Observational Engagement

How do you know if someone is engaged?

During a training session I can tell if someone is engaged in the learning by whether they:

• Participate in the conversation
• Make eye contact
• Cooperate with their peers in the class
• Have a good attitude

My hope generally is to hold 80% of the participant’s attention throughout 90% of the session.

While training can be one factor in increasing employee engagement in an organization, I was curious about the results of that increased engagement. Here is what I found.

Increased employee engagement will:

• Increase net income growth rates by 17.5%
• Increase employee productivity by 38%
• Increase profitability by 27%

And…

• Low engagement teams have an error rate 100 times more than a highly engaged team
• Highly engaged sales representatives have 8.8% higher sales
• Highly engaged teams on average have 40% less absenteeism
• Moving an employee from moderately engaged to highly engaged makes them twice as likely to stay

Another study noted that fewer than 60 percent of employees are partially or fully engaged in their jobs. So what does this mean? Here are a couple of tips:

• Managers should clearly make known to staff what is in it for them if they succeed and excel
• Managers and senior leaders must inspire and motivate employees to keep them engaged

Employees in the United States and other parts of the world say the primary driver for engagement is the belief that an organization's leaders are truly looking out for them. However, only about 40 percent of the respondents felt this way about their own employers, while more than 50 percent said their bosses treat them "as just another part of the organization to be managed."

What are the creative ways that you inspire engagement among your team?