The 9 Habits of Highly Engaged Managers

Based on our normative Employee Engagement database, there are a number of factors that have a powerful influence in building job satisfaction and engagement, including:

•     The level of reward and recognition
•     The opportunity to learn new skills and grow on the job
•     The opportunity to make suggestions (which we see as an "empowerment" measure)
•     To what degree their work is respected by their employer
•     Satisfaction with the resources available to do their job
•     Agreement that their job makes good use of their abilities and skills
•     The effectiveness of communications within the organization
•     Their opportunities for advancement

Click here to read the full article and learn the 9 habits that engaged managers exhibit to create positive cultures.

 

5 Signs that Employees are in Survival Mode

Today’s workplace is a reflection of the times: uncertain and unstable. As employees navigate this short-term, fast-paced, tension-filled terrain, they develop an attitude that creates an uneasy environment:  survival mode.
The workplace used to be focused on the planning and execution of short, mid-range and long-term growth objectives. It was a place where careers were born and legacies were created. A place that encouraged teamwork, unity and advancement, fueled by collaboration, partnerships and client relationships. Today, long-term business goals have been eclipsed by short-term personal goals: survive the unknown long enough to stay in the game. For employees this means adapting to a role where time management is unmanageable and where everything is a priority.
As you think about the dynamics in your workplace, watch out for these five signs that your employees are in survival mode:
See the list here

Employee engagement has been a buzz word in the human resources community for several years, but there remains an urgent need for scientifically-grounded advice for HR consultants and practitioners from survey experts as to how to measure and increase it.

Custome or syndicated research from Insightlink shows enagagement by industry, what employee engagement means in those industries and identifies its primary drivers.

Insightlink's 4Cs study will change the level of engagement in any organization.

You'll see what it means to create a culture of engagement, get a practical presentation deck and talking points managers can use to introduce the concept of engagement in their organization as well as be able to addresses issues of work-life balance, and non-work activities and their relationship to engagement at work

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?

Employee Engagement by Organization Size - Part 1

Employers may underestimate the role that benefits play in keeping employees, according Insightlink’s annual normative survey.

In looking at satisfaction with various aspects of employee engagement, satisfaction with benefits literally appears to be the only area where employees at larger companies (i.e., over 500 employees) seem to be significantly more satisfied than their peers at smaller companies.

On literally all other scores showing variances of 8 or more percentage points, usually organizations of 100 or fewer employees (and usually even ones with between 101 and 500) showed higher satisfaction scores.

Overall satisfaction was significantly lower at organizations with over 500 employees (60% for <101, 59% 101-500, 54% 500+) and satisfaction with senior management dropped as organization size grew (49% <101, 44% 101-500, 37% 500+). Similarly, morale – personal, departmental and organizational – decreased as the employee number increased.


Morale of dept/work group 50%/45%/38%
The morale among employees 46%/39%/35%
of your organization as a whole
Your own morale 60%/58%/51%

"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.

5 ingredients for a great workplace

By: Emilie Le Beau March 02, 2009

Back away from the doughnuts.

Rewarding employees with free food is useless if they don't feel valued. Experts agree that perks only work if a company has a culture that makes employees feel creative and appreciated.
Working to establish a positive environment can be profitable. "The best places to work have historically outperformed the stock market by just about double," says Seymour Adler, senior vice-president at the Chicago consultancy Aon Human Capital.

So how can your company become a great place to work? Here are five elements that the best workplaces have in common:

1) Sense of purpose.

Most workers do not perform brain surgery or rescue children from burning buildings. Creating a sense of purpose can help employees feel as though their jobs have meaning. "Generations Y and X want meaning in their life. They want to work with a leader in a company that has a higher purpose," says Jim Bandrowski, president of Strategic Actions Associates, an organizational consultancy in Danville, Calif.

One of Mr. Bandrowski's clients, Shure Inc. in Niles, pushed a new mission to become the audio industry leader. "That gives everyone a sense of purpose that we are going to do a great thing in the industry," Mr. Bandrowski says.

2) Transparency.

Successful workplaces are structured to hold both employees and management accountable. Annual reviews, for example, may include comments from peers or subordinates.

Transparency gives workers a sense of trust. "It provides predictability, so you don't feel like you could have the rug pulled out from you at any moment," says Linda Ginzel, clinical professor of managerial psychology at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

3) Opportunities for autonomy.

Small, daily choices can have a big impact. Successful workplaces allow employees to choose when they arrive in the morning, take a lunch break or tend to specific tasks.
"It's respect, recognition," Ms. Ginzel says. "Give them choices from a menu of options so they have more discretion with their time."

4) Customized benefits.

Successful workplaces identify which benefits would best help employees. Younger employees raising families, for example, are engaged by work-life programs, while older workers may be excited about the option of phased retirement.

"The best workplaces are as customized as possible," says Carol Sladek, principal and head of the work-life consulting practice at Lincolnshire-based human resources consultancy Hewitt Associates Inc. "No longer do we have one kind of employee with one kind of need."

5) Hope. Employees worried about their company's future aren't satisfied or productive.

Successful workplaces acknowledge employee concerns and provide a sense of assurance.

"There has to be an element of optimism: People are getting laid off, but we have a strategy (to get) out of this," Aon's Mr. Adler says. "Employees can deal with a lot if they have both trust and hope."

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.

Engagement, A Review of Current Research and Its Implications

Excerpted from an article by Patricia Soldati

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.

1. Trust and integrity – how well managers communicate and 'walk the talk'.
2. Nature of the job –Is it mentally stimulating day-to-day?
3. Line of sight between employee performance and company performance – Does the employee understand how their work contributes to the company's performance?
4. Career Growth opportunities –Are there future opportunities for growth?
5. Pride about the company – How much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with their company?
6. Coworkers/team members – significantly influence one's level of engagement
   Employee development – Is the company making an effort to develop the employee's skills?
7. 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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Patricia Soldati is a former President & COO of a national finance organization who re-invented her working life in 1998. As a career fulfillment specialist, she helps corporate professionals enhance their working lives – both within the organization – and by leaving it behind.

Employee Engagement: Monday Morning Percolator #25

By David Zinger

There are a plethora of methods and approaches to fostering and enhancing employee engagement. Actions can be launched by individuals, leaders, and organizations. When all 3 are working together we move beyond simple employee engagement to workplace engagement with engagement for all!

Yet, the workplace of today is asking more and more from everyone with less and less time to stop and determine what to do and how to do it. If we are given too many things to do we may give up or avoid them simply because we are overwhelmed and there are too many things to do already. It can be a challenge simply to remember to focus on employee engagement.

I recommend a 2 x 2 x 2 design structure:

What are 2 actions organizations can take to enhance employee engagement?

What are 2 actions leaders can take to enhance employee engagement?

What are 2 actions individuals can take to enhance employee engagement?

When everyone is taking action and working together we move beyond employee engagement to workplace engagement with engagement for all. You also get the multiplier effect as 2 x 2 x 2 = 8.

The multiplier effect from a systems perspective means: changes in one field of human activity (subsystem) sometimes act to promote changes in other fields (subsystems) and in turn act on the original subsystem itself. This becomes full workplace engagement when we are seeing actions from leaders, employees, and the organization.

http://davidzinger.wordpress.com/2007/09/17/how-to-transform-employee-engagement-into-workplace-engagement-mmp-25/

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