Keeping your employees engaged is a huge challenge. In fact some regard it as the biggest management challenge of all. There is lots of debate and theories abound: “pay more”, “flexible working”, “listen to your employees”, “engagement circles”. The list goes on.
My favourite theory is that of Patrick Lencioni who has written a super book called “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job” .
He maintains that people who aren’t engaged are:
1. Anonymous, nobody in the organisation knows who they are.
2. Irrelevant, their job is pointless.
3. Immeasured, they don’t know how well they are doing. (This must be an American word; I don’t think the Queen uses it).
This struck a chord for me, matching what I was thinking when I left my last job. More interestingly though, it ties in very strongly with my beliefs on service improvement.
To improve your service you need to talk to the customer and your team (removes anonymity), to find out what they need (understanding the purpose of your job). Once you have done that put in place some measures to see how well you are doing.
My conclusion? Improving your service also improves your staff engagement. Do you buy that?
Image by CJS*64
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