Employee experience | Engage with the work, not the perks

Engagement is stagnant. And that’s putting it generously. In the West, the US can boast that roughly 35% of employees claim to be engaged in their jobs. It’s all downhill from there. Barely 11% of UK employees say the same, and parts of the Far East - notably Singapore and Hong Kong - report even lower numbers. 

We don’t love our jobs. And when we say “jobs” we mean exactly that. Some employee engagement measures look at reputation or loyalty, which are both helpful yardsticks, but they don’t get to the heart of the engagement conundrum. You can be proud of or loyal to your employer but not love the actual work you do. You may be proud to work for an investment bank, but not love the demands it makes on you. You may be loyal to the fantastic charity you work at, but not be fulfilled by the day-to-day tasks you do there. 

But when you ask people what makes the difference to their experience of work, the answer is nearly all the same: the work itself. This is the reason why employee engagement initiatives can miss the mark. Be honest: how often do your attempts to boost engagement focus on the experience of being at work rather than the work itself? There are the classic quality of life enhancements - fresh fruit in the morning or a shiny new coffee machine. There are the breaks from the routine - the yoga sessions or desk massages. And, of course, the social get-togethers - craft beer evenings, sports sessions or team lunches. 

These things are important, and hugely appreciated by the team. But there’s a reason why they work on the periphery. They don’t affect the actual work. They’re nothing to do with the day job.