Rethinking employee engagement: how energy shapes engagement

Too busy to notice the energy

Of course, when we are busy rushing around, juggling deadlines, and our minds are filled with clutter and head talk, we may not consciously pick up on the energy in the room.

The interesting part, though, is that even if we don’t consciously pick up on it, our brains do! And when our brain picks up on fear or stress, tension or fear, it can trigger the body’s stress response, without either checking in with us or notifying us – how rude 😊

You’ll probably already know cortisol as the body’s stress hormone. When pressure doesn’t ease, for example, continually raised voices or constant urgency, the stress response stays switched on. People become more irritable, more tired, less focused. None of which are good for employee engagement!

Employee engagement and energy

This irritability, caused by our body’s natural response to stress or conflict, then feeds through into workplace conflict, with more people picking fights with colleagues, complaining about managers or customers, or simply going off sick with anxiety or low mood.

This is what I would call low-energy or low-resonance behaviour. You might simply call it low engagement.

In contrast, when the energy in a workplace is calmer, lighter, more positive, we tend to see less conflict, more cooperation, more satisfaction, and often better productivity too. When people feel good, they generally work better and make fewer mistakes.

High energy or high resonance, in this sense, can be a real driver of engagement.

A different way of thinking about energy

Are you aware that on a quantum level, everything in our world vibrates and has its own frequency and these vibrations have an influence or impact on our lives in subtle or sometimes, quite profound ways?

If you had to guess, can you guess which flower emits at the highest frequency (yes, people say you can measure it)! The answer is the Rose. No wonder we view it as the flower of beauty and gratitude and have memories of how its smell can uplift our mood!

Our own bodies emit frequency too, and that frequency is influenced by the environment around us, including our colleagues, our physical workspace and the general atmosphere we operate within. The science in this area is still evolving, but what we do know is that the body responds to prolonged stress and environmental strain. When our internal balance is disrupted for sustained periods, our health and wellbeing can begin to suffer.

People working under pressure or in an unhappy environment or surrounded by negative people often get ill and we generally blame those illnesses on germs, but what if we focussed on the fact that their resonance has dropped below the safe zone where people stay healthy? Low frequency = more ill health.

How we can inadvertently impact energy

You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘laughter is the best medicine’, so it’s no wonder the relationship between laughter and high resonance has come up in my reading. It does remind me of a friend who once commented on the impact on employee engagement and general ‘mood’ in her department once her organisation implemented a zero banter policy. It was designed to reduce exposure to discrimination claims. Did her company inadvertently lower the vibration by taking out the humour and smiles, which invariably make people feel positive at work? She believed so.

I do believe that risk aversion or over-compliance (in fear of risk) in workplaces has been the cause of much of the reduction in positivity and while it has its place, too much risk aversion has been seen by many of us to take away our joy, happiness and sense of well-being. All things that create great engagement. Have the lawyers and auditors won, leaving managers and team leads to pick up the pieces? Where do you strike a balance if you want to keep the energy high?

Where physics meets employee engagement – The Schumann Resonance

If you’re interested in energy, you may have heard of the Schumann Resonance. It can be seen on various live tracking apps and is sometimes described as the Earth’s “heartbeat”. What an amazing concept that is!

It’s a naturally occurring electromagnetic frequency in the atmosphere, influenced largely by lightning activity around the world. It’s typically measured at around 7.83Hz, although it’s not static, so it changes over time.

Some researchers are exploring whether wider environmental rhythms like this may have any connection to wellbeing and biological functions. It’s going to be interesting to follow this research – where physics meets mental health and wellbeing.

Have you ever felt a prickling sensation at the start of a thunderstorm or got a headache when the weather is heavy? Changes in vibration, not surprisingly, can cause people to feel unsettled, and when people are unsettled, it has been my experience across my career that people tend to get irritable or even pick ‘fights’ with those around them. It’s as though we need to take out our frustrations and ‘dis-connect’ on someone else when we feel twitchy and uncomfortable.

While clearly you can’t influence or replicate the Schumann Resonance to create the right frequency for high engagement, what I’m encouraging you to do here is become more aware of energy and its impact on people and behaviours.

What raises energy in the workplace

From my experience, and from the wellbeing research that is emerging, these are some of the things that can help lift that workplace energy:

The work environment

• Fresh air – it sounds basic, but poor air and sealed buildings don’t do us any favours.
• Good natural light – light affects our mood more than we realise. Daylight rather than harsh artificial lighting all day.
• Real plants – emit oxygen and some research suggests that plants (like the spider plant) can purify the air to support air quality, but beyond that they can bring life into a space and make it feel calmer.
• Space (reduced clutter).
• Access to nature (garden).
• Physical activity (aids circulation and keeps blood flowing).
• Music (played at the right frequency can be calming/reassuring).
• Reduced EMFs (WiFi) – a zone to plug into the internet rather than use WiFi (the zone would of course need to be protected from WiFi for this to be of value).
• Colour! What people wear, the carpets, walls, furniture etc. The lowest frequency is red, followed by orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet as the highest frequency.

What we eat and drink

While organisation’s can’t police what people eat and drink – adults make their own choices! They can influence what’s available, what’s encouraged and what’s provided when catering is involved.

• Fresh, organic, minimally processed food and drinks (chemicals can have such an impact on our bodies, brains and moods)
• It’s said that food that has ‘lived’ emits a higher frequency than food that has not lived… think veg, fruit, meat, fish etc vs fast food with multiple chemicals to create flavour and content.
• Clean/filtered water (free of chemicals).

Social interactions

• Encouragement of laughter and smiles (great for our brains and nervous system).
• Great social connections between people (great for our sense of belonging).

Management and leadership

• Permitted breaks from screens (gives our brains a rest).
• Clarity of purpose and vision of the organisation and tasks (creates focus and people doing the right things rather than anything that makes them look busy/good).
• Joined-up management, competent, accountable managers, and root cause problem solving.
• Removal of ‘toxins’ in the workplace – including ‘toxic’ people 🙂

As a final thought on what can create positive energy in the workplace, across my whole career, I have yet to come across an employee who doesn’t want to be visible (seen), listened to (heard) and thanked. Three other key ingredients for great engagement.

Perhaps what we could all do more of is ‘slow down to speed up’? More thinking and a less reactive, money focussed approach to solving the employee engagement challenge?

Your ‘to-do’ list to raise the energy in your workplace

And finally, here is your to-do list if you want to raise the energy of your workplace:

• Understand what your current engagement level is, what engagement means to your organisation and what level of engagement you aspire to and what value that will bring.
• Audit what brings energy and what drains or takes energy away – be really specific and ask lots of awkward questions. This will help you identify key things to address/key priorities.
• Audit what you currently spend money on for employee engagement and assess it for
  • • 1) momentary serotonin hit
    • 2) short-term engagement
    • 3) long-term value – most of your money should be going towards those items in 3)
• Discourage anything and everything you can that we already know impacts our biological functions/brain function/mood, starting with discouraging colleagues from bringing in processed food ‘treats’ for their team members.
• Consider some internal discussions about energy and what actions/people can support in raising the energy to the benefit of all.