Empirical Rationalism and Other Oxymora
Concluding Thoughts on Employee Engagement
Over the past week or so, I have been absorbed by Mollie Lombardi’s report on employee engagement (1,2,3). Today’s post offers a few summary thoughts, until I revisit the topic again.
The concept of employee engagement is still in its nascent stages and the benefits are still largely qualitative. While 82% of the Best-in-Class report that employee engagement has had an impact on revenue and/or profitability, only 27% can validate the impact with data. To ensure a long-term organizational commitment, it is imperative for HR professionals and business champions to underpin employee engagement initiatives with with standardized, repeatable and quantitative measures. Minimally, yearly measurement programs need to be put into place to assess the impact of employee engagement initiatives. Furthermore, managers should receive training and have access to the appropriate tools to support their efforts.
Best-in-Class organizations have deployed a number of tools and technologies to support their employee engagement initiatives:
- Employee surveys (81%)
- Tools to track employee referrals (53%)
- Skills assessments (51%)
- Development plan management tools (46%)
- Behavioral / personality assessments (36%)
While many of these tools seem pretty common, there is a wide disparity between Best-in-Class and Average/Laggard adoption (page 15 of the report). In the concluding paragraph of the report, Mollie summed it up very nicely:
Engagement is not a single tool or a single strategy, or the job of a single leader or entity within the organization. It is a mindset and a way of thinking about how organizations execute on all human capital initiatives and process, and all interactions with employees… Engagement must be nurtured every day in small and large ways.
Bottom line for CxOs: Do yourself a favor, if you are thinking about implementing or expanding an employee engagement strategy, do it right. Invest in making sure you have the right capabilities in place, invest in the right tools and make sure your management team is fully on-board… and see it through. The last thing that your business needs is another half implemented, buzzword-compliant, initiative.
You can download a free copy of the report here (available until the end of Sept 2009 – registration required).
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Friday Fun: The Truth About What Motivates Us
about 3 weeks ago - No comments
Amazing video animation of a Dan Pink talk. According to Dan, engagement is about autonomy, mastery and purpose… (Note: posted the wrong video earlier – sorry about that).
Engagement as a Competitive Advantage
about 1 year ago - No comments
The August 24 & 31 issue of BusinessWeek has a short article on the link between engagement and the bottom line. According the the article’s author Michelle Conlin, Best Buy “says that a 2% increase in employee engagement at one of its electronics stores corresponds to, on average, to a $100,000 annual rise in sales
Employee Engagement: Building Blocks For Success
about 1 year ago - 2 comments
Continuing the discussion (1,2) on Mollie Lombardi’s report on employee engagement, I thought it might be interesting to take a step back and dig into why engagement is important from both the employee and employer point of view. The research indicates that the economy is definitely having an impact on talent plans; 43%* of respondents
Who Owns Employee Engagement?…
about 1 year ago - 2 comments
A couple of days ago, I posted about a report that Mollie Lombardi from the Aberdeen Group wrote on employee engagement. Richard commented: Ultimately, engagement is about feeling involved in the business, and believing in it… The senior leadership and management team have to take a strong lead in creating an engaged workforce. If the
Employee Engagement vs. Employee Satisfaction. And the Winner is…
about 1 year ago - 3 comments
Over the past 18 months, employee engagement has emerged as a key theme in Aberdeen’s HCM research. Mollie Lombardi at the Aberdeen Group has recently published an excellent report that not only begins to define this nebulous concept, but also gives concrete steps that managers can begin to take to engage (not just satisfy) their
about 1 year ago
Sir:
Need to update your registration process on aberdeen.com to accept an non-compliant (HTML standards) URL or perhaps allow the website url NOT match the email address to enable the downloading of the report
about 1 year ago
Henry, thanks for your comment and the feedback. Someone from our customer service department will be in touch to address your download issues. Best, Andrew
about 12 months ago
I too enjoyed Mollie Lombard’s report (http://globoforce.blogspot.com/2009/08/achieving-engaged-workplace-aberdeen.html).
Per the report, achieving best-in-class engagement requires executive sponsorship, measurement, and a system to recognize the right behaviors. Unfortunately, many companies are stuck in the recognition rut of loyalty or contest incentives that are most certainly not about recognizing the right behaviors. Far more effective is a governable system that encourages peers and managers to acknowledge and truly appreciation efforts of colleagues that reflect the company values in achievement of the strategic objectives. Such an approach helps ensure all employees under where the company is heading and their role in it. After the massive organizational upheavals due to the recession, so many employees are floundering in what to prioritize and what really matters. Tell them clearly through the positive reinforcement of their own actions in their daily tasks.