Every year, many companies are at a loss on what to do to stem resignation notices from employees leaving to join new companies. Many try to understand why the workers left and put pro-employee measures in place to stem the loss of highly effective and productive employees.
A 2024 survey by Gallup on the state of the global workplace, estimates that low employee engagement costs the world 9 per cent of the global GDP, and only 20 per cent of employees across sub-Saharan Africa are engaged, with 15 per cent actively disengaged.
Globalisation, information accessibility, and technological advancements are revolutionising the workplace. Now more than ever, employees know their rights and have more options. This means the single most resource that is highly sought-after is an engaged employee.
Employee engagement is a workplace method designed to improve an employee's level of enthusiasm and dedication to the company, their job duties, position within the company, their fellow employees, and the company culture.
Many organisations are grappling with high turnover rates which can be traced to employee disengagement, among other factors. As noted, the most sought-after resource is talent. talent it is not just about experience, it is also about traits. These include attitude, agility, creativity, growth orientation and team skills, among others. Once great talent has been acquired, organisations then work towards building their capability and continuously aligning their expectations with employee expectations.
Employees need to see the value and possible returns from their commitment. Engagement stems naturally from a mindful cultivated environment. Employers have the opportunity to give employees reasons to invest their time, energy, and mind in the organisation’s mission and vision. Thus, engagement is an outcome and not an action in itself.
Seeing that different organisations have different ways of doing things, an individual would be setting themselves up for disappointment if they joined an organisation that doesn’t align with their purpose, expectations and values. If during alignment expectations from both sides do not match, it's wise to discontinue the engagement and save time and energy from both parties. Not all employees will fit in your environment. Some will adapt and thrive and others will not.
As a HR personnel, I have noted that if expectations from either side are violated, trust issues creep in resulting in employee disengagement. People are often very engaged at the beginning of employment or contract which can be attributed to the frequent meetings that managers have with the new individuals to ensure that they settle down well and that they adapt with ease.
When these frequent alignments cease to happen, people start filling in the void with their own expectations, resulting in misalignment. It's therefore important to note that expectations’ alignment is a continuous process between an employee and their supervisor because they keep evolving from both parties.
J Stacy Adams’ Equity Theory suggests that employees gauge their output with that of their colleagues and compare the rewards they are getting as a result of their contributions against their colleagues. If they perceive unfairness, they will seek to find balance between what they believe they are contributing, against what they perceive as the reward they are getting. This would in turn affect the whole equation from level of commitment to their level of output, to how well they serve clients and soon enough their engagement levels change.
As a leader who is responsible for a team or teams, aligning expectations right from recruitment from both the employee and organisational perspective is the basis of building an engaged team. First, outline and communicate clearly what you expect from employees and when doing this, remember that employees have different backgrounds, desires, expectations, mindset, emotions, needs, and that everyone wants to be recognised as unique and separate, albeit as part of a team (need for belonging).
The same should also happen from employees where they clearly state and align their expectations with the said role, their supervisor and the organisation in general. As an employee, be clear what your expectations are before you join an organisation.
Secondly, as an employer, it is paramount to evaluate your organisation in terms of culture, leadership model, clarity of roles, growth opportunities, fairness, communication system, employee value propositions, and especially whether your staff understands how their work is contributing to the organisation's mission and vision. At the end of the day, the level of your team engagement will show through their output. The quality of the service/output will tell your story.
Thirdly, manage trust levels by being mindfully present to what’s actually happening with your team, communicate clearly, and continuously align expectations, incorporate internal surveys as one of your tools to gauge how engaged your team is, then implement feedback.
People from all walks of life can tell the importance of trust. All levels of engagement are measured by trust. We even do favours to friends based on the level of trust. In an organisation set-up, this foundational attribute can be upheld or broken. How much your team trusts you is a question of how well you have kept your word, level of internal transparency in communication, fairness, and other factors which all stem from alignment of expectations.
As 2025 commences, take time as a leader and decide what kind of environment you would like your organisation to operate in, the level of engagement you would like from your team and then work towards that. Engagement cultures do not just happen, they happen by design and consistency.