At the Leadership Factory we have met lots of companies who have an ambitious growth strategy, sound business model and an effective organisational structure, but these are things that competitors can replicate, therefore to be the market leader theire must be another ingredient; we believe that this ingredient is engaged employees.
So what is an engaged employee? This can be defined as an employee willing to apply discretionary effort to their job; this can be in the form of time, energy or thought. The authors see engaged employees as those who go above and beyond the call of duty, examples of this could be; increasing quality, improving customer service or cutting costs.
As McLeod and Brady describe it:
“These people bring fresh ideas, infuse their teams with their own energy and commitment and are less likely to leave.”
Our firm belief is that there is an impact of engaged employees on the bottom line. This is supported by evidence from a combined study by Cass Business School and Towers Perrin; drawing on responses from 33 million respondents which highlights that only 12% of all employees in the UK are highly engaged, 23% are disengaged and 65% moderately engaged. (McLeod and Brady, 2007).
It is crucial that employee engagement is utilised to its best advantage in order to stop it becoming another management fad. We believe that this can be summarised in three key areas; a robust business plan that employees can engage with, a committed leader that employees can believe in and a strong top team to lead the agenda.
McLeod and Barry summarise a 7-step approach in their book, ‘The Extra Mile…How to Engage Your People to Win’, and we think that they’ve summarised this are quite neatly:
The role of the leader in ensuring momentum, the impact a lack of leadership commitment has on the workforce and how to understand engagement in your organisation.
The power of face-to-face, personal interactions and being seen ‘walking the floor’.
Allowing employees to feel that they have input into decision making is one of the highest drivers of engagement, this chapter is about how to enter into dialogue across the organisation and make things personal for each individual.
The employee’s overall wellbeing and how to create goodwill, there are a number of things that have a positive impact such as respect, attention and fair rewards. Equally there are other things that can have a negative impact such as too much travel or difficult colleagues. All the factors that help create the employment ‘deal’.
Often squeezed out as organisations moved from hierarchical to flat structures as a result of ‘down-sizing’ with no clear definition of who the people managers are and what their role should be.
How to make the most of the talent in the organisation, looking at the whole organisation as a source of talent and not just fishing in a small ‘talent pool’.
People need to feel accountable and there needs to be consequences - both financial and non-financial. Without active performance management employees will not be fully engaged, this relates particularly to measuring how managers are creating an environment to raise levels of engagement.
These areas should resonate with anyone who wants to make a difference in a management or leadership position and is ideal for those who are not specialists in organisational development, but who would like to understand more about employee engagement.
So, how many of them do you put into practice on an ongoing basis?