Written by Andrew on August 24, 2009 – 7:29 pm
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 management aren’t ‘up for it’, no amount of programs will ever make a jot of difference to the company.
I agree.
As I perused through Richard’s company blog, I came across an interesting post related to this topic. It is unclear who authored the post, but there was an excellent definition of engagement and some interesting insights on the ownership of the engagement initiatives:
Employee engagement is about connecting the hearts and minds of your employees with the values and vision of your company. It’s about getting your employees to feel more connected with your company, to take greater ownership, responsibility, and go a bit further for your customers, not because you ask them to, but because they want to.
In the same way that the financial success of your company is not just the responsibility of your finance director, employee engagement is not solely the responsibility of your HR department. … No amount of HR initiatives or programs will compensate for the words and actions of your managers. That is not to say that your HR department cannot and should not play a vital role in helping your managers create higher levels of engagement with their employees, but ultimately your managers have to take responsibility for engagement.
Mollie also discusses ownership of engagement in her report. According to our data, at 43% of Best-in-Class companies, the CEO/president is the primary champion of engagement. For “all others” (i.e. the combined average and laggard performers), the primary champion is at the HR leadership level (42%).
Bottom line for CxO’s: Employee engagement is not a buzzword that can be delegated; if you believe that engagement is something that could have a demonstrable impact on your business, you have to spearhead the initiative… and get your management team to support your efforts.
You can download a free copy of the report here (available until the end of Sept 2009 - registration required).
Recently I was asked by the Chief Executive of a major public sector organisation ‘How can I engage 7500 employees in delivering high levels of customer care?’ I responded by asking two questions: -
* Does the Management Board share a common mission and vision for the future of this organisation ?
*Is there a common set of values that are communicated down through the organisation that you all live to?
The answer to both questions was NO!
He still hasn’t worked out what needs to be done!
Neil
Hi Neil, thanks for the comment and thanks for reading. Perhaps you need to send him Mollie’s report! Seriously, this is a real issue. Mollie points out in her report that “Best-in-Class” organizations are engaging customers by engaging employees. Although success is still largely anecdotal for most organizations, the vanguard of the Best-in-Class (27%) can validate the impact engagement efforts have had on profitability/revenue. Good luck with your client.