Fear is not engagement

An excellent article in Workforce Management connects with the impending crisis in retention of top employees that I mentioned before:

Commitment Issues—Restoring Employee Engagement

Companies are missing the big picture these days when it comes to employee engagement. And if they don’t widen the lens soon, firms could find themselves crippled in their efforts to claw out from the recession, abandoned by their best workers once hiring picks up and left behind in an emerging business era of greater transparency, interactivity and social responsibility.

Executives say they’re worried about engagement levels, which have fallen most dramatically for top performers. And companies are taking some steps to win over employees, such as CEO town-hall meetings, increased mentoring and more kudos for jobs well done.

But these are largely small-bore moves. Taken as a whole, they fail to invigorate dispirited workplace cultures or address the shifting priorities of employees, who have weathered massive, sudden layoffs, pay freezes or cuts, and tumultuous restructurings over the past year.

Read remainder of the article (registration required)

A May study by Watson Wyatt found that engagement levels for top performers dropped 25% year over year, a much steeper decline than the 9% drop for employees overall.  And, of course, those top performers are the ones which are most attractive to competitors.

The trap we’ve fallen into for the last few years is thinking that employees’ fear of job loss is an adequate substitute for engagement with the job and organization.  There are three reasons why this isn’t true:

1. Once employees perceive they have options for changing employers, the motivation by fear dissipates quickly.
2. Top performers have greater confidence (with good reason) in their ability to change jobs, even in a miserable economy.
3. Fear elicits protectionist and risk-avoidance behavior in employees, while true engagement encourages employees to be creative and apply their extra effort to contributions which deliver value.

We’ve all read studies which show significant disconnects between what engages employees, and what employers think engages them.  I was surprised to see that Watson Wyatt found that top employees rate job security second behind “nature of work”, while employers didn’t even rate job security in the top five.

When the economy recovers, disheartened employees may be wooed away. “It’s your top-performing employees that show the biggest drop in engagement and are going to be targets.”
—Laura Sejen, Watson Wyatt Worldwide

I find this shocking, given the broad focus on job security with the economic downturn.

If top employees don’t sense that job security is valued, they aren’t supported in their professional growth, and they aren’t engaged by their work, won’t they be looking for the first opportunity to escape?

Wouldn’t you?

Similar Posts:

• Signs of the upturn in jobs
• Preventing a race for the exits
• How to build engagement in the workforce
• Flexibility results in trust
• The impending crisis in employee retention