Recent studies mentioned in the macro article measure employee engagement. But, what is an “engaged employee”?
There is a legendary story about an engaged janitor at NASA who, when asked by President Kennedy what he was doing replied, “I’m helping to put a man on the moon.” This janitor understood his job was important and integral to the success of the Moon Mission. He felt valued and important and knew if he didn’t perform at his best the mission’s ultimate success might suffer. He knew he was a member on a team and understood why.
Are the front-line employees at your club “NASA engaged?” Or better asked, are all your employees similarly engaged? Do all the employees at your club understand your club’s mission and vision? Do they understand the why their role is integral to the success of the club’s mission? Are all employees regularly included in receiving the performance results of the club and how they contributed to them?
Industry data purports there is a direct linear correlation between how your club and management engage your employees and how engaged your employees are in driving your club’s mission.
Commitment
According to an article in HRMagazine, “Leveraging Employee Engagement for Competitive Advantage: HR’s Strategic Role” by Nancy R. Lockwood, employees with the highest level of commitment perform 20 percent better and are 87 percent less likely to leave the organization, which indicates that engagement is linked to organizational performance.
Productivity
In a study of professional service firms, the global consulting firm Hay Group found that business with engaged employees were up to 43 percent more productive. Job satisfaction is also linked to productivity.
The Chicken or the Egg?
Whose responsibility is it to ensure employees are engaged in the club’s mission and vision and focused on the role they play, knowing their success impacts the club’s success: the employees or the club?
When first hired, most employees are engaged, focused on doing well, and performing at their best. It’s what happens after they are hired that determines how well they continue to be focused on performing well and how engaged they remain in succeeding in their roles.
When it comes to job satisfaction, financial rewards may be lower on the list than most people think. Being happy with your job seems to depend more on the intangibles: feeling part of a team and being valued and appreciated consistently outrank money when employees are polled about job satisfaction.
So, what are the rules that clubs should embrace to ensure its employee teams are fully engaged in achieving their club’s mission and vision?
Steps to Engaged Employees
Step 1: Clearly define your club’s mission and vision. Make sure that your employees know and understand the club’s mission and vision that provide them with a roadmap and defines how they are integral to its success. “We’re going to the moon!” If your club doesn’t have an articulated mission and vision, it’s time to develop them.
Step 2: Give employees what they want and need. Employees must not only be provided the financial resources and training the club thinks and feels are necessary to be successful in their jobs, management must also provide them with the mentoring and information needed so they understand why their job is important to the club.
Step 3: Communicate well and often. Create a culture of communication in which managers and employees share common goals and work together to achieve the club’s mission and vision. This not only means systems being embedded where management communicates to employees conveying feedback and productivity results, it also means an embedded system where employees can easily and freely communicate to management.
Step 4: Get everyone engaged. Develop a way for all employees to be a part of the planning and decision-making process. This way the club project becomes their project. To do this, ask for input and use their ideas, at every level of club operations. This creates a vested interest in seeing the project succeed.
Step 5: Coach for success, and practice random acts of kindness. Feedback is a great motivator. Don’t wait for the periodic reviews to engage your team; instead, develop mechanisms that provide success indicators employees can monitor independently. Positive feedback should be given right away, and amongst fellow employees to encourage more of the same performance. Constructive feedback should also be given ASAP and in private, so that workers can self-correct.
Don’t forget to sincerely say, “Thank you!” for a job well done. Showing appreciation is a powerful motivator and should be done often, in person and in public whenever possible.
Successful Strategy
Engaged employees are the life blood of the success of clubs. While the employees arriving at clubs are generally focused on being successful, the degree of success achieved is determined by the club’s employee-focused work culture and in how it engages each employee as an individual and as a team. The club’s governance and executive leadership must understand their employees’ success and satisfaction come before their members’ success and satisfaction. Engaged employees become the club’s product through the positive relationships built with its members and the successful experiences members consistently enjoy.
Job Retention Strategies
When good work is held in high value by the employees, turnover is not a big issue. Recognition, praise, and special incentives are tools that can raise the value of work for employees.
Whenever a company consistently supports and shows appreciation for its employees, turnover rates drop significantly.
If employees feel better about their job and the people they work with and know they are part of their company’s success, they are less likely to leave. More importantly: they will try to be better at what they do.
Remember the adage, “Employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers.” It is important for a club’s governance and executive leadership to understand the above statement. The actions of middle management are a personification of a club’s culture, governance model and leadership.
Club Trends Spring 2018