T2 Tea

There have been some concerning headlines recently that point to an escalating cycle of problems for HR and businesses alike to solve.

Firstly, employee engagement is at an all-time low. Forbes quotes, “Worker engagement hits 11-year low…”, and Gallup, one of the largest employee engagement measures, has surveyed and their results show, “declining employee engagement”.

Secondly, amidst the disengagement, employees are turning to leaders for direction and support more than ever before. Managers are finding that there is less delineation between work and life post covid, and employees are leaning on them for support with their mental health, home struggles, work issues, and more.

Lastly, as a result of this, leadership burnout is increasing. According to 2020 and 2021 survey data from Gallup, “manager burnout is only getting worse”, and Forbes are quoting, “Executives and leaders are leaving their roles due to burnout”.

These three problems create a vicious cycle, but they point to the key in unlocking our workplaces and leaders for future success. We are now at a critical point where we need to redefine how to lead and engage in the future of work.

So why is this viscous cycle occurring? The way we measure employee engagement is part of the problem.

Employee engagement has been measured, in the mainstream, the same way for the most of 10-30 years. The most popular platforms being used by businesses today were developed in the early 1990’s through to 2010 and their popularity drives the majority of employee engagement benchmarking existing today.

This type of engagement is measured on individual factors; your one job, one manager, finite team, and job tasks of your position. These surveys measure and promote staying with your employer, loyalty, commitment and longevity as crucial elements of employee engagement. But with 2024 job hopping and the behavioural trends of the new generations, how can longevity and loyalty be true measures of engagement?

Post-COVID and in a VUCA world, employee engagement IS different. What engages employees is different and how they feel engagement is different.

“Engagement is about being with others, belonging, and having connections. It’s about experiences, opportunities and projects, not one singular job.”

Now, engagement is about being with others, belonging, and having connections. It’s about experiences, opportunities and projects, not one singular job. Most importantly, it’s more remote than ever and hybrid with matrixed and flexible reporting lines and structures. We now need to account for the strong representation of gig and freelance workers.

When the context of work has changed so significantly, how can we be using the same surveys, measures and questions we’ve been asking pre-COVID and -VUCA to measure what engagement means to employees today.

So, if engagement has changed, how we influence it needs to change too.

My research and other research continue to show the predominant influence of employee engagement in the future of work is leaders. But employees are wanting a different type of leadership now.

Research shows it’s the quality of the relationship, the relational connection that matters to employees most. It’s more important for leaders to have employee’s backs, see their potential, and connect with WHO they are. The critical finding here is that engagement is NOW being influenced more strongly by social resources—social connections and belonging in the workplace.

We now need to enable, equip and train our leaders HOW to lead and engage. In this future of work, the answer is relational leadership to engage and agility to thrive.

Relational leaders;

Are about character; who you are, not what you can do.

Cultivate high relational quality, enabling employees to be SEEN and HEARD.

Have employees’ backs, know them, understand them and their unique potential, and are available to them.

Create moments that matter; situations where employees can have genuine and meaningful connection, NOT about the work or orchestrated wellbeing discussions.

The role of the leader in the future of work is not only to connect with each direct report but create opportunities for them to connect. To unburden themselves, leaders need to activate LATERAL relationships and connections. They need to craft the social and collective opportunities at work to enable employees to feel part of something bigger, experience deep and meaningful connection, and access a frequency of interpersonal interaction that they are perhaps not getting from work.

To avoid leader burnout however, leadership development also needs to focus on agility to help leaders:

• Learn, unlearn and relearn.

• Adopt a state of readiness for change, a willingness to pivot and quickly learn new ways of operating and behaving.

• Develop the ability to move, think, and understand quickly and easily.

Learning agility is, therefore, a prized skill for the leader of the future.

Reviewing your leadership development approach in 2024 needs to consider the current workplace engagement challenges and leadership burnout, which can be solved with the leadership skills of the future.