Employee Engagement: A Story and a Few Resources

People deliver their best work when they are fully engaged with the purpose of their work. In an organizational setting, people only deliver their best when they are engaged with the purpose, vision and values of the organization they work with. Businesses can conduct an employee survey to determine engagement levels. They look at their work as a part of a larger whole – and not just a discrete component.

How do we engage our people? That’s the question many HR leaders, project managers and organizational leaders have been asking. To help them, Ben Eubanks at upstartHR compiled a fantastic and fr.ee eBook on Employee Engagement that features best ideas, specific tips and stories about engagement. The book also features my classic post titled “Engagement, Leadership and Power of Storytelling”. (Download PDF)

Here is the story from the book introduction that I really liked:

A CEO was walking down the hallway of the hospital he managed one day and came across the janitor working. He stopped to talk with him for a few moments and eventually he asked the janitor what he did.

The janitor stopped, turned to the CEO with a completely serious look and replied, “I save lives.” The CEO was taken aback. What was this guy talking about? He’s the janitor, not a heart surgeon.

He continued, “See, when I do my job well and clean the operating rooms and other work areas, the doctors have a sanitary, safe place to do their jobs. I clean things, yes, but in the bigger scheme of things, I’m helping to save lives.” The CEO instantly realized his own “small thinking” and saw that the janitor had a view of the mission of the hospital from an entirely different, yet valuable, perspective.

In my view, great quality of work is a direct result of an engaged team. Employee engagement is a way to ensure that people do a good job, not because they are forced to, but because they want to.

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A few more resources for HR Leaders:

• Ben Eubanks also compiled an eBook “Onboarding and New Hire Orientation“.
• David Zinger is a thought leader in employee engagement whom I have admired since long. Check out the “resources” page on his website for some amazing free resources/eBooks/ideas on the all important topic of employee engagement.