The power of employee engagement

We’ll look at:

• What is employee engagement?• Why bother?• The facts don’t lie• Engagement and the recession• How do you engage your staff?

What is employee engagement?

• To attract and hold fast• To become involved; inform, persuade• To help shape outcomes• The act or state of interlocking• Modern, two-way internal communication

• “An employee who is engaged in the workplace is someone willing to go that extra mile, put in more hours, work harder and do what it takes to make the company a success. Someone who has the organisation’s best interests central to what they do” – Pete Bradon, Head of Research, Sunday Times “Best Companies to Work For” list

Why bother with employee engagement?

Engagement Motivation Performance Productivity Profitability

The facts don’t lie…

Firms with the highest percentage of engaged employees had a 3.74% higher operating margin and 2.06% higher net profit margin than average (Towers Perrin – in a survey of 2,000,000 responses)

Engaged employees are up to 43% more productive (HayGroup)

Engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave the organization (Towers Perrin)

Continued…

Engaged employees can improve customer loyalty up to 56% higher (CiB)

The financial performance of organisations with fully engaged employees is typically four times better than those with poor employee attitudes. (Watson Wyatt)

Those engaged generate 23% more revenue than non-engaged counterparts (Hay Group)

What businesses think…

“Many people are unmotivated, not because they have a great reason to be, but rather because they have not been given a great reason to be motivated & engaged.”

“Regarding engagement, yes we need to pay people more – pay them more attention! It’s just not about the money.”

Engagement and the recession

• Survivor’s guilt • More work, less motivation • Rampant rumour mill

“Businesses with high employee engagement have a competitive advantage in their ability to weather the storm”, according to results of the tenth annual Best Employers study

Achieving employee engagement

• Your organisation’s culture

• Challenges unique to you

• Your internal communication channels

The role of organisational culture

• Is your organisation closed or open? • Culture is often best understood as: “the way we do

things around here”• How will your communications be received?

Barriers to employee engagement

• Management don’t see the need for it• Management don’t understand it: “It’s just a newsletter”• Lack of resource• Geographical spread; employees are dispersed• Strategy, culture and values aren’t defined• Management team is not aligned• Lack of trust in the management team• Employees are cynical• Poor management communication skills• Variety of media not deployed• You don’t agree …

How to engage your employees

• Start at the top; managers need to be signed up• Make sure employees have everything they need to do their

jobs• Clearly communicate what's expected of employees • Get to know your employees • Make sure they are trained and retrained • Constantly ask how you are doing in your employees' eyes• Pay attention to company stories and rituals• Reward and recognise employees in ways that are

meaningful • Be consistent in the long term

Tactics to deliver engagement through communication

• Face-to-face briefings• Email• Internal magazine• Intranet• Employee engagement champions• Pulse groups• Podcasts and video-casts• Consider a employee engagement survey• Ask the management forums• Lunch with the CEO • Voicemail• Text messaging• Keep it varied, keep it simple

3 things to remember:

• Employee engagement has a direct link to your organisation’s success, especially in the downturn. It’s not merely a “fluffy internal comms action”

• Modern, two-way communications should be a priority for your HR and PR teams; managers also need to understand the importance of engagement

• Your people are your business; let them know you understand that; start at the top; reward and incentivise

Q&A