ENGAGEMENT MANAGER: What Does It Means & How to Become One?

engagement manager
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Knowing that employee engagement is very essential, there is a need to keep an eye on the entire process. Thus, designating a productive employment engagement manager is the first step toward enhancing work engagement. With the growing needs and modernization, companies focus on finding new ways of engaging their people. Hence, the fundamental role of engagement managers is to carry out an absolute engagement strategy for the company. But do business owners have an understanding of the responsibilities that these managers need to fulfill in the long term? To help them, this article will discuss the various roles a manager has to perform to become a  successful engagement manager with a good salary.

Overview

These days firms rely on excellent business-to-business relationships in today’s marketplace to secure revenue streams, new opportunities with existing clients, and testimonials essential to getting new customers. This is because employee engagement has a direct effect on company performance, but with modern trends such as remote work, engagement is increasingly becoming difficult to get a handle on. This is where an employment engagement manager comes in, to help you build and maintain excellent client relations. Typically, an engagement manager is responsible for a client’s experience during the whole process.

What Is Engagement Management?

Engagement management is a set of management practices and processes, deployed by a company, to monitor and optimize the success of the overall commercial engagement and the constituent supplier-client relationships. Also, an engagement management process focuses on explicit contractual obligations and client expectations; as such, it provides context to any accompanying project management processes.

What Are the 4 Types of Engagement?

They are, 

  • Contextual engagement
  • Engagement of Convenience
  • Emotional engagement
  • Social engagement

What Does An Engagement Manager Do

An employment engagement manager is someone who is responsible for managing engagement strategies and defining and tracking metrics that support the sales performance of the company. As much as their roles vary depending on the specific client as well as the client’s needs. Their primary responsibility is to improve client engagement for a company by assisting with projects and helping solve problems. They play an essential role in forging a solid business-to-business relationship between their company and clients. However,  Success in this role will be illustrated by improved client retention and satisfaction while growing new business opportunities with existing clients.

Employment Engagement Manager Duties and Responsibilities 

These are a few job roles and responsibilities of the employment engagement manager. However, the role can also differ or become more defined based on the organization.

  • Foster positive relationships with customers as their primary point of contact
  • Help clients implement services and plan projects effectively
  • Ensure that contract terms and conditions are met
  • Manage invoices and bills for assigned customers
  • Identify upselling and cross-selling opportunities
  • Address customer issues with speed and efficiency
  • Work with sales teams to generate new business
  • Prepare reports on project performance
  • Onboarding recognition platforms
  • Provide growth and learning opportunities
  • Incorporate a feedback culture
  • Promote diversity and inclusion
  • Active role in hiring
  • Reporting internally within vendor organization on project performance (services delivery, progress, economics, etc.).
  • Seek ways to expand existing client relationships and form new client relationships
  • Perform quarterly reviews to ensure common understanding and expectations
  • Answer client questions and locate answers to technical or complex inquiries
  • Managing the engagement strategy
  • Tracking and managing all engagement metrics
  • Managing and monitoring the engagement budget
  • Develop CX KPI and achieve performance goals to meet SLA.
  • Develop data-sharing agreements and security protocols for users.
  • Liaise with all roles, stakeholders, and project management.
  • Test engagement techniques in order to boost participation.

What Does an Engagement Manager Do in Consulting?

They lead the day-to-day execution of a client project while guiding and developing individual team members. They work directly with clients – usually on-site – and take ownership of the overall project and its end products.

How to Become an Engagement Manager

If you are considering starting it as your career path, it’s important to note the skills, qualifications, and time it takes to become a professional engagement manager and how to advance your career path. Hence, choosing the right is always an important step when researching how to become an engagement manager. Below are the steps generally required to begin,

#1. Acquire a Degree

To begin your engagement manager career path, a Bachelor’s Degree in Business or a related field is usually necessary to remain a competitive option for employers. Focus on industry-specific skill development during your education in order to be properly equipped when applying for entry-level positions and entering the job force. Additionally, an internship may be required to earn your Bachelor’s Degree and acquire the necessary on-the-job skills before entering the workforce.

#2. Choose a Specialty

As an Engagement manager, you need to choose a specialty within your field. This aia achievable when you determine which part of the field you feel strongest in, and continue taking active steps toward growing in your chosen specialty.

#3. Prepare Your Resume

When you must have checked the skills and responsibilities for this role, you can start creating your resume. Everything that goes into creating a perfect resume can take hours, days, or even weeks. So, take your time to include everything necessary to be there for employers to see.

#4. Apply for Entry-Level Positions

Once you’ve acquired a Bachelor’s Degree in Business or a related field, you’ll typically begin your career as an entry-level engagement manager. In general, you can become an engagement manager after completing your 4-year Bachelor’s Degree in a related discipline. which is Dependent on the type of role you’re pursuing, you might need to explore certification as a certified ServiceNow administrator.

#5. Advance Your Career Path

Following entry-level, there are several engagement manager career path levels to advance into. It can take 2 years for an entry-level to progress to a senior position. Each advanced position requires approximately 8 years of experience at each level to advance in your career path. Hence, It is necessary to receive additional education, an advanced degree such as a Master’s Degree in a related field, or special certifications in order to advance your career path.

#6. Continued Education for Your Engagement Manager Career Path

Not all industries and companies require continued education to advance your career path. However, earning this degree helps you advance to higher-earning positions more quickly. People that have earned these degrees typically make $228,299 compared to $73,105 for those without that type of degree.

How Many Years Does it Take to Become an Engagement Manager?

Traditionally, it can take two years of experience in an entry-level Engagement Manager role to reach a Senior Engagement Manager position. However, as engagement management is such an in-demand field, the opportunities for career progression can be much quicker if you have the right experience and skills.

Skills and Requirements To Become an Engagement Manager

Below are the qualifications, skills, and requirements to become a successful engagement manager,

Qualification

There are several core requirements for becoming an engagement manager, which may include:

  • Education: An engagement manager typically needs a minimum of a high school diploma or GED. Some employers prefer a bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, or a related field. Relevant coursework includes marketing research, advertising, media, sales, business, and economics.
  • Training & Experience: Many employers prefer candidates with at least five years of experience in the industry. Some employers may prefer candidates with at least 10 years of experience.
  • Engagement managers can gain training through internships and entry-level positions. They can also learn from more experienced colleagues.
  • Certifications & Licenses: There are several professional certifications available that engagement managers can pursue to show their skills and further their career advancement opportunities.

Requirements 

These requirements must be met to be successful,

  • Proven experience as an Engagement Manager
  • Project management experience
  • Background in sales and customer service is a plus
  • Proficient in MS Office and CRM/project management software
  • Strong organizational and multitasking skills
  • Customer-oriented approach
  • Excellent verbal and written communication abilities
  • Sharp business acumen
  • Problem-solving aptitude
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office and customer relationship management (CRM) software.
  • A people person with excellent organizational and communication skills.
  • Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple clients and projects.

Skills

Below are the skills necessary to become a successful engagement manager, 

  • Bridging
  • Excellent Communication
  • Acceptance Testing
  • Use Cases
  • Microsoft Office Suite
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Dashboarding
  • Account management
  • Agile
  • Analysis skills
  • Application development
  • Business development
  • Customer relationship management
  • Customer service
  • Digital Marketing
  • English
  • Leadership

Is an Engagement Manager the Same as a Project Manager?

Engagement/project managers do all the work that a project manager at a company would do, such as planning deadlines for a project, developing methods to make the job go more efficiently, etc. However, instead of working in-house for the company, they help clients with their projects.

What Is the Goal of an Engagement Manager?

Engagement managers play a crucial role in building strong and lasting relationships with clients. They typically manage a portfolio of complex accounts and serve as the point of contact for these accounts. They also assist clients with ongoing projects and help them address issues and problems.

Engagement Manager Salary

The average engagement manager’s salary is $78,829, but the salary range typically falls between $69,425 and $91,257. Salary ranges can differ widely depending on many important factors, including education, certifications, additional skills, and the number of years you have spent in your profession. With more online, real-time compensation data than any other website, Salary.com helps you determine your exact pay target. Employee engagement manager’s salary will depend on numerous variables. Salary factors unrelated to the employee engagement job description have to do with the size of a business and the industry it’s in (some industries make more than others).

Highest Paying Cities For Engagement Managers

Below are the cities with the highest salary for an engagement manager

  • San Buenaventura, CA $110,202
  • Berkeley, CA             $93,599
  • Merced, CA             $92,058
  • Daly City, CA             $90,497
  • San Mateo, CA           $89,909
  • Irvine, CA             $87,921
  • Tacoma, WA             $87,820
  • Richmond, CA $86,967
  • Bellevue, WA             $86,625
  • San Francisco, CA      $83,855

How can Engagement Managers increase their salary?

Increasing your salary as an engagement manager is possible in different ways like,

  • Change of employer: consider a career move to a new employer that is willing to pay higher for your skills.
  • Level of Education: gaining advanced degrees may allow this role to increase their income potential and qualify for promotions.
  • Managing Experience: If you are an engagement manager that oversees more junior Engagement Managers, this experience can increase the likelihood to earn more.

What Makes a Good Engagement Manager?

The role requires a friendly personality and the ability to solve difficult problems. A key responsibility is to form strong business-to-business relationships with customers. Additional qualifications include strong leadership qualities and proven experience working as part of a team to meet client goals.

Is the Engagement Manager an HR?

Engagement managers have usually experienced HR professionals.

In a Nutshell,

At the end of the day, it’s up to your employee engagement manager to set up a working strategy that will increase employee engagement. In essence, their job is to find weaknesses and specific reasons for the lack of engagement. This is done in order to understand and pinpoint these reasons, an employee engagement manager will distribute and analyze engagement surveys, a suggestion box to collect feedback, or live polls to increase communication and engagement. 

References

  1. WHAT IS MEDIA MANAGEMENT: All to Know
  2. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES: Best Strategies & Guide
  3. PROGRAM MANAGER SALARY: How Much Do They Make?
  4. INNOVATION MANAGER: What They Do & How to Become One?
  5. SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER JOB: All You Should Know & Top Listings (+ Free tips)
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