Why Fully Engaged?
My first introduction to the word engaged was probably as a child when a cousin became engaged to her fiance. I am sure I learned the meaning of the word to be a declaration of intention to marry someone. It was the planning time before the big event or wedding. Many years later, I worked for a chamber of commerce, and the buzzword engaged was bantered about in that field concerning engaged members. I must admit I used the word with great pride of being in the know.
The Power Of Employee Engagement
As it applies to employees and team members, the word engagement has grown in popularity for over twenty years. The issue of employee engagement continues to be a topic of discussion in the offices of CEO and managers across the country today. I must admit that I also questioned the productivity of my team members over the last fifteen years. But why would we examine engagement or productivity? BusinessWeek shared, "Companies with engaged employees boosted operating income by 19% compared with companies with the lowest percentage of engaged employees, which saw operating income fall 33%. What does this mean in real dollars? For S&P 500 companies, the author reported that significant improvement in employee engagement increases revenue by $95 million." (Irvine, 2009)
Data Over The Years
While 2009 data is considered outdated, this message struck a chord with business leaders. Unfortunately, the current data regarding the engagement of employees and team members continue to disappoint, encourage, baffle, and confuse business leaders worldwide. Most recent reports from Gallup, Deloitte, and other leading engagement sources say:
Since 1992 U.S. employee engagement has increased by 4%
The average employee engagement rate was 34%, with a ROCKSTAR status being 65% (Gallup Engagement Study) Disengaged employees have 37% higher absenteeism and 18% lower productivity, equating to 34% of employee salary wasted toward the organization's productivity.
Gallup reports, "After wild fluctuations in 2020 and hitting a peak level in 2021, employee engagement settled in the U.S. with 36% engagement in their work and workplace. Globally, 20% of employees are engaged at work."
According to the Work Institute's 2020 Retention Report, "27% of employees quit their jobs in 2020. 78% left for preventable reasons, such as scheduling, desire for more positive relationships with management, lack of growth opportunities, and dissatisfaction with compensation and benefits."
Sixty percent of employees interviewed by the Undercover Millennial are looking for new employment. According to the Work Institute, employee turnover costs US companies more than $630 billion. In addition, the Work Institute projects" that 1 in 3 employees will voluntarily quit by 2023."
The Mission Behind Fully Engaged
Some business colleagues discussed these challenges in 2019, and Fully Engaged was born. While the original team disbanded for other opportunities, some friends remained dedicated to creating better workplaces and celebrating the best places to work.
Ahhh, you get the name now, don't you? Our mission is to elevate organizations (teams and leaders) to optimize productivity by improving the work culture. As the owner, my field of study was leadership, training, and development. If you have met or chatted with me, you know I am effusive, optimistic, and a galvanizer. I believe everyone should love their job. Loving your job equates to understanding it is a calling. Are there parts of my job that I do not love? We all have those, but that percentage should be very low, or perhaps you are in the wrong calling. I equate the difference to something she read in the book GRIT by Angela Duckworth, who shared, "In about all equal numbers, workers identify themselves as having:
A job ("I view my job as just a necessity of life, much like breathing or sleeping")
A career ("I view my job primarily as a stepping stone to other jobs"), or
A calling (My work is one of the most important things in my life").
Our Mindset Holds Power
When we change our mindset and embrace our purpose statement and calling, "we can say my work makes the world or my community a better place." My calling is to help companies improve their culture, creating more favorable opportunities for their leader and team members' engagement. Leaders can create "Best Companies to Work For Cultures." These organizations care about their team members as people.
They care about the growth and development of team members. They encourage development around better co-workers, leaders, and humans. They care about team members' families and quality of life outside the business. They care about local, state, regional, and global issues. This creates a culture of engagement.
Avoiding A Disengaged Work Culture
What will happen if you don't invest in your people? They will leave anyway. OR worse, they will mentally quit and stay! DISENGAGED.
The employee experience, culture, and engagement begin the day you post a position opening and continue until an employee leaves the company. I was hoping you could pay careful attention to this message; I did not say that you hired the person that applied for the opening, but how the applicant was treated throughout the process makes a difference. Your company will be discussed in casual conversations, and your reputation will be impacted. My question to you is, will it be positive or negative? This experience is part of your culture. Everyone you touch learns about your culture through how you engage in communications and messaging.
Allowing Leaders To Thrive
Fully Engaged wants to provide a better workplace experience where you create the culture, live the culture, and love the culture. We do not want to be your forever consultant team; we want to work with you to build a strategy for your team of leaders and members to thrive. We want to give you the knowledge to continue to journey. We will help you develop the appropriate level of trust, understand and encourage positive conflict, embrace commitment, engage in accountability, and celebrate results. To optimize productivity, we will elevate your company, leaders, and team members.
Coming Up Next
My future blog posts may call out some of our local businesses and how they are doing to create a positive culture and employee engagement in our local community. Some of these stories may include clients or companies that know what they are doing in challenging times. So stay tuned to Fully Engaged, and for more information, go to our contact page.
