Employee Engagement and Beyond

PRAXIS 2013

Aniisu K Verghese

@aniisu September 28, 2013

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Presentation covers

Why our current approach needs a revisit

Trends shaping the world

Strategies to engage in the future

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Why our current approach needs a revisit

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Why do expectations and responsibilities change after an employee joins an

organization?

Who owns employee engagement?

State of affairs in India

• Only 21% respondents said that the internal communications team owned employee engagement at their organization although 57% agreed that the team believed internal communications had an impact on engagement within the firm.

Source: State of the Nation 2012 Internal Communications Survey

What Indian internal communicators think leaders grapple with

Attrition Low Morale Poor communication skills

The complex nature of our business

Understanding the mindset of our professionals

Doing things that all leaders agree

Articulating their message

Engaging employees Communicating tough messages to employee

State of the Nation: 2011 India Internal Communications Survey

Only about 34% leaders highly involved with engagement

Unlocking the Power of Employees to Drive Success: Actionable ideas for companies of any size, Interbrand’s (2010)

Engagement effort lacks direction

90% of companies invest in some form of employee engagement activity.

But these tend to be unrelated and/or uncoordinated, meaning opportunities are missed to build on prior initiatives and enable engagement to truly take root.

Unlocking the Power of Employees to Drive Success: Actionable ideas for companies of any size, Interbrand’s (2010)

What do organizations measure?

Leveraging Employee Engagement for Competitive Advantage, 2007 SHRM® Research Quarterly

Different frameworks offered often confuse

Sources: http://www.greatplacetowork.in, www.blessingwhite.com and http://www.aon.com

GPTW

AON-Hewitt BlessingWhite

Trends shaping our world

Company’s employee is more credible than the CEO

Source: Edelman’s Trust Barometer, 2013

‘We’ society to a ‘Me’ lifestyle

“Individualism, one’s aspirations and a personalized way of life, emerged as the central theme amongst 18-35 year olds in India”

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Source: VML Qais, Generation Asia Study http://www.wppindia.in/wpp/press/2013/jan/09/vml-qais-research-finds-individualism-is-the/

Involvement and empowerment: shift in engagement trends

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Source: Empowering employees: new rules of engagement. Engage and youGov study, October 2008 http://www.ioic.org.uk/content/training/knowledge-bank/1457-engagement-yougov-survey-results.html

Making progress in one’s work—even incremental progress is more frequently associated with high

motivation

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http://hbr.org/2010/01/the-hbr-list-breakthrough-ideas-for-2010/ar/1

Engagement is highest when….

• Employees are well informed because information is widely shared early and often

• Employees views are sought and followed up

• Explanations are given if ideas or views are not adopted

• Employees are involved in developing solutions early.

Source: 2009 UK government report: Engaging for Success: Enhancing Performance Through Employee Engagement

“Employee commitment may be shifting from the organization to one’s occupation.”

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An individual with higher occupational commitment would strongly identify with his occupation and have positive feelings towards it Probably why Engineers Day gets a lot more attention these days?

http://www.vikalpa.com/pdf/articles/2007/oct_dec_13_to_27.pdf

Impact and implications

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Employees seek greater connection

Sources: 2011: Trends in Internal Communications (Edelman Change & Employee Engagement) http://2020workplace.com/blog/?p=988

Millennials: “Notorious job-hoppers who dislike bureaucracy and distrust traditional hierarchies.”

“Your best talent is looking to become more engaged with the organization or brand. Especially in a manner that suits their interests and ambitions.”

Employee understanding of brand = engagement

“If there’s no clarity of purpose around what your brand stands for, that seeps into the customer experience.” “On the other hand, if your people are pulling together, competing constructively and in harmony with an identity well developed and defined, then your customers will experience that positive coherence every time they

interact with you.” Unlocking the Power of Employees to

Drive Success: Actionable ideas for companies of any size, Interbrand’s (2010)

Coach employees about your company

• Reputation—What does your organization want to be famous for in the job market?

• Only 52% of employees on average can answer this question and answer it positively

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Empowering employees: new rules of engagement. Engage and youGov study, October 2008

Greater responsibility rests with the manager

“Managers have powerful influence over events that facilitate or undermine progress. They can provide meaningful goals, resources, and encouragement, and they can protect their people from irrelevant demands. Or they can fail to do so.”

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http://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins/

Strategies to Engage in the Future

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There is an opportunity for the IC team

“IC should play a leading role in designing, leading and influencing organization wide employee and leadership engagement programs. Few companies have shared understanding of what they mean by engagement and there is an opportunity for the IC team to lead the creation of this definition and become the custodian of it”

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Internal Communications – More to Deliver. The Watson Helsby Reports (2009)

Involve staff in ‘big issue’ and ‘everyday’ decision making

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Empowering employees: new rules of engagement. Engage and youGov study, October 2008 http://www.ioic.org.uk/content/training/knowledge-bank/1457-engagement-yougov-survey-results.html

“It’s only by letting go that companies can gain more. And an important part of that letting go is about enabling employees to co-create messages via digital channels.”

http://www.simply-communicate.com/news/event-reviews/internal-comms-lessons-le-web

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Crowd is the company

What you ask is what you get!

• Question not to ask: “what should we do to engage employees?”

• Questions to ask: “what do employees need in order to be engaged?”

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AON-Hewitt – 2013 Trends in Global Employee Engagement http://www.aon.com/attachments/human-capital-

consulting/2013_Trends_in_Global_Employee_Engagement_Report.pdf

Every human interaction in a company is an opportunity to create engagement

“It’s in those key interactions between employee and customer, employee and employee, employee and manager that ‘engagement’ becomes real.”

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https://www.melcrum.com/blog/has-employee-engagement-lost-its-humanity?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=130703

What messages do these send?

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Leaders can influence employee engagement

The #1 driver of employee engagement is employees’ belief that senior management is interested in their well-being. Only 42% agree that this was true in their organization!

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Source: Tower Perrins Talent Report: Understanding what drives Employee Engagement, 2003

Employees trust a social media active leader

Source: 2012 CEO, Social Media and Leadership Survey, BrandFog

High alignment of ‘say-do’ = greater engagement

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Source: Roger D’Aprix’s Say-Do Model

Cases

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Personal Branding Week for new hires

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-11-12/news/27609177_1_eureka-forbes-efl-representatives

• Compensation at the largest tomato processor on the planet – Morning Star is peer-based.

Euro Senate decides on employee change needs

Internal Communications – Insights, Practices and Models (Sage Publications, 2012)

• India’s and Asia’s first book on internal communications

• Addresses employee engagement, internal social media, crisis communications, skills and communications that leaders, communicators, academicians and students can benefit from.

• Available on Flipkart, Crosswords, Infibeam, Indiaplaza and other leading bookstores

• Visit: http://www.facebook.com/ICbook2012

Thank You & Stay Connected

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