The "what, why and how" of Employee Engagement

Keving Kruse in his articule "What Is Employee Engagement" published on Forbes, define Employee Engagement  as "The emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals... This emotional commitment means engaged employees actually care about their work and their company. They don’t work just for a paycheck, or just for the next promotion, but work on behalf of the organization’s goals".

Have you felt engaged or disengaged as employee? Have you felt happy in your job?, Have you felt the commitment and will to make the best of you? Have you worked more hours, arrive earlier or leave later your office, just because you felt fine to do it? I'm sure every of us have felt it in some point of our professional career. Let's do a short exercise; Try to recall these feelings of when you were  engaged and disengaged in your job and comparing both situations tell me how did you perform better? You should already got the answer, indeed engagement increase productivity, quality and costumer satisfaction, these are some of the reason because you should be concerned about how your employees or team members are feeling in the company, are they engaged or not?

So now that you know the "what" and "why" let me tell you about the "how" you could get this emotional commitment of the employees, you must take care of the following:

• Select people that fit with your organizational culture (Values, believes, behaviors)
• Since the selection and induction process be clear, transparent and set the right expectations
• Train and develop your leaders, "People quit their boss, Not their Job"
• Give them a clear vision about what your company/team is working for
• Give them a "why" they must understand their roles within the organization and why this is so important to reach the vision. 
• Clarify the objective and priorities of the company
• Listen to them, ask them how they are feeling, what they think. 
• Reward and recognize them for their outstanding performance and contributions. 
• Let them clear the "how" they can grow into the company.
• Take care of their personal and professional development.
• Challenge them, each one of us have a giant inside, show it to them and help them to get awake it.