Employee Engagement: 26 Keys From A to Z

By David Zinger 

Here are 26 keys to employee engagement from A to Z.

Acceptance. We must begin with acceptance of the current state of engagement and begin to make changes out of our full acceptance of what is as we move to what can be.

Benefits. If employee engagement is to be sustained over time it must benefit employees, leaders, managers, organizations, and customers.

Connection. Employee engagement is created through caring connections with others in the workplace and connections to our work — stay connected and you will stay engaged!

Disengagement. Although chronic disengagement is a workplace scourge we need to balance engagement and disengagement to maintain productive work over the long term.

Energy. Energy is the raw material of employee engagement and those who master energy management have a huge resource to draw upon for their own engagement and for energizing others.

Flow. The ideal state of work is when we experience flow - we engage so completely in our work that work, time, and self are transformed by the experience.

Gumption. Balancing flow is old fashioned gumption - sometimes we just need to engage in work even when we don’t feel like it, yet this very gumption will act as the primer to experiencing higher levels of emotional engagement.

Human. Employee engagement is human, not human capital or human sigma or human resources, just HUMAN, period.

Integrity. Our work must stem from integrity and our connections with others is strengthened by our integrity fused with their integrity.

Joy. Fully engaging in work can produce joy as work becomes love made visible.

Keys. If we carry too many keys we can feel weighed down - each organization and individual will need to determine the keys or vital behaviors that produce authentic and genuine employee engagement.

Leadership. Leaders need to create vision, direction, and strategy that fosters engagement and also communicate this fully to all employees while also being open to employees helping to co-create the organization’s vision and direction.

Management. In many studies, the single biggest contributor to employee engagement is the relationship people have with the person who manages them so managers must manage their own engagement while connecting fully with their staff to prime employees’ engagement.

Networks. Employee engagement works better together - create a network of best friends at work, create a social media network to communicate with each other at work, or join the free Employee Engagement Network at www.employeeengagement.ning.com.

Oprah. You know how engaged Oprah is in her work, imagine yourself on the Oprah show and she is asking you how you engage in your work, how would you answer her so that her audience would take notice and be inspired by your response?

Purpose. Employee engagement must be directed at achieving a purpose for the organization such as: productivity, profit, recruitment, retention, project success, high functioning teams, quality, customer engagement, etc.

Questions? We are all looking for answers to enhance and improve employee engagement but never overlook the value of a good question, such as: Who is engaged, with what,  for how long, and for what reason?

Results and Relationships. Employee engagement works best when results are woven with relationships.

Strengths. Engagement levels increase when we know our strengths, hold strength-based conversations, work with our strengths, work strengthens us, and we move from listing strengths to fully living our strengths in the service of others and our organization.

Today. Employee engagement is about today, don’t wait for some magic measurement or better time - do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.

Understanding. Employee engagement requires comprehensive understanding of the uniqueness of each individual and each culture within each workplace - seek first to understand and demonstrate that understanding before seeking to be understood.

Values. Make employee engagement a value or promise to all employees that their work matters and makes a difference and you will see economic value come out of this value.

We. In the co-created world of work the old line: If it is to be it is up to me must be rewritten to, If it is to be it is up to we.

X-ray. We must get to the bare bones of engagement and avoid using anonymous surveys that at times seem to measure engagement but actually produce disengagement.

You. This alphabet list of employee engagement from A to Z will only become alive if you take the ideas from this article and put them into practice — did you notice the only thing missing from the Corporate Alphabet picture at the start of this article was “u”?

Zen. Zen teaches a person to engage with their breathing, their mind, and their world — as you let yourself become more mindful in daily activities, including work, you will find yourself becoming more and more engaged.