Office Dogs Don’t Drive Employee Engagement. A Properly Executed Strategy Does.
I read an article written by Alice Zhou at PWC titled, “Improving Company Culture Is Not About Providing Free Snacks.” I smiled because I remind my clients of this on a regular basis. Many companies respond inappropriately to the employee engagement crisis by introducing office dogs, kegerators, and ping-pong tables into the work environment to make employees happy. However, happy is not the same thing as engaged.
When employees are engaged, they trust senior leaders and feel an emotional connection to your company. Happy is a feeling people get when the office dog licks their face while they are drinking a beer. I can assure you that if you have a dysfunctional workplace culture, Fido is not going to stop your employees from quitting on you.
Why is it important to re-engage your workforce? Because engaged employees increase customer service and satisfaction, creativity, retention and productivity, and decrease safety issues, absenteeism, mistakes, theft and quality issues. And the granddaddy of them all? Stagnant or decreased profitable revenue growth, as there is a direct correlation between employee engagement and bottom line results. The most profitable companies in the world and the companies that are growing the fastest, have the highest levels of engagement.
If you have an office dog, kegerator or ping-pong table and are wondering if you have to return them, the answer is “No,” as long as you are not relying on these things to be your employee engagement strategy. Leave them in place – as they do make people smile – but supplement them with a strategy to re-engage your most valuable asset: your people.
BE AWESOME! Where do you begin crafting an employee engagement strategy that will yield extraordinary business results? Start with my book which lays out my four-step process, which is proven to drive results in every industry, in every country, with every generation of workers. If you’d like to engage with me live, check out my new Live Webinar offering, which enables you and your colleagues to experience my highly rated presentation/strategy via video conference. Nothing matters more than your company’s success and nothing assures that success more than an engaged workforce. Call me and together, we’ll make it right.
Jill Christensen is an employee engagement expert, best-selling author, and international keynote speaker. She was named a Top 100 Global Employee Engagement Influencer, authored the best-selling book, If Not You, Who? Cracking the Code of Employee Disengagement, and works with the best and brightest global leaders to improve productivity and retention, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth. Jill can be reached at +1.303.999.9224 or jill@jillchristensenintl.com.