The Work Well Project

Employee Engagement is top priority for workplaces interested in psychologically well workers and their environments. Not to mention excellent for top margin growth!

Employee Engagement is defined as: A work environment where employees feel connected to their work and are motivated to do their job well.

Guarding Minds at Work (www.guardingmindsatwork.ca) informs us of the benefits of effectively addressing engagement:
1. enhanced performance & productivity
2. high employee morale & motivation
3. enhanced recruitment & increased retention of skilled candidates
4. improved customer & client relations

Here is some beneficial info workplaces can collect to help engage their employees:
-staff suggestions
-employee surveys on engagement
-exit interviews
-measures of productivity
-absenteeism rates & turnover rates

Many of these strategies engage the “quiet majority - the vast majority of workers; workers who go about their duties day to day in a responsible manner, doing what is expected from the organizations’ perspective but not what they are totally capable of delivering. These are the ones that ask “what’s in it for me?” and will work harder when they experience a greater reward for doing so.

Organizational change must be a company-wide decision; a collaborative process with all staff involved having a say in the process. According to Nesterkin, (Department of Management and Decision Sciences, Coastal Carolina University), when organizational change undermines employees’ freedoms, negative psychological reactance is likely to occur at some point in the change process.

I ponder how this plays into today’s workplace decisions to return to the office post-pandemic. In my conversations with friends and colleagues, I am hearing that several large companies are seeing about a 50/50 split when engaging employees in this question and quest. Some an even larger divide than that. About 50% (or more) folks are wanting to continue working from home, and about 50% (or less) are wanting to get back into the office. We will see how this all unfolds…