The 4 E’s of Employee Engagement

Crack the employee engagement code and you could transform your company’s fortunes. 

Don’t believe us? Did you know:

• Engaged teams are 21% more productive?
• Engaged employees generate 43% more revenue – and are 87% less likely to leave their job – than disengaged ones?
• Organizations with a highly engaged workforce outperform their competitors by a massive 147% in earnings-per-share?

Which all sounds great…

But employee engagement is difficult enough to define, never mind track and improve. 

Which is a big reason a measly 10% of people describe themselves as “highly engaged” in their work. Most leaders and HR teams simply don’t know where to start when it comes to this crucial piece of the people puzzle.

And that’s where the 4 E’s of employee engagement come in. 

They bake one of the most misunderstood phrases in the world of HR down to four levers you can pull to quickly boost engagement across your business. 

Read on to discover what the 4 E’s of employee engagement are – and how to start using them to improve engagement across your business today.

The 4 E’s of employee engagement

Want to boost team collaboration, employee retention, and employee happiness across your business – fast?

Look no further than these four cornerstones employee engagement:

Enablement

Enablement is providing your people with everything they need to do their best work – and removing any obstacles that might hold them back. 

It’s giving them a budget to outsource specialist skills you don’t have in-house to contractors. It’s signing off the equipment they need to do their job properly. It’s letting your people work flexible hours around their other commitments to help reduce the stress in their lives.

This might all sound simple, but it’s amazing how many businesses get enablement wrong – sending work motivation plummeting. 

For example, let’s say a new hire asks their manager if they can have a second monitor for their workspace, as they think it will make their job a lot easier. You don’t have the budget to buy a second screen for everyone in the office, so you say no to avoid setting a precedent you can’t maintain. 

Seems like a reasonable choice on the surface. But what message are you sending to that employee by denying that request? That you’re not willing to spend a few hundred dollars on a second screen they’ve told you they need to do their best work? That a boost in their productivity and happiness isn’t worth the price of a computer monitor to you?

Respect in the workplace and staff appreciation start from the top. If you don’t enable your people to do their best work by listening to their needs and responding to them, your employee engagement strategies are doomed to fail before they’ve even begun. 

So, a shortcut to happy employees is to regularly ask your teammates what you can do to make their lives easier in your engagement surveys – and by asking the right questions during one-to-ones. 

Then a simple – but often not easy – way to show staff appreciation is to do whatever you can to deliver on those requests. 

Empowerment

Empowerment is all about giving your people the autonomy to do things their own way. 

This is absolutely essential to engagement. After all, flexibility would be the deciding factor between two jobs with identical pay for a whopping 75% of workers. And research shows job autonomy has a huge impact on both job satisfaction and performance. 

In other words: giving your people a say in how they do their work will send engagement through the roof across your business.

Want to supercharge empowerment across your organization? Set your teammates’ KPIs, but then leave them in charge of:

• What the best way to achieve them is
• When – and where – they work
• What resources they’re going to need to deliver the results that are expected of them

60% of people say micromanagement is a demotivating factor at work. Empowerment has such a big impact on employee engagement because it’s the polar opposite of micromanaging. Instead of telling their reports exactly what to do – and how to do it – your managers’ should simply ask “what blockers are holding you back from doing your best work?” and “what can I do to help you hit your KPIs?”.

Expression

Your people aren’t going to get real, lasting job satisfaction from a job where they’re expected to do as they're told and not ask questions.

That’s where expression comes in. And it comes from you regularly inviting your teammates to voice their opinions, share feedback, and contribute ideas. 

This can have a huge impact on your business. First of all, businesses that give their people a voice and act on their feedback are 8.4X more likely to inspire a sense of belonging. And your people are a lot more likely to go the extra mile when they’re playing their part as part of a team they feel like they belong to than when they’re going through the motions in a job that pays the bills. 

Secondly, businesses that listen to their people and act on their feedback are 3.6X more likely to innovate effectively. Innovation doesn’t often come from the same people tackling the same problems again and again, after all. Give your employees a say in how you could be doing things better and you might be surprised how effective the ideas they come back with are.

Businesses that let their employees express themselves are also 12X more likely to retain them. Which is no surprise, really. If your people have a say in how things are done within your organization, they can help create their dream job – which isn’t something they’ll want to leave in a hurry.

Last but not least, 74% of people feel more engaged at work when they feel their voice is heard. Which is why expression is one of the four pillars of engagement.

Want to start reaping the benefits of giving your employees space to express themselves in your business? Be careful to create a company culture that leaves your people comfortable opening up what they don’t love about their job. Then be sure to give them a platform to express their opinions through engagement surveys, one-to-ones, and annual reviews.

Environment

Last but certainly not least when it comes to employee engagement is environment.

This begins with where your people work from. And with 59% of workers preferring hybrid working, that means working from home at least some of the time for most employees. Given the option, the majority of workers would actually prefer to be in the office between one and three days a week.

Accommodating this environment for your employees comes with all kinds of benefits, including:

• 81% of hybrid employees are highly engaged.
• 78% of employees say a hybrid work plan leads to a better work/life balance.
• Hybrid workplaces have seen an average 12% reduction in employee turnover.

But environment isn’t just about where your people work from. It also encompasses your company’s overall organizational culture, the kind of behaviors that are (and aren’t) considered acceptable in your workplace, and your people’s work-life balance. 

A toxic workplace environment is a one-way ticket to sky-high employee burnout and turnover rates – and rock-bottom engagement. And once a toxic company culture sets in it's almost impossible to reverse. So, be very careful about the environment you set within your company or it could cause irreversible damage.

The final word

Looking to make a big impact on engagement levels in your business fast? Focus your efforts on the 4 E’s – enablement, empowerment, expression, and environment – and your team will be getting more done, sticking around for longer, and generating more revenue in no time.

‍