Is Employee Engaged?

This is highest level of employee involvement and commitment. These are employees who are engaged in work of company take initiative. They are problem-solvers and actively work out work problems, including inter-personal problems. They actively seek feedback about their performance. These employees are natural leaders and will lead in a project whether or not they have a management title – other just seem to follow them because of their willingness to take risks or because of their demonstrated expertise. They also look outside company for sources of good ideas and are always setting goals to take their own work to next level. They like to learn and will look for opportunities to take on new tasks to learn new skills. These employees give 100% because they are motivated to do so internally.

It is only if a company gets in way of superior performance that these employees will stop working at highest level. If they become frustrated that management does not support their efforts to raise performance bar in company, they will disengage and eventually leave.

Final Comment

Employees who are not able to do job shouldn’t be offered continued employment. If you can create open communications with employees who seem unwilling, you can often turn around their performance. Your best point of leverage is taking employees who are willing and helping them become employees who are engaged. The best way to do that is to have plenty of engaged employees around. Their work behavior can be infectious. And get out of way of engaged employees. They want room to run and will only leave if micromanaged or not allowed room to experiment with new ideas. Follow these few simple ideas and you will be in AWE of contributions made by your employees to prosperity of your business.

The consultant may be right to say there aren’t quick fixes to serious problems, but don’t let that lead to open-ended engagements. Most consultants agree that restructuring involves two phases: a design phase, in which new ways of doing work are fashioned, and an implementation phase, in which new ways of doing work actually are put in place. Have consultant schedule these phases. This helps set up an exit strategy for consultant, which is an important cost control tool. In addition, consultant will see project as a limited engagement, rather than open ended.

3. Please set regular times to meet so that I have access to person who hired me to get clarifications and not waste your time (and not waste my time).

Set regular times to meet (weekly or monthly) when consultant will review conclusions, answer questions, and challenge you on better ways to run your business.

Make sure these are working meetings. Avoid meetings that turn into administrative updates. By meeting with consultant regularly, you can compartmentalize—and better control—the amount of time you spend with him or her. It also forces consultant to be succinct and not draw on too much of your time. In this context, you can expect more from a consultant than from an employee. The consultant’s attention should focus squarely on problems you’re paying him or her to consider, not on operational details.

Remember that you are paying bigger dollar amounts for this help, so you don’t want a consultant to be billing you for time in your office unless you are using that time wisely. Too many times employees don’t understand how a consulting arrangement works – they want consultant to be available to them during their working hours. Consultants shouldn’t be at your company every day where they can be distracted. They should only be there in order to meet with other people. Otherwise, they need to be doing their analysis in peace and quiet of their own offices.

4. Please Don’t Kill Messenger

The manager or CEO who hired consultant may be very excited at beginning of working together and feel like he or she just unloaded their burden onto some capable shoulders. Then consultant prepares an analysis and recommendations all rely on additional work to be done by managers and employees inside company. The recommendations may also involve actions that aren’t fun to carry out, such as demoting or terminating non-performing employees. They may call for additional reports or extra meetings. Expect that consultant will come to some conclusions you won’t like immediately, but they may be only way to end some long-term problems.

In conclusion, when you keep consultants disciplined and focused, you can use them to great advantage. Be clear on purpose of hiring consultant and what you can and can’t expect their work to produce. Up front clarity will lead to a productive and valuable relationship.