by Mark Harbeke
Is the number of BFFs (Best Friends Forever) a company creates among its workforce from effective employee engagement activities directly tied to the number of highly engaged employees it has (which affects everything from retention to productivity)?
That's my takeaway from reading Catherine Mattice's synthesis of employee engagement research on "High-Quality Connections" by Jane Dutton and Emily Heaphy on the No Workplace Bullies blog. Mattice writes that "People who have a best friend at work are more highly engaged and significantly more likely to engage their customers."
Maybe Winning Workplaces' Top Small Workplaces are hip to the same academic findings. A trend of our winning organizations is that they use their small size to their advantage by creating a work environment and team building activities that they actively bill as "family friendly."
Now, I'm not saying that just creating the conditions for a "work family" means that teams are hanging out at the local watering hole three times a week. But we've seen that doing so increases the likelihood for a scenario like this to play out – and that, in turn, increases innovation because casual conversations drift into "shop talk."
Showing posts with label employee morale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label employee morale. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Worker Unhappiness is Worker Unhappiness, in Any Unemployment Environment
by Mark Harbeke
There's a weird duality going on right now in the workforce. Unemployment recently topped 10% nationally – the highest it's been in over 25 years. This is distressing, to be sure, but what really has my attention is studies like the one referenced here which tell us that despite the bleak job outlook, lots of employees are unhappy with their current jobs and are looking to leave as soon as they can.
Surveying over 900 North American workers, Right Management found that 60% intend to leave their jobs – although the asterisk here is, if that the economy continues to improve. In an editorial a few months ago, Winning Workplaces pointed to a study in Newsweek which found that half of American employees say they'll look for a job once the recession ends.
Of course, we're not out of the woods yet when it comes to our fragile economy. Much more recently – last month – Newsweek reported that a new, "echo" market bubble may be brewing. If what the magazine describes plays out, and this bubble bursts like the last one, no doubt many workers will be changing their minds in these turnover-focused polls and push back or put off entirely their plans to change jobs.
I continue to believe that meaningful employee engagement and team building strategies can be the glue that helps hold companies together and keep them going, especially small ones when we face macro-economic problems like market bubbles bursting. In bad times, leaders can turn to these practices to level with their staff and take a temperature read on making group sacrifices, such as across-the-board pay cuts, so layoffs can be avoided.
We have written extensively about the chief benefits for companies that "share the pain" in tough times: retention of their valuable workforce, and competitive advantage over their peers when the latter inevitably need to do more hiring in a short time when things pick up. But there is another, less tangible but no less powerful benefit: companies whose workplace culture is all about communications team building have happier employees.
And happier employees, as Administaff and many others have concluded, are synonymous with greater productivity. That sets up a foundation for success, in any economy.
There's a weird duality going on right now in the workforce. Unemployment recently topped 10% nationally – the highest it's been in over 25 years. This is distressing, to be sure, but what really has my attention is studies like the one referenced here which tell us that despite the bleak job outlook, lots of employees are unhappy with their current jobs and are looking to leave as soon as they can.
Surveying over 900 North American workers, Right Management found that 60% intend to leave their jobs – although the asterisk here is, if that the economy continues to improve. In an editorial a few months ago, Winning Workplaces pointed to a study in Newsweek which found that half of American employees say they'll look for a job once the recession ends.
Of course, we're not out of the woods yet when it comes to our fragile economy. Much more recently – last month – Newsweek reported that a new, "echo" market bubble may be brewing. If what the magazine describes plays out, and this bubble bursts like the last one, no doubt many workers will be changing their minds in these turnover-focused polls and push back or put off entirely their plans to change jobs.
I continue to believe that meaningful employee engagement and team building strategies can be the glue that helps hold companies together and keep them going, especially small ones when we face macro-economic problems like market bubbles bursting. In bad times, leaders can turn to these practices to level with their staff and take a temperature read on making group sacrifices, such as across-the-board pay cuts, so layoffs can be avoided.
We have written extensively about the chief benefits for companies that "share the pain" in tough times: retention of their valuable workforce, and competitive advantage over their peers when the latter inevitably need to do more hiring in a short time when things pick up. But there is another, less tangible but no less powerful benefit: companies whose workplace culture is all about communications team building have happier employees.
And happier employees, as Administaff and many others have concluded, are synonymous with greater productivity. That sets up a foundation for success, in any economy.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Four Reasons NOT to Conduct an Employee Survey
Four Reasons NOT to Conduct an Employee Survey
by by Heather Stagl of Enclaria
September 22, 2009
Employee surveys are useful tools for understanding the beliefs, attitudes and opinions of an organization as a whole. Surveys are commonly used in pursuit of change to discover and understand organizational culture, resistance, morale, and a host of other characteristics that can shine the light on opportunities for improvement.
However, not all surveys will improve the situation. The following are four warning signs that conducting a survey may do more harm than good.
1. The leaders don’t really want to know what people think.
The people who hold the top spots in an organization are usually out of the feedback loop. As they move up the ladder, they are increasingly unaware of the pulse of the organization. When the intent to conduct an employee survey is proposed, leaders who understand this phenomenon will jump at the chance to collect information that they have gradually been phased out of. These leaders will want more details about what will be asked, and might even propose other questions that they would like to ask.
On the flip side of the coin are leaders who think they already know, or worse, don’t really care what the employees think or how they feel. If you propose an employee survey and receive a resounding, “Sure, go ahead” without any curiosity or concerns, beware. They probably don’t really want to know what people think.
2. The leaders won’t believe the results.
Sometimes leaders will dismiss the results of the survey, even if it seems they wanted to know. I once conducted an employee satisfaction survey that I created in-house due to lack of funds for the project. Once I presented the results, the leaders wanted benchmarks to compare against to see if the results were “normal.” Of course, having created the survey in-house, there was no other data to compare them against.
Before conducting a survey, watch for signs that the leaders commonly deflect accountability by picking apart the validity of numbers in other settings. One way to combat this scenario ahead of time is to discuss the output that will be generated from the survey. Discuss hypothetical results with the leadership team to determine up front what else they will want to know, so you can build it into your analysis.
3. The leaders won’t do anything about it.
Even leaders who want to know and believe the results still may not do anything about it. If employees give their opinion and then nothing is done, the integrity of the leaders and you as the surveyor drops, and future surveys will not be taken as seriously.
When discussing hypothetical results, gauge the interest of leaders in taking action. For example, if the survey says that people don’t know the direction the company is going, are the leaders willing to share strategic information? If the answer is no, then don’t bother asking.
To combat the first three reasons not to conduct an employee survey, make sure leaders know the questions you are asking and what you are actually measuring with the questions. Discuss ahead of time what the implications and actions might be based on hypothetical responses you think they might have trouble absorbing.
4. You don’t want to say what you already know
The fourth reason not to conduct an employee survey, instead of being directed at the leadership team, is directed at the surveyor. Are you conducting the survey because you don’t know the answers, or are you conducting the survey because you don’t want to say what you already know? Is fear getting in the way of you speaking up and sharing the problems you see in the organization? Is the survey actually a cop-out?
If any of that rings true, here’s an idea for you: Include your point of view in the proposal for the survey. State your hypothesis – what you believe to be true – and say you would like to conduct a survey to test it. Share the implications and the action plan for improving the situation if you are right. Then offer the option to skip the survey if they agree – they just might. If they don’t agree with your hypothesis, then you will still conduct the survey. Not only will you get more involvement from people who disagree with you, it will also be more scientific and objective than if you were just using the to communicate for you.
Yes, surveys can be very useful tools to help direct a change initiative. That is, of course, if the leaders want to know what employees think, will believe the results, and will do something with the opportunities that are revealed.
by by Heather Stagl of Enclaria
September 22, 2009
Employee surveys are useful tools for understanding the beliefs, attitudes and opinions of an organization as a whole. Surveys are commonly used in pursuit of change to discover and understand organizational culture, resistance, morale, and a host of other characteristics that can shine the light on opportunities for improvement.
However, not all surveys will improve the situation. The following are four warning signs that conducting a survey may do more harm than good.
1. The leaders don’t really want to know what people think.
The people who hold the top spots in an organization are usually out of the feedback loop. As they move up the ladder, they are increasingly unaware of the pulse of the organization. When the intent to conduct an employee survey is proposed, leaders who understand this phenomenon will jump at the chance to collect information that they have gradually been phased out of. These leaders will want more details about what will be asked, and might even propose other questions that they would like to ask.
On the flip side of the coin are leaders who think they already know, or worse, don’t really care what the employees think or how they feel. If you propose an employee survey and receive a resounding, “Sure, go ahead” without any curiosity or concerns, beware. They probably don’t really want to know what people think.
2. The leaders won’t believe the results.
Sometimes leaders will dismiss the results of the survey, even if it seems they wanted to know. I once conducted an employee satisfaction survey that I created in-house due to lack of funds for the project. Once I presented the results, the leaders wanted benchmarks to compare against to see if the results were “normal.” Of course, having created the survey in-house, there was no other data to compare them against.
Before conducting a survey, watch for signs that the leaders commonly deflect accountability by picking apart the validity of numbers in other settings. One way to combat this scenario ahead of time is to discuss the output that will be generated from the survey. Discuss hypothetical results with the leadership team to determine up front what else they will want to know, so you can build it into your analysis.
3. The leaders won’t do anything about it.
Even leaders who want to know and believe the results still may not do anything about it. If employees give their opinion and then nothing is done, the integrity of the leaders and you as the surveyor drops, and future surveys will not be taken as seriously.
When discussing hypothetical results, gauge the interest of leaders in taking action. For example, if the survey says that people don’t know the direction the company is going, are the leaders willing to share strategic information? If the answer is no, then don’t bother asking.
To combat the first three reasons not to conduct an employee survey, make sure leaders know the questions you are asking and what you are actually measuring with the questions. Discuss ahead of time what the implications and actions might be based on hypothetical responses you think they might have trouble absorbing.
4. You don’t want to say what you already know
The fourth reason not to conduct an employee survey, instead of being directed at the leadership team, is directed at the surveyor. Are you conducting the survey because you don’t know the answers, or are you conducting the survey because you don’t want to say what you already know? Is fear getting in the way of you speaking up and sharing the problems you see in the organization? Is the survey actually a cop-out?
If any of that rings true, here’s an idea for you: Include your point of view in the proposal for the survey. State your hypothesis – what you believe to be true – and say you would like to conduct a survey to test it. Share the implications and the action plan for improving the situation if you are right. Then offer the option to skip the survey if they agree – they just might. If they don’t agree with your hypothesis, then you will still conduct the survey. Not only will you get more involvement from people who disagree with you, it will also be more scientific and objective than if you were just using the to communicate for you.
Yes, surveys can be very useful tools to help direct a change initiative. That is, of course, if the leaders want to know what employees think, will believe the results, and will do something with the opportunities that are revealed.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Case Studies in Employee Engagement
by David Zinger
Let’s look at a couple of case studies on employee engagement.
Case study #1:
Tina works at a local gas station as the cashier. Tina is fully engaged. She offers welcoming teasing/banter with each customer, she is the most efficient person I have seen on a cash register, she engages the other employees and has them providing more efficient service, and she uses the word ‘we’ when she talks about the company she works for. I will go out of my way to get gas when Tina is working there.
Tina is an exceptional model of employee engagement. She doesn’t know what the term means; she has never been surveyed. When I asked her about her approach to work and her level of engagement, she was surprised by the question and took it for granted that everyone should be engaged.
Case study #2:
Bob is the antithesis of Tina and was chronically disengaged on the job before finally retiring. He even built a spreadsheet to determine when his last day of work would be and couldn’t wait till the day arrived. He hated his job, he hated the people he worked with, and he didn’t care for his company. When I asked him if there was something he did like, he replied, “golf.”
I bumped into Bob a year after he retired and he still looked miserable. I asked him about golf and now he hated golf. He told me it was like a job to him and exhibited how disengagement at work can seep into the rest of our lives outside the company.
The ‘key’ to successful employee engagement
Whether you’re a Tina or a Bob, when it comes to employee engagement, I believe there is value in the plethora of perspectives to show the richness of the concept and that it is necessary to give space for each company, organization, and individual to play engagement in their own key.
Engagement helps employees remain valuable while ensuring the organization is viable. Engagement is not only how we approach work but can also act as a compass to powerful leadership, management, and performance.
Let’s look at a couple of case studies on employee engagement.
Case study #1:
Tina works at a local gas station as the cashier. Tina is fully engaged. She offers welcoming teasing/banter with each customer, she is the most efficient person I have seen on a cash register, she engages the other employees and has them providing more efficient service, and she uses the word ‘we’ when she talks about the company she works for. I will go out of my way to get gas when Tina is working there.
Tina is an exceptional model of employee engagement. She doesn’t know what the term means; she has never been surveyed. When I asked her about her approach to work and her level of engagement, she was surprised by the question and took it for granted that everyone should be engaged.
Case study #2:
Bob is the antithesis of Tina and was chronically disengaged on the job before finally retiring. He even built a spreadsheet to determine when his last day of work would be and couldn’t wait till the day arrived. He hated his job, he hated the people he worked with, and he didn’t care for his company. When I asked him if there was something he did like, he replied, “golf.”
I bumped into Bob a year after he retired and he still looked miserable. I asked him about golf and now he hated golf. He told me it was like a job to him and exhibited how disengagement at work can seep into the rest of our lives outside the company.
The ‘key’ to successful employee engagement
Whether you’re a Tina or a Bob, when it comes to employee engagement, I believe there is value in the plethora of perspectives to show the richness of the concept and that it is necessary to give space for each company, organization, and individual to play engagement in their own key.
Engagement helps employees remain valuable while ensuring the organization is viable. Engagement is not only how we approach work but can also act as a compass to powerful leadership, management, and performance.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Southwest Airlines - Lessons in Employee Engagement
My First Flight on Southwest Airlines - Lessons in Employee Engagement
Posted Friday, September 4, 2009 by Mark Harbeke
For a series of meetings this week back at our Chicago HQ, I flew on Southwest Airlines for the first time ever. While it was a little weird to choose your own seat, I think it actually made for a better flight experience because it got people talking to each other a little more than usually happens.
When a passenger dropped her water bottle and it slid back several rows, I don't think there would have been nearly as many smiles among people passing it back up to her (including yours truly) as there were if the airline didn't set a casual, "it's just air travel, folks" attitude from the get-go.
But really making the difference were Southwest's caring, exuberant flight crew. Attendants did more checks on passengers on the first leg of my roundtrip flight than I've seen them do on multiple roundtrips on other carriers. On arrival at Chicago Midway Airport the captain even joked, "Don't forget any of your belongings, including husbands and wives."
How does Southwest get seemingly more commitment out of their employees than do other airlines? Colleen Barrett, their President Emeritus who still works closely with the Texas-based company on employee development strategies, told us it boils down to two things: creating a culture of ownership and hiring people who are servant leaders.
My flight back to Los Angeles was further enriched by Southwest's in-house magazine, Spirit. Their September issue just so happens to feature a lengthy cover story on entrepreneurship. Two highlighted small business facts in particular stood out to me:
Average years a small business survives: 11.2
Average annual revenue of a small business: $3.6 million
As I've noted here before, our Top Small Workplaces, which use employee engagement best practices as a means to improve business metrics, leave these stats in the dust (or maybe, in keeping with the theme here, on the ground):
Average years a Top Small Workplace (2008) survives: 42
Average annual revenue of a Top Small Workplace (2008): $36 million
Posted Friday, September 4, 2009 by Mark Harbeke
For a series of meetings this week back at our Chicago HQ, I flew on Southwest Airlines for the first time ever. While it was a little weird to choose your own seat, I think it actually made for a better flight experience because it got people talking to each other a little more than usually happens.
When a passenger dropped her water bottle and it slid back several rows, I don't think there would have been nearly as many smiles among people passing it back up to her (including yours truly) as there were if the airline didn't set a casual, "it's just air travel, folks" attitude from the get-go.
But really making the difference were Southwest's caring, exuberant flight crew. Attendants did more checks on passengers on the first leg of my roundtrip flight than I've seen them do on multiple roundtrips on other carriers. On arrival at Chicago Midway Airport the captain even joked, "Don't forget any of your belongings, including husbands and wives."
How does Southwest get seemingly more commitment out of their employees than do other airlines? Colleen Barrett, their President Emeritus who still works closely with the Texas-based company on employee development strategies, told us it boils down to two things: creating a culture of ownership and hiring people who are servant leaders.
My flight back to Los Angeles was further enriched by Southwest's in-house magazine, Spirit. Their September issue just so happens to feature a lengthy cover story on entrepreneurship. Two highlighted small business facts in particular stood out to me:
Average years a small business survives: 11.2
Average annual revenue of a small business: $3.6 million
As I've noted here before, our Top Small Workplaces, which use employee engagement best practices as a means to improve business metrics, leave these stats in the dust (or maybe, in keeping with the theme here, on the ground):
Average years a Top Small Workplace (2008) survives: 42
Average annual revenue of a Top Small Workplace (2008): $36 million
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Employee Engagement Trick: Get in on the Conversation Quickly
Employee Engagement Trick: Get in on the Conversation Quickly
Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2009 by Mark Harbeke
Are you ready for a very short post with a very effective tip for employee engagement and manager team building?
One of my friends who's an attorney came up with this a while back to comfortably break the ice with a group of people who are talking and get immediately up to speed on what they're talking about. Instead of saying,
Excuse me, but what are you talking about?
ask,
Whose birthday is it?
My friend has found that when he does this, without fail someone responds, "Oh, it's no one's birthday. We were just talking about _____."
The uses for this trick in the workplace are many:
Owners, leaders, managers – use to encourage productivity before or after daily huddles, or any time you see groups of employees gathered in discussion.
Low- and mid-level employees – use to break into the convo with both workers at your level and even supervisors.
New hires – use as a smooth ice breaker to meet your coworkers and get a sense of the organization's pulse.
Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2009 by Mark Harbeke
Are you ready for a very short post with a very effective tip for employee engagement and manager team building?
One of my friends who's an attorney came up with this a while back to comfortably break the ice with a group of people who are talking and get immediately up to speed on what they're talking about. Instead of saying,
Excuse me, but what are you talking about?
ask,
Whose birthday is it?
My friend has found that when he does this, without fail someone responds, "Oh, it's no one's birthday. We were just talking about _____."
The uses for this trick in the workplace are many:
Owners, leaders, managers – use to encourage productivity before or after daily huddles, or any time you see groups of employees gathered in discussion.
Low- and mid-level employees – use to break into the convo with both workers at your level and even supervisors.
New hires – use as a smooth ice breaker to meet your coworkers and get a sense of the organization's pulse.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
10 Best Practices: Transitioning to Work at Home
10 Best Practices: Transitioning to Work at Home
Posted Tuesday, August 25, 2009 by Mark Harbeke
Here are 10 best practices from my own experience. Feel free to add to this list by sharing your own thoughts or experiences below.
To have a better chance of getting buy-in from leadership, explain how service levels will be maintained, and/or costs saved. I do 98% of my work on a computer, so I knew I could be based anywhere. I was also able to identify cost savings as a result of not needing to take public transportation to work and have that be reimbursed (a company benefit).
You can't over-communicate to your coworkers as far as when you're leaving. Make sure they have ample lead time to be able to wrap up any standing projects before you hit the road, Jack.
Whatever amount of time you think you'll need to pack up your workspace, double it. Trust me, you'll run short on time here if you make a conservative or even middle-of-the-road estimate.
Another note on packing: it's a great opportunity for spring cleaning! Which files do you really need? (How many are already stored electronically?) How much space do you envision in your home office? That will help dictate how many boxes you'll need. This is another opportunity to demonstrate a cost savings to your employer if, like me, you need to have your files shipped to you: "I thought I would need eight boxes, but I did some consolidating and I only need five."
If – again, like me – you're not merely moving your office to where you live now but are relocating to a new city, don't forget to think about how your new 'hood will affect your work environment. Arrange multiple on-site visits if possible at different times of the day so you can get a sense of anything that might be an external distraction, such as traffic or construction. On a related note, could your work activity annoy your neighbors? (Maybe you like to blast music while making sales calls. I don't know.)
Your new home office space shouldn't be an afterthought. Especially if you have a family, you need to be intentional about the workspace. Draw up a floorplan (a crude, napkin-quality one is fine) and map out the dimensions of your space.
When doing the above step, think about the work environment you've been used to and what you'd like it to be. Are you the kind of person who works best with a general din going on around you? You might not need a room all to yourself in this case. If you're worried about pets or kids disturbing you, though, and feel you need to isolate yourself to do your best work, make your own room – or at least a cordoned-off area with the help of tension rods and curtains – a priority.
High-speed Internet is an absolute must. Shop around for an ISP in your area that can provide both Business Class Internet and a static IP address. You'll need the latter to set up a virtual private network (VPN) with the help of hardware like this. (Yet another cost savings opportunity for your employer: if you think you'll use your work PC for both business and home, offer to split the monthly cost of the Internet connection with them.)
You will undoubtedly miss that person-to-person contact you had in your regular office environment. Your phone and a webcam can be vital tools to help you feel as connected as you were before. When communicating via email, be clear about project expectations and deadlines, and encourage the same from your coworkers. You'll find that minutes of staff meetings, especially those you may miss while transitioning, are as good as gold.
It is even more important when working from home to learn and put to use this time-tested business lesson: know when to say no. Make it a habit to under-promise and over-deliver.
Working from home can improve your virtual team building skills to enhance employee leadership development. From a management perspective, because it promotes work/life balance, it can be a great way of investing in your workplace.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Motivating Employees in a Tough Economy
Most companies have cut costs in 2009 through a combination of layoffs, hiring freezes, educed employee training and reevaluating various other HR programs, according to a 2008 fourth quarter study by global consulting firm Watson Wyatt.
With the deepening recession, widespread layoffs and mounting financial crisis, motivating employees in 2009 may seem like an impossible task. The importance of motivating employees in this economic environment is more critical than ever for your company's long-term success. Employee surveys can play a helpful role in understanding the deeper reasons employees are unmotivated and disengaged. Even in a tough economy when budgets are tight, investing in your employees can have both short-term and long-term pay offs in increased levels of commitment and productivity.
In stressful economic times, especially if layoffs or cutbacks are a reality or a risk, giving your workforce the opportunity to voice their concerns can have a profound effect on morale.This recently published article from Wharton University of Pennsylvania examines the issue. In a paper titled, "Does the Stock Market Fully Value Intangibles? Employee Satisfaction and Equity Prices," the stock returns of companies with high employee satisfaction are compared to various benchmarks -- the broader market, peer firms in the same industry, and companies with similar characteristics. Research indicates that firms cited as good places to work earn returns that are more than double those of the overall market.With those kinds of returns, investing in employee satisfaction should be a no-brainer, yet management is sometimes slow to realize the benefits. Insightlink can help you. Investing in an Insightlink 4Cs Employee Survey and taking positive action with our 4Cs Action Planning Guide can be a bridge to higher profits as well as tool for improving employee satisfaction.
With the deepening recession, widespread layoffs and mounting financial crisis, motivating employees in 2009 may seem like an impossible task. The importance of motivating employees in this economic environment is more critical than ever for your company's long-term success. Employee surveys can play a helpful role in understanding the deeper reasons employees are unmotivated and disengaged. Even in a tough economy when budgets are tight, investing in your employees can have both short-term and long-term pay offs in increased levels of commitment and productivity.
In stressful economic times, especially if layoffs or cutbacks are a reality or a risk, giving your workforce the opportunity to voice their concerns can have a profound effect on morale.This recently published article from Wharton University of Pennsylvania examines the issue. In a paper titled, "Does the Stock Market Fully Value Intangibles? Employee Satisfaction and Equity Prices," the stock returns of companies with high employee satisfaction are compared to various benchmarks -- the broader market, peer firms in the same industry, and companies with similar characteristics. Research indicates that firms cited as good places to work earn returns that are more than double those of the overall market.With those kinds of returns, investing in employee satisfaction should be a no-brainer, yet management is sometimes slow to realize the benefits. Insightlink can help you. Investing in an Insightlink 4Cs Employee Survey and taking positive action with our 4Cs Action Planning Guide can be a bridge to higher profits as well as tool for improving employee satisfaction.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Employee Engagement, Commitment and Satisfaction
"Companies with high levels of employee engagement earn returns that are more than double those of the overall market" As HR managers consider the various options open to them for conducting their employee surveys, here at Insightlink we've been asked questions relating to the role of "employee engagement" in our surveys. In particular, we've been asked to compare our approach with that of alternatives such as the Hewitt Engagement Model and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Insightlink's standard 4Cs employee survey contains many of the same measures that organizations use to assess employee engagement, such as "You are willing to work above and beyond the call of duty for your organization," "Your work gives you a feeling of personal accomplishment" and "You feel proud to work at this organization."
However, our experience analyzing numerous employee studies is that employee engagement alone is not a sufficient barometer with which to gauge organizational performance, particularly in terms of influencing more concrete measures such as predicting turnover. In fact, our experience with employee engagement as a survey measure is very similar to the conclusions of the article "Work Engagement in Japan: Validation of the Japanese Version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale" that (a) all engagement items load on a single factor (rather than the multiple factors included in the Work Engagement Scale), which means that the scale is evaluating just one construct, and (b) that work engagement is positively related to job satisfaction. In other words, we place much more emphasis on the measure of employee satisfaction (using the 5 point scale "Extremely satisfied," "Very satisfied," "Somewhat satisfied," "Not very satisfied" and "Not at all satisfied") as the key predictor of organizational well-being. Our approach has been validated by a recent article from Wharton University of Pennsylvania called "Does the Stock Market Fully Value Intangibles? Employee Satisfaction and Equity Prices."
To obtain a copy of the full article, contact us at info@insightlink.com For this study, they examined the stock returns of companies with high employee satisfaction and compared them to various benchmarks, including the broader market, peer firms in the same industry, and companies with similar characteristics. They concluded from this evaluation that companies with high levels of employee satisfaction earn returns that are more than double those of the overall market. Our own model of employee satisfaction uses a range of factors to help explain an organization's level of employee satisfaction, which we summarize as the "4Cs": Culture, Commitment (which includes engagement), Communications and Compensation. These findings are then used to highlight both the main strengths of the organization and its primary opportunities for improvement. In all Insightlink 4Cs surveys, we also create what we call the "Loyalty and Engagement Matrix," which is a four-quadrant calculation that combines the level of employee satisfaction with anticipated tenure (a measures that has been proven to be an accurate predictor of eventual behavior) to create the following segments:
Committed Loyalists: Extremely/very satisfied with their jobs and plan to stay 2 or more years
Satisfied Opportunists: Extremely/very satisfied with their jobs and plan to stay less than 2 years
Dissatisfied Compromisers: Somewhat/not very/not at all satisfied with their jobs and plan to stay 2 or more years
Change Seekers: Somewhat/not very/not at all satisfied with their jobs and plan to stay less than 2 years
In most cases, we've found that the sum of Change Seekers and Satisfied Opportunists is usually pretty close to the organization's actual level of employee turnover. In response to a question about the engagement level of Millenial employees (specifically, "of course I think about leaving all the time -- I'm young and I have a long career ahead of me, but that doesn't mean I'm not engaged"), we would place more emphasis on their likelihood of leaving, since that can easily translate into turnover regardless of their level of engagement.
On a related note, we find the prospects of advancement within an organization can be just as important as current engagement in terms of preventing turnover, although many companies do not pay enough sufficient attention to the importance of career advancement/enhancement in their HR management. Our main focus of analysis, however, is on the Dissatisfied Compromisers. Since they are not satisfied with their jobs but plan to stay, they can have a very detrimental impact not only on individual productivity but also overall morale. We focus our analysis on determining what changes the organization needs to make to shift them into becoming Committed Loyalists. The good news is that we find that, when organizations commit to creating Action Plans based on the survey results, they can see improvements in overall satisfaction, with similar declines in the other segments. On average, we measure an increase in 7 percentage points between studies in top two box overall satisfaction.
To learn more about how Insightlink approaches the issues of employee engagement, commitment and satisfaction or For a guided Webinar walking you through Insightlink's 4Cs survey process, contact us at info@insightlink.com or call 866-802-8095 x705.
Insightlink offers a variety of professional services that can help organizations both improve employee engagement and evaluate their reasons for leaving. 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.
However, our experience analyzing numerous employee studies is that employee engagement alone is not a sufficient barometer with which to gauge organizational performance, particularly in terms of influencing more concrete measures such as predicting turnover. In fact, our experience with employee engagement as a survey measure is very similar to the conclusions of the article "Work Engagement in Japan: Validation of the Japanese Version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale" that (a) all engagement items load on a single factor (rather than the multiple factors included in the Work Engagement Scale), which means that the scale is evaluating just one construct, and (b) that work engagement is positively related to job satisfaction. In other words, we place much more emphasis on the measure of employee satisfaction (using the 5 point scale "Extremely satisfied," "Very satisfied," "Somewhat satisfied," "Not very satisfied" and "Not at all satisfied") as the key predictor of organizational well-being. Our approach has been validated by a recent article from Wharton University of Pennsylvania called "Does the Stock Market Fully Value Intangibles? Employee Satisfaction and Equity Prices."
To obtain a copy of the full article, contact us at info@insightlink.com For this study, they examined the stock returns of companies with high employee satisfaction and compared them to various benchmarks, including the broader market, peer firms in the same industry, and companies with similar characteristics. They concluded from this evaluation that companies with high levels of employee satisfaction earn returns that are more than double those of the overall market. Our own model of employee satisfaction uses a range of factors to help explain an organization's level of employee satisfaction, which we summarize as the "4Cs": Culture, Commitment (which includes engagement), Communications and Compensation. These findings are then used to highlight both the main strengths of the organization and its primary opportunities for improvement. In all Insightlink 4Cs surveys, we also create what we call the "Loyalty and Engagement Matrix," which is a four-quadrant calculation that combines the level of employee satisfaction with anticipated tenure (a measures that has been proven to be an accurate predictor of eventual behavior) to create the following segments:
Committed Loyalists: Extremely/very satisfied with their jobs and plan to stay 2 or more years
Satisfied Opportunists: Extremely/very satisfied with their jobs and plan to stay less than 2 years
Dissatisfied Compromisers: Somewhat/not very/not at all satisfied with their jobs and plan to stay 2 or more years
Change Seekers: Somewhat/not very/not at all satisfied with their jobs and plan to stay less than 2 years
In most cases, we've found that the sum of Change Seekers and Satisfied Opportunists is usually pretty close to the organization's actual level of employee turnover. In response to a question about the engagement level of Millenial employees (specifically, "of course I think about leaving all the time -- I'm young and I have a long career ahead of me, but that doesn't mean I'm not engaged"), we would place more emphasis on their likelihood of leaving, since that can easily translate into turnover regardless of their level of engagement.
On a related note, we find the prospects of advancement within an organization can be just as important as current engagement in terms of preventing turnover, although many companies do not pay enough sufficient attention to the importance of career advancement/enhancement in their HR management. Our main focus of analysis, however, is on the Dissatisfied Compromisers. Since they are not satisfied with their jobs but plan to stay, they can have a very detrimental impact not only on individual productivity but also overall morale. We focus our analysis on determining what changes the organization needs to make to shift them into becoming Committed Loyalists. The good news is that we find that, when organizations commit to creating Action Plans based on the survey results, they can see improvements in overall satisfaction, with similar declines in the other segments. On average, we measure an increase in 7 percentage points between studies in top two box overall satisfaction.
To learn more about how Insightlink approaches the issues of employee engagement, commitment and satisfaction or For a guided Webinar walking you through Insightlink's 4Cs survey process, contact us at info@insightlink.com or call 866-802-8095 x705.
Insightlink offers a variety of professional services that can help organizations both improve employee engagement and evaluate their reasons for leaving. 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.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Employee Surveys Yield Cost-Saving Insights
Employee surveys (whether satisfaction, engagement or opinion) tell you a lot about the organization’s culture and overall employee satisfaction. With organizations asking employees to do more with less time and resources, keeping the workplace positive and productive should be a top goal. Job burnout and added stress at work increase the cost of doing business. In this economy, most organizations are trying to cut costs. What may surprise you is that using employee questionnaires to identify possible areas to cut costs, reallocate resources or boost productivity can pay off in ways you might not expect. Most employees are happy to share their cost cutting ideas and program ideas with employers. You may find that the best cost cutting ideas come from the trenches -- not from senior management or even HR.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Morale and Employee Engagement
Dissatisfied compromisers, defined in Insightlink's 4Cs survey as employees who indicate dissatisfaction but plan on staying for over 2 years nonetheless, also grew with employee size (18% for <101,>500). Benefits are likely a contributing factor to this trend – they not only help retain top performers, but employees of all types. For some areas of difference, variance is clearly linked to the nature of being a larger company. For instance, it is not surprising that satisfaction with senior management being accessible to employees is 46% among employees at companies with fewer than 100 and drops to 37% at companies with 101-500 and down to 33% for organizations with over 500 employees. That 13-point drop is not something senior management can probably realistically do much about, nor is it necessarily as significant a factor in employee engagement at big companies as are others.
Three areas of difference where senior management at larger companies could affect a change are in:
1. Showing an understanding the need for employees to balance their personal/family responsibilities with their work
2. Leading by example through their own behavior
3. Knowing what is on employees’ minds
The first two issues require proactive communication. For the latter, launching a survey would appear a step in the right direction.
Three areas of difference where senior management at larger companies could affect a change are in:
1. Showing an understanding the need for employees to balance their personal/family responsibilities with their work
2. Leading by example through their own behavior
3. Knowing what is on employees’ minds
The first two issues require proactive communication. For the latter, launching a survey would appear a step in the right direction.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
What to work on after an employee loyalty survey
Article about figuring out what areas to work on after an employee loyalty survey has been conducted.
5 Common Questions-How do I know what areas to work on?
Friday, April 24, 2009 by Chris Woolard
The next question I want to cover is figuring out what areas to work on after an employee loyalty survey has been conducted.One of the biggest mistakes I see companies make is they only work on the lowest rated questions. The problem with this is the employees may not care if you improve the areas they rated the lowest. No matter how much the organization improves those three areas, it will not have any impact on changing employee behavior and ultimately have no impact on the organization. There are a number of methods to determine which questions matter the most to the employees. You can ask a simple importance question along with the standard rating questions, a chip-allocation series can be used, and there are statistical techniques that can be used to derive importance. Each of these methods has their advantages and disadvantages. The point is if you use some sort of importance/impact measure and combine that with performance ratings, now priorities can be determined by seeing the entire picture and not just one piece. Often an area for improvement might be an area that is fairly positive but because it matters so much to the employees, even a small improvement in scores will have a large impact on employee morale. Another problem with acting on data is figuring out what specific change needs to be made. No survey is going to give you the silver bullet in determining the specific change that needs to happen. All good surveys will give you guidance though; perhaps things like development for the long-term, fairness of evaluations, etc. It is often valuable to read through the comments as these will help give you the specific "thing" that needs changed. Comments can help provide meat around the quantitative questions asked in a survey..
http://blog.walkerinfo.com/blog/employee-engagement/0/0/5-common-questions-how-do-i-know-what-areas-to-work-on
5 Common Questions-How do I know what areas to work on?
Friday, April 24, 2009 by Chris Woolard
The next question I want to cover is figuring out what areas to work on after an employee loyalty survey has been conducted.One of the biggest mistakes I see companies make is they only work on the lowest rated questions. The problem with this is the employees may not care if you improve the areas they rated the lowest. No matter how much the organization improves those three areas, it will not have any impact on changing employee behavior and ultimately have no impact on the organization. There are a number of methods to determine which questions matter the most to the employees. You can ask a simple importance question along with the standard rating questions, a chip-allocation series can be used, and there are statistical techniques that can be used to derive importance. Each of these methods has their advantages and disadvantages. The point is if you use some sort of importance/impact measure and combine that with performance ratings, now priorities can be determined by seeing the entire picture and not just one piece. Often an area for improvement might be an area that is fairly positive but because it matters so much to the employees, even a small improvement in scores will have a large impact on employee morale. Another problem with acting on data is figuring out what specific change needs to be made. No survey is going to give you the silver bullet in determining the specific change that needs to happen. All good surveys will give you guidance though; perhaps things like development for the long-term, fairness of evaluations, etc. It is often valuable to read through the comments as these will help give you the specific "thing" that needs changed. Comments can help provide meat around the quantitative questions asked in a survey..
http://blog.walkerinfo.com/blog/employee-engagement/0/0/5-common-questions-how-do-i-know-what-areas-to-work-on
Monday, May 4, 2009
No-Cost Employee Recognition & Appreciation Award Ideas that Boost Engagement
Adapted from the University of Michigan
Employee Recognition Ideas (no cost)
Post a thank you note on an employee’s door.
Take time to explain to new employees the norms and culture of your department.
Give special assignments to people who show initiative.
Arrange for a team to present the results of its efforts to upper management.
Encourage and recognize staff who pursue continuing education.
Create and post an “Employee Honor Roll” in reception area.
Acknowledge individual achievements by using employee’s name when preparing a status report.
Make a thank-you card by hand.
Give employees an extra long lunch break.
Establish a place to display memos, posters, photos and so on, recognizing progress towards goals and thanking individual employees for their help.
Swap a task with an employee for a day – his/her choice.
Establish a “Behind the Scenes” award specifically for those whose actions are not usually in the limelight.
Give a shiny new penny for a thought that has been shared.
Nominate the employee for a University formal award program.
Keep in mind that managers should serve as coaches to indirectly influence rather than demand desired behavior.
Present “State of the Department” reports periodically to your employees acknowledging the work and contributions of individuals and teams.
At a monthly staff meeting, award an Employee of the Month and invite co-workers at the meeting to say why that person is deserving of the award.
Recognize employees who actively serve the community.
Have staff vote for top manager, supervisor, employee and rookie of the year. Name a continuing recognition award after an outstanding employee.
Include an employee in a “special” meeting. Allow employees to attend meetings in your place when you are not available.
Create an Above and Beyond the Call of Duty (ABCD) Award.
Ask your boss to attend a meeting with your employees during which you thank individuals and groups for their specific contributions.
Pop in at the first meeting of a special project team and express your appreciation for their involvement.
Send a letter to all team members at the conclusion of a project, thanking them for their participation.
Start an employee recognition program.
Give points for attendance, punctuality, teamwork, etc.
Provide gift certificates to employees who reach certain point goals.
Find ways to reward department-specific performance.
Plan a surprise achievement celebration for an employee or group of employees.
Start a suggestion program. Privately recognize employee’s personal needs and challenges. Write a letter of praise recognizing specific contributions and accomplishments. Send a copy to senior management and the employee’s personnel file.
When you hear a positive remark about someone, repeat it to that person as soon as possible (Face-to-face is best, e-mail or voice mail are good in a pinch).
Call an employee to your office to thank them (don’t discuss any other issue).
If you have a department newsletter, publish a “kudos” column and ask for nominations throughout the department.
Publicly recognize the positive impact on operations of the solutions employees devise for problems.
Acknowledge individual achievements by using employee names in status reports.
Express an interest in employee’s career development goals.
Post a large “celebration calendar” in your work area.
Tack on notes of recognition to specific dates.
Create and string a banner across the work area.
Greet employees by name.
Practice positive nonverbal behaviors that demonstrate appreciation, such as smiles, or a handshake.
Support “flex-friendly” schedules. E
ncourage employees to identify specific areas of interest in job-related skills. Then arrange for them to spend a day with an in-house “expert” to learn more about the topic.
Encourage employees to participate in community volunteer efforts.
Share verbal accolades – forward positive voice mail messages. A
ctively listen to co-workers, especially when discussing their accomplishments and contributions.
Use 3x5 cards to write “You’re special because…” statements. People can collect the cards and refer to them when things aren’t going perfectly.
Have a recognition event created by a peer group that decides what they will give and why they will give it.
Keep a supply of appropriately funny notes that can be given as immediate rewards. Keep the supply visible – in a basket or box in your office.
Widely publicize suggestions used and their positive impact on your department.
When someone has spent long hours at work, send a letter of thanks to his/her home. Acknowledge and celebrate birthdays. A
rrange for an outstanding employee to have lunch with a dean or director.
Allow an employee to choose his/her next assignment.
Recognize a team accomplishment by designating that team as consultants to other teams.
Recognize those committed to personal health and wellness.
Smile. It’s contagious.
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