Toxicity can happen anywhere at any given workplace no matter how small or large, or what industry. Where there is human interaction, there is potential for disappointment that can add up to unhappy employees. Unhappy employees tend to want to spread their misery to others, even if unknowingly doing so. The disengagement of such employees is off the charts. What becomes toxic is the spread of that unhappiness and others’ reaction to it.
Last week, I wrote a blog about supervisors’ and managers’ responsibility for employee engagement and some psychology that goes along with it. There is only so much that employers and supervisors can do in order to ensure engagement, the rest is up to the individual.
Great Webinar Takeaways You’ll Want to Learn More About
Today’s webinar put a new spin on employee engagement from what I thought it was. Our guest speaker and presenter was Dr. Robert Berrier of Spring International, who gave us a lot to think about when it comes to employee engagement.
From Spring International Website:
“Dr. Robert Berrier is the founder, President and CEO of Spring and chief visionary. Dr. Berrier’s work focuses on understanding how attitudes drive employee behaviors that link to organizational objectives. Under Robert’s direction, Spring adapted many of the best techniques of segmentation, brand management and attitude-outcome linkage analysis to the area of employee engagement and communications.”
Dr. Berrier explained how employees need to be recognized, have a good camaraderie with fellow workers, a good sense of self-esteem and sense of achievement in their workplace. Empowerment influences employee engagement and people like to work with a “shared purpose.” These are the essentials of employee engagement. Dr. Berrier spoke about the importance of one’s relationship to their peers, feedback and communication, company image and aligned values with employees’, and personal development for advanced opportunities. These are the cornerstones of what management’s influence is on employees in order to foster a working environment whereby employees want to be engaged. “Employee engagement is a mutual accountability.”
TNS TIP of the Week: Recognize Employees
Recognition is a very important motivator for employees because it encourages productivity and helps to drive top performance among employees. TNS research has consistently shown that organizations that provide their employees with recognition on a regular basis outperform organizations that do not engage in a regular recognition program.
Along with tidying up the office with carpet cleaning, putting away all the holiday decorations, tacking up new calendars, and sitting in brand-new Aeron chairs, we’re ready for what comes our way in 2014. New projects are hitting the decks and we are vying for position as to how we will accomplish them. So far, all the projects are met with eager enthusiasm.
Is that all that needs to be done, though? Of course not! It’s time to whip out those measuring tools and examine how we faired last year and how we are going to perform this year. Do you measure performance regularly or just once a year? How do you do that? I’m advised by the pros it’s a best practice to measure regularly and steadily, but unfortunately, many department heads let this go to the wayside until serious, consequential issues arise where “water is rising over their heads” and they can’t bail out.
