The Importance of Engagement

Workforce engagement is important because it is linked with (and underpins) effort, innovation, productivity, and retention—and in industries/sectors/geographical areas with a competitive landscape and a shortage of talent, it can make or break a company, its culture,  its performance, and its ability to succeed.

What is 'engagement'?

In essence, it is the emotional attachment employees feel for their organisation, its values, its mission, and its working methods. Engaged employees are more committed, more dedicated, and more productive.

Although perhaps these 'outputs' of engagement are the most important result of improved engagement, this is also seen in the behaviours of employees at work, their relationships with other members of their workgroup, and their relationships with their superiors/managers.

People who are engaged are responsive, interested, and share ideas— and recognise the contributions of others.

Just as importantly, they tend to handle conflict and disagreement in constructive ways, working through issues to come to agreement or consensus.

So how do we improve engagement?

We make sure that people know what the company— and their team— is aiming to achieve— overall and in the current period. They understand where their role fits into the bigger picture.

Perhaps the most important factor is that people need to believe their role/job matters— it is meaningful and valued. They know that their individual role, their individual values, and their aspirations and ambitions are known by their superior(s).  They have regular contact and interaction with those superiors to discuss their performance, satisfaction, aspirations, and development needs— where they can grow to mutual self and organisational benefit.

They value a degree of choice and control— so prefer a role that offers some flexibility and autonomy.  Micromanagement lessens engagement.

All you have to do is to provide these conditions, to be present and accessible to your staff, to communicate on all key issues, respecting staff views and responses.  Behave consistently, reinforcing agreed values.  Where employees exhibit 'errant' behaviours, step in and discuss reasons why.  

This is not a one-off exercise— it must be continual and consistent behaviour.

Start NOW - but never stop!

Are You Elite?

Many leaders think they are elite - special at what they do, leaders of the pack.   However many of those same leaders, if we analysed their performance and their success record, would turn out to be reasonably well organised,  with systems and processes that are are good enough, and a productivity level that is acceptable.

This is not enough to be considered elite.  They still exist as reactors to business stimuli and threats, they still lack true focus - they have too many distracting activities.

The next level (elite) of leadership is more than implementing a few strategies that may only last a few months. The next level suggests a complete re-engineering of the  operating system, a reinvention of the way the business works, and the way the leader interfaces with their teams. 

There are three essential attributes required of an elite leader:

(i) a strong set of core values which govern (and sometimes limit) what they do, how they interact, how they communicate.

(ii) an ability to think in structural forms - business structure, team structures, system structures, process structures, etc. Structured components are more resilient - they can withstand shocks and threats more easily.

(iiI) a healthy dose of skepticism.  They know when to ask "Why?" and "Why not?".  They say "No" as well as "Yes". They value change (structured change of course) but they know what should not be changed.

If you have, and exhibit, these attributes, perhaps I have maligned you. 

Perhaps you ARE one of the rare, elite leaders.

Metrics Matter

There are many ways to improve productivity and performance - via technology, process change, culture change and so on.  But with each one, we need to measure the success (or otherwise) of our initiative to understand what works in our organisation.

We need to identify which metrics are the most important for determining efficiency.and the most appropriate for our particular project.

When selecting the right operational metrics for your company, ask yourself which of the below is most important at the present time, and work from there:

• Productivity
• Operational costs
• Employee engagement
• Product quality
• Customer satisfaction

You should try and balance leading and lagging indicators so that you know what has happened, what is happening, and what should happen in the future.

We should be looking at the performance of our employees - as individuals and as teams … and here we might need both hard (from production records) and soft data (from appraisals).

Financial metrics are often important - what is happening to labour costs, running costs, overheads? … as are quality metrics (Error rates, customer complaints).  These can be supported or clarified with customer satisfaction and customer retention/repeat business metrics.

Employee satisfaction scores (for retention, absenteeism, satisfaction) are another dimension appropriate for specific projects.

You also have to remember that measurement costs money so try to use data already collected for other purposes.

Pick a 'basket of measures' that do not concentrate too much on any one dimension.  For example concentrating on throughput at the expense of quality.

With a comprehensive, balanced  data-driven approach to performance measurement, your organisation can make meaningful process improvements to lower costs, reduce waste, and improve productivity and profits.  The metrics you choose help signal intent, show progress and demonstrate success.

Focus!

I`nterruptions are distractions.  Those people who constantly respond to texts, emails and  messaging systems might feel 'in the loop' but their productivity is probably woefully low.  Discipline is needed to wait until an appropriate time when the task in hand is finished or can be paused with no detriment. Those who cannot be disciplined should turn off their technology to give them periods in which they can fully concentrate.

Multitasking is also distracting.  Those who either try to do two things at once or switch constantly between two tasks will also suffer a lack of performance.  Have you ever tried to read two books at the same time?  Most people who do so find they gain little from either book.  The problems of multitasking are made worse if the tasks in the rotation require the same part of the brain for completion.  So, a creative task could just about be carried out air he same time as a mundane, repetitive task but two creative tasks at the same time is not possible - except for a very few people with strange (even weird) attributes.

Constant interruptions can not only affect concentration - and thus performance; they can also affect employees' mental health.

Some of the 'productivity techniques' suggest assigning specific periods of time to specific tasks (or portions of specific tasks) - and this can be a useful device - again if practised in a disciplined manner.  These periods should be long enough to allow concentration to grow, settle and be effective - say a minimum of 30 minutes.

However you do it, it is important to build barriers that prevent interruptions and distractions looming into your consciousness when you are trying to concentrate.

It also helps if the leaders of work groups create periods of the day or week when there will be no meetings - and employees are discouraged from interrupting their colleagues.

The aim should be to create periods of time - and to allow employees to create their own periods of time - when focus can be total.

Communication is Key

Most people, on starting a new job, turn up with a positive attitude.  They may be nervous about the new situation but they want to do well, to succeed, and in return to be valued and fairly rewarded.

Yet some of these employees will end up being 'let go' or demoted for poor performance.

What goes wrong?

Well, what those new employees need is a clear understanding of their role, and its place in the wider scheme of things, and the expectations of that role by managers.  What is it they are expected to do - and achieve?  

Put more simply they need to know what the goals are, how to achieve them and their role in that achievement.

They also need the skills required to carry out their role. If they do not have all the skills, they will - and should - expect training or development activity to fill any gaps.

If these two conditions are not met - it is almost always not the fault of the employee.  Something has gone wrong with selection, onboarding, communication or training.   Errors in these areas can be catastrophic for the employees - and expensive for the organisation.

Failure to fully inform and prepare employees is a recipe for low productivity.

Hard Work Plus

 We all know that hared work is needed to be truly successful.

However, we also know that hard work alone is not enough.

We need our hard work to be in the right direction.

One common expression of this phenomenon is that managers are very good at doing things right, but leaders are good at ensuring the right thing is done.

But we have still not completed our list of success factors.

We have all seen those who work very hard (perhaps even including ourselves at times) fall from their peak of performance due to exhaustion or burnout.

Many of the great thinkers and successful people throughout history have raised the need for 'down time', when the mind and body are able to recover from their exertions and prepare themselves for the next phase of hard work.

This recovery time might include rest, relaxation, reflection but might alsoinclude sport and  exercise - anything that contributes to an overall life balance.

 

So structure such periods into your day/week of hard work snd you are likely to get results which are better - or at least as good- but you will survive in a better state.  After all, we are seeking long-term productivity, not short bursts of success.

Volunteers Needed

 It is getting increasingly common for firms to introduce opportunities for volunteering amongst their staff. This may be partly altruistic - attempting to do some good for a national charity or for the local community - but most of the firms that do it, do so for ‘selfish’ reasons.    They want to show some community and/or some stakeholders that they are the good guys, (so its a PR exercise) and they hope to cement the engagement of their staff with the organisation.

 

The employees who do take the opportunity to become involved in the volunteering efforts do indeed generally engage more positively with the organisation but they also claim to have improved well-being - often in relation to their mental health.  They value the fact that they themselves are valued as more than a ‘human resource’, more than a number on the payroll…. they are valued for  how they interact with others, including the community with whom the charity  is engaged.

 

The net results  - in addition to improved well-being-  are increased staff retention (reducing hiring and onboarding costs for the organisation), improved attractiveness to potential recruits and perhaps most importantly,  a boost to employee performance and productivity.

So, the introduction of a volunteering programme can have bottom-line impact and can make all members of the organisation feel better about the organisation and themselves.

These companies worried about the effects being temporary can ‘hedge their bets’ somewhat by, say, having a volunteering month each yeast when a particular charitable project is taken on.  The benefits should last longer than the month and should proved an annual boost to organisational performance.