Can you hear the employee ‘voice’?

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. 

Do you feel like your business needs a boost?

Warrington School of Management is launching Ignite Business Club on Wednesday 26th March  - an initiative designed to help businesses increase sales through: a business diagnostic, ongoing webinars and master classes, access to grants and a mentoring network. 

This launch event is free to attend and provides local business people with the opportunity to network and find out more about the Business Club. You will also get the opportunity to hear the inspirational story of local entrepreneur, Adrian Lomas who set up his business from a spare room in his house to grow it into one of the most successful digital agencies in the UK, with a multi-million pound turnover.

Book your ticket now

Success and Failure in Small Firms: Take a SMaRRT Approach

Small firms are the backbone of the UK economy; they account for around 99% of all
registered firms and employ 50% of all workers. Professor Lawrence Bellamy provides
expert advice on how small companies can ensure strategic success.

Despite decades of research on small firms, there is still a lot to learn about when it comes to success and failure. Whilst there are no easy answers, there are some indicators - common mistakes made and examples of good practice. Most of these can be linked back to strategic awareness and the ability to operationalise ideas. One way to consider these is to use the SMaRRT acronym:

STRATEGY

The ‘market’ is constantly changing. What worked one month may not work the next. Small firms don’t suffer from the ‘oil tanker’ problems that large firms do and, therefore, one of their key strengths is
adaptability (but they need to be alert to new possibilities). Trade magazines and journals often provide information on key industry changes and new technical developments; this information is useful but tends to be historical. The most up to date information tends to come from key customers and suppliers - by maintaining contact, you can gather data on a daily basis, enabling you to respond to market changes (but
you need to review what you are finding and check it with other information too).

Do your research!

Whilst it is important to deal with the day to day, it’s also important not to lose sight of the ultimate goal. Having a long-term vision allows you to view key decisions as steps towards an ultimate objective. Are
the things you are doing moving you in the right direction? As the business develops, your knowledge grows and the market evolves it may be reasonable to adjust your long-term direction. Whatever you decide, try to
make your offering distinctive. Why should customers choose you?

MANAGEMENT

Lack of management skills are often cited as the root of many problems when it comes to success and failure in small firms. It is an easy assumption to make, as you can always criticise a business after something goes wrong and blame the management. However, this area can be broken down into specifics - delegation
is a big problem for many owner-managers. They have started the business, built-up the customer base and probably done most of the roles within the firm. They hate to let go!

If it is a specialist task, then employ a specialist. Release your time to work on something else of
importance and which you are good at. Planning, innovation, budgeting, people skills and
managing risk are also important.

RISK

Manage the downside: in approaching any situation think about the risk involved and
how it can be minimised. Making a significant purchase? Could you dispose of it easily and what would it be
worth? Would it be better to lease? Taking on new staff? If the projects they are working on don’t go forward then can they be reallocated? Would you be better outsourcing that operation?

Get your planning right and reduce the chances of failure. Run through scenarios when making key decisions; if ‘A’ happens, how could we respond? Could we prevent this from occurring? Use specialist insurance if you need to. If you are lacking experience, then use a mentor to assist you. Build up your personal ‘knowledge bank’ and prevent yourself being ‘blindsided’ by an event; critical thinking skills are crucial.

RESOURCES

Finance, for small firms, is probably the largest single problem cited as a cause for failure. This can occur in a number of ways - liquidity problems occur simply because the time it takes customers to pay the firm is greater than the time you take to pay your suppliers (i.e. cash flow). In bridging the gap, firms fail to manage their debtors-creditor balance well and banks are often less helpful than they might wish for.

Small firms also tend to be underinvested; ‘make do and mend’ rather than invest in equipment which will make you twice as productive. Assess your investments carefully and look at the payback. Firms
really need to get a handle on what their fixed and variable costs are, especially in set up or growth phases when these can change dramatically. Monitoring and budgeting is crucial. When it comes to equipment (whether it’s for IT, your fleet or anything else), you need to have a renewal plan. Old kit is potentially unreliable and less productive than new. However, new kit depreciates quickly and financing costs can be high.

If you are running large premises plan your maintenance and if times are hard, you can leave replacement and renewal a little longer without too much detriment. People make your company perform well… invest in them. It’s not always about the money either; try to engage your employees by letting them try new tasks, recognising them with encouragement and personally engaging with them. Get to know your staff
and what motivates them - can you use the information within their job design?

TARGETS

Organise your firm through targets and measure them: new business gained, margin achieved, output levels, cost reduction, response time. Measure the things which matter, though. Break your business down into periods of operation and assign projects for completion within them, e.g. development of new products,
website update, IT upgrade, new area promotion, customer account review. Whilst running the day to day, projects will take the organisation forward. Cascade targets down to your employees and get them involved in the challenge, with appropriate support.

Ultimately, all owner-managers get to a point where they feel that it’s time for something new. So you also need to have an exit strategy. After all if you can be successful in one business, why not three
or four? There is always a right time to move on if you’re working SMaRRT.

Professor Lawrence Bellamy is Associate Dean at the Warrington School of Management, University of Chester Warrington (Padgate) Campus.

Do you feel like your business needs a boost?

Warrington School of Management is launching Ignite Business Club on Wednesday 26th March  - an initiative designed to help businesses increase sales through: a business diagnostic, ongoing webinars and master classes, access to grants and a mentoring network. 

This launch event is free to attend and provides local business people with the opportunity to network and find out more about the Business Club. You will also get the opportunity to hear the inspirational story of local entrepreneur, Adrian Lomas who set up his business from a spare room in his house to grow it into one of the most successful digital agencies in the UK, with a multi-million pound turnover.

Book your ticket now