186PIX/Shutterstock.com

How Not to Kill Employee Engagement

Avoid death by brownbag and other well-intentioned morale busters.

Employee morale in the federal government has reached its lowest point in years. Low morale can paralyze an organization and impede its ability to meet its mission. To overcome this substantial challenge, federal leaders should strive to better engage their staff. Internal communication is a fundamental component for engagement within an organization because it helps employees understand how their work supports the larger mission and gives them a voice in the direction of the organization. In pursuit of enhancing internal communications and empowering staff, leaders often look to a variety of venues including brownbag lunches, all-hands meetings, and office-wide communiqués. While these are not inherently bad tactics, in many organizations they tend to be check-the-box activities rather than forums for true engagement and learning. In other words, the existence of these venues does not an internal communications strategy make. To break the cycle, leaders should focus on intention over tactics.

Before scheduling meetings or sending out a memo, pause to consider: ‘What am I really after?’ Is it that you have a bunch of meetings and memos, or that you find a way to share knowledge and expertise, provide opportunities for learning, and create a sense of community within your organization? It’s crucial to emphasize the intention over the tactic. The intention is the true goal, while a set of well-developed tactics help you get there.

Here are some tips for focusing on intention rather than tactics:

Thought Leadership > Brownbags

It may seem like I’m picking on brownbags, but they can be successful when done well. The challenge with brownbags is that they are optional and can often become a “sit and get” experience as opposed to a rousing discussion. What are organizations really after when they conduct brownbags? I would argue it’s thought leadership. Specifically, you want staff to demonstrate and enhance their professional expertise. To build thought leadership, leaders should explore several tactics beyond brownbags, including blogging, conference panel participation, hosting webinars, and entry into relevant competitions. Empower your staff to sharpen their skills and become recognized voices in their areas of expertise; it will foster better engagement than ad hoc presentations that seem more like chores. If you are conducting a brownbag, make sure it is truly engaging so staff will gain something valuable from it—if not, it’s not worth the time and energy.

Community > All Hands

Staff members often dread office-wide meetings as being unengaging, repetitive and not valuable. This is a great disservice to an organization. An event in which the entire or majority of staff is together should serve to inspire new thought and compelling discussion, and ultimately foster a sense of community. As opposed to the standard all-hands or town hall formats, consider some other tactics to foster community. Rotate the design of office-wide meetings among teams with members in various divisions. This provides opportunities for true staff engagement and ensures fresh perspectives so the meeting content doesn’t get stale. Explore special topics and relevant trends to build excitement around your organization’s work and why it’s important. Incorporate breakout group discussion so that people feel more comfortable speaking up and sharing their thoughts (this also builds interconnectedness across an organization). Finally, make sure when you get to the Q&A portion, as opposed to saying “what questions do you have?” (which will often be met with blank stares), ask a series of targeted questions to better understand how the staff have interpreted the information.

Checking the Pulse > Memos

The fundamental problem with many memos or office-wide emails is that they are one-directional: Someone is telling everyone else how it is. Often, this creates more questions than it answers, and whoever sends it is missing the most important part: how people interpreted it. Everyone consumes information differently—people will draw unique, sometimes contradictory conclusions from the exact same sentence. To ensure that staff members truly understand your intended message, send out the baseline information and then consider conducting focus groups to explore policy changes or new strategic directions. Discuss the benefits and potential challenges that change might bring. This will help ensure more effective implementation, and you are more likely to get staff buy-in when they have a chance to discuss. Also, don’t underestimate the importance of one-on-one conversations to really understand people’s concerns. Individual perspectives ultimately make up the greater pulse of the organization.

Storytelling > Status Updates

Reading a report full of status updates can be excruciating. These reports have their utility but offer little to audiences who aren’t familiar with the project or program. As opposed to providing unspecific updates, tell a story. Storytelling can be incredibly powerful and help others understand the true impact of a project or initiative. In crafting the story, think about what’s currently in the news to see if there are any links that can peak interest and help others understand. Also consider how this project moves the needle of your organization. If you people can see how it relates to the bigger picture that they are also working to support they are more likely to care.

What have you done to make sure your employees are engaged?

Gleason Rowe is a consultant at Corner Alliance.

(Image via 186PIX/Shutterstock.com)

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.