1) Creating an engaged workforce is a critical skill for public sector managers facing financial pressures, skills shortages, and increasing demands. Engagement has become a key challenge for HR directors. 2) Engagement refers to how much of themselves employees put into their work roles. An engaged employee thinks hard about work, discusses it with others, and feels good about it. Engagement has three facets: cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. 3) Engagement levels are determined by factors like meaningful work, supportive management, and supportive coworkers. Highly engaged employees are more productive and have better wellbeing. Managers must focus on engagement strategies to improve levels of engagement.

2. Creating an Engaged Workforce: The Critical Skill?Presentation to the PPMA ConferenceMarch 2010Professor Katie TrussCentre for Research in Employment, Skills and SocietyKingston Business School

3. “Public sector managers need to do better!”“Job cuts signal start of public sector recession”“350,000 public sector job cuts by 2014”“2/3 of public sector HR managers think they will be directly affected by expected changes”“The UK started well behind other countries in investing in our skills base ... We are not catching up fast enough”

4. Financial PressuresSkills ShortagesIncreasing DemandsOverload!

5. So... where does engagement fit in?

7. Today’s Big Idea 2010 HR Directors’ ‘key challenge’1.5m Google hitsCIPD Core CompetenceMacLeod Review

8. ... but what is it?

10. William Kahn: 1st Engagement Champion “ People are constantly bringing in and leaving out various depths of their selves during the course of their work days ... The terms developed to describe these calibrations of self-in-role are personal engagement and personal disengagement. I defined personal engagement as the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work roles.” (Kahn, 1990: 693-4).

11. The ConsortiumPartnership:10 membersacademic teamCIPD2 yearsin-depth research5,500 questionnaires180 interviewsAim: to explore engagement in contextAmey Mace Nampak Veolia Birmingham City Council NHS Trust Gvt Department Pharmaceuticals Automotive Financial Services

12. Engagementis:... a feeling... a mindset... a way of behavingEngagement strategies are interventions intended to raise engagement levels

13. An Engaged Employee... thinks hard about work... discusses work with others... feels good about work

14. The Three Facets of Engagement

15. Question ...Can ANY job be engaging?

16. ‘When the Apollo mission was going to the Moon, the journalists were at the launch site and were trying to find someone to give a comment.One found an old guy who worked there cleaning the floor.They said to this guy, ‘Well, sir, what do you do here?’And he replied, ‘I’m putting a man on the moon’.... And that’s my aspiration, to have our employees thinking they are putting a man on the moon.’www.photos8.com

17. WHAT DETERMINES ENGAGEMENT?

18. The potential for work engagement lies within every individual. Realising this is the task of the manager.

19. Why bother?

20. Engagement Extent

21. Engagement Frequency

22. Implications of low levels of social engagement ...

23. Types of Engaged Employees© Kingston Business SchoolFrequentStrongWeakInfrequent

24. Rates of Engagement10%43%14%33%Source: Truss et al., (March 2010) Harvard Business Review© Kingston Business School

25. Challenges How many are there?

26. Question:Is engagement always a good thing?

27. The Engagement CurveStrongly EngagedEngagedNeutralPerformance and WellbeingOver-EngagedDisengaged© Kingston Business School

28. Engagement OutcomesHighFit Non-Performers6%Fit Performers32%Fence Sitters59%WellbeingUnfit Non-Performers1%Unfit Performers2%LowHighLowPerformance

29. Sustainable Engagement?“I had a guy who used to be full-on and he had a heart attack, lovely guy, quite young, 31. When he was in hospital, he starts e-mailing, ‘I spent the weekend in hospital, they’ve done all these tests on me, I’m just on down for an ECG, but I thought I’d just copy an e-mail to you, I hope you’re alright’ ... “

30. The Engagement Equilibrium

31. Engagement DriversAlfes, Truss et al. (2010)

32. Results of the Civil Service People Survey 2009http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/news/2010/february/people-survey.aspx

33. How does Engagement work?

34. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

35. The Meaning of Meaning“We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed.” Viktor Frankl1904-1997Holocaust survivor

36. Kahn’s 3 Dimensions of MeaningfulnessThe Task:ChallengingCreativeVariedThe Role:Role fitInfluenceMeaningfulnessInteractions:RespectfulInsightfulKahn (1990)

37. “I am providing an essential service for several hundred thousand people, in fact, probably for half a million people. So I provide a meaningful service to my customers. And I think that carries with it a social and environmental and corporate responsibility which makes it meaningful as well.” Manager, Veolia

38. The Engagement LadderEngagement ‘Business as Usual’Developing and embedding a holistic engagement strategyGetting line managers on boardDeveloping top-level interventionsStaff Survey Engagement SurveyAwareness of engagement© Kingston Business School

39. “What do I do on Monday?”David MacLeod

40. Moving up the Ladder© Kingston Business School

41. © Kingston Business School

42. Kingston Engagement Consortium: Where Next?