View or download the printable version of Connecting Employee Engagement with Organizational Priorities (PDF).
As a supervisor, it is important to connect employee engagement with your organizational/ unit priorities.
Why does it matter? Employee engagement will support your unit in achieving its highest priorities:
Engaged employees have a high level of energy and motivation for their work. High engagement fosters collaboration, innovation, resilience, well-being and an ability to sustain high levels of performance. Low engagement may result in high turnover, inefficient work practices, and lower productivity. Steps to connecting employees to organizational/unit priorities Understand your organizational priorities and goals Ask yourself: What are the results expected of you? How can your direct reports help you achieve your results? How will you demonstrate achievement of unit priorities? How do your employees contribute to the strategic planning and goal setting of the unit? When strategy and goals are communicated, how are the reasons behind the strategy and goals communicated? Are unit/work group goals included in individual objectives for each employee? Leverage the U of M employees’ commitment and dedication Consider the following to effectively foster and increase engagement: Many of us want to feel that what we do matters and has a meaningful impact . Most employees want to know how their work is connected to the unit’s priorities and thus have ownership in what the organization is trying to achieve. Engaged faculty and staff want to contribute to the success of something greater than themselves through their work. Clearly identify how your team connects to key priorities Ask people that you supervise: Do you understand why the unit/work group is focused on these particular strategies and goals? How can you tell? How do day-to-day behaviors within our work group support the group’s strategy and goals? Are there ways that day-to-day behaviors do not align with our group’s strategy and goals? How is your work linked directly to the college/unit goals and the goals of the University? Coach each employee Use these suggested questions for coaching: Do you understand the work and results that are expected of you and how those connect with the unit’s priorities? Do you understand how our group makes decisions to support our key priorities as well as the rationale behind them? Do you understand when and how to communicate and collaborate to ensure effective and efficient achievement of our unit’s strategic priorities, goals, deliverables? What barriers do you encounter in trying to do your job efficiently? Which barriers are crucial to your work and which are simply frustrating? Are there any goals/focus areas you’re not making progress on? What do you need to make progress? When do you feel most productive? What creates a sense of making progress for you? On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with your own progress on your focus areas? What’s standing in the way of you being more engaged? More about how employees feel about their work or the organization rather than an issue involving skill-sets, knowledge, or systems. What’s being asked for in our services and what should we prioritize? Allows employee to respond flexibly and imaginatively to the highly variable circumstances of direct service/front line operations. What kinds of development opportunities do you need to help our group be more effective? What skills and abilities do you have that are not being used that could contribute to the success of our unit? L e adership and Talent Development consultants are available for further consultation upon request; for more information about employee engagement, please email us at ee2@umn.edu