I was just looking at a question on LinkedIn, which asked respondents to offer their definition of employee engagement. It occurred to me that I’ve been writing this blog for the last several weeks and have never offered up what I think… my bad. There are a number of terrific “academic” defintions out there, but here’s more of the “friendly, Midwestern” version. I see four identifiable, measurable, factors:
- A person gets up every morning, fights bad drivers and cold coffee, to get to work where they say “I just love what I do” (Satisfaction);
- They go out of their way to get the job done right, particularly when a customer is involved, even when noone is looking (Discretionary Effort);
- At the weekend cookout they can’t stop talking up what they do and where they work to neighbors and friends (Advocacy); and
- They tell the headhunter to take a hike when they call about a new, higher paying job (Intent-To-Stay).
Do you see these things in yourself? In others on your work team? If so, you’re probably in that category of “engaged”. If not, it’s probably time to do some serious thinking.
Mark Hirschfeld 
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