Increasing Employee Engagement By Risking Compassion
With the rise of disengagement in the workforce, leaders are asking themselves: “What can I do to increase engagement in my team?” The answer is not a simple one, but one of the first steps is to treat employees as people – not as numbers.
One of the clients I work with (Sarah) leads a team of 10 direct reports, and she is a fierce defender of her team. She has high expectations but also advocates strongly for their needs – a leadership characteristic that reaps major benefits in her employees’ engagement and loyalty toward the company.
For example, her business instated a rule that no employee can take vacation within the first three months of their employment. This policy was initially put in place for good reasons. HR wanted to discourage employees from training in the company, gleaning insider information, and then leaving to work for a competitor. It also guaranteed that employees would “earn” their vacation time instead of taking it and then leaving. Lastly, the policy assists with quick and efficient training.
The company rule was set up with good intentions and makes sense. However, Sarah encountered a situation in which a new employee on her team had started at the company and on his second day, put in a two-week vacation request only six weeks into his employment. Sarah had every right to immediately deny the request and move on with her day.
Instead, she treated the employee like a person and called him into her office to ask questions. It turned out that the two-week vacation was a family trip to the Paris Olympics. Flights had been purchased six months before the recruit had even accepted the position, and everything had been set in place. When he accepted the job, he was unaware of the blanket vacation policy that might have affected his decision. Understanding the special circumstances of this request, my client allowed the exception. She let her new employee take this once-in-a-lifetime trip to Paris with his family.
“But wait,” you might say to me. “If you give an inch, they will take a mile. Sarah took a risk because now others might come to her with the same request in the future. And weren’t other teammates disgruntled that their counterpart was allowed to take a vacation and they weren’t?”
Good point. Not all leaders would have made the decision that my client did, and only time will tell if that employee stays at the company. However, I admire Sarah’s ability to see the person, evaluate the circumstances and act accordingly. She treats all her employees with that same level of respect, support and compassion, so I highly doubt that jealousy will fester in her other employees.
In fact, from what she tells me, in this instance, the other employees agreed with her decision, and Sarah felt that because of her empathy, she earned the respect of several new hires. Seeing how “the boss” treated one recruit as a person, they feel more comfortable knowing that they, too, will be seen as people and treated with the same compassion and respect when their time comes.
In the first quarter of 2024, employee engagement fell to 30%, the lowest level in 11 years. To combat this decline, leaders are asking themselves how to increase employee engagement and motivate their teams. Today’s leaders can succeed more if they tune in to the emotional needs and expectations of their reports. What can you do in your team to engage and motivate?