Employee Engagement: You Can’t Afford to Ignore It

“In this economy, the tables have turned. All the power is back with the employers and bosses…so I can finally stop having to worry about employee engagement now.”

If you’re a business leader and find yourself agreeing with that kind of statement, you and your company are on the hard road to misfortune.  To explain why, let’s first look at what’s really going on within your teams.

THE SITUATION ON THE GROUND

A recent Gallup poll found that employee engagement in the U.S. is at its lowest level in a decade, with only 31% of employees engaged. That decline, the study continues, equates to about eight million fewer engaged employees. Eight million! Now combine that trend with fact that this is an uncertain job market for workers in many industries. From the employee’s perspective, if they are unhappy in their jobs, and  they sure don’t feel like there’s much they can do about it, they are stressed, demotivated and unproductive.

As a leader, that should worry you, rather than embolden you.  These market conditions are not an opportunity to manage people harshly with impunity. Conditions are like the weather: they change all the time. But how people feel about the way they (or their peers) are being treated and valued by you will not.

The risks are tremendous 

Employee engagement always matters to your bottom line. You cannot afford to have high levels of sustained detachment in your sales team. It’s worth remembering the origin of the word engage: borrowing in part from Old English and French, it means: “to bind by promise or oath.” When you think of engagement as the fulfilment (or the breaking) of a promise, its importance becomes even more clear to the ongoing success of your business.

You put your company’s future at risk if you choose to not take seller engagement seriously. Low engagement is bad for profitability. It’s bad for deals. And it’s bad for teams who count on being able to work well with each other, led by leaders they can believe in.

And the trouble doesn’t just stop there…

Let’s say that engagement on your team remains a chronic problem. And you decide the solution is to fire the most unmotivated, least engaged member of the team. You might be throwing away someone who was once a top performer. What a waste! Just as bad: you might not get the head-count back, because of corporate cost cutting. And here’s the worst news of all. Even after you fire and lose that disengaged resource…you still haven’t solved the underlying problem! That’s because employee disengagement is a symptom of a problem, rather than a problem unto itself.

So let’s look at how you as a leader can avoid the risks and instead create opportunities to turn around withering employee engagement…for everyone’s benefit.

BEWARE OF FORCED FUN

It’s time to rethink those President’s Club winner circles and other “forced fun” activities. Few are buying in, and many just don’t like them anymore. They’re seen as dated relics, but to put a finer point on it: they’re somebody’s else’s idea of how you’re going to motivate people. Instead, as one contributor to a sales-related group on Reddit pointed out recently, the most effective employee engagement strategy is the one where the employer gives people the ability to choose from among proposed activities. Want to know what kinds of activities to add to a list for your employees? Ask them! Make them feel like someone is listening and that you care about making improvements to morale and to their personal success.

BE SMARTER ABOUT SALES KICKOFF EVENTS

I’m not saying you should avoid holding Sales kickoff events. Rather, be much smarter and focused about how they are organized. The worst of these events are those that get taken over by marketing, product HR or finance divisions without first talking to sellers to get their much-needed input. The worst case I ever saw of that: the showcased product was about to be sunsetted…and nobody told the sellers who had all shown up, listened to the presentations and started to build pipeline for the year once they got back in their office. What a waste of three months of work!

Instead, make a promise (true to the old meaning of “to engage”): every sales kickoff event must be organized and driven by those responsible for revenue generation. That includes the VP of Sales, a Chief Sales Officer or a Chief Commercial Officer.

RESPECT THEIR TIME

Among my clients, those with the highest levels of employee engagement also have the greatest flexibility on when meetings, company travel and team building activities take place. They correctly recognize the landscape of sellers has changed radically over the last decade. It’s much younger, more diverse and has a closer gender balance than before. All of those factors inform how important their personal time is. The simplest change you can make: have all company meetings run between Tuesdays and Thursdays…so no one travels in on a weekend. It usually costs you nothing to take this step—and it might even save you money. So give people flexibility where you can. They notice when you notice this fact.

MEANINGFUL MATTERS

If you’re going to hold a team-building activity, make it meaningful to the people you are trying to reach. Just as the great Peter Drucker long ago talked about the importance of the “Functioning Society,” it’s more bonding for people—especially younger ones—when they’re brought together to build something or to be in service to make a difference. I’ve seen companies enjoy big boosts to engagement as a result of holding a park cleanup event, or a furniture building workshop. I can’t say the same about those who simply take their team members out to a local bar on Fridays for wings and beer.

GET OUT THERE

Salespeople often complain their managers lack field experience. Or that their knowledge of the current landscape is out of date. Address that by (again!) making a promise to go out in the field with them on a set schedule. A good rule of thumb here is to spend nine days out of every month on the road, selling alongside your sellers. It sets the right example for your team, it better positions you to provide mentoring to sellers, and it helps keep your selling skills sharp.

SUMMING UP: Engagement is a deliberate act

Today’s uncertain market conditions characterized by record low levels of employee engagement: this is exactly the time to rethink how you connect and motivate your team with a sincere desire to make things better…for everyone. The stakes and risks of inaction are real and costly. Instead, you must embrace engagement as a deliberate act: making a promise to people in which they can see that they are seen, valued, and that they matter. That is how you build a loyal, motivated high-performing workforce that can endure any market conditions.