Over the past couple of years, challenging economic conditions have required organizations to tighten belts and do more with less. While we all accept these measures as necessary for survival, the added stress on rank-and-file employees has been excruciating. Leaders need to do all they can to ensure they foster an engaged workforce that will continue to move forward in spite of the challenges that lie ahead. Those that can pull people together will survive and thrive when times improve.

What is employee engagement?

The difference between engaged and disengaged employees may seem to be a matter of style or personality, but they are based on decisions rooted in loyalty and commitment to one or more levels of the organization. Disengaged employees not only negatively impact the bottom line, but they also misrepresent an organization and its culture.

There are three different levels that can be identified as locations of engagement in the workplace:

1. Organizational – Mission, core values and overall strategy of the
    company.
2. Managerial – Leaders and managers in the organization.
3. Employee – Front-line employees and teams

Addressing engagement at each of these unique levels requires different actions. The remainder of this report will examine the different ways leaders can address engagement and motivate employees to be more committed and excited about their daily tasks.

1. Engagement at the organizational level

Improving employee engagement at the organizational level is strategic and tactical. Before you can attempt to change your organizational culture, you first must examine the current culture of your organization. An organization’s culture is its unique personality: the company’s core values, ethics and norms. The mission, vision, and strategy of your organization are important in identifying whether or not the culture of your organization supports engagement.

After identifying and defining your organization’s culture, you will need to implement five different actions that will help improve engagement at the organizational level:

Identify opportunities
Simplify solutions
Take action
Hold employees accountable
Commit to developing your employees

2. Engagement at the managerial level

Recognizing that the actions of senior leadership, managers, and supervisors are the key drivers of engagement, the act of engaging should be a part of every leader’s job profile and leadership skill set.

Engagement may not be solely an internal motivation issue. There are job factors that affect the engagement of every employee. Ask yourself these questions: * Do I have the right people in the appropriate leadership positions? * Is leadership development an issue? * Is it both of the above?

3. Engagement at the employee level

One way to increase engagement at the employee level is to make sure you have the employee in a position where they can thrive and grow. This will result in greater productivity and commitment.  To survive the demographic changes in the workforce you must rethink your workforce strategies and transform your management and human resource practices to attract, engage, and retain workers of all ages.

Target engaged employees: A target employee is one who has a good fit to his or her current job, is fully engaged on-the-job, and whose performance exceeds your expectations. The target employee not only
achieves the goal, but has the ability to elevate the performance of other employees, team members, departments, and divisions.

Challenge and train employees: You may also need to think differently about challenging your employees. Research shows that managers are up to four times more engaged than front-line employees. This is due to the additional challenges managers face. Provide your employees with stretch goals, avoid micromanaging, and let them learn from their mistakes.

In order for employees to remain engaged, they need to be continuously stimulated. Every new experience you create for your employees is an opportunity for growth.

Bringing it all together

It is impossible to create a culture of engagement without knowing the personality and characteristics of your employees and managers. Leaders must be aware of the engagement levels of their employees.

Assessments provide an opportunity to learn more about each employee and how they fit into their job and the organization.

Effective managers do more than just supervise employees. They take responsibility for ensuring that an individual succeeds, and that the team, department, or business unit achieves expected results. Effective managers are like successful coaches who develop teams that win championships year after year.  Like winning coaches, successful managers are both talented and skilled. Of course, managerial skills can be developed through training, mentoring, and experience. But if a manager lacks natural talent, his or her odds of success will diminish significantly.

To keep your team winning avoid these eight signs of ineffective managers:

1. Poor relationship-building skills

Poor communicators forget that manager-employee communication is a two-way street. They talk (some more effectively than others), but they seldom listen. Often they don’t read subtle cues from other people’s gestures and tend to interrupt when others are speaking.

2. Weak leadership capabilities

Sometimes it’s tough to speak the plain but inconvenient truth when people really need to hear it. Great leaders can set an example; they walk the walk and talk the talk. Weak leaders are sometimes afraid to bruise egos – including their own

3. Inability or unwillingness to adapt to change

Change is hard. But effective managers know how to handle it. They can adjust to new circumstances.  In a crisis, they seek solutions. It’s often been said that the only constant is change. On the other hand, those who can’t adapt to change:

• panic when faced with unexpected problems and sudden crises; they expect the worst
• get stuck in reactive mode instead of proactively developing contingency plans
• don’t think creatively to overcome obstacles
• they’re reluctant to involve others in the problem-solving process, even when they have more
• experience or can bring a fresh perspective to the table

4. Poor relationship-building skills

Relationships – professional as well as personal – require some work. For example, good communication is a cornerstone of a healthy, productive relationship. So are trust and respect. Good relationship builders respect people’s differences; they’re tolerant. They praise more than they criticize. And when they do criticize they focus on the behavior, not the people. They’re

always careful not to embarrass other people. And they say what needs to be said – even when it’s uncomfortable to say it.

Aside from neglecting to maintain strong personal relationships, poor relationship builders:

• fail to respect the team or show appreciation for other experiences and view points
• criticize people instead of people’s behaviors. They rarely offer specific, constructive suggestions for improvement
• don’t regulate their emotions well, especially during times of stress

5. Ineffective task management

Effective task managers know how to establish priorities and make sure work gets done! They can see the big picture and break it down into specific tasks required to complete a project. They are skilled at assessing their resources, allotting time and materials, motivating people on the job, and ensuring that each and every milestone and deliverable is accomplished on time and on budget.

Ineffective task managers:

• do not ask for help when they need it
• procrastinate, especially when a big project seems overwhelming
• tend to blame others for their own lack of oversight

6. Insufficient production

Insufficient production can have myriad causes. It could be a simple lack of resources or funding.  It could be unrealistic expectations. Some managers lack the technical knowledge to ensure that production demands are met. And, of course, some people lack a sense of urgency, even on matters that are critical to the organization.

These managers:

• find plenty of reasons not to make a decision
• waffle, remain indecisive and show insensitivity about holding up projects
• are easily distracted, unreliable and erratic

7. Poor developer of others

Just like relationship building, developing other people’s talents is an art. Developing others can be hard work. Not everyone is naturally capable of delivering constructive criticism. Nor is everyone observant enough to make note of another person’s habits, including the habits that need to change. Being a role model or a mentor takes commitment. Unfortunately, not all role models and mentors recognize that.  They think their prot�g�s will simply observe and learn. But the fact is, developing skills and talents in others takes much more than just showing up.

8. Neglectful of own personal development

It sounds reasonable enough, but we’ve observed many managers who fail to develop their own communication styles, organizational skills or work habits. They might claim that they’re committed to the organization or the team, but unless they’re willing to continually improve their own skills and talents, how will they ever recognize how important personal development is for the whole team?

Capability refers to the skills, tools, and experience that a person needs in order to successfully perform her job.  When any of these factors are missing, there is an increased chance that the employee will underperform.  It isn’t uncommon for hiring professionals to overlook these basic factors, especially if a candidate has solid academic credentials and comes across as intelligent and confident in a job interview.  Furthermore, it’s no secret that most candidates exaggerate their abilities on their r�sum�s and job applications.

Diagnostics that help you identify if an underperforming employee has adequate capability:

a)Skills– Do you know what skills are needed to perform the job and whether the employee possesses those skills?  If she doesn’t possess the necessary skills, how will you help her acquire them, and how long do you expect that process to take?  Skills training takes time and money, and results are never guaranteed unless there is adequate commitment from both the manager and the employee.

b)Tools-Even if an individual has the skills and experience to do the job, does he have the tools to deliver peak performance? For example, a highly skilled and experienced web designer can’t build a website without adequate computer hardware and software. The tools don’t have to be the most up-to-date, but a system that crashes can be incredibly frustrating and unproductive, even to the best performer.

c)Experience-Just because an employee has the skills to do a job doesn’t mean that he has the experience to apply those skills in his specific position.  This is especially true for recent graduates, outside hires from different industries, and internal hires from different departments.

2. Poor job fit

Many people fall into the trap of choosing a profession or job that is a bad fit. We are who we are.  Our “mental DNA” is influenced by both our genetics and our early life experiences, and it is almost completely formed by the time we are 20 years old.  Rather than trying to understand ourselves so that we can choose a calling that builds on our strengths and aligns with our interests, we choose jobs because of peer pressure and societal influences.  It is important to understand a person’s innate behaviors and interests when trying to match him with the right job.  Know the job, know what type of person is successful in that job, and then hire others who have the behavioral traits that fit that job.  This is easier said than done because it is difficult to gauge behaviors in a job interview, but behavioral assessments can be extremely helpful to close this gap.

3. Fuzzy goals and accountabilities

Employees need to be very clear about their responsibilities and about the results you expect them to achieve.  Daily work and priorities are easily affected by the crisis of the day, new requests, or changes in direction.  Setting and tracking smart goals helps your employees focus on what is most important to your business, and clear accountabilities help ensure that the work gets done with minimal conflict.

4. Poor relationship with manager

Managers and employees who understand each other’s preferred styles will better understand how to communicate and work together effectively.  We have identified seven factors that strongly predict the compatibility between a manager and her workers: self-assurance, self-reliance, conformity, optimism, decisiveness, objectivity, and approach to learning. Assessing a manager and her employees allows her to use objective information about herself and her workers so that they can work more effectively toward a common goal.

5. Poor relationship with coworkers

There are four primary factors that harm relationships among coworkers:
a)Insensitivity toward others

b)Unclear accountabilities

c)Poor cultural fit

d)Incompatible styles

6. Health and wellness issues

Approximately $260 billion in output is lost each year in the US because of health-related problems.  Whether they are absent from work altogether, or present but working at a reduced capacity, employees suffering from physical or mental illness have difficulty performing at their peak.

7. Physical and environmental factors

Numerous behavioral studies have proven that a pleasant and comfortable work environment improves worker productivity and reduces turnover.  For example, indoor temperature affects several human responses, including thermal comfort, perceived air quality, sick building syndrome symptoms, and performance at work.  Researchers in Finland showed that when the interior air temperature was 30 degrees C, worker performance was 8.9% below worker performance at the optimal temperature of 22 degrees C.

Things are finally starting to pick up economically, slowly.  As this long overdue turn around gains momentum, one key segment of the working population needs some attention and nurturing, the frontline managers in your company.

Because of all the cutting, squeezing and lean operational moves necessary for survival, this particular group has been through a LOT of stress and perhaps even neglect.  Understandably so.

So, how to get them back on track, in a more positive place, with less stress and more smiles in the workplace?  And with the obvious business benefits of better retention rates down the road, less absenteeism, higher productivity, etc etc.???

The best information I have seen in awhile comes from my business partners at Profiles International.  Rather than reinvent the wheel, let’s take a look at some of the key points they shared with me and use it accordingly, where and when we can.

6 Keys to Unlocking the Potential of Frontline Managers 

The effects of poor frontline management may be particularly damaging at service companies, where researchers have consistently detected a relationship between the attitudes and behaviors of customer-facing employees on the one hand, and customer perception of service quality on the other. In service industries, research has found that three factors drive performance:

�         the work climate;

�         the ways teams act together and the ways that things are done;

�         And the engagement, commitment, and satisfaction of employees.

Leadership-particularly the quality of supervision and the nature of the relationships between supervisors and their teams-is crucial to performance in each of these areas.

1.       Identify employees with the capability and interest to be good managers by: 

• Using assessments to identify employees who demonstrate the behaviors and interests that will make them successful managers.
• Helping managers understand the core behaviors, capabilities, and preferences of the people they manage so that they can adapt their communication and management styles to get the most from their people.
• Helping managers develop the mindset that they will be more successful if the people they manage succeed. This helps managers become invested in the success of each individual.

2.       Help managers clarify their teams’ goals and roles by:

• Using these goals to create a personal dashboard that helps the manager set his own priorities that drive results.
• Creating tools to help your managers communicate these requirements and track progress toward these goals. Seek direct input from frontline employees in the form of employee surveys and 360� management assessments to determine if the message is getting through.

3.       When helping managers better understand the people they manage, consider these points:

• Human beings are complex creatures that can be very hard for the average manager to read, especially in the early stages of the working relationship. Ironically, this is when the manager needs the most help. A valid assessment process can be very helpful for an organization to develop a deeper and more objective understanding of its people.
• Helping a manager to understand his people’s skills, behaviors, and interests helps him build on his people’s strengths and mitigate their weaknesses. It helps the manager communicate better with the employee, zero in on the employee’s most critical developmental needs, and focus both informal coaching dialogue and formal training and development investments in the employee.

4.       Help your managers understand themselves and how they impact their people.

• Management is all about people, and this requires a high degree of self-awareness. Managers should go through the same assessment process as their employees in order to understand how their innate behaviors, interests, and skills either complement or hinder their personal interactions.

5.       Don’t assume your managers know how or even when to coach. These two action steps can help:

• Develop the fundamental coaching skills of your managers, and develop a culture of coaching.
• Help your manager understand his leadership style and motivation. Many of us have a number of key leadership qualities, but we still need feedback so that we can build on our strengths and fortify our weaknesses.

6.       Try to minimize administrative work to give managers more time to develop their people by:

• Thinking very carefully about the administrative tasks you assign to your frontline managers and be sure that they add sufficient value.
• Making the information easy to obtain so that they aren’t spending too much time aggregating and formatting spreadsheets, etc.

Let’s get back to the frontline folks now before it’s too late – in a different, more positive way.  After all, they are the face of our organizations!