Employers recognise that boosting employee engagement is crucial for creating a positive and productive work environment.
But often, this “engagement” is focused on something fun or intriguing, rather than being part of a wider people strategy designed to create the environment for the business’ success.
An example might be the introduction of a fun day activity. Once the fun day is complete, engagement – and, more importantly, performance – returns to its pre-fun day level.
We’ve bought morale. We’ve purchased a result.
If we want sustainable engagement that surprises, we need to invest in morale.
In psychology, morale can be defined as the “total satisfaction derived by an individual from their role, team, manager, organisation, and environment.”
It’s the feeling that what you do matters, makes a difference, and is noticed by others.
Here are three unexpected approaches to familiar areas:
Praise vs recognition:
Many managers praise: “Sarah is a fantastic agent, who always goes the extra mile for her customers.”
However, we could replace the name with another, and it would still apply to many of our people.
Recognition is much more influential than praise. Recognition is personal, specific, and emotive. It identifies what Sarah did, the impact and, if possible, how it made the recogniser feel.
“Thank you for helping with the service project on Tuesday, Sarah. You doing that meant I had more time to invest in coaching the team, which has already seen them start to grow together. I really appreciate it.”
Impromptu awards:
When was the last time you were surprised and delighted with something unexpected? Catching people doing something right with a small token of appreciation can be incredibly powerful – particularly when it’s not linked to an existing performance indicator.
For example, rather than using an NPS score value, highlight the phrase(s) that created a great customer experience. Look for and recognise the behaviour that led to the performance, rather than the performance itself.
Ask for help:
We all need advice or a different set of eyes on a challenge. Why not ask your people for their thoughts on how they would approach a particular issue?
It might not be appropriate to delegate the task entirely. But asking for (and valuing) feedback from colleagues, peers and direct reports reinforces the message that you recognise them and their views.
By investing a little more time and thought into these three small areas, we help to develop sustainable engagement and morale.
