Employee engagement. You’ve no doubt heard the term or been part of a survey that measured it. If you’re like me, the question ‘are your team members and co-workers engaged in their work’ is difficult to answer. Sure, there are some who are obviously engaged and absolutely love what they are doing. But for the rest, it’s more difficult to discern. People engage with some aspects of their work more than others. If that’s the case, are they engaged or not engaged at work?

Ask a different question

“Are their hearts in it?”

Oooh. For me I know the answer for everyone right away. Most of the time if someone’s heart is in it then they are also engaged.

The more people I talk to, the more I learn about what drives people’s hearts, what gets them excited about life and work. The drivers I’ve noted here are the work, the company, the industry, the purpose, the leader and the location.

The Work

For a lot of college students, me included, I was initially driven by the type of work I was trained to do in school. I had a heart for a certain type of engineering work and that’s the type of work I sought out after graduation. When the work turned out to be a bit different than I expected at my first place of employment, I started searching for where I could do the work I wanted to do. I ended up changing jobs, taking a pay cut, to be more closely aligned with the work I had a heart for.

Company

I meet a lot of people who have target companies in mind. Sometimes it’s the company’s reputation as an employer in general, a good benefits package, a good reputation with customers, or exciting or meaningful products/services that attracts them. For example, “thousands apply each year” to become a Chick-fil-A franchisee1. In 2017, 500,000 people applied for jobs at Tesla2.

Industry

I hear a lot of engineering students say they want to work in the self-driving car industry or aerospace. One student even said he wanted to work in the bicycle industry. Many times, there was a project in school or an internship that piqued their interest in the industry that captured their heart.

Purpose

An organization’s purpose can capture a person’s heart. I met people from an organization that helps those with developmental disabilities to feel confident through having a loving home and contributing their unique skills to society. The people working in this organization were clearly drawn to the purpose and were energized as a result.

Leader

Brendon Burchard, high performance coach who has coached Oprah’s team, Fortune 50 CEOs, and Olympic athletes, has an appeal on his podcast for people to work on a new project with him. He says, “If you’ve ever wanted to work with me, if you wanted me to be your leader, you wanted me to literally employ you and help you grow in your career, and do what we do…we are currently hiring.”3 (He does go on about purpose as well  but the first part of the quote makes a good illustration.) No doubt he will get countless applicants.

Location

Maybe a person grew up there. Or maybe they visited once and were taken by the area. Or maybe they always thought it would be a neat place to live. Location can refer to a specific place, or a type of environment like a bustling city or a quiet rural area (and anything in between).

Ranking

I believe everyone ranks these drivers and the rankings change with time. I’ve met a fair number of students who are really interested in process control but are industry agnostic. There is usually a strong second driver such as location.

I’ve met other students that put industry first and their work second. They want to find a job working with aircraft, and secondarily want to put their mechanical engineering skills to use, for example.

Over the years I’ve met professionals who work at a particular company because that company had outstanding day care. The other drivers vied for second. But as soon as their children were in school and no longer in need of day care – what do you know – that driver disappeared, and the company no longer had their heart.

engineer your life

Ask yourself if your heart is in your work. If yes, what drivers are contributing? If no, what drivers are missing?

references

1https://thechickenwire.chick-fil-a.com/inside-chick-fil-a/five-myths-about-becoming-a-chick-fil-a-franchisee, accessed October 26, 2020

2https://www.fastcompany.com/40521409/tesla-recruiter-shares-six-strategies-to-land-a-job-at-the-company, accessed October 26, 2020

3 “Tips to Beat Procrastination”, The Brendon Show [podcast], accessed October 26, 2020