Jill Christensen
Jill ChristensenAuthor Blogger
Jill Christensen is a guest blogger for EmpowerPoints, an employee engagement expert, best-selling author, and international keynote speaker. She is a Top 100 Global Employee Engagement Influencer, authored the best-selling book, If Not You, Who?, and works with the best and brightest global leaders to improve productivity and retention, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth by re-engaging employees. Jill’s Website | LinkedIn Profile

Bloomberg published an article called “Office Perks are Dumb.”  While the East Coast business woman in me would not have titled it this way, the premise is right on: office dogs, ping-pong tables, and kegerators make people happy, but they do not make work fulfilling.  These perks also do not engage employees, which – as an employer – is the golden ticket. Engaged employees go the extra mile and give employers a lot of discretionary effort, which is the magic dust to extraordinary business results.

Where did this trend start?  Google and Zappos pioneered these types of office perks, and because Millennials view them as ‘cool,’ the idea to create a fun work environment was copied by many startups and tech companies.  The hope?  That ‘happy’ employees would give a lot of discretionary effort, boosting the bottom line.

However, companies that jump on this bandwagon are missing the mark because ‘happy’ and ‘engaged’ are not one in the same.  If your employees are happy but not engaged (emotionally connected to your organization), there’s a good chance they will leave.  If your employees are happy and engaged, they are yours to keep.  It’s the difference between dating someone and having fun vs. putting a ring on it.  The former is temporary and surface level, and the latter is permanent and deep.

What Can I Do?  Senior leaders, supervisors and HR have a lot of examples about how to create ‘happy’ employees, but few examples about how to create ‘engaged’ employees.  The formula?  Create a list of actions that your managers can execute on in the trenches, which cause employees to feel connected, communicated with, respected, and recognized.  Then, unleash them to execute – consistency is key.  HR does not own culture change – managers do.  But they won’t know where to begin unless you guide them.  THAT is the role of HR.