ENGAGEMENT

Engagement. No, I’m not proposing — I’m referring to employee engagement.

What is employee engagement? This is one of those areas that is hard to define but you know it when you see it. It has been described as, “An individual’s degree of positive or negative emotional attachment to their organization, job and colleagues” (Scarlett Surveys). That’s a broad but accurate description. Employee engagement is essential to business success. That point depends on the organization’s definition of success and what degree of success the organization finds acceptable. What do they settle for? Is my goal to pole vault five, 12 or 25 feet? One is easily doable with little chance of failure; another is a stretch goal that is possible but the risk of failure is higher, and the third goal is not possible and failure is certain. There are successful companies that do not have an overwhelming employee engagement atmosphere — their goal is the five-foot vault. They are wasting a tremendous resource and not living up to their potential. They are underperforming and risk averse. If you don’t made mistakes, you are not challenging yourself.

Both employee engagement and customers rely on mutual trust. It is easier to attract a new customer than to regain an old customer. If a customer has little experience with an organization, they must rely on available information to make a choice. It’s a gamble on the customer’s part and they must make both an informed decision and a leap of faith. You want to ensure the available information is favorable because it’s your reputation at stake. Older customers rely on the same set of data but also have the added benefit of past experience to make an informed decision. You need not only to ensure the available data is favorable but that customer’s past experience was also favorable.

It is easier to retain customers than to regain unhappy customers. Once a customer has made a decision they will have a tendency to stay with that organization. This is as much reluctance to change or admit they made a wrong decision as it is brand loyalty. Don’t delude yourself into thinking customers are returning solely because they are faithful to your organization. There is a limit to their “loyalty.” Once pierced, they will leave. Regaining them as customers will take immense effort on the part of the organization. Now the ex-customer is equipped with negative information gained from personal experience and this will override any positive public information. You want to keep your current customers satisfied. On top of that, unhappy customers will tell three times as many people of their experience than happy customers will. Bad news travels fast and eats at your reputation.

The same holds true for your employees and engagement. It is easier to build employee engagement in than it is to rebuild it once it’s lost. For example, AAR CORP took over the operation of a defunct MRO in Lake Charles, LA. Along with the hangars there were four A330 aircraft in various stages of repair. The workforce from the previous owner were unemployed so they had to go through the hiring process with AAR. While I’m sure those who were hired were happy for the work, they likely felt betrayed by their previous employer and were probably apprehensive of AAR as well. Management from other AAR facilities was brought in to assist in rebuilding this MRO. Although it was iterated to the employees that AAR is not like other organizations and we are employee oriented, I am sure they have heard it all before and took it with some skepticism.

The now-new AAR employees were tasked with cleaning up the hangars but couldn’t touch the aircraft until the FAA gave approval. These were mundane tasks at best so it was hard to engage employees, but they were glad to have jobs. One of the new hires had lost his wife and daughter to an auto accident, was living in a trailer near the airport and was just getting by. Before the end of the employee’s first day, an AAR manager bought him a pizza to take home. On another day, a different AAR manager gave him $20 to buy some food. These were not concerted efforts but individual actions. It was believed that the individual would be too embarrassed to tell anyone about his predicament and these random acts of kindness but the word spread. You could see and feel the difference in all the employee’s attitudes after those two days. The skepticism and cynicism was noticeably less. AAR really does walk the talk. AAR isn’t considered one of the top places to work for nothing.

These seemingly-small acts can have enormous effects,  but what will they get you? Engaged employees view their positions as more than just means to earn a paycheck. This charges the atmosphere. Every employee has a sense of duty to contribute to the organization’s long-term success. It is a feeling of membership when someone feels like a partner and not just an employee — like it’s their business. You are building a positive organizational culture.

Engaged employees are involved, absorbed and participative. Are your employees only compliant with quality and safety when the supervisor is watching? If so, you do not have an engaged workforce — you have a compliant workforce that will only be compliant when watched. Unfortunately, you are not alone. It has been estimated that only 1/3 of employees are actively engaged. The other 2/3 are not engaged, or worse, actively disengaged. Those who are actively disengaged can erode any engagement endeavor quickly.

Engaged employees are not prone to finger pointing and will take responsibility. This accountability fosters open communication and constructive feedback. Quality and safety issues are not buried or hidden — they are exposed and analyzed objectively. Engaged employees look out not just for themselves but for their peers as well. That’s why those managers helped. Employees are not just compliant when watched but are compliant because that is the norm the employee’s peers set.

There is a physical benefit to employee engagement in the form of stress level reduction. “Anxiety, depression and other mental health problems are prevalent in working populations … and some of those problems are attributable to working conditions” (Weir, 2013). This study revealed that the number of injuries climbed as job security went down. It showed lower rates of under-reporting in organizations with peer-driven positive safety climates that rewarded safe behavior, enacted good safety training, made employees feel comfortable raising issues to managers. The same is true for quality issues.

Employee engagement is an integral part of any high-performance organization. A Gallup study showed that organizations at the highest level of employee engagement had an 83-percent chance of performing above the company median when it comes to measures of customer loyalty, profitability, productivity, turnover, safety, absenteeism, shrinkage and quality (Fox, 2010).

Unfortunately, it was noted that when it comes to formal policies and management standards, organizations might say one thing but do another. Such organizations espouse excellent safety and quality practices but cut corners if those procedures undermine the bottom line. “Unsurprisingly, employees are quick to pick up on this ‘decoupling’ of policy and practice” (Weir, 2013). Organizations are actively disenfranchising their employees with these activities, pushing them towards disengagement. Let’s be honest here — as managers, you are not interested in safety because of altruistic reasons. You are concerned with safety because it costs you money when there are safety issues. Worker well-being is secondary at best. If you put on this false sense of compassion, the employees will see right through you and your trust rating will plummet.

Regrettably, what many will get out of this article is that employee engagement can be bought with a pizza. It wasn’t the act of buying a pizza that sparked the engagement machine, rather the compassion and engrained culture behind it. Many employees don’t feel they are allowed to contribute and become non-engaged. They will do only what is expected and nothing more. Surprisingly, what tops the list of what motivates people to be engaged is very simple: recognition of their contribution and how it impacts the organization (Pink, 2009). This alone will not build employee engagement. It must be accompanied by management leading people and managing resources, not the other way around. They must set clear, achievable goals and direction with the resources for successful achievement. “Employees who trust their managers or executives are more likely to be engaged. Trust in executives has a stronger correlation with high engagement than does trust in immediate managers” (BlessingWhite, 2011). Keep in mind that correlation is not cause and effect.

While I have directed the problem at management, the quality and safety profession is just as much at fault by concentrating on the technical aspects of statistics and auditing and focusing less on the softer issues like organizational behavior. We (management, quality and safety) only consider employees as a number, a statistic. It’s easier to deal with numbers. We can address and correct an audit finding, quality escape or safety incident, but what about employee engagement and involvement? “If I can’t touch it, taste it, hear it or smell it, it doesn’t exist.” This intangible can produce big, tangible results. It also can’t be duplicated by your competitors.

This is all built on trust. It is easier to love your spouse if you trust your spouse. You will overlook a lot of inconsistencies as long as the trust factor is intact. If your spouse cheats, that trust factor is broken immediately and love dwindles. Which is easier: maintaining a trusting relationship or rebuilding trust where trust has been lost?

I have used a lot of references in this article and they weren’t hand picked to support my contention. They were readily available and many other references can corroborate those facts.

All is not lost if mutual trust within your organization is non-existent, but you will have a hard road to recovery. Once you have pulled yourself up and achieved it, keep in mind how difficult it was to get there. Use it as a lesson learned and work to maintain that trust.

Patrick Kinane is an FAA-certificated A&P with IA and commercial pilot with instrument rating. He has 50 years of experience in aviation maintenance. He is an ASQ senior member with quality auditor and quality systems/organizational excellence manager certifications; he is RABQSA-certified, an AS9100 and AS9110 aerospace industry experienced auditor and ISO9001 business improvement/quality management systems auditor. Kinane earned a bachelor of science degree in aviation maintenance management, a master’s of science degree in education, and a Ph.D. in organizational psychology.  He is presently a senior quality management systems auditor for AAR CORP and a professor of organizational behavior at DeVry University.

BlessingWhite. (2011). Employee Engagement Report 2011.
Fox, Adrienne. (2010). Raising Engagement from HR Magazine. May.
Pink, Daniel H. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Riverhead Trade, New York, NY
Scarlett Surveys, retrieved September 2, 2013 from http://www.scarlettsurveys.com
Weir, Kirsten. (2013). Work, stress, and health from Monitor on Psychology. September. American Psychology Association