In my dealings with the HR community, I have been fortunate enough to speak with some of the brightest minds in the industry (you know who you are) and I can’t thank them enough for giving me the verbal HR and OD tools necessary to walk the walk and talk the talk in the field of HR. 

Having said all that, nearly every one of the professionals that I’ve talked to are fixated on this term employee engagement, so early on at The Work Institute I became focused in on finding out more about the term and coming up with a true definition of Employee Engagement.  My Employee Engagement quest started on internet HR message boards where I asked the simple question “What do you believe Employee Engagement really means?”

I received responses on Employee Engagement from three individual HR professionals:

This is from Person #1

“In my role I have spent quite a bit of time looking at research on new employee integration. From this perspective engagement is about getting new employees fully connected to the mission, values, and customers of the company.  Research from the (editors note: let’s face it, I’m not here to advertise a research company that only delivers 50% of the data that TWI does at nearly triple the price) __________  further indicates that employee commitment impacts productivity and intent to stay. With new employees early engagement experiences can make the difference when it comes to first impressions of the company and its culture.”

After I read this, I thought to myself…maybe employee engagement is something that happens during the on boarding/new hire process when you’re new to a company…  That thought process was short lived because soon after I said that to myself another response came in.

This is from Person #2

“We have defined the concept as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. In short, engaged employees have high levels of energy and are enthusiastic about their work. Moreover, they are often fully immersed in their work so that time flies. Recent studies confirm that engagement is predictive of performance, financial turnover, reduced absence, and increased client satisfaction. See my website for publications on engagement, and empirical evidence for our conceptualization.”

So after this response I said to myself…Okay maybe employee engagement means that an engaged employee is someone who truly loves their position and enjoys going to work everyday.  Vigor, Dedication and Absorption is essentially a fancy way of saying that someone likes their job and the company they work for.  Then more opinion came in on the term.

Person #3
“What we decided on was this.  To increase the productivity and tenure of (key) employees in a manner that creates healthier organizations both on and off of the balance sheet.

Employee Engagement - The degree to which people commit to an organization and the impact that commitment has on how profoundly they perform and their length of tenure.  Three central tenets of high Employee Engagement levels are: Clearer Connections, Improved Trust and Increased Resourcefulness

So I then said to myself…Okay so maybe Employee Engagement is about commitment and performance…  Then a mild argument broke out on the message board…

Person #2 Responding To Person #3
“Commitment and performance are important consequences of engagement... In our view these elements are not part of it. There is empirical research backing up this perspective.”

Person #3 Responding To Person #2

“While I appreciate your perspective, it depends on which research one uses. There is empirical research that supports it.   When coming up with the definition we utilized 8 research studies and not solely our own.  Behaviorism, Humanism, Social Learning theory, and the Cognitive learning theory all are relevant, add value to our understanding of how people learn, and see the world differently.”

After discussing what Employee Engagement means with these individuals, I came to the conclusion there is no definition!  Employee Engagement has become a pop culture term that has been shoved down our throats by a particular research company (The Evil Empire) in order to sell their once a year Employee Engagement survey product.  In addition, the responses that I gathered from the individuals about Employee Engagement attempt to identify only the outcomes of employee behavior (ie: commitment, performance, vigor, dedication, absorption, trust, connection, resourcefulness, etc).  The problem with the Employee Engagement approach is that you need to know something about the problem you are trying to solve before you can identify a solution. The problem that needs to be solved is determining how to influence employee affiliation choices.

I am inviting you along with my other colleagues at The Work Institute to get out of the habit of talking about employee engagement and start using the term Employee Affiliation.  The term affiliation has much more to do with the concept of being a partner with a company then the term engagement.  When an employee chooses to come into work and give a 100 percent, they are choosing to partner with their current employer.  If an employee becomes affiliated with an organization and in turn the organization understands the preferences, expectations, and intents of their work force by asking them what they would change and why would they change it, why would an employee affiliate themselves with a third party (Union) or any other employer?

The Work Institute started using an Employee Pulse research model for current employee populations nearly 10 years ago.  We believe that if you implement a “Pulse Methodology” and monitor the population monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually to measure progress and identify emerging trends, you will have a much better read on if the employee base has decided to AFFILIATE themselves with the organization or not. 

Just to be clear, let’s take a look at the definitions:

- Affiliation: is the term to describe a partnership between two or more parties

- Engagement: is a promise to marriage.

I’m really not a jewelry guy so one ring is all I can handle.  I’m not looking to wear another one because I am engaged or married to The Work Institute.  I choose to be a partner at my place of employment where I have the ability to talk about any situations or problems that might arise and have supervisors that are willing to listen to what I have to say.  I’ll have much more to say about this topic in the upcoming weeks, but for now I’m starting to see two computer screens so I think I should stop writing. 

So What Do You Think?