“Engagement” Is Not the Same As “Development”

There are a lot of fun things you can do as part of your employee development. There are corporate retreats, escape rooms, Outward Bound and “ropes courses,” scavenger hunts and big flashy company meetings with dancers and singers and maybe a comic or two. But are your people actually learning anything?

Too many companies engage in group outings, paid for with the employee development budget, without any real thought to how this will improve employees’ performance. They talk about the lessons people can learn from these events, and there usually ARE things people can learn, but just because they had a fun day doesn’t mean they actually learned those lessons. The emphasis of “fun learning” is often on the fun instead of the learning.

Why does this happen? Because companies are often more focused on “engagement” than on “development.” They feel that if employees are having fun then they are more likely to stay with the company, and may feel energized to put in greater effort. One firm we talked to that arranges these kinds of events originally did so to support development efforts, but they asked their clients what they were really interested in, and the normal response was “employee engagement.” Their goal was to give their employees a fun experience, rather than to improve performance. So, the session organizer stopped asking about learning priorities and expected behavior changes and learning gaps, and instead just asked how much beer they should provide. That’s what the clients wanted, so that’s what the client got.

But if you do this, you’re not only missing a great chance to actually improve performance, you’re also running the risk of scaring off your top talent.

Fun employee events have the opportunity to improve performance, but only if they are part of a bigger learning strategy. No company ever broke into the Fortune 500 because they spent a night in the woods playing games. Instead, companies succeed by figuring out what their performance gaps are and why they exist; setting expectations for performance changes; engaging in training and various development programs (including spending a night in the woods playing games) that help teach the necessary lessons; and, following through on that learning to reinforce it and ensure it translates into new behaviors. If all you’re doing is spending money on events without having a developmental reason for it, and without any follow through, then your people may be having a good day, but that doesn’t mean they are learning anything useful.

Your top talent, by the way, is not going to be impressed by this. Your best people don’t enjoy working for you because they get to play games, they enjoy working for you because they know they are talented and they see the value of what they do. If they feel like they are working for a company that values a fun day over a talented workforce, they are much more likely to go somewhere else.

Yes, employee engagement is important, but having a less-talented workforce hurts you no matter how high their engagement survey scores might be. Employee engagement can be enhanced a lot of ways, some long-term and some short-term. Having a talented workforce doing good work and helping to grow the company gives you the long-term kind, while spending an hour escaping from a room filled with zombies gives you a short-term boost without any lasting benefits. Have the fun, but make the effort to make it part of something bigger.