Engagement Begins Before Employment

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Employee engagement is a major contributor to an organization’s productivity and results. In fact, it’s crucial for the long-term success of any business. That’s because an employee who is truly engaged tends to be more productive, committed to, and loyal to their employer. They typically bring more discretionary effort to the table and create less risk than their disengaged counterparts. Raise your engagement levels and you’ll tend to produce better results.

Some believe that engagement begins on an employee's first day of work. But that’s a myth. The truth is that engagement begins before employment.

Engagement at a Glance

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment and connection that an employee has to their work, organization, and co-workers. It’s the driving force behind discretionary effort, productivity, and perseverance. It influences an employee’s motivation, enthusiasm, and investment in their work and, therefore, the success of the organization. It also significantly influences employee loyalty.

Unfortunately, according to Gallup¹, the levels of employee disengagement today are high and active disengagement is higher than ever. But the good news is that you can create practices during the interview and selection process that can increase these levels.

Engagement Drivers

During the pre-employment process, your future employees ask themselves seven key questions. Every interaction that they have with the organization (especially during the interview process) will shape their answers and their future engagement levels.

• Do I believe in where you are going, and can I successfully contribute?
• Am I interested in the responsibilities, team, and culture?
• Can I trust what I am seeing and hearing? Will my experiences match the promise?
• Do you care about me as an individual?
• Can you help me accomplish my goals?
• Will I have a positive experience as an employee?
• Is your organization a smooth-running machine (or a bucket of headaches)?

If you want to build and drive higher engagement levels, it’s important to focus on intentionally creating an experience that is going to lead them to answering those questions affirmatively and believing, “This is where I belong.”

To read this entire article, which appeared in the June 2023 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.