Suppose you posted the question: Employee engagement: what does that mean to you?

Maybe on an inner-office bulletin board. Or via e-mail. Perhaps as the banner question on a staff-meeting agenda. What about printed on a pad of Post-It notes on everyone’s desk? Possibly a quick-answer survey.

Suppose your employees were given both the invitation and the motivation to answer that question. What might they say? What might you learn? What might everyone do with the responses?

Perhaps you are about to kick off a formal Plan to Increase Engagement. Maybe have been running such an effort for some time. In either case–or anywhere in between– you want to hear what it means from those whose engagement you target.

If you are just putting a plan into motion, you want to understand

• What your employees’ perception of employee engagement really is. It’s essential that you and they be on the same page.
• What your employees see as the importance of engagement. The more engagement means to them, the more investment of time and energy they will make to become more engaged.
• What your employees feel about your efforts and the company’s efforts to increase their engagement. The more they feel this is a positive element from the people/company they work for, the farther your plan will fly.

If you are continuing a plan that’s been in gear for some time, it pays for you to know

• How your employees view their engagement and its changes over time. If you have invested time, energy, and money into the plan and they see no or few results, the plan may warrant an overhaul.
• How your employees evaluate the plan itself: not just the results but the process and procedure to achieve those results. Every plan needs regular fine-tuning.
• How your employees see their engagement–especially if it has increased–making a difference to the business.  You want to know how clearly they see their engagement linked to productivity, retention, customer satisfaction, earnings and other benefits.

Employee engagement! What does that mean to you?

A question worth asking.

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