Engagement is a management problem, not a survey problem

Organisations spend heavily on measuring engagement and comparatively little on the thing that moves it: the daily experience of being managed.\n\nPeople decide how engaged they are based on a small number of repeated experiences. Do I know what is expected of me. Does my manager notice my work. Is poor performance dealt with, or tolerated. Was I told about the change before it happened.\n\nNone of those are fixed by a communications campaign. They are fixed by managers who have been trained, given time, and held to a standard.\n\n**Three practical moves.** Protect one-to-ones — a cancelled one-to-one is a message. Recognise contribution specifically rather than generically. Act visibly on one thing the survey told you, and say clearly what you are not doing and why.\n\nEngagement improves when management improves. There is no shortcut around that.