At the end of this module, you will be able to:
List what employee engagement is and why it matters to your
business.
Measuring Engagement with Survey and Interview
Use best practices for engaging employees.
Identify new ideas from Case Study
Learning Objectives
2
Executive Summary
• Employee engagement is a critical factor in running a successful
business.
• Employee engagement has dropped significantly in the past several
years due to the economic downturn, resulting layoffs, and other
cost-cutting measures.
• Increasing your level of employee engagement will ensure the long-
term success of your business.
3
Why is it Important?
Percentage of
employees
actively
engaged
30%
Percentage of
employees
who do not
trust their
managers
70%
The UK has 6%
lower average
engagement
levels than
other large
economies
(Kennexa, 2011)
6%
Percentage
below G7
productivity
levels
(International
comparison of
productivity gap)
20%
Numerous studies show a strong correlation
between levels of employee engagement and
several business performance indicators
including:
― Retention
― Profitability
― Earnings per share (EPS)
― Operating income
― Net income
― Profit margins
― Customer satisfaction
― Sales
― Safety
Disengaged employees :
miss an average of 3.5 more days per
year
Are less productive
Cost the US economy $355 billion per
year
Why is it Important?
Consider these statistics (from getfeedback.net):
―In 2006, Gallup examined 23,910 business units and compared top quartile and
bottom quartile financial performance with engagement scores. They found that
businesses with engagement scores in the top quartile averaged 12% higher
customer advocacy, 18% higher productivity, and 12% higher profitability.
―A second Gallup study in 2006 of earnings per share growth of 89 organizations
found the EPS growth rate of organizations with engagement scores in the top
quartile was 2.6 times higher than organizations with below-average
engagement scores.
―The Corporate Leadership Council reported that engaged organizations grew
profits as much as 3 times faster than their competitors.
―Hewitt reported that businesses with more than 10% profit growth, had 39%
more engaged employees, and 45% fewer disengaged employees than
businesses with less than 10% growth.
Why is it Important?
Studies have also shown a high correlation between levels of employee
engagement and important employee statistics, such as productivity,
turnover, absences, accidents, and sick days.
– More statistics from getfeedback.net:
• Gallup found that engagement levels can be predictors of sickness absence, with
more highly engaged employees taking an average of 2.7 days per year,
compared with disengaged employees taking an average of 6.2 days per year.
• Engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave the organization than the
disengaged employees.
• The cost of high turnover among disengaged employees is significant; some
estimates put the cost of replacing each employee at equal to annual salary.
– These findings emphasize what good leaders already instinctively
know: Increasing the level of employee engagement in your business
is good for business.
Why is it Important?
Key Take-Aways
Employee engagement matters
Engagement
levels are low
But can be
improved
Engagement
should be
measured
Survey results must
be acted on
Engagement is
not just an
“initiative” or
“program”
HR has
critical role –
champion,
facilitator and
model
• AKA “Generation Y”
• Birth years from the early 1980s to
around 2000.
• “Millennials are focused on making
meaning, not just making money.
This may well strike X-er managers
and HR personnel as too precious
and lofty an attitude for the real
world, but that’s the reality that
organizations have to come to grips
with.” -
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/01/14/gen-x-is-from-mars-
gen-y-is-from-venus-a-primer-on-how-to-motivate-a-millennial/
Millennial Generation
Employee Engagement, What is it ?
‘Positive attitude held by the individual towards the organisation and its
value’ (Robinson et al.,2004)
‘Employee’s willingness and ability to help their company succeed, largely by
providing discretionary effort on a sustainable basis….Engagement is
about passion and commitment – the willingness to invest oneself and
expand ones discretionary effort to help the employer to succeed’
(Perrin’s Global Workforce Survey, 2003)
‘Involvement with and enthusiasm for work’ (Gallup)
Positive attitude, passion, commitment and discretionary effort
‘Employee engagement levels are measured in
various ways—from very informal “asking around”
to formal employee surveys; no matter how it is
measured, the results are quite compelling.’
Employee Satisfaction vs. Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is not the same as employee satisfaction.
• Satisfied employees are merely happy or content with their jobs and the
status quo. For some, this might involve doing as little work as possible.
• Engaged employees are motivated to do more than the bare minimum
needed in order to keep their jobs.
Employee satisfaction…
– only deals with how happy or content employees are.
– covers the basic concerns and needs of employees.
– does not address employees’ level of motivation or involvement.
Employee Engagement Framework
Engagement with
The Organization
Engagement with
“My Manager”
Strategic Alignment Competency
High
Performance
An employee engagement model based on statistical analysis
and widely supported by industry research.
Engagement with The Organization
• Measures how engaged employees are with the
organization as a whole.
• Includes employee feelings about and perceptions of
senior management.
• Key components include trust, fairness, values, and
respect - i.e. how people like to be treated by others,
both at work and outside of work.
Engagement with
“My Manager”
• A more specific measure of
how employees feel about
their direct supervisors.
• For most employees, this
factor has the largest impact
on day-to-day life at work.
• Topics include mutual
respect, feeling valued, being
treated fairly, receiving
feedback and direction, etc.
Beyond Engagement –
Alignment & Competency
Strategic alignment
• Does the organization
have a clear strategy and
set of goals?
• Do employees
understand how the
work they do
contributes to the
organization's success?
• Strategic Alignment ensures
that employee effort is
focused in the right
direction.
An organization needs more than just engaged
employees in order to succeed. There are two
additional areas that relate to employee performance
and that are closely linked to engagement.
Competency
• Do managers have the
skills needed to get the
job done?
• Do managers display
the behaviors needed to
motivate employees?
• Competency is
measured with 360
Degree Feedback.
Employee Engagement Dynamics
Drivers of Engagement - What matters most?
Knowing whether employees are engaged or disengaged is
only the first step. You also need to understand the key
drivers of engagement.
We employ two techniques that enable you to identify
what to focus on and how to improve in those areas.
1. Priority Level - we look at the statistical patterns across all groups in your
organization to determine which items are impacting overall engagement within
each demographic group.
2. Virtual Focus Groups - next, we ask targeted follow-up questions at the end of
the survey that ask employees to provide examples of problems as well as
suggestions for how to improve. These comments often provide the detailed and
specific what, why, and how so you can take action.
Engagement is Measured with
Employee Surveys
What do surveys measure? What do we use the information for?
The level of engagement in the
workforce
To understand employee sentiment
How engagement varies across
departments, countries, job levels,
demographic groups etc.
To identify best practices and ‘hot spots’
What issues underpin engagement
To set priorities to guide decisions and
organisational change
Views and opinions on management
practices and other issues
To open a dialogue with employees to
create engagement and focus on areas
of most concern
• According to Gallup, Inc. (Oct. 2011):
–29% of American Employees are Engaged.
–52% of American Employees are Not Engaged.
–19% of American Employees are Disengaged.
• In other words, 71% of the U.S. workforce is either
under-performing, or is actively undermining the
work of their co-workers.
U.S. Statistics
Power of Employee
Engagement
-70% -60% -50% -40% -30% -20% -10% 0% 10% 20% 30%
Absenteeism
Turnover (high-turnover orgs))
Turnover (low-turnover orgs)
Lost or stolen inventory
Safety incidents
Customer scores
Productivity
Profitability
Key Performance Indicators
Top- and Bottom-Quartile Work Groups
Five-Factor Definition
of Employee Engagement
1. Believe in and support the goals and
objectives of the business
2. Feel a sense of belonging to and pride
in the company
3. Are willing to go the extra mile to
ensure that personal contributions
help the department and overall
organization to be successful
4. Find Value, Create Value, Feel Valued
5. Resilient and Change-Ready
Poll: Why Do You Care About Engagement?
Conducted an engagement survey and we can
do better
Going through significant change and want to
keep our employees engaged
Want employees to be engaged in our business
strategy
Our C-Suite Exec’s care about employee
engagement
Honestly, I don’t think my company cares very
much about employee engagement
Employee Engagement Data
Actively
Disengaged
“Up for Grabs”
13% 76%
Actively
Engaged
11%
Believe in Goals and Objectives
Pride and Belonging
Find, Create, Feel Valued
Go Extra Mile
Resilient and Change-Ready
The Lack of Engagement Can Be Masked By
Low Turnover and Long Work Hours
Source : PCI Copyright 2008
Segmentation Differences
• Size of company did not matter
• Industry did not matter
• Demographic factors (gender,
age, geography, job, tenure,
level) did not change the results
Employee Engagement
What to do ?
Managers: 5 things
Align efforts with strategy
Empower
Promote and encourage teamwork and
collaboration
Help people grow and develop
Provide support and recognition where
appropriate
Organisation: 10 things
1. Start on day one – recruitment
2. Start at the top – senior management
commitment
3. Develop two-way communication
4. Give satisfactory opportunities for
development and advancement
5. Ensure that employees have everything
they need to do their job
6. Give appropriate training
7. Have strong feedback system
8. Provide incentives
9. Build a distinctive corporate culture
10. Focus on top-performing employees
Individual: Drivers
Personal attributes
Organisational context
HR practices
Organisations with higher engagement level
Outperformed the total stock market index
Posted total shareholder returns 22% higher
than average
Twice the annual net income
4.2 times more likely to deliver above average profit
15% of a store’s year on year growth can be explained by
the level of engagement
12% higher growth in sales
Higher engagement levels have lower patient mortality rates
7 percentage points difference in customer service scores
between top 10% and bottom 10%
Contracts delivered by engaged employees showed higher
customer loyalty
Companies with engagement scores in the top
quartile averaged 12% higher customer
advocacy
84% of ‘Worlds Most Admired’ Companies
stated their efforts to engage employees had
strengthened customer relationships
Engagement scores in the top quartile
averaged 18% higher productivity
71% of companies with above average
employee engagement performed above their
sector average
Engaged staff able to talk to additional 800 customers
per year
Higher sales and lower absence
£26m of improvement opportunities
59% of engaged employees say work brings
out their most creative ideas – only 3% of
disengaged employees agree
Engaged employees are more likely to search
out new methods, techniques and transform
innovative ideas
Engagement and Innovation
Overwhelming evidence : some
examples
Empowerment:
Multiple studies linking empowerment-enhancing strategies with
improved organisational performance including innovation
performance (Spreitzer, 1995; Conway and McMackin, 1997; Read,
2000; Black and Lynch, 2004; Lynch, 2007; McLeod and Clarke,
2009; Subramony, 2009).
Spreitzer (1995) conceptualises empowerment as constituting four
dimensions ability, autonomy, impact and significance, the first
reflecting ability and the latter three reflecting opportunity
Positive relationships:
Overwhelming evidence that positive relationships and encouragement
from managers are very important elements of innovation climate
(James and James, 1989; Amabile, 1993; Anderson and West, 1998;
Shipton et al., 2006; Patterson et al., 2005; Hunter et al., 2007).
Energy and vigour:
Positive relationships also create greater levels of energy and vigour in
organisations (Spreitzer and Sutcliffe, 2007). Vigour and dynamism
are very closely linked and this allows for greater adjustment to
rapid change and innovation (Bruch and Ghoshal, 2003; Cross et al.,
2003).
Absence levels reduced by 26%
Engaged employees in the UK take an average
of 2.7 sick days per year, while disengaged
staff take 6.2
Sickness absence costs the UK economy
£17 billion per year
Higher engagement levels have lower absence levels
High levels of engagement are positively
associated with wellbeing
Strong correlation between engagement and wellbeing
Bottom 10% has 2x voluntary turnover
Bottom 10% ranked by employee engagement had almost
twice the voluntary turnover
Employee Engagement:
Statistics and Case Studies
REVENUE
GROWTH
Organisations in the top
quartile of engagement scores
demonstrated revenue growth
2.5 times greater than those in
the bottom quartile.
CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION
Companies with top
quartile engagement
scores average
12% higher customer
advocacy.
PROFIT
Companies with
engagement
scores in the top
25% had twice the
annual net profit.
Employee Engagement:
Statistics and Case Studies
PRODUCTIVITY
Organisations in the top
quartile of employee
engagement scores had
18% higher productivity.
INNOVATION
59% of engaged
employees said that their
job brings out their most
creative ideas.
EMPLOYEE TURNOVER
Companies with high levels of
engagement show turnover rate
40% lower than companies with low
levels of engagement.
Employee Engagement:
Statistics and Case Studies
HEALTH & SAFETY
Organisations with engagement in the bottom quartile
average 62% more accidents than those in the top.
EFFICIENCY
An insurance company found that teams with
higher engagement had 35% less down time
between calls – equivalent to one ‘free of charge’
employee to every eight employees.
• Numerous surveys and tests measure employee engagement levels. Most
high quality surveys are geared and priced for larger businesses.
• Listening to employee feedback, acting on your findings, and continually
improving is more important than a fancy survey.
• One of the most simple yet impactful surveys for measuring engagement
levels is the Gallup Q12 Index which includes 12 questions that have been
used by thousands of workgroups internationally to understand and
increase levels of engagement. You can contact Gallup to use the Q12
Index.
• The ideas on the following pages 13–14 demonstrate how a business
owner keeps his employee engagement high without a formal survey. His
supervisors informally collect data every quarter to provide the
management team a sense of employee engagement levels.
• Important Note! Do not ask for feedback or issue a survey if you are not
committed to using the responses to make positive changes. It can do more
harm than good and potentially disengage employees.
How to Measure Employee Engagement
The 12 Items that measure employee
engagement EMPLOYEE’S NEEDS
Knowing What’s Expected Focus Me
Materials and Equipment Free Me From Unnecessary Stress
Opportunity to Do Best Know Me
Recognition and Praise Help Me See My Value
Someone at Work Cares Care About Me
Someone at Work Encourages Development Help Me Grow
Opinions Count Hear Me
Connection to the Company Mission Help Me See My Importance
Committed to Quality Work Help Me Feel Proud
Best Friend at Work Help Me Build Trust
Talking About Progress Help Me Review My Contribution
Opportunities to Learn and Grow Challenge Me
1. Knowing what’s expected of you at work.
2. Having the equipment and materials you need to do your job right.
3. Having the opportunity to do what you do best every day.
4. Having received recognition or praise within the last 7 days.
5. Your supervisor seems to care about you as a person.
6. Someone at work encourages your development.
7. At work, your opinions seem to count.
8. The mission and purpose of your organization makes you feel that your
job is important.
9. Your colleagues are committed to high-quality work.
10. You have a best friend at work.
11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to you about your
progress.
12. In the last year, you’ve had opportunities to learn and grow.
Gallup q12:
Factors that contribute to engagement
Do results on any
of these items
surprise you?
What were you
thinking when you
answered this
particular item?
Do the results
reflect how you feel
now?
What would a “5”
look like on this
particular item?
What are we doing
that makes this a
strong or weak
result?
What does our
work unit need to
do to improve on
this item?
Questions to Ask When Sharing Results
• Build trust
– Share and discuss your team’s
scorecard
• Demonstrate compassion
– Ask questions
– Listen
– Select what’s important to your team
• Create stability & hope for the future
– Make a plan
– Share responsibility
Workgroup Feedback and action planning
Next Steps
• How will you share the
employee engagement
information with
employees in your
Organization?
• What actions will you
take to keep the
Organization focused on
employee engagement?
Make Engagement personal:
One-on-One Conversations
• Which of the Q12®
items is most important to you and why?
• Is there anything getting in the way of your engagement
around that item?
• What can I do as a leader to help reduce the barrier(s)?
• What can you do for yourself to help reduce the barrier(s)?
• What does success look like?
FOCUS ME
Q1: I KNOW WHAT IS EXPECTED OF ME AT WORK.
Ask Yourself
• How do I measure the basic
expectationsof my faculty or staff?
• What do I hope for beyond the basics?
• How often do I communicate
expectations?
• How do I let people know what I
expect?
• What questionsdo my staff come to me
with regarding expectations?
• What metrics do I pay attention to
regarding my school’s performance?
• How do I measure my own success?
Ask Your Team
• What goals are you most excited about?
• How do you know if you are doing a good
job?
• How do you determineyour priorities?
• What does our team promise to our
students?How do your individual or
classroom goals contributeto this?
• What do you believe you are paid to do?
• How often should we talk about our goals?
Jump-Start for Action
• Meet individually with staff to review goals and measurement.
• Begin regular meetings sharing what each person has been focusing most of
his/her energy on lately.
• Ask staff members to share what they believe each other are paid to do.
• Create a rolling update of team goals where all people can see.
• Consider connecting individual performance goals to student goals.
“This seems like it should be an easy
question, but when I asked my staff
what they thought the community
paid them for, I realized when it
comes to priorities, we weren’t on
the same page. I encouraged them
to be clearer than they think they
need to be with their peers about
what they’re focusing on, why it’s
important, and how it leads to our
school goals.”
“My AP takes care to make
sure that we know where
we’re heading and
that it aligns with where
he thinks we should be
heading, and then I think
he lets us go but just has
check points along the
way, so it's definitely not a
twenty-page plan.”
“It's not so much the
‘what’ that’s the difficult bit
for me, because trying to
explain what our objectives
are is actually quite simple.
It's the ‘how’ bit. And I find
just to talk about the
objectives and then how the
team are actually going to
bring that to life so that
they’ve got a stake in some
of the actions that they want
to follow through on.”
“Part of our role as principal is to
take the pure chaos that's going
on in the district and filter that
out. … We're doing way too
many activities, we change our
minds constantly, but we're a
buffer that can buffer our team
from that, and we can try to
provide focus and context of why
we're doing certain things. And
leave out some of the ugly details
…”
“What can success sound like?”
59
engagement increases
with repeated administrations of the Q12
employee engagement survey.
Teams who have intentional discussions and take simple
actions to build engagement realize the biggest gains.
Maersk Group overview
Companies of particular
strategic importance:
TRANSPORT
Maersk Line
APM Terminals
APM Shipping Services
• Operate mainly in the transport
and energy industries
• Approx. 89,000 employees
• 2014 revenue: USD 47 billion ENERGY
Maersk Oil
Maersk Drilling
Strategic investments:
Maersk Container Industry
Höegh Autoliners
page 66
Employee engagement trend
• A 10 year journey of progress
• Maersk Group has now reached the top quartile benchmark for engagement for
the first time since 2012
• The increase in engagement is mainly caused by an increase among blue-
collar, seafarer and offshore employees
Strengths and concerns
• Employees’ perception of how Maersk Group upholds it’s values has improved by
4 points in 2015 and is a significant contributor to the higher engagement level
• Other strengths are survey follow-up and clarity of strategy
• Only two questions have less positive results compared to 2014 and both are
below the external benchmark
Strengths
Diff to
2014
Diff to
External
Top 25%
Company upholds the Maersk values 4% --
Confident that action will be taken as a result
of survey
2% 8%
Clear understanding of my company’s strategy 0% 3%
Concerns
My job allows me a healthy work-life balance -3% -2%
My job makes good use of my abilities -1% -3%
A program to build long-term capability
Recorded training modules
Available for HR Business
partners and line managers
Open Q&A ‘surgeries’ to take
questions and discuss
solutions
HR Business partners are challenged to „Know
your Managers‟
- providing the support where it is needed most
8 ways HR
can help
managers
start to
take
action
Communi
cate
results
first
Know your
manager
Help them
get in front of
their team
Delegate to
share the load
Prioritise to
focus effort
Begin with quick
wins
Be creative –
make it
personal
Deep-dive on
complexity
Not just a program – get engagement
into the culture
1:1 talks
Check-in with
individuals
• Are you clear what is
expected from you?
• How are things
going since the last
time we met?
Team meetings
- EES update
- Refer to key results in
decisions
- Ask how people are
feeling?
Keep engagement on
agenda
Role model
Required
behaviours/values
• Do you check in on
yourself from time-
to-time?
• Do you ‘live the
values’?
PDP
Goals and Targets
• Use survey results
to set personal goals
Lessons from the Maersk Group
Stick at it – engagement is a long-term game
Strong leadership – upholding values and clarifying strategy
and direction
Build capability – invest in your long-term programme
through HRBPs and Line Managers
Manage the tail – focus support where it will deliver
HR - know your managers
Managers – make engagement personal for your team
Four collaborative steps to turn data into action
Understand
your
results
1 2 3 4
Conduct
feedback
meetings
Develop
action plans
Discuss
with
trusted
colleagues
Transparen
t sharing of
results
Discuss
implications
Delegated
teamwork
Using
collaborative
technology
Deep-dive on
complex
issues
Communicate
progress
Follow up
and
manage
What happens when you do not
follow these steps?
Engagem
ent falls if
people
think you
will do
nothing
32%
47%
62%
82%
89%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Very unconfident
about survey
follow-up
(N=2748)
Unconfident
about survey
follow-up
(N=4680)
Unsure about
survey follow-up
(N=10627)
Confident in
survey follow-up
(N=25808)
Very confident in
survey follow-up
(N=12439)
% Favourable Engagement
follow-upfollow-up
Back to Thomas Edison
“Negative results are just what I
want. They’re just as valuable to
me as positive results.”
Thomas Edison
FMCG company attends to subtle messages
Situation:
• Global FMCG company with a long-standing emphasis on
creativity and entrepreneurship was moving away from private
ownership via share offering
• New performance-based psychological contract – more
centralised, market-disciplined, measured
• Survey showed confidence in leadership, but a 2% decline in
perceptions of innovation – this was treated as a red flag
Response:
• They did not ignore this signal
• Deep-dive on innovation – where are concerns concentrated?
• Consultation on obstacles to innovation
• Crowdsourcing initiative launched - in specific categories
• Communication of innovation as key response to survey – a
commitment to traditional company value of entrepreneurship
Inspiration from social listening
Five products presented in a
Social Listening dashboard
that provides more in-depth
and regular insights about
your organisation
IBM’s Employee
Listening platform
Daily
pulse
Social
pulse
Mini
pulse
Social
analyti
cs
JAMS
Case Study: Leo Burnett Worldwide
Questions about HumanKind added to the Leo Burnett Worldwide
employee survey:
• These questions reinforced the importance of the initiative, and
• Generated measures of impact, giving managers a data point to move
forward from
Leo Burnett – Inspiring by ‘Making a
Difference’
Turnover rates
8.2% lower in
offices with highest
engagement levels
Offices fostering
an innovative
and challenging
environment are
2.2 x more likely
to meet margin
goals
Perceptions of
HumanKind
emerged as the
best predictor of
Best Agency
score – judged
on financial and
creative metrics
$
The lessons for your engagement program
Stick at it – engagement is a long game
Gain leadership buy-in
To engage your teams – first engage your managers
To engage your managers – make them accountable
and give them the tools and support to do the job
Understand the issues – find out what is driving
engagement
Focus your efforts – on priority issues and priority
populations
Bring an engaging style into your daily work
Get inspiration from collaboration with colleagues
Pay attention to the details – do not ignore subtle
messages in the data
Inspire others by making an impact
Perspiration
Collaboration
and
Inspiration
• Committed to the success and the public image of DHSS and have a vested interest
in the company’s success and are both willing and motivated to perform to levels
that exceed the stated job requirements.
• Psychologically loyal - likely to stay with their organization.
• Proud of their workplace and have greater ownership of their contributions.
• Passionate about their contribution to the mission of public health.
• More likely to invest discretionary effort (time, energy and money) in their work,
eliciting employees’ highest productivity.
• Your best source of new ideas.
• More likely to conduct themselves in a safe, respectable manner and less likely to
have accidents on the job, less likely to steal, etc.
• More likely to enjoy coming to work each day.
• Open to change.
• Supportive of their colleagues.
• Focused on the big picture.
Engaged employees are…
• The relationship between the direct supervisor and the employee is the
point of most leverage.
• Supervisors can:
– Earn trust by being open and vulnerable (admit mistakes, listen to feedback,
encourage cross-organizational conversations, etc.)
– Have regular conversations with employees (what’s going well? what’s not?
what can I do to help you be your best?)
– Learn employees’ passions and strengths and figure out how to let employees
use them in their job (this may take creativity and expansion of job
descriptions).
– Look for developmental opportunities to give employees and support them in
their growth
– Show appreciation in meaningful ways (ask employees to find out what is
meaningful to them).
Best Practices for Engaging Employees
• You can adjust the culture of the company to more fully engage
employees.
• Business owners can:
– Demonstrate the same behaviors recommended for supervisors with your
direct reports. A clear example will inspire your supervisors to emulate you.
– Rally your employees around a meaningful purpose. Everyone wants to know
what the real goal is and whether the goal is being accomplished.
– Communicate your current reality in simple terms. For instance, explain the
details of your profits, sales, customer service levels, and ask your employees
for help in making improvements.
– Show appreciation and create company-wide gestures of thanks. These can be
low-cost or no-cost things, such as time off, brown bag meetings with the
owner, vendor supplied education sessions, etc.
– Develop your staff throughout the year. Decide what you want to do and put
these events on your calendar at the beginning of the year. Treat these time
commitments as if they were meetings with your most important clients.
Best Practices for Engaging Employees
• Communication is critical for all employees. Explain measures you have
taken to avoid letting people go, and why you now have no other choice.
• For the impacted employees:
– Give as much advance warning as possible.
– Follow these acts of goodwill that cost you very little:
• Allow for at least 2 week’s notice.
• Explain the company’s financials and express your sincere regrets.
• Offer job leads and advice, and offer letters of recommendation.
• Use them on a contractual basis (if you can), and let them know that they will be
welcomed back if things get better.
If Times Are Tough and You Must Let
Employees Go (Slide 1 of 2)
• For the employees who remain:
– Understand that they are stressed about what has happened, and they have
worries of their own.
– Be aware that, more than likely, you are asking them to work harder for no
rewards.
– Now more than ever, they need to see and hear from you on how things are
going at a macro level and how it may impact them.
– Go out of your way to show appreciation for their efforts.
– Look for ways to improve their life/work balance.
If Times Are Tough and You Must Let
Employees Go (Slide 2 of 2)
Times of change = opportunities for
“human” resurgence
• Now is a good time for the Department to focus on engagement,
because the people who work here are already more aware and
more attuned to their changing work environment.
• Some employees are trying to figure out how things will work from
here forward.
• Some employees are trying to figure out how to stop the change
from happening to themselves or their work group.
• Some employees are trying to effectuate and embrace as much
change as possible.
• The “walking dead” may be momentarily outnumbered.
• Provide tools, resources and equipment in abundance.
• Enhance the work environment in any way possible.
• Reward and recognize the efforts of others in a way that’s meaningful to
the individual.
• Establish fair performance goals.
• Communicate clear expectations.
• Regularly clarify priorities and offer individualized feedback.
• Delegate work to engaged employees according to their interests and
talents.
• Support skill development and learn to manage talent.
• Actively help employees build meaningful long-term careers.
• Listen to employees, share your insights and experience.
• Work to increase transparency wherever possible.
• Promote core organizational values and reinforce them through
management behaviors.
How to Improve Engagement
• Care
• Autonomy
• Connection and interpersonal relationships
• Mastery and growth
• Shared goals and expectations
• Purpose and significance
• Play
• Inspired excellence
Key Drivers
Obsessing about objective measurements.
• Surveys can be helpful in identifying pockets of low or
high engagement, but they can have the unintended
effect of making employee engagement an end, rather
than a means.
• Engagement, alone, is like motivation without ability.
• Don’t confuse a tool with a strategy.
Common engagement mistakes
Focusing on employee engagement as a stand-alone topic.
• Although engagement may be best understood, theoretically, in
isolation, it has to be embedded in the context of our daily work,
our mission and our strategic planning in order to do anything.
• HR professionals work with Department leadership teams now in
order to help ensure that adequate human resources are in place at
the right time, with the right skills to deliver our desired results. If
HR staff are mindful of workforce trends and macro-issues, as well
as the concept of employee engagement, they can be very effective
at helping to steer conversations and keep engagement in its proper
place.
Common engagement mistakes
Thinking in terms of “buy-in.”
• By not forcing “buy-in,” there is less likelihood of
unintentionally engaging what we don’t want: opt-out
from those employees who are disengaged, or push-
back from those who are actively acting out their
disengagement.
• The most effective approaches at facilitating
engagement are those that create the conditions where
it can exist and those that somehow attempt to harness
its energy.
Common engagement mistakes
• Old data. Immediate feedback is far superior.
• Compare your results to the best results, not to the average.
• Confusing or conflicting messages about what’s most
important distracts people and disturbs their focus.
• Anything that threatens or jeopardizes the anonymity of an
individual respondent.
• Disinterest among the highest levels of supervision.
• Adopting a “rules” approach to building engagement (don’t
attempt to foster it through incentives).
Factors that inhibit improvement
• Set goals.
• Develop an action plan.
• Share the plan.
• Monitor, support and celebrate progress.
• Set high standards of comparison.
• Re-survey, refine and repeat the process.
• Share results (increase transparency).
Actions steps for improvement
Building a Culture of Engagement
A set of accepted
organizational values,
behaviors, and practices
that promotes increasing
levels of engagement as a
cultural norm
• It’s a personal choice, not something that can be imposed.
• It comes from an emotionally-driven decision to be loyal to
an organization.
• The work of leaders, managers and supervisors is to create
the conditions in which engagement can occur, then provide
people with the opportunity to make the engagement
choice – it’s about facilitating a culture of engagement.
• We begin by engaging leaders – senior managers from the
top-down, and peer leaders from the bottom-up. People
become “activated” and pass it on.
Things to remember about employee
engagement
• Employee engagement is critical to the success of your business.
• Bringing out the best in each employee and appreciating employee efforts
will help keep employees engaged.
• Find out what your employees want most from you, and be creative in
giving employees what they need.
Things to remember about employee
engagement
102
• Are you getting satisfaction from the tasks required by your
job?
• Are you feeling valued by colleagues and supervisors?
• Have you been contributing energetically, not in isolation,
but collaboratively?
• Are you ambitious for the organization?
• Do you find yourself speaking positively about the activities
of DHSS?
• Are you planning to continue to work for the Department?
• Going beyond the stated requirements of the job and
contributing ‘discretionary effort’?
Check your own level
103
Sourcing
• Dr. Kwame R. Charles, Director, Quality Consultants Limited, 2007 Inaugural
Caribbean Region Public Sector HR Conference, June 19-21, 2007
• Department of Social Protection, Ireland, Dr. Lucy Fallon-Byrne, June 2013,
engagement and innovation
• Engaging Employees, Engage your employees by following new principles and
ideas, FDIC (The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
• Employee Engagement: 101, DHSS, Institute for Management Excellence, March
2014
• PCI (Performance Connection International), 2008, Leading for Employee
Engagement
• Anni Yakala, 2015, Employee Engagement: Inspiration or Perspiration?, IBM
BusinessConnect
• Bob Lavigna, 2014, The Power of Employee Engagement, Assistant Vice Chancellor
– HR, University of Wisconsin, rlavigna@ohr.wisc.edu
• JerLene Mosley, 2015, Building a Great Place To Work & Learn:Principal Sessions
for Pasco COUNTY, Senior Consultant, February, Gallup