This post was centered on leadership but I believe it is as true with our brands -
Engagement seems to have replaced "empowerment" as the Holy Grail of corporate relationship with people. We want you to be engaged with our company, our goals, our stock, our products, our website ... you get the idea.To couples all over the world engagement represents love, loyalty and commitment ... presumably leading to life-long marriage.
It's easier to make the analogy with customers. Think Tide, Ivory Soap, Kleenex. Many of us use the same familiar products we grew up with. But are there any employees (in Corporate America, at least), even those most engaged, who believe that in exchange, their employers will be equally engaged to them?
If you've ever worked on a team, chances are you've experienced some pretty dysfunctional relationships. While more pleasant, I've found it's not essential for us to form deep interpersonal relationships with the people we work with. It makes sense; we rarely form these relationships with anyone. Yet, sometimes despite ourselves, we can work together to get the job done.
On the other hand, respect is the one element a team can't do without. Team members can't give it their all unless they know the others can and will deliver (or at least give it their all).
But there's a rub. We don't all see respect in the same way. For some, it's earned; for others, it's a given, unless lost. It's shaped by our life experiences.
I was excited to learn that the large HR consulting group Mercer found the same result. The firm's What's Working study asked employees in 22 countries around the world about their attitudes and perceptions of 12 factors that contribute to engagement. You can go the site to download a free pdf of "Engaging Employees to Drive Global Success."
Worldwide, of the 12 factors, respect was rated overall as the one that most influences their engagement at work. It was rated first with employees in the US.
Not so with employees working in different countries. For example, workers in France and India chose type of work for the top slot. They found some big differences from country to country. For workers in the UK, being able to provide good customer service was rated highly but not so in Japan, where it was ranked last.
The researchers learned that differences in national cultural, the state of economic development and economic conditions accounted for very different answers. Organizational differences also have a big impact.
This means context matters. There's no silver bullet or cookie-cutter solution to encourage employee engagement. But if you haven't surveyed your employees about what gets them charged up about your company, it seems you can't go too far afield starting with fostering respect.
