employeeengagement

Staff surveys

View from the top

Line managers

Social networks

Made to measure

What the boss thinks

Leadership lessons

Inside knowledge

It helps to know how the workforce

CEOs of Asda, Oxfam, Xerox UK and

Say goodbye to command and control.

Social media is proving to be a powerful

feels but can employers really quantify

others say what engagement means

Today’s managers need to be inspiring

way for bosses to tap into the hidden

worker engagement? | Page 5

to them | Pages 5-13

communicators | Page 9

expertise of employees | Page 13

June 2011

Distributed within the Sunday Telegraph, produced and published by Lyonsdown which takes sole responsibility for the contents

Power to the people Is the UK’s most committed workforce inside this building? A special report on employee engagement and how to get the best from your workers

Business Reporter · June 2011

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Foreword

Employee Engagement – in this issue

3

Employing the feelgood factor Encouraging your workforce to be positive about their jobs and themselves makes sound business sense – particularly when economic times are tough

By Stephanie Sparrow Employee engagement matters so much that it has come to the attention of two successive governments with David Cameron backing an initiative kick-started by former Secretary of State for Business Lord Mandelson.

In March, the Prime Minister launched the new independent Employee Engagement Task Force. It will share good practice, generate debate and offer support via a new website, building on the report Engaging for Success which chairman David MacLeod and deputy chair Nita Clarke produced in 2009 for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

“If employee engagement and the principles that lie behind it were more widely understood and shared, we could see a step-change in productivity and performance across the UK, and a rise in levels of employee wellbeing and motivation,” MacLeod believes. “Engaged employees will be key to growth in the private sector and ‘better

for less’ in the public sector.”

Yet engagement can be a difficult concept to pin down; MacLeod admits that he has come across more than 50 definitions. Common ground from Engaging for Success suggests it’s a “workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are committed to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, and are able at the same time to enhance their own sense of wellbeing”.

Some organisations are building engagement at the coalface – working hard at encouraging their line managers to foster commitment (see p9) while others are confident enough of engagement to be able to measure it (see p5).

Engagement has a place across the workplace; it doesn’t happen only during face-to-face discussions on the shop floor or when the CEO reveals company strategy but can also be held across social media. The most far- sighted organisations do not fear or ban their employees’ use of social media but find ways to use their interest as a platform for harnessing and managing employee engagement.

Managed well, it can ultimately become possible for employees to engage on a global stage; one software consultancy in India was able to open up its employee suggestions process from 300 managers to 8,000 people (see p11).

But this does not mean that employee

engagement can be developed with just a few good words or sentiments. Organisations that are most successful in engaging their employees know that their deeds will speak for themselves and that this also applies to pay and bonuses.

While the latest research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) shows that a quarter of employers plan to freeze pay, research from Aon Hewitt has shown that they are also starting to pay bonuses again.

Money is not the major motivator of engagement but when handled badly it can become a demotivator. Employees are looking for a fair package and on page 7 we speak to retailing giant John Lewis whose approach to employee partnership is being hailed as the modern template for both the public and private sectors.

Employee engagement is not altruistic. It makes business sense – particularly during a downturn. Confident, engaged employees are more likely to be committed and innovative.

Research by management consulting firm the Hay Group shows that organisations in which people feel both motivated and enabled can achieve revenue growth 4.5 times that of peers. It is worrying, therefore, that the Hay Group also found that 43 per cent of employees across the Middle East and Europe are either disengaged or do not feel they have the tools to do their jobs properly.

There is still a long way to go.

Measuring up

5

People power – cover story

7

A talent to manage

9

Social clubs

11

Feeling good?

13

Companies need to gauge engagement – then act on the findings What happens to profits when the workforce controls the business?

To be good leaders, line managers must develop their communication skills Organisations are creating their own social media to bring staff closer to the business Looking after staff wellbeing can yield dividends across the organisation

Contributors Publisher Bradley Scheffer brad@lyonsdown.co.uk

Production Manager Nicki Sitaras nicki@lyonsdown.co.uk

Managing Editor Lucie Carrington lucie@lyonsdown.co.uk

Project Manager Tom Turnbull tom@lyonsdown.co.uk

Editor Stephanie Sparrow editor@lyonsdown.co.uk

For more information on any of our supplements please contact us: Telephone 020 8349 4363 Email info@lyonsdown.co.uk Online www.lyonsdown.co.uk

Creative Director Martin Nolan studio@lyonsdown.co.uk

Stephanie Sparrow Stephanie Sparrow was on the launch teams of Personnel Today, Employers Law and Training.

Julie Nightingale Julie Nightingale specialises in information and communications technology writes for The Guardian and education press.

Tim Smedley Tim Smedley is an award-winning freelance writer. His articles have appeared in The Guardian, Sunday Times, Financial Times, People Management and Management Today.

Guy Sheppard Guy Sheppard specialises in workplace issues, writing for Personnel Today as well as the National Employer Service.

Linda Whitney Linda Whitney writes about work, money and business for the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard.

Lucie Carrington Lucie Carrington’s has written for People Management, the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. She is managing editor at Lyonsdown.

Cover photograph: Getty Images

Sponsors

Business Reporter · June 2011

4

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Industry view

Top tips from the front line Getting engagement right takes more than employee surveys and Town Hall meetings Day-to-day work at the sharp end of employee engagement will ring some bells with anyone involved in managing a business.

Consider the following list of real life projects: a pharmaceutical company needs to transform the way in which its commercial teams and scientists work together; a global accountancy firm has to move its talent around the world to meet client demand, while one of its competitors radically reorganises its back office to fuel growth in

emerging markets; a broadband infrastructure provider must ensure that tens of thousands of engineers understand that attention to detail equals job security; and a small business loses customers as fast as it can find them because of customer service.

These are real business challenges with commercial ramifications and a common denominator: people. What have I learnt after 20 years in the business facing challenges such as

When your people leave the building they take your brand with them

these? Lots of theory and five tips for turning theoretical fluff into tangible results: • Never lose sight of the business outcome: Many engagement efforts come adrift because, somewhere along the line, the focus shifts from the results that behaviour and attitude change will deliver. Be relentless – if it isn’t helping to achieve the outcome, hit the brakes and refocus.

• Look at the big picture – together: Information silos and functional turf wars are a fact of life. The key is to get brand, marketing, human resources (HR) and communications to play better together. When any one of them starts to believe that it “owns” employee engagement, alarm bells should ring. Getting it right for your people is, more often than not, as much about marketing, IT and corporate communication as it is about HR. • Keep it simple and actively manage “air traffic control”: Business today is complex and change is constant. You need to inform, involve and inspire your leaders, managers and line employees. Get it wrong and bewildered employees face a barrage of “important” (and completely disconnected) messages day after day. No wonder they stop listening. Stick to three or fewer themes in everything you say and do.

• It’s about human beings: Admit this – people don’t get out of bed in the morning to achieve your corporate vision. Most won’t be inspired

Many engagement efforts come adrift because, somewhere along the line, the focus shifts from the results that behaviour and attitude change will deliver by increasing your share price. What will fire them up is grasping what it means to them if the business is winning. So aim for the heart (and perhaps the wallet). It’s how most of us actually make decisions.

• Do it “with”, not “to” people, and sustain your efforts: People are far more likely to get stuck into plans and programmes that they feel part of. To make change happen, make “engaging people” part of the planning process, not an add-on. Maintain your efforts – rare is the issue that will be solved by one big bang, however explosive.

Kevin Keohane is a client partner at SAS and leads MSLGROUP ’s brand and talent practice globally kkeohane@saslondon.com www.saslondon.com (0) 20 7243 3232

The art of balance Employees feel the need for mutually beneficial relationships. Disengaged employees clearly feel they’re giving, and the company isn’t giving in return Experts increasingly agree that employee engagement links to performance. The more committed the employee is, the more aligned they are with management objectives, the more effort they put in, and the better the company performance.

Our research at Ipsos MORI has shown that employees with higher engagement levels are more likely to work during a strike, express innovative ideas or take fewer unwarranted sick days and are less likely to criticise their employer or actively search for a new job. Research also shows links to financial indicators such as EPS (earnings per share) growth rate and net profit.

As such, organisations are focusing more and more on gaining discretionary effort from their employees and maximising their human capital investment. Consultancies expound ways to measure and implement it and best employer awards abound.

But how is engagement faring in the current economy?

Employee engagement doesn’t necessarily go hand-in-hand with happiness and retention, and we can probably all think of organisations where this relationship doesn’t apply – such as those where there are very high levels of discretionary effort, but where employees are close to burn-out. And perhaps no more so than in recent times when we have seen employees temporarily

laid-off, pay freezes, and redundancies. Recent research has highlighted that around 40 per cent of the public still feel the economic situation is likely to get worse in the next 12 months with unemployment seen as one of the key issues.

These feelings are mirrored when we look at the attitudes of the workforce. Our employee research shows that fewer than two in five employees feel it would be easy to change from

Employees are no longer seeking the job for life but roles where there is challenging work, they can develop skills and maximise their career progression one company to another. Employees have also reported “feeling on the back foot” and “being lucky to have a job” with only around half being likely to actively search for jobs in the next two years.

Yet even in the face of these changes there is the awareness that if the employer makes an

attempt to do their best, make them feel valued and is there to help, then employees will be a little more forgiving, and more likely to work productively.

Liz Musch, global head of loyalty at Ipsos MORI, says that employees “feel the need for mutually beneficial relationships. Disengaged employees clearly feel they’re giving, and the company isn’t giving in return.” Our data supports this, with an overwhelming nine out of ten disengaged employees feeling dissatisfied with the balance between what they get in and out of their jobs.

Our recent qualitative omnibus study also identifies this shift. Employees feel that to retain their jobs in the long term, they need to align with their company’s future by buying into goals and ambitions, helping their company to grow and taking a personal interest in company success. In return, they expect a level of respect, job security and career progression back from their employers – and to work for employers who are strong in corporate social responsibility.

Acquiring transferable skills along the way in order to progress and develop, and having a good work-life balance are an important part of this relationship.

So what does this mean for organisations focusing on employee engagement? In effect the psychological contract the employee has with the organisation has changed. Employees are no longer seeking the job for life but roles where there is challenging work, where they can develop their skills and maximise their career progression. Human capital needs to be regarded as a flow of skills rather than stock.

Those organisations which take the time to gain an in-depth understanding of employees as individuals and their experience at work will be better placed to build mutually profitable relationships.

Denise Fairhurst, is head of the employee research team at Ipsos MORI www.ipsos-mori.com

Business Reporter · June 2011

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Staff surveys

Testing the staff temperature Companies devote vast sums to measuring the satisfaction of their workforce. Is it money well spent? And how should they use the results?

By Linda Whitney Many companies use surveys to measure employee engagement but they can cost up to hundreds of thousands of pounds.

But before committing hard-won capital, employers will want evidence that investing in such surveys can bring genuine returns – that useful conclusions can be drawn about performance or profitability, says Dr Stephen Young, director at performance improvement consultancy Towers Watson.

“Typically, we find that where the average level of engagement is higher, the average performance is higher,” he says.

“In one bank we found that employee engagement varied by branch, from a low of 37 per cent to a high of 80 per cent. The least engaged branches only just met their sales targets for personal accounts but the most engaged beat their targets by an average of 17 per cent.”

Towers Watson calculated that every ten percentage point increase in engagement was equivalent to 4 per cent of additional personal account sales.

“Applied to a typical UK high street bank this model would result in an additional £150m in sales,” says Young.

But how do companies gauge employee engagement and what can they do to increase it?

Communications company Telefonica O2 UK surveys its 11,500 UK employees annually and runs quarterly “temperature checks” on half of them.

“The surveys provide concrete figures showing that where employee engagement rises, customer satisfaction does too. It’s hard to prove it has any impact on the bottom line, but we believe it does,” says human resources director Ann Pickering.

Feedback from the surveys has helped determine elements of the company’s flexible benefits package. “We asked employees what changes they wanted in the scheme and as a result we now allow them to buy bicycles in a cost-effective way,” says Pickering.

Opinion also prompted the introduction of flexible working at its office in Slough where around two-thirds of its 2,000 employees have been offered technology that allows them to work from home or their cars, encouraging retention among employees such as parents and those with caring responsibilities.

Defence company BAE Systems surveys its 100,000 worldwide employees every two years.

“The regularity is useful because it shows how engagement has progressed,” says John Whelan, BAE’s UK human resources director.

“It always uncovers one or two concerns that run across the whole company. So if, for example, employees call for more high-level corporate information, we introduce more briefings, newsletters and website content about strategy,” he says.

Both companies say that good corporate communications and the feeling among employees that their voices are being heard are prime drivers of engagement. Both return survey results to local managers who discuss them with their teams and devise strategy to address their concerns.

“My view is that local face-to-face engagement works best. Results from our surveys mean we can encourage managers of sites where there

Defence company BAE surveys its 100,000 worldwide employees every two years

are issues to listen extra carefully to their staff,” adds Whelan.

The number one driver of engagement is effective leadership; poor showings in engagement surveys have on occasion resulted in the ousting of CEOs but they are usually given extra training so they communicate and explain corporate goals more effectively.

What engages a single 20-something in London may not work for a mum of three in Halifax, however. That’s why companies ask for survey results to be segmented, so they can diversify the resulting engagement strategies.

At Telefonica O2, surveys are segmented by site, team and section.

“Results are fed back to employees who can

“Generation may be significant if you are looking at attitudes to IT and technology but on flexible working, gender may be more important” – Urwin give the resulting action plan a local flavour,” says Pickering. “For instance, our Bury call centre has many Muslim employees so it has an ablutions and prayer room because the employees requested that but our Glasgow call centre does not.”

BAE Systems segments results according to function, business sector, gender and country.

“We do not see a huge difference in response according to gender and we do not segment by generation, because that means asking employees their age and they are not always happy with that,” says Whelan.

But is there any evidence that employers get better results with a diversified employee engagement strategy?

© 2010 BAE Systems

“Our research shows that businesses using more diversified employee engagement practices report lower rates of staff turnover,” says Professor Peter Urwin, director of the Centre for Employment Research at the University of Westminster.

“Engaged staff are also more likely to focus on their work, and, for instance, put forward ideas for new markets and products that reflect their diverse backgrounds.”

However, targeting engagement strategy according to just one set of characteristics is not enough.

“The characteristics that influence engagement vary according to different issues. Generation may be significant if you are looking at attitudes to IT and technology, but on flexible working, gender may be more important,” Urwin says.

This undoubtedly makes a diversified employee engagement strategy more challenging, but the indications are that it will lead to better results.

Small and medium sized companies (SMEs) often face the same employee engagement issues as bigger companies, says Angela Peart, founder of Utility People, an energy industry recruiter employing eight staff in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

“Employees commonly complain about lacking a challenge. Offering training courses and a personal development plan increases engagement and need not be costly,” she says.

Directors of SMEs who work closely with their employees can gauge engagement levels without surveys.

“As you walk around the office you can feel engagement. It’s catching, and it comes from the top,” says Peart.

As a recruiter she says: “If companies help recruiters to fully understand the business culture, recruiters can select people who will be engaged from day one.”

5

Crossing continents and cultures Many UK-based companies find it difficult to gauge employee engagement accurately but it is even more complicated for multinationals.

Dr Clare Kelliher, a reader in work and organisation at Cranfield School of Management, is researching the issue among Europe-based global multinationals.

“We found that engagement is understood in different ways in different countries,” says Kelliher.

“In China, our survey respondents expressed commitment to the job itself, rather than to the company or the workplace.

“But in India, staff were motivated by company involvement with the community and employees’ lives.”

So Kelliher advises: “In China, prioritise pay, training, employee development and promotion opportunities.

“In India, hold company open days so people can see what the company does. Employee communication is also important in India, so hold regular briefings about company developments where staff can raise concerns. Indian employees are also motivated by good corporate citizenship, so find ways to demonstrate that.”

Kelliher warns that the results of international surveys must be interpreted according to local culture.

“In practical terms this could mean running the results past staff in local offices who can understand the implications for local engagement strategies,” she says.

At consultancy Towers Watson, performance improvement expert Dr Stephen Young says that international survey results should be benchmarked with the relevant culture in mind.

“For instance, Japanese employees tend to be quite critical so engagement scores are often lower, but in Brazil, people are commonly much more expressive, so scores tend to be more positive. It doesn’t mean Brazilian bosses are necessarily better than those in Japan.”

At BAE Systems, which has home markets in five countries and business development offices in over 20 others, its worldwide biannual employee opinion survey is translated into local languages and local businesses can add questions of their own.

“Our survey consultants help us interpret them according to the prevailing culture in each country, and feed relevant results back to the local managers,” says John Whelan, BAE’s UK human resources director.

View from the top

“Our values of empowerment, accountability and inclusivity inform the way in which we engage with our people. We ensure that everyone, no matter where they work (and we operate in over 58 countries with more than 4,000 staff) understands the objectives and values of Oxfam and how their work contributes to our aim of overcoming poverty and suffering.”

Barbara Stocking chief executive, Oxfam

Business Reporter · June 2011

6

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Industry view

Bottling success at Coca-Cola Enterprises Towers Watson has helped Coca-Cola Enterprises to develop an employee engagement strategy As one of the world’s largest independent Coca-Cola bottlers, Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) manufactures, markets and distributes Coke products throughout Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden. CCE employees serve some of the world’s most beloved brands to more than 165m consumers across western Europe, and the company needs an engaged workforce that goes the extra mile to drive and sustain high business performance.

Coca-Cola Enterprises understood that in order to fulfil its mission of being the best beverage sales and customer service company, a key priority was to foster a winning and inclusive culture. Every leader was charged with undertaking a range of efforts as part of an overall engagement strategy designed to continually drive an increase in the level of connection and commitment by their teams to the company. A biannual survey where all employees were asked to share their views on a range of issues that drive engagement was chosen as the method to help the company track progress on its engagement journey.

Towers Watson began supporting CCE on developing an effective global multi-year

engagement strategy in 2009. As well as working with senior business and HR leaders to outline a vision for high engagement and high performance at CCE, Towers Watson administered an online survey whereby all CCE employees, from across all geographies and functions, could provide input in their native language on working at the company.

The survey results showed that leadership, corporate responsibility and sustainability, and learning and development opportunities were the key drivers of engagement at CCE. While the company enjoyed a reputation for strong customer focus, this was an area of pride for employees and they suggested it would be beneficial to ensure it remained a top priority to further enhance their focus on customers. Towers Watson then worked

with CCE’s senior leaders to create four key strategies aligned to their vision of building a winning and inclusive culture to address the focus areas identified by the survey. These were: build a talent pipeline; enhance leadership capabilities; build and sustain momentum in customer service, and reinforce good corporate citizenship.

This work included identifying best practice and potential solutions, bringing forward recommendations to senior leaders, establishing effective implementation plans, and producing an overall employee engagement road map. The results of the survey and the action plans and commitments made by key leaders to respond to employee input were cascaded down the organisation to ensure that employees knew their concerns were being addressed. Progress against the commitments was tracked regularly since the results were first shared in late 2009 with employees.

Some of the specific follow-up actions included developing clearer career paths – especially for employees in business critical roles – and developing a more robust and integrated set of learning and development support for employees to enable them to build their skills and enhance their performance,

with a special emphasis on areas like customer management.

A range of communication plans were put into effect as well, designed to give employees a clear view of the company’s business plans and progress against them, especially in key areas like corporate responsibility and sustainability. And, this cycle continues as CCE prepares to survey all employees again this autumn to assess its continued progress and identify further areas of opportunity.

According to Alison McKenzie, head of employee engagement at Coca-Cola Enterprises: “engagement has proven to be a key driver of overall effectiveness and business success. It is the vital element that connects our people and enables us to build a truly great organisation.

Engaging our employees is a critical, on-going initiative that is aligned with our strategic priorities – not a one off or a fad. Through the active involvement and support of senior leaders, we have also ensured that engagement is business owned, HR facilitated and employee involved.”

Time for research to get smart Organisations need to start looking at how mobile technology can enable them to keep in touch with employees’ opinions and views, frequently and interactively If you were told 10 years ago that one day you could ask any question you wanted (within reason) at any time, and get a real-time response through a small portable research device that nearly everyone will carry with them wherever they go, you may have been sceptical. However in 2011, we live in a world where that small portable research device – or mobile phone – is constantly becoming more sophisticated, making it possible to ask more relevant questions, and receive more immediate answers, than ever before.

People with a smartphone almost constantly in their hands now have hitherto unthinkable access to a vast selection of ideas, information, advertising and applications Nearly a third of British adults own a smartphone; double the number of a year ago. With the arrival of tablet computers as well, it’s safe to say that we are experiencing the second major internet revolution. Apps are now commonplace and millions are downloaded every day. We are closing in on a time where more people and,

indeed, employees in the UK will have smartphones than those who have traditional mobile phones.

But it isn’t just the traditional mobile phone that is in line to be usurped. Given that it is now possible for people to access the internet quickly and efficiently on their smartphones, as well as write emails and plan activities, PCs might be next.

These developments have already forced organisations to alter their marketing strategies in order to ensure they optimise the use of smartphones. People going about their daily lives with a smartphone almost constantly in their hands now have hitherto unthinkable access to a vast selection of ideas, information, advertising and applications, and organisations want to tap into this and be visible to consumers.

But crucially, what isn’t being widely considered is how organisations can make use of what is the most advanced communications tool available.

At Ipsos MORI we are working with some forward thinking organisations that are beginning to realise the value of using mobile phones in researching and actively embracing the views of their employees in real time.

One of the key benefits of utilising mobile phone technology with internal research is the speed with which clients are able to get a temperature check of how their employees are feeling.

For instance, applications can allow employees to use their smartphone to record the extent to

which they agree with, trust, or believe in changes that are being implemented by management in an organisation as the announcement of those changes is being made. Or they can document and promote awareness of internal communications strategies by encouraging employees to take photographs of posters and advertisements with their smartphones.

We know from our research that only a third of employees in the UK believe that they have enough opportunities to let their organisation know how they feel about things that affect them and their work. A more frequent but snappy check on employee mood through an app addresses these issues, helping them to express their views more easily.

Rather than being seen as the end of typical employee engagement research, modern mobile phone research techniques can complement more

traditional ones, providing answers to questions that don’t easily fit into a more traditional employee survey.

The trend is for more employees to be using smartphones for everyday activities for which they previously used a PC. For many it is natural for them to shop online on their smartphone and use applications to share their opinions already and for others it will become more natural. It is therefore the right time for organisations to consider utilising mobile technology to keep in touch with employees’ opinions and views in a more frequent and interactive way. The future of employee engagement research is here, it’s just not widely distributed yet.

Tom Cross, leads on innovative technology and social media in Employee Research at Ipsos MORI www.ipsos-mori.com

Business Reporter · June 2011

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Employee ownership

7

Safe in their hands By handing control of the business to the workforce, companies are seeing commitment productivity and profits rise

By Lucie Carrington

The John Lewis Partnership inspires a mix of envy and disbelief in other businesses: can it really be so large, shiny and profitable – and owned by the workforce?

Last year it made a £386m profit. Around half was ploughed back into the business and the rest was shared among its 80,000 staff, all of whom are John Lewis partners. They each received a bonus equivalent to 18 per cent of their pay.

John Lewis has been employee-owned since before World War II. Ownership works argues Patrick Lewis, partners’ counsellor at John Lewis, because staff are involved in the business. “Our model inherently drives employee engagement.

The benefit we get from that is all the discretionary effort our partners make because we are all working on something that we feel we can influence.”

Over the past 20-30 years partners have received 8-24 per cent of pay each year in bonus pay. In addition, they still have a final salary pension scheme and access to a variety of benefits including discounts and a range of UK holiday venues owned by the partnership for the partners.

It’s not just financial reward that drives engagement at John Lewis. Partners also influence senior management decision-making through the partnership council, an elected body that can hold management to account and even vote off the chairman if they feel he isn’t doing his job.

“We believe our ownership model makes us a better commercial organisation,” Lewis says. “In standard plcs, the more successful an organisation is, the more money staff are making

View from the top

“Engagement is a two-way process so we’re interested in gathering feedback regularly on employees’ views. We use various modes of communication. Unsurprisingly, social media is playing an increasing role; I write a blog which can be serious or lighthearted and it gives people insight into my day-to-day activities, creating a personal connection.”

Alan Charnley managing director, Xerox UK and Ireland

for people they have never met – shareholders.

There cannot be the same sense of community and sharing that we have here.”

It also offers a lot of stability with staff turnover less than half that of the retail average. It’s this stability that has helped to make employee-owned businesses a success story of the recession. The sector is worth £25bn annually – equivalent to two per cent of GDP. While non-employee- owned businesses outstripped them in the boom in terms of sales growth, employee-owned firms proved far more resilient during the recession.

Research from Cass Business School released last year showed that between 2008 and 2009 sales growth in employee-owned firms rose by more than 11 per cent – while in other businesses they rose by just 0.61 per cent.

There’s some basic psychology at work when it comes to the relationship between employee ownership and engagement, suggests Patrick

What people own, they tend to take care of. So when people become owners of the business they take responsibility for their own decisions Burns, executive director of the Employee Ownership Association. “What people own, they tend to take care of. So when people become owners of the business their attitude to work changes – they take responsibility for their own decisions.”

However, Burns points out, employee ownership doesn’t suit every organisation. For example, it won’t work in businesses that are run on traditional command and control lines where the current managers and owners don’t see any other way. Nor will it work for businesses that are controlled by short-term pressures – employee ownership is about long-term sustainability and requires effort and investment, Burns says. And finally, it won’t work for owners who want to get the maximum from the sale of their business and don’t have strong feelings about what happens to it. Such organisations have to find other means for driving employee engagement.

It was concern for the future of his manufacturing business in Sheffield that inspired Hugh Facey, chairman of Gripple, to look at handing the firm over to employees. “I explained to my daughters when they were young that they would not inherit the business. I want them to live their lives and not feel burdened by the family firm,” says Facey, who set up the company in 1991 to produce the Gripple, a device for joining and maintaining tension in rope and wire.

The firm operates in a different way from John Lewis. All 300 employees worldwide have an equity share. As part of their employment contract, once they have been with Gripple or its sister business Loadhog for a year they have to invest a minimum of £1,000 – which Gripple

Never knowingly undersold: ownership drives engagement at John Lewis Getty Images

will lend them if necessary. There are no bonus schemes, but a third of post-tax profit is distributed to shareholders as a dividend.

When they leave they are expected to sell their share back to a holding company, Glide. Glide owns a golden share in Gripple and Loadhog, meaning that it can outvote others, in certain circumstances, to prevent employees cashing in and selling the business on.

Facey is in no doubt that this model has increased staff engagement. He points to the floods that hit Sheffield three years ago while he was in Italy. “The offices weren’t flooded but there was nearly five inches of water across the factory floor. Staff stayed all night cleaning the whole place out and were back running by the time I returned that afternoon. I don’t think there was another business [locally] that ran that day.”

With inspirational stories such as this, it’s hardly surprising that the government sees some form of employee ownership as a key to increasing productivity and efficiency in the public sector. A commitment to what are called community interest companies (CICs) was in the coalition agreement and the government has stated that it wants to see 1m public sector workers employed in CICs by 2015. Some are already up and running.

Dr Linda Harris is chief executive of Spectrum Community Health in Wakefield, a CIC that went live at the beginning of April this year. It has spun out of the local primary care trust and is offering contraception and sexual health services, drug and alcohol and prison health services.

Spectrum employs 167 people, including medical staff. Almost all are shareholders although they only have a £1 stake. Staff have elected a nine-member staff council and a non-executive director represents them on Spectrum’s board.

“Staff don’t get a monetary return from their shareholding but they do get to influence business decisions – including what we do if we make a surplus,” Harris says.

She is also convinced that it is empowering – and so engaging – staff in a new way. “Being a social enterprise gives them the freedom to develop services they think patients need,” she says. “I’m seeing some real enthusiasm from front-line staff. We’re starting to think like a business.”

Bonuses are back As they emerge from recession, organisations keen on nurturing engagement are reviving bonus schemes for star performers One of the concerns employers have with employee engagement is the feeling that it is peddling a simplistic happiness agenda when their relationship with their staff is essentially a financial one. People go to work for money and feeling valued is often about financial reward.

So it’s hardly surprising that, as we come slowly out of recession, bonuses are back on track. According to the Office for National Statistics total bonus payments slumped during the recession from £28 billion in 2007-08 to £19 billion the following year.

But in 2009-10 they were already creeping back to over £22 billion.

They are paying more in bonuses because they fear that staff are feeling the pressure of wage freezes and inflation and are getting itchy feet, says Duncan Brown, principal at consultants Aon Hewitt.

“Employers have changed their focus. Where two years ago they were worried about cost control, now they are concerned about retaining good people.”

But they want to reward the best and employers are using bonuses to single out high performers.

Furthermore, there is a link with employee engagement – Aon Hewitt’s engagement tracking suggests highly engaged organisations are more likely to differentiate the stars from the rest. “Employee engagement is not just about money but money is one way of telling people how good they are,” Brown says.

The government is also hoping that a more finely tuned bonus scheme could reinvigorate the engagement of senior public servants. Next month it will determine how much of Will Hutton’s review of fair pay in the public sector it wants to take on board.

Hutton has come up with an innovative carrot and stick approach which he insists is not a bonus scheme but which links senior public sector pay to performance. Under the scheme managers will see an element of their pay – a minimum of 10 per cent – paid only if they meet agreed objectives. In addition, superior performance, over and above their targets will attract extra pay. Crucially, Hutton did not call for a cap on senior public servants’ pay.

“People should have to earn the right to any kind of reward above base level. But people who perform well expect that to be supported by money. And that’s right,” Hutton says. LC

Business Reporter · June 2011

8

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Industry view

How do you manage?

Organisations invest a lot of time and money in rewarding and motivating staff but they often fail to train their managers adequately Managers have a major impact on employee engagement, as successive research studies have confirmed.

But despite what the research says, many organisations promote individuals into positions of authority and influence (often based on their success in a specialist or technical area) without preparing them for the leadership challenges ahead.

Modern management is a complicated business that requires high levels of emotional intelligence, political savvy, an understanding of complex organisational systems and processes, the ability to manage across vast distances and, increasingly, a resilience to change. The implications of poor people management can be, at best, an irritant to normal daily business and, at worst, a complete catastrophe. Getting it right, however, will increase engagement and maintain morale and performance – even in the toughest of times.

Of course, there are a number of factors that influence employee engagement levels (pay and reward, working conditions, values and culture and so on). Organisations often spend a great deal of time and money making sure that these areas are in good shape, but they do not always invest in management development to

the same degree, even though these individuals are recognised as the lynchpins of employee engagement. Other organisations implement management and leadership programmes, but with little understanding of the impact they will have in other areas of the business. This can have

The implications of poor people management can be, at best, an irritant to normal daily business and, at worst, a complete catastrophe unexpected implications that can be difficult to predict; such programmes can be counterproductive or negatively affect the bottom line.

So how can organisations target their often limited resources to support the development of their line managers? Developing a “culture of coaching” will certainly pay dividends but it is not a panacea. Coaching encourages listening and on-the-job learning, but managers need to be able

Trouble ahead – many promoted individuals are not prepared for the leadership challenges

to respond to changing business pressures. There will be times when they need to be authoritative or fast-paced, while still engaging their teams at an individual level, taking their unique needs into consideration or risk disengagement. Managers need to understand their unique leadership style and its place within the organisational context, and to feel supported in driving through change and managing performance.

Developing your management capability • Understand the context – before embarking on any management or leadership develop ment programme, organisations should first understand their current capability and where they want/need to get to. This should be examined “in the round” to determine the likely impact that any change in management style might have elsewhere in the business. Ultimately, the aim should be to develop an organisational “leadership brand”.

• Develop and communicate the leadership brand – managers can only aspire to be better at leading their teams once they understand what it takes to be a good leader in their organisation. A clearly

understood leadership brand, reinforced by a comprehensive set of competencies, will help managers to feel confident about tackling poor performance.

• Focus on business issues – any programme should be embedded in normal daily business and encourage on-the-job learning.

This is less disruptive to people’s work and can, through business projects, for example, contribute directly to improved organisa tional performance. It is also more afford able in the long run.

• Develop competent career managers – in many organisations, particularly during these tough economic times, one of the main challenges is to satisfy the career aspirations of employees. Managers must be able to hold effective and meaningful career con versations with their teams. After all, if you are not talking to your employees about their careers, the competition probably will be!

George Griffin is learning and development director, Penna PLC george.griffin@penna.com www.penna.com

Where do all the good girls go?

Focusing on your internal culture will not only keep your customers happy and boost revenues but also help you retain your top women “Why do we have such trouble retaining our top women?” asked the CEO of a major City firm plaintively. “We’ve had several female execs, including some really outstanding people, but they never seem to stay once they get past a certain level of seniority. “ For Jo Geraghty, a former Goldman Sachs human resources manager who now runs Culture Consultancy, warning bells were already sounding: “When I went in to start finding out what made this firm tick,” she says, “the first thing I noticed was inappropriate material on walls and desktops – soft porn, to be frank – and there was this macho sales culture, with lots of laddish drinking after work. They’d already had five female staff members leave at short notice and two employment tribunals for harassment and bullying.”

This culture was created in part by the organisation’s dysfunctional leadership. The main

An engaged workforce is a huge advantage

decision-makers were too busy fire-fighting a string of crises to co-ordinate plans or priorities.

Politics and in-fighting were rife. While the leaders should have been focused on setting up the right management structure and servicing clients effectively, they had allowed a dog-eatdog sales team culture to develop. Staff worked against, not with, each other.

For many firms, “employee engagement” can seem like just another corporate buzzword – a costly, time-wasting burden that adds no value or profit to hard-pressed businesses. Last year, however, the government commissioned a report on employee engagement and a best practices guide.

The author, Nick Mitchell, says: “An engaged workforce is a huge competitive advantage; disengaged workers impose enormous financial costs, resist needed change, and inhibit customer advocacy. Finding a solution to any problem requires first making an accurate diagnosis.”

The financial benefits of employee engagement are considerable. A Towers Watson employee survey concluded that “operating margins improved by nearly 4 per cent on average in organisations with high employee engagement levels and declined about 2 per cent in those with low engagement levels”. In the blue-chip world, this can equate to millions of pounds of new business.

One of Culture Consultancy’s clients in the leisure industry boosted its revenue by 30 per cent by increasing its employee engagement by

4 per cent. This included introducing a full culture change programme and training the leadership team.

If Mitchell is correct, and the essential first step is an accurate diagnosis, where do companies start? Typically, we find similar issues within companies that are so focused on boosting efficiency and cutting costs that they forget about their employees and the impact that their staff have on the customer.

“There is not a ‘one size fits all’, quick fix for increasing employee engagement,” explains Derek Bishop, a director of Culture Consultancy.

“Much depends on what your business does, what your overall strategy and priorities are, and what you stand for. We find that helping companies to figure out their purpose through their vision and what core values they believe in, then embedding these into the company via its policies and structure and its employees’ behaviour is the only method.”

Bishop says that getting the culture wrong can result in high staff turnover, absenteeism, poor sales and productivity, bad relationships with suppliers and a rise in employee relations issues.

The Financial Services Authority responded to one insurance company’s culture of non-compliance by stopping it from trading.

“Mostly people come to us with a pain,” says

Geraghty. This might relate to weak management, ineffective sales teams, problems keeping or incentivising employees, or other issues. “When we assess the employee engagement levels in organisations,” says Geraghty, “we explain that problems can’t just be solved by ‘telling’ people to change. To truly embed a new culture requires changing your employees’ ‘hearts and minds’, which can be done only by leadership being clear on what they want to achieve and supporting the culture change through necessary changes to policies, systems, process, governance, communications. You have to take everyone on a journey so that they understand the values and culture of the organisation and what they can do to align their role with it.”

It doesn’t happen overnight as we discovered at the company with problems retaining female staff.

We made changes at that firm, with difficulty.

During a series of workshops on behavioural change and respect in the workplace, I happened to glance at someone’s computer screen and spotted an unrepeatably sexist joke that was doing the rounds. It may take a while to teach some old dogs new tricks – but it’s certainly worth doing!”

Download more information on employee engagement at www.cultureconsultancy.com

Business Reporter · June 2011

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Line managers

9

Why managers need a shot of inspiration Effective line managers are essential to boosting the performance of the workforce. But they need to be good communicators to do it

By Stephanie Sparrow

High performance coaches

How should organisations handle the process of engaging employees and managing their performance? Cultural and societal changes mean that a central command-and-control approach will not wash — and so skilled and committed line managers are key.

“People come to work with much less deference than in the past and customers are hugely demanding. This can’t all be orchestrated from the centre anymore,” says David MacLeod, chair of the Employee Engagement Task Force and joint author, with Nita Clarke, of the report for government Engaging for Success (2009).

The working style of these all-important managers is crucial. Research by global management consultancy Accenture found that 80 per cent of the variation in engagement levels is down to the line manager.

Mentoring programmes can help employees think more clearly and innovatively, as well as assuring them that bosses always have their best interests at heart

“It’s common to see managers becoming managers because of their technical skills and not because of their ability to motivate people around them” – Winston And, according to ORC International, it would seem that some managers have a way to go.

Its Perspectives database contains employee engagement survey data collected from more than 1.5m employees across nearly 400 organisations. Although improving year on year, less than two-thirds of employees (62 per cent) feel their manager motivates and inspires them to be more effective in their job.

View from the top

“Successful employee engagement is essential and, in the UK, we ensure time is spent on the CSR (corporate social responsibility) agenda so that our staff feel we’re part of – and take interest in – the wider community. For ten years, Kia has worked with the school Walking Bus scheme and staff have also taken part in bake-offs, abseiling and fancy dress for Comic Relief.

New this year is our partnership with Trees for Cities.”

Michael Cole managing director, Kia UK

“It is very common to see managers becoming managers because of their technical skills and not because of their ability to motivate and inspire the people around them,” says Sally Winston, senior consultant at ORC International.

So what is an inspiring and engaging management style? At the Chartered Management Institute CEO Ruth Spellman offers a definition.

“To better engage employees, managers need to look at the way they work,” she says. “Managers need to ensure they are always clearly communicating to employees how the role of the employee makes a difference to the organisation as a whole.”

Spellman also states the case for an open management style and refers to the institute’s Quality of Working Life research which found that bureaucratic, reactive and authoritarian approaches have a negative impact on motivation, health and productivity levels.

“Our research shows that secretive and authoritarian management styles tend to limit engagement. If managers can create a workplace culture where trust and openness are prioritised, employees will feel more engaged,” she says.

And engaging managers are good at sharing information, she adds.

“It’s also important that employees are being kept up to date with organisational news.

Autonomy is vital – allowing employees to have some input into decisions that affect them and trusting them to get on with their jobs, free from micromanagement, will lead to a better engaged workforce.”

But how do organisations know if their managers have an engaging and effective style? The CMI is trying to answer this by launching Manager Insight, an online diagnostic programme to help organisations assess the gap between their managers’ competence and confidence by asking questions about action, behaviours and attitudes.

Another approach to researching how managers engage is to look at employee feedback.

Swindon-based construction company Beard uses a balanced scorecard system to measure internal and external performance.

“We use it to measure and manage key business drivers including project delivery, safety and customer satisfaction,” says managing director Mark Beard. “Staff motivation and engagement is probably the key driver for long-term business success as everything we do comes from our people.”

The company asks its employees to rate each month on a scale of one to six. “This allows us to measure the overall feeling within the business and to pinpoint teams and individuals where motivation and engagement is pleasingly high or disappointingly low.”

Beard says that he then explores the underlying issues which have led to the high or low scores and either he or one of his executive directors will visit sites and meet with key project staff to address them.

One of the most popular ways to develop an engaging line manager is to persuade them to adopt a coaching style.

Network Rail has encouraged its managers to take a coaching approach towards their teams and developed an accredited programme for them. “We invested in leadership development programmes designed to move us away from a command- and-control system,” says a company spokesman.

So what makes good coaching? Feedback is crucial. Engaging for Success points out that 43 per cent of high-end employees received feedback at least one a week compared to only 18 per cent of employees with low engagement. But it is also about good listening skills.

Professor Bob Garvey, who leads the coaching and mentoring research unit at Sheffield Hallam University says that it is best to remember that the person doing the job is an expert.

“So ask them, don’t tell them; that way you can have a different kind of conversation,” he says.

Coaching is seen as a link between engagement and performance at household and personal care products manufacturer McBride.

The company, which manufactures and supplies private label goods for Europe’s largest retailers, has 5,000 employees across the UK, western, central and eastern Europe and parts of SE Asia.

“We see coaching as the bridge between engagement and performance because it enables a dialogue between colleagues, can help them to overcome ‘roadblocks’ and can help expression of innovative ideas,” says European learning and development manager Ian Jenner. “It also demonstrates to our colleagues that we are listening to their contributions and to their career aspirations.”

Jenner says that the company has been gradually building coaching modules into its development programmes over the past 12 years. Colleagues, as they are referred to within the business, are encouraged to think about and develop coaching skills for personal development, performance reviews, conducting meetings and managing projects.

Coaching skills are included in other one-day and part-day courses to introduce and spread the practice. Jenner says the company can now measure employee engagement with the business’s key performance indicators which include customer service level, direct labour variance, waste, customer complaints and downtime.

One site in the North of England developed an innovative cleaning product which Jenner believes was the result of the site manager adopting a coaching style and wanting to engage the key influencers who in the past had not been as receptive to new ideas and commitment.

Jenner has also developed a group of internal coaches (who still maintain their day jobs). They participate in a skills programme and learning sets before writing a 5,000-word reflective piece marked at postgraduate level by Sheffield Hallam University.

The approach has been adopted across the McBride group with accredited coaches on sites across Europe and Kuala Lumpur.

McBride colleagues are made aware of the opportunities for coaching through the company intranet, talent review and notices.

“The [employees] appreciate the business providing space for them,” says Jenner. “They appreciate the time set aside for them and coaches see that they are making a difference to the business.”

Top five coaching tips Line managers should:

• Make sure the team understands how to be coached – if the manager is the only one who understands the process, it’s like a tango, where only one partner knows the steps.

• Develop a coaching culture in the team. Encourage them to coach each other. Don’t do coaching to them, do it with them!

• Recognise how easy it is to slip into “parent-child” behaviours or to let hidden agendas take over.

Make staff feel like equals, that their agenda is important.

• Develop listening skills – it’s not coaching if line managers are doing more than 20 per cent of the talking or know the answers to the questions they ask.

• Develop their own portfolio of difficult questions – ones that stimulate reflection and insight.

Source: David Clutterbuck, Clutterbuck Associates

Business Reporter · June 2011

10

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Industry view

Bosses, look to hearts and minds Recent research claims that UK managers are lazy and fail to motivate their staff. Can it be true?

A recent Gallup Survey suggested that less than a quarter of UK employees were engaged.

Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Industries Ltd, which owns Corus and Jaguar Land Rover, has also accused UK managers of being workshy and refusing to “go the extra mile”. Neither statistic shows the UK workforce in a good light. If we can’t offer companies a skilled and dedicated workforce, what is it that we can offer?

Where did it all go wrong?

Our experience is that some UK management still operates the outdated rational/logical management thinking of the American F.W. Taylor, the father of scientific management. This is demonstrated by the many decisions still taken merely to achieve short-term results.

Recent studies by Gallup and The Training Foundation point to the fact that “the primary issue for employees is the relationship with their immediate manager, accounting for 80 per cent of decisions to engage or disengage”. Management in UK companies seems increasingly distant, impersonal and uninspiring; few managers receive any training in how to engage hearts and minds and wrongly assume that employees are somehow contractually bound to be engaged in building the business.

A positive culture Bourton Group’s experience, gleaned from more than 40 years of achieving business improvement

for many large-scale organisations, is that employees respond better to leadership that is based on trust rather than enforcement. They also respond to emotion as well as logic, and an environment in which a positive business climate and culture exist. Human beings trust in and seek to achieve inspiring and ambitious goals if they see their leaders leading by example, supporting and driving an empowered, informed and energetic workforce.

Managers could use methodologies such as Lean, which is often regarded as merely a technical tool, when the real magic is the way in which Lean appeals to the “emotional brain”, to satisfy the “human givens” that research shows are fundamental to engaging employees. This more human approach has been closely linked with organisational performance.

The Lean strategy plays to the six drivers that are recognised as motivating employees. It gives them a sense of being valued – involving them at all levels, not just in doing their work but also in helping to improve it. Lean provides a sense of being treated honestly, of being trusted with, and sharing, performance information about the things that matter to the business and its customers. Lean produces a culture of openness; often employees see the end to end process only when they are opened up to the effect on others of how they do their work. Lean instills self-direction and autonomy so that employees are given permission to challenge, find out and

Employees are more likely to achieve goals if managers lead by example

resolve issues that affect not only the workplace, but the overall work atmosphere and climate.

Personal development and growth is encouraged so that employees learn the tools and techniques that enable analysis and improvement to happen.

This teaches them to work with colleagues in new ways. Staff develop a sense of organisational worth and a greater understanding of what they are doing, which fuels a feeling of ethical pride.

Lean allows managers to build greater twoway trust with employees. It creates emotional motivation and helps to focus on the team and workplace climate that research shows is so

important in employee engagement.

In general, UK workers are hardworking, skilled and willing but they will maintain their enthusiasm, innovation, thirst for knowledge and desire for continuous improvement only if managers build a climate of trust to encourage the right behaviour and reward “going the extra mile”. If not, we all risk being left on the sidelines.

two choices: classroom-based or virtual learning online.

Classroom-based courses certainly offer a practical, hands-on approach to training but virtual training also offers a whole host of benefits. For the business it includes money saved on venue, tutor and travel costs. For staff, it means the ability to complete a training course in a timetable which fits around other demands on their time.

Rather than a one size fits all approach, try to provide staff with the right blend of training courses to suit the individual; one that is likely to keep them motivated. This could mean a mix of both where, for instance, an element of the training is conducted online and later reinforced in a classroom.

The advent of smartphones and tablets, as well as a wide range of technologies, also offers companies the chance to be more creative in their delivery of training programmes.

they’ve achieved, and it helps to ensure that staff remain engaged by applying what they’ve learned to their everyday role.

Unfortunately, for most companies the evaluation ends when the course does. As a result, resources invested in training often go to waste.

Instead, businesses should consider measurement, using defined success criteria, as an ongoing element in their training plans.

For instance, once a course has been completed, it is vital to measure employees’ initial reaction, satisfaction and planned action in the wake of the course.

This could be through a simple post-course survey. As a result, staff gain a greater appreciation of how their skills are tied directly to the success of the business.

Keeping staff engaged is a difficult task for any employer. But for those that get it right, the benefits are clear: an engaged workforce that feels valued, and a prosperous business that is underpinned by a highly talented and skilled workforce.

Stuart Smith is Managing Director of Bourton Group.

Email: stuart.smith@bourton.co.uk www.bourton.co.uk

Keep your talent on top form What steps should organisations take to ensure that the training and development they offer keeps staff interested in their work and genuinely motivated?

Times have been tough. And for many, they will stay tough for a while. As a result, salary increases and bonuses are unlikely to return and the threat of redundancy is likely to continue.

This makes staff motivation more important than ever, so investing in training and development will go a long way towards helping employees to feel engaged and part of a thriving, successful business.

In a climate where most business owners are looking for every opportunity to cut costs, it’s crucial to remember that talented staff are, in fact, your most important assets.

Help staff understand their long-term role Many organisations make the mistake of relying heavily on staff to flag their own training needs.

Companies shouldn’t rely on staff alone and just supplying a regular roster of ongoing courses isn’t the answer.

Once skills gaps have been identified, communicate to employees in person the importance of their development and where it fits with the organisation’s long-term objectives. Explain what is required from them before, during and after the course, and provide a step-by-step personal

development plan that includes measurable and quantifiable objectives.

Only then will employees feel that they are making a direct contribution to the business, and that their career path has been carved for them as an individual.

Encourage staff to value their skills All training should have a practical outcome. It should improve staff performance and productivity, and it should arm them with the skills required to meet the business’s current and future objectives.

From the outset, staff should understand how their newly acquired skills will be used on the job. By engaging staff in a discussion at an early stage, they can understand the relevance, importance and practicalities of the course to their role.

With this approach, staff will become more aware of their contribution, which can go a long way towards boosting morale and engaging staff in the long-term success of the business.

Find the right mix for the individual Today, businesses often feel they have one of

Measure, measure and measure again Measuring the value and outcome of learning programmes is critical. It enables companies to demonstrate the value and return on investment

Kevin Young is general manager EMEA for SkillSoft www.skillsoft.com

Business Reporter · June 2011

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Social networks

11

Facing up to new opportunities Forward–thinking employers are taking the best from social networking tools to drive engagement and boost capability

By Julie Nightingale

A learning experience

Social networking sites such as Facebook were once regarded as a distraction in the workplace, but now the technology is proving to have other, more valuable uses which have made bosses think again about its role.

Some 79 per cent of organisations are already exploring social networking technology, according to a survey by Buck Consultants and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

More than a platform for company communication, the blogs, discussion groups, comment postings and other tools are a way to gather and to share intelligence and insight up, down and across an organisation in a way which is potentially immensely powerful.

“When social media is used, the barriers between different levels of hierarchy come down,” says Vlatka Hlupic, professor of business and management at Westminster Business School at London’s University of Westminster. “There is more co-operation and more informal exchange of ideas, and more innovation emerges in organisations.”

It is particularly evident in knowledge economy organisations – among the management consultants, software developers, architects or people working in creative industries, media, advertising and PR, Hlupic says. “Such people need to be challenged but they need to feel passion for their work, too, because passion is a very important driver for engagement. Social media can help to unleash it because it enables people to exchange ideas, feel empowered and have their voice heard.”

A company about to embark on the social networking path might think the cheap and easy way to do it is to set up their own Facebook page and invite staff to participate. In fact, says Robin Hoyle, head of learning at consultancy Infinity

When BT set up its own internal version of Wikipedia, the communications giant found it was a big topic of conversation

View from the top

“We recruit for attitude and train for skill which means all of our 175,000 colleagues have a passion for delivering great service to our customers. Every day, colleagues are updated on how their store is performing and have the opportunity to put forward their ideas on how things could be improved. Forty six per cent of our colleagues have been with us for more than five years. That creates a committed team.

Andy Clarke president and CEO of Asda

Learning, using the established technology is a bit old hat.

“Using the tools that are publicly available, such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, has not borne lots of fruit,” he says. “People who are serious about this understand that your employees are not going to like their employer and ‘friend’ them because it all feels a bit like mixing two worlds. Companies are now starting to think how can they take some of the components of what is happening within social networking and apply that in their own intranet. And that’s a different idea altogether.”

Even so, employees won’t automatically engage and those that do are often the technologically obsessed. Research for Infinity indicates that only about 2 per cent of staff will be active users of a network – blogging, discussing and commenting on other discussions – with another 8 per cent participating less actively, perhaps posting a rating on a blog or discussion. But the remaining 90 per cent, while not actively contributing, are using the network.

Hoyle says: “It is actually much more similar to the way people shop online. People like to look, browse, maybe find a piece of info and go away again. They don’t comment or leave a mark but they are using the material.”

One mistake to avoid is for the powers that be to use the technology to deliver corporate messages in top-down fashion with little real insight or intelligence on offer, he adds.

“There are some examples where the internal communications team writes the chief exec’s blog but everybody knows they do it and nobody pays a blind bit of notice.”

One of the intangibles around social media technology is the return on investment: how do you demonstrate not only that the network is successfully engaging staff but that, as a result, it is increasing their productivity and boosting the bottom line?

Hlupic points to the example of HCL

Technology, a software consultancy in India which developed its own Facebook-style application and used it to create a new business strategy.

“Originally, 300 managers would put their strategy ideas to the CEO but with the social media application, they could put their ideas for new strategies to everyone in the global business, so 8,000 people could potentially comment.

Everyone could contribute to the planning and everyone could really align themselves with the strategy and live and breathe it,” she says.

This all happened mid-recession and in the four years since, 70 per cent of all major deals closed by HCL were won against the big four global

Blogs, discussion groups, comment postings and other tools are a way to gather and to share intelligence and across an organisation IT players, the number of customers has grown five-fold and employee attrition is down 50 per cent. Revenues have also tripled over four-year period and operating income has also tripled.

But whether there is a measurable benefit or not, the fact is that no company can afford now to ignore the potential of social networking technology as a medium for communicating with staff, says Hoyle.

“In the old days we used to put a newsletter on the wall in the canteen, then we put something on the intranet. We can’t avoid the fact that social networking now exists and is being widely used by people. And an organisation has to ensure that it is using all of the media available to ensure that the message gets across to everyone. Keeping people in the dark is really not an option.”

“In our daily lives we pick up stuff which is really interesting and useful, but often don’t share the information,” according to Richard Dennison, BT intranet channel strategy manager. “What we thought was that if we had a tool to which anyone can publish and edit, it might free up this informal layer of learning.”

As a result, BTpedia was created in 2007. It is a Wikipedia-style platform where any member of BT’s 100,000 staff worldwide can publish material – whether it’s about explaining acronyms, how to manage your email or soliciting project ideas.

“One of the rules we had from the beginning was the front page [of a topic] should only contain information and the discussion tab behind it can contain opinion – we didn’t want people publishing their opinion on the info pages,” Dennison says.

And as hoped, it has generated some key practical insights. “For example, we used to have about five or six different recognition tools for different bits of the business, so if you wanted to message somebody, you could send them an e-card or if you were a manager, a kind of gift token,” he adds.

“Someone created a page on BTpedia that linked out to all of them which became incredibly popular. It made clear that it was blatantly silly to have all of these different tools, so we now have one for everything.” www.btplc.com

In good health Collaboration and support are key to the success of Bupa’s own social network Bupa Live, Bupa’s social network, lets people be heard “at any level of the business”, according to Danielle Spencer, director of internal communications. “It has the full range of media tools – discussions, blogs, videos, document sharing, micro-blogging – so if people have a good idea or a question to be asked, they’ve got the mechanism to do it in a very visible way.”

Created two years ago and currently used by about 12,000 of the 52,000 employees worldwide, Bupa Live is a collaboration platform, too – Bupa’s first health and fitness app was conceived and developed entirely by a global group via the network.

But it’s not just for techies. One of the most active online groups is the Dementia Group, made up of people caring for dementia sufferers in care homes and people who are interested in pioneering ways of looking after those with the condition.

Facilitated by Dr Graham Stokes, Bupa’s director of dementia care, it has about 90 members.

Spencer says: “It’s a combination of Graham putting out internal thought leadership in this area, people sharing experiences and it acts as a bit of a support group, too, as people log in at weekends. It’s like lighting hundreds of little fires to building the capability of people who work in that area.” www.bupa.co.uk

Spencer: talking works

Business Reporter · June 2011

12

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Industry view

The rules of engagement Surveys play a key role as, increasingly, does social media but leadership remains paramount. Our experts share their thoughts on what constitutes a successful employee engagement strategy

Ben Page

Dr Andy Brown

Nick Tatchell

How critical is the leader’s role in encouraging employee engagement?

Industry engagement specialists say surveys are being superseded by engagement hubs. What are these?

How can organisations sustain high employee engagement?

It is essential. The leader must have a clear vision of where their organisation is going and should communicate it to every employee.

The NHS is a good example of this – when you look at key differences between the best and worst hospitals, the best are far more likely to have all staff, whether porters or consultants, being clear about the overarching goals of the Trust. Everyone knows what their team is trying to do: the best make sure everyone can be part of something much bigger.

Most leaders know that communicating their vision is essential to keeping employees engaged, and often say so, but in the most successful organisations leaders don’t just say the right things, they walk the floor and visibly engage with employees.

One very successful local authority leader went out at 5am with the bin collectors.

The traditional, clunky, annual surveys mostly ask all employees the same standard questions. Many survey companies also ask the same survey questions across all client companies. This provides a set of benchmarks for comparison, but the survey is not tailored to the individual company.

The engagement hub provides an online home where employees can join a panel that gives them a voice. Companies can run more frequent surveys and add topical questions. This kind of system is already used to get feedback from customer panels – engagement hubs can provide a similar dialogue with employees.

“Amazingly, some take surveys and bury the results. But the most successful organisations use survey information in a methodical way” How does an organisation ensure that engagement is not just a survey exercise?

Amazingly, some take surveys and bury the results. But the most successful organisations use survey information in a methodical way. They share the results with managers and work with them to decide what changes can be made to address problems.

They get the staff involved in the solutions, take action and then tell them what has been done.

How can social media be applied in employee engagement?

Organisations can use social media such as Twitter to see what employees say about them. One company I know has a screen in its headquarters with live-streamed Twitter comments about it.

The number of companies that monitor online comments about themselves has doubled in the last year.

Clever organisations could encourage private online conversations among staff about how new initiatives are working or to solve problems.

Leaders who look at what staff are saying about their organisations can reply in person. It shows that they are willing to listen to staff, and engage with them in a conversational way, which helps increase engagement.

Ben Page is chief executive of research company Ipsos MORI. Its Ipsos MORI Loyalty service helps organisations enhance performance by strengthening their relationships with customers and employees www.ipsos-mori.com

“Companies with leaders who engage front-line staff and listen to their ideas are winning and retaining more customers” Do leaders play an important role in engagement?

We advise boards to start their engagement strategy with their own team. Engaged leaders make for engaged managers, which results in engaged front-line employees.

For instance, if there must be a reduction in staff costs, engaged leaders start the dialogue, explaining what needs to be done and asking employees how they should go about it. Front-line staff like to be involved in decisions about how companies can best implement savings.

Engaged front-line staff can also help companies return to growth. Companies need to be in close touch with customers, and front-line staff often know best how to engage with customers.

How has the recession affected companies’ approach to engagement?

Some companies have stopped doing employee engagement surveys and seem to have stopped listening to staff. Others see that engagement is more important now than ever because, once things start to improve, employees will start looking at moving on, and the companies that maintained employee engagement will be less likely to lose staff.

Companies with leaders who engage front-line staff and listen to their ideas about how to improve customer service and introduce new products are winning and retaining more customers. There is plenty of evidence to show that engagement among leaders ultimately results in accelerated recovery.

Our research shows three keys to engagement among employees: the belief that their leadership is principled and trustworthy; the feeling that they are connected to the organisation and can grow personally through their own work; and feeling enabled to deliver great customer service, supported by a deep, organisation-wide commitment to customers.

How can organisations motivate employees to go the extra mile?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer but with a focused, strategically designed survey an organisation can identify, understand and act on the cultural and group dynamics that foster engagement.

They should prepare the ground so that human resources and line managers are ready to absorb, accept and act on the survey findings to make change happen.

The impact of the survey can be increased by connecting it with the business strategy, so as to align employees with the overall strategy, values and goals. This is more than just creating a positive work environment.

Unless survey data leads to clear objectives and targets there is little motivation to take action, and survey results are left on the shelf, so companies should set objectives and reward behaviour.

Empower managers to follow through on survey findings with their teams, so levels of motivation, engagement and performance improve. That is good for employees, and good for business.

Organisations should also have an end-to-end approach – managers should start working with their teams to follow through on survey insights and make positive changes.

“With a focused, strategically designed survey an organisation can identify, understand and act on the cultural and group dynamics that foster engagement” How can leaders help?

The senior team needs to champion the survey programme and get on board early. They should understand the process and goals, identify the priorities and actions that need to be tackled at their level and make sure that energy is focused throughout the organisation.

Dr Andy Brown is senior partner at engagement specialist Engage Group, leading its leadership effectiveness and engagement analytics businesses

Nick Tatchell is a director of Towers Watson, the professional services company that helps organisations improve performance through effective people, risk and financial management

www.engagegroup.co.uk

www.towerswatson.com

Business Reporter · June 2011

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Well-being

13

It’s not about the money...

For employees to remain engaged during tough economic times they need to have faith in the company and what it is aiming to achieve

By Michael Jenkins

At the height of the economic crisis, it was all hands to the pump in the workplace as employees focused on doing their best to ensure organisations survived the worst of the crunch.

As this spirit fades with the reality of the recession and most organisations cannot afford to pay people more, employee engagement is seen as increasingly important. But is this renewed interest just an excuse for getting people to do more with less?

I’m passionate – and confident – about the bottom-line benefits of engagement, but in embracing it, we must also ensure it’s not a case of treating the symptoms without addressing the cause. And since hope is never a strategy, we need to look elsewhere for answers.

We need to look deeper – at the links between employee engagement, productivity and how these elements can positively affect the bottom line; and through this, put more money in people’s pockets, boost consumer confidence, increase purchasing power and invigorate the economy – a kind of virtuous circle.

Why look deeper? Well, from our research at Roffey Park (The Management Agenda 2011) we know that the recession had little or no effect on well-being ratings and employee

Jenkins: we all need a purpose

engagement. A harsh economic climate, redundancies and organisational change – these are not the main influences on how engaged people are at work or in their lives. As our research showed, a workforce that experiences redundancies can bounce back if those redundancies are handled properly.

It all depends on three key things: how people are led, how people are managed and whether people in the organisation can answer the following question with certainty and conviction: why are we here, doing what we’re doing?

In other words, the core issue for business leaders today is whether they truly understand purpose: their own individual purpose as well as the organisational purpose. From here flow vision, mission, strategy, business plans, objectives, tactics – all the tools of the trade of people who run successful organisations.

Leaders of organisations need to do three things to ensure that purpose thrives. First, they need to make communication of purpose frequent and easy to understand – this is less about capturing the purpose on an attractive poster and more about being a leader role model.

Second, leaders must ensure the brand mirrors the purpose, so when employees see their organisation’s brand they know and understand the purpose.

Finally, leaders should measure the impact of

purpose on employee engagement by conducting regular reality checks, either through formal and informal surveys or simply by talking to people in all areas of the business.

People who understand and buy into a common purpose are shown to be more engaged – despite what they are paid. They go the extra

The core issue for business leaders today is whether they truly understand purpose, their own individual purpose as well as the organisational purpose mile, making a difference to their customers and encouraging a desire for more. It’s the extra mile that arises from an engaged workforce and means the difference between just putting in the hours and achieving exemplary performance, between lacklustre numbers and great ones.

Michael Jenkins is chief executive of Roffey Park, specialists in management, leadership and research www.roffeypark.com

The feeling good factor can make a difference Employee well-being is central to engagement and is being recognised as a quality that can be measured, managed and maintained View from the top

By Guy Sheppard Maintaining corporate well-being may seem difficult in today’s tough economic climate but if staff are unhappy, unhealthy or stressed at work, it can have an impact on the organisation’s overall performance and bottom-line – as well as being bad news for the individual. Companies that have taken steps to improve well-being have reaped the benefits in key areas such as better quality of service and reduced staff turnover.

Chorley Council in Lancashire has introduced initiatives that have led to marked improvements in customer service. Under their well-being and cultural change programme, begun five years ago, well-being is fostered through healthy eating and exercise promotions and a proactive management approach to sickness. This means that cognitive behavioural therapy costing £100-a-session is sometimes used to treat stress.

“Compare that to being off sick for six months and I think it’s money well spent,” says chief executive Donna Hall. Other measures include a 20-strong group of employees – described

by Hall as “the awkward squad” and noted for their outspokenness and honesty – who give her feedback on HR issues every month. An anonymous annual survey also helps to pinpoint any pockets of dissatisfaction over issues such as management style and team working.

For Hall, the success of the programme among

Workers at Nestlé display a greater sense of happiness

Chorley’s 400 employees is reflected in the top rating given by the Audit Commission for both the quality of its services and providing value for money. Last year, the council’s sickness levels fell below an average of seven days a year, one of the lowest in local government.

Measures to improve well-being don’t necessarily need to add to business costs. At telecoms company Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW), the expenditure has been minimised by using existing contracts with third-party benefit providers. So, for example, nurses who check fitness indicators such as employee blood pressure and body mass index are provided through CWW’s private medical insurer.

Karen Futcher, CWW people team manager,

says that if the workforce is happy and engaged, the company is better able to meet its contracts and give greater customer satisfaction. “The more we do this, the more able we are to attract and retain the best people,” she adds.

At Nestlé UK, an annual exercise challenge, in which teams of staff wear pedometers for 122 days and record step counts against other competing teams across the world, is paid for from departmental travel budgets. It has resulted in weight loss and lower cholesterol levels among the 36 per cent of employees participating. But the widespread sense of greater happiness recorded was more significant, says Dr David Batman, head of employee wellness. “You have to accept that wellness is about feeling, not hard physical data.”

“We find that our employees are particularly engaged as a direct consequence of how we behave as a management team.

We employ nice people who genuinely care – as the UK’s leading care provider that is imperative. We empower people to make decisions locally and celebrate local successes with award ceremonies at a national level. In doing this our people become role models and the enthusiasm becomes infectious .”

Mike Parsons founder and CEO, Barchester Healthcare

Business Reporter · June 2011

14

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Industry view

Break down the silos Successful employee engagement is achieved when HR, marketing, corporate and internal communications work together – and staff grasp that their colleagues are not their competitors Today’s employee expects more than just a salary from their employer. They want more than feeling nurtured and guided. They need clear communications so they know what is expected of them and where they fit in. Little wonder then that internal communications departments have grown rapidly over recent years. As their value to the business becomes essential, a different way of working is demanded.

“Internal communications people have a skill set closer to marketing than HR. Our role is more complicated than just telling employees what the company’s policies are” – Gardner, Avvio Duncan Gardner, managing director of brand engagement agency Avvio, believes internal communicators are challenged by the way businesses are structured and departmentalised.

“People often work in silos and this isolation

can be damaging, particularly when people guard information and ideas rather than collaborating.

Barriers like these get in the way of everyone working towards the same goal,” he says.

Just a few years ago, internal communications amounted to a writer turning out the staff newsletter. It’s changed and become so highly recognised that universities offer postgraduate diplomas in the subject.

What’s more, the “push” culture has been replaced by sophisticated integrated messages to encourage dialogue via intranets, e-mails and social media, all planned by internal communication specialists and creative agencies.

Avvio is one such agency. It’s the one that the internal communications departments of leading companies – including British Gas, Coca-Cola Enterprises and Rolls-Royce – work with to deliver their communication plans and strategies.

Gardner has worked with many of today’s top internal communicators and has seen their role become closer and more integral to the board than ever before.

“Today’s internal communications people have a skill set closer to marketing than HR. I believe inside every employee is a better employee waiting to be liberated, so our role is more complicated than just telling employees

Get everyone on board with the brand

what the company’s policies are. The biggest overhead in a company is its people, so getting everyone on board as brand advocates must be a worthwhile investment. Greater brand pride, better understanding, better collaboration, and stronger commitment can only lead to more satisfied customers and better profit.”

In fact, companies who focus on effective employee communications achieve up to 47 per cent higher returns, according to studies. (Communication ROI study 2009-2010, published by Watson Wyatt Worldwide.)

If they haven’t already done so, Gardner recommends companies move internal communications people closer to the heart of the business. Enabling people to have a clearer picture of where value is created for customers, how the money is made,

what the brand means and where the business is heading means they are more engaged, connected and united.

“In our experience the most effective internal communications result in everyone moving in the same direction,” he says. “On the one hand that might mean HR, marketing, corporate and internal communications all working together to shape strategic communications. On another it might go so far as a change in business culture to open up information access and break down the silos. Every company has them, and sadly people learn to live with them, but leaders will never achieve real breakthrough when their people are treating each other like competitors.” www.avvio.co.uk

More inspiration, less perspiration Truly engaged employees are more than just workers who are happy in their job. They are the strongest advocates of your brand In the foreword to the MacLeod Report into employee engagement, published in 2009, the then-Secretary of State said that “organisations that truly engage and inspire their employees produce world class levels of innovation, productivity and performance”.

I believe that organisations aspiring to become world class need to look beyond employee engagement as a mechanism for driving employee performance and productivity and instead engage and inspire their employees to build their brand: more inspiration, less perspiration.

There is something paradoxical about employee engagement being synonymous with “sweating the human asset” when organisations are increasingly more concerned about employees burning-out than bunking-off. The focus for organisations today needs to be more on their employees’ well-being than their contract of employment.

In a commercial world where reputation and customer experience are key differentiators, leading brand-centric organisations have realised how to engage their key stakeholders.

They understand that successful customer and shareholder engagement comes from dialogue and conversation more than the traditional, persuasive approaches to marketing and PR. To remain leaders they need to take a more peoplecentric approach.

Herb Kelleher, co-founder of Southwest

Airlines, once said: “Take good care of your people, they’ll take good care of your customers, and that’ll take good care of your shareholders.”

In many organisations, especially in the public sector, don’t forget that employees are often your customers and your shareholders.

Truly engaged employees are much more than just happy workers and loyal customers; they offer so much more to an organisation than

Too many engagement initiatives are viewed with suspicion and mistrust – especially when there is little follow-through and action their discretionary effort. They are the strongest advocates of their brand and they feel empowered to deliver a brand experience that builds trust and loyalty with all of the key stakeholders.

Yet too many engagement initiatives, like global engagement surveys, are often viewed with suspicion and mistrust, breaking the psychological contract – especially when there is little follow-through and action. For employees that have lived through the evolution of engagement

it feels like intentions have moved from raising a smile and going the extra mile to management guile.

Building trust starts with closing the gap between what your organisation says and what it does, but building brand reputation goes beyond this. Brand reputation is based on how your people behave and how they articulate your brand – how they do it and how they say it – that’s what gets results.

In organisations where the Communications Director is responsible for what gets said and the MD is responsible for what gets done, the HRD and CMO are responsible for driving the right behaviours and tone of voice. They need to collaborate to ensure that employees are engaged in delivering a consistent brand experience from the inside-out.

The “engaged manager” plays a pivotal role.

They are your brand ambassadors; they articulate the brand story by creating a dialogue with their team and, most importantly, they walk the talk.

They intuitively know how to go beyond the basic rules of engagement with their teams; the engaged manager is both engaged and engaging.

Every enterprise in the private, public, social or not-for-profit sectors needs to make some tough decisions when deciding where to deploy their limited resources. What to cut, what to invest in, where to focus. Here are my three suggestions for über engagement:

Sean Trainor

• Cut the global initiatives. Think beyond the annual surveys that are distrusted by the workforce and often lead to cynicism.

• Invest in line management. Think beyond the transactional role of managers; develop their confidence and communications skills to engage their teams through change.

• Focus on functional integration. Think beyond the silos; encourage communi cation, cooperation and collaboration to co-create your brand from the inside-out.

Sean Trainor, is founder of über engagement, a change management and communications consultancy www.uberengagement.com

Business Reporter · June 2011

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Industry view

15

Reach for the moon Staff engagement can help drive an organisation to new heights – just ask NASA – but don’t underestimate the direction that you need to provide as a leader There’s an apocryphal story about a visitor to the NASA Space Centre in the late 1960s. On his way to see the latest Apollo space module, the visitor fell into conversation with a cleaner who was sweeping the floor of a long corridor.

“What do you do here?” asked the visitor. “I’m helping to put a man on the moon” was the reply.

Someone – probably that cleaner’s manager or supervisor – had done a wonderful job in connecting what’s often called the “purpose” of the organisation to the daily activities of a person who keeps the house clean and tidy.

If I came into your business today and repeated the question around your office or factory floor, what answer would I get? Would I meet men and women who are clear about the purpose of the business and the significance of what they do? Or would I meet employees who can’t see beyond the end of the broomstick or keyboard with no clear view of what your business is about – or indeed why it’s exciting for them to be working in it?

A much overused and woefully misunderstood word, “engagement” is a key market differentiator between newer organisations with broadly similar access to people and capital. It’s also a marked competitive advantage that helps exceptional and established companies stay exceptional. Leading brands and employers stay leading because high employee engagement drives customer loyalty, retention of key employees, discretionary effort and greater profitability.

Yet our latest global study at BlessingWhite revealed that just 30 per cent of European employees are fully engaged. Take a look around your organisation. Who are the seven out of 10 employees who admit to not being fully engaged?

What can you do about it? Where do you start?

Individual employees – you, I and all those we work with – continuously look hard to find purpose and satisfaction in their work.

Did you join your organisation to increase market share of the AB21d Plus Widget by 12.7 per cent per quarter in emerging and sub-continental markets? Maybe! But I bet you also joined your organisation, and continue to thrive in your job, because of a range of other factors – from exciting work, to decent opportunities, to freedom to make your own decisions, to being able to do

Tom Barry

more of what you’re great at. And it’s different for each and every one of us.

The mix of these two is the point of engagement. Full and sustainable engagement represents an alignment of maximum job satisfaction (“I like my work and do it well”) with maximum job contribution (“I help achieve the goals of my organisation”).

While important, engagement is a complex equation to solve. Many factors that influence engagement may feel out of your control as a leader. If you lead a fast-growing start-up, for example, how do you maintain contact with all employees as the workforce expands from 12 to 120 to 1,200? Too often the strong culture that propelled your initial success gets diluted or the innovative projects that created meaningful work are replaced by maintenance activities and a routine of office bureaucracy.

In larger organisations, employee engagement often becomes a formal initiative. Surveys are run, metrics are benchmarked and task forces are established. If, like many organisations, the initiative stops there, you may actually end up doing more harm than good. Our research indicates

The more employees feel they know their managers as people, the more engaged they’re likely to be. Managers must drop the veil of their titles that employees reporting that their company ran a survey but took no visible action are less likely to be engaged than employees at companies that did nothing at all – and substantially less engaged than employees reporting visible actions across the enterprise.

Start with yourself. What’s your equivalent of putting a man on the moon? Often I find that leaders are only too keen to authorise “engagement initiatives” (horrible phrase) for others – but do little to work out what they need to do to find maximum satisfaction and maximum contribution for themselves.

Working with the leaders of a global bank recently, a room of talented individuals all admitted that they were not as engaged as they should be or wanted to be. Yet their role was to help drive the engagement of others. Start with yourself.

Let me give you some of my thoughts, experience and research on what you might do to put your men and women on the moon.

Individuals: clarity and action Individual employees need to be clear on their core values and goals. If they don’t know what’s most important to them, they will not find it in your workplace (or potentially any other).

Employees cannot wait for a tap on the shoulder to signal an exciting project or their next career move. They need to take initiative to build their

BlessingWhite defines full engagement as the alignment of maximum job satisfaction and maximum job contribution

skill sets, articulate their interests and find opportunities to apply their unique talents to achieve your organisation’s goals.

Leadership tactics

Managers: coaching and relationships Managers need to understand each team member’s unique interests, talents, and aspirations.

They then need to align individuals’ passion and proficiencies with organisational priorities and projects. And finally, managers have to keep the dialogue going, providing feedback and course corrections to ensure high performance.

There is also a high correlation between engagement and solid manager-employee relationships. The more employees feel they know their managers as people, the more engaged they’re likely to be. So managers must drop the veil of their position or title and become known to employees. Managers must monitor and take control of their own personal engagement every day.

Inspire commitment Engaged employees not only understand what needs to be done but also care enough to apply discretionary effort. Your communications need to cover the what and why of decisions: you need to share both your business rationale and personal motivation for critical business decisions.

Leaders: trust and communication As a leader in your organisation, you must set the direction that your workforce aligns to, communicate that direction clearly and create a culture that fuels both engagement and business results. You must also fulfil the roles of manager and individual described above. . It’s a tall order, one hampered by workforce distrust. In 2010, 51 per cent of employees in Europe trusted senior leaders, compared to 74 per cent who trust their immediate managers. (See box for more on leadership tactics.)

A daily priority Don’t rely on task forces and special action plans.

Don’t separate engagement as something to address in addition to the work that must be done.

If you lead with results and engagement at the forefront of your mind every day, you’ll succeed in creating a more engaged workforce. You’ll soon have your own band of men and women helping to get your organisation on the Moon.

Tom Barry, is managing director at BlessingWhite Europe. www.blessingwhite.com/research

Set a clear direction Engaged employees align their interests with organisational goals. The recession forced many organisations to re-evaluate strategy to survive; if yours did not, don’t delay any longer.

A clearly communicated strategy also builds workforce confidence in your personal competence – which reinforces your trustworthiness as a leader.

Pay attention to culture Hold yourself and your colleagues accountable for living the organisation’s values and for doing what you say you will do. Hold all employees accountable for results and engagement.

Coach the people who report to you Only 43 per cent of vice-presidents or above in Europe are fully engaged. Consider the message you send, as keeper of the culture, if you expect managers to coach their people and you don’t do the same.

Focus your coaching on contribution (clear priorities, removing challenges, providing resources) and satisfaction (leveraging talents, understanding interests and goals).

Talk about engagement with passion Educate your workforce on the roles they need to place in building and sustaining engagement. Manage their expectations when they assume engagement is something that organisations do to employees. Help them redefine unrealistic or out-dated notions of career success to encompass lateral moves, skill development, stretch assignments and special projects – not just promotions. Encourage them to reach high. Talk about business results and engagement in the same breath.

Commit or quit Size up your own engagement. Be clear on what drives it. If you’re not sure how you got to the place you’re at or you realise you don’t like the work that you do, make some changes. Genuine engagement is contagious; faked engagement erodes credibility and trust.