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Date posted: 17th November 2020

17th November 2020

What is real, sustainable and healthy engagement at work?

What is real, sustainable and healthy engagement at work?

Employee engagement requires much deeper work than employee satisfaction. It is an active mobilization of collective energy, talent and willingness to do good together at work. It is not over-heated engagement, which might lead to workers burn out. 

Employee Engagement mobilizes people, not human resources. Healthy engagement is not instrumentalization. While a business objective requires it, engagement differs from the simple implementation of a contractual relationship. Engaged individuals are seen by their peers and their hierarchy, recognized, de-anonymized. They are respected in their full humanity, their diversity, even in their free will. Without the freedom to change one’s mind, to object, there is no sincere engagement.

Employee Engagement is about consistency of behaviours. It is not enough to mobilize people around an exhilarating higher purpose. All – or at least the vast majority – of the other behaviours occurring in the rest of the organization must be consistent with this purpose. Because complex organizations are made up of entities with different or even contradictory priorities, a bigger cause is precisely what should connect energies and align behaviours to create value. Employee engagement grows from coherent actions and practices. 

Employee Engagement mobilizes to produce tangible results. It takes place in a context oriented towards the effective advent of the organization’s purpose. A favourable context requires moral and material support from the organization, over time. If the gap is too wide between the organization’s stated ambitions and what workers actually experience at work, if the engaged individuals don’t receive support from their manager, if they are asked to change direction upon the intentions of each new leader, engagement can be irremediably damaged. 

From there, what can be done and what should be avoided? I share my experience and thoughts on WeNeedSocial.com Get in touch and let me know how you practice Employee Engagement!

Make sure to explore Inspiring Workplaces for other content and insights about Employee Experience & Engagement .