When you walk around your workplace, you probably see a lot of happy hardworking people, right? Wrong. A recent story published by CBS network revealed a state worker who had published over 5,000 comments to a newspaper over the span of a year. This averaged out to 25 posts written per day by this particular employee. On the outside, he appeared to be busily typing away on his computer working on a company project, when in fact he was stealing company time. What made it worse, that a lot of the comments were negative towards the agency that he worked for.
Explaining Employee Engagement and Commitment
So, what do you think about your workforce? Are they is committed to your company as you may think and how exactly can you tell just from casual observations?
Employee engagement is a hot topic with many workplaces. When employees are committed to both their jobs and the organization, they are actively engaged in work efforts. When they are not, what else could they be doing? A Gallup Poll indicated that at any given time, only around 13 percent of the workers are engaged in their jobs. Other workforce surveys and independent social media surveys have revealed that people are spending a lot of time chatting it up with friends, engaging in activities that are non-work related, generally complaining about their supervisors and companies, and in some cases – looking for another job while they use company resources.
How can you tell if your workers are engaged and committed at work?
There are some indicators that your employees are engaged and are committed to the success of your company:
- They arrive on time and happy
A clear sign that an employee is committed and satisfied with your company is that they arrive to work every day either early or on time, and they have a cheerful attitude. Employees who are grumbling, tardy, often miss days, or are just otherwise unhappy in nature are the people that you need to start thinking about replacing.
- They enjoy taking on new challenges
Employees who are engaged and committed to your workplace success are willing and able to take on new challenges. These are the folks who are considered to be leaders in their departments and are eager to prove how loyal they are to company objectives. Look for employees who actively pursue more responsibilities and take on bigger and better projects. This also includes temporary employees who were excited about working for your company.
- They get along with peers and clients
When employees are happy and committed to the company they are also great at getting along with others. They may be great team players and they may also be wonderful when working with clients. Very often, the most committed employees will go that extra mile to please customers and to boost their peers. Employees who have a hard time getting along with others are most likely already looking for a different job.
- They have communicated their long term goals
Both temporary and permanent employees have the ability to align their career goals with the company objectives. They are most likely to communicate these goals early in the game. They may also voice their dreams during performance reviews. Listen carefully for these positive signs of commitment.
- They act as cheerleaders in the workplace
A fully committed employee will go out of his or her way to say positive and encouraging things about the company. We call these workplace cheerleaders because they cheerfully and eagerly speak about the company and their jobs most of the time. These are valuable employees to keep around and to keep happy because they lift the entire company up.
If you are starting to see signs that employees are not as happy or committed as they once were, it is important to connect with them to find out why. Sometimes there are minor reasons for change of heart. Sometimes it could be the right opportunity to look for employee engagement strategies or to bring in some fresh talent on a temporary basis.