Employee Engagement Part 1

Topic: Employee Engagement Part 1


What is the business
case for employee
engagement?
If people enjoy their work ,
and are happy in the work
environment, they interface better with customers,
perform better, stay with the company, take less time
off sick, make suggestions for improvements, and are
more productive and profitable.
They are more motivated, and committed to their
employer. They are focused on achieving company
goals and developing the company as successful for the
future.They are engaged employees.
Conversely disengaged employees tend to take more
time off sick, have a higher turnover rate, impact
productivity and profitability. They can drag others
down and negatively impact customer service, sales,
quality, and staff retention.
Engaged people care. They care about the company, its
image, its profitability, that its customers are happy,
that the business is successful. They will go the extra
mile without being asked to, whether their manager
sees it or not.
Global competition for employees with certain critical
skills is fierce, and the ability to attract and retain
such high fliers gives a company a strong competitive
advantage. Being known as a company that is
aspirational attracts high fliers.
Employee engagement is the key to a high performing,
productive workforce and a profitable business.
How do you create the right
environment to engage staff?
Many businesses are actively seeking effective
strategies to build a culture of engagement. The topic
is now high on the list of priorities of many Boards,
who see it as a significant competitive differentiator.
One of the first actions many have historically taken is
to hold an annual employer engagement survey, and
there are very many consultancies and software
companies jockeying for the contract to run those
surveys.
Perhaps not all those companies were so keen to deal
with issues that arose from the survey results. This in
itself adds to a feeling of disengagement – why run a
survey and ask for feedback, and then not even action
the feedback you get? Surveys were often designed to
measure employer engagement, but measuring
something does not create it.
So now some companies are seeking a more holistic
and inclusive engagement strategy. One that is
integrated into the culture.
Engagement and Culture are intangible things, difficult
to define, specify and measure. How do you create
them?
Creating an environment that engenders employee
engagement involves Management developing and
embedding a culture that effectively communicates the
Values and Vision, developing a workplace that is
engaging, challenging and appealing, and recruiting
people who will work well within it.
Management must constantly reinforce the message to
new and existing staff, and regularly scrutinise and
improve where they see an opportunity.
Some companies develop a brand, others such as
Virgin, or Easy Jet, use the “Culture of the personality
“embodying their leader with certain characteristics.
This helps them to avoid being a faceless company, and
allows staff, suppliers and customers to feel they have
a relationship with the organisation. They can show
some character in their communications, transforming
the organisation from a faceless company into a
personality that people like and trust, and want to do
business with.