The very best organisations have high levels of employee engagement – a major differentiator of success. But high engagement doesn’t always mean that an organisation is operating as well as it could be. Of course, success can be defined in very many ways; you might regard an increasing turn-over as a good measure of success, but it’s not an indication that you’re achieving as much as you might be able to; for example, you might have had to reduce your margins to become more competitive; or you might consider the results of a customer survey to be a good indicator of how well you are doing. There’s a whole host of a metrics you can apply to measure your success and, most probably, you’ll use several to get a really good handle on performance. The point here is that you need to be clear about how you define success.
You also need to be clear about exactly what, for you, constitutes high employee engagement. Let’s look at a definition. Wikipedia offers:
“Employee Engagement is the extent to which employee commitment, both emotional and intellectual, exists relative to accomplishing the work, mission, and vision of the organisation. Engagement can be seen as a heightened level of ownership where each employee wants to do whatever they can for the benefit of their internal and external customers, and for the success of the organization as a whole”.
So now we know what employee engagement is: in a nutshell, it’s about employees going the extra mile in everything they do. Yet you can have highly engaged employees but still not be operating at your best, still not be as successful as you could be. High employee engagement is not something an employer is automatically entitled to; it has to be engendered. And even if you are lucky enough to have highly engaged employees, high engagement can be quickly undermined by many factors. So what can get in the way?
The workplace environment is very important. Dark, dull and uninteresting premises which ignore today’s modern human factors can quickly stifle creativity and innovation. Just sticking up a few motivational posters won’t necessarily do the trick if the working environment is poor. Inspiring environments can foster creativity and innovation.
Then we come to your processes and procedures. These have to properly reflect your organisation’s values, your ethos and your climate & culture. It’s no good having fantastic people if your processes get in the way of exceptional performance. Things like low levels of devolved authority where it’s necessary to refer decisions upwards (which sometimes equates to kicking them into the long grass) are prime examples and can lead to employee inventiveness being relegated to the ‘not invented here’ locker or, even worse, to the stolen ideas goldmine.
Next comes the use of outdated equipment that doesn’t meet modern standards of quality and quantity. Your people are keen to produce the best but if your equipment is unreliable or does not enable them to be fully productive and therefore fully competitive in your marketplace, they will become less and less motivated. The old adage of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” scarcely applies any more. The global economy has seen to that so modern, efficient equipment that enables you to operate at the value-added top end of your marketplace is more likely to bring success.
Then there’s the tricky issue of pay and remuneration. Of course people want a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work and if your people are disengaged, then that pay will be the most important factor. However, when it comes to highly engaged staff, pay is just one part of a more comprehensive system of remuneration and reward which recognises and encourages exceptional performance.
Finally, and most significantly, we come to management practices. Exceptional managers actively encourage their people through a range of both active and passive measures such as recognition of great performance, delegation of authority, the giving of challenging work, being actively listened to; knowing their leisure and personal interests, knowing about their family and so on. In other words they have a full picture of each member of staff with an understanding of their hopes and aspirations.
Where does all this come from? It starts at the very top; your leaders set the tone through:
- Shared values
- Organisational Ethos
- Organisational Climate
- Organisational Culture
- Leadership and Management
- Working practices
How do you go about achieving high levels of employee engagement? You could start by picking up the phone and calling Consultation Limited on 023 9225 6161. Success becomes Second Nature.