Everyone who works for a business has a CoEM – a Contract of Employment.

But I believe every employee also has a CoEN – a Contract of Engagement.

The difference between the two can have a huge impact on the performance of a business.

Your Contract of Employment is written down. It includes things such as your working hours, holiday allowance, salary, uniform requirements and other terms and conditions.

Your Contract of Engagement is very different.

It isn’t written down and it isn’t signed. It represents the level of effort, enthusiasm and commitment you choose to give beyond the minimum required by your employment contract.

And that level of engagement can change.

It can depend on how you feel about the company, your colleagues, your manager and even the task you are being asked to complete that day.

You can’t demand engagement

This is what makes engagement so interesting – and sometimes so difficult to manage.

A manager can tell someone what time to arrive at work. They can tell them what uniform to wear and what processes to follow.

But they can’t simply tell someone to be engaged.

The most successful businesses and teams I’ve worked with have consistently had high levels of employee engagement. People understand what they are trying to achieve, feel part of the team and are prepared to put in that extra effort.

In automotive aftersales, that matters enormously.

Whether someone is a Service Advisor dealing with a difficult customer, a Technician trying to diagnose a challenging fault or a Parts Advisor helping a colleague, that discretionary extra effort can make the difference between an average customer experience and an excellent one.

You simply can’t achieve consistently high performance without high engagement.

There isn’t one magic answer, but there are some important ingredients:

So, what creates engagement?

• Good communication and clearly understood common goals.
• Clearly defined and trackable incentives so people understand what success looks like.
• Team building and recognition that make people feel part of something rather than simply employed by something.
• Strong management and leadership that give employees a reason to contribute more than the minimum.

And then there is pay.

Ask 100 employees whether they would like a pay rise and I suspect almost all of them will say yes.

Ask those same people a month after receiving it whether the pay rise has genuinely made them more engaged, and I doubt you’ll get the same response.

Now imagine giving those 100 people a pay cut.

Ask them a month later whether they feel less engaged and I suspect the answer would be very different.

Pay matters. But a pay rise often creates a short-term boost rather than long-term engagement.

Which contract are you managing?

Businesses spend a lot of time making sure Contracts of Employment are correct.

Perhaps we should spend more time thinking about the unwritten Contract of Engagement.

Because the CoEM might determine whether someone turns up for work.

The CoEN can determine what they give you when they get there.

If you’d like to discuss employee engagement, training or developing higher-performing automotive aftersales teams, contact me at info@tp-automotive.com