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Survey Looks at Use of Communications Tools to Build Engagement

A recent survey by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation and Buck Consultants finds that the most common communication tools used to engage employees and foster productivity in organizations are email (83 percent) and an organization’s intranet (75 percent). The survey, IABC’s second “Employee Engagement Survey.” also found that nearly half of employers also communicate through Facebook, instant messaging, and Twitter.

The IABC/Buck Consultants survey connected with more than 900 corporate communications professionals throughout the country to determine how employers are communicating with employees to keep them engaged and productive. “This year’s respondents reported increases in the use of social media tools, and more of them say they have established internal and external policies for appropriate workplace use of social media,” says Robin McCasland, past chair of the IABC Research Foundation and president of Brain Biscuits Strategic Communication. “When managed effectively, social media can be a great addition to an existing employee engagement strategy.”

The survey found that increasing productivity (66 percent) and retaining top talent (65 percent) are the top goals employers cite for keeping employees engaged. Other top factors include increasing employee morale and creating a new culture of work environment. To download a copy of this year’s “Employee Engagement Survey,” click here.

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The Economics of Engagement

Most leaders and organizations know the difference between a fully engaged worker and one that is marginally engaged or disengaged. The former brim with enthusiasm, they contribute ideas, are optimistic about the company and its future, are seldom absent from work, they typically stay with the organization longer and are among the organization’s most valuable ambassadors. Disengaged workers, on the other hand, are often absent (even when they are at work). They are disconnected and often pessimistic about change and new ideas. They have high rates of absenteeism and tend to negatively influence those around them, including potential customers and new hires. And the cost of disengagement to U.S. employers is estimated to be as much as $350 billion per year.

This report from the Human Capital Institute looks at the research evidence that efforts to boost engagement can have a direct effect on the bottom line, examines a number of case studies, and offers several approaches to measuring the return on engagement. To view a copy of the complete report, click here.

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CEOs Share the Same Engagement Strategy

At least two major U.S. companies offer proof that a focus on engagement can provide dramatic results. The CEOs of major companies in two very different industries – Schering-Plough and Campbell’s Soup – changed the culture of their organizations over the last several years by implementing a management strategy that engaged employees to concentrate on customer-focused innovations. And the results were demonstrated in improved profitability and shareholder returns.  In each case, the CEO replaced nearly the entire top executive team for his organization and created a strategy to make sure that top talent was engaged in their work and focused on developing innovative customer solutions. For a look at their respective stories, as told by ChiefExecutive.net, click here.

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EEA White Paper Links Engagement with Profitability

“Economics of Engagement” report discusses how to define and quantitatively measure the benefits of employee and customer engagement.

According to a new report from the Enterprise Engagement Alliance (EEA), motivating workforces to improve performance can increase corporate profits – and boost the economy.  Entitled “The Economics of Engagement,” the report, written by Allen Schweyer of the Human Capital Institute, provides a comprehensive analysis of research in the emerging field of “Enterprise Engagement” and offers how-to information on recently developed benchmarking tools that can quantitatively measure the benefits of employee and customer engagement.

These measurement tools are critical to demonstrate the bottom-line impact of enterprise engagement, both to corporations and to the economy as a whole, using financial language that senior executives, investors and economists are accustomed to. Among other things, the report looks at:

• The cost of employee disengagement (i.e., the $350 billion lost annually in  productivity, accidents, theft and turnover);
• Evidence of the link between employee engagement and better performance, citing studies from Gallup, Towers Perrin, Sirota Consulting, and Watson Wyatt;
• Proof that the financial performance of companies improves when employee engagement is a priority;
• Case studies of companies such as IBM, Sears, and Costco which have benefited demonstrably from enterprise engagement.

“One of the most encouraging findings of this report is the revelation that vast reserves of overall performance potential are essentially hiding in plain sight,” says the EEA’s Bruce Bolger. “Engaging the people that companies deal with on a day-to-day basis – both internally and externally – in a comprehensive, compelling and connected way will create a result that is more than just the sum of its parts. As with any such investment, the return needs to be demonstrated to decision makers, and there’s a growing body of evidence in the engagement arena that does just that.”

For a downloadable copy of the EEA’s white paper on “The Economics of Engagement,” click here.

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Use R&R Programs to Drive Engagement for Economic Recovery

The Recognition Council of the Incentive Marketing Association is offering a new white paper on employee engagement. Titled “2010 Recognition Rx: Engaging Employees for Economic Recovery.” It argues that a recognition and rewards program directly addresses the urgent need to drive performance and ensure that everyone is working to meet the right goals.

Budgets have been reduced, plans have changed, and compensation and reward programs are being re-examined. In light of these changes, evolving recognition and reward budgets raise major questions:

• What budget is appropriate and/or necessary in the new economy?
• What are the program goals and how should they affect budget allocation?
• How should programs and budgets be constructed for maximum impact?

The white paper provides direction on how to put together a business-focused reward and recognition strategy that ties directly into a corporation’s business objectives, mission, and values, and can be seen as an investment rather than as an expense. It also looks at low-cost engagement strategies that will keep budget costs down.

For more information on the IMA’s Recognition Council, visit its website at www.recognitioncouncil.org. To download a copy of the “Engaging Employees” white paper, click here.

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Forum Research Study Looks at People-First Leadership

A recent study from the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement (Forum) takes a close look at issues of leadership from a people perspective. It asserts that the most important part of leadership embodies the primacy of people, particularly employees. In contrast to an industrial-era approach to leadership, a people-first framework best fits into the emerging information and service economy.

Titled Leadership and the Importance of People in Organizations: Enriching Employees and Connecting People, the study draws on a constituent-based approach to leadership that balances the needs of multiple constituents – employees, consumers, shareholders, and the community at large – to ensure that the needs of each constituency are met. It also uses the more traditional framing of leadership with respect to organizational vision and the alignment of competing interests.

At the heart of the study is a focus on employee enrichment, and advancing the overall quality of employees’ lives. It also provides recommendations for implementing people-centered leadership, including the need for employee insight, empowerment, connectivity, people-based organizational structures, and the measurement of employee well-being.

For more information on the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement, visit its website at www.performanceforum.org. For a look at the Forum’s Leadership study, click here.

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Managers Need To Get Educated on the Causes of Disengagement

Engagement doesn’t just happen, and in most organizations frontline management has a lot to do with the success – or failure – of an organization’s engagement efforts. Recent research from the Gallup organization on employee disengagement in Germany, for instance, suggests that highly motivated people can become disengaged when their supervisors don’t ask for their opinions, don’t offer feedback, show little interest in them as human beings, and ask them to do jobs that are not suited to them. “Quitting is almost always a statement against the immediate supervisor,” says Gallup strategic consultant Marco Nink. For a more extensive interview with Nink on the supervisor’s impact, click here.

Another error that frontline managers sometimes make is to focus their performance improvement efforts on employees’ weaknesses, rather than focus on their strengths. But Gallup research shows that the worst thing managers can do is to ignore their employees. According to Gallup researchers Brian Brim and Jim Asplund, “If your manager focuses on your strengths, your chances of being actively disengaged at work are only 1 in 100. If your manager ignores you, however, you are twice as likely to be actively disengaged than if your manager focuses on your weaknesses. Being overlooked, it seems, is more harmful to employees’ engagement than having to discuss their weaknesses with their manager.” For more on Brim and Asplund’s research and conclusions, click here.

To be successful in the evolving world marketplace, and even in their own workplace, leaders and managers must begin to understand their constituents’ state of mind, says Gallup’s chairman and CEO Jim Clifton. Human decision making is more emotional than rational, the research suggests, and “State of mind is everything that matters to leadership: talent, innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, optimism, determination, and all of the other things that create economic growth,” Clifton says. Successful leaders, he adds, will be those who can quantify those states of mind to better understand the emotions that cause behavior. “If you are making decisions without understanding what your constituency is thinking, you are making bad decisions,” he says. For more of Clifton’ comments on “The Next Generation of Leadership,” click here.

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