Never Super-Glue, Always Engagement

Employee Engagement - big words in the HR world. 

What are the benefits? Oh, let me count the ways...

• Cut recruiting costs
• Cut long term training costs
• Increase productivity
• Healthier workforce
• Strong company culture
• Pipeline for succession planning
• Better customer experiences

You can see why these two words hold such importance in a company, however promoting, developing and enhancing engagement is not a simple thing and there are so many variables.

• Compensation
• Benefits
• Management and Leadership
• Corporate Culture
• Learning and Development
• Career Paths
• Work/Life Balance Programs

and so on...

I personally feel that management is one of the more important variables in employee engagement strategy. I've worked for organizations that automatically look at recruiting as the culprit of poor retention. As if recruiting can influence an employees dissatisfaction in their job a year after hire... 

Yes, onboarding is a recruitment function that is vital to retention, but people quit and stay for a multitude of reasons. Some argue that quality of hire is where the buck stops. I find this funny, because in a past position I was hired to upgrade talent, so I did just that. A year later, I was refilling the same positions due to attrition. I can distinctively remember saying, "I can bring them in, but I can't manage and retain them too". 

In the exit interviews we would get a ton of feedback on why people decided to leave. 8 out of 10 times it was because of their manager. Now, I realize every organization is not one-size-fits-all and each organization experiences different struggles. I think in this particular company there was a clear arrow pointing to management style and corporate culture. Incidentally, this particular organization did not have a management development program which is an opportunity sorely missed in my opinion.

There is a great book by Kevin Sheridan called, " Building a Magnetic Culture"  . It's a quick read and covers the idea that engaged employees attract customers. I also read a recent Gallup report "Employee Engagement Insights for US Business Leaders", where they also indicate that engaged workforces attract and retain customers, thus improving the bottom line. 

Now I ask my readers - what do YOU think are the key items to effective employee engagement? Do you agree that engaged employees improve business bottom lines by attracting and retaining customers?

Now wouldn't life just be easier for us HR practitioners to use super-glue instead of  engagement strategy...Ha!