Campaign 2016Politics and employee engagement are foes. They are constantly clashing with each other.  Politics represents the individual and what they want. It seeks to protect the status quo.  Employee engagement takes a more encompassing view by representing the company AND its employees. It seeks to bring all parties together and create win-win solutions.

 

Status of Employee Engagement

On January 28, 2015, Amy Adkins of Gallup published an article entitled, Majority of U.S. Employees Not Engaged Despite Gains in 2014. “Less than one-third (31.5%) of U.S. workers were engaged in their jobs in 2014. The average is up nearly two percentage points from 29.6% in 2013 and represents the highest reading since 2000, when Gallup first began tracking the engagement levels of the U.S. working population. However, a majority of employees, 51%, were still “not engaged” and 17.5% were “actively disengaged” in 2014.”1 “On January 13, 2016, she noted that “Employee engagement entered a rather static state in 2015 and has not experienced large year-over-year improvements in Gallup’s 15-year history of measuring and tracking the metric. Employee engagement has consistently averaged less than 33%.”2

 

The Mandate

“Today, driven by shifts in both work ethos and the transparency of the job market, employee retention and engagement are now the #1 problems companies face.”3 According to Deloitte, “87 percent of organizations cite culture and engagement as one of their top challenges, and 50 percent call the problem “very important.”4 “Only 7 percent rate themselves excellent at measuring, driving, and improving engagement and retention.”5

 

Talking Points

To be successful in your 2016-2017 employee engagement campaign, you need to identify candidates that are willing to address the real issues facing companies and their employees.  Below are 4 employee engagement talking points to help those candidates get those messages across.

 

Talking Point #1: Employee – Manager Relationship

According to Gallup, “Managers account for 70% of variance in employee engagement.”6

 

Question: Are you relatable?

 

Dale Carnegie’s Emotional Drivers of Employee Engagement infographic indicates “Employees who reported that their managers care about their personal lives are 3 [times] more engaged than those that do not believe that.”7 There are many ways to show employees that you care about them.

  • Listen: You’ll be surprised about what can be learned by just being present in daily conversations.
  • Team Player: Managers must understand that they are a member of the team and not above it. Being a manager is a great responsibility and one that should not be taken lightly. Managers must be visible and engaged in the team’s work.
  • Give credit, take responsibility: When work is going well, the credit goes to the team.  If things aren’t going so well, the manager must take full responsibility.
  • Lead by example: Managers must model the behavior they expect from their employees. According to Dale Carnegie, “2.5 [times] engaged employees reported that their manager sets a good example more than disengaged employees.”8

 

 

Talking Point #2: Recognition and Rewards

Speaking The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace “helps supervisors and managers effectively communicate appreciation and encouragement to their employees, resulting in higher levels of job satisfaction, healthier relationships between managers and employees, and decreased cases of burnout.”9 “Everyone needs to know that their job matters to someone. Anyone. Without seeing the connection between the work and the satisfaction of another person or group of people, an employee simply will not find lasting fulfillment.”10

 

Question: Is it all about you?

 

Recognition should be incorporated into your daily routine. You can’t win this campaign alone. Acknowledge employee behaviors, efforts, and accomplishments that support the company’s goals. Make sure that leadership and others know about the accomplishments of the group and individuals.

 

 

Talking Point #3: Growth and Development

“In a study by Quantum Workplace, employees listed professional growth opportunity as one of their highest drivers of engagement. Conversely, exiting employees listed lack of growth opportunity as the second highest reason for leaving.”11

 

Question: Do you want to expand your economy or shrink it?

 

“Most employees don’t feel that they are given enough space for growth. Research by DecisionWise found that only 43% of employees felt that their employers provided attractive opportunities for development.

And don’t think that career development is one-sided. In the Quantum Workplace study, 81% of people said that professional development is a shared responsibility between manager and employee.”12

 

 

Talking Point #4: Opportunity for Advancement

“The importance of career advancement in motivating and retaining employees makes the findings of one study particularly concerning. According to a press release, professional services organization Thomas Watson discovered in a recent survey that only 37 percent of companies in the U.S. and Canada stated that their employees understand how they can shape their careers in their given role. Additionally, only 44 percent of companies report that their employees are actually able to obtain the career advancement opportunities they desire. Other key findings:

  • Only one third of companies that partook in the survey reported defining vertical career paths for their employees.
  • While 67 percent of the companies surveyed reported using technology for employee training and development purposes, only 44 percent of these same companies stated that they use such technology effectively.
  • A mere 25 percent of survey respondents said that managers effectively provide career advancement to their employees.

As these findings suggest, there is a significant gap between employees’ desire for career advancement and the actual opportunities they are afforded in the workplace.”13

 

Question: Who is getting ahead and who is falling behind?

 

Career advancement is one of the most important elements for employee satisfaction and retention at a company. According to Victor Lipman of Forbes, clear opportunities for career advancement are an “especially powerful” employee motivator. Speaking of his observations as a manager at multiple companies, Lipman notes, “At times when career paths were clear, individuals tended to be more motivated, with tangible goals to work towards. At times when career paths were dim or nonexistent, individuals tended to be less motivated, less focused, more uncertain. […] That’s why it makes good business sense for organizations of all sizes to spend time developing and maintaining thoughtfully structured career path systems.”14

 

 

The Employee Engagement Campaign is gaining momentum.  I hope this advice is helpful and that you can use the talking points with your constituents.

 

 

 

What are your thoughts on this advice? What talking points would you include?

 

1 Adkins, Amy. “Majority of U.S. Employees Not Engaged Despite Gains in 2014.” Majority of U.S. Employees Not Engaged Despite Gains in 2014. Gallup, Inc., 28 Jan. 2015. Web. 3 Feb. 2015. http://www.gallup.com/poll/181289/majority-employees-not-engaged-despite-gains-2014.aspx.
2 Adkins, Amy. “Employee Engagement in U.S. Stagnant in 2015.” Gallup.com. Gallup, Inc., 13 Jan. 2016. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
3 Bersin, Josh. “Engagement, Retention, and Culture Now the #1 Issues in Talent and HR.” Bersin by Deloitte. Deloitte Development LLC, 10 Mar. 201. Web. 24 Feb. 2016. <http://www.bersin.com/blog/post/Engagement2c-Retention2c-and-Culture-now-the-1-Issue-in-Talent-and-HR.aspx>.
4 Brown, David, Sonny Chheng, Veronica Melian, Kathy Parker, and Marc Solow. “Culture and Engagement: The Naked Organization.” Deloitte University Press. Deloitte Development LLC, 27 Feb. 2015. Web. 13 Apr. 2016. P. 35. <http://dupress.com/articles/employee-engagement-culture-human-capital-trends-2015/>.
5 Ibid., P. 36.
6 Beck, Randall, and James Harter. “Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement.” Gallup.com. Gallup, Inc., 2 Apr. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.<http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/182792/managers-account-variance-employee-engagement.aspx>.
7 Dale Carnegie Training. “How to Engage Employees by Fostering Positive Emotions.” Dale Carnegie. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
8 Ibid.
9 Chapman, Gary D., and Paul E. White. “Overview.” The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People. Chicago: Northfield Pub., 2011. Print.
10 Lencioni, Patrick. The Truth about Employee Engagement: A Fable about Addressing the Three Root Causes of Job Misery. New York: Jossey-Bass, 2015. Print. P. 221
11 Klongerbo, Sarah. “Motivate Employees with Opportunities for Growth at Work.” 9 Clouds. 9 Clouds, 22 July 2015. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
12 ibid.
13 Louie, Kaitlin. “Career Advancement: What It Is and How to Achieve It.” Career Advancement: What It Is and How to Achieve It. QuinStreet, Inc., 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
14 Ibid.

 

 

 

Let’s Engage!

I’m Agent in Engagement Simpson…Gregory F Simpson.

Employee engagement is a critical mission. I hope I can count on your help! Subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive the latest intelligence/insights and/or register to make entries in the comments log.

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P.S.  First contact? Welcome to the Agent In Engagement community. Explore and join fellow employee engagement operatives in targeting a known thief – alias: Disengagement. Together we can bring this thief to justice and make the world a better place for all companies and their employees.

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