Terminal 5 - A Manager’s Guide to Employee Engagement
3 April 2008One thing highlighted by the opening of Terminal 5 is employee engagement, or ‘how to achieve instant employee disengagement’. This goes some way to answer the questions the public are demanding. It seems that BAA and BA put all their money on technology to create the ultimate airport experience, and maybe they assumed their people were but a small part of the system, and of lesser importance than the technology. If this is true, and all indications suggest so, it is a foolish and very costly mistake to have made.
I am left aghast at BA. When are they going to get the message – great service requires individuals who care, and that requires an employer who cares about them – cares enough to make sure they feel appreciated. Engagement is high on CEO’s agendas today because they know that it is a strategic competitive tool.
Just because the body is at work doesn’t mean the mind is fully engaged. Even when the mind is engaged the emotions, which are responsible for passion, energy, drive and loyalty are not necessarily harnessed to the task in hand. To be engaged means to be emotionally connected in a positive way with all aspects of work. Yet this doesn’t fully explain engagement as there are three things you can be engaged with:
1) Your work
2) Other people
3) Yourself
People are creative and responsive and want to do a good job. This fact was established by Elton Mayo in the Hawthorn experiments of 1927-32, and further proven by Hertzberg and countless other management psychologists. Surely BA managers have been to management school? Maybe they didn’t pay attention; or do they think that they can manipulate nature?
When you alienate your employees you create the conditions for relationship conflict. This conflict goes far deeper than you see on the surface. You might notice communication between people diminishing in quality and quantity. You might also notice a disconnection with work, as people do just what they are contracted to and no more. What you might not notice is the third relationship conflict – the relationship you have with yourself.
What must it feel like to get out of bed and come to work for a manager who doesn’t appreciate you? You must ask yourself ‘why’ a few times each day. When you are in conflict with yourself it is difficult to concentrate on what you are supposed to be doing. Part of the time you are feeling emotionally tugged by other people, by the work you are doing (as you are unlikely to receive any recognition), and by your own internal dialogue asking why you don’t just tell them where to stick their job. Hardly a motivated and engaged employee.
If your business is customer service you need people who are enthusiastic about creating a great customer experience as a baseline. Achieving this requires an understanding of human nature and a positive belief about the capability and potential of individuals and teams. This is not rocket science, but it does require a commitment to get it right – and it takes time to build a motivated team, especially when you have spent the last 20 years demoralising your workforce.
In any business, private or public, it’s the people who make it great. If you put more focus on technology than people don’t expect to get the best from your technology.
