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Employee Engagement – 5 Myths and Actions!
Bob Kelleher & Stephanie Hogan
The number one reason why people leave their positions is MANAGEMENT. When you lose a
really good employee, it hits you like a root canal without Novocain. Don’t wait until you lose
another company “rock star” before you start to practice EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT=Unlocking your employees potential to drive high
performance
There is good news. It is not rocket science. It does require a genuine desire for a healthy,
positive company culture.
Here are the 5 biggest myths about employee engagement:
1.) Employee engagement is HR’s role.
2.) Employee engagement requires a large budget.
3.) Employee engagement isn’t something to be focused on now. As some managers say,
“People are fortunate just to have jobs.”
4.) Employee engagement is warm and fuzzy, and there aren’t statistics to back it up.
5.) Employee engagement is a trend.
If you are a little embarrassed to admit some of those myths have crossed your mind, don’t beat
yourself up. After all, you are reading this paper, so you are showing signs of effort. In very
simple terms, here is why they are myths:
1.) Employee engagement is not HR’s role-don’t roll your eyes-it’s your role. Looking to HR
to be the sole provider of HR employee engagement is another name for bad
management.
2.) Engagement doesn’t require large budgets. Read on for free advice, tools and
practices.
3.) If you are not active with engagement now, people will leave even in a tight economy.
The “war for talent”, refers to an increasingly competitive environment for recruiting and
retaining talented employees. It is REAL.
 You can let your guard down about engagement thanks to Mercer, Deloitte, Gartner,
and countless other firms that have provided statistics, research, findings and ROI
for engagement. You can visit our website and follow us on Twitter for FREE
resources (www.employeeengagement.com, Twitter: emplyengagement) and see
that it’s proven and real. You can justify in the boardroom what you probably know in
your heart and mind.
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
According to Gallup research, companies with high engagement levels are more
than 200 percent more profitable than organizations with low engagement levels.
4.) According to PWC’s 2011 Global CEO Survey, 83% of Executives list their Talent
Management Strategy as their # 1 concern.
5.) Engagement can be seen as a trend only when it has been mismanaged (and usually
not with bad intentions), introduced as a “program”, and generally misunderstood.
So now that we have those common, Debbie-Downer myths behind us, let’s review what you
can do. Here are 5 proven steps that you can start to work on this week. And in ten days,
you will have a better chance to keep a good employee.
1. Connect People’s Roles with the Company Direction.
Why? Every employee, no matter what level should be able to understand and
communicate:
“My Job” and “Where is the Company Going”?
“Where I am Today” and Where Am I Going?
You want your employees to ask themselves, “If I am ambitious, where will my career go with
my company?” “What career advancement is possible when I succeed?” You also want them
answering, “I know our strategic plan and how I am going to fit in”. You will keep employees
when you involve your people to help communicate the direction, values, and mission of the
organization.
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Don’t take turns delivering your mission statement during your next “Lunch and Learn with
PowerPoint”. What you want is innovation and FUN. Yes, go nuts with social media. Crawl out
of the dark ages and embrace other successful practices such as those used by Southwest
Airlines, Patagonia, Deloitte, Apple, Timberland, BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life), The
Four Seasons, and countless others. For example:
 Shoot It: Invest in a Flip camera (ranging from $84-$200’ish) to help to capture
people delivering their values, and hold a contest to vote for the most popular.
Have your leadership team participate as well, but encourage innovation from
all areas of your organization
 Brand It: Use social media to promote and brand (intranet, internal YouTube
channels, TweetWorks, Facebook)
 Keep It Up: This is not a “one and done” effort. Make it on-going, becoming
part of your corporate DNA
2. Trash and Burn the Suggestion Box: Create an Innovation Box
Suggestions boxes were created with good intent, to gather new ideas from all
employees. However, they turned into a complaint box with comments such as:
“The showers in the office gym do not have enough pressure”
“Hire a company chef”
“Redecorate the lobby with new curtains”
You are seeing the theme here and probably smiling to yourself, because you know it is
true.
So, step into the modern day of employee engagement and create an innovation box. Often an
organization can learn innovative ideas from its employees, those who are on the “front line”.
At ENSR, after communicating and rolling out “Innovation Lightbulb,” the company added a light
bulb icon to the intranet. The company was looking for specific solutions to help innovate. What
new things can be doing with Customer Service? What new product lines should we think of?
What technologies should we invest in?
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3. After Burning the Suggestion Box, Shred Your Performance
Appraisal Forms
Just hearing “Performance Appraisal” creates worry and a feeling of negativity. Of course, you
need methods to report any employees’ performance, but put the focus on results.
As a first step, rename “Performance Appraisal”. “Employee Development Plan (EDP)”
accomplishes the same goals as a Performance Appraisal, but doesn’t create angst. People
will still know what the intent is.
Secondly, make the process simple. “Keep it Simple, Execute Flawlessly”. Ditch your five page
form and adopt these “3 circles”:
.
The more you can overlap these three circles, the higher probability
that you will have an engaged employee.
To feel engaged with your role and organization, people need some of each circle in their
professional lives. Adopting the three circles (or insert your own, possibly more clever name) will
allow a manager and an employee to have a safe conversation about how the passions and
skills can best be applied to the company’s goals.
When using the three circles with employees, you should have two copies of the circles. You
should document their goals and performance from year to year. One copy can reflect the
years past and the current circles should be used for the review taking place
Simple, right? So get started this week. What are you waiting for?
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4. Slackers Beware: Create a Motivational Culture
Have you had the pleasure of visiting the Department/Registry of Motor Vehicles lately? Clearly
this question is oozing with sarcasm. That may be the only sentence you ever read with the
words DMV and pleasure in the same sentence.
The employees are usually miserable, the service is awful, and no one seems to care. The
worst part is that no one is doing anything about it. Why is this poor culture tolerated, even
joked about?
Don’t allow the DMV culture to be your own, Create a Culture of Achievement!
Sounds good? How do you get started?
Realize this is not a program. You cannot turn it on and turn it off when you get busy. If you
treat it like a program, it could cause dis-engagement.
•
Set Clear Expectations: When setting clear expectations, consider these areas:
 Measureable: Can your expectation be measured and how? If you cannot
measure something, how can you provide motivation?
 Relative to job success: The employee will always ask, “Why do I need to do
this inn my job?” Your job is to relate each task to the overall goal and success of
the employee’s role that will help the company reach its targets and goals.
 Remove Obstacles or Barriers: As a manager, it is your responsibility to help
employees to succeed in their jobs. How will you help the employee past these
barriers? If you can’t, who will?

Influence Behavior: You need some way to influence the behaviors you want. For
example, don’t ask your employees to come in early, when you stroll in at 9am. How
would that motivate anyone?

Communicate: Here are four key areas that must be in your communication plan to be
successful.
 Business information: How is the business doing – big wins and losses? What
changes are coming? How are employees, teams, and departments impacted?
 Opportunity for Input: Team members must feel comfortable to give their opinions,
be part of decisions, and offer solutions. This is a great opportunity for coaching and
helping them to make better decisions and suggestions
 Ability to Talk to You: An open door policy is only as good as how much the door
is open
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 Ongoing Feedback: Provide feedback constantly to let individuals know how they’re
doing, both corrective and reinforcing

Reward and recognize. The rewards and recognition have to be available to everyone
on your team. That doesn’t mean everyone gets them. Business is not T-Ball: You do
not get trophies for losing. What this does mean is that every team member has an
opportunity to earn and receive a reward. It is related to a specific outcome, not just for
a “good job”.
 The reward/recognition has value. One company used to give away gift cards
to the movies for certain rewards tied to results. One day a manager asked, “Are
you excited about seeing a movie with your husband?” She smiled and said
“yes, sure” but there was hesitation. With a little encouragement, she told the
manager that they need a sitter-and they can sometimes be hard to find and
expensive. Her husband had recently been laid off, so they were not going out.
This just goes to show you- that sometimes what you think is valuable is not.
 Take some time to ask and find out what reward or recognition is valuable and
reasonable for the employees.
 Instead, offer “A Menu of Gifts”. Employees have a choice whether they want
the Movie card gift, or cards to stores such as Home Depot, Target, American
Express, Visa, and a few more options.”
5. Do Not Use the Peanut Butter Approach: Redefine & Simplify Your
Compensation Plan
Avoid the peanut butter approach! When it is time for managers to dole out merit compensation,
you want to make a distinction between your “rock stars” and “average Joe’s/slackers”. For
example, if you award 2.5% to underperformers, 3% to average, and 3.5% to top performers,
you are at risk for discouraging your top performers, and not incenting underperformers to
improve.
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As simple as this sounds, as recently as one year ago a major internet company (who will
remain nameless) awarded all employees the same bonus and raise. Can you imagine if you
are the high performer, and your compensation is the same as that person, who does nothing
and somehow keeps their job? Forget about it.
This Four Quadrant Matrix is an Easy and Practical Way to how to
Compensate Accordingly
High
PERFORMERS
INVESTMENT
x
2x
TRANSITION
POTENTIALS
0
x
Performance
Low
High
For compensation or bonuses, plot your employees into the 4 quadrants, based on
performance, and potential, using “X” being an average award. Here is how it works:



Investment employees should receive no less than 2X on average
Transition employees should not be rewarded
Between Potentials and Performers, give the edge to the performers (likely to
be new or junior staff whose compensation will be related to recent, specific
achievement)
So there it is: 5 Simple, Employee Engagement Steps You Can Start on This Week! You do
not need a PhD; you do not need to need to a hefty budget to implement engagement.
Remember, this is not someone else’s responsibility. It is your responsibility.
Consider this:
If your firm has a turnover rate of 25% (about the national average) and employs 40 employees
each earning $25,000 annually, your costs of turning over 10 of these employees over the
course of a year will be at least $125,000!
ENGAGEMENT MATTERS. START TODAY!
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Sources
* http://www.businessknowhow.com/manage/whyquit.htm, http://www.hrmorning.com/7-big-reasons-people-leave-their-jobs/, The 7
Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late, Leigh Branham, (Amacom,
2005)
** PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2011 Global CEO Survey: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/pdf/15th-global-pwc-ceo-survey.pdf
*** Source: Melcrum “Employee engagement” survey of High Performing Companies: https://www.melcrum.com/research/engageemployees-strategy-and-change
**** Gallup survey of 80,000 Global Employees: http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/520/building-great-workplaces.aspx
***** http://thebabyboomerentrepreneur.com/258/what-is-the-rule-of-seven-and-how-will-it-improve-your-marketing/,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory,
*****WebPro News Technology, 7/24/06, http://www.webpronews.com/employee-retention-what-employee-turnover-really-costsyour-company-2006-07
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