Moving the Needle on Employee Engagement and Commitment
Copyright 2006 Red Ladder, Inc.
When it comes to employee engagement and commitment to an
organization, most companies would agree that they ‘have
some, want more.’ Why? These companies have come to
recognize that their organization’s long-term success
relies on employee performance, which is directly impacted
by the level of employee engagement and commitment to an
organization.
How is employee engagement and commitment defined?
According to a 2003 report by Towers Perrin, it is defined
as “employees’ willingness and ability to contribute to
company success.†What does that mean in real terms? It is
the extent to which your employees are willing to put
discretionary effort into their work in the form of “extra
time, brainpower and energy.â€
If you’re like most corporate leaders, you are probably
thinking to yourself, ‘Wishful thinking.†Worse, some
corporate leaders think that simply making people happy and
paying them more money is the solution. Not so. These are
certainly important considerations for any company that
wants to attract and retain the most qualified individuals,
however, they are less important when it comes to engaging
employees in their work. Further, engagement requires both
a rational and emotional commitment. And, as you might
suspect, it is far more difficult to engage employees
emotionally. You have to engage not only their minds but
their hearts as well.
So, what’s a company to do? Here are some suggestions to
help get you started in moving the needle on employee
engagement and commitment.
1. Measure: start by establishing a baseline. Develop an
annual engagement survey. To maintain confidentiality and
build trust with your employees, it may be beneficial to
work with an outside consultant.
2. Analyze: when reviewing the survey data, ask yourself
these key questions: How do we compare with other companies
in our industry? How do our employees compare across job
levels? What attributes of engagement is our company strong
in? Weak in? It is also a good idea to conduct employee
focus groups as part of the analysis process. This will
provide additional meaning and richness to your analysis,
while providing an opportunity to further engage employees
in the process.
3. Plan: identify those areas that your company will focus
on. Identify goals and involve your employees in developing
an action plan. Remember to involve employees at all
levels. Your plan should include sponsorship, change
management, training, communications, key measures as well
as the tactical plan for actually implementing your goals.
4. Perform: now it’s time to execute your plan and measure
results. This should not be relegated to Human Resources.
Rather, all divisions need to have accountability for
employee engagement and commitment and should have
engagement goals that tie back to the corporate goals. And
remember, you have to inspect what you expect. It is
advisable to develop an engagement and commitment scorecard
that is reviewed at least quarterly by senior management
with monthly check-ins on key initiatives as appropriate.
It’s a fact that highly engaged and committed employees
outperform other employees. Use the MAPP process noted
above and watch employee productivity and morale improve
with a corresponding impact to your bottom line. Of course
it will take time and commitment with a focus on long-term
results. However, no matter how you slice it, focusing on
employee and commitment just makes good business sense, but
remember, it’s an ongoing journey, not just a destination.
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Regina Barr is a management consultant and speaker who
helps companies develop strategies to attract, develop and
retain women leaders. Sign up for her FREE Ezine,
Developing People…Inspiring Success at
http://www.RedLadder.com .
