What's the most valuable asset in your firm? It should be relatively easy to identify. It will be the item or capability or information that people hoard, or argue over. It could be that your firm thinks knowledge is an asset, or certain individuals are the most important assets, or that money is the most important asset. I am here today to tell you those are all secondary. The most important asset you have is employee engagement. If your employees are fully engaged and excited about what they do, and why they do it, everything else falls into place.
Why would I say that? Many people think they want the smartest people, or the best processes. However, if I hire Einstein to work for me but he finds the work uninteresting or isn't engaged and motivated, I lose in two counts. One, I have a highly paid person who is underperforming, and two, he or she is taking space for someone who might have been more engaged in the work and the outcomes. Perhaps we should blame this on our hiring processes. We are constantly seeking the "best" person for a job, which usually translates to the person with the most experience or knowledge. But that doesn't mean the job will be engaging for that person. Perhaps we should first present the goals of the company and the expected outcomes of the work, and then ask the potential employee - does that make you excited? Will this be engaging for you? Because if we hire people that simply aren't engaged, what's the point?
Studies show that, across industries, approximately 20% of the people in any organization are relatively or fully engaged by their work. Over 60% aren't engaged and the remainder is actually working against you. This means that approximately 80% of your workforce, on average, is simply clocking time, doing the minimum expected and nothing more, at best! They reserve their passions and interests for things other than their 8 to 5 job. People who don't have excitement and passion about their work don't necessarily perform worse than others, but they have little incentive to do more than what's required.
Why is engagement so low? First, we treat people as expendable commodities. We think that we can always get another purchasing clerk or legal counsel. And in many cases those beliefs are correct, as long as we don't care if they are engaged or not. Second, people need to believe in something in order to be engaged. They need to care about their work or its outcomes. Most people can't see the results of their efforts on a day to day basis, and get very fuzzy guidance and direction from their executives. So there's little that's reinforced. Third, most businesses are a bit suspicious of people who are excited about their work. That seems a bit weird. We prefer dispassionate dialog to cheerleading. Fourth, we overly emphasize the size of a paycheck over the rewards of a job. Sitting in on my daughters' high school orientation, I realized that their English teacher was truly engaged. He loves what he does, and probably earns a lot less than he could otherwise. Perhaps if we all were better at working at what engaged us, the dollars would follow.
If your firm is like most firms, approximately three fourths of the employees are unengaged or actively disengaged. That's a failure of leadership, vision and communication from the executives. You need to create a compelling vision and demonstrate the clear value of what the work your firm creates. Once you've done that, if they are still disengaged, then they aren't working in jobs where their passion lies, and the employee should move jobs, firms, or careers.
No matter how smart, how capable or how valuable, if your people aren't engaged, your firm is losing value.
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