Increasing employee engagement through culture
The cornerstone to any organization’s viability and sustained success comes from having the right culture, along with effective leadership that fosters safety, empowerment, and trust in employees. Ben Harris, president of Production Solutions, and John Perell, director of strategy and member experience at the Smithsonian Institution, reviewed the latest scientific research and corporate success stories to explain ways in which leaders, managers, and team members can effectively increase employee engagement. By making employees a priority and meeting their individual needs, leaders and organizations can drive organizational prosperity and profitability.
Employee Engagement Today
Studies show that 90 percent of human actions begin with emotion, while the other 10 percent are subconscious. How we feel and how we make others feel determines more of our success than anything else. According to author Seth Godlin, “Leaders create the conditions where people choose new actions…. You can’t make people change. But you can create an environment where they choose to.”
In this age of acceleration, artificial intelligence, and continuous connection, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the rate of change. At the core of it all is the human heart — the driver of optimal human performance, sending signals to the brain that reflect our current emotional state and affect our decision-making and ability to perceive. The heart is what makes work more human and helps us understand people through science. For instance, humans have two nervous systems: the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest). During our parasympathetic nervous system state, or our normal state, humans are more creative, can establish deeper connections, and sleep and digest better. Today, the age of acceleration has left us practically locked in fight or flight, constantly distracted and checking our phones.
The shifts taking place have had an undeniable toll on employee performance. Previous management eras in the mid-1800s and mid-1900s were command-and-control eras. Today, we are in an empathy era where people seek meaningful experiences. Millennials, in particular, search for meaning and purpose. Leaders today must shift from organizational needs to individual needs to achieve organizational prosperity, creating work experiences that meet the most important human needs of each employee. By having empathy, leaders can avoid employee turnover as well as challenges with employee health, well-being, and performance. An “engaged employee” is one who is enthusiastic about work, and thereby takes positive action to further the organization’s reputation and interest. These employees build better products, and take better care of customers because they want to, not because they are told to. Organizations that see years of exponential growth are not just lucky, but have succeeded in engaging their employees and meeting their needs.
Gallup has studied employee engagement for 30 years, and data has remained the same. Out of 100 million full-time employees in the American workforce, 33 percent love their jobs, 16 percent are actively disengaged and “miserable,” and the remaining 51 percent are not engaged; “they are just there.” Engaged employees drive 21 percent higher profitability, 17 percent higher productivity, and 41 percent lower absenteeism, whereas disengaged employees cost organizations between $450 and $550 billion annually. According to Harris Insights & Analytics, “51 percent of fundraisers plan to leave their jobs by 2021.” Below are the 15 reasons why nonprofit employees quit:
The Smithsonian Culture
According to John Perell, director of strategy and member experience at the Smithsonian Institution, speaking to employees like donors is key. Applying the same behavior toward employees will help inspire employees to stay longer and be more productive, and increases the likelihood that they remain within the industry instead of crossing over to corporations with better cultures.
What is currently holding back organizations from cultural change?
Fear of change
Staying so focused on net return that innovation is stifled
The mindset that it costs too much money to provide access to professional development, whereas in reality this is a fraction of the cost compared to recruiting and training a new employee
The Smithsonian places a high priority on professional development, valuing the work/life balance and prioritizing employee well-being and growth. It believes that culture is the single most important factor, and a culture of collaboration and trust is critical. Knowing that your boss, peers, and teammates support you enables success and growth. At the Smithsonian, leadership agrees that listening to peoples’ needs has created steady growth for the past five years. When the program began, its staff structure was reorganized. Since then, the Smithsonian has successfully secured the resources it needed, restructured the team, and established a happy culture.
Go-To Tactics for Driving Organizational Prosperity
Goal-setting: Work with teams to build meaningful goals, which are not the same as a job description. Goals help employees reach farther, try something different, move the needle, etc.
Connect the dots: Help staff understand how their jobs help the organization be successful, emphasizing the link between the larger organization and personal goals.
Let everyone talk openly: Don’t squash ideas; no idea is a bad one. Letting everyone express their ideas is important for morale.
Foster a culture of risk-taking and innovation, through dialogue and reducing fear of failure: The Smithsonian is trying to figure out how to foster this culture because its goals and measurements are draconian. Developing goals that say failure is okay and not punishing staff for not being successful are key. You cannot always grow, and metrics need to make room for failure.
Frequently revisit job descriptions and roles: Staff structures will change, and so will roles and responsibilities. How do you make sure teams are prepared for that amount of work, and that you have room for innovation to be successful? Consider hiring additional staff and redistributing.
Have fun: Be human and put your heart into it.
To enable employee retention and prosperity, Perell recommends the following:
Prioritize training and professional development.
Offer telecommuting and flexible scheduling options.
Foster a culture where innovation and risk-taking go hand-in-hand at all levels.
Invest in learning and growing.
Treat your employees like donors to create an engaging and inspiring culture that retains them and creates growth.
Leading Insights and Action Steps
Be intentional about the culture you want to be a part of: To advance and move forward, a target or goal must be established. Without a vision of the culture and what type of experience should be expected every day, the target or goal will never be reached.
Employee engagement: Employee engagement should be measured as a KPI. By setting goals and metrics, you will know the direction you want to head in.
Leadership is within all of us and everyone can do it: Psychology Today states that the best estimates offered by research are that leadership is about one-third born and two-thirds made.
See yourself as a coach and a culture steward: Shift to a coaching mentality by expanding your focus.
Small acts = big impact: Little actions advance establishing a great culture.
Establishing real joy at work can foster real team spirit and camaraderie. Joy itself is the most transformative of positive emotions and is infectious. With happiness as the target, joy is the force driving us there and ensures innovation, resilience, creativity, and connection. Companies that prioritize joy in the workplace are better positioned to apply the full power of their human potential to improving business performance. You can infuse joy into an organization by building a culture dedicated to the human experience of harmony, acknowledgment, and impact. Such actions fight the “joy gap,” or when you spend most of your time focused on driving results as opposed to driving joy.
"Lead from the Heart to Unleash Your Team's Potential." Ben Harris, President of Production Solutions; John Perell, Director of Strategy and Member Experience at the Smithsonian Institution. 2019 ANA Chicago Nonprofit Conference, 8/26/19.