The role of Managers in employee engagement : Champions, Saboteurs, Challengers, Prisoners. Discover how Leadership is crucial to drive Transformation : #
1. Authors:
Gary Wyles, Managing Director, Festo Ltd
Mark Hemming, Senior Consultant, Festo Training & Consulting
Manage to Engage…
The role of managers in employee engagement
2. Contents
Introduction 2
What is employee engagement? 3
Signs of disengagement 4
The cause and effect of employee disengagement 6
Personality profile to show different character ‘types’ 8
Managing different character ‘types’ 10
A simple employee engagement equation 12
Improving management skills 15
Engagement is not a target 17
Festo and employee engagement 18
Conclusion 19
Sources 20
“You can’t train an employee to be engaged. You have to develop
managers and leaders and through them focus on creating an
environment where productivity and engagement can thrive.”
Engaging for Success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement 1
3. 2 –
3Manage to Engage
So let’s quickly clarify. Employee
engagement is the difference between an
outstanding organisation and one that is
purely mediocre. Employee engagement
makes the difference between keeping your
valued staff or constantly losing them to
competitors. Employee engagement creates
a highly productive workforce and enables
organisations to grow faster and more
sustainably than others. It is what
underpins the brand of organisations and
makes you one of the ‘Best Companies’ to
work for.
In terms of the UK manufacturing and
engineering sector its importance cannot be
under-estimated. We’re in a highly
competitive market where skills are lacking.
Those organisations with a strong brand,
which is reinforced by the culture of the
organisation and the engagement of
employees, will be the ones that the best
talent choose to work for. In light of an
increasingly global workforce, combined
with the impact of the recession, UK
organisations need to get their productivity
up – and fast.
Gallup, who measure levels of employee
engagement worldwide, has shown that the
numbers of engaged employees is falling in
the UK, with 26% being recorded as actively
disengaged in 2013.
Introduction
There have been many seminal works on
employee engagement. In this white paper
we will reference some of these reports and
research to bring together an overview.
From our perspective at Festo Training &
Consulting we wanted to ground our
thoughts and provide some guidance and
advice on:
• What employee engagement is and why
it matters
• The causes and effects of employee
engagement
• The key role of managers in improving
the engagement of your own employees
One other quick thing to clarify – employee
engagement is not about training. The role
of managers and leaders is what makes the
difference.
Gary Wyles,
Managing Director
Festo Ltd
Equally, the UK is 5th when measuring
employee engagement against 10 other
nations and, along with France, has the
highest number of actively disengaged
employees.3
What is employee engagement?
Professor David MacLeod, one of the UK’s most recognised authorities on
employee engagement, and author of a Government commissioned report
‘Engaging for Success’, states that there are four broad enablers for
engaged employees:
Visible empowering
leadership providing a
strong strategic narrative
about the organisation,
where it comes from and
where it’s going.
Central to these four broad enablers of
employee engagement is the alignment of
employees to the organisation’s vision and
values, and equally how well the
organisation represents the personal views
and beliefs of their employees. A further
critical component of great employee
engagement is the role of managers as they
are the direct connection between the
company and the employee.
There is a reason why there is such a focus
on employee engagement. For all our
research and measuring of engagement, it
is found that under 20%3
of employees are
actively engaged. This leaves the 60-65%
majority of employees who are not
engaged, and could easily slide into the
smaller actively disengaged category.
Enablers
Engaging managers, who
focus their people and
give them scope, treat
their people as individuals
and coach and stretch
their people.
There is an employee
voice throughout the
organisation for reinforcing
and challenging views
between functions, and
externally where
employees are seen as
central to the solution.
There is organisational
integrity – the values on
the wall are reflected in
day-to-day behaviours.
There is no ‘say – do’ gap.
This is the decision that business leaders
need to make. Is it worthwhile to spend
time, effort and resources on the 60-65%
who are not engaged, and how to handle
the minority of actively disengaged
individuals?
The focus on employee engagement is not a
‘nice to have’, it’s a necessity. In a world of
increased competition, higher levels of
productivity from other countries, a
widening skills gap in manufacturing and
engineering, employee engagement is
critical to the long-term sustainability of UK
organisations.
This white paper is about employee engagement. Some may be
well versed in the term, some might have a broad understanding
and others might actively dislike the term, or not fully understand
what it means.
“Engagement is a measure of
the extent to which employees
put discretionary effort into
their work.”
The Drivers of Employee Engagement 2
43
1 2
4. 3. Poor productivity
While the desire to grow
and expand is certainly in
place for manufacturing
businesses, there also
needs to be room
for increased productivity or ‘doing more
with less’.
According to the Office for National
Statistics, the UK certainly needs to do
something about increasing our
productivity. Output per hour in the UK was
21 percentage points below the average for
the rest of the major G7 industrialised
economies in 2012, the widest productivity
gap since 1992. On an output per worker
basis, UK productivity was 25 percentage
points below the average for the rest of the
G7 in 2012.6
4. Skills gap
A recent EEF report found
that, “There is an increasing
risk that these growth plans
will be restricted because of
problems in accessing
employees with the required skills.”7
In research that Festo conducted with
Works Management8
, it was found that 88%
of organisations are suffering from a skills
shortage. Equally the research found that
business leaders rated the following
concerns as important for their
organisation:
5. Low levels of customer satisfaction
A price driven strategy is
one of the hardest for UK
organisation to adopt due
to tough competition from
new and emerging
economies that are focussed on driving
costs down and highly competitive supply.
UK organisations have to assess different
ways to compete. One might be innovation
and development of new products and
technology; the other is on improving
relationships and service to existing
customers so that customer satisfaction
and loyalty increases. And, yes, you
guessed it; increased customer satisfaction
comes down to high levels of employee
engagement.
4 –
5Manage to Engage
1. Poor retention of staff
Are you losing your best and
most valuable employees to
competitors? Do you have a
high churn? Have you
recently asked your HR
department to analyse how many staff have
left you in recent years and have they
collated the results from their exit
interviews?
These questions are frequently left
unanswered. This is often because, when
someone leaves, an organisation goes into
overdrive to ensure that they can quickly
replace key members of staff and safeguard
continuity of service.
For companies that have good retention,
engaged employees are an organisation’s
best advocates. Their pride in the
organisation also means that they are some
of the top referrers and unpaid recruiters.
Putting in place a referral scheme can be
one of the best – and most cost effective –
ways of attracting new talent into the
organisation and if not in place this should
be considered.
2. Lacklustre business performance
A perennial issue for
business leaders is how to
increase profits and
turnover. So whether it’s an
automation project,
addressing poor productivity or increasing
recruitment to plug skills gaps, employee
engagement sits at the heart of an
organisation’s business performance.
The EEF (http://www.eef.org.uk/)
conducted research into the different
strategies of manufacturing organisations
for the year ahead. These are grouped
around developing new markets, launching
new products and services, and
introducing new processes – the actions
vital to competing successfully in global
markets.5
All of these involve motivating staff to
stretch into new markets, developing new
products and increasing customer
satisfaction. Having high levels of
employee engagement is good for
individuals as it increases:
• Job satisfaction; motivation
• Stress and well-being
• Fulfilment; self-confidence
Engaged employees are also good for
organisations as they directly impact the
bottom line through:
• Increased levels of customer
satisfaction
• Retention, loyalty, advocacy
• Productivity and profitability
• Proactivity; innovation
The signs of disengagement
The positive aspects of employee engagement are well articulated and
researched. However, with the majority of employees being disengaged to
varying degrees, we should also consider the impact and the signs of low
levels of employee engagement.
“Companies that engage and enable their employees, outperform on both
revenue growth and profitability. Organisations in the top quartile on
engagement demonstrate revenue growth 2.5 times that of organisations in the
bottom quartile. But companies in the top quartile on both engagement and
enablement achieve revenue growth 4.5 times greater and exceed industry
averages on five-year return on assets, return on investment, and return on
equity by 40 to 60 per cent.”
Hay Group 9
“Businesses that have high levels of engagement show customer satisfaction
scores 22 per cent higher than companies with low levels of engagement.
But companies that both engage and enable employees demonstrate a total
increase in customer satisfaction of 54 per cent.”
Hay Group 9
“Companies with high levels of
engagement show staff
turnover rates 40% lower than
companies with low levels of
engagement. But companies
that both engage and enable
employees demonstrate a total
reduction in voluntary turnover
of 54%.”
Hay Group 4
5. 6 –
7Manage to Engage
Personal satisfaction
The first is the ‘personal satisfaction’ of the employee. An
engaged employee will be personally satisfied in his or her
current role, will like their job and be happy to take on more
responsibilities. On the flip side a disengaged employee
that is not aligned to the company and whose personal
needs are not being met, can be a drain on an
organisation’s time and resources.
Needs alignment
The second is whether there is a ‘needs alignment’ between
the employee and the organisation. We often focus on
whether the employee is aligned to the organisation, but it
is imperative that the organisation also understands and
meets the needs of the individual.
Drive
There is however another dimension and that is the
dimension of ‘drive’. This is the personal drive and energy
of employees. A disengaged person with low drive will be
less of a disruptive influence than one who is highly driven
and keen to convert others to his or her own set of beliefs
and opinions.
Mapping employees on 3-dimensions of
employee engagement
Using Festo’s 3-Dimensions of Employee
Engagement, you can map your employees.
This is not for an organisational wide
mapping; this is for a manager and his or
her direct reports. As the four broad
enablers (see page 3) stated, the role of
Engaging Managers is critical to improving
the levels of employee engagement.
It should however be noted that if managers
(senior or first line managers) fall into the
categories of Not Engaged (the majority of
the workforce) or indeed Actively
Disengaged, then the organisation will need
to consider how they handle these
managers and the amount of time and effort
they are prepared to spend in re-engaging
management.
Levels of engagement
Using Festo’s 3-D Model of Engagement you
can accurately identify and group
employees into 8 specific character ‘types’.
The importance of this grouping means that
different management; engagement and
communication strategies can be put into
place. This assists leaders and managers to
effectively communicate the vision, what
they expect from employees and give clear
guidance on how to translate the objectives
into action – for themselves and for each
individual.
The cause and effects of employee engagement
Engagement is the extent to which employees put discretionary effort into
their work. This shows the importance of the first two dimensions of
employee engagement. But there is a third and that’s the individual drive of
employees. With these three dimensions you can map your employees.
Quick assessment tool –
Festo’s 3 Dimensions of Employee Engagement
Building on Festo’s 3-D Model of Employee Engagement,
this tool will help give you a snapshot view to identify the
levels of engagement in your core team.
www.festo-didactic.co.uk/eeqa
“Engagement is the positive
attitude held by the employee
towards the organisation and its
values. An engaged employee is
aware of the business context,
and works with colleagues to
improve performance within the
job for the benefit of the
organisation.”
IES 10
6. 8 –
9Manage to Engage
Not engaged
Actively disengaged
- Alignment
I’m Joshua Stanley and I was one of the
first employees to be taken on when the
company began. My job then was
Production Operative and I’m doing the
same job to this day. I’m proud of what I
do and my manager tells me that I do a
good job. Sometimes I get worried
because I’m not as fast as the young kids
and I doubt I’ll make it to retirement age.
Everything seems to be driven by all our new, fresh-faced
managers and directors. The policy used to be you couldn’t
be a manager until you’d been here for five years. Now,
they just walk in the door and whoosh, we’re off on another
change. When you’ve been around as long as I have you
know that nothing is really new. Other people seem to think
that everything is for the best but they must have short
memories because we’ve tried most of this stuff before and
it didn’t work then, so why should it work now?
A Sceptic
I like my job but not having to cope with
all the changes. I’m Denise Stevens and I
work in the Purchasing Department and
order all the raw materials for Production.
We’ve always done a good job but now
they want us to push our suppliers for
better prices to reduce our costs! It’s all
about restructuring. I’ve had enough, so I
told my manager we have good relationships with all our
suppliers and we don’t want to upset them.
After a few days my manager gave my team a lecture about
the plans of the company and how the directors want us all
to play a part in its success. Yeah right! So I said, “How are
all these fancy business plans going to help us get lower
prices from our suppliers? Why don’t you and the directors
come and spend a week in our department and show us how
to do it?” He didn’t have an answer for that and he’s not
mentioned it again since.
A Challenger
My name’s Ronnie Cotterel, I’ve been here
18 months and I work as a Sales
Consultant. I was headhunted from a
competitor, but I’m looking to leave as
soon as another job opportunity comes
along. When I first came here it was like a
breath of fresh air after what I’d been
used to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m working
with a lot of nice people, but how am I
supposed to hit my crazy sales targets when I spend half of
my time in internal meetings, training workshops and
completing endless, repetitive reports and database
updates.
It wouldn’t be quite so bad if the management recognised
all this time off the road by guaranteeing our commissions
and bonuses but they won’t hear of it. So I’ll just keep my
head down, take everything from this situation that
benefits me and move on when I’m ready.
A Thief
Twice I’ve been declined for Director of
Marketing. How can the kid they
employed do what I can do? How can he
possibly know all that I, Martin Smith,
know about the company, how we should
manage the people and promote the
business?
You’d be amazed at just how gullible your fellow employees
can be. They hang on my every word and then spread the
contagions that I feed them across the company! Perhaps I
was like them once, all pumped up by Goals, Vision and
Values. Fifteen years I’ve been here giving them everything
and what do I get in return? Nothing! I’ve been actively
looking for another appointment and there’s not been a
shortage of offers for a guy like me. I’ll just take my time
and ensure that I get what I want.
A Saboteur
Personality profile to show typical character ‘types’
Engaged
Not engaged
+ Personal satisfaction
- Personal satisfaction
+ Alignment
I’m Henry Roberts and Sales Manager. I
directly manage a team of seven men and
women, and my style is ‘supportive’
rather than ‘leading from the front’. It’s
important that the team are able to
maximise their time in front of their
customers. They reach out to me when
they experience supply or processing
issues and I’m always on hand to give them words of
support or steer them in the right direction.
We have very few ‘personal performance’ issues. Similarly,
I don’t have to constantly remind them of the need to hit
our targets, they do it anyway and in my view, this is a good
way to be. I regularly host customer visits and I’m often
described as “the face of the company”.
An Ambassador
My name is Elizabeth Conroy-Yeng. I am the
Production Director and clinched the
appointment because I had a well-
considered policy on Employee
Engagement. Irrespective of how difficult it
may be I believe every company should
have a policy to manage disengagement
out of its organisation!
I introduced very clear policies to this effect. Consequently,
we have increased our production output by 18% whilst at
the same time, reducing our net production costs by over
23%. We still have some way to go but I am extremely
proud of our department and the fantastic proactive
contributions that so many of our people are making!
A Champion
I’m Rachel Allan and I work as Personal
Assistant to two Sales Managers. It’s just
my luck that instead of ‘streamlining’ my
workload as was promised, both my
managers more than double it by always
wanting work done their particular way –
that means everything has to be done
twice. And then they say at my appraisal,
“Rachel, you’re ‘not proactive’ enough!”
I think my college education is wasted in this job. Yes, it
was exciting to begin with and the company is doing well,
but once you’ve compiled one set of spreadsheets you’ve
compiled them all. Martin Smith sat next to me at lunch the
other day he said he’s heard that in the next round of
efficiency and cost improvements, the Directors are going
to do away with PA’s, except for those assigned to
themselves. I hope a nice new job opportunity comes along
soon!
A Passenger
I feel like a ‘Prisoner’ in this job! I
understand where we are going as a
company and some of the initiatives are
great but us employees aren’t heard and
therefore can’t contribute to our future
success. I’m Ralph Robinson and I’m a
Goods Received Inspector. I’ve
suggested many times that we could save
time and cost if we cut out the Stores and
move the items directly to the production lines. I read
somewhere this is called ‘Trackside’ supply. Have they
taken any notice? No!
This lack of recognition really gets to me, so much so that
I’ve been for interviews at other companies. Of course they
make their jobs and companies sound fantastic but it only
takes a couple of probing questions to discover that
perhaps they’re not all they pretend to be. I’m dissatisfied
because an ordinary employee can only contribute through
what he does, not through what he thinks!
A Prisoner
7. Manage to Engage 10 –
11
It is easy to think that
because Champions are
highly engaged, well aligned
to the organisation and the
organisation aligned to them
and they are successful in
their work that they need no
management. They do
however have a low tolerance
of actively disengaged
employees and this needs to
be closely monitored. They
need continual challenges
and stimulation, and while
many feel satisfied with their
achievements, others feel
they can always do more.
Because Ambassadors are
reactive by nature they need
to be presented with
opportunities to support new
initiatives rather than being
expected to drive them
forward. They do need to feel
valued by the organisation
and they need recognition for
the work that they do.
Engaged employeesActively disengaged employees
Saboteurs are potentially the
most dangerous of
disengaged employees
because they are proactive.
They seldom act without
purpose, and demonstrate
the disengaged practice of
‘consent and evade’. Equally
their attitude can be
somewhat confusing or
complex. Some Saboteurs
will exhibit a positive
attitude about themselves
but harbour a very negative
attitude towards the
company.
Many have ‘people-oriented’
behaviour tendencies but
they can be resentful or
vindictive towards the
company or even specific
individuals. Occasionally,
they can be empowered with
responsibilities that motivate
them and provide a vehicle
through which they can
show-off their positive
attributes. Over time, some
Saboteurs can become
strong Champions but there
remains the question of
trust.
Thieves are reactive by
nature but their agenda is to
take whatever they can from
the company and sometimes
other employees as well.
This includes time,
information, training,
material goods, money, data,
software and anything that
they think will benefit them
now or in the future.
Some will want to ‘look good’
and stand out as it may
‘cover’ their real intentions.
Others tend to try and ‘hide’
within the group. Equally,
Thieves might brag about
their accomplishments to
others in an attempt to
encourage them to do the
same.
An important note is that even
if Challengers say that they’re
aligned to the company they
are not and the company is
unlikely to be aligned to
meeting their needs either.
They are proactive, often as a
result of external stimuli.
They are not afraid to speak
their mind, although for some
this can be driven by
insecurity. This can be
disruptive and often stems
from their lack of alignment.
Equally, their open
challenges, if fuelled by
emotional aggression, can
alienate them from their work
colleagues.
Because Sceptics are reactive
they will only tend to express
their opinions in a secure
environment. Their scepticism
is usually a form of mental
comparison – the ‘now’
versus ‘previous experience’.
Their scepticism reflects
doubt, often fuelled by their
lack of alignment in the
workplace and sometimes
driven by their own
insecurities.
Although they will have a low
tolerance of actively
disengaged employees, many
will not say so. However, they
may express their sceptical
views if action is openly taken
to deal with them.
Not engaged employees
Prisoners have the potential
to be disruptive in the
workplace as a result of
openly expressing their views
on work related matters,
although what they say, can
often have relevance due to
their alignment or
understanding of the
company’s needs.
They are inclined to be
proactive but this can change
if their overall dissatisfaction
provokes a negative attitude,
often fuelled by estranging
colleagues because of their
open challenges. Potentially,
they are at greater risk than
Challengers and Sceptics of
becoming actively
disengaged.
Passengers are reactive by
nature and may only express
their views when asked to do
so, although some patience
may be required to facilitate
this. However, what they say
can have value and relevance
because they are aligned to
the company and the
company is aligned to them.
Attitudes about themselves
may vary considerably and
they have the potential to be
good workers although this
will vary with mood. Those
with a negative attitude and
openly expressed
dissatisfaction may alienate
their colleagues.
Champions AmbassadorsSaboteurs ThievesChallengers Sceptics Passengers Prisoners
Managing different character ‘types’
Employee engagement is not static. Many employees
can be re-engaged with the right communication.
Not engaged employees
Challengers, Sceptics, Prisoners and Passengers represent around 60 - 65% of an
average UK workforce. Some analysts refer to them as ‘Residents’ advising that if
‘influenced’, they can become more positive or negative in the workplace. In the case
of ‘Challengers’, involving them in sustained, high quality, 2-way communication can
produce very positive outcomes.
Actively disengaged employees
Saboteurs and Thieves who are in the actively
disengaged quadrant force their manager or the
company to make a very conscious decision – do we risk
frustrating and de-motivating the rest of our employees
by managing them in the same way as everyone else, or
do we draw attention to them and play into their hands,
by trying to isolate them and the damage they can
cause?
Actively managing disengaged employees out of an
organisation is controversial but absolutely must be
considered, as long as legislative procedures and rules
are closely followed to avoid any potential acts of
discrimination on unsubstantiated grounds.
Profiles
To read and listen to the full profiles together with
management tips go to:
www.festo-didactic.co.uk/eeprofiles
8. 12 –
13Manage to Engage
Managers – walking the talk
Management action is the start point of the
E=MC2
equation. Since 2008, the UK
Commission for Employment and Skills has
been conducting research exploring skills
utilisation and its impact on productivity
and performance. This research into high-
performance working practices emphasises
the important role of the line manager. Line
management behaviour directly impacts
employee learning and development; their
treatment; autonomy; and the quality of
communication and teamwork.
Engaging Managers – as outlined in the
report ‘Engaging for Success’ 13
, are at the
heart of the organisational culture and they
are the link between the organisation and
its employees. Engaging Managers:
• Facilitate and empower rather than
control and restrict their staff
• Treat their staff with appreciation and
respect
• Show commitment to developing,
increasing and rewarding the capabilities
of those they manage.
The aim of any
manager and
leader should be to
make their own role
redundant. By considering
themselves as enablers of the
future, which is empowering for
those that work with or for them,
they will remove the bottleneck and
frustration that can often occur between a
manager and their team.
Utilising the 3-Dimensions and
characterising employees helps the
manager understand the personality
profiles and make-up of their employees.
They will know the strengths of their team
and will recognise the weaknesses.
People management is time intensive and
organisations must recognise and empower
their managers with the skills, time and
resources to manage their people
effectively. Without organisations helping
managers develop people skills, as much as
they would technical skills, it is unlikely that
a significant shift in employee engagement
will occur.
We’ve titled the section ‘Managers –
walking the talk’ because line managers
need to be a role model for the
organisation. This means that not only do
they have to understand and be clear on
what the organisation is trying to achieve
and be aligned with it but they must
constantly reflect this in their everyday
actions. A manager cannot expect
employees to be engaged with the company
strategies if they constantly see their
manager behaving in a contrary way. In
addition, if a manager is disengaged the
organisation will need to consider if they
should spend the time and energy
re-engaging them or whether they need
to manage them out of the organisation.
Management action also links to the third
part of the equation – Communication.
Communication is not a verbal or a written
exercise. We communicate far more
effectively when we say things simply, we
believe what we say, and we do what we
say. That’s walking the talk.
A simple employee engagement equation…
Once you have understood and mapped the levels of engagement in your
own organisation and managers have mapped their direct reports, we then
need to enable and improve it. To do this we’ve borrowed a well-known
formula to aid our understanding, and make it easy to remember!
…management action…
Employee engagement will only occur if there is
management action and communication strategies
and actions put in place.
9. 14 –
15Manage to Engage
Communication is a conversation
Central to increasing engagement is
putting in place a comprehensive employee
communication strategy. There are two key
aspects of this:
• Centralised communication – often
referred to as internal communications.
• One-to-one communication – how the
manager interacts with their staff.
…communication
Centralised communication is how the
organisation communicates out to
everyone the mission, vision, values,
strategy and targets. However,
communication is not the responsibility of
one department. Nor is it the preserve of
the senior leadership team. Each individual
with people responsibilities should be
clear on their role in the communication
process. The manager especially needs to
be aligned to the organisation and embody
the values in their day-to-day working life.
On the E=MC2
equation, communication is
squared because it’s what the employee
hears and sees and how they understand
that the information relates to their own
situation that’s important.
As we’ve highlighted, communication will
need to be tailored to the 8 Character Types.
By mapping the team onto Festo’s
3-Dimensions of Employee Engagement,
managers will be aware of how each person
is aligned to the organisation. They will
know whether they are satisfied or
dissatisfied in their role. On the personal
drive scale, they will understand whether
they need to help employees find a role that
enables them to positively contribute to the
success of the organisation.
“Effective communication is 20% what you
know and 80% how you feel about what you
know.”
Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker
Improving management skills
Improving management and leadership skills are key
for increasing engagement.
The CBI describes it as one of their most
important priorities, with just over one half
of their employers believing that
management skills are the most significant
factor contributing to competitiveness.11
The Small Business Services (SBS) also
sees management as vital, stating,
“Leadership and management capability is
a key determinant of business success.”15
First line management
We’ve established that the role of managers
is crucial to employee engagement. The
impact of managers can be most acutely
observed in their first time role. The first
line manager holds tremendous
responsibility, representing and
communicating the organisation’s goals
and objectives. Some managers will have
natural people management skills, others –
and often the majority – will have been
promoted because of their technical
competency and they quickly need to
develop people management skills.
The CIPD found that 53% of employees
would consult their line manager if they
needed support or advice on a work issue.
However, employees who rated their line
manager as competent but low on
interpersonal skills were more likely to
consult a colleague. This is where the
company’s vision and objectives can easily
become diluted and even misinterpreted.
“The quality of management and leadership varies
both between and within sectors. Comparative
research on a wide range of best management
practices in manufacturing firms in the USA, UK,
France and Germany has shown USA firms to be the
best managed and UK firms to be the most poorly
managed. In addition, a low proportion of employers
in the UK with managerial staff provide training for
them.”
Leitch Review of Skills.11
“Line managers are under constant and
increasing pressure to ‘be leaders’ – improve
organisational performance while supporting
individual employee needs. In the eyes of
individual workers they are most often ‘the
employer’, engendering a trusting
relationship between the employee and the
organisation.”
CIPD Leadership Report, 2013 12
10. 16 –
17Manage to Engage
Management, leadership, coaching
Managers at all levels need to pay more
attention to the individual, improving their
awareness, listening skills and understand
how to clearly communicate what the
company is seeking to achieve. They need
to live this themselves and give others clear
guidance on their role in creating
organisational success, providing reward
and recognition for individual efforts.
An engaged manager will need to have
different skills at their disposal for different
occasions. For example, when dealing with
actively disengaged individuals (Saboteur,
Thief), the manager will need to be able to
cite specific occurrences of destructive
behaviour. They will have to have processes
in place to manage poor performance and
then to understand the legal framework to
address these. How a manager deals with
their people’s performance can impact the
engagement and support of the wider team.
Leadership skills are vital to be able to
move Disengaged employees (Passenger,
Prisoner, Sceptic and Challenger) into
Engaged employees. They will need to be
able to ‘sell’ the vision of the organisation
and engage their team members to deliver
challenging targets.
Coaching skills are put into practice when
managers want the individual to take
personal responsibility for their own
careers. They will focus on questioning and
building self-esteem. They will inspire and
enable change to occur.
One of the most difficult aspects of
management and leadership is handling
conflict and having what we term
‘courageous conversations’. Moving from a
collective approach to one that is individual
centred requires well-developed people
management and communication skills. Key
to making this work is overcoming barriers
to effective listening so there can be an
accurate and agreed record of an
individual’s needs and aspirations.
For instance, what would happen if an
employee feels that they have been
overlooked for an internal promotion? First,
this would not be the manager’s problem
but is the responsibility of the individual.
A leader’s response might be “What was it
that you haven’t told me, or that I haven’t
heard, that means I didn’t consider or
recognise you?”
This management philosophy is
empowering for the individual but it does
place responsibility with them to explain
clearly their own requirements and
aspirations. This becomes more difficult if
aspirations and capability are far apart.
Then you need tangible ways to show the
gap so you can openly discuss this with
individuals. Tools, such as a Balanced
Scorecard, can be helpful as they remove
the emotion from the discussion.
…improving management skills Engagement is not a target
Employee engagement is not a short-term tactic. Nor is
it a target. If you focus on engagement as a target,
rather than as a measure of progress, it becomes toxic.
Engagement is an outcome of an
organisation that has belief in its own goals,
mission and vision and through its
management effectively communicates so
there is alignment in values, beliefs and
objectives.
Businesses fail at creating employee
engagement where their stamina wavers
and they run out of time or money.
A successful strategy has to live beyond
where many people would give up.
Constantly changing the strategy causes
confusion and a lack of trust in the vision of
the leaders.
“Employee engagement is a leading indicator in terms of how
successful a strategy will be. In Festo, we saw increasing levels of
employee satisfaction and engagement before we saw the full
impact of this on the business results. It’s also an influence on
customer satisfaction.”
Gary Wyles, Managing Director, Festo Ltd
11. 18 –
19Manage to Engage
Part of understanding successful practices
for employee engagement is the
fundamental realisation that the modern
day workplace has changed. Pay and perks
have been replaced by flexibility, self-
realisation and work-life balance as key
motivators.
The first step to understanding employee
engagement is to see what the levels are
like in your own organisation. For some
leaders this might be the first time that
they’ve listened to the views and opinions
of their own employees. It can be tough and
it can be challenging. Issues can also easily
be glossed over. Some organisations
proudly state that they have 66% engaged
employees in their organisation. While
remarkable when compared to the 20%
average, it still means that one third of your
workforce is not engaged or even actively
disengaged! Measurement is equally no
good if it’s just for measurement’s sake.
As we stated earlier, if you’re focussing on
achieving a certain percentage as a target,
then measuring employee engagement can
become toxic.
The act of measuring employee engagement
is a form of communication in its own right.
And like any form of communication, it
needs to be a conversation. If people give
Mark
Hemming,
Senior
Consultant
Festo Training
and Consulting
their time to tell you what they think, then
equally you need to feed back to them the
top line results, and identify priorities for
action and when these are going to be put
in place. This is back to the beginning. It’s
what you hear, the action that you put in
place, and then communicating back that
you’ve listened and what you’re going to do
about it.
Employee engagement is not something to
be entered into lightly but it is something
that business leaders, in all sectors – and
especially in manufacturing and engineering
– need to focus on.
And why? Because having high levels of
engagement in your organisation will
ensure that your business goes from
strength to strength, outstripping the
performance of your competitors,
attracting the best talent, and becoming
one of those companies that others look
at with admiration and, quite often, with
a touch of envy.
Employee engagement is the difference that makes the difference – and could
make all the difference as we face the realities of globalised competition and of
millions of graduates and even more skilled and committed workers that China,
India and other economies are producing each year.”
Engaging for Success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement 13
“One step up from commitment, two or
three from staff satisfaction, employee
engagement is fast becoming the Holy
Grail for firms which need a productive
workforce to sustain a competitive
advantage.”
Payroll Professional magazine
Festo and employee engagement
Festo is a leading world-wide supplier of automation technology and the
performance leader in industrial training and education programs. Our aim:
maximised productivity and competitiveness for our customers.
To achieve this aim we see employee
engagement as the critical factor. Our
people are key to achieving our goals.
People in Festo know how they contribute
and get a shared sense of satisfaction when
company figures are released. It’s not just
about the financial performance though. We
are well known in the industry for investing
in the training and development of our
people through our own learning and
development programme, ‘Fit for Change’.
We also have a strong coaching culture that
ensures people are supported and
personally developed. We put much of this
in place when times were good. When the
recession bit, it really paid off.
At Festo, we believe in three key leadership
principles:
• Open and honest communication
• Respect and recognition
• Driving a shared vision
Our open and honest communication
begins by listening to our people. We
started our Employee Engagement Survey
in 2001 and that led to some changes in
communication. They said they wanted to
know from the leadership team how the
business is performing, what their role is to
achieve business objectives and how we’re
doing on our mission.
So, we modified our Business Reviews –
biannual appraisals of business progress –
and required managers to cascade key
messages through departmental meetings
within four weeks of each Review. The
results of this survey also ensured the
business could easily and swiftly access an
important feedback mechanism to not only
measure success but also to drive future
people-focussed initiatives.
Respect and recognition means that all
employees have the opportunity and
capacity to voice their opinion and share
their experience and learning for the greater
good. In 2007, we introduced ‘Recognise’
where any employee can nominate a
colleague for efforts taken ‘beyond the call
of duty’. Every nomination is personally
acknowledged and notified by individual
managers and every quarter a winner is
selected by management vote.
When it comes to driving a shared vision
within Festo, it really is a case of leading
from the front. In the face of the recession,
the business has developed (and retained)
a ‘we’re all in this together’ attitude that
has encouraged the business to work as a
team that is succeeding amid this turbulent
market.
External recognition is also essential for us
to recruit and retain the best talent. We
have achieved a 1* rating in The Sunday
Times Best 100 Companies To Work For and
also are accredited with the Gold Investors
in People standard.
Conclusion
We have a tough battle on our hands. We’re recovering from a recession,
seeking to secure and develop a new vision for manufacturing in the UK,
suffering from a skills shortage and competing against new markets in the
world-wide economy. Employee engagement is one of the key
differentiators that we have to adopt.
“Measuring and monitoring
employee engagement is the latest
gauntlet to be thrown to employers
because it can be linked directly to
the bottom line!”
Gallup, Inc 14
12. 20Manage to Engage
1
‘David MacLeod, Nita Clarke. Engaging for Success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement’.
Crown copyright. 2008.
2
IES (2004). The Drivers of Employee Engagement.
3
State of the Global Workplace Report 2013’. Gallup. 2013.
4
‘Tough decisions in a downturn don’t have to lead to disengaged employees’. Hay Group. 2009
http://www.haygroup.com/ww/press/details.aspx?id=21404
5
‘Skills for Growth: A more productive and flexible labour force’. EEF The Manufacturers’ Organisation.
http://www.eef.org.uk/publications/reports/skills-for-growth-a-more-productive-and-flexible-labour-force-.htm
6
‘International Comparisons of Productivity – Final Estimates, 2012’. Office for National Statistics. 2014
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_353315.pdf
7
‘Skills for Growth: A more productive and flexible labour force’. EEF The Manufacturers’ Organisation.
http://www.eef.org.uk/publications/reports/skills-for-growth-a-more-productive-and-flexible-labour-force-.htm
8
‘People & Productivity 2013’. Festo Training & Consulting, Works Management. 2013.
9
Tough decisions in a downturn don’t have to lead to disengaged employees’. Hay Group. 2009
http://www.haygroup.com/ww/press/details.aspx?id=21404
10
Source: IES (2004). The Drivers of Employee Engagement.
11
Lord Leitch, “Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class skills’. The Leitch Review. 2006.
12
‘Real-life leaders: closing the knowing-doing gap’. CIPD. September 2013.
http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/research/real-life-leaders.aspx
13
‘David MacLeod, Nita Clarke. Engaging for Success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement’.
Crown copyright. 2008.
14
Customer Management Magazine. The Gallup Organisation, July/August 2006.
Sources