Feature
Employee engagement is one of those challenges that every leadership team knows matters, but few solve effectively. The usual approaches – perks, culture initiatives, team building – rarely move the needle in a lasting way.
Here's why: they don't address what people actually need to feel engaged at work.
What unlocks genuine engagement
Through our work transforming businesses from the inside out, we've identified three keys that consistently drive real employee engagement:
1. A feeling of belonging
People need to see how they're part of a bigger picture. When Clarion, the UK's largest housing association, reconnected their 4,000+ colleagues to the urgent problem they were solving – providing homes for those who need them most – it transformed how employees saw their role. Every department understood their unique contribution to the mission.
2. A clear sense of your point of difference
Employees need to understand what makes your organisation unique. Not just what you do, but the specific problem you're solving and your distinctive approach to solving it. This gives people something meaningful to rally behind.
3. Connection to your products and services
When all aspects of the business work together towards a single solution, people understand how their work connects to outcomes. This coherence makes the business make sense to people inside it.
The practical impact
When these three elements align, employee engagement stops being an HR initiative and becomes a natural outcome of how the business operates. People don't need to be convinced to care – they already understand why their work matters.
This is particularly crucial for organisations navigating growth, complexity, or change. The businesses that engage their people through this approach have the internal momentum to move forward, even when external conditions are challenging.
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