There has been a lot of interest in
the business news recently around the idea of ‘employee engagement’. This is
not a new initiative; it has been an agenda item for government and
organisations for a number of years now writes Meryl Bradshaw.
The recent recession highlighted the
need for organisations to create a sense of belonging and loyalty in the
workforce, required to sustain retention of key skills and knowledge. The
thinking behind this is that a feeling of belonging would maintain a sense of
stability, even where pay-cuts/ freezes, and the possible threat of redundancy were present. Therefore, engaged
employees are far more likely to support the management’s efforts to cost cut
and where called for, do more for less.
Cultural
Change
To move towards an employee engagement
policy, management may have to recognise that cultural change is necessary, and
to achieve this they need to work closelywith all staff members.
This common approach will be the starting
point in establishing an employee voice, which is led by senior management and
endorsed by line managers.
Indeed, it can be argued that the
success of employee engagement is in the hands of well trained and committed
line managers, to drive, guide and feedback to staff. It can therefore be
justifiably stated that culture engages or in reality disengages staff.
When management recognise that the
workforce needs to be ‘on board’ with the corporate vision through an engaged
level of commitment, it naturally falls to HR to make this possible.
For example, HR can ensure that line
managers have the right skills training to be able to support the policy. It is
far more beneficial to have a line manager who can regularly communicate with
teams, offering levels of autonomy, rather than being controlling with limited
staff feedback.
Supporting this is the necessity to
understand that job satisfaction is only a part of engagement, employees’
behaviour and their expectations fall in line with what they see and hear
within their work environment. Managers then should acknowledge that staff and
customer attitude is based on how they see themselves as being treated. Hence,
if staff feel ‘engaged’ they will behave accordingly.
Staff
Surveys
When an organisation has committed to
an engagement policy, the question of
‘How do staff feel now?’ and ‘How can
this be measured?’ arise. In order to answer these questions most organisations
chose to identify the current levels of engagement. Again, this task should be
led by HR and senior
management; how it is organised is
again a management decision based on advice.
Many organisations choose to ascertain
current staff attitude through a staff survey.
However, to make sure the responses
are useful to the organisation, it is important to inform all staff of the
reasons behind why it is being produced, and their role in
the process.
The responsibility for informing staff
of the value of the survey and what staff can expect to get from it, again will
come down to the line managers, HR, and in some cases the union.
Many companies chose to outsource the
whole process of employee surveys to specialist suppliers; this does not
preclude those who wish to maintain an in-house approach however, providing the
skills are available to do so. If a supplier is the preferred choice, the
company will need to work closely with them to ensure they are clear about
their objectives and expectations for the survey itself. A pay-off in deciding
to outsource is the acknowledgement of confidentiality for staff, thereby
encouraging honest participation; this may not be so for the in-house survey.
The evidence of monetary investment in
this process also affirms for staff, the commitment that management have to
the policy. The use of specialist
suppliers allows benchmarking against comparable organisations, a useful
resource for management decision making.
There are many different categories
that
could be included within such a
survey,
for example:
• Day-to-day working life
• Training
• Values
• Line management effectiveness
• Teamwork
• Flexible working
• Job clarity
• Workload
• Career development
These are generally fixed within three
discrete sections:
1. A demographic section
2. An opinion section
3. A space free for comments
Most surveys measure engagement by
rating scales, which are answered by tick boxes, for example, strongly agree to
strongly disagree.
Different systems can be utilised to
distribute the survey, but most are now carried out online through the company
intranet, with employees being sent
emails linked to the questionnaire.
The initial survey will enable
management to identify areas for possible change / development within the
company. The very fact that senior management are recognised as implementing
such a scheme and the appreciation of why it is being introduced may well boost
initial engagement.
Companies that have used a third part
supplier can expect to receive a break- down of results.
These results are usually presented to
the senior management team initially.
For example by ‘Headliners’ followed
by departmental and then through the sectors, such as demographics.
Managers can chose to hold team
meetings at local level to present significant results for discussion. It is
important to review results with staff, enabling them to offer their thoughts
and feedback to the management team. The evidence of action taken from the
comments made is vital for the process of engagement to be recognised as upheld
by staff.
It may be said therefore, that any
company that is actively looking to support their employees’ engagement, needs
to carefully consider what the core values of the organisation are, and how
they are evidenced in the culture of that organisation. If there is any cause
for concern, for example in internal communication, there are strategies
available to help in securing a strongly committed workforce.
Meryl Bradshaw is Academic Lead and Senior Lecturer in HR at Warrington School ofManagement, University of Chester.
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