Simple But Not Easy Questions About Engagement in the Workplace

Stephanie Klein, president and CEO of the Experience Factor, is a regular columnist for the Denver Business Journal. Her most recent column, reposted here, focuses on how an employee’s level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their work impacts how engaged–or disengaged– they are in their current position.

When your job is to interview people, you are inevitably exposed to many different types of individuals, career paths and employment choices. At some point in their career journey, many people recognize that it may be time for a change, such as a new job. This reflects directly on their level of engagement at their current workplace. Although everyone is unique and situations vary, an employee’s level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their work impacts how engaged–or disengaged– they are in their current position.

Engagement on the job is the emotional involvement or commitment to one’s work. In a 2011 study conducted by Gallup Polls, 71 percent of American workers were “not engaged” or were “actively disengaged” in their work, meaning they were emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and were less likely to be productive. This compared to the one-third of American workers who were “engaged” or involved in and enthusiastic about their work and contributing to their organizations in a positive manner.

These numbers speak to some significant issues with job satisfaction. Whether you are a vice president of a high-tech firm or a waiter at a local restaurant, your level of engagement impacts everything you do in your job. It impacts the customers you serve, the customers you attract, the money you make, as well as the people you work with. It even impacts how you interview and come across to a prospective new hiring manager.

People who are fully invested in their work tend to be happier, make more money, drive innovation and more easily find new work or clients or interesting projects.  When faced with challenges, they tend to address them more quickly because they are connected to the bigger picture of why they are working in the first place.

But the truth is that sometimes it is difficult to know if you are just having a bad month or have come to the end of a job and need to make a change.  The “distraction” of a steady paycheck, a tolerable boss or a quick commute could cloud your vision and clarity about your level of engagement.

So how do you know if you’re engaged in your work? It’s simple. Ask yourself these questions, adapted from First, Break All the Rules, What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

•             At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?

•             When asked what I do for a living, do I mumble the answer?

•             Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?

•             Do I have a close friend at work?

•             Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?

If you are honest with yourself when answering these questions, you will be able to better recognize if you are in a slump or need to make a change. If your answers to these questions are not favorable, it’s likely that your level of engagement is negatively affecting your work and your reputation with your boss and coworkers. So it might be time for a job change. Talking about how much you dislike your job without taking the steps to bring about change for your company or self is a recipe for mediocrity. And overall unhappiness will extend into all areas of your life, affecting your relationships outside of work.

If you are a CEO, a manager or a leader and tend not to be worried about softer, touchy-feely issues like your employee’s engagement, you will likely experience higher turnover, lower productivity per employee, lower profitability and higher customer attrition. You are probably less engaged yourself, and that ambivalence will reverberate throughout your company or department.

How can you turn the tide? Care more. Care more about the people who work for you and their individual goals and objectives. Care more about finding reasons to acknowledge your employees’ success.  Care more about identifying why their job counts. Care more about ensuring that your employees are encouraged to develop both inside and outside the company.  Care more about helping a reluctant or scared employee find work better suited to their talents.

If you do not want to care, perhaps it’s time to stop managing people and move to a role where you can be an individual contributor. Your level of engagement will likely improve! Eli Wiesel says that the opposite of love is not hate but indifference.

Change will ultimately happen when you spend too much time working somewhere or doing something that you’re no longer suited to do.  However, if you’re not proactive in addressing these issues yourself, you will be at the receiving end of someone else’s decision to make the change for you.