Working
atters
Ltd
Employee Engagement
Employee Engagement is the extent to which employees commit to something or someone in their
organisation, which impacts how hard they work and how long they stay.
How do you know when you have an engaged employee? Engaged staff want more than just to be
happy in their job or with their employer – they want to make a difference. They work passionately
and feel connected to their employer. They take ownership of a task or project, seek out additional
duties, help others out with their workloads or problems – and they take responsibility for their
performance.
If you want more of a business case, here are some statistics that should convince you:
The 10:6:2 Rule
Every10% improvement in commitment can
increase an employee’s effort level by 6%
In turn, every 6% improvement in effort can
improve an employee’s performance by 2%
The 10:9 Rule
Every10% improvement in commitment
can decrease an employee’s
probability of departure by 9%
Corporate Leadership Council 2004 Employee Engagement Survey.
CLC Employee Engagement Model
Rational
Commitment
Extent to which employees
believe that managers,
team or employers have
their self-interest in mind
(financial, developmental or
professional).
Emotional
Commitment
Extent to which employees
value, enjoy and believe in
their jobs, managers, teams
and employers
Day-to-day
Work
Team
Direct
Manager
Employer
Discretionary Effort
Employee willingness to go
above and beyond the call of
duty, such as helping others with
heavy workloads, volunteering
for additional duties and looking
for ways to perform the job
more effectively.
Performance
Intent to Stay
Employee desire to stay with the
employer, based on if they intend
to look for another job within a
year, if they are actively looking
for a job or have begun to take
tangible steps like placing phone
calls or sending out CVs.
Retention
1
Employee Engagement
Research has found that engaged employees reap multiple benefits for an organisation. A recent
Gallup study (2013) of 1.4 million employees from 192 organisations in 49 countries compared the
top and bottom engagement quartiles and found the following differences:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
37% less absenteeism
25% less absenteeism for high-turnover workplaces
65% less for low-turnover workplaces
28% less shrinkage
48% fewer safety incidents
41% fewer quality problems
10% better customer service ratings
21% more productivity
22% more profitability
Gallup Consulting. (2013). The
relationship between engagement at
work and organizational outcomes:
2012 Q12 item-level meta-analysis.
Furthermore, engaged staff are associated with greater improvements in EPS and job growth, and are
also more likely to experience positive psychological and physical well-being. Now are you convinced
of the importance of having engaged staff?!!
So, you want engaged staff then...
Unfortunately, survey research reveals that very few staff are actively engaged with their jobs and
employers. Globally, it appears to be only 1 in every 9 employees.*
Even worse, over twice that number are actively disengaged.
In the middle are the not engaged, who are a clear majority. One interpretation is that these staff are
apathetic and just waiting for the right moment to go elsewhere (or maybe not, if they can tolerate
a job/place they’re not excited about, or if others can tolerate them). Another is a more positive
perspective, that one-third of these are leaning towards engagement and another third are ‘standing
in the middle’ and neutral, perhaps waiting to be convinced by the right experience.
Either way, this adds up to 9 out of 10 employees either underperforming or actively undermining
their own and other’s work. BUT, there are ways in which this sad story can be turned around.
11%
62%
27%
Actively
Engaged
Not
Engaged
Actively
Disengaged
Passionate, deeply connected, innovative,
thriving, moving the organisation forward
No passion or pep, have ‘checked out’ and
are biding their time
Miserable at work, acting out, undermining
their and others’ efforts
* Gallup Consulting. (2010) State of the Global Workplace. Data from 47,361 employees in 120 countries using the
Gallup Q12 Employee Engagement Index.
2
Employee Engagement
How can you influence employee engagement then?
Top 11 Levers of Discretionary Effort
Percentage
Category
Impact
Engagement Lever Categories
1
Connection between work and organisational strategy
32.8
WK
DM
Direct Manager
2
Importance of job to organisational success
30.3
WK
EX
Senior Executive Team
3
Understanding of how to complete work projects
29.8
WK
CO
Compensation
4
Internal communication
29.2
OC
BE
Benefits
5
Demonstrates strong commitment to diversity
28.5
DM
6
Demonstrates honesty and integrity
27.9
DM
7
Reputation of integrity
27.6
OC
8
Adapts to changing circumstances
27.6
DM
9
Clearly articulates organisational goals
27.6
DM
10
Possesses job skills
27.2
DM
11
Sets realistic performance expectations
27.1
DM
OB
On-Boarding
WK
Day-to-Day Work
LD
Learning & Development
OC
Organisational Culture
Source: Corporate Leadership
Council. Driving employee
performance and retention
through engagement.
If you want your people to give their all, you first have to gain their commitment. There are over 300
engagement levers to do this, related to aspects of work, manager, team, and employer. Don't worry,
you won't have to use all of them! Although some work contexts and individuals will require specific
levers, research suggests that focusing on a core group of scalable levers should be effective. Here are
some general guidelines from the CLC:
1
Get the job
right
Staff need to know how to do their work, how it fits into the bigger picture, and its
importance to the bottom line. It’s that simple.
2
Understand
the crucial role
of managers
People don’t work harder or hang around for their managers. But, managers do enable
engagement through their interface with staff, by helping them develop commitment to the
job, team, and employer. The quality of the interface is what determines the commitment.
3
Strive towards
the ‘Big Five’
cultural traits
Engaged staff are motivated by cultures strong in open communication, integrity,
innovation, flexibility, and customer focus. As a ‘public good’ – something everyone that
can benefit from, culture is inexhaustible and scalable across the entire workforce –
therefore the most effective engagement lever.
4
Support career
development
Providing career support and development, no matter what one’s talent is, sends a message
that the employee is valued. Provide career advisors and mentors, offer development
opportunities, help staff think proactively about their careers.
5
Start at
on-boarding
Don’t skimp on on-boarding. Provide the bigger picture to your new hires and show how
they fit in, what their job is and how to do it. It’s also a vital socialisation experience on
how things get done and an insight into the culture; without it, the
trial-and-error, hit-and-miss approach may lead to early disengagement.
Working Matters can help you with employee engagement in three major ways:
• Conducting employee engagement surveys standard or bespoke, and other assessment
exercises such as focus groups
• Supporting action planning around survey results
• Developing and facilitating engagement interventions such as on-boarding programmes, job
descriptions, manager training, and culture reviews
3