
11 Apr Employee Engagement as a Strategic Priority
I recently attended a virtual HR seminar where multiple speakers highlighted employee engagement as a key strategic priority for the year. It was mentioned often, almost as a given, that engagement is something organisations must improve, protect, and sustain in order to succeed in this fast-changing world of work.
It echoed what we see on the ground, too. We recently concluded an employee engagement survey with one of our clients, and I couldn’t help but notice how eager the regional heads were to get their hands on the results. There was genuine curiosity: What are our people thinking? What’s working? What’s changed? And perhaps most importantly, what are they not saying out loud?
That kind of curiosity is gold. But it’s also not yet the norm. In many organisations, engagement is still viewed as an HR responsibility. However, I see engagement as an outcome, not an initiative. It’s a response to something more “real”, how people experience the organisation every day.
According to Schaufeli & Bakker (2004), engagement is defined as a “positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption.” It is the willingness and ability to contribute to company success, the extent to which employees put discretionary effort into their work, in the form of extra time, brainpower, and energy (Schreuder & Coetzee, 2011).
But that energy and vigour doesn’t come from nowhere. It stems from how people experience their work environment, their team, their leaders, and the organisation as a whole. I believe that’s where employee experience (EX) comes in. In his Strategic HR Review article (2017), the Director of Learning and Experience Design for HighPoint Global defines employee experience as “the employee’s holistic perception of the relationship with his/her employing organisation derived from all encounters at touchpoints along the employee’s journey.”
For this reason, employee experience cannot be treated as an HR project, although they can guide and shape systems that enable and support employee engagement. HR is not present at all these touchpoints as they typically do not work directly with employees on a day-to-day basis. In some organisations, HR is based at a head office somewhere, physically and emotionally far removed from the everyday employee experience.
The people who are present, who interact with employees daily and influence their lived experience of the organisation are managers and team leaders. Through how they give feedback, listen, respond, support, challenge, or ignore, these leaders continuously shape engagement in real time. Whether they realise it or not, they are the ones creating the everyday conditions in which people either thrive or quietly disengage.
That’s why, in our LeaderShift programme, we’ve dedicated a full module to this: Leading the Employee Experience. It helps leaders connect to the employee journey and understand how engagement emerges from everyday interactions. This module covers interactive conversations and activities about:
- Understanding the case for Employee Engagement and Experience (EEX)
- Proactive performance enablement across the employee lifecycle
- Retaining and developing talent through critical moments
- Recognising key touchpoints, those “moments of truth” that shape perception and engagement
We believe strongly that operational-level leaders, not just executives, need to own this.
If you’re in HR and you recognise employee experience as a strategic priority, are you actively equipping your managers and team leaders with the mindset and skills to deliver on it? They are the face of the organisation for most employees, are they ready to lead that experience with intention?
And if you’re a manager, consider this: what moments matter most in your team’s day-to-day? What are your team members really experiencing and what is that telling them about the organisation they’re part of?
If you’re curious about how to make this real in your context, get in touch with us.
Also, don’t miss our upcoming OD Café. Our April conversation is about internal change agents. Titled “Developing Change Capability,” the café asks, “What internal practitioners can and cannot do.” Join us online on 23rd April, it’s free and open to all.