Debunking Employee Engagement MythsEngaged employees are without a doubt a tremendous asset to any organization. But as more and more organizations have focused on standardized ("benchmarkable") concepts of employee engagement, any competitive advantage that can be gained from it declines.
And so it's smart to begin asking, "What's beyond employee engagement?" Put another way, is there a more powerful way of analyzing and optimizing the human drivers of your organization's business results?
These are questions that we have been working on with colleagues around the globe for over a decade. We've learned that there are three widely-accepted "employee engagement myths" that get in the way of progress:
Myth #1: The drivers of employee engagement are the same across organizations.
Myth #2: The drivers of employee engagement are the same as the drivers of business results.
Myth #3: Employee engagement should be maximized.
It's time for the HR profession to move beyond its self-limiting notions of employee engagement and one-size-fits-all benchmarking. Doing so requires both independent thinking and a bit of courage.
If you're interested in reading more on this subject, Talent Management published our article, "
Debunking Employee Engagement Myths" yesterday. It's available for free download. It includes a summary of the research behind our perspective, along with the implications for the HR profession.