The concept of engagement has been used in various forms since the early 1970s. Initially, the focus was on employee satisfaction. This concept later evolved to measure involvement in the 1980s, which remains a key element of engagement. At that time, companies were wondering how to encourage individuals to stay in the same position for life. Today, the workforce has become more volatile and this question is no longer relevant. Since the early 2000s, engagement has taken on a new dimension: it is now not only the main tool for HR departments to manage retention, absenteeism, and productivity, but has also entered the C-suite as a key strategic lever for achieving better customer outcomes.
Engagement in multiple forms
As organizations have become more complex, automated, globalized, and decentralized, they have become increasingly abstract entities with which it is difficult to identify; the engagement perspective has consequently become multi-target today, demonstrating the importance, beyond engagement with the organization itself, of considering engagement with local entities, such as one’s manager, who becomes the first representative of the company, and the work group, which becomes a priority.
The latter is a process whereby members feel a sense of loyalty and trust toward one another, promoting group effectiveness. Strong belief in and acceptance of the group’s values and objectives, willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the group, intense desire to maintain membership in the group; the group represents a more salient social entity than the organization. This target becomes the primary sphere of socialization and control, particularly in a work context organized around teams.
Employees can therefore be engaged differently depending on the target.
Three profiles of work engagement
The multiple engagement approach distinguishes three typical engagement profiles among employees:
- Locally engaged: these are employees who are engaged with their direct managers and work groups (colleagues).
- Globally engaged: these are employees who are engaged with the company itself (and senior management).
- Professionally engaged: these are employees who are engaged with their profession
These three engagement levers are those whose action enables the development of optimal and virtuous engagement within the company.
Drivers of local engagement
Local engagement directly relates to the quality of interactions within the team, between colleagues and with managers. If colleague relationships are positive and qualitative, if you are better guided and heard by your supervisors, the recognition expressed will greatly contribute to developing your local engagement. And to put it in place, nothing overly complicated—it involves participation in decision-making, morning greetings, or positive feedback on efforts made or results achieved. Similarly, if you are a manager, you can adopt a coach-manager positioning, benevolent and attentive to each individual, thus directing values toward emotional and professional support.
Drivers of organizational engagement
John Meyer and Natalie Allen, two psychology researchers, defined organizational engagement as “a psychological bond uniting the employee and the organization that makes the employee less likely to leave it voluntarily“. This definition tends to establish a close link between the employee’s personal values and those promoted by the company’s culture. Within the latter, each employee would be rewarded in proportion to their contribution. Who wouldn’t like to work for a company whose decision-making processes are inclusive, transparent, and fair?
Drivers of professional engagement
If engagement toward one’s profession can be likened to a sense of vocation, it aligns with the perspective of Gary J. Blau, a professor of human resource management, who defined this engagement as “an individual’s motivation to work in a career they have chosen or an individual’s attitude toward their occupation and/or professional role“. This type of engagement, although extending beyond the scope of the organization, can nevertheless be encouraged by focusing the individual’s interest on career development prospects. Furthermore, being able to appreciate the results of your work and gauge their impact will certainly represent a token of recognition and development of your engagement toward your profession.
Let us engage, commit yourselves; as in sport, we excel only in what we love, and we often love what we do well…