Hating your job is bad for business - Employee Engagement

70% of employees hate their jobs…

Well, what the study really reveals is that 50% of employees are not engaged and an additional 20% are disengaged and not reaching their full potential, according to the Gallup study “State of the American Workplace” http://www.gallup.com/strategicconsulting/163007/state-american-workplace.aspx which surveyed 25 million employees in the US. And of the remaining 30% who are categorized as inspired, only 22% of them are considered engaged and thriving.

Why should companies care?

Employees in the top 25% (those being engaged) have:

·         50% fewer accidents

·         41% fewer quality defects

·         And incur less healthcare costs

Organizations with a high ratio of engaged employees (the survey cites 9.3:1 engaged to disengaged) have 147% higher earnings per share (EPS).  

Dis-engaged employees cost

Gallup goes on to indicate that the cost of a bad manager is $450 Billion to $550 Billion annually.

The cost of presenteeism, a measure of lost productivity cost due to an employee at work but not engaged usually due to mental, emotional or physical health issues, is now considered to cost 7.5 times more than absenteeism, or approximately $2,000 per employee annually (Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Presenteeism:-The-Hidden-Costs-of-Business&id=40408).

Who are the employees?

Contrary to what some think, remote workers actually log more hours than their onsite counterparts; and women on average are slightly more engaged than men.
However, millennials are more likely to consider another job after 12 months in a job; they are also more likely to consider becoming their own boss.

How do you improve employee engagement?

Ask. Listen. Act.

Conducting employee engagement surveys is an art that frankly has been abused. It’s not enough to ask questions – they need to be questions that can be acted upon and that are highly relevant. Employers need to follow up with action quickly after surveying employees or its all for not. Employees will feel that they aren’t being listened to if issues and ideas aren’t addressed. The best thing a company can do is to communicate – even if there are some issues that can’t be solved quickly, acknowledging them goes a long way in making an employee feel their opinions and feelings are being considered and respected.

Leadership engagement

Engagement must be supported from the top down in order for it to rise up! Managers play a key role in engagement but they must feel empowered and supported by leadership to make any impact. Trust needs to be built through consistency in words and actions with transparency in communications. The company culture, goals and brands need to be communicated. Employees who understand a company’s goals and their role in achieving those goals are more likely to take pride in their work.

Managers need to be skilled in supporting and empowering their staff by listening and focusing on an employee’s strengths and talents. The manager needs to work with employee to set achievable goals and help them to track their success. Employees need to understand how they can grow their career and what their role is and how it can evolve.

Getting to Employee Engagement

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.

A good communication strategy is implemented to allow two way communications. Employees want to understand what the company does and their role. In a research report by Blessing White: The Employee Engagement Report Update http://www.blessingwhite.com/EEE__report.asp

The top contributors to drive engagement are:

·         Greater clarity about what the organization needs me to do – and why (align employee goals and performance to the company’s)

·         More resources (provide employees with the support they need to achieve their goals)

·         Regular, specific feedback about how I’m doing (managers need to constructively tell employees how they are doing and how they can improve)

·         Development opportunities and training (managers should work with employees to identify opportunities for growth and learning)

·         A coach or mentor other than my manager (leadership should support coaching and mentoring as a means to develop staff)

·         Better communication with my manager (weekly meetings and reporting schedules, as well as performance sessions should be implemented)

·         A better relationship with my coworkers (supporting a team environment including social activities that encourage interaction as well as communication mechanisms to highlight employee achievements)

 It’s important to recognize that people are motivated by different things – money, recognition, environment, relationships, etc. But everyone wants to feel that they are being heard. So listening to your employees is key to understanding them. And then keeping the communication channels open so there is a two way conversation occurring in the organization is the best way to support engagement.

 

Managing change or not...

Whether the company is going through a re-organization, a downsizing or a merger, change management is key but most organizations do not do it effectively. Usually there is minimum communications and considerable miscommunications - let's face it people talk and they spread what they think they know - right or wrong.

If you're re-organizing you should have:

• a clear understanding of what people do; jobs change over time so job descriptions need to be up-to-date
• a skills assessment of staff; they may have taken on tasks or further education or they may be struggling with duties they can't manage
• an impact assessment - if you're going to let people go what duties need to be redistributed and how can that be done with the least disruption; what are the implications if they manage several email addresses or committees; are there processes that they manage or have a  role in; - its not just the what its also the who
• a communication strategy; if you are re-organizing and people will have different reporting structures have follow-up meetings for the new teams so they have the opportunity to ask questions. It's far better to get everything in the open right away rather than let people disperse to ask questions of people who don't know the answers or to complain to each other that they don't know what is  going on; people have a right to be concerned and worried and the best way to alleviate that is to communicate and get them in a productive environment as soon as possible
• a talent management strategy; if people suddenly become people managers they need to have the maturity, skills and resources to fulfill the duties required of them; and if they go f rom managing one or two staff to a dozen additional skills may need to be learned including conflict management, communications, and time management; otherwise the Peter Principal comes into play and no one is happy

It's equally important to know what you shouldn't do:

• don't lie, people figure things out sooner or later and they talk with each other; lies destroy trust and credibility and you will never achieve employee engagement or loyalty
• don't hide, being unavailable at a critical time reflects poorly - it can be interpreted as not caring and can foster distrust
• don't ignore, if staff have come forward with concerns about process, resources and responsibilities acknowledge them and create a plan to deal with those concerns in a timely manner (this really should be in the planning phase prior to the change)

Change isn't easy - but it shouldn't be so hard...