I love to help people be engaged in and inspired by their work—in fact, that is why I started Find my niche!
Engagement has been described as putting our real selves into work (Kahn, 2010). Engagement is when we deeply care about what we are doing and are committed to doing the best we can. When we are engaged, we express our real selves, rather than defend or withdraw them from view.
So, what are the secrets to being engaged at work?
Organisations and researchers all over the world are interested in understanding what leads to higher engagement at work, and the most effective ways to increase engagement.
I have been completing my PhD for six years under the supervision of Dr Simon Albrecht, a world-renowned expert in employee engagement, Editor of the Handbook of Employee Engagement, and a Senior Lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne. Together, he and I are conducting research to find out how organisational politics affects our engagement at work—but I’ll tell you more about that later.
For now, what are some of the key things that are associated with higher engagement at work?
According to research (Mauno, Kinnunen & Ruokolainen, 2007), a strong predictor of work engagement (characterised by energy, absorption and dedication) is whether you feel you matter to the organisation as well as whether you have control over how you do your work and the pace at which you do it. This may fit with your own observations that when people are marginalised, given ‘nothing work’ and not included in organisational activities, their engagement plummets.
Other research (May, Gilson & Harter, 2004) found that people who find their work personally meaningful have the highest engagement. That makes intuitive sense, doesn’t it? Another finding that fits with many people’s experience is that people who reported a supportive relationship with their supervisor were more likely to be engaged. May, Gilson and Harter also found that people who felt a strong fit with their role experienced higher work engagement. And if their role provided significant challenge in terms of feedback, autonomy and skill variety, they were also more likely to be engaged.
Other research (Halbesleben, 2010) suggests that optimism, social support and self-efficacy are strongly related to high engagement at work. So people who are highly optimistic and expect the best, people with strong social support, and people with a strong belief in their ability to succeed or complete tasks are more likely to be engaged. Makes sense.
Other research by Gallup Inc (Clifton & Harter, 2013) suggests that our opportunities to use our strengths at work are strongly related to high employee engagement. Subsequent research by Gallup Inc suggests that people who have the opportunity to use their strengths every day at work are six times more likely to be engaged at work, and are also three times more likely to report a better overall quality of life.
So what does this mean for you?
Clearly, some of these factors are easier to affect than others. For example, we could potentially change our feeling of whether we matter to the organisation. However, is it possible to change our innate sense of optimism?
I like the idea of focusing on the things we can change, and not worrying about the things we can’t change.
So in the world of work engagement, we talk about the practice of ‘job crafting’. That is, actively looking for opportunities to shape your work to fit your personality and interests. You may wonder how on earth you might do that.
Here a couple of examples to get you thinking.
In my previous role, the type of work that gave me most energy was facilitating workshops for my colleagues at the Australian Crime Commission. So I looked for ways to add value to the agency through opportunities to facilitate workshops. This was a key part of my role so I wasn’t looking to do work that was not within the scope of my role, but my projects could potentially involve a wide range of work, so it made sense to ensure I incorporated some of this energising work into my role.
A client of mine found that one of her strengths was building and enjoying close relationships (‘Relator’ in StrengthsFinder speak). She was feeling quite disengaged and found that she wasn’t enjoying any close relationships at work—so she set about making a couple of relationships to enhance her engagement at work (and it worked – you may remember that social support is also strongly related to engagement). StrengthsFinder is a great tool for helping you understand what energises you!
You may be feeling like you can’t make any decisions without someone having to check everything. How can you increase your autonomy at work? I have found a decision tree helpful with members of my team where we talk about the types of decisions that can be made with no consultation or communication (leaf decision), communicating decisions after they’re made (branch decision), checking in for approval before decisions are made (trunk decision) and decisions that require extensive consultation (root decision). It is a great way to increase your sense of autonomy in your role.
People that find their work personally meaningful are also more likely to be engaged. Professor Adam Grant has done some great work in this area (his book Give and Take is one of my favourites). He talks of a number of studies that have shown how to increase meaningfulness at work. For example, research shows that radiologists who receive a photo of the patient along with the CT scan perform significantly better diagnoses. Bankers who watched videos of clients who felt massive relief because of low-interest loans realised the important impact of their work. From my work at the Australian Crime Commission, people were engaged with the agency because they felt they made a difference—and communication about successful results buoyed people up and provided meaningfulness to their roles.
How could you ‘craft’ your role so that you are six times more engaged? How could you make your role more personally meaningful? Could you use your strengths more at work? How could you increase your social support?
What are some ways in which you could increase your engagement at work? I’d love to hear what you come up with!
Now, I promised I’d tell you more about my research. I am interested in understanding whether both positive and negative organisational politics exist – and whether they are related to things like engagement, innovation and collaboration. If you have 25 minutes and you work in an organisation of 15 or more people, I would GREATLY appreciate if you would take the time to complete my survey!! I need 300 responses so would appreciate your help! Here is the link.
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