Is employee engagement linked with inclusion?
It’s been years since my webinar for a leadership development series, sharing how employees can feel more engaged if they have meaningful career discussions with their manager (Egli, 2020).
Surprisingly, this is still a novel and new approach for many individuals working in organizations today. But, this has become more and more important as equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) efforts have increased in volume and priority. Why?
Employee engagement is an outcome, because you can’t feel like you’re bringing your whole or preferred self into your work role without feeling like you are welcome and allowed to do so. It’s a feeling that comes after certain psychological conditions are met (Kahn, 1990). One of those conditions that I found integral to increasing that feeling of engagement is psychological meaningfulness, where people want and need to feel valued at work and not overlooked (Egli, 2019; Kahn, 1990).
Being inclusive of our collective diversity requires us to acknowledge each others’ differences as valued differences, not overlooking, ignoring, minimizing, erasing or taking those differences for granted. People won’t feel like they are valued if they are respected for who they are, because inclusion happens when our individual differences are acknowledged and we experience a sense of equity (Definition of INCLUSION, 2023).
When working together in a team or organization, we can’t preach EDI principles but not “walk the talk”. Doing so leads to tunnel vision that leads (ironically) to exclusion, and increases experiences of emotional labour, otherism and inequity for already marginalized groups (Lehan et al., 2020). This leads to people feeling like there isn’t a fair exchange when they are contributing more than what they get back in return, leading to an overall sense of being taken for granted. This is the direct antithesis of fostering psychological meaningfulness (Kahn, 1990).
Inclusion and engagement goes hand in hand. Both will impact your people, profits and productivity. Whichever way you look at it, it’s worth prioritizing both.
References
Definition of INCLUSION. (2023, October 5). https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inclusion
Egli, C. (2019). A Study of Career Development Discussions and Employee Engagement, Through Psychological Meaningfulness, Safety and Availability (Thesis, Adler University).
Egli, C. (2020, March 9). Engaging Employees through Career Discussions, Featuring Colleen Egli, BA’09. https://magazine.alumni.ubc.ca/2020/career-webinar/engaging-employees-through-career-discussions-featuring-colleen-egli-ba09
Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work. The Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.2307/256287
Lehan, T., Hussey, H. & Babcock, A. (2020). Mission unaccomplished: Beyond “talk[ing] a good game” to promote diversity and inclusion. Journal of Educational Research and Practice, 10, 167–184. https://doi.org/10.5590/JERAP.2020.10.1.12
