Research
Recent qualitative research with some major blue-chip organisations has shed some light onto how employee engagement is being used and implemented. The findings highlight some of the things that are taking off and some of the things that are still on the runway as organisations get to grips with the practicalities of employee engagement. We carried out in depth interviews with a selection of companies during March and April 2009 and then hosted a clinic-style workshop in June to share, discuss and debate the findings.
The research was structured around five areas.
1. Change
Findings
In each company the idea of employee engagement was established and activities were underway to improve engagement. However, whilst there was a clear line of sight from business strategy to an individual’s role, there was rarely a clear tethering of employee engagement activities to clear business outcomes. So there is a danger that employee engagement is seen as an end in its own right, rather than a means to an end.
Again in each company the idea of measuring employee engagement was either well established or becoming established. Survey results were being used to focus employee engagement activity. In two cases the company consulted with employees about what engagement might mean to them. In all other cases it was defined by management, through the use of an off the shelf employee engagement survey.
Many companies had developed a clear set of behaviours, but in few cases had those behaviours been truly integrated into the thinking about engagement and nor was there evidence of employees connecting with the behaviours.
The Way Forward
Why-Oh-Why-Oh-Why? It is clear that as work around employee engagement matures, enough time is spent questioning before embarking on programmes where the goal is limited to “improving employee engagement”. What is the change you wish to bring about in the organisation? What is the desired business outcome? And what are the behaviours that need to change to enable this to happen? Those working in and around employee engagement must ensure that activity is tethered to a clear outcome – this will ultimately result in a much more tangible and relevant return on investment than a percentage increase on questions from a survey.
Get Out The Ivory Tower! Once you understand what it is you want to change and what it is you need people to do differently, involve them in defining what’s going to motivate them to change. Any drivers of employee engagement defined in the ivory tower are doomed to fail because we cannot assume a select group can understand and know what motivates individuals.
2. Lead
Findings
Although most companies talked about engagement being on the board agenda, buy-in at this level is mixed. This became much clearer when in the findings in the involve section. Leaders are reticent to move way from the parent-child relationship with staff and more towards adult-adult. This is necessary to build trust and to give people permission to contribute in all aspects of work.
A common reported theme amongst leaders is they don’t have enough time to engage staff. In this respect leaders become a blocker to improving engagement because there is a risk that a gap between what the organisation is doing and what is saying emerges. These gaps can cause cynicism and erode trust. Those surveyed were clear that there was a skills gap for leaders and that this was a clear area of self-diagnosis where more support was needed.
The Way Forward
Unblocking the leadership barrier. If your leaders are talking about being committed to engagement, but then saying they simply don’t have time – don’t ignore it. Leaders play an essential and significant role in employee engagement. Leaders saying they don’t have time to engage are actually saying they don’t have time to lead. Engagement presents a new management philosophy and approach and requires new and different skills from leaders. Addressing this issue needs to happen in two ways. Firstly, through getting leaders to understand that engagement is not an end in its own right, but a way of achieving clear business objectives is vital in getting their emotional support. Secondly, through the development of new leadership skills.
The consortium approach – time for a new management thinking. With no consistent place for employee engagement to sit within an organisation structure combined with the absolute necessity for many stakeholders to get behind the new philosophy of employee engagement, a consortium of functional and operational leaders is needed before real results will happen. Through a consortium approach you can get and keep organisations comfortable with the idea of colleagues collaborating, taking shared and collective responsibility for more and more decisions and for managing using what may feel, for some, like very different skills.
3. Involve
Findings
This was the area of research where the least activity was happening. Some tactics were being employee to involve people – like ideas schemes, listening groups and the use of champions. One of the companies used involvement in a very powerful way through champions, workshops and a focus on face-to-face interactions. But the most significant point of difference was the willingness of management to open up thorny topics and to genuinely seek input.
The Way Forward
Move past the feedback culture. Truly involving employees is often a challenging concept for senior leaders; they fear at best unrealistic expectations and at worst anarchy. Involving employees is more about shifting management thinking than anything else and for those organisations brave enough to try, it has profound and far-reaching effects. It is possible to use well-managed employee-led change to move from a rather frustratingly disconnected feedback process to a powerful, business-focused involvement process.
4. Dialogue
The Findings
The research found that there was a lot of activity in the area of dialogue; the area of employee engagement that aligns most clearly to traditional areas of internal communication.
However, many of the companies spoken to demonstrated that they are focusing on good strategic communication, not employee engagement. They are focusing more on creating a line of sight between the strategy and individual’s jobs, which results in awareness and understanding, but not necessarily spending time on building trusted dialogue or engaging leaders in behaving differently to create behaviour change.
Research found that the focus was on two-way communication via predominantly on-line mechanisms, which much energy, confusion and some scepticism around the role of social media. There was less focus on face-to-face communication, but examples of practice around the use of focus group, senior leader visibility programmes and the use of story telling as a technique to make communication more engaging and less “tell”.
The Way Forward
Turn up the listening. Listening to employees is different to demonstrating two-way communication. The latter gives employee opportunities to speak up and have their say, but the vital bit is to ensure that this input is heard and acted on. There has to be a consequence to asking. The term two-way is so unnatural and manufactured – we think it should be banned. It’s just about adults sharing ideas – and turning them into action.
Mistaken identity. It is important to have a shared definition and meaning of what employee engagement is and what it is there to deliver inside your organisation. Don’t assume that even if you are using the same words, that you mean the same thing. The degree to which employee engagement is understood and embraced is quite possibly linked to the level of employee engagement competence.
5. Sustain
The Findings
There was a wide variance in responses to questions about what how much work was going on to try and sustain engagement activities over the long-term and embed an engagement approach into the normal course of business. Some companies are doing very little, some relying on the on going commitment to an engagement survey and some doing a range of activities to try and bring about cultural change. Examples are incorporating employee engagement into reward and recognition processes, learning and development activities and performance management systems, as well as some interesting developments in work around tone of voice.
The Way Forward
Make measurement work for you. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that because you do an employee engagement survey that you are sustaining change in your organisation. If you are using the standard cascade of engagement results and what can be a fairly sterile action planning process then there is plenty of scope to engage employees in the process and therefore make any actions much more sustainable and also reinforcing a very positive way of working in the organisation.
Behaviours that turn into behaviour! It’s very common to see an organisation list the desired behaviours that they want to encourage, and also to see them built into competency frameworks and performance management systems. But this can become a paper exercise unless everyone who needs to display the behaviour goes through the process of contributing to why it’s important and what they and others can do to contribute. By using leadership, involvement and dialogue to support the process changes, you have a better chance of making sustained change.
