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'Engagement' Check : Commitment (Part 3 of 3)

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This third and final piece in the series is about the final indicator of how to work out the level of employee engagement in a workplace.  As we have described in Part One  and Part 2 , understanding employee engagement is about knowing the level of emotional commitment that staff, contractors and suppliers have to the success of the organisation.   Companies with high levels of employee engagement perform three to four times better across all key performance measures than those who don’t.  People who are engaged come to work to make a difference and as a result, they feel a strong personal connection and responsibility to the company because of the quality of care in the relationship from their employer.  This leads to greater discretionary effort from those employees which is in turn proven to be one of the most important drivers in overall company performance. Companies perform three to four times better across all key performance indicators Employee engagement is not the ultimate prize in itself.  It is an indicator of whether leaders have created an environment that allows people to succeed, as well as an indicator for whether or not there are issues with the company's leadership or culture that will prevent it from delivering it's strategy.  As written in the first two parts, there are three indicators of engagement: 1.  Conversations 2.  Care 3. Commitment  This final part on ‘Commitment’ is about how genuinely committed are the permanent, casual and contracted team members, as well as suppliers, to overall company success?  Leaders and managers should pay attention and consider the three ways to establish the true level of commitment within a team or organisation. 1. Are they advocates?   A company's brand is everything in the social age and there is only one brand per company.  In the past, you could market to consumers and build a strong brand that is separate from an employment brand that has occurred by having a bad workplace culture.  Likewise, doing great things for the community as part of a CSR program, in the social age, does not diminish the negative impact of poor sourcing practices, average treatment of workers or terrible customer service.  Companies have one brand and every customer, supplier, investor and employee is a critical potential advocate. Advocacy is a great indicator of how positive and committed a person is to a place they work or partner with.  If an employee is highly engaged at work they will speak with passion and pride to others about their experience and look for opportunities to recommend their workplace to others.  Companies with highly engaged staff have an outstanding employment brand.  How often are you seeing existing staff recommending people they know to fill vacancies or join the company?  Do they refer potential candidates to the company even if they themselves are no longer working there?  If they are a contractor or a supplier (vendor or service provider), what do they say to others about the experience with your organisation, do they speak with pride and if asked, would they hesitate to suggest others to go through what they have been through?  Also, if they are the sort of person who is also a potential customer or consumer of the product or service the company provides....do they still choose to be a customer?  Do they work for you but buy from someone else?  All of these are indicators of their loyalty and commitment, which is in turn an indicator of their engagement. 2. How long do they stay and do they return? The nature of workplaces has changed quite considerably over the last 15 years as we have moved from the Information Age to the Social Age.  The values, needs and opportunities of workers today, especially with the influence, entrepreneurialism and leadership from Generation Y, means that 'Tenure' on its own is no longer an appropriate measure of employee loyalty and commitment.   Employees don't expect or strive to work for only one organisation for their entire career, they seek lots of variety, flexibility and evolving work experiences with companies who they believe in and who value them for the time that they are there.  They do, however, expect to have a long-term relationships with those they have worked for, or been part of.  The definition of a 'long tenure' has changed from a 'job for life' philosophy in the era of the Baby Boomers, because employees will not work full time for a long time with one organisation as often as before.  However, it is still a useful indicator of commitment but from a slightly different perspective.   A good first question - How long do they stay?  But given that nature of work and workplace structures in the modern organisation, the other questions that leaders need to ask; Do they return for second or third stints?  Do they leave to take a step forward in another field or organisation in order to broaden their capability and potential, just to come back even better than before?  If they have left, do they participate in alumni or past-employee events because they want to maintain a long-term relationship?  Do they get involved with networking, because they still want to positively contribute to the relationship and do not want to lose touch?  If someone still working for the organisation needs help or support, do they still make themselves available to help out with questions or induction, even when there is no obligation, but simply because they care?  These are all good indicators of commitment. 3. Do they undertake their own personal learning? One final measure of how committed an employee is to an organisation, is the extent to which they undertake their own personal learning and development, outside that which is provided, supported or facilitated by the company.  How much time and effort do they put into personally improving or growing themselves in areas that relate directly to their role within the company?  What interest do they take in consuming books, journals or online content?  How often are they practicing skills and crafts, participating in communities of practice or even doing external training courses…all on their own?   Whilst it must be acknowledged that it is challenging for some more so than others to put much time in outside of work for personal learning, it is still an indicator of commitment and therefore engagement.  For those who do, their efforts may not be entirely attributed to their engagement with their employer, because a lot of people are passionate about learning and growing in life generally, but the fact that they are doing it, especially with other competing personal responsibilities, is an indicator of how committed they are to being their best at work.  The best organisations in the world have  Employee Engagement  levels of over 70% based on the various measured approaches that are available.  However, if as a leader you want to do the fast and intuitive check on engagement, the recap of this three part series means you should reflect and assess three key things: 1.  C onversations  - Are they talking, what are they talking about and how are they talking about it? 2. Care  - Are they proactive and curious, are they available and responsive and do they strive for quality and timeliness? 3.  Commitment  - Are they genuine advocates, how long do they stay and do they undertake personal learning?

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