Is Your Company Engaging or Entertaining Employees?
Employee engagement means more than just hiring comedians, handing out balloons and renting the island’s biggest Bounce-About for Family Day. Instead, it has to do with addressing staff’s key concerns in a way that builds a firm’s capacity for dealing with problems in the future.
Human Resource professionals are often seen as the “feel-good” squad of corporate life. When employees feel bad, as revealed by lunchroom complaints and internal surveys, HR’s job is to make them feel better. In these recessionary times, this job has become harder to do. Only longtime staff-members can recall famous Christmas Parties from the past: they have now been reduced to portion-controlled buffet luncheons held on Thursdays in late November… all to reduce costs.
Few are surprised when, a week later, the “intervention” has worn off and the complaints resume, revealing that the feel-good activity only offered a bit of entertainment. Even when it’s enhanced by the inclusion of families, expensive hotel rooms and fun add-ons like rafting, the effect is still the same. Authentic engagement takes more than titillation. Here’s why.