Is a Happy employee an Engaged employee?
There is much written and spoken about the need to have our team fully engaged. Best Buy in the States determined that a small increase in their engagement index added over $100,000 profit to each store. There is much research that shows loyal committed customers come about when their enthusiastic engaged employees.
But the story does not end there.
A CEO of a business employing about 200 people said to me recently that all of his team were happy. At the time I did not react but rather we continued to talk about business issues. It was only later that I thought about his comment.
What does it mean when we say “employee engagement” or “engaged employee”?
Rather than some complex explanation I feel it could be simply stated that an engaged employee is one who is committed to the cause.
If you are committed to the cause you will go the extra mile. When the team are committed to delivering the product or service with the mission, values, intent of the business they will do those little things that matter, be an advocate to everybody and otherwise generally love helping. A person committed to the cause is a not a person who turns up at 8:30am and leaves at 5pm and just does his or her job in between.
A happy employee though likes the workplace, the work, the pay, the fellow team members but that does not mean they are committed to the cause. A happy employee does not mean they will go the extra mile in customer service, advocating the business to others or otherwise going the extra mile.
I have seen employee surveys which ask questions to determine whether the employees are happy. This could lead the management into a false sense of security. Engagement is more than happiness.
Are your employees engaged or just happy?
Photo courtesy of midiman
Related posts:
If you would like more articles like this then please subscribe:
Or, subscribe via email:
Comments
One Response to “Is a Happy employee an Engaged employee?”
Leave a Reply
-
Subscribe to Major Focus Group
Or, subscribe via email:
-
Subscribe to our FREE newsletter, The Focal Point and get your FREE copy of How to have a Focused Business.
We respect your privacy: No spam mail and you can unsubscribe at any time.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Steve Major, Steve Major. Steve Major said: New blog post: Is a Happy employee an Engaged employee? http://bit.ly/56B3sT [...]