EMOTIONAL DRIVERS OF

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Dale Carnegie Training

White Paper

Copyright 2012 Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Emotional_Engagement_111512_wp
 EMOTIONAL DRIVERS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT DALE CARNEGIE TRAINING WHITE PAPER

WHY EMOTIONS MATTER

Humans like to say they make rational decisions, but in reality they are
driven by emotions, which people post-rationalize when explaining their
choices to others. This after-the-fact storytelling has led management to
attribute a series of functional reasons why only one-third of employees
are fully engaged at work and why others become disengaged and
leave their organization. Strategies for recruitment and keeping workers
engaged have in the past focused on practical rewards such as pay
increases, bonuses or flexible working hours, but it is the feeling-based
personal relationships that have the greatest influence, causing engaged
employees to work effectively, stay with their company and act as
ambassadors for their organization.

Dale Carnegie Training invited MSW Research to investigate the

emotions of the workplace. MSW utilized its EMO*Dynamics battery,
twenty-eight positive and negative emotions proved to be important
in consumer decision-making across many categories. In this
groundbreaking nationwide study of 1500 employees, they discovered
that five of these twenty-eight emotions drove engagement and twelve
provoked disengagement.
When dealing
with people,
remember you are
not dealing with
creatures of logic,
but creatures of
emotion.

-Dale Carnegie

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 EMOTIONAL DRIVERS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT DALE CARNEGIE TRAINING WHITE PAPER

THE POWER OF POSITIVE EMOTIONS

Experiments have shown that people are more likely to help others when feeling positive emotions.
Smiling not only makes us feel better but is infectious; we can store up positive feelings to protect us
from negativity and help us through difficult times. This holds as true in our working life as it does in
personal life.

Analysis shows that feeling valued, confident, inspired, enthused and empowered are the key
emotions that lead to engagement. Being valued is the gateway to achievement. Forty-six percent
of employees report feeling valued. However, by itself feeling valued does not generate engagement;
rather it acts as an enabler for the other more positive emotions. Feeling valued and feeling confident
together empower people to make decisions about their work and generates enthusiasm, which inspires
people to try harder. Employees who are excited and enthusiastic to be at work are not just there for
the paycheck or the next promotion they care about the organization and work to further its goals.

The emotional responses to questions an employees ask themselves about their organization,

Do I feel I am valued?
Do I value the organization where I work?
Do I feel I belong?

These questions are crucial to their level of engagement, affecting their performance at work and their
willingness to learn within the organization. Employees want to be a part of something bigger than
themselves, something they can be proud of. Feeling pride in their work energizes employees. They
look forward to going to work and are more willing to put in extra effort to make the organization a
success. In short, they are engaged.

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 EMOTIONAL DRIVERS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT DALE CARNEGIE TRAINING WHITE PAPER

The level of engagement increases dramatically

with the number of key positive emotions (Inspired,
Enthusiastic, Empowered, Confident or Valued)
employees feel. Engaged

Seventy percent of all employees surveyed felt at least

one of these five key positive emotions, but only 12%
felt three of them. Among this latter group only 5%
were disengaged, while more than half were positively
engaged in driving the company forward. Partially
Engaged
Engagement is more than being happy at work; in
fact happiness does not greatly impact engagement. Disengaged
Rather, engagement is demonstrated by how 0 1 2 32
personally connected and committed workers feel to Number of key postitive emotions felt
their organization. It is measurable by an employees
willingness to recommend their organization as a place
to work and a place to do business.

Are Negative Emotions Important?

People who feel negative emotions People who feel key positive emotions

Engaged Engaged

Partial
Partial

Disengaged
Disengaged

There is a direct relationship between negative emotions and an employees level of engagement.
Employees who feel negative emotions are disengaged nearly ten times more than employees who
feel positive emotions. Almost three in ten employees feel at least one of twelve significant negative
emotions as a result of their interaction with their immediate supervisor.

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EMOTIONAL DRIVERS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT DALE CARNEGIE TRAINING WHITE PAPER

Nearly half of these workers are disengaged and only 10% engaged, contrasting starkly
with the 52% engagement measured among those who felt most positive as a result of
their interaction with their supervisor.

Three core negative emotions drive disengagement: feeling Irritation, disinterest, and
discomfort. Workers can't be critiqued into performing better, but being insulted by the
immediate supervisor ensures an emotional disconnect and disengagement. In simple
terms, a good supervisor makes people feel valued and confident; a poor supervisor
irritates people and makes them feel uncomfortable.

This is important because negative emotions are more contagious than positive ones.
Because they are more noticeable, they can spiral from the individual employee to impact
co-workers and the organization as a whole and spread beyond the workplace to clients,
potential clients and possible future hires.

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 EMOTIONAL DRIVERS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT DALE CARNEGIE TRAINING WHITE PAPER

What drives those emotions?

Employees personalize their job through emotions felt about the organization's actions
as a whole and about their own supervisors in particular. An analysis performed to
determine the link between supervisor and organization evoked feelings, revealing
that there is a strong fit between these two measures. However, it is the immediate
supervisor who is the chief emotional driver in the workplace; reactions to him or her
explain 84% of how employees feel about their organization. Feeling happy is the only
emotion driven more by the organization than the immediate supervisor.

Further analysis determined the link between the emotion felt by the employee and
the level of satisfaction with their immediate supervisor. The immediate supervisor
produces a polarizing emotional response. Managers who induce positive emotions
foster a stronger sense of satisfaction. They receive the highest satisfaction ratings
when they make employees feel inspired, enthusiastic, happy, and excited. Conversely,
when immediate supervisors evoke negative emotions in employees, their satisfaction
ratings are below average. Specifically, supervisors whose direct reports feel insulted,
upset, or irritated by them receive the lowest levels of satisfaction. Satisfaction with
line management affects the overall level of satisfaction with the organization, which is
linked to engagement.

Developing Positive Emotions in Your Organization

Employees personalize their work through emotions felt about the companys actions as a whole
and about their immediate supervisor in particular. Those who emotionally connect in a positive
way with an organization feel a sense of ownership and are more likely to stay with it, delivering
superior work in less time and reducing turnover costs. Dale Carnegie Training can help your
organization build effective interpersonal skills that augment the positive emotions essential to a
productive work environment and that lead to increased employee engagement.

www.dalecarnegie.com
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