According to a recent Gallup study, a mere 30 percent of the workforce is engaged. So if 30 percent of your employees are engaged, 70 percent are disengaged. Additional research by Gallup reveals that engaged workers are the most innovative.
As if motivating employees weren’t enough of a challenge, today’s workforce dynamics are more complex than ever before. Five generations are represented in most agencies, with Baby Boomers and Millennials comprising the two largest in number. Many Boomers have delayed their retirements because they cannot afford to stop working or because they prefer to work. These difficult decisions affect their career goals and the agency’s succession planning goals, too. And Millennials as a whole have introduced additional nuances to the world of work, including a desire for greater work-life balance and flexibility, technology savvy, and a more collaborative work style.
How can you engage employees who have very personal and unique motivation factors? How do you communicate your agency’s vision effectively and gain buy-in from such a diverse workforce?
As you may know too well, if you don’t engage them, you won’t keep them. Employee retention is another challenge public sector leaders are dealing with today, especially as younger generations of employees are more inclined to move on from an agency after only several years on the job, in search of more challenging or meaningful work.
If your employees don’t feel valued by their supervisors and peers, engaged in meaningful work, and appreciated for their contributions, they’ll have no qualms about walking out of the door – taking vital organization and job knowledge with them.
So what can you do about this issue of engagement? According to “The Frustrating World of Employee Engagement,” in the Spring 2016 issue of CTDO magazine, the acronym MAGIC represents five key engagement metrics an organization should invest in:
- Do individuals have meaning in their lives?
- Do employees have autonomy in their jobs?
- Are your people growing?
- Does your talent have impact on the organization in the work that they do?
- Do employees have a connection to the organization?
Additionally, the article points to research from The Chemistry of Employee Engagement by Glint, which outlines “several best practices to measure and improve employee engagement:
- Create a sustainable program to measure employee engagement.
- Take frequent pulses of your employees and share those results with the employees.
- Empower managers to take the results of those pulses and act on them.
- Find and fix any disengagement loops before they become major problems.”
In an effort to engage employees in your workforce, it’s important to treat them as individuals, especially during the goal-setting and performance appraisal process. Ask each person in your agency how she works best, what workplace benefits she values most, and what her broader career goals are. Build employee goals around these stated strengths, interests, and preferences. When employees feel that they are valued as unique individuals, and not merely another one of the masses, they will grow more engaged and loyal.
CTDO magazine understands the complexities of the workforce challenges you face as a government leader. This free, quarterly, digital magazine is dedicated to addressing these big-picture issues and their underlying causes and providing practical, solutions-based content for you. Read more in the Spring 2016 CTDO.
