What Makes Employees “Highly Engaged”?
I’ve written before
on this and since then have been wondering if I could add to what I said. The premise is that “engaged” employees are
“happy” (and therefore productive) employees, but how do we get that engagement
and maintain it?
Some people are naturally “good” at engaging (or “getting
people on board”). Others don’t seem to
know where to start (myself included, a lot of the time).
I ran across a very useful infographic posted by Jim Bishop
of Eli Lilly and Company recently. The
graphic defines 12 characteristics of highly engaged vs low/not engaged not
engaged employees and summarises them below.
In short, these definitions show the proportion of employees in an
organisation who feel highly engaged.
Generally, they tend to feel that:
Someone has talked about their progress (92%)
Someone encourages their development (97%)
They have been praised recently (88%)
They have opportunities to learn and grow (98%)
They have a “best friend” at work (74%)
Their manager cares about them (98%)
They view their job as important to the company (98%)
Their opinions count at work (91%)
Their colleagues are committed to quality work (93%)
They are able to do their best every day (99%)
They have equipment needed to do their job (98%)
They know what is expected of them at work (99%)
For low/no engagement employees, the following holds:
Someone has talked about their progress (13%)
Someone encourages their development (10%)
They have been praised recently (13%)
They have opportunities to learn and grow (13%)
They have a “best friend” at work (19%)
Their manager cares about them (20%)
They view their job as important to the company (22%)
Their opinions count at work (19%)
Their colleagues are committed to quality work (44%)
They are able to do their best every day (53%)
They have equipment needed to do their job (70%)
They know what is expected of them at work (89%)
If we look at Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”, the lowest scores occur in the
“Self-Actualisation” (personal growth and
fulfilment) and “Esteem” (achievement, status, responsibility, reputation) area.
In other words, if someone feels they’re “going nowhere” and that
they’re unappreciated, they’re unlikely to be engaged (no matter how much
they're paid).
This can be a problem in small businesses with few
opportunities for advancement, but one way round would be to give the person
more responsibility if we feel they can handle it. After all, if this frees us up to build the
business (or fight fewer “fires”), then it’s worth it. If they can get a small pay rise out of it,
even better (although there may be a limit to how much more they can be paid).
One interesting anomaly is that, even if over 50%
(i.e. a majority) feel they can do their best every day, they still may not be
engaged. Closely linked at 44% is people
feeling that their colleagues are committed to quality work, suggesting that if
you feel your colleagues aren't pulling their weight, it may disengage you…
In my previous article, I suggested “treat them as
humans” to get people engaged. From
this, opportunities for advancement and praise are key. Money
helps, but only to an extent as humans move up the hierarchy from base physical
needs to the more “spiritual”. The only
thing that may keep them from rushing to the door is if the economy is doing
badly and there are no jobs to be had, meaning that the two most basic needs
(biological and safety) are met until things improve.
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running
different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide
solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An
international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email
. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be
asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.Labels: Leadership, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork
Facebook: Friend or Foe?
Many of us are
Facebook members and, if you're anything like me, you use it mainly to keep in
touch with friends and hear their news.
Facebook has evolved over the years, at times for the
better, at others for worse. I find
that, if I’m not careful, I end up spending too much time on it. Often, this is on weeding out posts telling
me that my friends “liked” or “reacted” to something, or that they’re now
friends with someone or use Instagram, or some other piece of equally
irrelevant (to me) news.
One
thing that Facebook has been useful
for is to show me how some people use it, e.g. as a tool for self-promotion
(lots of pictures of themselves and/or the wonderful life/partner/activity they
enjoy).
Sometimes
they “react” (usually with an “angry” emoticon ) to posts from those who delight
in reviling others or in spreading hatred, false news or any other number of
distasteful pastimes. Thanks to this, I’ve seen more “angry” people
on Facebook than I’ve encountered in my lifetime, mainly because Facebook’s
comparative “anonymity” gives them a platform to say things that they would
never dare say to someone’s face.
I
recently went through an exercise in which I “unfriended” or “unfollowed” a
number of people whom I like, but from whom I hadn't heard in ages (although I
saw plenty of self-promoting posts). It
was a sad experience.
Something
else Facebook does for us is remind us of our friends’ birthdays (if they’ve
allowed that information to be viewed by their other friends). As an experiment this year, I allowed my
birthday to be visible only to myself.
Result: no birthday wishes and less time on Facebook. I keep a diary note of the birth dates of
those to whom I want to send birthday greetings and do it by email with a
suitable picture attached to make it personal.
Employers
these days are highly likely to conduct a Facebook and LinkedIn search of
potential employees. Some actually go as
far as to ask for candidates’ usernames and passwords (that’s the time to
leave). People have been fired (or not hired) for posting what others deem
inappropriate or “offensive” comments, so beware! It’s too easy to forget once you’ve posted
something that it’s “out there” in the public domain. Personally, I feel that this is the same as
asking to read someone’s bank statements.
Peoples’ private lives are just that (private).
Facebook
is a friend and a foe for me. My main
concern is that it “de-humanises” the personal interaction between genuine
friends and/or people in general by making it too easy to “like”, wish Happy
Birthday, etc with a simple tap on a screen.
Equally it makes it too easy to air views which you might not air
face-to-face in a very public forum with little chance of “taking them back”
once they’re “out there”.
In a
world where interpersonal skills continue to be at a premium, one can't help
but wonder how much value is added by Facebook…
How do you use it to add value to your “brand”?
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running different operations and lending businesses,
I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance,
productivity and risk management. I work
with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic
institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and
fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of
services. For strategic questions that
you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Social, Strategy
Taking The Initiative
In a number of cases I’ve discussed with clients, they complain that their people “don’t take the
initiative”. When I ask questions like “Why
do they need to take more initiative?” or “What procedures have you changed to
support more initiative-taking?”, I’m usually greeted with silence.
It’s trendy to state that we expect our employees to “take
initiatives”, after all, it shows we’re enlightened employers. However, these initiatives often meet a wall
of bureaucracy (“compliance” is one) that sends them back to the
proverbial drawing board and discouraging them from taking things any further,
or else they get “ticked off” for daring to take the initiative...
Where things break down is at the organisational level. The larger the organisation, the more it’s
likely to have different “departments” who specialise in their own particular
area of expertise (HR, IT, etc). What
happens is that the other departments may not be aware of what’s going on and,
through no fault of their own, end up “obstructing” things rather than helping
them along. I remember thinking this
when I worked in the banking world and “compliance” were contently slowing
things down (as we saw it).
In the business world, speed of response is critical. If a
business can't react quickly enough, it risks becoming uncompetitive and going out of business. Taking the initiative is part of responding.
It comes down to what some call alignment. Every department,
function and employee needs to know what the organisation is there for, its
goals and to understand how they
contribute to achieving them.
Unfortunately, what often happens is that each head of function gets
their goals, then cascades them to their direct reports and so on without
taking account of the “big picture”. The
result: “organarchy” as someone once described it, where everyone actually
seems to be working against their
peers.
How do we change this?
The simple answer is “leadership”.
Everyone needs to know:
- What the organisation is there to achieve and what their
part is;
- Why the organisation exists (often the trickiest question to
answer);
- When things need to be done;
- How things are to be done and how they can support others;
- Where help can be found;
- Who is accountable for what and will help when things go
“off track”.
An overall set of Guiding Principles that state the reason
for the organisation’s being and what its values are will help people in making
decisions that are aligned with the organisation’s objectives.
For an example of this, see Chapter 23 of
Turn the Ship Around! by L. David
Marquet.
People don't work against each other deliberately. It’s usually “the system” that lets them
down. Our job as leaders is to change
that.
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running different
operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide
solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An
international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email
. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be
asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.Labels: Leadership, Strategy, Teamwork
