Employee Engagement - Fad or Performance factor?

Employee engagement – fad or performance factor (see also notes pages)

John Smythe 11 11 13 Welsh Government

© Engage for Change 2011 This is the IP of Engage for Change and can only be reproduced in whole or in part with acknowledgement

Which workers are most engaged and productive?


IP Engage for Change 2013

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Your menu

What is employee engagement?What engages you/your people?Problems with the conceptBe the ‘go to’ resource on employee engagement



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Think of a project/period where you were really engaged, fired up, productive and enjoying it

What brought about your engagement?

What engages you?



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How would you recognise an engaged person/group? ……………………………………….

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What do engaged people do?

Enjoy their work whatever they do Make it their job to do it better Risk speaking upwards to challenge and innovate Make it safe for people to challenge up Self organise – less need for costly supervision Take responsibility Collaborate within & beyond their ‘border’ Resolve difficulties locally Demonstrate awareness of personal limits Are generous



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“I decide when to engage myself, not you boss”!

We engage ourselves when we are invited to challenge in safety, and to contribute to every day operational decisions and big ticket strategy and change that affects us, which we can improve


Benefits of engagement are not enablers/drivers


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Benefits eg:

• Discretionary effort

• Better decisions

• Better strategy, change

• Better operational processes

• Compelling place to work

• Customers enjoying better

service (from engaged

employees)

Enablers (EfS)

• Strong strategic narrative

• Engaging managers• Employee voice• Integrity

• = + + + + + + + + + + + + + +



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“A culture of distributed leadership enables people to liberate their creativity to deliver great results for their institution and themselves”

What engages us?

BY: Inviting employees who deliver the

end result to contribute to day to day decisions, strategy and change in a well governed way.

Leaders at every level who have the self knowledge, discipline, appetite & capability to engage people in in decision making



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Tellingthe many what has been decided by the few

OUTCOMEHooligans orspectators

Sellingto the many what has been decided by the few

OUTCOMECompliant collaborators

InclusionDriving accountability down by implicating people as individuals in execution

OUTCOMEWilling collaborators

Co-creationJudging who will add value if included in front end decision forming for change & strategy

OUTCOMEPersonally committed reformers

From command and control to a more mutual culture



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Choices of approach open to leaders

“There is a 5th way -they decide but don’t

even bother telling us”


Overwhelming business case (Engage for success data)

CBI: engaged employees take 2.9 sick days/disengaged 6.19 days Towers Perrin: operating margins 3x higher in engaged workforces M&S: stores with improving engagement delivered £62m more sales Kenexa: In the US companies with engaged staff have highest customer sat BAE: engaged staff reduced plane construction time 25% BAE: same staff found £26m in savings in two sites Gallup: disengaged organizations have 62% more accidents Gallup: engaged staff say that work brings their creative ideas – 59% vs 3% Aon Hewitt: engaged organizations give 22% higher returns to shareholders Total UK: double digit £ms in efficiency savings + new revenue lines (EFC) Kenexa – increased engagement could add £26B to UK GDP




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Mercenaries

3%Disconnected

20%

Hostages

28%Fence-sitters

16%

Apostles

33%

Business case? – UK 25,000 workers YouGov/EfC



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Why now for employee engagement?

Loyalty for security Transactional relationship Velvet revolutions Democratic capitalism

Power over knowledge Digital flattens hierarchy


Velvet revolutions

Lech Walesa at Gdansk Shipyard addressing workers



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Coincidental social upheavals?

Protestors gathering in Tahrir Square,

Cairo, Egypt

Demonstrators marching through Habib Bourquiba Avenue, Tunis

Political dissidents in Sana’a, Yemen demanding the resignation of the president

Protests in Duma, Syria

The Arab Spring



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Problems with employee engagement

Definitions & enablers/drivers – more to do locally/internationallyC suite full of boomers and Xers bought up on C&C and ‘lovin it’Command and control, hierarchical leadership sugared by

employee engagement ‘magic spray’:Turbo charged top down communication masquerading Learnt behavioural performances which don’t lastPresentational concessions to mutuality:

Dress codesFirst namesOpen doors/walking floorsCharm offensives by leaders




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Be the ‘go to’ resource on employee engagement

1. The behaviour/role model of leaders, managers & supervisors – Generous Leadership; ‘guides not gods’

2. Engaging widely and deeply to drive transformation, change, strategy & operational improvement via disruptive interventions

3. Internal communication that enables engagement 4. Engaging widely to deliver inside-out customer/brand promise5. Helping a new C Suite members to engage with the organization in

his/her first 300 days 6. Helping functional teams (Comms/HR/L&D/Mkt/Finance etc) to be role

models



The shifting nature of leadership

Complexity requires new capabilities beyond the individual


Leadership & culture - gods to guides

Capabilities to create context


Leadership & culture - gods to guides1

Capabilities to manage participation


Management drivers of engagement and performanceCreates space for teams and individuals to test and explore whilst ensuring short

term demands are met (0.13)

Accepts challenge and addresses questions (0.11)

Provides insight and explanation to help create a clear context for the work we do (0.10)

Identifies the right people to contribute given the demands of different situations (0.10)

Creates value by engaging others (0.09)

Communicates clear messages about what

needs to be done

Has the knowledge needed to lead our team

in the work we doIs adept at dealing with different personalities

Helps members of the team overcome

resistance to change

Invites people who can make a difference to be involved, irrespective of

level of seniority

Helps groups integrate different perspectives to

create sustainable solutions



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models


© Engage for Change 2011 This is the IP of Engage for Change and can only be reproduced in whole or in part with acknowledgement 24

How would you recognise it - Ruby & Geraldine’s contrasting experiences


Total UK: “We had to disrupt the ‘dirigiste’ top down norm”

Action for recovery:

Survive, Recover, Thrive

Top down….

…Or bottom up….Double digit millions in savings bottom up and “twice the speed of top down”; Paris 25


1. Elites decide; often secretly2. Messages formed3. Messages delivered 4. Messages impact checked5. Messages reinforced

= Command, control, align & coerce

Geraldine suffered this familiar pattern of command & control communication:


Whose shoes would you rather be in?

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Ruby’s Geraldine’s


Generalists solve complex problems


Employees need the same view / data / experience as decision makers at the front of the train

Better still let them collect it

Complete transparency of data


Getting people into the breakthrough zone

Daily operations, transactional responses

Good for surviving

Bad for breakthrough

Flight, Fight BREAKTHROUGH ZONE

Hear what I thinkSolo & pairs Borrow B

uild Breakthrough

Group size escalation

1 hour recovery Needs dynamic experiences over

some hours

Enough!


Strategy – ‘Need to Want’

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Vision

To be the most relevant F&P practice we can be to our clients, our people and our firm

This means being The number one choice for our clients An employer of choice Vital to the achievement of our firm's vision and respected by

everyone in DLA Piper


Our vision and strategy

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Vision

CommunicationF&P offerings & knowledge

I to We Leadership capability Employer of choice



Visible progress

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… plus a detailed reporting of savings within each business unit

Additional revenues plus cost savings

…..plus detailed programme impact reporting by Business Unit

Department




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Get the ‘how to’ & receive discount via: www.gowerpublishing.com/isbn/9781409443247

http://www.gowerpublishing.com/isbn/9781409443247


The Engage for Change model for inclusive strategy, change etc

1. The vision/’where we need to be’ – simply stated2. Your default approach to engagement – enabler or

disabler?3. Negotiating who should be engaged – the power of

the peach4. A creative intervention to engage your leaders and

people5. Integrating the intervention as a part of business

strategy



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models


To be relevant in future…..

1. ‘In the tent’ advisor - challenging the pattern of top down, elite based decision making.

2. Negotiating with elites where others can contribute to add value and accelerate change & strategy - understand the demographics of the workforce.

3. Knowing how to create open source engagement experiences/interventions F2F & digitally…vs cascades.

4. Building the ‘engagement challenge’ into change & operational improvement processes.

5. Grafting engagement capability into training, development, performance management & recognition.


And finallySir Wim Bischoff (chair Lloyds Banking Group) as a senior sponsor of Engage for Success

“employee engagement will become be one of the key health factors to be considered by shareholders” – the velvet revolution at work is becoming main stream