What is Engagement? The Current State of Play.
But what exactly is engagement? Not surprisingly there are a number of definitions. The CIPD makes sense of it in the following statement.
“Employers want employees who will do their best work, or ‘go the extra mile’. Employees want good work: jobs that are worthwhile and turn them on. More and more organisations are looking for a win-win solution that meets their needs and those of their employees.”
The MacLeod Review builds on this. It suggests that employee engagement harnesses an employee’s discretionary effort and in this context it becomes critical to performance, competitive edge and even employee fulfilment. Given the challenging economic times in which we live, this sounds like the magic bullet that all employers are looking for and the former Business Secretary, John Hutton certainly had high expectations of what engagement can deliver.
“The most successful companies recognise that their employees are their most valuable asset. Employee engagement is not just a buzzword – it has a clear link to increased business success.
“Research suggests engaged employees perform better and stay in their jobs longer and that if a business invests in boosting skills and engagement, profits will increase.
“We need to better understand what drives some businesses to engage with their workforce and invest in their people more than others and look at how we can urge others to do the same,” he said.
The current state of play
John Hutton may be bought in to the idea of engagement but does the evidence support him? According to Melcrum, a research and information company, it is a compelling proposition. They recently surveyed 1,000 corporate communications and HR professionals and found a series of improvements that the respondents were willing to credit to employee engagement programmes. These included more than 50% of respondents reporting improvements in employee retention and customer satisfaction; 33% reporting higher productivity and 27% suggesting an improved status as a ‘great place to work’. As for how these programmes have made such a significant difference, the argument goes something as follows: ”If I as your employer involve you and provide you with the opportunity to grow and to express yourself then you, as the employee, will for a time at least, be far more likely to bring your best to work and in so doing will be far more likely to deliver the results I’m looking for.”
But the picture of current engagement practice in UK organisations is patchy. Research may show a clear correlation between the performance of a business and the engagement of its employees, but a recent YouGov survey of nearly 23,600 directors and employees, conducted in October 2008, confirms that while there is a strong belief in the power of engagement, it also found that two thirds of today’s employees feel disengaged.
According to the report, 9 out of 10 board members also said that they planned to maintain or increase their spending on employee engagement in the coming year. 34% intended to increase investment in engagement, with 11% intending to decrease it. But in the increasing gloom surrounding the economy there is certain to be pressure put on training and development budgets.
Moreover, those who set out with the belief that engagement is a tick box activity which can be addressed quickly, are likely to be disappointed. Engagement is a mindset, an attitude, a culture. It’s about leadership and the organisation as a whole. In this respect engagement needs to be understood as something that belongs to everyone and requires everyone to be committed to it.
This highlights one of the big potential dangers around engagement – namely that marketing will try to brand it or HR will try to champion it. This, say the commentators on engagement, would be a mistake. Consider, for example, that engagement is core to front line customer service, that it is key to team leading and team working, that it is critical in all presentations, that it is vital in all cross-functional projects and that it is essential for all client/service provider relationships. In all these examples engagement shows up as a fundamental characteristic of working life and as such it will need implementing, bedding down, practising and sustaining. Before organisations can claim success at engagement, they need to be able to say that this is “the typical way that people behave and that this is the way things happen around here.”
Read our article: How to Have More Engagement here…
Find out more about our engagement and motivation programmes:
Find out more and read the David MacLeod review here.
