Employee engagement: What exactly is it?

By Patrica Soldati

For several years now, 'employee engagement' has been a hot topic in corporate circles. It's a buzz phrase that has captured the attention of workplace observers and HR managers, as well as the executive suite. And it's a topic that employers and employees alike think they understand, yet can't articulate very easily.

No wonder. It turns out that all that employee engagement research undertaken over the past few years has defined the term differently, and as a result, came up with different key drivers and implications.

Enter The Conference Board, a prestigious, non-profit business membership and research organization located in the U.S. This group provides its members — top executives and industry leaders from the most respected corporations in the United States and around the world — with vital business intelligence and forward-looking best practices.

In 2006, The Conference Board published "Employee Engagement, A Review of Current Research and Its Implications". According to this report, twelve major studies on employee engagement had been published over the prior four years by top research firms such as Gallup, Towers Perrin, Blessing White, the Corporate Leadership Council and others.

Each of the studies used different definitions and, collectively, came up with 26 key drivers of engagement. For example, some studies emphasized the underlying cognitive issues, others on the underlying emotional issues.

The Conference Board looked across this mass of data and came up with a blended definition and key themes that crossed all of the studies. They define employee engagement as "a heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work".

At least four of the studies agreed on these eight key drivers.

Trust and integrity – how well managers communicate and 'walk the talk'.
Nature of the job –Is it mentally stimulating day-to-day?
Line of sight between employee performance and company performance – Does the employee understand how their work contributes to the company's performance?
Career Growth opportunities –Are there future opportunities for growth?
Pride about the company – How much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with their company?
Coworkers/team members – significantly influence one's level of engagement
Employee development – Is the company making an effort to develop the employee's skills?
Relationship with one's manager – Does the employee value his or her relationship with his or her manager?

Other key findings include the fact that larger companies are more challenged to engage employees than are smaller companies, while employee age drives a clear difference in the importance of certain drivers. For example, employees under age 44 rank "challenging environment/career growth opportunities" much higher than do older employees, who value "recognition and reward for their contributions".

But all studies, all locations and all ages agreed that the direct relationship with one's manager is the strongest of all drivers.

In the final analysis, one wonders whether employee engagement is just another trendy concept, or really a big deal?

According the report, employee engagement is a very big deal. There is clear and mounting evidence that high levels of employee engagement keenly correlates to individual, group and corporate performance in areas such as retention, turnover, productivity, customer service and loyalty.

And this is not just by small margins. While differences varied from study to study, highly engaged employees outperform their disengaged counterparts by a whopping 20 – 28 percentage points!

Finally, there is some evidence that companies are responding to this employee engagement challenge - by flattening their chains of command, providing training for first-line managers and with better internal communications. Changes won't happen overnight, but with such significant upside to the bottom line - they might happen more quickly than you think.

The Engagement Factor Blog

Employee Engagement: The Hard Facts by Brad Federman

In the autumn of 2008, David MacLeod and Nita Clark were asked by UK’s Secretary of State for Business to conduct an in-depth review of employee engagement and determine if there was value in the concept. Specifically can employee engagement help organizations in down or globally competitive economies?

Their answer was an “unequivocal yes.”

Some highlights from the report:
Those organizations with the bottom quartile engagement scores had up to:

51% more turnover
51% more inventory shrinkage
62% more accidents
32.7% decline in operating income over 12 months
Those organizations in the top quartile saw:
12% higher customer advocacy
18% higher productivity
12% higher profitability
Earnings Per Share (EPS) 2.6 times greater than the bottom quartile
19.2% improvement in operating income over 12 months

One bank found branches that had an increase in engagement levels saw a 16% increase in profit margin over those with lower engagement level scores.

Engaged employees take 2.69 sick days per year versus 6.19 days taken by those disengaged.
70% of engaged employees have a good understanding of how to meet customer needs, while only 17% of the disengaged do.

Other results include the impact employee engagement has on innovation and change. The verdict is in…ignore employee engagement at your own peril. Employee engagement is more than a touchy feely subject. Employee engagement is more than doing the right thing. Employee engagement is a real competitive advantage. Build your case now!

To download the report go to: http://www.performancepointllc.com/Employee_Engagement.html

For more information regarding Employee Engagement the book go to: http://www.engagementleader.com/

Engagement: a new way of thinking about people

Engagement is a relatively new way of thinking about leading people — a sort of magnetic rather than a coerced approach to getting people to want to do whatever is necessary to ensure the continuous high performance and success of the business.

As a philosophy of management, “engagement” centers on an individual’s degree of dedication to the organization and its goals with an implied reward of self-actualization or personal growth. The assumption in the business world is that engagement level predicts the positive intensity and quality of effort the organization can expect from an individual within job confines. In this regard, engagement’s value to the business is a predictor of future behavior and effort.

Business leaders should care about employee engagement because, when correctly measured, engagement profiles provide management with a statistical method to maximize return on human capital. For example, our studies show that positively engaged employees have higher than average individual productivity and innovation events plus they remain with the company longer than disengaged employees. In addition, the discretionary efforts of the fully engaged are of higher quality and of a more positive intensity than other less-engaged employees: their economic contributions to the business consistently exceed their employment costs. From a quality of work life perspective, positively engaged employees are energetic and enthusiastic which makes them more productive in group efforts and makes them a pleasure to work with...oh, fully engaged employees also solve problems.

CEOs Who Support Engagement: Meeting Bob Eiger

In a recent post, Mark Phelps made a great statement: "Great organizations develop leaders with a strong commitment to building a highly engaging work environment for all employees, whether they are energized by taking on more responsibilities each year, or thrilled to be the best they can be in their current job." Last Friday, that's exactly what I saw around me.

Bob Eiger, who I did not meet until last Friday, appears to epitomize what a leader should be.

Loathe though I be to share examples of embarrassing myself (though with a 4-year-old and my tendency to try anything, I have become quite accustomed to it), I want to recount a story that illustrates the kind of person Bob Eiger is.

When we arrived at the hotel for the Disney Service Awards event, everyone was given adhesive name tags with your name, the number of years you were being recognized for (blank for spouses and guests like me) and your table number. Since we were asked to wear them, most of us were.

My husband and I were mingling and he briefly said hello to a man I did not know. This man did not have a name tag on or visible in his hand, nor did his wife. When I introduced myself to his wife, she said, "I'm Willow." No last name. I figured she had a pretty cool first name, so maybe, like Cher, she did not like to use her last name.

I then introduced myself to the husband and asked his name -- after a brief, but what felt endless -- pause he said, "I'm Bob Eiger." Always one to shove my foot a little farther in when embarrassed or caught off guard, I responded with something like, "Of course...I'm sorry I did not recognize you...I don't watch TV." A great combination of awkward, not quite true and nonsensical -- not to mention downright odd coming from the wife of a prime time television publicist whose job it is to promote tune-in for ABC network, which is owned by Disney. And, no, I had not had any alcohol.

In most situations, someone would have worried about how it made my husband look, that the CEO may think less of me, that people would be aghast. But no one I told did more than shrug it off with a laugh and say that Bob is the kind of guy who would have not thought negatively, that he acted and WAS one of the team...they all love Bob Eiger.

How many employees, let alone one the mammoth size of Disney, can say that?

Part II: "people don't leave their jobs, they leave their managers"

Today, employee loyalty needs to be earned, rather than assumed, and must be specific, rather than general - employee surveys say that people are looking at their employment as a means of achieving personal goals rather than simply being the "good corporate soldier" of the past. This means that companies need to express and act on a commitment to develop employees' career objectives by introducing initiatives that make employees believe that their current job is the best path to achieving their career goals. In particular, consider the following elements of effective strategies designed to build loyalty and retain key employees: Include opportunities for personal growth and invest heavily in the professional development of the best people in the organization.

Provide employees with well-defined career paths (including a succession plan), mentors and tuition reimbursement for job-related education. Train employees, even if it makes them more attractive to the competition. Without seeing an opportunity on the horizon, few high potential employees will stay with a company and allow themselves to grow stagnant. Acknowledge non-work priorities by recognizing and responding to employees' needs for greater balance in their lives, since employees will develop loyalty for organizations that respect them as individuals, not just as workers.

Another approach to the issue of loyalty is to consider the value of the five "I's": Interesting work. No one wants to do the same boring job over and over, day after day. Although any job will require some repetitive tasks, all jobs should include at least some parts that are of high interest to employees. Information. Information is power and employees want to have the information they need to know to do their jobs better and more effectively. And, more than ever, employees want to know how they are doing in their jobs and how the company is performing overall. It is vitally important to open the channels of communication in an organization to allow employees to be informed, ask questions, and share information and to inspire them to share the vision of the company. Involvement. Managers today are faced with an incredible number of opportunities and problems and, as the speed of business continues to increase, the amount of time that they have to make decisions continues to decrease. Involving employees in decision-making, especially when the decisions affect them directly, is both respectful and practical. Not only do those closest to the problem typically have the best insight as to what to do, involving them in decision-making will increase their commitment and improve the success of implementing new ideas or change.

Similarly, management needs to follow through on promises and live the values they preach. Independence. Few employees want their every action to be closely monitored. Most employees appreciate having the flexibility to do their jobs as they see fit. Giving employees latitude increases the chance that they will perform as desired, as well as bringing additional initiative, ideas, and energy to their jobs. Employees also need to be encouraged to achieve their best potential. Increased visibility. Everyone appreciates getting credit when it is due. The occasions to share the successes of employees with others are almost limitless. Giving employees new opportunities to perform, learn, and grow as a form of recognition and thanks is highly motivating for most people. Another important strategy for improving loyalty is to implement a systematic process of performance reviews, since effective reviews can simultaneously increase employee morale and productivity.

To achieve their primary objectives, such as improving the working relationship between employee and supervisor, performance reviews should be structured so as to: Accurately define the employee's job description, including a focus on the skills most important to the employee's job Discuss the job skills the employee performs well on and identify areas that need improvement so as to fairly summarize their most recent job performance Set mutual and worthwhile goals, which are the heart of a professional growth plan Provide useful coaching to improve the employee's performance With these objectives, performance reviews can make an important and ongoing contribution to furthering each employee's career. Related to the role of performance reviews, another important influence on employee satisfaction is a sense of being led by capable management, with both immediate supervisors and senior management having a clear sense of direction for the organization. One of the forces that disconnects employees from their companies is management's ever-changing corporate focus. By introducing yet another corporate initiative, employees come to question the credibility of management and the focus of the company. They begin to wonder what the company stands for, where it's going, and if the latest initiative is yet another "here today, gone tomorrow" program. Employees are therefore skeptical at best - and cynical at worst - about their company's perpetually shifting focus.

Without a constant, long-term strategic vision, organizations risk confusing, bewildering, depressing and disconnecting with their employees. Within an environment of ever-changing focus, employees find it hard to see a strong link between their role and the company's core purpose. Alternatively, communicating a company's shared vision and establishing a shared mission with employees are important means of enhancing employee commitment. Employees feel a stronger sense of job satisfaction when they agree with the strategic decisions, especially when they are involved in developing the strategic direction. In addition to establishing and communicating a strategic vision for the company, loyalty also requires building a partnership between management and employees and creating an environment of mutual respect, involvement and open communication. Maintaining open lines of communication with employees will enable senior management to keep up with their changing needs into the future. Recent studies have shown that managers, whether front-line supervisors, project leaders, team captains or senior management, actually have more power than anyone else to reduce unwanted employee turnover because the most important factors driving employee satisfaction and commitment are largely within the direct manager's control. These include providing recognition and feedback regularly, offering opportunities to learn and grow, helping to ensure fair compensation reflecting an employee's contributions and value to the organization, fostering a good work environment, and above all, recognizing and respecting the uniqueness of each employee's competencies, needs, desires and working style.

At the supervisory level, though, managers also need to strike the right balance of using a more employee-centered leadership style, under which their employees are welcome to participate in making decisions (i.e., "leadership through collaboration"), but without going so far as to abdicate responsibility for decision-making. When the participatory approach becomes excessive, employees may feel that they are being given more responsibility than their positions should require and, thus, can feel overworked or underpaid for the work expected. It is also critically important to recognize that, when employees indicate the intention to leave, they generally do - this means that attrition can be predicted through survey measurement, which gives employers an important "window of opportunity" to foresee and address talent loss within specific departments so as to change the environment that is causing employees to leave. Research has indicated that the biggest gaps between those who intend to stay and those who intend to leave can be best summarized as (1) the opportunity for employees to use their skills effectively and (2) differing perceptions of the leadership ability of senior management.

In conjunction with these key differences, projections have shown that improvements in the areas directly related to turnover can lead to a potential 5% decrease in actual turnover, which has real financial benefits for the organization. Did you realize that employees change jobs more for career options and training opportunities than they do for money and benefits? In fact, seeking opportunities for the long term rather than just the current job has much more influence over job change than monetary compensation - it is evident that money is a satisfier, but not a driver, of employee loyalty. Similarly, it is not salary that makes a committed employee. Compensation packages, while important, have become secondary to the employees' desire to be challenged, to contribute, to be recognized and to know how they will fit into the organization. However, this is not to claim that pay and benefits are unimportant.

There are strong correlations between compensation, benefits plans and employee commitment. It should not be surprising, though, that the compensation plans with the strongest link to employee commitment are those that give employees a stake in the future success of the organization. Compensation plans in general help drive commitment when employees understand the program and believe it to be fair. It is also worth noting that the way an organization distributes money indicates what management really wants including sending a message to employees as to whether the company truly pays for performance. In short, then, there are five actions organizations should take to reduce attrition and improve employee satisfaction:

Demonstrate to employees that the company cares about them, wants them to advance in their careers and will help them satisfy their need for personal growth.
"Walk the talk" by not only communicating the corporate strategy but by also ensuring that it is applied consistently throughout the organization, including making the rewards system consistent with strategic goals.
Watch for and eliminate all inconsistencies between promoting a belief in employees and managerial behavior or policies that undermines that commitment.
Fight attrition with smart training that is not only relevant but helps broaden employee experiences and provides development opportunities.
Weed out poor managers because many employees leave their jobs because they are unhappy with their bosses - remember the adage that "people don't leave their jobs, they leave their managers."

12 Ways Employees at Larger Organziations are Less Satisfied

What was surprising was a virtual lack of significant differences between perceptions of supervisors linked to employee size. In fact, one’s immediate supervisors having a clear vision of the organization’s future was the one of the only areas of difference -- and it is not surprising given the size of larger organizations that direct supervisors do not have as clear a vision as they may at other companies (50% for <101,>500).

In looking at what employees feel is important, attitudes were fairly similar across the board, with the importance of there being someone at work who encourages your development (63% for <101,>500) appearing to be one of the only attributes showing a downward trend in importance linked to employee size. On the other hand, there were a dozen measures where assessment of performance revealed a 9 or more percentage point difference between companies with fewer than 100 versus those with over 500 employees.

1. It is possible to cut through the bureaucracy to get things done at your organization
2. Is doing a good job of hiring the right people for the appropriate positions
3. Senior management listens and responds to employee ideas
4. Providing useful coaching to improve your performance
5. At work, your opinions seem to count
6. There are few rules or tasks that get in the way of work
7. This organization shows a genuine interest in its employees
8. Employees all over the organization talk and share ideas
9. Learning new skills is a high priority in your organization
10. Employees have input into the training they receive
11. You feel that people primarily get ahead in your organization based on the merits of their work
12. Senior management encourages employees to have fun at work

These findings reveal that employees are willing to put up with less satisfaction in several areas in exchange for satisfaction is one important one -- benefits. Benefits appear to eclipse salary and job security as reasons employees who appear to be dissatisfied stay put. Of course, contributing factors to these differences may at least be somewhat attributable to industry or job functions disproportionately represented among companies with over 500, such as manufacturing and production. Nevertheless, satisfaction with benefits is just one of the areas explored by Insightlink’s 4Cs survey and, in light of these findings, Insightlink recommends spending time evaluating your organization's benefits (as assessed by employees) and making sure they provide incentive for top performers to stay. Insightlink offers separate benefit-focused surveys in addition to its well-known 4Cs survey, which includes a battery of questions about compensation generally as well as benefits specifically. Want to learn more about how Insightlink stands out from other survey companies with its 4Cs approach to employee surveys, independent norms, unparalleled service and great value? Interested in seeing how your organization can benefit from its own employee survey?

“Best Employer” surveys

Companies with high levels of employee engagement earn returns that are more than double those of the overall market. High employee engagement is one factor that shows that an employer is rated highly by its employees. Based on averages from recent “Best Employer” surveys (as reported in The Globe and Mail, December 20, 2005), here is the math on why you should care about increasing your employee engagement:


The full-time voluntary turnover rate is 8 percent for the best employers versus 11 percent for others.
The part-time voluntary turnover rate is 12 percent for the best employers versus 23 percent for others.


Among senior leadership at the best employers, 74 percent believe that their organization is investing enough to develop the next generation of leaders versus 65 percent at other organizations.


Among the best employers’ senior leaders, 64 percent believe that their organizations have an excellent succession planning process for developing leaders versus 46 percent at other organizations.


The 50 best employers who are publicly traded have an average compound annual growth rate of revenue (averaged over their past five fiscal years) of 16.4 percent per annum versus 6.1 percent at other organizations.


When looking at average cash flow return (averaged over their past five fiscal years), the best employers come in at 13.7 percent per annum versus other publicly traded participants at 10.2 percent. These are not insignificant differences. And in today's economy any company that is not looking at every available option to increase profitablity (or halt a slide in profits) would be well advised to consider the modest investment in employee engagement surveys that has proven over time to be a major factor in the success of many organizations.



Our services include:
Insightlink's 4Cs Employee Engagement Survey - a comprehensive diagnostic tool to determine how your employees feel on all 4Cs of employee satisfaction: Communications, Culture, Commitment and Compensation.


Insightlink's Exit Survey System - a powerful online exit survey management tool that provides survey results in real time and the ability to create aggregate summaries as needed.

Employee Engagement Action Planning Workbook

Both extensive research and Insightlink's own experience with clients have demonstrated that, after an employee survey has been conducted, employees are much more interested in seeing action taken than they are in seeing the results of the employee survey. In fact, employee surveys have little or no value if nothing is done to make improvements at the organization. This is why successful action planning is a critical component of successful employee surveys. Insightlink is committed to providing our clients with the tools and help they need to create effective Action Plans that are designed for their organizations specifically.
Go to www.insightlink.com to find out more about the Insightlink 4Cs Survey Feedback and Action Planning Workbook.

Cost-Justifying Employee Surveys

Cost-Justifying Employee Surveys during Tough Economic Times

In today's tough economic times, it can be hard to justify spending money on employee surveys, especially when many organizations are searching for ways to cut costs. Look further, however, and you'll see how savvy HR professionals can show senior management concrete areas where increased HR spending is actually a smart, cost-justified investment in your organization's future that will pay off in both the short- and long-term. In fact, an Insightlink 4Cs employee survey with benchmarking norms, comprehensive analysis and tools for action planning will generally cost you no more than a Starbuck's latte per employee.

Organizations of all sizes see that employee engagement is directly correlated with employee productivity and company performance. Despite this, senior management sometimes forgets it's still critical to focus on engagement, even during an economic downturn. Some figure, why bother making sure employees are satisfied when they are likely to stick around and perform anyway?

Without sufficient satisfaction on three of the 4Cs - Culture, Communications and Compensation - Commitment (the 4th C) can drop to levels where many employees will become "Dissatisfied Compromisers" with low morale and, for some, reduced productivity. Clients tell us that conducting anonymous employee opinion surveys and implementing action plans, even when there have been recent layoffs, has proven an effective, affordable way to forge ahead through even the most challenging periods. HR managers enjoy peace-of-mind when they know that the survey process will run smoothly, the data will be reliable and that they can look at results in context of Insightlink's reliable industry benchmark norms, instead of trying to wrap their arms around a mass of data without anything meaningful to compare it to.

"Don't let your profits walk out the door."

No matter what function they hold in your organization, top-performing employees are vital to the success of your business. Top performers are the employees who generate more sales, who make better decisions, who solve the difficult technical problems and who generally make life easier (and more profitable) for business owners.You definitely don't want to lose these people, but the truth is, they are not only valuable to you. They are also the types of employees most likely to be stolen away by your competitors. And they are much more expensive to replace! So how do you prevent them from taking the bait when headhunters start calling? According to research, there are five primary reasons that make employees stay with employers long term:

1. Challenging and interesting work


2. Opportunities to learn new skills and grow in their jobs


3. Good relationships with co-workers


4. Fair pay


5. A great boss

Now that you know what your top performers are looking for, you need to learn how you can give it to them. Doing this may be easier than you think. Here are five guidelines to follow.

1. Talk to your employees.While you may be nervous about the answer, the best way to find out what it will take for an employee to stay is to ask them outright. Once you've asked them, encourage them to list every factor that they can think of. It's rare that someone will say 'money' and stop there. Your real high performers are looking for growth, development and responsibility.


2. Challenge your employees with goals.Although a great boss is last on the list of what employees are looking for, it is primarily this person who can influence all of the other factors. Hence the need for good, effective management. In your position as a leader, you have the opportunity to set goals for your employees that help both of you realize a shared vision for the company. Ongoing discussion about these expectations will help to ensure that employees are inspired and positively motivated to work toward these goals.


3. Don't micro-manage.Top performers will rebel if you try to micro-manage them. Most top-performing employees need the flexibility and independence to make their own decisions. When businesses create a bureaucracy of rules and procedures which takes autonomy away from people, in time they create working environment where even though they say they respect people, they don't demonstrate that they trust them. And a lack of trust is a sure way to drive people away.


4. Keep the lines of communication open.As your company grows bigger, you must find ways to continue to communicate. Employees will start to feel separated from your business if they're hearing about major company changes through the grapevine, or reading about them in the newspaper, rather than getting it first-hand from their internal leaders. That means setting up a very efficient information flow from the top down, making sure that communication is accurate through each level. They should hear it from you first.


5. Recognize the importance of your company culture.Developing a company culture that top performers want to be involved in also is critical to retaining them. Employees will remain in a work environment where they feel they are contributing and building something that is bigger than them. Together with the team, get everyone to buy into and evolve that culture. The culture dictated from above becomes a meaningless mission statement. A culture that has benefits for the people in it, motivates and rewards everybody is what then drives your success.

Insightlink offers a variety of professional services that can help organizations both improve employee satisfaction and evaluate their reasons for leaving. Our services include:

Insightlink's 4Cs Employee Survey - a comprehensive diagnostic tool to determine how your employees feel on all 4Cs of employee satisfaction: Communications, Culture, Commitment and Compensation.

Insightlink's Exit Survey System - a powerful online exit survey management tool that provides survey results in real time and the ability to create aggregate summaries as needed.

Engagement Factors Vary by Country, Business, Function

Engagement Factors Vary by Country, Business, Function

1/23/2008
By Kathy Gurchiek

The factors that drive employees to be engaged in their work and motivate them to go beyond stated expectations vary not only from country to country but also by industry sector and within companies, according to recent research conducted among 22 countries.

It’s important for organizations expanding globally to understand what engages its workforce, according to Mercer, which has conducted the national “What’s Working” studies over the past several years.

Even among organizations with global locations that share workplace characteristics, such as English as a first language, differences in national culture, market conditions and the state of economic development influence employee engagement, according to Mercer.

Workers in the United States and the United Kingdom, for example, share only one engagement driver—a sense of personal accomplishment—rated first and second in importance, respectively.
However, the top drivers in the United Kingdom “paralleled six of the top drivers in Asia’s top market, China,” the report noted.

“Even if business leaders of multinational companies know how to engage staff in their home country offices, they might not succeed in delivering the most value for their HR investments if they simply transfer HR policies and practices to other countries,” the report says.
In looking to engage employees, Mercer reports, employers must:

1. View global HR decisions in the context of national culture.
2. Use valid research—not stereotypes—to align HR practices for a local population with actual employee attitudes and perceptions.
3. Remember that the norm for engagement varies widely from country to country, making it critical to have data on national norms to interpret employee surveys correctly.
4. Realize the elements that create engagement also create the employment brand.
5. Understand that how the organization conducts its work reflects its organizational culture. How employees are treated reflects how they treat customers or clients.

Employers want workers who are “truly engaged in their work and the success of the organization,” said Patrick Gilbert, a principal and employee research expert at Mercer, in a January 2008 press release.

An engaged employee has a vested interest in the employer’s success and whose performance level exceeds his or her job requirements. These are employees, says Gilbert, who help their organization establish a competitive advantage and drive business performance.

However, “the drivers of engagement vary from country to country and from company to company. Even within companies, the drivers will vary across different businesses and functional areas,” he said. “That’s why it’s important for employers to identify and manage the unique drivers of engagement within their own organizations. This way they can achieve maximum return on investment for their HR spending,” Patrick added.

There are four drivers of engagement that are consistent among employees around the world—

1. the work itself, including opportunities for development;
2. confidence and trust in leadership;
3. recognition and rewards; and
4. organizational communication that is delivered timely and in an orderly way.

The top factors by country, according to the findings:

• Australia: Quality of workplace relationships, including coaching.
• Brazil: Sense of personal accomplishment, confidence in senior management, training opportunities, fair pay based on performance, good reputation for customer service, comparable benefits to industry.
• Canada: Being treated respectfully, good work/life balance, feeling they can provide good service to the clients or customers.
• China: Sense of personal accomplishment, fair pay based on performance, good reputation for customer service, comparable benefits to industry, confidence in senior management, IT systems support business needs, training opportunities, regular performance feedback.
• France: Work/life balance, providing good customer service, being treated respectfully.
• India: Type of work, promotion opportunities.
• Japan: Base and incentive pay.
  Sweden: Respectful treatment, type of work they are involved with, sense of personal accomplishment.
• United Kingdom: Sense of personal accomplishment, confidence in senior management, training opportunities, fair pay based on performance, good reputation for customer service, comparable benefits to industry.
• United States: Confidence that career objectives can be met, sense of personal accomplishment, confident in organization’s success, quality is a high priority, opportunity for growth and development, information and assistance to manage career; flexibility to provide good customer service.

Companies typically can get a sense of what engages their employees by conducting employee surveys; ideally any issues that are identified are followed by some kind of action, Mercer notes.
Be wary of misinterpreting results, though. “When an organization looks at its own employee survey data, it needs to take these [cultural] differences into account,” Gilbert said. Not doing so could cause an organization’s leaders to assume that there are significant issues among its Japanese workforce and fewer issues with its Mexican workforce when, Gilbert said, “employee survey scores simply tend to be lower in Japan and higher in Mexico” when those workers rate employer performance.

It would be helpful for the employer to know if a broad cross-section of employers in that country also receives a low performance rating, Mercer points out in its paper.
Mercer’s most recent findings are based on 130 questions to working adults on a dozen topics: work processes; ethics and integrity; quality and customer focus; immediate manager; communication; performance management; work/life balance; compensation, benefits and recognition; job security and career growth; leadership and direction; teamwork and cooperation; and training and development.

Its latest findings are highlighted in the Mercer paper Engaging employees to drive global business success.

Kathy Gurchiek is associate editor for HR News.

Why Culture is Important

By S. Max Brown


Tom Long recently had a client that asked why culture is so important. Specifically, they wanted examples of organizations that were suffering because of their culture. Immediately, I thought of Home Depot and their former CEO Bob Nardelli. During his tenure – or his reign of terror – the stock went sideways and they lost market share to LOWES. He cut out recognition, railed on his employees, and slashed expenses in every direction. At the same time, they lost huge talent (100% of 100+ leaders left), and they started having trouble recruiting new talent.

In the end, Bob’s efforts to cut costs really wiped out morale, engagement, and retention. Their reputation got out in the market and qualified people stayed away.When he was fired, Newsweek magazine reported that employees were cheering in the stores. Since his departure, the new CEO has reinstituted many recognition efforts (including hand written thank you cards to store employees).

In the aftermath of this whole snafu, Inc magazine (April 2007) asked a panel of experts the following question: “Bob Nardelli’s departure left customers, shareholders, and employees of the Atlanta-based retail chain wondering whether it will ever recapture the entrepreneurial zeal that the co-founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank worked so hard to develop. How can the company go about refurbishing its good name?”

Tom Sternberg, the founder and former CEO of Staples and a partner at Highland Capital in Boston answered by saying:“First thing the company has to do is hang Bernie Marcus’s and Arthur Blank’s pictures in the lobby. They’re the two greatest entrepreneurs in American business history. They built the single best CULTURE of any business that I’m familiar with, and they built an extremely people-focused business in regard to both Home Depot’s customers and, even more important, its employees. Now you have Nardelli, this brash, abrasive egomaniac who destroyed the terrific culture in the name of efficiency, and that’s going to take decades to fix. I would try to hire back many of the phenomenal business leaders that Home Depot lost because of Nardelli. These are the folks who made Home Depot such a unique brand. I’d ask them to help put back in place the people-focused culture in order to get the company back to its prior standard of operating excellence.”

We all know that culture is important, and that is exactly why our business is so critical. Recognition drives cultures of excellence, and provides opportunities for people to appreciate one another. When you think of the havoc Bob created at Home Depot, it is easy to see how recognition is a crucial component in building a people-focused culture that really produces results. Are their costs associated with supporting a people-focused / recognition culture? Of course! Are their costs for destroying a culture? Ask Bob Nardelli or the hundreds of people he ran out of the company. Which strategy actually gets results? Is there any question?


http://smaxbrown.blogspot.com/2007/10/why-culture-is-important.html

Why culture is so important to employee engagement

By S. Max Brown

Tom Long recently had a client that asked why culture is so important. Specifically, they wanted examples of organizations that were suffering because of their culture. Immediately, I thought of Home Depot and their former CEO Bob Nardelli. During his tenure – or his reign of terror – the stock went sideways and they lost market share to LOWES. He cut out recognition, railed on his employees, and slashed expenses in every direction. At the same time, they lost huge talent (100% of 100+ leaders left), and they started having trouble recruiting new talent. In the end, Bob’s efforts to cut costs really wiped out morale, engagement, and retention. Their reputation got out in the market and qualified people stayed away.When he was fired, Newsweek magazine reported that employees were cheering in the stores. Since his departure, the new CEO has reinstituted many recognition efforts (including hand written thank you cards to store employees).

In the aftermath of this whole snafu, Inc magazine (April 2007) asked a panel of experts the following question: “Bob Nardelli’s departure left customers, shareholders, and employees of the Atlanta-based retail chain wondering whether it will ever recapture the entrepreneurial zeal that the co-founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank worked so hard to develop. How can the company go about refurbishing its good name?”

Tom Sternberg, the founder and former CEO of Staples and a partner at Highland Capital in Boston answered by saying:“First thing the company has to do is hang Bernie Marcus’s and Arthur Blank’s pictures in the lobby. They’re the two greatest entrepreneurs in American business history. They built the single best CULTURE of any business that I’m familiar with, and they built an extremely people-focused business in regard to both Home Depot’s customers and, even more important, its employees. Now you have Nardelli, this brash, abrasive egomaniac who destroyed the terrific culture in the name of efficiency, and that’s going to take decades to fix. I would try to hire back many of the phenomenal business leaders that Home Depot lost because of Nardelli. These are the folks who made Home Depot such a unique brand. I’d ask them to help put back in place the people-focused culture in order to get the company back to its prior standard of operating excellence.”

We all know that culture is important, and that is exactly why our business is so critical. Recognition drives cultures of excellence, and provides opportunities for people to appreciate one another. When you think of the havoc Bob created at Home Depot, it is easy to see how recognition is a crucial component in building a people-focused culture that really produces results. Are their costs associated with supporting a people-focused / recognition culture? Of course! Are their costs for destroying a culture? Ask Bob Nardelli or the hundreds of people he ran out of the company. Which strategy actually gets results? Is there any question?

http://smaxbrown.blogspot.com/2007/10/why-culture-is-important.html

7 Organizational Inputs into Employee Engagement

David Zinger on Employee Engagement
Employee Engagement: Monday Morning Percolator #26

To achieve full levels of employee engagement, efforts must come from organizations, leaders, and employees. This will outline 7 actions organizations can take to foster higher levels of employee engagement.

1. Assess and remove any roadblocks or hurdles to employee engagement. Ask employees what could be removed or lessened to increase their level of engagement with the organization.
2. Create a culture where employee engagement is valued, discussed, shared, and lived. Employee engagement needs to be both recognized and appreciated.
3. Ensure that the top leaders within the organization are committed to employee engagement, engaged themselves, and they are willing and committed to investing organizational resources into the engagement initiatives.
4. Move beyond measuring employee engagement to taking action on those measures. Attend to your metrics but focus on your people.
5. Help employees see the benefit of employee engagement for themselves and their customers. Don’t let your engagement initiatives become organizational manipulations to merely squeeze out more productivity and discretionary effort from employees.
6. Study your highly engaged employees to determine the vital behaviors they perform that contribute to their high level of engagement. Once those behaviors are determined work at spreading those behaviors to other people within the organization. Strive to make employee engagement a viral phenomenon for the organization.
7. Educate leaders and managers within the organization on how to foster employee engagement and help leaders understand and leverage their key role in employee engagement efforts.

http://davidzinger.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/7-organizational-inputs-into-employee-engagement-mmp26/

Culture and Engagement - Our Time To Act by Joe Gerstandt

Culture and Engagement

Still reflecting on the topic of organizational culture, and its importance, and it is probably worth taking a look at employee engagement. If you have been paying any attention to anything in the world of human resources, talent management, organizational behavior and organizational development during the past decade, you know that engagement matters. It matters a lot.
There are a number of definitions out there, a growing mountain of research (and pricey consulting services) all related to the issue of engagement. Choose the research, framework and definitions that work for you, but for me engagement is primarily about the deployment of discretionary effort. A person that makes the extra effort, that sacrifices and does more than what is technically required of them is engaged.

It is getting a bit dated, but I still like the information in Driving Performance and Retention Through Employee Engagement that was released by the Corporate Leadership Council in 2004. It can be found in this larger piece on engagement (pages 2-13). They define employee engagement as "the extent to which employees commit to something or someone in their organization, how hard they work, and how long they stay as a result of that commitment." So their definition sounds fancier than mine, but I like it, and I think it is probably important to include the idea of an employee's intent to stay.

So they did one of their big ass surveys of over 50,000 employees at 59 global organizations and came up with some insights regarding employee engagement.

It IS really important - engaged employees perform 20% better and are 87% more likely to stay. An analysis of both rational and emotional forms of engagement reveals that emotional engagement (emotional commitment to job, to organization, to team, to manager) is four times more valuable than rational engagement in driving employee effort. Most important among the 25 highest-impact drivers of engagement are a connection between employees' job and organizational strategy and employee understanding of how important their job is to organizational success. Also critical for increasing engagement levels are numerous manager characteristics and cultural traits, such as good internal communication, integrity, a culture of innovation.

The Top Five most effective levers for increasing engagement were:

Connection Between Work and Organizational Strategy
Importance of Job to Organizational Success
Understanding How to Complete Work Projects
Internal Communications
Demonstrated Strong Commitment to Diversity

What sticks out to me about the insights from this study is that are pointing towards things that have a lot to do with organizational culture. i would say that all five of these are in some way connected to an organizations culture, some more than others.

In my first post on organizational culture, I said that it could act as a force-multiplier for us and I think that employee engagement is an example of exactly that. If your culture is one that is highly engaging for employees, you are going to outperform groups that have similar resources with lower engagement....remember engaged employees perform 20% better and are 87% more likely to stay. Your organizational culture can help make this happen.

I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but organizational (and team, and community) culture is really important and potentially really powerful. It is a key factor in the longevity of your organization, as well as employee engagement and retention, your ability to innovate and more.

So. What is your culture strategic plan? What kind of resources are budgeted for architecting your culture? How many meetings, how many conversations are specifically about organizational culture? Do you have goals? Measurements? Maybe not. And so here we have this really powerful thing that we can use to make our organization really powerful and it is simply adrift at sea. We are in many ways absentee landlords when it comes to our organizational culture.
But it is simple to start. You can start by just making a few notes for your own consideration, to help develop your understanding of your current organizational culture.

Describe your organizational culture (either in narrative format or with a list of attributes), here are a few questions to help spur your thinking:

How do meetings work in your organization, are they very formal/ structured/rigid or are they a free-flowing exchange of ideas? Are they common or rare? Are they high-energy or low-energy? Productive or not?

How are questions viewed in your organization? Are they welcomed and embraced or do they result in defensiveness / debate posturing?

How are mistakes and risk-taking treated in your organization? When something does not work out as planned it is used for shared learning?

How are new ideas viewed in your organization? Are new ideas judged on their merit or are they judged based on who they come from?

Are conversations open/honest/candid? Are there undiscussables? Are there topics that are off limits?

Who determines the culture?

Now think about whether this organizational culture that you have started to describe matches with what the organization claims to be (mission statement, public perception, etc.)...and why or why not?

We are going to look at some more focused and research based tools later, but I think these are some good questions to reflect on to start wrapping your hands around what your organizations culture is and what that means for its success and for its future...and what it means for you.

What does 'employee engagement' MEAN to your business?

Culture to Engage
Tips, examples, and how-to insights to grow the employee engagement culture you want for your company, brought to you by Tim Wright, MBA.

Between encouragement and engagement April 22, 2009

What does employee engagement mean to your business?

We're not talking "what's the value of employee engagement?" We're talking what does it mean? How do you define it? When you and your people talk about it, is everyone on the same page?

It's critical to know your business's meaning of employee engagement.

Here are just 3 good reasons:

Don't waste money. A portion of every dollar you spend to stimulate employee engagement is wasted if you have not clearly defined the nature, structure, shape and size of employee engagement you want as a result.

Don't waste time. Read the above statement; substitute "hour" for"dollar". Time is money.

Don't waste motivation. Your people get excited and eager to engage. Then they realize the type of engagement, the reason for the engagement, the results of the engagement are not clear. Not clear for you or them.

You want to have a clear, even measurable, awareness of what employee engagement looks like, what it is, what it does, what it provides. Here are 3 steps to get you there

• As a group (to insure common understanding) leadership/management specify what is the business's success: profit, earnings, expenses, market share,
  recognition, customer loyalty...
• Leadership/management discuss how each department, function, job contributes to achieving the success.
• Management and employee representatives name observable signs of an employee's full engagement in contributing. They also name observable signs of your entire employee base full engagement.