How committed are your employees to helping your company achieve its organizational goals? How motivated are they in their quest to achieve those goals? If the situation in your company is as it is in most companies today, then you face certain challenges when it comes to employee engagement.
Assessing employee engagement starts with measuring five important characteristics:
Satisfaction - Employees whose expectations are met are the most satisfied. These expectations are related to their job, the organization they work for, and their immediate supervisor. Employees with a sense of fulfillment do not experience frustration in the pursuit of their personal goals.
Understanding - Dedicated employees care about more than just their own happiness and fulfillment. Highly dedicated employees have a clear understanding of the company's strategic direction and goals.
Contributing - This trait goes even further than "knowing". Dedicated employees not only have a deep understanding of the company's strategic direction, but also know how their work is directly related to the implementation and success of the company's strategy.
Alignment - A dedicated employee feels that his or her personal values are aligned with the company's values and mission. This is illustrated by a Venn diagram of two circles that overlap moderately if one represents personal goals and the other represents company goals.
Employee retention - Unlike other characteristics, this is an external measure. Yet employee retention is also an important measure of employee engagement. Of course, there will be situations where the most dedicated employees quit, while the ones who are just hanging around linger (which is often a sad state of affairs for the company). Nonetheless, retention rates are an important measure of employee engagement.
These five characteristics are a comprehensive description of employee engagement, and the most important thing for companies to be clear about is that when assessing employee engagement, it is important to consider all five in a balanced way, and not lose sight of one or the other. You can't get a full picture of your employees by referring to any one of these indicators alone. In the case of "fulfillment," for example, there are numerous examples of how fulfillment may not be a strong indicator of higher performance if it is not considered in conjunction with the desired outcome.
In a large manufacturing company, employees were overly satisfied but under-engaged. An atmosphere of complacency gripped the company. The company's strong growth, which was supposed to be good news, had produced the byproduct of complacency. The company's executives, including the CEO, were worried about the problems that overly complacent employees were creating for the company. One of the most important things we have to do to be successful is to keep reminding our employees that they can't be complacent," the company's president said. We've gotten a little too complacent. Employees have to accept the fact that even though we've been successful, there's going to be continued change and improvement in order to stay on top." After gaining an initial understanding of employee engagement, we have to consider how we can help our company strengthen it. Here are ten top ways to enhance employee engagement.
Reward systems linked to performance
The number one motivator for high levels of engagement is related to pay. However, research shows that it's not the level of pay that matters, but how companies use pay and other forms of rewards and recognition to make employees feel like they are an important part of the organization. A sense of belonging has a key impact on employee engagement, with psychological rewards being crucial, such as a sense of ownership of the organization, a sense of inclusion and a belief that one's work is important in helping the company achieve its goals.
One way to create a sense of belonging is to link rewards to business results. Studies have shown that if you link rewards to an employee's personal performance and business results, the degree to which those rewards motivate him is closely related to the degree to which he maintains and improves his performance. American Standard Companies links rewards to financial results and Six Sigma goals. In many high-performing companies, management also has individual performance incentive programs that evaluate more than just traditional sales or revenue goals.
For example, Raymond James Financial Services and Raymond James & Associates both have Best Achievers programs that reward individual contributions beyond financial results. For example, executives reward an employee for providing exceptional service to a client or for coming up with a creative idea. Briggs & Stratton Corporation also encourages managers to reward employees for smaller, performance-based accomplishments.
Similarly, SAP America has developed a "toolbox" for managers that includes a variety of ways to recognize employees for value-based accomplishments, ranging from a simple thank-you from co-workers to a more formal, public awards program for top performers. The information is available online and disseminated instantly.
Strong Human Capital Infrastructure
Companies provide dedicated employees with the resources they need to do their jobs effectively. Accurate information and data about employees is an important resource for today's managers. Companies that invest wisely in their human capital infrastructure are rewarded in many ways.
A financial services company with a highly dedicated workforce spent several years improving its human capital infrastructure to provide managers with more comprehensive and accurate information about their human resources. The company has adopted outsourcing and service *** enjoyment initiatives and has become highly efficient in matters such as payroll payments, benefits administration, and attendance records. Its leadership is now confident that the HR department has a robust infrastructure in place to eliminate redundancies. A strong focus on information systems and streamlining HR transactional workflows means the company is better able to give managers the information they need to do their jobs.
Future-focused learning management
Learning management processes include having employees meet regularly with a counselor to discuss their learning needs and develop a career development plan. Companies that do this well have far more engaged employees than those that do it poorly.
Employees in ESKOM's distribution division at the South African power utility are more likely to appreciate that the training they receive not only better equips them for the job at hand, but also provides a foundation for the future, than their counterparts at similar companies with only average engagement scores. ESKOM employees also discuss training issues with their manager or career development counselor more often than in a typical company. The company takes training very seriously, spending up to $1,165 per employee per year.
ESKOM's leadership recognizes that current training is not fully aligned with the company's goals, but they are convinced that the importance of employee training is undeniable. Training equips employees with the skills they need to help the company succeed and ensures that they are motivated and dedicated to their jobs. In fact, two of the company's four main goals, as set by company president Thulani Gcabashe, are related to employee skills development.
Gcabashe explains, "In order to change the company's business model to be able to compete in a competitive marketplace, we have to improve our skills in information technology, engineering, teamwork, leadership and project management. This will enable us to manage our large projects more effectively. In addition, it is important for us to be good corporate citizens. To do this well, we have developed a number of programs to improve engagement by helping disadvantaged employees gain literacy and numeracy skills."
Knowledge management that engages with employees
For employees to contribute effectively to the company's mission, they must be assured that they have access to the latest and best information. They must be able to quickly find the best partners to meet customer needs, manage projects, or seek better and more creative ways to get work done.
A professional services consulting firm provides its employees with Web-based tools to better access and share intellectual capital. The company also trains employees on how to use the tools and records the number of times they contribute new information to the knowledge base, while identifying different knowledge requirements for different employee roles.
The creation of communities of practice facilitates the sharing of knowledge and problem-solving among like-minded employees, as well as informal cross-functional collaboration. The company has developed incentives to encourage active participation.
Ongoing performance appraisals
Some of the objections to employee performance appraisals are based on the idea of being nice to people, and people are even willing to risk being unfair and dishonest about it. It is indeed difficult to tell employees that they are not doing a good job.
However, most employees are driven to succeed, and helping employees to improve on their shortcomings can be a sign of goodwill. Constructively providing negative feedback is also a sign that managers care about their employees' progress. Of course, positive assessment findings are an important incentive to reinforce and recognize good employee behavior. Companies that do well in this area have employees who are 52 percent more engaged than those who do poorly.
Some companies are exploring best practices in this area. Briggs & Stratton is working to link performance evaluations more directly to company strategy. More frequent employee performance reviews allow companies to more effectively reinforce positive behavior patterns and reduce behaviors that are detrimental to employees and the company. Before meeting with their supervisor for a performance review, employees complete a discussion guide that asks them to think about what they can do to help the company achieve its strategy.
Avoiding evaluations is human nature, so enforcing a performance appraisal policy is necessary. Bristol requires the company's executives to complete at least one appraisal a year. We want to identify what are the key result areas in the company's strategy that can be measured when evaluating an employee's performance," says Todd Teske, president of its power products group. I think that's probably the most important way to keep employees engaged and improve company performance."
Appropriate workplace design
Often, managers don't see workplace design as having a significant impact on employee engagement and morale. Yet studies have shown that employee engagement is much higher in companies that have created appropriate workplaces.
Many companies today are trying to utilize workplace design to enhance employee engagement and improve overall workforce performance. For example, advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy, best known for its "Just Do It" campaign for Nike, provides its most important employees -- the creative team -- with a workplace that is conducive to sparking creativity.
At its headquarters in Portland, Oregon, the company may invite professional designers, writers, dancers, and performance artists to enjoy the workspace with its employees*** to enhance the company's creative atmosphere. The company is headquartered in a community with many galleries, theaters, and design-oriented retail outlets, such as furniture stores. More importantly, it developed programs to utilize the conducive environment to encourage creative interaction. The company divides its employees into four groups of 30 employees next to each other and encourages them to participate in creative competitions. To promote social interactions that stimulate new ideas, the company provides employees with amenities such as a coffee bar, a basketball court, and a variety of recreational areas.
Highly Valued Employee Relations Management
Companies with good employee relations have more engaged teams than other companies. Research shows that an important part of the employee relations management process is communication and change management.
Bill McDermott, chairman of SAP America, says, "We encourage managers to communicate fully with their employees. We do quarterly telecasts, and every time the company's executives go to a remote branch, they hold a staff meeting to communicate with employees about the company's top priorities and challenges and to hear their ideas."
Career development planning that keeps up with the times
Companies that do a good job with their employee career development processes have 52 percent more engaged employees than those that don't do so well, according to an analysis by Accenture's Human Capital Development Framework. In companies with high employee engagement, employees meet with their supervisors or career development counselors about twice a year to discuss their careers. At companies with low employee engagement, it's less than once a year.
A department at Raymond James Financial Services, one of the highest employee engagement scores in the survey, has employees who meet with their supervisors an average of two times a year, compared to the survey average of less than once a year. What's more, employees in that department are more likely to appreciate that their supervisors have the skills they need to help them plan and develop their careers, with professional development plans that can provide them with clear guidance for achieving their personal goals.
A fair and coherent human capital strategy
Dedicated employees can identify with the company's elite management system, which means that those who perform well should be paid better. But employees expect, and deserve, a development platform with equal opportunities and treatment. If pay and career development opportunities are not aligned, this will inevitably lead to employee dissatisfaction.
Many large companies don't have consistent HR policies and processes, and many others don't have written policies in place. This situation can lead to a gradual loss of employee trust in the basic fairness of the company.
For example, the leader of a company with low employee engagement scores explained, "Similar positions in different business units have different career opportunities and benefits. Employees then move freely between different parts of the company in search of better compensation for the same position in another department."
In some other companies, since there is no explicit rule on the number of vacation days an employee is allowed each year, some people shop around for the longest possible vacation. The result is often unfair, which in turn causes employee dissatisfaction.
A hiring process that focuses on "raw materials"
Quality always comes from the best materials. When hiring, it's not just about the skills required for the job, it's also about whether the candidate is a good fit for the company's culture. The hiring process plays an important role in selecting the employees who are most likely to do the job and enjoy contributing to the company. An important part of the process is making sure that hiring managers have the skills and abilities to find the best candidate for a position.
At Spherion Recruiting, human resources leaders spend a lot of time making sure they find the right person for the right job. Jill Goldstein, the company's vice president and head of human resources, says, "An important aspect of successful hiring is knowing exactly what competencies, skills, and behaviors are required for each position. We recently adopted the Behavioral Scale interviewing method to recruit the best fit."
Business managers at all levels can take the ten points listed above and apply them to improve employee engagement. For example, they can actively communicate with employees about changes in the company and ensure that employees get the training they need to access the information and knowledge base; they can discuss HR programs and policies with employees and let them know that these policies are not only consistent and fair, but also supported at the highest levels of the company; they can recognize and reward employee performance in simple ways, such as recognizing someone at a team meetings, etc.; they can help the company recruit potentially more dedicated employees, mentor them and encourage them to participate in training; and they can help the company ensure that its work environment meets the specific needs of employees in different types of jobs.
These are all part of an overall strategy that can help companies create a more engaged workforce. Such a workforce is more likely to invest creativity and passion in the pursuit of high performance.