A CALL TO

GREATNESSWhy chasing employee engagement

is thinking too small.

by the O.C. Tanner Institute

“Scores are low, it’s time to get ourpeople in gear.”

“We need to driveengagement.”

“We really haveto engage ouremployees.”

These phrases imply leaders can “drive” engagement or “get” people in gear.

THEY CAN’T.

We tend to believe people can be coerced, enticed, or incented to engage.

BECOMEAll we can hope for is to

the kind of corporate culture peoplewant to engage with.

METAPHOR ALERT:

IF PEOPLE WERETOOTHPASTE...A story in Wired Magazine told of a team of Colgate-Palmolive chemists who were having trouble getting fluoride powder into a tube.

THE SOLUTIONwas to electrically ground the tube and impart an electric charge to the powder.

ONCE THE TUBE BECAME IRRESISTIBLE TO THE POWDER, THE POWDER RUSHED IN TO FILL IT.

IT’S THE SAMEWITH PEOPLE.Leaders may not be able to drive engagement, but

they can earn it. They can make their culture so great, that people will rush in to fill it.

EVERYORGANIZATION

SHOULD.

BUTHOW?

Any organization can become a stronger magnet for talent.

Top HR consultant, Josh Bersin, put it this way:

“Using the word “engagement” often limits our thinking. It’s assumes that our job is to reach out and

“engage” people, rather than to build an organization that is exciting, fulfilling, meaningful, and fun.”1

We recently studied attraction and engagement insights and models from Aon Hewitt, Deloitte, Gallup, Towers

Watson, and our own proprietary global studies to discover six attributes of a culture that inspires engagement.

WHAT DOES A TRULYMAGNETIC CULTURE LOOK LIKE?

A GREAT CULTURE HAS:

GREAT PURPOSE

GREAT LEADERSHIP

GREAT OPPORTUNITIES

GREAT WORK

GREAT WELLBEING

GREAT EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION

Focusing on culture is the exciting part of HR. It’s an opportunity to:

To see how O.C. Tanner helped The DOW Chemical Company influence greatness,

1 http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/04/10/its-time-to-rethink-the-employee-engagement-issue/3/#6c78d5603455

influence greatness

be strategic and impact performance

help your organization become the kind of place people are naturally drawn to work for and engage with.

WATCH THE CASE STUDY HERE