Decrying a noted decline in employee engagement across the federal government and the civilian military workforce, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Medical Command said such engagement is an important part of maintaining the Army’s readiness at a time of change.

Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, the 43rd Army Surgeon General, addressed the Department of the Army Civilian Awards Luncheon on the concluding day of the Association of the United States Army’s 2015 Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Horoho, who is concluding her four-year tour as Army surgeon general, lauded the work of civilians in her own command.

At the same time, she recalled a quote that guides her approach to dealing with her staff: "You don’t fix engagement; you create engagement."

"The answer to employee engagement," she said, "won’t be found on a yearly survey. Don’t go after your engagement scores, because you’ll never fix it."

Horoho noted that successful employee engagement "is not simply the lack of disgruntled or unhappy employees. As leaders, we need to be careful not to try solving engagement as if it were a single human capital element."

The most effective and engaged employees, she concluded, consider themselves part of an eco-system."It’s the culture, it’s the brand, it’s the values, it’s the trust, and it’s the mission," that are the key to unifying engaged

workers into a cohesive team.

Max Cacas
AUSA News