Consider what it means to be engaged. It means that a person is involved, occupied, committed, meshed, participating. For me, the most significant attribute of the engaged employee is that she is “unavailable to anyone else” – meaning other employers.
When fully engaged in her work, her energy and focus are laser-directed to outcomes and satisfaction. Results become rewards, producing euphoric feelings that boost self-esteem, and provide a sense of control over one’s destiny. Engaged workers believe that the grass is greener on their side; they wouldn’t think of leaving. They become a company’s strongest asset – one that cannot be wooed, tempted or stolen.
Any discussion of employee engagement must include recognition of employees as human beings – human beings with lives, problems and challenges that will and do affect their performance in the workplace. Unfortunately, many business leaders were raised in an environment where life was supposed to be separated from work, with the personal and professional lives stored in neat, non-intersecting compartments. It has only been recently that managers were given permission to admit emotions and acknowledge that personal lives impact the workplace.
Engaged people drive the success of an enterprise. Companies are only as good as their people, because companies are their people.
How are you differentiating between the engaged and the disengaged?
