internal communication and employee engagement: informed employee voice
DESCRIPTION
How internal communication underpins employee engagement.TRANSCRIPT
CIPR INSIDE WEBINAR: Internal Communication and Employee Engagement2013
CIPR INSIDE WEBINAR
Welcome
Kevin RuckPR Academy
@AcademyKevexploringinternalcommunication.comkevin.ruck@pracademy.co.uk
Just 27% of employees in the UK are ‘highly engaged’,
with an equivalent proportion of
employees being ‘disengaged’.
Engage for Success
Engagement
MacLeod and Clarke (2009) Engaging for Success
Leadership
Provides a strong
strategic narrative.
Leadership
Provides a strong
strategic narrative.
Engaging Managers
Facilitate andempower.
Engaging Managers
Facilitate andempower.
Voice
Views are sought out;
people see that their opinions
count.
Voice
Views are sought out;
people see that their opinions
count.
Integrity
Behaviour is consistent with stated values.
Integrity
Behaviour is consistent with stated values.
Com
mu
nic
ati
on
Employee engagement theory
• Characterised by the beginnings of practitioner interest and
the term employee engagement came into use, widely
credited as being coined by consultancy firm Gallup in 1999.
Wave 1: 1990s
Wave 1: 1990s
Wave 2:2000 - 2005
Wave 2:2000 - 2005
Wave 3:2006 - 2010
Wave 3:2006 - 2010
• Robinson et al., (2004) defined the concept as a
positive employee attitude towards the organisation
and its values, involving awareness of business
context, and work to improve job and organisational
effectiveness. • Saks (2006) extended the employee engagement
concept to encompass both job engagement and
organisation engagement. Saks's work is significant
because it tackles the question of the status of the
concept. Welch (2011)
In his original study that outlines the basis for employee engagement, Kahn (1990, p. 693), defines it as, “…the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally during role performances”.
Work engagement Organisational engagement
The work you do The vision of the organisation, where it’s headed
The team work environment The values of the organisation, what it believes in
Personal development opportunities The perceived support given to all employees
The relationship with your line manager The way that senior managers communicate with all employees
The opportunity to have a say about what goes on in your team
The opportunity to have a say about what goes on in the organisation
The response provided by a line manager to views expressed
The response provided by senior managers to views expressed
Work engagement
Intellectual engagementI focus hard on my workI concentrate on my workI pay a lot of attention to my work
Affective engagementI feel positive about my workI feel energetic in my workI am enthusiastic in my work
Social engagementI share the same work values as my colleaguesI share the same work goals as my colleaguesI share the same work attitudes as my colleagues
Work engagement
Intellectual engagementI focus hard on my workI concentrate on my workI pay a lot of attention to my work
Affective engagementI feel positive about my workI feel energetic in my workI am enthusiastic in my work
Social engagementI share the same work values as my colleaguesI share the same work goals as my colleaguesI share the same work attitudes as my colleagues
Organisational engagement
ThinkI think about improvements to help my organisation operate more effectively
FeelI feel positive about working for my organisation
DoI put extra effort in to help the organisation succeed
Organisational engagement
ThinkI think about improvements to help my organisation operate more effectively
FeelI feel positive about working for my organisation
DoI put extra effort in to help the organisation succeed
Employees’ organisational commitment (%)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-2011-workplace-employment-relations-study-wers
21,981 respondents in the UK
Three components of employee engagement
Truss et al.(2006)
Manager commitment
Manager commitment
Feeling well informed
Feeling well informed
Opportunities for
upward feedback
Opportunities for
upward feedback
49% Employees feel fairly well informed about
important organisational issues
29% Received only a limited amount of
information
13% Reported they received not much at allTruss et al.(2006)
Informed Employee Voice
Truss et al. (2006)
Feel informed
Have opportunity for
upward communication
Low/med
Low/med High
High
Informed Non-Communicators (6%)
Fully/fairly well informed but little opportunity
to feed information upwards
Informed Communicators (32%)Fully/fairly well informed and have
opportunity for upward communication
This group is highly engaged
Uninformed Non-Communicators (18%)
Little/no information and lack of opportunity
for upward feedback
Uninformed Believers (5%)Little information but have
opportunity to feed information upwards
Fence sitters (39%)
Fence sitters (39%)
Case study
HP
Discover 2012
“We highlighted times when Meg [CEO] would be speaking about strategy, or when someone would be talking about innovation or plans for the future. As financial information was unveiled at the meeting, MacNeil [VP Global Employee Comms] and her team were able to simultaneously on the intranet.”
“They [employees] were getting information at the same time as the analysts. But the key difference was that, for the first time ever, the information was being put into context for Hewlett Packard employees.”
Oct 2013corpcommsmagazine.co.uk
Reinforced by managers who are open to critical feedback.
Reinforced by managers who are open to critical feedback.
Advanced
Based on people feeling well informed in the first place, face to face, actions taken as a result or reasons why action not taken provided.
Advanced
Based on people feeling well informed in the first place, face to face, actions taken as a result or reasons why action not taken provided.
BasicSurveys, suggestion schemes, email boxes.
BasicSurveys, suggestion schemes, email boxes.
Upward feedback
Employees’ rating of management’s active consulting (%)
Case study
Essex County Council
Your Voice
“In 2011, we ran our first ‘Your Voice’ engagement day. This was followed up in 2012. On one day we held 48 separate face-to-face events which enabled over 800 employees to have discussions with senior leaders.” http://ciprinside.co.uk/
learning/case-studies/
Case study
Glasgow Housing Association
Think Yes
“The objective of Think Yes was to raise customer satisfaction levels by asking staff to think positively when faced with acustomer request.”
“There is a popular Think Yes area on the intranet. Colleagues can post any major 'blockage' anonymously if they feel it can't be discussed with their manager. Again, we solve the problem then openly publish the blockage and solution.”
http://ciprinside.co.uk/learning/case-studies/
PhD research
Internal Communication and Organisational Engagement Questionnaire (ICOEQ)
123 closed questions using a 5 point Likert scale and four open questions: 1. Information interests2. Helpfulness of communication methods3. General satisfaction with communication 4. Senior manager communication5. Line manager level communication6. Peer group level communication7. Organisational engagementWelch (2011)
5 organisations
2066 responses to survey 27 interviews 9 focus groups with 77 people Differences in satisfaction between organisations are significant, for example, satisfaction with ways to communicate ideas to senior managers varied from 18% to 65%
Correlations: strategic planning
Analysing the strength of the association of a specific aspect of communication with a specific aspect of engagement.
For example, satisfaction with employee voice and emotional organisational engagement.
Organisational Engagement
Internal Communication
Plans and aims
Change Progress
Employee Voice
Senior Managers
Informed employee
voice
Informed employee voice
Do
Diagram to represent summary of associations between internal communication and organisational engagement based on 2066 responses from employees in five organisations
Source: Ruck (2013) Unpublished PhD research at University of Central Lancashire,
How to help employees get strategy
Harvard Business Review – research based on 60, 000 responses.“Top management has a profound impact on how well employees grasp and support strategy – far more than any other variable. Supervisors don’t play a direct role.”
“Only top leaders can give strategic communication the appropriate weight.”
Galunic and Hermreck (Dec 2012)
Senior management understanding
Practitioners’ perception of stakeholders who think that internal communications is really important:
Ruck and Trainor (2012)
Changing internal communication practice
Q4. In an ideal world, how would you change the amount of time spent on these priorities
Ruck and Trainor (2012)
More
Same
Less
Evidence based practice