An October 2011 Gallup Poll indicated more than 70 percent of American workers are “not engaged” or are “actively disengaged” in their work. This means too many employees are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces, resulting in less productive workers.
Employee engagement begins with front-line supervisors. Employees typically have more contact with their supervisors in one day than they have with senior management or Human Resources in one week, month or year. Employees do not work for companies, they work for their supervisors.
While a company may be successful, offer great wages and benefits, and provide a great work environment, a supervisor has the most direct influence on how employees perceive their company and work environment. As a result, if an employee’s supervisor creates a difficult work environment by being non communicative, insulting, or degrading, then the employee will not be engaged or very productive.
Before you can expect employees to be engaged, effective front-line supervisors need to be engaged. Supervisors should know what’s going on in the company prior to their employees. F&H Solutions Group’s employee opinion surveys indicate that a third of supervisors receive information at the same time or after their employees. In addition, 25 percent of supervisors do not feel like they are a real part of the management team. Management is responsible for ensuring their front-line supervisors are consistently informed and treated as members of their team. If supervisors are not engaged, how does management expect them to engage their employees? Make certain your supervisors are properly informed and empowered.
Front-line supervisors also contribute to the engagement process through their personal relationship with employees. This includes making their employees’ career development a priority. Employees are more engaged when they feel the supervisor actually cares about their well-being inside and outside of work. Is the employee married? What’s their spouse’s name? Do they have children? What are the employee’s interests outside of work? These are basic questions to which a supervisor should know the answer. Employees also want to know they are developing and growing within the company. Supervisors should allow time for one-on-one interactions with their employees to discuss goals and review performance. This shows employees their supervisor cares about their personal success in addition to the organization’s.
The relationship between an employee and their supervisor is critical. Successful organizations focus on teamwork and the tone for genuine teamwork is set by management. The basic elements of achieving a proactive employee relations climate and fostering a culture of engagement include informing supervisors first, ensuring they are a real part of management and expecting them to know each employee as a person. If the supervisor cares about each employee as a person, the employees will reciprocate by caring about the supervisor and the business.