Employee Engagement

Employee engagement means giving people the ability to directly participate in, influence and improve their work. Engagement leads to commitment. People are happier and have a greater sense of ownership. This is not easy for traditionally run companies where top-down control is prevalent.

Employee engagement requires a process that incorporates *basic human needs into the way work is done. These include:

• The power to make decisions
• The ability to control outcomes, and
• A sense of being part of something bigger.

In an operational excellence context, engagement is accomplished with a framework of engagement structures like the Executive Steering Committee and the Lean Daily Management System®.

Employee engagement is not…

Once per quarter big group meetings, coffee talks, taking people to lunch, etc. While communication is good, group dynamics mean that often communication is one-way: top down. For real engagement to happen, people must be able to directly participate in the outcomes of their own work.

*For more on basic human needs, read about Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs

Employee Participation: 5 Ways to Boost Engagement

Why Leaders Don’t Pursue Employee Engagement