Engage Your Employees By Helping Them Solve Customers' Problems

Mark Lukens, Founding Partner of consulting firm Method 3, has a good article on employee engagement at Fast Company. Lukens makes the point that senior executives often "throw perks" at employees in hopes of increasing engagement. It does not work. Boring work, a lack of autonomy, and inadequate feedback from managers cannot be overcome simply by offering a few perks. Lukens argues that we can increase employee engagement by helping our front-line works serve customers more effectively. Here's an excerpt:

Employees at the frontline collectively have the best knowledge of what customers want and what bothers them. This is what they care about. If they can satisfy those customers then they will be satisfied in their jobs, feeling like they’re achieving something. To create real engagement start by talking with those workers about what their customers want and the obstacles to their satisfaction. Empower your customer-facing employees to solve these problems whenever possible, and as they feel more successful and deal with happier customers, they’ll also feel more engaged.