Engagement is crucial to employee well-being

Companies work hard to create favorable working environments for their employees. They may provide access to personal gyms, install “summer hours” during July and August and offer paid vacation days off throughout the year to ensure their workers remain happy and satisfied. However, according to new research from Gallup, none of these perks are as effective as simple engagement when it comes to maximizing employee well-being.

Jim Harter, Gallup's chief scientists of workplace management and well-being, suggests that companies focus on improving employee engagement as a means of also lifting workers' spirits. Factors such as hours worked, weeks of vacation time and flextime allowed had less of correlation to well-being when compared with engagement.

“Though vacation time and flextime were associated with higher well-being,” Agrawal says, “those who were engaged in their work but took less than one week of vacation had 25 percent higher overall well-being than actively disengaged employees, even those with six or more weeks of vacation.” On top of that, workers with four weeks of vacation were observed to be only 7 percent more satisfied than those with only one week, further highlighting the minimal impact of paid time off.

The overall message is that perks such as time off and vacation cannot single-handedly offset an unpleasant and disengaging work environment. If employee well-being is important to businesses, they need to engage and empower workers – they can't simply buy it through perks and other lucrative benefits.

Achieving Engagement and Empowerment through Kaizen

So many businesses chose to treat their workers and product-makers like cogs in a machine. Managers decide which work policies are effective, despite many of them being far removed from the process. This thought process creates work environments where employees feel as if they have little control over what they are doing and disengages them from the company.

The Kaizen philosophy revolves around empowered and engaged workers. It urges managers to turn over jobs and responsibilities to employees themselves and encourage workers to take control of their specific jobs. In this type of workplace, managers are leaders and mentors instead of directors, working with employees to improve operations.

If businesses are trying to do a better job of boosting well-being, engagement and empowerment are key. By involving workers in the management and operations of companies, they feel more valued by the organization.