Employee Engagement Starts with Respect
Posted on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 by Frank RocheYou want employee engagement? Respect your employees.
One HR blogger recently wrote that to look engaged, employees need to be tethered to work at all times. That’s not respect, that’s 1950s thinking. Engagement isn’t about how many hours someone works. Know the difference between time and value.
Do you think without a ton of policies that your employees will devolve into Lord of the Flies? No respect. Managers who believe in Theory X have no right to expect employee engagement.
Do you expect your employees have to salute the hierarchy and quiver when the big bosses come around? No respect. Engagement requires power, permission and protection. If employees think they can lose their jobs with an inadvertent phrase, there can’t be any engagement.
Michael Barata
Dec 17th, 2009
I think once we can get the biz world (employers & employees) to realize and admit that the current system is based on permission rather than performance, respect and trust may begin to permeate throughout.
Frank Roche
Dec 17th, 2009
@Michael That is so true…it’s about treating people like the grownups they are.