Employee Engagement is a business concept and “buzzword” that seems to be here to stay-at least for the foresee-able future. According to recent studies (Gallup,Blessing White,Towers Perrin), as few as 29% of North American workers are actively engaged in their jobs, with as many as 19% being actively disengaged and the majority, 54% falling somewhere in the middle. Where do your employees fit in?

Many factors contribute to employees being engaged with their jobs and employers, such as:

• Employer engagement-An organizations actual commitment to maintaining or improving the partnership between employees and employer.
• Quality of working relationships with Superiors, Peers, and Subordinates- Simply put, “Employees who have solid and positive relationships with the people they work with are more likely to feel engaged with the organization”.
• Clear understanding of the organizations vision and subsequently, the employee’s mission- Employees who can “see” the intended future results of their daily efforts are more interested in those efforts.
• Confidence that the company and immediate supervisors are interested in the employee’s career growth and educational development- Providing opportunities for growth in the form of more complex, “higher level” responsibilities and providing formal and informal training/learning/leadership and teambuilding  experiences all help employees to feel that they are trusted and valued to move up within their profession.

As a leader, what messages are you sending to your people? Are you:

• Saying, “Consider yourself lucky that you even have a job in this economy?”
• Expecting people to continue to improve/increase results with the same or less resources?
• Providing training and learning opportunities?
• Clearly communicating organizational and departmental goals and objectives, and how employees are contributing?
• Are you referring to employees as “overhead”.
• Creating a stressful, “pressure cooker” work environment, or a collaborative, supportive team?

A great question to ask yourself in the current economic situation is, “Are my top people really engaged, or are they leaning away from the organization, ready to “jump off” when the job market improves?”

If your answer is, “My people are totally engaged, and this is the job they would choose even in a good economy.”, then either you are kidding yourself, or you are providing plenty of good reasons for your people to stay engaged.

Here are some affordable ways to increase your people’s feelings of engagement:

• “Check in” with people-Ask about  their current challenges, what they need in terms of resources, are they feeling clear about priorities?
• Recognize people-A simple thank you, either verbal or written, can work wonders.
• Offer opportunities to “stretch” skills- Tasks that challenge people’s current skill set are often seen as being groomed for “bigger and better” things. If you have confidence in someone’s abilities, let them know.
• Provide training- Some training and team building is very affordable, and learning new skills or improving workplace relationships can go a long way in helping people to re-engage.

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