Employee engagement is low and it is impacting my KPIS.

Anonymous

May 20,2022 at 5:07PM UTC

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Employee engagement is low and it is impacting my KPIS.

I started a new job about 4 months ago at a large multinational. Success in the position relies heavily on employees engaging in a program I took over, and I had only about a month in the position before I had to have my internal network running at 100%. Although I've done everything and more than was done in the past, excitement for both the program has been much less than in previous iterations (think 1/3 the engagement and activity). I also hear that other internal programs are facing the same challenges, and we are certainly not immune to the great resignation.

I'm not taking this too personally because there are a lot of mitigating factors here (low morale, competing programs, employee bandwidth issues, etc), and I've been told that I am doing a good job/doing everything right. But I also understand that if I can't recruit people into the program I am running, then my job is not secure. Has anyone else gone through something like this - taken over a program only to have it fizzle? What happened to you after? What should I be saying to my manager to test the waters on what happens if the program fails?

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Joanne RosenMay 20,2022 at 9:11PM UTC
Have you done any kind of survey? Not a satisfaction survey but one asking for feedback about your program. You can do a survey on Google Forms for free. Questions to ask:
What do you like about this?
What don't you like?
What would make you want to engage?
Simply put . . . feedback loops are the most important management tool.
Cheers
Joanne
MA Professional Communication
Anne MatsushitaMay 21,2022 at 6:18PM UTC
Yikes, that sounds stressful! I find programs that start small initially and have buy in from the participants tend to be more successful. It helps to ensure the rollout is smooth, making it easy for people to engage, and can be enhanced over time.
Perhaps someone at the top needs to prioritize the programs. It sounds like employees may be overwhelmed by the number of programs kicking off at the same time, and they may not have the bandwidth to participate in everything. Maybe the program leaders can pitch in to focus on 1 or 2 programs, then take the learnings to roll out their own programs.
You could also ask your manager what the expectations are for the next 30 / 60 / 90 days etc. If they don't sound reasonable, explain why so that you're not being set up to fail. It seems like you're doing a good job though, so keep it up!