There is very little academic research into the area of employee communication and Chen et al (2006) argue ‘a review of the research on organizational communication practices has been ignored.’

Before undertaking the research consider your end goal; are you looking to measure the effectiveness, reach, impact or awareness? Many fall into the pitfall of assessing the channels used or volume of information generated (the transmission)– rather than the content of the communication itself, how well it is provided or understanding.

Think about your objectives for the original communication; what was the outcome you were looking to achieve or the behaviours you were looking to modify? Create bullet points of your objectives and then ensure you measure against them.

By far the most predominant measurement tool utilised by organisations are surveys but other forms of staff research such as focus groups, interviews with the executive team and short polls are also popular.  Few organisations currently look to use internal social media as a ... read more »]]>

There is very little academic research into the area of employee communication and Chen et al (2006) argue ‘a review of the research on organizational communication practices has been ignored.’

Before undertaking the research consider your end goal; are you looking to measure the effectiveness, reach, impact or awareness? Many fall into the pitfall of assessing the channels used or volume of information generated (the transmission)– rather than the content of the communication itself, how well it is provided or understanding.

Think about your objectives for the original communication; what was the outcome you were looking to achieve or the behaviours you were looking to modify? Create bullet points of your objectives and then ensure you measure against them.

By far the most predominant measurement tool utilised by organisations are surveys but other forms of staff research such as focus groups, interviews with the executive team and short polls are also popular.  Few organisations currently look to use internal social media as a tool for measuring the success of internal communication. This is interesting as according to the survey from Towers Watson, 56 percent of employers currently use various social media tools as part of their internal communication initiatives to build community.

As with your internal comms different segments of your employees will prefer to be approached in different ways (depending on not only their comms preferences but attitudes to technology, role type, life stage) you will need to consider these preferences when designing your research.

To get a true picture many organisations tend to conduct quantitative research supported by some qualitative research. As is often the case that answers to multiple choice questions give you statistics you can point to as justification for changing things or for keeping them the same. Whereas free-form responses will provide you the opportunity to check the pulse of the target audience and often provide you with as sense of the importance of the issues you face in communicating. Research methods are not mutually exclusive if you choose to conduct an internal communications survey you can subsequently utilise focus groups to provide added insight for interpreting the survey results, often these groups may help to provide the solutions too.

The research can not only provide rich data for you to improve and focus your communication but can often pick up on other items such as the communication challenges faced by line managers. You need to ensure that any feedback is used appropriately and shared with the organisation so that the actions can be taken at an organisational and local level.

When looking at the success measures for your internal comms it is important not to forget existing business measures. When you can align internal communications with specific business results the argument for good internal communication becomes much more powerful; for example, driving strategic alignment, to what degree year on year is your company hitting its productivity goals.

Communication plays a huge role in business results when designed properly, and it is great to be able to point out your part in huge successes like that.

Don’t forget that once you complete your research you then have some valuable baselines against which you can measure your success and see how you are performing against your objectives.

Try something a little different

Speak to co-workers: Hold focus groups to find out what co-workers know about, what excites them and what initiatives and projects they feel engaged with.

Ask a question: Please describe the strategic objectives of the company with maximum 30 words. What are the most frequently used words in the responses? Do they differ by business unit? This gives you a lot of good information, about how effective your internal communication has been on spreading out key messages.

What your customers say: Look to include questions in customer surveys that indicate whether their interactions with employees are in line with your internal expectations. If your brand personality is around “fun,” do customers experience that? What is the top attribute customers’ associate with your company through interactions with employees?

Gaining trust in any relationship is always difficult. But, forgive me if I sound a little trite, surely the key to building trust with your staff is simple, once you have the basics right, you need to put your trust in your staff.

“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

I know that this isn’t easy (and a lot will depend on your personality type) but if I put an alternative spin on the topic you may feel differently: How about if I had titled this blog: Less than half of employees trust senior management or High trust organisations are nearly 300% more profitable than low trust organisations? There is much research out there showing the impact that trust can have on the bottom line – and if you think about it the equation TRUST = SPEED = PROFIT makes all sorts of economic sense.

“The best way to find out if you can trust ... read more »]]>

Gaining trust in any relationship is always difficult. But, forgive me if I sound a little trite, surely the key to building trust with your staff is simple, once you have the basics right, you need to put your trust in your staff.

“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

I know that this isn’t easy (and a lot will depend on your personality type) but if I put an alternative spin on the topic you may feel differently:
How about if I had titled this blog: Less than half of employees trust senior management or High trust organisations are nearly 300% more profitable than low trust organisations? There is much research out there showing the impact that trust can have on the bottom line – and if you think about it the equation TRUST = SPEED = PROFIT makes all sorts of economic sense.

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
― Ernest Hemingway

So we have established that you first need to trust your staff but what are the other basics that you will also need in place? We asked a number of business leaders and professionals for their feedback and experiences on building trust with staff and as you can imagine there were some strong congruencies.
Here follows a list of basic factors that the group felt needed to be in place for trust to be given to the person who is leading.

Your communication

•  Demonstrate patience. Actively listen to what staff have to say and show that you have listened by responding or acting on the feedback. Tell them what you are planning to do or explain why you can’t.
• Be mindful. Consider the needs of others and show an interest in their work related problems. Remember also to provide recognition for their achievements.
• Be consistent. Keep your promises and show support for business policies by acting with transparency and consistency.
• Be transparent. Share as much relevant information as possible and ensure that you communicate objectives with total clarity.

Your team

• Invest time in recruiting the right people in the first place.
• Then spend time getting to know people as individuals – this will allow you to target your communications, and delegate accordingly.
• Instil this belief in your managers so that these behaviours are filtered down the organisation.

Your self

• Be honest and fair. Treat people how you would like to be treated.
• Show self-awareness. Ensure that you are aware of your self, your values and beliefs and consider how these will impact on others.
• Be a role model. Demonstrate behaviours you would like your managers and colleagues to replicate.

The outcomes

Once you, as a leader, have demonstrated you are worthy of trust and when staff experience that trust, they will, in turn, give much more trust, commitment, creativity, loyalty, productivity and general goodwill.

Remember that people leave manager’s not organisations! If they don’t like the person who’s managing them, they are more likely to disengage. The research backs this up; actively disengaged employees seem especially disenchanted with their connection with their manager: 80% strongly disagree that their relationship with their manager is one of their strongest personal relationships, compared to 15% of engaged employees (Steve Crabtree. Getting Personal in the Workplace, The Gallup Management Journal. 2004).

So get the basics right, put your trust in your staff and then hopefully you will be rewarded with their trust and much more besides.

For more on engaging employees and gaining insight and self awareness into managerial skill set contact us, on 01255 850051.

It’s not uncommon for us to receive a ‘thank you’ or an ‘I’ve completed the survey’ email reply to invitations or reminders. Sometimes people even discuss the employee opinion survey in their free comments such as – ‘can we do more frequent surveys?’ ‘Thank you for commissioning this survey’. But one employee was so happy with the survey he received; he went out of his way to give me his opinion. Here’s just a snippet:

‘One of the best surveys I have ever completed!’

Why be positive about employee surveys? This is great to hear, but why is it surprising? What was so special about their survey? The feedback just shows that with a little ... read more »]]> Believe it or not, employee surveys can generate excitement in organisations! And so they should – it is after all an opportunity to improve your work life and have your say. I was inspired to write this post after receiving some feedback by an employee taking part in a survey.

It’s not uncommon for us to receive a ‘thank you’ or an ‘I’ve completed the survey’ email reply to invitations or reminders. Sometimes people even discuss the employee opinion survey in their free comments such as – ‘can we do more frequent surveys?’ ‘Thank you for commissioning this survey’. But one employee was so happy with the survey he received; he went out of his way to give me his opinion. Here’s just a snippet:

‘One of the best surveys I have ever completed!’

Why be positive about employee surveys?
This is great to hear, but why is it surprising? What was so special about their survey? The feedback just shows that with a little thought and attention the survey can communicate to staff how important they (and their feedback) are to the organisation. The survey needs to engage, empower and encourage feedback in order to be an effective strategic tool. By just running the survey and the organisations attitude towards it conveys something to staff about the values of the organisation.

Make it attractive
Any communication around the survey needs to catch employees’ attention from the start. The communication needs to reflect the importance the organisation places on the employees’ opinion and the effort that has gone into asking for their feedback.

Excite your employees! Three top tips

1. Everyone likes to get post – leave a postcard on each keyboard announcing the launch of the survey.
2. Make it personal – receiving a personalised invitation really adds to the sense of occasion.
3. Show you are serious – a personal communication from the Chief Executive raises the profile of the survey.

Never under-estimate the value of branding and a catchy title! It all makes the survey seem a little more interesting and enticing.

HongKong Post – Keep us Posted!

Royal National Lifeboat Institution – SOS (staff opinion survey)

Create a sense of occasion and atmosphere, hold a survey day – where all staff are invited to complete the survey in just one day. Donate to charity for every completion and encourage competition between departments or locations!

Make it relevant
The content of the questionnaire is clearly very important; it should be relevant to your organisations staff whilst also providing useful actionable feedback to the senior team and managers.
Piloting the survey with a few members of staff will help to ensure that staff understand the questions and terminology used, you can also use this as an opportunity to find out whether any important areas have been missed. Online surveys can allow you to easily provide questions relevant to each staff member, from different manager and senior manager question items to alternative phrasing for contract staff.

Sticky – leave a trail
Feedback the results of the survey to all staff and commit to actions. Celebrate those areas where you are doing well and then look to make improvement.

You can commit to an action plan as an organisation or within teams.

• Make the reports and action plans available on the intranet and encourage involvement in action planning.
• Get teams together to work though their results; discussing anything surprising will help uncover issues and come up with resolutions.
• In a public space write the items the organisation would like to address and encourage others to write suggested actions on the wall.

As an organisation you need to communicate any actions you take from survey feedback – ‘You said – we did.’ This is an ongoing process. Ensure that you link any changes or events back to the survey. Prior to the next survey communicate what action has been taken from the survey and the positive changes made as a direct result of the employees’ feedback. Then utilise posters, postcards and online media to promote the forthcoming survey. It helps if you develop a brand identity for the survey, you can incorporate the brand into all the communication to link back to the survey.

It would be great to receive such a positive response every time we field a survey but perhaps it is something to consider for your next employee survey.
If you are interested in exciting your employees in your next survey please get in contact we would love to hear from you.

DHL have made big news in the past few weeks with their not insignificant investment of €100 million into an employee engagement programme.

Clearly not small potatoes and it comes at an interesting time in DHL’s life – with considerable loses being made within the business – clearly Ken Allen (CEO) sees engagement as a very direct way of moving the business back into the black.

We are incredibly strong advocates of employee engagement and the benefits to both an organisation and its workforce of having high levels of engagement.

In DHL’s case however, it begs the question, why now and why such a huge sum?

There’s a word of warning here for organisations. You don’t need to invest huge sums of money in expensive and expansive employee engagement programmes – but this could well be what you end up doing if you leave it so late and at a dire stage in ... read more »]]>

DHL have made big news in the past few weeks with their not insignificant investment of €100 million into an employee engagement programme.

Clearly not small potatoes and it comes at an interesting time in DHL’s life – with considerable loses being made within the business – clearly Ken Allen (CEO) sees engagement as a very direct way of moving the business back into the black.

We are incredibly strong advocates of employee engagement and the benefits to both an organisation and its workforce of having high levels of engagement.

In DHL’s case however, it begs the question, why now and why such a huge sum?

There’s a word of warning here for organisations. You don’t need to invest huge sums of money in expensive and expansive employee engagement programmes – but this could well be what you end up doing if you leave it so late and at a dire stage in your organisations history.

Start engaging now, right throughout your organisation. Look for areas of your business that are performing well – spend time with these teams or departments. Understand how they do their work, what the management style is and how much autonomy employees have. Listen to the employees within these teams to understand, directly from them, what makes them so successful.  Make sure you hire the right people!  When you advertise for new people, does the description for the role actually match reality, if not then you are likely setting yourself up for a fall.  Ensure you get the right personality for the role – it might not be sensible to hire an introvert for an outward facing sales role for example.

Organise for less successful parts of the business to spend times with these teams, so they can understand and learn from them. Facilitate a process of implementing ways of working from these successful teams to other parts of your business. Those managers that are working well, delivering and are successful – organise for them to be seconded onto key projects and other parts of the business – setup a mentoring programme whereby they can offer their skills and insights with other managers.

Yes, this is time intensive but in terms of actual monetary investment – it’s small fry and the benefits you can reap are huge.

Find out how we can help you improve employee engagement without breaking the bank by calling us on 01255 850051!

Back at work all refreshed and full of energy after a bank holiday break (well the energy might be down to the sugar buzz from all those Easter chocolates!) I find myself wondering how to maintain this new found enthusiasm and energy.

So rather than citing the latest numbers on staff engagement, I thought I would share some of the more fun and slightly crazy ideas we have come across for sparking engagement within organisations.

Make a movie

Give teams the equipment they need to make a ten-minute movie of their working day.  Ask them to focus on what goes well and what doesn’t go so well. Collect all the films together and make a show reel. Show the single film at local events – along with popcorn and hot dogs!

This exercise can be used to hold a mirror up to the organisation and encourage dialogue on those things that go well and not so well within the organisations, ... read more »]]>

Back at work all refreshed and full of energy after a bank holiday break (well the energy might be down to the sugar buzz from all those Easter chocolates!) I find myself wondering how to maintain this new found enthusiasm and energy.

So rather than citing the latest numbers on staff engagement, I thought I would share some of the more fun and slightly crazy ideas we have come across for sparking engagement within organisations.

Make a movie

Give teams the equipment they need to make a ten-minute movie of their working day.  Ask them to focus on what goes well and what doesn’t go so well. Collect all the films together and make a show reel. Show the single film at local events – along with popcorn and hot dogs!

This exercise can be used to hold a mirror up to the organisation and encourage dialogue on those things that go well and not so well within the organisations, as well as flag up any barriers to work.

Hold a no shoes day!

As staff come to the office ask them to take off their shoes for the day. One word of caution – we would advise that this exercise is undertaken in appropriate circumstances.

Ok this might be one of the more ‘funky’ ideas! But the effectiveness of this idea lies in its simplicity. Sometimes a small change in the routine can be as effective and unsettling as a full-scale change. The aim of this exercise is to open employee’s minds to new perspectives and encourage innovation – as they are thrown out of their usual routine and comfort zone.

Recruit a DJ

Many of us listen to music in the office or on the shop floor. For most of us this is not a shared experience, just listening on the iPod, or we don’t get to influence what we are listening to. Why not just for the day share our music preferences, encourage employees to send in their music requests and then recruit a DJ to play the requests throughout the workday – in the office or on the shop floor. This can be great talking point and help build relationships, as well as livening up the atmosphere!

Forget-me-not

McDonalds send leavers a pack of forget-me-not flower seeds, encouraging them to return and reinforcing the idea of staying loyal to the company even after leaving.

You don’t need to limit simple gestures to leavers, on a hot summers day deliver ice cream to staff and on cold days give cups of hot soup to people as they leave work.

People better engage with small things

Keep these surprises flowing, as research shows that people tend to be more appreciative and so better engage, with the immediacy and relevance of small things above bigger less personal exercises.

Try thinking of a few exercises and ideas that amplify and reinforce positive aspects of your business’ personality.

We would love to hear any of the simple but effective ideas you have used or come across for inspiring engagement within organisations.  Call us on 01255 850051 or email us to find out more about our approach to employee engagement.

I have a confession to make…I love table tennis (or Wiff Waff or, Ping Pong!).  It’s a sport I’ve played for many years and get a great deal of satisfaction from and I’d go as far as to say that I’m a half decent player.

Recently I entered three local table tennis tournaments, playing in a number of events.  Sadly, I didn’t win any and for two out of the three tournaments I wasn’t at all happy with my game or performance.

What’s up with my game?

So, like any self respecting person wanting to improve their game, I solicited feedback from my team mates and other players who I respected.  Now, I should well know that when you ask for feedback, you should be prepared for anything – well I got it!  There was some fantastic feedback about how I could improve my game, some was obvious and some less so but there really were some things in there that I had ... read more »]]>

I have a confession to make…I love table tennis (or Wiff Waff or, Ping Pong!).  It’s a sport I’ve played for many years and get a great deal of satisfaction from and I’d go as far as to say that I’m a half decent player.

Recently I entered three local table tennis tournaments, playing in a number of events.  Sadly, I didn’t win any and for two out of the three tournaments I wasn’t at all happy with my game or performance.

What’s up with my game?

So, like any self respecting person wanting to improve their game, I solicited feedback from my team mates and other players who I respected.  Now, I should well know that when you ask for feedback, you should be prepared for anything – well I got it!  There was some fantastic feedback about how I could improve my game, some was obvious and some less so but there really were some things in there that I had trouble dealing with – that initially I didn’t think applied or were not problems.

Talk to someone who really knows their stuff

I wasn’t entirely sure as to what to do with all this information – so I went and found a good friend of mine who is a former England ranked player (Top 50) and a qualified coach and spent some time with him going through the feedback.  He helped me think through the feedback, deal with the things that I didn’t think applied (and of course, they really did) and then helped me formulate a plan of action to help improve my game.

One-to-one facilitation of a 360 report is invaluable

This whole process got me thinking about the importance of being able to speak with an expert who can help you interpret feedback – this is especially critical when implementing something like a 360 degree feedback programme in your organisation.  It is imperative that once a person has asked for feedback and it has been provided that have the opportunity to sit down with a facilitator that can help work through their report and assist them with implementing possible changes they may need to make.

If I hadn’t of spent some time with my friend/ coach – I would have dismissed a large chunk of the feedback I had sought and would not have been able to make the improvements to my table tennis game I would have liked and needed!

Call us on 01255 850051 to find out how we can improve your game via 360 degree feedback or contact us here!

A small but growing number of companies are doing away with “fixed-number-of-days” vacation policies. Instead these forward thinking employers are giving their staff–with the approval of managers–the freedom to decide when and for how long to take time off. These companies have, in essence, an “unlimited” paid time off (PTO) policy.

These unlimited policies aren’t common; only one percent of U.S. companies offer them, and even the creme-de-la-creme–the top 10 of Fortune magazine’s top 100 best places to work in 2013–favor traditional or flex-time models. Google, renowned for its ridiculous employee benefits, doesn’t offer unlimited PTO either, instead allowing employees to accrue more vacation days the longer they’re with the company.

Is an unlimited PTO policy something you should consider for your company? This article explores the most commonly cited benefits–and drawbacks–that you should consider as you weigh your decision.

Productivity and Morale

One of the primary benefits touted by proponents of unlimited PTO is increased ... read more »]]> A guest post by Erin Osterhaus.

A small but growing number of companies are doing away with “fixed-number-of-days” vacation policies. Instead these forward thinking employers are giving their staff–with the approval of managers–the freedom to decide when and for how long to take time off. These companies have, in essence, an “unlimited” paid time off (PTO) policy.

These unlimited policies aren’t common; only one percent of U.S. companies offer them, and even the creme-de-la-creme–the top 10 of Fortune magazine’s top 100 best places to work in 2013–favor traditional or flex-time models. Google, renowned for its ridiculous employee benefits, doesn’t offer unlimited PTO either, instead allowing employees to accrue more vacation days the longer they’re with the company.

Is an unlimited PTO policy something you should consider for your company? This article explores the most commonly cited benefits–and drawbacks–that you should consider as you weigh your decision.

Productivity and Morale

One of the primary benefits touted by proponents of unlimited PTO is increased employee efficiency and morale. Holly Bock, CEO of leadership and management consulting firm Fierce, Inc., implemented an unlimited plan in June 2012. Bock says she’s received a wealth of positive feedback from her staff, and believes that the plan has helped boost productivity and her employees’ enthusiasm for their work.

“You can feel it as a sort of buzz around here,” says Bock. “There’s just a lot of energy, because when employees show up here, they are here absolutely because this is where they want to be … and with that comes great energy and focus.”

However, if unlimited PTO is implemented without guardrails, it could potentially be overused. While Bock says Fierce hasn’t had any problems with abuse of the policy since its implementation, there is still the very real possibility that employees might try to take more time off than they should, thus decreasing productivity.

Bock was careful to note that at Fierce, “It’s not a free-for-all. You do still need to obtain approval from your supervisor, and assuming that’s okay and your deliverables are in check, then you are free to go.”

At the other extreme, without a set number of vacation days allotted, some employees might err on the side of caution and take fewer days than they would like for fear of being seen as a “slacker” by their boss or colleagues. If employees don’t take vacation, the purpose of the unlimited policy–to allow staff to de-stress and re-energize when they need it most–is obviated.

For Bart Lorang, the founder and CEO of software vendor FullContact, this was the primary factor when he decided on a more traditional policy of 15 days paid vacation. “I looked at some of the data, and the data’s showing that some of the people actually take less vacation when they have unlimited vacation. So I said, well, that’s not good.” Lorang added, “If you get a number, you will actually use it.”

Recruitment

Attracting top talent has been a chief goal for employers, and generous vacation policies have been particularly prevalent in the highly-competitive tech sector. Companies such as Chegg, Gilt Groupe, TIBCO Software and Zynga offer unlimited vacation benefits to catch the eye of the best candidates.

However, unlimited PTO might not be enough to attract engineers in a field that has begun to offer the policy more frequently. As a consequence, companies like FullContact have had to think even further outside the box.

Lorang contends that the recruiting incentive was a key reason behind FullContact’s paid, paid vacation plan, implemented in July 2012. In this unusual twist of a policy, the company actually pays employees $7,500 for taking a week-long vacation, on top of their salary.

Lorang says when FullContact’s unique policy was implemented, his number of applicants skyrocketed. “We got 4,200 engineering applicants, which is just unheard of. And engineers are really hard to find in tech. So it’s helped, for sure.” He adds, “I think we have a first mover advantage in this.”

On the other hand, while companies may see gains in the quantity of applicants to due to an unlimited PTO policy, Bock says the quality of applicants to Fierce has remained largely the same. “I wouldn’t say it’s improved the level of candidates that we’ve had. I will say we probably get more applicants. Yet we’re still weeding out for very specific skill sets.”

Employee Retention

A liberal or innovative PTO policy cannot only help attract top talent, but also retain it. At FullContact, Lorang says the policy has improved retention–“nobody’s quit,” he notes. However, more data needs to be collected in order to prove a correlation between vacation policies and retention. And there are some kinks.

For established organizations that currently have a seniority-based vacation policy, switching to an unlimited model could be tricky. Some senior employees could view that as a penalty, or a benefit being taken away from them, because they might feel that they had to work for years to “earn” their vacation time but younger or new employees don’t.

Simultaneously, if junior employees don’t need to work up to a certain number of vacation days, they may have less incentive to stay with the company long-term.

Administrative Costs

Unlimited PTO could cut down on HR costs, or at least save your organization time. For Bock, the policy has been a timesaver. “As someone who previously would need to sign off on a lot of time sheets, or engage in a lot of conversations about, ‘Well I traveled on Sunday, can I take a comp day here?’ I am sure I have saved several weeks–no kidding–of time, just not having to engage in that.”

However, in order to circumvent purposeful or unintentional favoritism on the part of supervisors, larger companies would most likely need to train managers on how to communicate the policy to their teams. The cost of training could then offset any savings the HR department had made by avoiding the time-consuming task of tracking time accrued in a fixed-leave policy.

What’s The Verdict?

Obviously, whether the benefits of an unlimited vacation plan outweigh the costs will depend entirely on the specifics of your organization.

But if your company is to reap all the benefits of increased productivity and morale, more effective recruiting and retention, all while saving on administrative costs, there seem to be two core values a company must have: accountability and open communication. If your company is strong in these two areas, unlimited vacation days could save your company both time and money.

As Bock says, “I wouldn’t recommend it carte blanche to every company. Because you do need to have some things in place before you uncork the bottle. You need to have a culture where people understand that it is up to them to achieve their objectives.”

Why is it important to have an engaging manager?

Its good for our health!

Much of the discussion and evidence around employee engagement centres on the performance improvements that can be gained for the organisation, but what of the individual?

As individuals we spend most of our time at work and interacting with our line manager. The quality of the interaction between line manager and staff has an impact outside of work on our personal health and wellbeing (consistently working with a disengaging manager has been shown to increase our risk of heart disease by 30%).

A line manager provides the lens through which the employee views the organisation. Part of their responsibility is to motivate people behind a vision in order to deliver the goals; to engage employees but do they need to be engaging?

Last month we asked executives to share ... read more »]]> A focus on an individuals objectives, development and opinions are the three most common traits of an engaging manager, according to business executives.

Why is it important to have an engaging manager?

Its good for our health!

Much of the discussion and evidence around employee engagement centres on the performance improvements that can be gained for the organisation, but what of the individual?

As individuals we spend most of our time at work and interacting with our line manager. The quality of the interaction between line manager and staff has an impact outside of work on our personal health and wellbeing (consistently working with a disengaging manager has been shown to increase our risk of heart disease by 30%).

A line manager provides the lens through which the employee views the organisation. Part of their responsibility is to motivate people behind a vision in order to deliver the goals; to engage employees but do they need to be engaging?

Last month we asked executives to share what an engaging manager looked like to them. Here are some of the key themes:

Working with a team of individuals

An engaging manager takes the time to understand what is important to each member, building a relationship with them so he knows his or her team members on a personal and professional level.

This then allows the manager to manage each team member as an individual ensuring that his or her personal needs are understood and reflected in the employment relationship.

Focus on individual’s objectives

It’s part of a manager’s role to ensure that the team delivers the organisations goals and objectives. An engaging manager is clear about their expectations and links these back to the company vision. The emphasis is on the individual, so each team member is clear about his or her purpose and how their role contributes to the success of the company’s goals and objectives.

Focus on individual’s development

Another part of a manager’s role to ensure that the team has the skills to deliver the organisations goals and objectives. An engaging manager nurtures their staff and uses formal and informal opportunities to feedback on their progress (positive and developmental). They work with individual team members to create career goals and they are genuinely interested in the development and wellbeing of each of their staff.

Focus on individual’s opinions

An engaging manager trusts individuals to take decisions and provides autonomy in their role. But they also encourage feedback and participation from their team members and incorporate their ideas to strengthening the effectiveness of the team. Engaged managers are always learning and open to feedback.

Finally they lead and inspire

There are many other traits that each of us will associate with an engaging manager. Throughout those discussed above and the many others runs a need for strong communication skills and the ability to engender trust.

An engaging manager can build a trusting relationship through open two-way communication on the company vision, showing an understanding of employees needs as they are incorporated into the process. An engaging manager doesn’t just manage. They lead and inspire the team.

Are you an engaging manager? Ask your people. A 360 degree feedback will help you to understand where you are performing well as well as highlight your blind spots.

Thank you to everyone who contributed their thoughts and ideas on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

The reality is that as you move your way up an organisation, you’ll receive less and less honest feedback, be it about yourself or your performance.  This is not overly surprising given that people can often find it difficult to give genuine open and honest feedback to a manager when asked face to face.

When we have responsibility for managing a team, we like to feel we are being a great manager, one who respects their team members, supports and challenges them in equal measure and creates an environment where they can give their best.  The reality is sometimes different.  The Daily Muse posted an article back in September that I felt was insightful, it picked up on three things to watch for:

We’ve been told time and again that 360 feedback has been incredibly helpful, in fact to some, it ... read more »]]>

The reality is that as you move your way up an organisation, you’ll receive less and less honest feedback, be it about yourself or your performance.  This is not overly surprising given that people can often find it difficult to give genuine open and honest feedback to a manager when asked face to face.

When we have responsibility for managing a team, we like to feel we are being a great manager, one who respects their team members, supports and challenges them in equal measure and creates an environment where they can give their best.  The reality is sometimes different.  The Daily Muse posted an article back in September that I felt was insightful, it picked up on three things to watch for:

1. They Act Like You’re Not There;
2. They Don’t Keep You in the Loop; and
3. They Don’t Play by the Rules.

We’ve been told time and again that 360 feedback has been incredibly helpful, in fact to some, it has been a real eye opener and proved more valuable than any training, development or coaching courses available.  For many it’s the first time they’ve not been blinkered to their own abilities.

“What is the shortest word in the English language that contains the letters: abcdef? Answer: feedback. Don’t forget that feedback is one of the essential elements of good communication.”

A 360  feedback survey (or multi-rater feedback as it can be known) is a simple and effective way of getting feedback from people you work closely with on regular basis.  It offers people an opportunity to feedback their views and opinions in a confidential and anonymous environment.  Your colleagues, sub-ordinates, manager(s), suppliers and external contacts all have an opportunity to provide constructive feedback.

The feedback process offers three distinct benefits:

1. Increased self-awareness;
2. Increased accountability; and
3. Increased performance.

The 360 degree feedback survey offers others an opportunity to give you accurate and helpful feedback in a constructive and confidential manner. In a 360 review, the leader and a group of other raters answer specific questions about the leader’s performance.  It is important to ensure that the group have a relatively close working relationship with you (peers, direct reports, managers, clients and suppliers), as they’ll need to answer questions around leadership behaviours, strengths and development areas, for example.  You should also avoid simply choosing ‘friends’ as this will not provide you with a rounded view of your skills and development needs.

Once all the feedback has been gathered, a workbook is produced providing detailed feedback – typically, these reports should be facilitated, you’ll have an opportunity to sit with an expert and go through your report – taking the salient points and building up your areas of success (strengths) and your areas for development (needs).  From here, you can implement development, training, coaching or other techniques (mentoring and shadowing for example) to improve those areas where you are less strong.

360 degree feedback has the added advantage that, if used on a regular basis, you are able to track and monitor your improvements over time.  You’ll be able to monitor the effects of your development, coaching and training and ensure it is having the desired effect.

The further you move up the ladder the more important honest and reliable feedback is.  Multi source feedback will test your own perceptions and help you recognise strengths you may not have been aware of as well as potential blind-spots in your own self-perceptions.

We can help you with delivering a 360 feedback survey, from design (even the competency framework) to administration, call us on 01255 850051 to find out more.

The latest report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Winter 2012/13) shows that 35% of employees are engaged but the majority (61%) remain neutral.  4% of respondents are disengaged.

In comparison to twelve months ago there is a very slight downward change, 36%, 60% and 3% respectively.

The summer of 2012 offered the high point in terms of overall employee engagement at 39% (with just 3% disengaged) but we now find that scores are now inline with Winter 11/12.

The highlights (although not at all surprising) of the latest report are that micro organisations (between 2 and 9 employees) have typically higher levels of engagement as opposed to large organisations (more than 250 employees) – 60% compared with 31%.  Although small organisations (between 10 and 49 employees) have the highest level of disengaged employees at 6% compared with 1% for micro and 5% for large businesses.

The extent ... read more »]]> Latest employee engagement figures from CIPD do not make great reading

The latest report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Winter 2012/13) shows that 35% of employees are engaged but the majority (61%) remain neutral.  4% of respondents are disengaged.

In comparison to twelve months ago there is a very slight downward change, 36%, 60% and 3% respectively.

The summer of 2012 offered the high point in terms of overall employee engagement at 39% (with just 3% disengaged) but we now find that scores are now inline with Winter 11/12.

The highlights (although not at all surprising) of the latest report are that micro organisations (between 2 and 9 employees) have typically higher levels of engagement as opposed to large organisations (more than 250 employees) – 60% compared with 31%.  Although small organisations (between 10 and 49 employees) have the highest level of disengaged employees at 6% compared with 1% for micro and 5% for large businesses.

The extent to which employees are engaged at work, by gender, sector and size of organisation (%)

With the advent of (Government backed) initiatives such as Engage for Success and a considerably higher profile for employee engagement – these scores are worrying.  The issue right now, for many, is how can we raise employee engagement levels?

Given the economic background we are being asked more and more for practical advice on employee engagement that doesn’t resort to wide scale costly engagement initiatives.  We do advocate the approach of using simple techniques to drive up engagement but recommend ensuring that these are ‘joined up’ to your wider employee engagement remit – so you can easily track and monitor their positive effects.

Below, we offer some simple, practical steps an organisation can take:

PRACTICAL EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT EXCERCISES:

Use the diagram above as a group exercise for finding out what things you could do to better engage and inspire your people.  Place the common elements at the intersection of the circles as these are the strongest.  Communicate the results and build the ideas into your engagement efforts (Remember when communicating: swap ‘I’ for ‘We’).

Consider setting up a ‘What on earth?’ group, whenever anyone working within your organisation comes across a policy or process that is duplicated, convoluted or just plain silly! This group has the authority and skill to modify or remove that policy or process.

Give your customers and suppliers a voice – setup an exercise whereby groups of your customers and suppliers come into your business to talk with your employees. This exercise is ideal to engage your back office and support staff who rarely benefit from external perspectives.

Let us help you increase employee engagement within your organisation, call us on 01255 850051 or click here to drop us an email.