Supervisors with Dead Batteries Aren't Able to Jumpstart Anyone

If your CEO were told that your company's best customer was considering doing business with a competitor, he/she would undoubtedly react in short order. But customer loyalty can only be achieved through employees providing high quality products & services. If your employees are a  significant asset, shouldn't the engagement of that asset also be a priority?

The results are in with more than 100 studies having affirmed the connection.  And you are probably already familiar with the organizational performance benefits of employee engagement including sustained improvements in productivity, quality, customer satisfaction & profitability.

In a study involving 9 million employees Aon Hewitt found a strong correlation between an organization's degree of employee engagement & its:

• sales growth
• operating income
• and shareholder returns

And the State of the American Workforce recently reported that companies with nine engaged employees per disengaged employee experienced on average 147% higher earnings per share than their competitors. There certainly is much to be gained by an organization meeting the few core needs of its employees & enabling them to bring their full capabilities to the workplace.

Employee engagement is the fuel for & a leading indicator of an organization's financial performance. It's not a nicety but a competitive advantage. So, the question is not whether to but how to instill employee engagement within your company's culture & achieve your organization's true potential.

A proven, three-step approach involves:

• at 35,00 ft. your leadership team defining your organization's engagement strategy & associated objectives
• at 15,000 ft. your managerial & supervisory team delivering on those objectives through their interactions with front-line employees
• at the ground level your front-line employees being able to voice their needs, expectations & suggestions

Creating a culture of engagement requires each level being clear on & fulfilling its accountabilities.

Step #1 Your leadership team defining your organization's engagement strategy & igniting its execution. Leadership & employee engagement are two sides of the same coin. Your leaders are in the best position to determine & then communicate:

• why - employee engagement is significant to your organization
• what - your organization's engagement strategy
• how - your engagement strategy will be implemented including the roles of your leadership team, supervisors' & frontline employees

Engagement flows down an organization. Managers with highly engaged leaders are nearly 40% more engaged than managers who have leaders with below average engagement.

Leaders should be sensitive to the soft 'yes' response to employee engagement - supervisors & managers agreeing in principle only. When leaders don't establish & take steps to insure execution, organizations always focus on the operational issues of the day. 

Step #2 Your managers & supervisors delivering through their interactions with front-line employees. Employee engagement is a pre-condition to & the energy behind employee performance - with supervisors & managers serving as the catalysts. Day-to-day supervisors should be expected to satisfy the few, core workplace needs of their direct reports.

Every interaction a supervisor has with an employee is an opportunity to engage & stimulate discretionary effort - thus adding to the bottom line. Engagement is built on dialogue that causes employees to feel their supervisor values them personally & recognizes the impact of their performance on the organization's goals. Daily, positive employee touch points is the model that effective managers follow.

Step #3 Formally & informally listening to your front-line employees. It's difficult for leaders to objectively know how front-line employees view the performance of & their relationships with their supervisors - whether these supervisors are engaging or disengaging their teams. But with employee engagement as a leading indicator of financial performance, it's a valuable leadership metric. Employee Engagement Surveys - if conducted formally, objectively & with employees' responses segmented by supervisor - can provide leaders with actionable information.

Ever wonder why your frontline employees are not more engaged? Research has proven that employees' feeling valued & appreciated by their immediate supervisors is the primary determinant of engagement. And supervisors with dead batteries aren't able to jumpstart anyone.