Trends in Employee Engagement and Emotional Intelligence
As I began research for this month’s newsletter, I came across one of my old newsletters from 2007. In that newsletter I made reference to Ken Dychtwald’s book, Workforce Crisis, which had been published the previous year. In his book, Ken not only predicted the shortage of skills and talent in today’s workplace, he also wrote about setting strategies in motion to avert that workforce crisis which included, among other things, an entire chapter on “Meaningful Work and Engaged Workers”.
Interestingly, there was no mention of Emotional Intelligence and its critical link to Employee Engagement in Ken’s book. That alone tells you how much the awareness of Emotional Intelligence has changed in the past 12 years and that is the first of two trends, the increasing awareness of Emotional Intelligence’s impact on Employee Engagement, I plan on covering in this month’s newsletter.
Before examining this first trend, I’d first like to review the advantages for organizations which consciously foster employee engagement. What follows are a few excerpts from Ken’s book which I used in my 2007 newsletter for making the case for employee engagement in the workplace. First, “The workforce shortage will result in incredibly stiff competition for top performing employees and those companies capable of attracting and keeping top performers will thrive while those that are not competitive will fail.” Obviously that statement is as true today as it was back then and all indications are it will continue to be true in the future.
Given this anticipated competition for top performers, what was Ken Dychtwald’s key strategy for organizations to succeed in the marketplace? It was very simple: optimize employee engagement. He went on to cite studies which showed “Organizations which have a high percentage of engaged employees experience tremendous returns on investment”. As you might guess (and again quoting Ken from my 2007 newsletter), “current research found companies with a high percentage of engaged employees enjoying these clear competitive advantages:
• Higher customer loyalty,
• Success in lowering turnover,
• Increased productivity ,
• Higher profitability,
• Better safety records, and
• A significant percent increase in earnings per share.”
It was obvious back in 2007 that optimizing workforce engagement was a key business strategy which held the potential to yield significant results. So, one might be inclined to ask, “Did any one pay attention?” Apparently not; back in 2007 studies showed about 60 percent of employees in the United States were not engaged in their current roles and studies today now show 66 to 69% of employees are not engaged in their current work. (1),(2),(3) Talk about backsliding!
So, by now you’re probably wondering about the link of Emotional Intelligence to Employee Engagement. Well, here it is … just Google the words, “Emotional Intelligence and employee engagement” and you’ll get about 11,100,000 results and virtually all of them (at least everything I looked at) touted the relationship and benefits of EI on employee engagement. Not surprising, the list is very similar to the list from 2007 because emotionally intelligent managers drive engagement which drive all those competitive advantages. While I can’t go back in time to see the number of hits one would have gotten in 2007 for the same search, I think it’s safe to say there would not have been many. I find this to truly be a most unusual paradox when organizations know the significant benefits which could be achieved, but seemingly have done little to improve the engagement of their employees. Perhaps part of the answer is in the last article in my “Interesting Articles” lists at the end of this newsletter.
What’s even more worrisome is the second trend currently taking place in the workplace, moving from fostering employee engagement to creating positive employee experiences. Recent research by O.C. Tanner indicates that top performing organizations are “beginning to move beyond attempts to ‘drive’ engagement; instead, they are putting more effort into creating more peak employee experiences at work. By focusing on providing peak, positive experiences, and not just fixing the negative ones, companies can help employees do and be their best.”(4) Josh Bersin of Deloitte challenges organizations to “expand their thinking about what ‘engagement’ means today, giving managers and leaders specific practices they can adopt, and holding line leaders accountable.” Josh calls this concept one of becoming the “Irresistible Organization.”(5)
Why, you might ask, do I see this trend as worrisome? Simple, if most organizations still haven’t figured out the basics of employee engagement, how will they ever effectively compete for top performers who are looking beyond simply being engaged while work. According to Bersin, top performers are looking for “meaningful work; great managers; a flexible, humane, inclusive workplace; ample opportunities for growth; and vision, purpose, and transparency in leadership.”(5)
In closing, if nothing else, one thing clearly came through all the reading I did in preparation for this newsletter. While the organization can support or teardown engagement levels by the structures and policies it has in place, the employees’ managers still play the biggest role. To that end, we provide a full portfolio of Emotional Intelligence assessments which, when combined with follow up training, mentoring, and coaching, can deliver exceptional results by improving the emotional intelligence of managers which positively impacts everything else. Yes, in case you were wondering, Emotional Intelligence can be improved.
Resources:
2) The Ultimate Guide to Employee Measurement by Coburg Banks
3) Three Unconscious Habits Eroding Employee Engagement
4) Culture Trends for 2019 published by O.C. Tanner
5) Becoming irresistible: A new model for employee engagement – Deloitte Review Issue 16 by Josh Bersin