{"id":297,"date":"2018-03-01T12:46:57","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T12:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/?p=297"},"modified":"2018-07-11T08:42:56","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T08:42:56","slug":"jill-christensen-employee-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/jill-christensen-employee-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Jill Christensen, Employee Engagement Expert, Jill Christensen International"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grosum.com\/i\/#\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-298 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/JillChristensen1.jpg\" alt=\"Employee Engagement Interview with Jill Christensen, Employee Engagement Expert, Jill Christensen International - GroSum TopTalk\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/JillChristensen1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/JillChristensen1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/JillChristensen1-250x250.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jillchristensenintl.com\/\"><strong>Jill Christensen<\/strong><\/a> is a former Fortune 500 business executive, having led Global Internal Communications at both Avaya and Western Union. She is a <strong>best-selling author<\/strong> and sought-after <strong>international keynote speaker<\/strong> and holds a Six Sigma Green Belt. Jill was named a <strong>Top 100 Global Employee Engagement Influencer<\/strong> for 2017 and her <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jillchristensenintl.com\/blog\/\">popular blog<\/a> was named a Top 100 Corporate Blog alongside Apple and Microsoft.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>What does employee engagement mean to you?<\/h2>\n<p>Engagement occurs when workers trust leaders and feel an emotional connection to the organization \u2013 the same way they did their first day on the job.\u00a0 And the payoff is enormous. Reams of data exists which shows the correlation between profitable revenue growth and employee engagement.\u00a0 Companies in the top tier of employee engagement outperform their peers by 147 percent in earnings per share and have a 90 percent better growth trend than their competition.\u00a0 The benefits of having engaging workers are vast and go well beyond bottom-line results.\u00a0 Engaged workers also:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provide better customer service;<\/li>\n<li>Stay longer;<\/li>\n<li>Make fewer mistakes;<\/li>\n<li>Recommend your company as a great employer to their family and friends;<\/li>\n<li>Are more productive; and<\/li>\n<li>Are great ambassadors for your brand<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How to measure employee engagement?<\/h2>\n<p>The best way to measure engagement is to conduct an anonymous employee engagement survey.\u00a0 There are many reputable survey companies in the world \u2013 an organization should not create its own survey and think that is going to correctly measure the percentage of people who are engaged, neutral and disengaged.\u00a0 When sending out the survey to employees, it\u2019s important to say, \u201cOur culture is not where it needs to be, but we are going to fix it.\u00a0 By giving us your open and honest feedback, we\u2019ll know the areas to address.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>What are the common causes of employee disengagement?<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/resources\/index.php\/2018\/05\/07\/signs-low-employee-engagement\/\" target=\"_blank\">Employees disengage<\/a> because their spirit gets chipped away over time in the work environment. Every person who you hired started out engaged, but little by little they began to check out and not care. Common causes of employee disengagement are poor communication, bad managers, boredom, not understanding how what I do every day adds value, poor relationships with coworkers, and lack of confidence in leadership.<\/p>\n<h2>What are the drivers of employee engagement in today\u2019s\u00a0fast-moving\u00a0world?<\/h2>\n<p>From my experience, the strategy to re-engage employees is not difficult nor is it rocket science \u2013 it\u2019s basic.\u00a0 You must develop a strategic plan which fulfills your employee\u2019s basic human needs and focuses on four key areas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Get the Right Person in Every Chair:<\/strong>\u00a0 Employees want to work for a company whose values align with their own individual values.\u00a0 Therefore, you must get the right person in every chair by hiring for a value match as well as a job skills match.\u00a0 In addition, if you have toxic employees, they must be developed or removed from your organization.\u00a0 Why? Because toxic employees act like cancer \u2013 spreading their negativity and incompetence, and impacting the people around them.\u00a0 As you set out to improve your culture and re-engage employees, you cannot afford to have people in the midst who are unwilling \u2013 or unable \u2013 to get on the bus.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Create a Line of Sight (Goal Alignment):\u00a0 <\/strong>Employees want to know that what they do every day has meaning and adds value, so you must ensure every person\u2019s goals are aligned with the CEO\u2019s goals.\u00a0 Why? When an employee\u2019s goals are aligned with the CEO\u2019s goals he\/she has a line of sight all the way through the organization and can see that they are making a difference.\u00a0 Their job is important and is adding value.\u00a0 What they do is impacting the company\u2019s future and its success.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Build a Two-Way Communication Culture:<\/strong>\u00a0 Employees want their voice to be heard, so you must build a two-way communication culture where people can express their ideas, opinions, feelings, and complaints. Why?\u00a0 When an employee thinks their voice matters, they feel validated and important.\u00a0 In addition, if you have the right person in every chair, you have smart people working for you. People who are closest to the customer and have amazing insights about what\u2019s working, what\u2019s not and what could be improved.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Recognize People:<\/strong>\u00a0Employees want to feel acknowledged and appreciated for a job well done, so you must create a recognition program that is based on thanking people for their great work. Why? When you give an employee a company-branded water bottle, you\u2019ve done nothing to let them know specifically what they did that is recognition-worthy. Put away the water bottle and replace it with the words Thank You. Hearing those two words is a basic human need and it will inspire your employees to give you a lot of discretionary effort.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What makes a really effective employee engagement\u00a0journey?<\/h2>\n<p>In order to get measurable results, organizations must stop outsourcing employee engagement\/culture change to Human Resources (HR).\u00a0 This is not a dig against HR; strategic HR people are wonderful. However, although HR \u201cowns\u201d culture, they don\u2019t \u201cown\u201d culture.\u00a0 The definition of culture is How We Do Things Here.\u00a0 There is no group of people who set the stage more for How We Do Things Here than your senior leaders. Senior leaders \u201cown\u201d culture. Therefore, in order for you to succeed, you must engage your senior leaders in your employee engagement strategy. They, in turn, will empower the frontline managers to execute on the employee engagement strategy. Because if you think about it, senior leaders can get managers to do things that HR cannot!<\/p>\n<h2>How do you engage senior leaders in employee engagement?<\/h2>\n<p>Data.\u00a0 Executives love numbers.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because you don\u2019t get to be an executive without learning a thing or two about numbers. Executives present numbers to their boards all the time and are judged on their ability to ensure the numbers are directionally correct. Therefore, gather all of the compelling data you can find which shows the correlation between employee engagement and profitable revenue growth, and share it with your senior leaders (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jillchristensenintl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/pyramid.pptx\">data can be found on my website<\/a>).\u00a0 Savvy leaders will get it and will agree to champion <a href=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/employee-engagement-complete-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\">employee engagement<\/a> and empower the managers to act.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/forms\/8D8X07xObsyV8GxG2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-488 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-300x300.png\" alt=\"Do You Want To Recommend Anyone?\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-594x594.png 594w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-250x250.png 250w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jill Christensen is a former Fortune 500 business executive, having led Global Internal Communications at both Avaya and Western Union. She is a best-selling author and sought-after international keynote speaker and holds a Six Sigma Green Belt. Jill was named a Top 100 Global Employee Engagement Influencer for 2017 and her popular blog was named [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":955,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions\/955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}