This document discusses employee engagement for non-profit organizations. It begins with an agenda that covers what employee engagement is, ways to enhance engagement, and how to measure it. It then delves into each topic in detail, providing definitions of engaged, disengaged, and actively disengaged employees. It discusses factors that can enhance engagement, such as communication, development opportunities, recognition, trust in management, and team cohesion. Finally, it discusses methods for measuring engagement through surveys and sharing and acting on the results. The overall message is that engaged employees are more productive and committed to their work, so non-profits should focus on understanding and improving engagement.

2. Employee Engagement for
Non-Profit Organizations
David Topor, Ph.D.
Custom Research Manager, ERC
May 13, 2015

3. Today’s Agenda
1. What is employee engagement?
2. What can I do to enhance employee engagement?
3. How do I measure employee engagement?

4. Today’s Agenda
1. What is employee engagement?
2. What can I do to enhance employee engagement?
3. How do I measure employee engagement?

5. What is employee engagement?
Are engaged employees happier at work?
Are engaged employees more satisfied at work?
Do engaged employees demonstrate more organizational citizenship
behaviors?

6. What is employee engagement?
Do engaged employees get “lost in the moment” on their jobs?
Are engaged employees more intrinsically motivated?
Do engaged employees work harder?
Are engaged employees more productive?

7. What is employee engagement?
“Engaged” employees are involved in, enthusiastic
about, and committed to their work. They contribute
to their organization in a positive manner. The
consistently perform at a high level, and use their
talents and strengths at work every single day. They
work with a passion and a sense of pride about their
work. They drive innovation and move the
organization forward.

8. What is employee engagement?
“Not engaged” employees are difficult to spot. They
are not hostile or disruptive, and may even appear
happy or satisfied. However, they lack passion, energy,
and commitment. They feel a disconnect from their
manager or coworkers. In a sense, they show up for
work and “go through the motions.” They would leave
to go work for another company if a better
opportunity arose.

9. What is employee engagement?
“Actively disengaged” employees are consistently
negative and seem to be against everyone and
everything. To make matters worse, they vocalize this
displeasure to others. They monopolize a manager’s
time, account for more quality defects, contribute to
theft, miss more days of work, and quit at a higher
rate. In short, they’re miserable at work, and make
others around them miserable.

10. Did you know???
Only 30% of employees are “engaged” in their work (State of the
Global Workplace, Gallup, 2012)!
If your organization were a 10-person bicycle, statistically speaking…
3 employees are peddling with all their heart.
5 are just along for the ride, pretending to pedal.
2 are slamming on the brakes.

11. Group Activity #1
Thinking about your current workplace, what percentage of your
employees fall into the following categories?
_____ Engaged
_____ Not engaged
_____ Actively disengaged

12. Group Activity #2
How much time and energy (as a percentage of a typical workday)
do you invest in those employees who are:
_____ Engaged
_____ Not engaged
_____ Actively disengaged

13. Did you know???
In one study comparing highly-engaged teams with lesser-engaged teams…
Productivity differed by 21%
Profitability differed by 22%
Absenteeism differed by 37%
Theft differed by 28%
Accidents differed by 48%
Quality (defects) differed by 41%
Customer service differed by 10%
(Q12 Meta-Analysis, Gallup, 2012)

14. What is employee engagement?
“I know it when I see it.”
(1964, Justice Potter Stewart)

15. Group Activity #3
Describe a time when you noticed someone at work who was
“engaged” – what were they doing? What did it look like?
Describe a time when you were “engaged” at work – what were you
doing? What did it feel like?

16. “People are our most important asset”
Is this true? Do you believe this?

17. “People are our most important asset”
In an executive board room, what gets discussed more often?
• Sales figures or recruiting?
• Profit levels or retention rates?
• Stock price or morale?

18. Case Study: The Campbell Soup Company
In 2000, sales were declining. Campbell’s lost 54% of market value in
just one year.
Employee engagement levels were among the worst ever seen in a
Fortune 500 company.

19. Case Study: The Campbell Soup Company
“To win in the marketplace…you must first win in the workplace. I’m
obsessed with keeping employee engagement front and center.”
Doug Conant, Incoming CEO

20. Case Study: The Campbell Soup Company
By 2009, the ratio of engaged employees to actively disengaged
employees increased to 23-to-1!
In the decade that saw the S&P 500 stocks lose 10% of their value,
Campbell’s stock increased by 30%!

21. “People are our most important asset”
Engaged employees
Work harder, longer,
and with more focus
Increases in
productivity, service,
and quality
More satisfied
customers
More sales and more
profit
Higher stock share
price
Higher total
shareholder value
Also, because fewer employees leave,
recruiting and training costs are reduced

22. Did you know???
People who are dissatisfied with their jobs are far more likely to be
hospitalized or even die from a cardiac event? (2009, Swedish WOLF
study)
If a parent has a bad day at work, his or her child is more likely to
misbehave in school the next day? (1996, Queen’s University study)
There is a direct correlation between job satisfaction and marital
bliss. (1985, NYU study)

23. What does this mean?
Want better health?
Want well-behaved children?
Want a happier marriage?
Then become fully engaged at work!

24. The Psychology of Work Life and Home Life
Spillover effect – The positive or negative effects of one’s work life
on his or her personal life.
Crossover effect – The transfer of positive or negative emotions from
one person to another (including one’s spouse, child, etc.).

25. How much control do you have over
engagement?
The majority of engagement comes from one’s relationship with his
or her immediate manager!
“People join companies…but leave bosses.”

26. Did you know???
Managers can account for as much as 76% of the variance in
employees’ engagement.
Approximately 70% of the reasons employees give for leaving an
organization can be attributed back to issues in which their
immediate manager had direct influence.
(Estimating the Influence of the Local Manager on
Employee Engagement, Gallup, 2014)

27. Group Activity #4
If you are a manager, what can you do over the next few months to
make your employees feel more engaged?
As an employee, what would you like your manager to do over the
next few months to make you feel more engaged?

28. Today’s Agenda
1. What is employee engagement?
2. What can I do to enhance employee engagement?
3. How do I measure employee engagement?

29. Enhancing Employee Engagement
1. Communication
2. Development and Growth
3. Recognition and Rewards
4. Trust
5. Team comradery

30. Enhancing Employee Engagement
1. Communication
2. Development and Growth
3. Recognition and Rewards
4. Trust
5. Team comradery
Employees need to feel
that they have a “voice”
and believe they are
“kept in the loop” on
important
organizational matters.

31. Key Factor #1 - Communication
How often do you meet one-on-one with your manager?
How often do you read company-wide newsletters, bulletin board
postings, or e-mail announcements?
How accessible is senior leadership in your organization?
How often does your manager conduct “stay” interviews?

32. Case Study: Burcham Hills
Burcham Hills Retirement Community decreased turnover by 72% by
implementing annual “stay” interviews with their employees!
HR Magazine (December 2011)

33. Key Factor #1 - Communication
How to conduct a “stay” interview:
Keep it conversational and informal
Don’t grill employees or take meticulous notes
Don’t get into solving problems (you’ll handle those later)
Don’t commit to anything

34. Enhancing Employee Engagement
1. Communication
2. Development and Growth
3. Recognition and Rewards
4. Trust
5. Team comradery
Employees need to feel
that they are advancing
towards their career
objectives and are
learning new things.

35. Key Factor #2 – Development and Growth
Do you feel challenged at work?
Does your organization offer training specific to your career needs?
Do you have someone at work to help guide and support your
career?

36. Key Factor #2 – Development and Growth
Do you understand your role in the organizational hierarchy?
To what extent are career advancement opportunities available to
you?
Do the most deserving employees earn promotions in your
organization?

37. Key Factor #2 – Development and Growth
Questions to ask your employees:
What are their career goals for the next year? Next 3 to 5 years?
Can these goals be accomplished within the department? Within
the company?
What KSAs are required for their current position? For any future
position?

38. Key Factor #2 – Development and Growth
Creating opportunities:
Coaching
Mentoring
Developmental projects and task forces
Shadowing
Job rotation, job enlargement, and job enrichment

39. Enhancing Employee Engagement
1. Communication
2. Development and Growth
3. Recognition and Rewards
4. Trust
5. Team comradery
Employees need to feel
appreciated for their
hard work, and that
their efforts are
acknowledged and
sincerely valued.

40. Key Factor #3 – Recognition and Rewards
How often does your manager say, when appropriate, ‘thank you’?
How often do your team members say, when appropriate, ‘thank
you’?
How do you feel when one of your ideas is implemented at work?

41. Key Factor #3 – Recognition and Rewards
Showing appreciation:
Handwritten thank you notes
Give employees a card signed by the entire team
Praise your employees in front of others
Buy the department lunch or a snack in an employee’s honor
Reward employees with comp time
Treat an employee (and his or her spouse) to dinner
Re-examine your current onboarding program

42. Key Factor #3 – Recognition and Rewards
You can never say “good job” or “thank you” too often!

43. Case Study: The Campbell Soup Company
Remember Doug Conant from the Campbell Soup Company?
He would end each day by hand writing 20 notes to employees and
partners.
He estimates he wrote over 30,000 notes in his tenure at Campbell’s!

44. Did you know???
Only 10% of employees say “thank you” to a colleague each day.
Only 7% of employees express gratitude to a boss.
(Janice Kaplan, Gratitude Survey, John Templeton
Foundation, 2012)

45. Enhancing Employee Engagement
1. Communication
2. Development and Growth
3. Recognition and Rewards
4. Trust
5. Team comradery
Employees need to feel a
sense of independence
and autonomy in their
work, being empowered
to take risks, do their
work as they see fit, and
make mistakes (but also
learn from them).

46. Key Factor #4 – Trust
To what extent do you know your organization’s mission, vision,
values, and goals?
How much does your manager “micromanage” you?
At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every
single day?

47. Key Factor #4 – Trust
How much freedom or independence do you have to do your job the
way you think it should be done?
To what extent does your manager “walk the talk”?
How does your manager react when you make a mistake at work?

48. Key Factor #4 – Trust
Demonstrating trust:
Your words and actions must align
Give employees the freedom to do their jobs
Be transparent – share the bad news along with the good
Acknowledge mistakes
Instill a sense of confidence in the future of the organization

49. Enhancing Employee Engagement
1. Communication
2. Development and Growth
3. Recognition and Rewards
4. Trust
5. Team comradery
Employees need to feel a
social bond or
“connection” with
others at work.
Friendships – both at
work and outside of
work – are important.

50. Key Factor #5 – Team Comradery
How often do you formally meet with your teammates?
What percentage of employees do you consider to be “friends”?
To what extent does your manager sincerely care about you as a
person?

51. Key Factor #5 – Team Comradery
Encouraging team comradery:
Don’t discourage “water cooler” chats
Take the lead in sharing personal information about yourself
Hold regular team-building sessions
Plan off-site get-togethers for employees and their families
Celebrate team successes
Set aside time to spend time with your coworkers to share ideas
and best practices

52. Today’s Agenda
1. What is employee engagement?
2. What can I do to enhance employee engagement?
3. How do I measure employee engagement?

53. Group Activity #5
Within the past year, have you measured employee engagement in
your workplace?
If so, what aspects of employee engagement do you measure? How
did you share the results? How did you act on the results?

54. Measuring employee engagement
If you want something to improve, you first need to measure it!
Ideally, you want to measure employee engagement every 6 to 12
months.
But keep in mind…timing is everything.

55. Measuring employee engagement
1. Hire a consulting firm or a survey research firm.
2. Have a conversation.
3. Develop your own survey.

56. Measuring employee engagement
1. Hire a consulting firm or a survey research firm.
2. Have a conversation.
3. Develop your own survey.

57. Measuring employee engagement
Developing your own survey:
Use paper-and-pencil or online format
Likert-type items (and avoid a “neutral” choice)
Keep it anonymous
Put demographic items at the end

58. Measuring employee engagement
Developing your own survey (continued):
Provide space for open-ended comments
Allow 1 – 2 weeks for employees to complete it
Maintain confidentiality
Act on the results

59. Measuring employee engagement
One reason employees are so cynical of employee surveys is because
they take up a lot of time and nothing ever seems to come of them!

60. Sharing the survey results
1. Share the averages for all of the individual questions. NEVER
show individual results!
2. Share a graph depicting the results over time

61. Sharing the survey results
Remember…you want to facilitate a discussion – not be the one
doing all of the talking.
Even if the results don’t look good, share them anyway!
Don’t judge or be dismissive.

62. Sharing the survey results
Communication is at the heart of any engagement survey initiative,
and both transparency and honesty are the keys!
Over-communication is rarely a problem.
Remember…you want two-way communication.

63. Creating a “culture” of engagement
Annually
A ½ to a full day retreat to communicate organization-wide goals and
action plan for the upcoming year, as well as how each department
aligns with those goals.
Again, don’t lecture – it should be a conversation.
Have employees create a “cheat sheet” to hang in their cubicles or
design a poster to hang in a common area.

64. Creating a “culture” of engagement
Quarterly
Pause to review progress made against annual objectives, and then
set actionable objectives for each quarter or month.
Have fun – work in a team-building activity or two.

65. Creating a “culture” of engagement
Monthly or Weekly
Meet one-on-one with each direct report for 15 – 30 minutes for
some “personal time” and to discuss individual goals and objectives.
Always end with the same question: “What specifically do you need
from me this week?”
Hold team meetings to review key metrics and keep everyone “in the
loop” with other projects and activities in the department.

66. Group Activity #6
As a manager, when you get back to your workplace, what is one
thing you will do today to increase your employees’ engagement?
As an employee, when you get back to your workplace, what is one
thing you will do today to increase your own engagement?

67. Thank you!
David Topor, Ph.D.
Custom Research Manager, ERC
dtopor@yourERC.com
440-947-1313