Nearly a year ago, David MacLeod and Nita Clarke were commissioned bythe Department for Business (BIS) to take an in-depth look at employeeengagement in the UK and to
reporton its potential benefits for organizations and employees. Mr. MacLeodsummarizes the main findings of the report well in this 2.5 minute
video.
In brief, Mr. MacLeod reiterates the strong correlation between engagedemployees and strong organizational results as well as the need forstrong engagement coming out of recession to face stiff competitionfrom BRIC. He also reiterated the four things that reoccur inorganizations with high engagement levels:
1) Employees have a clear sense of where the organization is going and how their role fits within it
2) Managers are engaging in that they offer employees clarity onexpectations, lots of reinforcing feedback, how to organize workeffectively, and individual treatment and respect
3) Employees have a real voice and open communication of both the bad and the good is common
4) Stated values and behaviors are brought together
But now
Kenexa researchis showing that UK employees are engaged less now than they were at theheight of the recession (currently 51% engaged, compared with 54% in2009). And yet:
These 2010 Kenexa findings on factors that contribute toemployees choosing to engage is very similar to MacLeod’s 2009 report –even with the drop in engagement. This leads me to believe the factorsfor engagement aren’t changing, just the company’s ability to supportthose factors.
The important questions for you to consider are:
1) What are you doing to
clearly communicate to your employees your organization’s changing strategic objectives and how they can/do help achieve them?
2) How are you encouraging managers to treat their employees as individuals with lots of positive, reinforcing
feedback?
3) What are you doing to give employees a
voice?
4) How are you
linking company values to employee behaviors in a meaningful, honest way?