With more than 900 registrants, TRACOM’s recent Employee Engagement webinar was an opportunity for leading HR and talent professionals to share their own perspectives and experiences on the subject. And while there were consistencies in how engagement was displayed or not displayed in the workplace, there were wide differences in how their organizations attempted to build engagement. Here are some of the findings and comments from the webinar held January 30, 2020.
Held in conjunction with Human Capital Institute, the webinar took a close and critical look at the sorry state of engagement. Participants shared their view on the subject including identifying those behaviors which demonstrate engagement. These included many practical things such as “being on time” and “fulfilling regular work responsibilities” to more aspirational acts such as “bringing creativity to work,” “putting forth extraordinary effort” and “energizing others around the company’s mission.”
“Engaged employees actively participate, ask questions and show pride in their work and our company.”
Conversely, disengaged employees were identified as “disinterested,” “negative,” “distracted,” “complacent,” “toxic” and even as “saboteurs.”
So while the webinar attendees can easily identify positive and negative behaviors associated with engaged employees, they still struggle as organizations to take steps toward greater engagement. Only 20% said they have ongoing programs to build engagement. One-third said they use a survey as their primary engagement tool with 39% saying they are “haphazard” in their engagement efforts and 10% admitted to having no engagement programs.
Given these numbers, TRACOM’s Dr. Casey Mulqueen says it’s not surprising that engagement numbers have stayed extremely low for more than a decade.
“Surveys can help identify issues and prioritize areas for focus, but a survey without action will usually make engagement worse.”
Mulqueen went on to describe practical training strategies that can boost engagement and shared several real-world examples. Learn these strategies in the on-demand webinar here.
