6 Keys of Workforce Engagement

Academic studies have long tried to help us understand the influence of employee satisfaction, positivity, fun, creativity, and other influences on employee performance. Today, it’s employee engagement.

Years developing theories and conducting research has resulted in more than a few models of employee engagement. We aren’t going to debate the pros and cons of these various models. Instead, we will simply present our model based on decades of practical experience studying and building high engagement workplaces.

Our model is centered on what we have found to be most essential in the employee experience for engagement to occur. These elements combine to enable employees to become intrinsically driven and personally committed to overarching team and business unit goals and experience a compelling need to do their best to ensure team and unit success. With that in mind, we have discovered the following six keys that consistently ensure high levels of employee engagement. We labelled them creatively as The Six Cs.

The Six Cs of Employee Engagement:

1. Context—Knowing and understanding the goals and needs of the whole team and business unit, the big picture.
2. Connection—Knowing and understanding how the parts of the system connect and how one’s contributions affect others and the larger system—why each person matters.
3. Commitment—Choosing and experiencing personal commitment and accountability for the team, the greater business unit, and customer delight.
4. Communication—Tracking and knowing the score for personal and team performance. Obtaining broad and deep organizational knowledge to improve team and business unit performance.
5. Control—Being able to manage work methods and needed resources for flexibility and innovation in order to achieve success for the whole system, including the customer.
6. Competence—Skills to not only perform work with the above capabilities, but to cross-skill and manage the work as both an individual and as a team.

In our experience, leaders who master application of these six keys are able to transform the perspectives, motivations, and behaviors of employees who become intrinsically motivated to achieve great things. Such leaders don’t succeed by manipulating people, but by creating a workplace that enables these changes to occur, naturally. Industry leading organizations know this and value these capabilities as essential leadership attributes.

Kevin Herring is co-author of Practical Guide for Internal Consultants, and President of Ascent Management Consulting. Kevin can be contacted at kevinh@ascentmgt.com.

Ascent Management Consulting is found at www.ascentmgt.com and specializes in performance turnarounds, leadership coaching, and appraisal-less performance management.