What Does Workplace Engagement Really Look Like?

As a keynote speaker, one of the topics I most love to discuss is employee engagement. What I’ve noticed is that many organizations are really hungry to discuss this topic, yet there’s often a misperception about what employee engagement actually is.

Think about it for a second: Do you know how to define the term? If someone asked you what employee engagement was, how would you respond?

It’s one of those buzzwords that a lot of us accept without really unpacking it — so let me try to clear some things up. First, a few words about what employee engagement is not. For one thing, engagement is not happiness — not exactly. Sure, engagement may make many of your employees happier at the office — but if happiness was all there was to it, you could just buy a keg and a Ping-Pong table for your break room and be done with it.

Happiness is not the same thing as engagement — and neither is satisfaction. You may have plenty of satisfied employees who are perfectly willing to do their job from 9 to 5 each day, but they won’t necessarily go the extra mile or even feel particularly loyal to the organization.

So what is employee engagement? Here’s my simple definition: Employee Engagement is the measure of how emotionally committed your employees are to the team.