The EMPLOYEE engagement EQUATION

JUSTINE COLEMAN asks managers to question their HR conduct: how good are you at getting the most out of your staff, are they enthused and engaged – and are you?

HIRING AND RETAINING TALENTED people isn’t enough these days. If your company’s skilled resources aren’t motivated and focused on the right things, you may end up like a sports team with a big payroll, a bench of sidelined stars and a losing season. “Engagement” has become the buzz word of people management, but it is the outcome of a vital equation that sees satisfied employees giving their best.

BlessingWhite recently released a global survey on engagement (defined as being “enthused and in gear”), which asked 7,500 people worldwide in a range of industries and across the corporate hierarchy about their levels of job satisfaction/contribution.

They found that in Europe, SE Asia, Australia and New Zealand, only one- quarter of employees are fully engaged. In the US, it’s slightly higher, and the highest levels of employee engagement in India, where over one-third of people are engaged.

What can managers do?
As a manager, you are a – if not the – critical ingredient in successful employee engagement. Here are 10 steps to ensure higher levels of team engagement:

STEP 1 Reflect and recharge
Where are you on the engagement spectrum? You can’t help your team if you’re disengaged. If you are, consider what matters most to you. Then consider where the firm needs you to focus your talents. Can a few job tweaks improve things? If you’re fully engaged, how can you “infect” others?

STEP 2 Hire “engage-able” team members
One HR leader interviewed underscored this point: “Our number one problem was lack of fit. We needed to hire people who could be successful. Instead of training square pegs to fit the round hole, we now try to hire round pegs.”

STEP 3 Earn trust every day
Trust provides the essential foundation for your effectiveness as a manager, whether we’re talking about engagement, innovation or high performance. To build it, you need to reveal who you are as a person. Your title and accomplishments aren’t enough.

STEP 4 Stress employee ownership
You can’t create an engaged team if your employees don’t have clear visions of personal success. Make sure they know that you’re available to provide guidance, remove barriers and help them find fulfilling work. However, they are ultimately the ones responsible for their success.

STEP 5 Find out where the bus is going – and remind people of the destination
If you’re not clear on your organisation’s strategy, find someone who can give you answers. Demand clarity – you owe it to yourself and to your team. Once you are clear, help your team understand their role, and prioritise the myriad tasks they face each day to achieve meaningful results.

STEP 6 Remember that feedback is a gift
Employees want feedback. They deserve information that can help them achieve both their goals and the firm’s. Let them know what they do well so they can keep doing those things with confidence. Suggest course corrections to help them use their time and effort most efficiently.

STEP 7 Talk and listen more
Communication (especially in today’s email-driven workplace) is often one-way. Conversation, on the other hand, is about dialogue between two or more people. Conversation drives clarity. It is by far the most effective vehicle for providing performance feedback, and is the only way to efficiently generate new ideas for increasing business results and personal job satisfaction.

STEP 8 Match projects, passion and proficiency
Every person comes to work with a different combination of personal values, talents and goals, which they are looking to satisfy on the job. They don’t necessarily want a lofty title, a higher salary, or your job. If you can help them connect what’s important to them with what’s important to the organisation, you can make a positive impact on their job satisfaction, commitment and contribution.

STEP 9 Get to know your team members
You don’t need to be their friend. You do need to know what makes them tick. Pay attention. Ask questions.

STEP 10 Tailor your coaching strategies
Once you understand where each individual in your team is at, tailor your coaching strategies to address their specific needs. Clarify performance expectations, provide development opportunities, give feedback and re-enforce standards. The truly disengaged may need to be coached out of the organisation. But don’t take those who are engaged for granted. Full engagement is hard to sustain on one’s own. Nurture them, recognise them, stretch them and develop them. Keep them involved.

By building a partnership with your team members, you can work together to get the employee engagement equation right.

For a copy of a regional overview or the full report of “2008 State of Employee Engagement” by BlessingWhite, write to: info@blessingwhiteap.com

Justine Coleman is MD of Performance Culture Consulting, and is a senior consultant with BlessingWhite in Melbourne. She specialises in talent management, workplace effectiveness and engagement strategies. justinec@blessingwhiteap.com