Employee engagement is obviously extremely important. But what does it mean, exactly? Perhaps like me, you’ve worked for years without giving engagement a thought. Ironically, what got me interested in workplace engagement was my own disengagement.
After working across three industries on two continents and in about ten different mostly rewarding, if not totally fun, positions, from chemist in the pharmaceutical sector to product manager in the semiconductor industry to investor relations for a wealth manager, I joined Credit Suisse. I had a rich and diverse experience base to take on what sounded like a great opportunity. Beyond work, I was a lucky new mom, with the most wonderful husband. All was well. Even though I had joined the workforce over a decade ago, I had never said, much less thought about the phrase “Employee Engagement.”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces.”
—Bridget Jones, Bridget Jones’s Diary
At Credit Suisse it felt like the music stopped. Within a few weeks, I found myself completely disengaged.
While I’d had the usual career ups and downs, for the most part I had been very fortunate. I didn’t fully grasp how fortunate until I joined Credit Suisse. As I often tell people, engagement isn’t like a Bollywood movie, there’s no dancing in fields of daisies when you’re happy. It just feels normal, just like what you’d expect. However, when you’re unhappy, dread Mondays, and feel a deep, soul-crushing aversion for your job, the difference becomes painfully clear.
Having worked in so many different environments, I tried to identify the throughline, the common thread among the positions that made them great (or at least fine). And what was missing now that was making me so unhappy? What was not working? What did I need to be happy?
I was horrified when I realized my disengagement at Credit Suisse wasn’t an isolated issue but a systemic problem. I was struck by my colleagues’ discontent. Every conversation revolved around the latest management upheavals, contained sarcastic comments about internal communications, and was evidence of everyone’s overwhelming sense of frustration with their jobs, bosses, and the organization as a whole. My coworkers didn’t just complain; people busied themselves, constantly networking to find another position to jump to, playing a desperate game of musical chairs. I wondered how any work got done. It was completely bizarre and nauseating to me. Unhappiness at work was not just an individual experience but a collective norm. Witnessing how they had normalized unhappiness at work was disturbing to me.
I felt like a spoiled brat for expecting more from work.
Was it that bad at Credit Suisse? Yes. Was I expecting too much from an employer, and from work, because of my own previous, rewarding work experiences? No.
It’s striking how much our expectations and standards are shaped by our experiences and beliefs. In stark contrast to my previous positive experiences, I was now part of an environment where discontent was routine, and the pursuit of a fulfilling career was overshadowed by a prevailing sense of desperation and resignation. But I don’t do desperation or resignation. I’m like a heat-seeking missile when it comes to problem solving; a dog that just can’t let go of a bone (not always an enjoyable attribute for those around me). I needed a solution. So I set out to find one.
Of course you know, before solutions comes knowledge. Lucky for me, learning new things, new industries, new technologies, new functions, and new geographies, was the hallmark of my career. Instinctively, I set out to learn everything I could about what we need from work, what makes us happy at work, what drives engagement.
As I began to understand more about workplace happiness, I realized the depth of the problem. It wasn’t just me, or The Credit Suisse Group. Employees and employers all over the world urgently need a different, better approach to talent management. This increasingly took hold and called me to develop a solution.
In the years that followed, I learned several critical lessons about talent management. Firstly, I understood that a toxic work environment can become an accepted norm if left unchecked. Knowing this has led me to focus on creating tools and strategies for companies to hire for engagement and build workplaces where satisfaction and contribution are prioritized from the start.
Like any first-order solution, addressing the root causes of disengagement is paramount. It is key to transforming both individual experiences and organizational cultures, powerfully impacting employee quality of life and company bottom line.
How have I gotten so far without the fundamentals?
You know that the world is rich and fascinating, mind-blowingly abundant with things to learn and experience. With so many options, having a BSc in Chemistry and an MBA, in my formal education I have never had a class on what I need to be happy, in life or at work. Thankfully it’s never too late to learn!
To understand happiness at work, I spent a lot of time reading. There is so much to be learned from the great works of Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, to the already mentioned books by the heroic Jim Collins, to Dave Logan’s wonderful Tribal Leadership. With my doctorly handwriting, I made scrappy notes. The more I learned, the more I started to see the key pillars of job satisfaction. It was not an endless list of what we need from work. Rather, the following four key themes emerged: 1) safety & certainty, 2) contribution & purpose, 3) growth & significance and 4) connection & belonging.
Since I had done both molecular and financial modeling, I was versed in structured thinking. Developing an employee engagement model was easy. I was so excited, and remain in awe still, when I stumbled upon this quote from Gallup which sums up my model perfectly: “Employees are more likely to be engaged if their basic human needs are met.” Amazing!
Me (at 17 years old): “Isn’t it weird how little original thought there is?”
Judy (my uber-confident friend): “I don’t know about you, but I have original thoughts all the time.”
Me: “That is also not an original thought.”
While I certainly like to think that I’m original, an international woman of mystery, the consensus seems to be that I’m not. I’m driven by the same universal needs as everyone else. We have several frameworks for understanding these needs. You might be familiar with: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Tony Robbins’s 6 Basic Needs, Ikigai, or some other happiness framework. No matter the specific verbiage, they all include our need for: 1) safety & certainty, 2) contribution & purpose, 3) growth & significance and 4) connection & belonging.
Google conducted a study called Project Aristotle and confirmed the need for these exact attributes in the workplace, safety & certainty, contribution & purpose, growth & significance and connection & belonging. In their quest to understand and optimize their workforce, they studied 180 teams, conducted 200+ interviews, and analyzed over 250 different team attributes. Here are the top attributes that successful teams share, ranked from fourth to first, with the first being the most important, and what they look and feel like at work, as well as the impact they have.
4th => Safety & Certainty. This shows up as clear expectations. When this need is not met, the looming uncertainty is frustrating at best, to anxiety-inducing such as in restructuring and layoff environments. Sadly, even after conducting such an extensive study with Project Aristotle, Google has still opted to do layoffs.
When this need is met, people have clear goals and roles, and get things done as agreed. This also shows up as a good sense of work/life balance as individuals feel that they can take time for other aspects of their lives. They have a healthy sense of control and feel secure regarding their standing in the organization
3rd => Contribution & Purpose. This shows up as alignment of stated core values. This is all about “walking the talk.” When companies have glossy, polished mission and vision statements that are not lived, it is sarcasm-inducing and fosters cynicism towards management and the organization.
However, when there is alignment, people believe their work has purpose and impact. They feel they’re working for the greater good. This fuels them to go the extra mile on a regular basis.
2nd => Growth & Significance. This shows up as having ample opportunity for advancement. Like Tony Robbins says, “in life, you’re either growing or dying.” Lack of opportunity is the #2 reason people leave their jobs.
When individuals have opportunities for growth, their work has personal significance, they feel recognized, and have a sense of progress. This fuels their commitment for the organization.
1st => Connection & Belonging. This shows up as satisfaction with the manager. This is THE #1 attribute that successful teams share. An employee’s relationship with the manager is so important that their engagement can vary by as much as 70% from manager to manager in the same organization. When there is dissatisfaction with their manager, it’s 80% of the time and the #1 reason people leave their jobs.
A good relationship with a boss gives individuals a sense of belonging and makes them feel safe to take risks and voice opinions. This is where ideas, innovation and creativity show up.
If you’re already familiar with Maslow’s framework, you will notice two things: 1) our basic need for survival is not included as a driver of employee engagement, since we don’t depend on our employer for survival and 2) I’ve ranked the needs, not according to Maslow’s hierarchy, but in terms of the impact they have on employee engagement generally, not for an individual specifically.
As individuals, we don’t prioritize these needs the same. And, very importantly, we don’t choose which needs are most important to us. While we all have a choice on how we behave to meet our needs, nature and nurture significantly determine our programming.
This plays out on the biochemical level. Our neural system’s four feel-good “happy hormones,” endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin, regulate our states. What triggers those hormones is out of our control. This reminds me of Arthur Schopenhauer’s aphorism, “You can have what you want, but you can’t want what you want.”
For you as a leader, the take-home point is that these drivers of engagement are very deep seeded, not prioritized the same by everyone, not self-directed and not easily changeable.
How can you tell if someone on your team is engaged?
While we all realize engagement is far more than people showing up to work, it can be hard (or even downright impossible) to recognize by just looking at your team members. It can be especially difficult to pinpoint who has one foot out the door. A lot of leaders I speak with are hard on themselves, scrutinizing which signs they missed, doing a postmortem after an unexpected, and painfully surprising, resignation.
By definition, engaged employees are emotionally connected to their organizations. Emotional connections are hard to see, but you know who consistently, and without any drama, goes the extra mile. Those are your engaged employees. They behave like stakeholders in your organization, delivering not just to the letter of the law but in the spirit of the law as well. You know you can pay people to do things, but you can’t pay people to care. Engaged employees care.
I realize I have not answered the question, “What does engagement look like?” Well, that’s the point. You will not be able to look at your team members and see it on their faces. On the other hand, you have felt someone’s disengagement intensely when you’ve been on the receiving end of truly abhorrent service. So even though you might not see it, your customers will.
Now that we’ve talked about what drives engagement and how it impacts the way your team members show up in your organization, let’s time travel to understand where we’ve come from, where we are and where we’re going in the next post.
If you found this post of value, do share it! Share
Moreover you can get this book here
Learn what causes high turnover, from organizational factors to cultural misalignment and leadership issues. Discover actionable strategies for lasting retention.
Impact of high turnover on business: discover hidden costs, workforce disruptions, productivity loss, and modern retention strategies for U.S. employers.
Future of employee retention with predictive analytics, high-risk identification, and values alignment for U.S. organizations explained in depth.