Employee engagement is the cure and managers play a key role

Mark, I have an employee who recently went out on maternity leave. She is one of my star employees and while I am thrilled for her, selfishly I am a little sad to not have her as a part of the team while she is on leave. We did a lot of planning beforehand to decide who would manage her work while she is out. As a manager, I do have to take on more administrative work and put some of my big ideas on hold while she’s out.

My question is this: when she returns, how do I support her while she is in this new (somewhat challenging!) life stage while also making sure the work gets done and the rest of my team doesn’t feel overworked? I want to continue to have the great relationship we had before she went on leave, and continue to build trust and loyalty among our team.

– Leave Supporter

First of all, congratulations to your employee! Growing a family is an exciting and yes, challenging, time in anyone’s life. It sounds like she is a dedicated employee and will be happy to come back to work when her leave is over. You are right in that her routine will be different while she juggles her job and caring for a new baby at home. However, because she has already shown to be a key player, you shouldn’t have to worry about her completing her work unless and until she gives you a reason to do so.

You’ve done a great job so far with recognizing how valuable this employee is; I encourage you to continue this upon her return. Patrick Lencioni in The Truth About Employee Engagement says that the three signs of a miserable job are: anonymity, irrelevance, and immeasurability. Conquer these three, and you’ll have an employee who feels valued and supported when she returns to work.

Anonymity

Team members need to be known and understand that they are important to the team. We all need acknowledgement. Managers demonstrate that they care about us when they let us know them and they get to know us personally. When a manager really knows and understands someone and takes a sincere, genuine interest in the person, the impact on the individual’s sense of fulfillment, self-worth, and motivation is extraordinary. Trust is built and can continue to grow over time.

It looks like you’ve already taken a sincere interest in your employee before she went on leave. When she comes back, a nice gesture would be to have a “welcome back” card signed by your team. This shows that her absence was felt and the team is excited to welcome her back. Since you spent some time doing her work, be sure to express your gratitude that she manages these tasks every day. Now that you’ve been able to experience part of what she does during the day, it should come naturally to you to be able to talk with her about the intricacies of certain parts of her role and see where you can support her in it as the tasks transition back to her.

In addition, showing you understand that her life is different now than before she had a baby will go a long way. You should still expect the same work output and professionalism as you would from all your employees, but you may need to be a bit more flexible as she transitions back to work. Showing you care for her as a person and mother will build the trust between you both, and she will work doubly hard because she respects you and you respect her.

Irrelevance

Team members need to know that their work matters. When we understand that our job serves and improves the lives of others, we feel fulfilled at work. Managers can highlight regularly where the job matters – internally, externally, and even (or especially) for the life of the manager. This impact must be real and show how the employee makes a difference. People who see how their work influences others have a greater sense of purpose and motivation.

Similar to the above, because you were more intimate with some of her tasks than you previously were as her manager, you see how what she does intertwines and supports your job as well as those of the rest of the team. You can ensure she understands that what she does is relevant to the team’s goals by having conversations like, “Taking all the calls regarding confusion around the product helped me understand what customers’ experiences were at a much deeper level than before you went on leave. I realized that you translate these issues into action so effectively that it makes it easier for our team to solve the customer’s problem. Thank you for that.”

Immeasurement

Team members need to be able to measure their own level of contribution and success. This measurement must be concrete enough that the employee understands it is not left to the subjective measure of a manager. Without a tangible means of assessing one’s own success or failure, motivation begins to deteriorate. Managers in conversation with employees can bring clarity to these measures of success.

Maybe you realized that neither of you were doing a good job of measuring successes or failures. I encourage you to build some key performance indicators into her role before she returns. This will give you time to test them out since you are the one doing the work. When she returns, having a conversation like, “I realized we weren’t measuring our effectiveness around this task. I’ve added some ways to measure that in the future. Please test it out and let me know if you have any other ideas on how we can show our value.”

Improving Engagement

In doing these things, you will continue to deepen a relationship by understanding her needs and providing remedy in real time. Because of this, your employee should be more understanding and loyal upon return. As your team carries out her responsibilities, you are learning about her relevance and should record specific ways you find her role to be impactful to you and others. The more you understand her and her role, the better you can navigate this important element.

How about you? Have you ever had an employee go out on a leave of absence? How did you support them during that time, and did you make any changes upon their return?