Employee engagement is a fluid term with many definitions. My preferred, simple, definition is from Kevin Kruse, who has written extensively on the subject. He sees it as “the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.” Most important to this is the effect it has on the individual and the company they work for.
Two related news pieces over the last week have caught my eye.
The first is the news from the Great Place to Work Institute’s new report, The Dawn of the Great Workplace Era. It has found that globally, employee engagement is on the rise. This is news that anyone would struggle to spin negatively. Employee engagement is obviously good for employees. It is directly related to, for example, job satisfaction, morale, and work-life balance. It’s also great news for businesses: engaged employees are a strong barometer of success.
Then I saw a BBC report on a new employee engagement app. The idea of Smarpshare is to create employee advocates through social media. Employees can use the software to spread pre-approved marketing messages to their networks. Sounds simple enough. And the idea of employee advocates is great.
Something about that doesn’t sit easily with me. Employee advocacy should be achieved for the right reasons. Your employees should genuinely feel that what your company does is great and worth sharing. Not because you’ve given them some content and are encouraging them to spam their contacts with it.
This app is treating employee engagement as a marketing issue. It should be an HR issue. By focussing on employee engagement factors such as work-life balance, training/development opportunities, and company culture you can develop “real” employee advocates. These are the employees who give their all, genuinely support the company and its endeavours, and will continue to do so in the long-run. Not just until you stop reminding them to push out pre-approved content to their Twitter followers.
Maybe I’m being too cynical and that Smarpshare will prove me wrong. Indeed maybe engaged employees are yet to find the medium to properly be an employee advocate. But I really do think this is missing the point on employee engagement.