man in the film I described above had many obstacles in the way of his goal - to walk again - the major one being doctors telling him it was medically impossible. Somehow he overcame these obstacles. 

So what got him there? 

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When I was a student, I remember a tutor of mine saying to me "change isn't hard." I questioned him and said that change was hard and how could he think it wasn't? In organisations, we often see resistance to change and many times we struggle to help the people around us get past such resistance. 

He said to me: "it's not change per se that is hard, it's a particular element of change that is hard for that person." He meant that if we bundle all changes into one phenomenon we lose the nuances of what is actually causing the resistance to change. For example; an employee may have a resistance to using a new system in the workplace for many reasons:

• They don't know how to use the new system
• They have a fear of using particular parts of a system - perhaps a certain spreadsheet or application
• Changing their routine takes effort, and people don't see a value in why they need to change
• Changing means, they lose something they had by doing it the 'old way.

The point is, it's the detail about why the person is resistant to change that provides the insight into helping them get to the new destination. 

Think about a time when someone told you to change something, or you told yourself to make a change "I need to go to the gym more." When you told yourself to do these things was there an intrinsic reason attached to why you needed to change? Did you know how to make the change? E.g. what classes to take, or exercises to use? Did you feel sad when you thought about the time you'd lose with friends because three nights a week would be spent in the gym? 

All of these factors influence your motivation to change. If you have a goal in mind that makes your change effort worthwhile (and you gain the necessary skills to make the change possible) the change suddenly becomes a lot easier - and more enjoyable - to implement. 

The guy from the film so desperately wanted to walk again that he refused to accept his fate; he found a person to help him develop the skills he needed and his goal was so vitally important to him personally that he couldn't let it go. He had a sense of purpose.  

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In organisations, people often don't understand why change will benefit them, and often managers don't think about communicating the need for people to change in a way that brings them some sense of satisfaction. We all need to feel the effort we expend is giving us some sense of reward, and intrinsic rewards, namely: 

• Feeling they are committing to a broader meaningful purpose and
• Feeling that they are competent at their work, but are also significantly challenged for their ability,

 will always achieve longer lasting results and more satisfied employees.