Companies explore various means to keep their employees engaged and allocate budgets for the same because revenue comes with engagement thru increased productivity and reduced attrition etc.
But it is also sometimes felt that while engagement initiatives are pinching a company’s pocket, they are not yielding desired results. It may be because the company often focuses on the grandeur of the programmes but does not really try to know what the employee wants or what his area of interest. It tries to mould the employee thru training to the job. In a nutshell ‘what the company wants’ forms the centre of its focus in EE initiatives.
It could be that it looses sight of the truth that sometimes small changes without involving any cost, might bring about engagement.
For ex, an employee might not be interested with his current job but is passionate about some other function, available within the company. But what happens is the manager does not want to loose a qualified employee and tries to mould the employee to the job instead of finding that he is moulded for some other function.
So despite training & other performance incentives, the employee remains disengaged. By making a small change like putting the employeein the area of his interest might have worked wonders in terms of engagement.
If a baby is hungry and is crying, no amount of effort of dangling a costly barbie doll before him, will keep him quiet. What he needs is just a bottle of milk.
So the success of engagement Initiatives depends on how much the managers know their employees and ensures that right employee is in right place.