Why Does Employee Engagement Matter?

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Why Does Employee Engagement Matter?

• Performance Improvement Network, June 7, 2012

Presenter Doris Savron
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Agenda

• Review engagement data
• Define engagement
• Discuss two types of engagement
• Discuss drivers of engagement
• Share our story and ongoing work
• Brainstorm and discuss engagement activities
• Share resources available
• Wrap-up

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What the Data Says . . .

• Disengaged employees may cost U.S. businesses as
  much as 350 billion a year.
• Engagement is correlated to organizational
  performance, customer service, productivity, and
  employee retention.
• Increased competition is not only putting
  pressure on organizations to become more
  efficient and better at delighting customers, it
  is creating more career options for employees.
• Media has provided a regular stream of stories of
  unethical behavior and poor decision making by
  senior leaders. As a result employees tend to be
  more distrustful of leaders intentions.

2009 Gallup Employee Engagement Index, 2009
Towers Perrin
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Defining Engagement

• Table Activity
• Take 5 minutes
• Assign a volunteer to take notes
• Report back your best definition

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Common Definitions of Engagement

• Employees work with passion
• Employees feel a deep connection to the
  organization
• Employees (at all levels) focus on innovation
• Employees increase discretionary effort
• Employee potential is translated into high levels
  of performance and increases organizational
  success

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Two Types of Engagement

• Examples of Rational
• Employees feel fairly compensation
• Employees feel there are opportunities to grow
  skills
• Examples of Emotional
• Employees believe in leaders
• Employees believe their work matters to the
  organization
• Employees feel valued
• Employees understand how their effort contributes
  to the organizations success

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• The emotional side of engagement is actually
  four times more powerful than rational side when
  it comes to driving employees who want to stay
  with the company and employee productivity
• (Ketter, 2008)
• A basic factor in predicting engagement
  employees understanding of how their roles fit
  with the business strategy
• (Fox, 2010)

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Drivers of Engagement

• Competent and engaging leaders (all levels)
• Managers who are able to align goals and
  direction with organization vision
• Collaboration at all levels
• Employee development and enriching their roles
• Valuing and appreciating employees

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Manager vs. Employee Responsibility

• Managers need to
• Be aware of engagement and integrate it into the
  other responsibilities of their job
• Need to ask questions and connect with staff
• Managers need to provide feedback and highlight
  successes, show appreciation
• Employees need to
• Ask for help when they need it
• Help each other out and recognize each other
• Take engagement surveys seriously
• Other thoughts?

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Our Story

• Senior leader site visits
• Focus group feedback
• Regulatory changes
• Organizations strategy
• Time constraints
• Engagement Philosophy (including focus on
  Communication, Recognition and Appreciation,
  Relationships, and Feedback)

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Steps We Took

• Captured a baseline by using Baldrige Express
  Survey and Feedback Report
• Conducted strategy planning sessions with entire
  leadership team
• Shared survey results and helped connect our
  campus strategy to the employee feedback and
  organizations strategic plan
• Designed committees for specific areas
• Provide quarterly updates on progress
• Conduct ongoing engagement activities including
  follow-up engagement surveys

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Ongoing Engagement Activities

• Organizational Engagement Survey (Quantum)
• Ongoing Pulse Surveys
• Skip level meetings
• Site visits
• One on ones
• Road shows
• Focus groups
• Leadership development groups
• Stay interviews
• (Ketter, 2008)

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Ongoing Engagement Activities

• QA teleconferences
• Morning huddles
• Departmental, team, and all staff meetings
• Video conferencing
• Recorded messages
• Kindness week
• Highlight successes in meetings
• Focused effort in catching people doing amazing
  things
• Committees and project teams

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Table Activity Other Engagement Activities

• Take 10 minutes
• Select a recorder
• Report back best idea
• Hand in ideas to be distributed to the rest of
  the group after the session

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Available Resources

• The Five Languages of Appreciation in the
  Workplace (Chapman, Gary)
• How Americas Best Places to Work Inspire Extra
  Effort in Extraordinary Times ReEngage (Branham
  Hirschfeld)
• Just Listen (Goulston, Mark)
• Soup (Gordon, Jon) also http//www.jongordon.com
• Start with Why (Sinek, Simon)
• Touch Points Creating Powerful Leadership
  Connections in the Smallest Moments (Connant
  Norgaard)

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Available Resources (continued)

• Fox, A. (2010, May). Raising engagement. HR
  Magazine, 55(5), 34-40.
• Ketter, P. (2008, January). The big deal about
  employee engagement. T D, 62(1), 44- 49.
• Engagement Surveys Quantum Workplace (there are
  many others available as well)