Why You're Really Struggling With Employee Engagement

And what you can do about it

Every business leader is thinking about engagement. How to get it. How to keep it. Especially with the pressures on workplace structures like remote and hybrid work.

Why?

An engaged workforce is more motivated and able to achieve the exceptional results that businesses need to survive. Particularly in times of economic uncertainty, like those we face now.

How Do We Measure Engagement?

Traditionally we send out long anonymous surveys to identify employee satisfaction on the key engagement drivers, among them:

• Alignment to purpose & meaning
• Leadership
• Autonomy
• Job satisfaction
• Role clarity
• Belonging
• A sense of achievement
• Career development opportunities
• Company culture

Regardless of your view on the efficacy of engagement surveys, and your preferred method of collecting feedback, we do still need to measure engagement.

However, I think that something is missing from the discussion of engagement.

Maslow May Have Been Right

There are probably few people who have not seen or heard about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Here is the graphic that most of us associate with this model:

Maslow’s model describes 5 levels of needs from the most basic – Security – to the most advanced – Self-Actualisation. And from an organisational perspective, employees who feel a high level of belonging and who work within a culture that builds esteem, are most likely to be able to move towards the space of self-actualisation where they access their full potential.

And having a workforce that operates consistently at their full potential can only be a powerful place for any business. This is where your people drive the long-term success of your business.

But the truth is few people achieve this place of self-actualisation, especially in the workplace.

Why Does This Matter?

Why I believe that we should revisit this model is because as human beings, we have been and are facing a significant level of change and uncertainty over the last few years. And in my opinion, this uncertainly has impacted everyone’s most basic needs – physiological and safety.

From a physiological perspective:

We have been faced with topics of shortages of necessities. Many regions and countries face water , food, and power shortages. Some regions have been hit with devastating natural disasters. Not to mention wars. These issues can directly impact our ability to meet our physiological needs, or at least our perceived ability to meet these in the long term.

And even if we have not been personally impacted by these issues, we know about them.

We know that they happen. And we know that they could happen to us. So, we are not as physiologically secure as we thought we were.

From a safety perspective, the same applies:

Since the advent of the COVID19, with the accompanying economic pressures leading to business restructurings, employees feel less secure that ever. The many people who lost their jobs during and since the global lockdowns and who have struggled to find employment are testament to this.

That employees are more aware than ever that businesses have a financial imperative that is at odds with the need for job security is not in doubt.

If you buy into Maslow’s model, you can start to see why you can’t access the engagement you want and need for your business if your employees can’t get their basic needs met.

What Can You Do About This?

As a leader or employer, you may think that you can’t address these fundamental needs. But I would argue that you can address these needs for your employees.

From a physiological perspective:

Your focus on sustainable business can help your employees feel more secure. Your talking about these issues and having meaningful actions in place to address industry-related sustainability issues can help your employees.

The opportunities that you create for your employees to feel like they can make a difference to the planet is important. Even though you probably cannot reverse environmental climate change as one business, 2 things are true:

1. If every business truly invested here, we would see an environmental impact; and,
2. Having serious intentions around environmental impact will also create a climate change within your business

From a safety perspective:

While you cannot guarantee job security, you can provide a level of safety for your employees.

You can provide them with the tools they need to build a career that affords them a level of security, regardless of whether their future lies in your company or elsewhere.

Providing your employees with access to the tools and skills they will need to craft a meaningful career with translatable skills is something you can do. But this means an investment in different and differentiated training and development opportunities. This means focusing on finding the balance between business and individual needs and investing beyond what your business may need more immediately.

This means encouraging your employees to think expansively and develop the skills they need to feel secure regardless of the where their current role fits into your structure and your strategy.

Unfortunately, in times of economic uncertainty 2 of the first budgets that are traditionally reduced are sustainability and training and development. This has an unavoidable impact of reducing employee physiological security and safety at the time when you need your people to be at their most engaged, motivated, and creative to support business survival.

While your employees are worried about keeping their jobs and maintaining financial security and safety, they cannot operate at the level you want and need them to. If your employees are confident that they can still provide for themselves and those they care about, they are more likely to operate at the level you expect and need them to.

So, in this time of economic uncertainty the worst thing you can do for the engagement you need to survive is to reduce your investment in these 2 areas. But what will you do?