The fastest way to tell if an employee feels part of the team is to listen to this one word

You don’t need a survey to measure employee engagement. Sometimes, all you need to do is listen.

If there is one word in the English language that will tell you if your employees are engaged, that word would be “we.” Why? Because engaged workers don’t say “them.” The promised workers say “we.”

Employees who say “they” when talking about their organization and co-workers unconsciously try to put some emotional distance between themselves and their work. For example, when asked where they work and what they do, unemployed workers might say something like “I work at Acme Inc. See produce household products.” Engaged employees, on the other hand, may enthusiastically say “Oh, I work at Acme Inc., We produce high-quality household products.”

When employees say “they,” when referring to their organization, this is a clear indication that they don’t see themselves as valuable members of your organization’s team—and that could be a sign that you have an employee relations problem on your hands. .

Understanding employee engagement

But, what exactly is employee engagement? One of the best explanations of employee engagement comes from DecisionWise, an employee feedback platform. It defines employee engagement as “an emotional state in which employees feel enthusiastic, motivated, and committed to their work. Committed employees work hard—hearts, spirits, minds, and hands—at the work they do. Dedicated employees go above and beyond, giving their hearts, spirits, minds, and hands to their work. Leaders see them as effective contributors, creating a workplace culture that encourages commitment and exceeds expectations.”

Obviously, having an engaged workforce benefits the organization and its ability to thrive in tough business conditions. But it is only when we compare the differences between the behaviors, actions, and attitudes of “them” employees and “us” employees that we get the true picture of how dangerous it is to have “their” employees on the payroll.

The danger of ‘them’ workers

Because “them” employees do not see themselves as valuable members of your organization, these employees are less likely to be team players and less likely to work well with their colleagues in a collaborative way that benefits the organization. “We” employees see themselves as an integral part of their organization and are more likely to be team players who show up every day as the best versions of their profession. “They” employees put in enough effort to succeed. “We” employees take another step to ensure that the various programs of their companies become a great success. “They” workers complain about problems at work. “We” the employees come up with solutions to those problems, we help their organization to make more profit. “They” staff provide poor service that leaves customers unhappy. “We” employees provide amazing service that turns regular customers into passionate fans of the brand.

In short, employees who use the word “they” at work to describe their organization, its leadership team, or its employees, are more likely to quit than employees who use the word “we” when referring to their coworkers or co-workers. organization.

Related: The ultimate guide to employee engagement

If you ever hear one of your employees refer to their co-workers or your organization as “they,” you may have a problem with employee relations. And that communication problem could hurt your brand. Even the smartest and smartest marketing, advertising, or social media campaign can be completely derailed by frustrated, disgruntled, or disengaged employees who deliver poor service.

The cost of non-compliance

If you want to build a strong brand and a strong business, you need to have a highly engaged workforce that is excited to help your organization achieve its branding and business goals. If you have dropped employees from your payroll, there is a strong possibility that you will face difficulties in achieving your branding and business goals.

A communication problem can also cost you directly financially. In other estimates, compared to engaged peers, disengaged employees show 37% higher absenteeism, 18% less productivity, and 15% less turnover. When translated into dollars, the cost of having an employee leave your payroll can be up to 34% of that employee’s annual salary!

If the disengagement problem is localized to one person, this may be a sign that that person is not a good fit for your organization (or vice versa). But, if there’s a company-wide engagement problem, it’s likely that your organization needs an employee engagement intervention and that you need to quickly fix the engagement problem you have on your hands.

Encouraging employee cooperation

How do you turn disengaged employees into highly engaged team members? Maybe host an annual Christmas party where employees can spend the night eating, drinking, and dancing away on the company dime? Maybe a free snack cabinet that employees can raid throughout the day? Or maybe a move where employees automatically get a paid day off on their birthdays?

There is nothing wrong with any of these benefits. In fact, for many years, the agency I founded had a free snack cabinet, and we celebrated each team member’s birthday with a small birthday party. We also had our annual Christmas lunch to end the year on a high note.

But benefits alone cannot drive employee engagement.

If you’re looking for a simple model for building employee engagement and moving employees from the “them” column to the “we” column, you should probably check out Daniel Pink’s book called Call. In his book, Pink points out three things that really motivate employees. This is independence, management and purpose.

Autonomy refers to employees’ desire to direct, or have a say in, their professional lives. Mastery means the desire to keep getting better at something important, while purpose means the desire to do something bigger than themselves. There are many ways to integrate these three elements into your workplace, but instead of doing a deep dive into those elements in this article, it would be better if you go straight to the source by reading Pink’s book for yourself.

Listen carefully

If you want hard, measurable data on the level of engagement in your organization, a solid option is to conduct an employee engagement or eNPS (employee Net Promoter Score) survey—or both. You can hire a team of trained researchers to conduct this survey, or you can use one of the templates provided by companies like Typeform, SurveyMonkey, or Qualtrics—some of which are free!

But, if you’ve been listening carefully to how your employees feel when they talk about your organization, you probably already know how engaged your employees are. Remember, engaged employees don’t mean “them.” The promised workers say “we.”