Engagement and the Employee Value Proposition

Speak to many consultants, and you may hear the suggestion that engagement is a free resource that you should tap, and that you should always engage your work-force more—for better results.

Question this assumption.

Dilbert offers some wisdom about this:

Wisdom from Dilbert

Different organizations need distinct types of employee engagement.

To some organizations retaining employees is critical; to others only a few years of intense effort is needed. Yet others need to retain customers and as such employee engagement with the customer is critical. Others rely on employee innovation and skill as the strategy. The list could go on—ask yourself "what does your organization really need from its employees?"

Some organizations have a business model based on "employee churn." Life insurance sales organizations have a reputation for paying largely on commission and accepting that a large percentage of employees will leave within a year. Employee churn is a reasonable business model. Life-insurance sales organizations need producers and they can use churn to find the one out of ten applicants who can sell life insurance to strangers.

Other organizations have an up-or-out value proposition. These organizations often provide great opportunities a highly stimulating environment and these organizations benefit from hiring younger employees with alacrity. If employees run out of engagement in a few years, more can be hired.

Companies pursuing a product innovation strategy often rely upon skilled employees who have a deep understanding of their product--for example consulting, technology and pharmaceutical firms. In these companies the value proposition has to do with retention and reward of the key talent -- for example expert consultants, critical skill engineers and R&D/Commercialization professionals. Again, employee value proposition should vary with strategy.

Employees will engage in any organization, even those with a churn or an up-or-out employee value proposition. However, the value proposition must be transparent to earn engagement. A young and ambition employee will follow a leader who says “I’m going to give you an opportunity and it will be challenging. You will learn a lot that will be useful in your career.” If, the employee value proposition is not made clear some new hires will have other expectations and be disappointed.

The challenge for organizations is to understand the links between the value propositions and strategy and then to make the contract explicit. Mangers need to authentically relate to employees and build trust. Organizations need to ask themselves:

"Are our managers up to this task?”

“Does the organization support authentic relationships with employees?”