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fun is not just a frivolous waste of time if it helps increase people’s engagement. When people are
highly engaged, their commitment to achieve increases—the organization benefits. Research shows
that companies with high employee engagement levels have 3.9 times the earnings per share when
compared to those in the same industry with lower engagement levels (Arruda, 2013). It pays to have
fun!

Want to learn more? Take a deep dive…

David, S. (2013, July 15). Disengaged employees? Do something about it. Harvard Business
Review Blog Network.

Vorhauser-Smith, S. (2013, August 14). How the best places to work are nailing employee
engagement. Forbes.

7. Play your cards too close to your chest? Be transparent with people. Information is power. Lack
of information can be demotivating for people. If they feel you have a hidden agenda, they will draw
up their own. Sometimes what they imagine is worse than the truth. If you have bad news, come
clean as soon as you are able. Give them reasons (if you can) to help them understand. Ask for their
help. Make decision-making processes as transparent and inclusive as possible. Of course,
sometimes conditions and context restrict decisions to a small number of decision makers. You’ll
need to respect that, but share what you can and keep people informed. Anticipate their questions
and answer those you can ahead of being asked. Make transparency your standard way of operating.

8. Losing people and don’t know why? Find out and fix it. How often do people leave the team or
the organization and you don’t truly understand the reason? There will always be some departures
you do not see coming and that cannot be avoided. But there are also people who leave whom you
could have kept if only you’d known they were unhappy. When people move on, they may not always
be honest about why. Encourage them to share with you their reason for leaving: Great opportunity?
Why is it better than the role they currently have? More prospects? What are they looking for that they
don’t currently see? More money? How much more? Better work environment? What’s missing that’s
important to them? Learn from those who leave so you can keep those who are staying. Research
shows that engaged employees are five times less likely to leave an organization (Arruda, 2013).
Conduct exit interviews. Ask people to complete questionnaires. Welcome their feedback and use it
to build engagement in others.

9. Live by “no news is good news”? Build a feedback-rich environment. In organizations that have
created a culture steeped in candor and straight talk, giving and receiving feedback is as natural as
breathing. Feedback is given frequently and usually in real time—during or immediately following
performance. This helps people adjust what they’re doing along the way and allows them to make
midcourse corrections. Feedback, delivered correctly, shows people that what they’re doing is
important and you care enough to help them get it right. Supplement your feedback with coaching
and mentoring to help people grow and progress. Encourage them to reciprocate by giving you
feedback. Welcome it. Learn from it. Apply it appropriately. Be a feedback role model.

© Korn Ferry 2014-2015. All rights reserved. WWW.KORNFERRY.COM

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