In our last issue we began looking at the drivers of employee engagement, and there we saw the importance of aligning maximum job satisfaction with maximum job contribution.
A second important driver that’s actually closely related to the first one is clarity of job expectations and the ability to work well. “Is the company helping me to understand the outcomes of my tasks, and are they providing me with the right tools to do my job?”
This question can be boiled down to something called “line of sight.” What exactly do your employees see in terms of their job tasks? Do they see the bricks only, or do they see the house that results from laying those bricks. Do they understand how the widgets they make contribute to the large
r machine, or does their world start and end with widget making?
The other advantage of this is, once they understand the outcomes of their daily tasks, they are in a much better position to evaluate what tools will best achieve those outcomes.
Employees whose line of sight extends beyond their daily tasks to the outcomes of those tasks, and who have input into how best to achieve those outcomes, tend to become more highly engaged than employees who see those tasks as an end in themselves.
That’s it for this edition of the Support EDGE. Until next time, be sure all your development initiatives are performance driven and outcomes based.
~ES
