{"id":1040,"date":"2019-01-02T19:04:40","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T19:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/?p=1040"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:20:22","slug":"there-is-no-there-employee-engagement-is-a-journey-not-a-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/there-is-no-there-employee-engagement-is-a-journey-not-a-destination\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThere is no \u2018there\u2019: Employee Engagement is a journey, not a destination.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Can you imagine your employees looking forward to coming to work?\u00a0 Can you imagine them working for a higher purpose than just collecting a paycheck?\u00a0 Can you imagine them committed not only to discharging their own duties and responsibilities, but also to helping the company achieve its long-term goals?\u00a0 Can you imagine your employees so engrossed by what they\u2019re doing that they lose track of time?\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s the promise of Employee Engagement.\u00a0 And the prize for building an \u201cengaged\u201d workforce?\u00a0 Discretionary effort . . . meaning employees will willingly devote their maximum effort to their work because they <em><u>want to<\/u><\/em>, not because they <em><u>have to<\/u><\/em>.\u00a0 Contrast that with ordinary effort whereby employees put forth only enough effort to keep their jobs (and their paychecks).\u00a0 By tapping into discretionary effort, you get higher productivity, superior customer service, and as a result, higher profitability.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the business world has finally realized that Employee Engagement is good for the bottom line. Do you think you\u2019ve got the \u201cright stuff\u201d to build an engaged workforce?\u00a0 To find out, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Are we almost there yet?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThere is no \u2018there\u2019: Employee Engagement is a journey, not a destination.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>~ Bob Kelleher, author of \u201cEmployee Engagement for Dummies\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>SilkRoad, a human capital technology firm, did a 2013 study in which they determined that less than 40 percent of companies do anything at all with Employee Engagement, despite the fact that an engaged workforce provides the company a significant competitive advantage.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because Employee Engagement is not for the faint of heart.\u00a0 Building an engaged workforce ain\u2019t easy.\u00a0 It takes time, it takes effort, and above all, it takes commitment.\u00a0 As Thomas Edison once said, \u201cOpportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.\u201d\u00a0 So it is with Employee Engagement<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, of the (less than) 40 percent of companies that do give Employee Engagement a nod of some sort, many of them treat it as a \u201cprogram.\u201d\u00a0 Employee Engagement is not a \u201cprogram.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s not something that needs to be funded on an annual basis, nor is it something that gets a scant few minutes at the bottom of a weekly staff meeting agenda.\u00a0 It\u2019s a way of doing business.\u00a0 It\u2019s something that gets absorbed into the fabric of the company and its culture.\u00a0 It defines how things are done and how things are communicated throughout the organization.<\/p>\n<p>Another mistake people make regarding Employee Engagement is the belief that it is the same thing as \u201cemployee satisfaction.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s not . . . not even close.\u00a0 Employee satisfaction is about the quality of your group health insurance coverage, how big a contribution the company makes to the 401(k) program, and whether or not you have a ping pong table in the break room.\u00a0 Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with those sorts of perks, but they don\u2019t drive performance and productivity.\u00a0 Employee Engagement does.<\/p>\n<p>Employee Engagement is driven by the company\u2019s culture.\u00a0 Therefore, before employees can or will become fully engaged, certain characteristics of the company\u2019s culture must be in place.\u00a0 Those include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Challenging work<\/li>\n<li>Continuous learning and improvement<\/li>\n<li>Job autonomy (working without close supervision)<\/li>\n<li>Supportive managers and\/or supervisors<\/li>\n<li>A climate of respect and trust<\/li>\n<li>Work\/life balance<\/li>\n<li>Economic security (trust that the company\u2019s financial health is being well-managed)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, as you can see, there is a lot of foundational work to be done to a company\u2019s culture before Employee Engagement will take root, not the least of which is the company\u2019s hiring practices.\u00a0 For instance, are we screening for people who can work independently without a lot of close supervision?\u00a0 When we are hiring managers and supervisors, are we attempting to screen out those who might have micro-management tendencies?<\/p>\n<p>As we have said, building an \u201cengaged\u201d workforce is not something you can do overnight.\u00a0\u00a0 It takes time and it takes effort . . . which is what makes Employee Engagement a significant competitive advantage.\u00a0 If it were fast and easy, everyone would do it and there would be no competitive advantage for anyone.\u00a0 So are you going to ignore the trend toward Employee Engagement and allow one of your competitors to beat you to the punch?\u00a0 Or will you seize this opportunity to capture the high ground while your competitors are napping?\u00a0 The choice is yours.<\/p>\n<p>If you like the sound of Employee Engagement but don\u2019t know where to begin, contact us.\u00a0 We can help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can you imagine your employees looking forward to coming to work?\u00a0 Can you imagine them working for a higher purpose than just collecting a paycheck?\u00a0 Can you imagine them committed not only to discharging their own duties and responsibilities, but also to helping the company achieve its long-term goals?\u00a0 Can you imagine your employees so<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/there-is-no-there-employee-engagement-is-a-journey-not-a-destination\/\">Read More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,33,127,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1041,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/1041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}