Is it Engagement?

Is it Engagement?

BCIT has taken on a management-led employee engagement process. Working in an engaged organization contributes towards employee satisfaction, management accountability, and greater wellness in the workplace. After seeing a drop in engagement levels in the last employee engagement survey, BCIT management had to respond.

Deep and meaningful engagement isn’t easy to achieve and can be even more challenging if the environment isn’t built for it. A recent survey by Jostle found that respect for leadership is one of the strongest predictors for employee engagement. They have found that a leader’s competence in problem-solving and decision making, integrity, humility, and visibility and transparency are central to building a workplace that allows for engagement to exist.

The FSA has been hearing from a variety of our members who are concerned with the current management-led engagement process rolling out across the Institute. We hear members saying that they are “being told to engage instead of being engaged”. We have heard from many members that we don’t have an “employee engagement problem” at BCIT but a “management engagement problem”. We hear about inconsistencies in the quality of the roll out from one area to another and that a “meeting does not measure up as engagement”. And we hear that some members are not comfortable raising concerns either about their working conditions or the engagement process itself in the meetings.

We have also heard from some areas that their engagement meetings are going well and those members feel listened to and supported. This is what we want for all of our members, irrespective of the area they work in. The FSA has been monitoring this engagement initiative and sharing successes and failures with BCIT management.  We are encouraging BCIT to build a well-founded and well supported engagement strategy across the Institute.  The National Centre for Dialogue and Deliberation has outlined core principles for public engagement that can help guide BCIT’s effort towards being an employer that values, rewards, and recognizes the contributions of our members and all the staff who make BCIT work.

How is the process going for you? Let us know.