The Talent Imperative: Intentionality of Sustainable Engagement

Allie LaVista, Human Resources Transformation Director, Danone North America

Being a people leader has never been more complex, and it’s more important now than ever. Sustainable engagement is kind of like that puzzle that’s out on your coffee table that’s never quite done and you never have quite enough time for it. There are not enough hours in the day to tackle everything on your plate and this may not always rise to the top of your priority list. Sustainable engagement is like a puzzle – they both have many variables/pieces, each unique, interconnected, and takes persistence and patience - certainly not an easy check the box exercise.

When you look at various world statistics you typically find that only 20% of our global workforce is engaged. Pretty astonishing and disappointing, huh? Prior to the pandemic engagement had been rising globally but progress has now stalled. We all know how strong the link between engagement and performance outcomes is. Developing highly engaged teams results in fewer negatives, more positives, and greater success for your organization. So why aren’t we doing more to be intentional on increasing that number? There must be some trick that no one’s telling you…

Imagine a world in which you have truly deep and meaningful engagement conversations with your team - they are happy, work hard, stay for many years, and performance is outstanding. This world can be possible if we have an ‘always on’ mentality when it comes to sustainable engagement. We need to intentionally create time and space to openly discuss engagement drivers. What (very specifically) does engagement mean to them? Intentionality of sustainable engagement is a talent imperative given the fierce competition in the market.

Five key drivers I’ve found in my experience and extensive research cited across many industries that if focused on, can help increase engagement in a sustainable way are:

1. Purpose

2. Autonomy

3. Growth

4. Recognition

5. Well-Being

Are you having conversations about these drivers consistently with the teams that you work with? What creative actions can you come up with together to increase engagement in each of these important categories? With meaningful relationships, we can have open, honest, and supportive conversations to help our employees stay engaged, motivated, and productive for themselves and our organizations.

" Sustainable engagement is like a puzzle – there are many pieces/variables, each unique, and interconnected, both requiring patience and persistence."

Managers are at the heart of organizations. Nearly every problem and achievement in an organization can be tied back to the quality of managers. Managers have been known to have more of an impact on employee’s mental health than their doctors. Sounds like an important role that we should all take seriously and be consistently intentional about. Knowing what engages your team is important, but also, you need to be deeply connected to yourself, first and foremost. When you get on an airplane your flight attendant typically says, put on your mask before taking care of others. It’s the same with your engagement. You need to know what engages you first - your engagement is a key piece to the puzzle in your team’s engagement.

In addition to the conversation you’ll have above on key engagement drivers, you also need to be deeply in tune with what your employee’s motivators are. I’ll leave you with a challenge in the New Year to do with each of your team members to set the year up for success.

1. List their top three motivators at work (a few popular but not exhaustive examples: autonomy, leading teams, creativity, people I work with, workplace flexibility, career growth, company purpose)

2. Rank those top three motivators by level of importance (one through three)

3. List their current level of satisfaction with each of the motivators identified (from highly dissatisfied to highly satisfied)

4. Reflect on their level of satisfaction on each motivator, discuss when ready, and brainstorm actions together that you can support to help encourage more satisfaction and balance.

This conversation is great to bring awareness to the employee of what truly motivates them at work and why they’ve been engaged, or maybe not so engaged. That’s the easy part though. If you choose to have this conversation, which you should, be sure to align on a routine to follow up on the discussion to continually check in and pivot plans when needed. At Danone, we highly encourage this reflection and conversation, it has led to great success of sustainable engagement when focused on and routinely revisited.

This conversation and follow through on it, is a great way to consistently create the conditions of sustainable engagement (time and space) for your team. Remember that you’re a part of the story your team tells their family when they’re sitting around the dinner table at night. Make sure you’re intentional about giving them a great experience at work, capturing their heads and hearts. Sustainable engagement is like a puzzle – there are many pieces/variables, each unique, and interconnected, both requiring patience and persistence. I know you’ll be up to the challenge to cultivate an ‘always on’ mindset and meet the moment as frequently and intentionally as you can.