Wasting Money on Employee Engagement?

In my last post, I made the point that many employee engagement (EE) initiatives are a hoax.  In this article, I will elaborate on that point and assert that most investments in EE are a waste of time and money.  This may be offensive for those of you who are EE professionals.  In fact, when I discussed these points with a close colleague who does EE for a living, his response was “Are you out of your mind!”  So at the risk of alienating or angering the EE community, let me make my point.

First, if you’ve been involved in EE efforts for some length of time, you will relate to the following scenario:

A senior executive decides the organization needs to improve its employee engagement.  A small team is formed and they buy the services of a reputable EE consulting company.  The effort is rolled out with great fanfare, employees are strongly encouraged to have their voices heard, and there is a corresponding flurry of effort to respond to the survey results.  However, after 3-6 months, the energy level is down and the topic is rarely discussed in leadership meetings.  One executive expresses dissatisfaction with the consulting firm hired to do the survey and assist in implementation.  At this point, the initiative goes on the trash heap with other “failed” projects and is soon forgotten.

What went wrong?

Nearly every EE professional I’ve worked with has a similar story to tell.  You see, the effort was initiated on the false premise that the company could do something to “make” the employees more engaged.  Therefore, after the pixie dust settled and the consultant took their magic wand to their next project, the effort died (in some cases quickly).  The point of my previous article was that the decision to be engaged or disengaged is a personal choice that can be influenced by the company but never coerced.  When companies invest money to bring the latest consultant or guru in to “fix” their engagement problem, they are building on a false foundation and once the hard work begins and positive results haven’t started pouring in, leadership can lose patience and confidence.  As an EE professional, you can relate to the frustration of working with an executive team that demands fast results, wants visible progress, and then blames you or the whole notion of EE for having been a waste of time and money.

Don’t get me wrong – the executive suite has a lot to do with creating the environment for engagement.  But if you’re looking for employees to embrace their work and support the company, engagement starts with first-line leaders and supervisors.  Policies, culture, and resources can be improved to enable the engagement process to unfold, but if first-line leaders lack the training and support to be effective, employees on those teams will decide not to engage.  Any initiative pushed from the top down is doomed to fail from the beginning if not accompanied by an equally strong or stronger focus on first-line leaders.

Consider a different approach.  First review company policies, culture, and environmental factors to ensure consistency with the values and objectives of the organization.  Address areas of misalignment where necessary and enable employees to perform at their best under all circumstances.  For example, if your vision or policies state that you value innovation, yet managers routinely discipline employees for bringing forward new ideas, the disconnect will create disengagement.  Enabling performance is what the executive team can do best, not trying to force engagement to happen.  Second, start working closely with first-line leaders.  Make sure they have the training and support they need to be world-class leaders that employees admire and want to work with.  While this might not be considered “engagement” in the purist sense, the net result is the same.  Something as simple as communication training and coaching can go a long way to improving the effectiveness of a new leader.  Companies frequently invest in this type of support for their senior executives, but often, habits and poor leadership styles are already ingrained at that point and more difficult to change.  Start early and avoid the potential issues later.  Also help your first-line supervisors connect the dots between their teams and your bigger picture.  Give them tools and resources to have that dialog on a regular basis.  You might consider some illustrations or frameworks that allow these supervisors to speak to the company’s vision and strategy in simple, practical terms easily translated to a range of work activities.  If supervisors begin feeling connected with the company’s strategy, it will positively affect the teams they lead.

So next time you’re tempted to spend a lot of money to roll out a new EE initiative, take a moment and think carefully about your objectives.  Is your organization prepared to capitalize on an employee engagement effort?  Are your policies, procedures, and culture aligned and consistent?  Are you doing everything you can to support your first-line leaders?  If you can answer yes to all or most of these questions, then the added investment of a survey and some outside assistance may be a good investment.  If not, I would recommend you wait and work to address these issues first.  Save your money until you’re better prepared.  The types of things I’m recommending are usually within the capabilities and resources of the company – you don’t need to pay an “expert” to tell you what should be common sense. 

Duane Grove is founder of Connect2Action, a strategy execution specialist at the intersection of employee engagement and executive leadership, igniting innovation as a lever to accelerate your growth.  Follow Duane on Twitter @connect2action and connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+.  Learn more by visiting www.connect2action.com.