In the June 2017 issue of EHS-Today is an article about engaging and training workers as a foundation block for an effective safety program, while applying critical thinking principles. The intent, of course, is to seek out more and more opportunities to have people involved and participating in safety risk assessment, engaging at a grassroots level for finding solutions and training whole teams in the entire process. At a deep level, each of us knows that having people involved and with you in moving your business or organization forward is a good thing!

But are we doing it? Are we engaging our people well? Or are we giving this lip service? Are we just trying to check off the box?

The recent 2017 Gallup Report on Employee Engagement tells it like it is. Gallup estimates that actively disengaged employees cost the U.S. up to $605 billion each year in lost productivity. They found that only 33% of U.S. employees are engaged in their job, and slightly more than half of employees (51%) say they are actively looking for a new job or watching for openings. Further, most employees leave, not because of the Company per se, but because of their boss’s behavior.

The report also shows that when a business or organization has high levels of employee engagement, that there is a 71% reduction in Employee Safety incidents, a 17% increase in productivity and a 24% reduction in turnover. (Duh!) These are significant pay-offs to note for both employees and employers!

Yet this is just the tip of the iceberg! What Employers, CEOs, Managers, and Supervisors are also missing are two other important linkages – tied to levels of authentic engagement:

• Workplace Violence Connections: When knotty problems are left unresolved, when changes are imposed on people (without their input), when incivilities go unchecked, when team improvement sessions are absent, the risk of workplace violence and related dysfunctional behaviors increases. The call for honest engagement beckons.
• It is crucial to have high emotional intelligence among Supervisors: Supervisors with positive impact possess high EQ. Old school managers that remain in the “my way or the highway” mode and that cannot create/support a culture of authentic engagement with their people, ultimately become a detriment to overall organizational success. So a learning environment, engaging everyone, is important.

It doesn’t take much to learn an integrated, on-going, constructive dialog process that can improve safety, fully engage employees, resolve the hidden elephants that are getting in the way, lift up any workplace violence behavioral concerns (from incivilities to bullying to harassment to vengefulness to deeper dysfunctions) while building the energy necessary to move forward with coherence and collaboration. And it can be accomplished quickly.

I challenge you to call me (716-622-6467) to learn about Partner-Centered-Leadership and how our Process can help you to glean some multi-faceted, on-going, engagement successes soon!