manage to engage… the role of managers in employee engagement

Authors:Gary Wyles, Managing Director, Festo LtdMark Hemming, Senior Consultant, Festo Training & Consulting

Manage to Engage…The role of managers in employee engagement

Contents

Introduction 2

What is employee engagement? 3

Signs of disengagement 4

The cause and effect of employee disengagement 6

Personality profile to show different character ‘types’ 8

Managing different character ‘types’ 10

A simple employee engagement equation 12

Improving management skills 15

Engagement is not a target 17

Festo and employee engagement 18

Conclusion 19

Sources 20

“You can’t train an employee to be engaged. You have to develop managers and leaders and through them focus on creating an environment where productivity and engagement can thrive.”Engaging for Success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement 1

2 – 3Manage to Engage

So let’s quickly clarify. Employee engagement is the difference between an outstanding organisation and one that is purely mediocre. Employee engagement makes the difference between keeping your valued staff or constantly losing them to competitors. Employee engagement creates a highly productive workforce and enables organisations to grow faster and more sustainably than others. It is what underpins the brand of organisations and makes you one of the ‘Best Companies’ to work for.

In terms of the UK manufacturing and engineering sector its importance cannot be under-estimated. We’re in a highly competitive market where skills are lacking. Those organisations with a strong brand, which is reinforced by the culture of the organisation and the engagement of employees, will be the ones that the best talent choose to work for. In light of an increasingly global workforce, combined with the impact of the recession, UK organisations need to get their productivity up – and fast.

Gallup, who measure levels of employee engagement worldwide, has shown that the numbers of engaged employees is falling in the UK, with 26% being recorded as actively disengaged in 2013.

Introduction

There have been many seminal works on employee engagement. In this white paper we will reference some of these reports and research to bring together an overview.

From our perspective at Festo Training & Consulting we wanted to ground our thoughts and provide some guidance and advice on:• What employee engagement is and why

it matters• The causes and effects of employee

engagement• The key role of managers in improving

the engagement of your own employees

One other quick thing to clarify – employee engagement is not about training. The role of managers and leaders is what makes the difference.

Gary Wyles, Managing DirectorFesto Ltd

Equally, the UK is 5th when measuring employee engagement against 10 other nations and, along with France, has the highest number of actively disengaged employees.3

What is employee engagement?

Professor David MacLeod, one of the UK’s most recognised authorities on employee engagement, and author of a Government commissioned report ‘Engaging for Success’, states that there are four broad enablers for engaged employees:

Visible empowering leadership providing a strong strategic narrative about the organisation, where it comes from and where it’s going.

Central to these four broad enablers of employee engagement is the alignment of employees to the organisation’s vision and values, and equally how well the organisation represents the personal views and beliefs of their employees. A further critical component of great employee engagement is the role of managers as they are the direct connection between the company and the employee.

There is a reason why there is such a focus on employee engagement. For all our research and measuring of engagement, it is found that under 20%3 of employees are actively engaged. This leaves the 60-65% majority of employees who are not engaged, and could easily slide into the smaller actively disengaged category.

Enablers

Engaging managers, who focus their people and give them scope, treat their people as individuals and coach and stretch their people.

There is an employee voice throughout the organisation for reinforcing and challenging views between functions, and externally where employees are seen as central to the solution.

There is organisational integrity – the values on the wall are reflected in day-to-day behaviours. There is no ‘say – do’ gap.

This is the decision that business leaders need to make. Is it worthwhile to spend time, effort and resources on the 60-65% who are not engaged, and how to handle the minority of actively disengaged individuals?

The focus on employee engagement is not a ‘nice to have’, it’s a necessity. In a world of increased competition, higher levels of productivity from other countries, a widening skills gap in manufacturing and engineering, employee engagement is critical to the long-term sustainability of UK organisations.

This white paper is about employee engagement. Some may be well versed in the term, some might have a broad understanding and others might actively dislike the term, or not fully understand what it means.

“Engagement is a measure of the extent to which employees put discretionary effort into their work.”The Drivers of Employee Engagement 2

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1 2

3. Poor productivityWhile the desire to grow and expand is certainly in place for manufacturing businesses, there also needs to be room

for increased productivity or ‘doing more with less’. According to the Office for National Statistics, the UK certainly needs to do something about increasing our productivity. Output per hour in the UK was 21 percentage points below the average for the rest of the major G7 industrialised economies in 2012, the widest productivity gap since 1992. On an output per worker basis, UK productivity was 25 percentage points below the average for the rest of the G7 in 2012.6

4. Skills gapA recent EEF report found that, “There is an increasing risk that these growth plans will be restricted because of problems in accessing

employees with the required skills.”7

In research that Festo conducted with Works Management8, it was found that 88% of organisations are suffering from a skills shortage. Equally the research found that business leaders rated the following concerns as important for their organisation:

5. Low levels of customer satisfactionA price driven strategy is one of the hardest for UK organisation to adopt due to tough competition from new and emerging

economies that are focussed on driving costs down and highly competitive supply. UK organisations have to assess different ways to compete. One might be innovation and development of new products and technology; the other is on improving relationships and service to existing customers so that customer satisfaction and loyalty increases. And, yes, you guessed it; increased customer satisfaction comes down to high levels of employee engagement.


1. Poor retention of staffAre you losing your best and most valuable employees to competitors? Do you have a high churn? Have you recently asked your HR

department to analyse how many staff have left you in recent years and have they collated the results from their exit interviews?

These questions are frequently left unanswered. This is often because, when someone leaves, an organisation goes into overdrive to ensure that they can quickly replace key members of staff and safeguard continuity of service.

For companies that have good retention, engaged employees are an organisation’s best advocates. Their pride in the organisation also means that they are some of the top referrers and unpaid recruiters. Putting in place a referral scheme can be one of the best – and most cost effective – ways of attracting new talent into the organisation and if not in place this should be considered.

2. Lacklustre business performanceA perennial issue for business leaders is how to increase profits and turnover. So whether it’s an automation project,

addressing poor productivity or increasing recruitment to plug skills gaps, employee engagement sits at the heart of an organisation’s business performance.

The EEF (http://www.eef.org.uk/) conducted research into the different strategies of manufacturing organisations for the year ahead. These are grouped around developing new markets, launching new products and services, and introducing new processes – the actions vital to competing successfully in global markets.5

All of these involve motivating staff to stretch into new markets, developing new products and increasing customer satisfaction. Having high levels of employee engagement is good for individuals as it increases: • Job satisfaction; motivation• Stress and well-being• Fulfilment; self-confidence

Engaged employees are also good for organisations as they directly impact the bottom line through: • Increased levels of customer satisfaction• Retention, loyalty, advocacy• Productivity and profitability• Proactivity; innovation

The signs of disengagement

The positive aspects of employee engagement are well articulated and researched. However, with the majority of employees being disengaged to varying degrees, we should also consider the impact and the signs of low levels of employee engagement.

“Companies that engage and enable their employees, outperform on both revenue growth and profitability. Organisations in the top quartile on engagement demonstrate revenue growth 2.5 times that of organisations in the bottom quartile. But companies in the top quartile on both engagement and enablement achieve revenue growth 4.5 times greater and exceed industry averages on five-year return on assets, return on investment, and return on equity by 40 to 60 per cent.”

Hay Group 9

“Businesses that have high levels of engagement show customer satisfaction scores 22 per cent higher than companies with low levels of engagement. But companies that both engage and enable employees demonstrate a total increase in customer satisfaction of 54 per cent.”

Hay Group 9

“Companies with high levels of engagement show staff turnover rates 40% lower than companies with low levels of engagement. But companies that both engage and enable employees demonstrate a total reduction in voluntary turnover of 54%.”Hay Group 4


Personal satisfactionThe first is the ‘personal satisfaction’ of the employee. An engaged employee will be personally satisfied in his or her current role, will like their job and be happy to take on more responsibilities. On the flip side a disengaged employee that is not aligned to the company and whose personal needs are not being met, can be a drain on an organisation’s time and resources.

Needs alignmentThe second is whether there is a ‘needs alignment’ between the employee and the organisation. We often focus on whether the employee is aligned to the organisation, but it is imperative that the organisation also understands and meets the needs of the individual.

DriveThere is however another dimension and that is the dimension of ‘drive’. This is the personal drive and energy of employees. A disengaged person with low drive will be less of a disruptive influence than one who is highly driven and keen to convert others to his or her own set of beliefs and opinions.

Mapping employees on 3-dimensions of employee engagementUsing Festo’s 3-Dimensions of Employee Engagement, you can map your employees. This is not for an organisational wide mapping; this is for a manager and his or her direct reports. As the four broad enablers (see page 3) stated, the role of Engaging Managers is critical to improving the levels of employee engagement.

It should however be noted that if managers (senior or first line managers) fall into the categories of Not Engaged (the majority of the workforce) or indeed Actively Disengaged, then the organisation will need to consider how they handle these managers and the amount of time and effort they are prepared to spend in re-engaging management.

Levels of engagementUsing Festo’s 3-D Model of Engagement you can accurately identify and group employees into 8 specific character ‘types’.

The importance of this grouping means that different management; engagement and communication strategies can be put into place. This assists leaders and managers to effectively communicate the vision, what they expect from employees and give clear guidance on how to translate the objectives into action – for themselves and for each individual.

The cause and effects of employee engagement

Engagement is the extent to which employees put discretionary effort into their work. This shows the importance of the first two dimensions of employee engagement. But there is a third and that’s the individual drive of employees. With these three dimensions you can map your employees.

Quick assessment tool –Festo’s 3 Dimensions of Employee EngagementBuilding on Festo’s 3-D Model of Employee Engagement, this tool will help give you a snapshot view to identify the levels of engagement in your core team. www.festo-didactic.co.uk/eeqa

“Engagement is the positive attitude held by the employee towards the organisation and its values. An engaged employee is aware of the business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organisation.”IES 10


Not engaged

Actively disengaged

- Alignment

I’m Joshua Stanley and I was one of the first employees to be taken on when the company began. My job then was Production Operative and I’m doing the same job to this day. I’m proud of what I do and my manager tells me that I do a good job. Sometimes I get worried because I’m not as fast as the young kids and I doubt I’ll make it to retirement age.

Everything seems to be driven by all our new, fresh-faced managers and directors. The policy used to be you couldn’t be a manager until you’d been here for five years. Now, they just walk in the door and whoosh, we’re off on another change. When you’ve been around as long as I have you know that nothing is really new. Other people seem to think that everything is for the best but they must have short memories because we’ve tried most of this stuff before and it didn’t work then, so why should it work now?

A Sceptic

I like my job but not having to cope with all the changes. I’m Denise Stevens and I work in the Purchasing Department and order all the raw materials for Production. We’ve always done a good job but now they want us to push our suppliers for better prices to reduce our costs! It’s all about restructuring. I’ve had enough, so I told my manager we have good relationships with all our suppliers and we don’t want to upset them.

After a few days my manager gave my team a lecture about the plans of the company and how the directors want us all to play a part in its success. Yeah right! So I said, “How are all these fancy business plans going to help us get lower prices from our suppliers? Why don’t you and the directors come and spend a week in our department and show us how to do it?” He didn’t have an answer for that and he’s not mentioned it again since.

A Challenger

My name’s Ronnie Cotterel, I’ve been here 18 months and I work as a Sales Consultant. I was headhunted from a competitor, but I’m looking to leave as soon as another job opportunity comes along. When I first came here it was like a breath of fresh air after what I’d been used to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m working with a lot of nice people, but how am I

supposed to hit my crazy sales targets when I spend half of my time in internal meetings, training workshops and completing endless, repetitive reports and database updates.

It wouldn’t be quite so bad if the management recognised all this time off the road by guaranteeing our commissions and bonuses but they won’t hear of it. So I’ll just keep my head down, take everything from this situation that benefits me and move on when I’m ready.

A Thief

Twice I’ve been declined for Director of Marketing. How can the kid they employed do what I can do? How can he possibly know all that I, Martin Smith, know about the company, how we should manage the people and promote the business?

You’d be amazed at just how gullible your fellow employees can be. They hang on my every word and then spread the contagions that I feed them across the company! Perhaps I was like them once, all pumped up by Goals, Vision and Values. Fifteen years I’ve been here giving them everything and what do I get in return? Nothing! I’ve been actively looking for another appointment and there’s not been a shortage of offers for a guy like me. I’ll just take my time and ensure that I get what I want.

A Saboteur

Personality profile to show typical character ‘types’

Engaged

Not engaged

+ Personal satisfaction

- Personal satisfaction

+ Alignment

I’m Henry Roberts and Sales Manager. I directly manage a team of seven men and women, and my style is ‘supportive’ rather than ‘leading from the front’. It’s important that the team are able to maximise their time in front of their customers. They reach out to me when they experience supply or processing

issues and I’m always on hand to give them words of support or steer them in the right direction. We have very few ‘personal performance’ issues. Similarly, I don’t have to constantly remind them of the need to hit our targets, they do it anyway and in my view, this is a good way to be. I regularly host customer visits and I’m often described as “the face of the company”.

An Ambassador

My name is Elizabeth Conroy-Yeng. I am the Production Director and clinched the appointment because I had a well-considered policy on Employee Engagement. Irrespective of how difficult it may be I believe every company should have a policy to manage disengagement out of its organisation!

I introduced very clear policies to this effect. Consequently, we have increased our production output by 18% whilst at the same time, reducing our net production costs by over 23%. We still have some way to go but I am extremely proud of our department and the fantastic proactive contributions that so many of our people are making!

A Champion

I’m Rachel Allan and I work as Personal Assistant to two Sales Managers. It’s just my luck that instead of ‘streamlining’ my workload as was promised, both my managers more than double it by always wanting work done their particular way – that means everything has to be done twice. And then they say at my appraisal,

“Rachel, you’re ‘not proactive’ enough!”

I think my college education is wasted in this job. Yes, it was exciting to begin with and the company is doing well, but once you’ve compiled one set of spreadsheets you’ve compiled them all. Martin Smith sat next to me at lunch the other day he said he’s heard that in the next round of efficiency and cost improvements, the Directors are going to do away with PA’s, except for those assigned to themselves. I hope a nice new job opportunity comes along soon!

A Passenger

I feel like a ‘Prisoner’ in this job! I understand where we are going as a company and some of the initiatives are great but us employees aren’t heard and therefore can’t contribute to our future success. I’m Ralph Robinson and I’m a Goods Received Inspector. I’ve suggested many times that we could save time and cost if we cut out the Stores and move the items directly to the production lines. I read somewhere this is called ‘Trackside’ supply. Have they taken any notice? No!

This lack of recognition really gets to me, so much so that I’ve been for interviews at other companies. Of course they make their jobs and companies sound fantastic but it only takes a couple of probing questions to discover that perhaps they’re not all they pretend to be. I’m dissatisfied because an ordinary employee can only contribute through what he does, not through what he thinks!

A Prisoner

Manage to Engage 10 – 11

It is easy to think that because Champions are highly engaged, well aligned to the organisation and the organisation aligned to them and they are successful in their work that they need no management. They do however have a low tolerance of actively disengaged employees and this needs to be closely monitored. They need continual challenges and stimulation, and while many feel satisfied with their achievements, others feel they can always do more.

Because Ambassadors are reactive by nature they need to be presented with opportunities to support new initiatives rather than being expected to drive them forward. They do need to feel valued by the organisation and they need recognition for the work that they do.

Engaged employeesActively disengaged employees

Saboteurs are potentially the most dangerous of disengaged employees because they are proactive. They seldom act without purpose, and demonstrate the disengaged practice of ‘consent and evade’. Equally their attitude can be somewhat confusing or complex. Some Saboteurs will exhibit a positive attitude about themselves but harbour a very negative attitude towards the company.

Many have ‘people-oriented’ behaviour tendencies but they can be resentful or vindictive towards the company or even specific individuals. Occasionally, they can be empowered with responsibilities that motivate them and provide a vehicle through which they can show-off their positive attributes. Over time, some Saboteurs can become strong Champions but there remains the question of trust.

Thieves are reactive by nature but their agenda is to take whatever they can from the company and sometimes other employees as well. This includes time, information, training, material goods, money, data, software and anything that they think will benefit them now or in the future.

Some will want to ‘look good’ and stand out as it may ‘cover’ their real intentions. Others tend to try and ‘hide’ within the group. Equally, Thieves might brag about their accomplishments to others in an attempt to encourage them to do the same.

An important note is that even if Challengers say that they’re aligned to the company they are not and the company is unlikely to be aligned to meeting their needs either. They are proactive, often as a result of external stimuli. They are not afraid to speak their mind, although for some this can be driven by insecurity. This can be disruptive and often stems from their lack of alignment. Equally, their open challenges, if fuelled by emotional aggression, can alienate them from their work colleagues.

Because Sceptics are reactive they will only tend to express their opinions in a secure environment. Their scepticism is usually a form of mental comparison – the ‘now’ versus ‘previous experience’. Their scepticism reflects doubt, often fuelled by their lack of alignment in the workplace and sometimes driven by their own insecurities.

Although they will have a low tolerance of actively disengaged employees, many will not say so. However, they may express their sceptical views if action is openly taken to deal with them.

Not engaged employees

Prisoners have the potential to be disruptive in the workplace as a result of openly expressing their views on work related matters, although what they say, can often have relevance due to their alignment or understanding of the company’s needs.

They are inclined to be proactive but this can change if their overall dissatisfaction provokes a negative attitude, often fuelled by estranging colleagues because of their open challenges. Potentially, they are at greater risk than Challengers and Sceptics of becoming actively disengaged.

Passengers are reactive by nature and may only express their views when asked to do so, although some patience may be required to facilitate this. However, what they say can have value and relevance because they are aligned to the company and the company is aligned to them. Attitudes about themselves may vary considerably and they have the potential to be good workers although this will vary with mood. Those with a negative attitude and openly expressed dissatisfaction may alienate their colleagues.

Champions AmbassadorsSaboteurs ThievesChallengers Sceptics Passengers Prisoners

Managing different character ‘types’

Employee engagement is not static. Many employees can be re-engaged with the right communication.

Not engaged employeesChallengers, Sceptics, Prisoners and Passengers represent around 60 - 65% of an average UK workforce. Some analysts refer to them as ‘Residents’ advising that if ‘influenced’, they can become more positive or negative in the workplace. In the case of ‘Challengers’, involving them in sustained, high quality, 2-way communication can produce very positive outcomes.

Actively disengaged employeesSaboteurs and Thieves who are in the actively disengaged quadrant force their manager or the company to make a very conscious decision – do we risk frustrating and de-motivating the rest of our employees by managing them in the same way as everyone else, or do we draw attention to them and play into their hands, by trying to isolate them and the damage they can cause?

Actively managing disengaged employees out of an organisation is controversial but absolutely must be considered, as long as legislative procedures and rules are closely followed to avoid any potential acts of discrimination on unsubstantiated grounds.

ProfilesTo read and listen to the full profiles together with management tips go to: www.festo-didactic.co.uk/eeprofiles


Managers – walking the talk Management action is the start point of the E=MC2 equation. Since 2008, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills has been conducting research exploring skills utilisation and its impact on productivity and performance. This research into high-performance working practices emphasises the important role of the line manager. Line management behaviour directly impacts employee learning and development; their treatment; autonomy; and the quality of communication and teamwork.

Engaging Managers – as outlined in the report ‘Engaging for Success’ 13, are at the heart of the organisational culture and they are the link between the organisation and its employees. Engaging Managers:• Facilitate and empower rather than

control and restrict their staff• Treat their staff with appreciation and

respect • Show commitment to developing,

increasing and rewarding the capabilities of those they manage.

The aim of any manager and leader should be to

make their own role redundant. By considering

themselves as enablers of the future, which is empowering for

those that work with or for them, they will remove the bottleneck and

frustration that can often occur between a manager and their team.

Utilising the 3-Dimensions and characterising employees helps the manager understand the personality

profiles and make-up of their employees. They will know the strengths of their team and will recognise the weaknesses.

People management is time intensive and organisations must recognise and empower their managers with the skills, time and resources to manage their people effectively. Without organisations helping managers develop people skills, as much as they would technical skills, it is unlikely that a significant shift in employee engagement will occur.

We’ve titled the section ‘Managers – walking the talk’ because line managers need to be a role model for the organisation. This means that not only do they have to understand and be clear on what the organisation is trying to achieve and be aligned with it but they must constantly reflect this in their everyday actions. A manager cannot expect employees to be engaged with the company strategies if they constantly see their manager behaving in a contrary way. In addition, if a manager is disengaged theorganisation will need to consider if they should spend the time and energy re-engaging them or whether they need to manage them out of the organisation.

Management action also links to the third part of the equation – Communication. Communication is not a verbal or a written exercise. We communicate far more effectively when we say things simply, we believe what we say, and we do what we say. That’s walking the talk.

A simple employee engagement equation…

Once you have understood and mapped the levels of engagement in your own organisation and managers have mapped their direct reports, we then need to enable and improve it. To do this we’ve borrowed a well-known formula to aid our understanding, and make it easy to remember!

…management action…

Employee engagement will only occur if there is management action and communication strategies and actions put in place.


Communication is a conversationCentral to increasing engagement is putting in place a comprehensive employee communication strategy. There are two key aspects of this:• Centralised communication – often

referred to as internal communications. • One-to-one communication – how the

manager interacts with their staff.

…communication

Centralised communication is how the organisation communicates out to everyone the mission, vision, values, strategy and targets. However, communication is not the responsibility of one department. Nor is it the preserve of the senior leadership team. Each individual with people responsibilities should be clear on their role in the communication

process. The manager especially needs to be aligned to the organisation and embody the values in their day-to-day working life.

On the E=MC2 equation, communication is squared because it’s what the employee hears and sees and how they understand that the information relates to their own situation that’s important.

As we’ve highlighted, communication will need to be tailored to the 8 Character Types. By mapping the team onto Festo’s 3-Dimensions of Employee Engagement, managers will be aware of how each person is aligned to the organisation. They will know whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied in their role. On the personal drive scale, they will understand whether they need to help employees find a role that enables them to positively contribute to the success of the organisation.

“Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.”Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker

Improving management skills

Improving management and leadership skills are key for increasing engagement.

The CBI describes it as one of their most important priorities, with just over one half of their employers believing that management skills are the most significant factor contributing to competitiveness.11 The Small Business Services (SBS) also sees management as vital, stating, “Leadership and management capability is a key determinant of business success.”15

First line management We’ve established that the role of managers is crucial to employee engagement. The impact of managers can be most acutely observed in their first time role. The first line manager holds tremendous responsibility, representing and communicating the organisation’s goals and objectives. Some managers will have natural people management skills, others – and often the majority – will have been promoted because of their technical competency and they quickly need to develop people management skills.

The CIPD found that 53% of employees would consult their line manager if they needed support or advice on a work issue. However, employees who rated their line manager as competent but low on interpersonal skills were more likely to consult a colleague. This is where the company’s vision and objectives can easily become diluted and even misinterpreted.

“The quality of management and leadership varies both between and within sectors. Comparative research on a wide range of best management practices in manufacturing firms in the USA, UK, France and Germany has shown USA firms to be the best managed and UK firms to be the most poorly managed. In addition, a low proportion of employers in the UK with managerial staff provide training for them.”Leitch Review of Skills.11

“Line managers are under constant and increasing pressure to ‘be leaders’ – improve organisational performance while supporting individual employee needs. In the eyes of individual workers they are most often ‘the employer’, engendering a trusting relationship between the employee and the organisation.”CIPD Leadership Report, 2013 12


Management, leadership, coaching Managers at all levels need to pay more attention to the individual, improving their awareness, listening skills and understand how to clearly communicate what the company is seeking to achieve. They need to live this themselves and give others clear guidance on their role in creating organisational success, providing reward and recognition for individual efforts.

An engaged manager will need to have different skills at their disposal for different occasions. For example, when dealing with actively disengaged individuals (Saboteur, Thief ), the manager will need to be able to cite specific occurrences of destructive behaviour. They will have to have processes in place to manage poor performance and then to understand the legal framework to address these. How a manager deals with their people’s performance can impact the engagement and support of the wider team. Leadership skills are vital to be able to move Disengaged employees (Passenger, Prisoner, Sceptic and Challenger) into Engaged employees. They will need to be able to ‘sell’ the vision of the organisation and engage their team members to deliver challenging targets.

Coaching skills are put into practice when managers want the individual to take personal responsibility for their own careers. They will focus on questioning and building self-esteem. They will inspire and enable change to occur.

One of the most difficult aspects of management and leadership is handling conflict and having what we term ‘courageous conversations’. Moving from a collective approach to one that is individual centred requires well-developed people management and communication skills. Key to making this work is overcoming barriers to effective listening so there can be an accurate and agreed record of an individual’s needs and aspirations.

For instance, what would happen if an employee feels that they have been overlooked for an internal promotion? First, this would not be the manager’s problem but is the responsibility of the individual.A leader’s response might be “What was it that you haven’t told me, or that I haven’t heard, that means I didn’t consider or recognise you?”

This management philosophy is empowering for the individual but it does place responsibility with them to explain clearly their own requirements and aspirations. This becomes more difficult if aspirations and capability are far apart. Then you need tangible ways to show the gap so you can openly discuss this with individuals. Tools, such as a Balanced Scorecard, can be helpful as they remove the emotion from the discussion.

…improving management skills Engagement is not a target

Employee engagement is not a short-term tactic. Nor is it a target. If you focus on engagement as a target, rather than as a measure of progress, it becomes toxic.

Engagement is an outcome of an organisation that has belief in its own goals, mission and vision and through its management effectively communicates so there is alignment in values, beliefs and objectives.

Businesses fail at creating employee engagement where their stamina wavers and they run out of time or money. A successful strategy has to live beyond where many people would give up. Constantly changing the strategy causes confusion and a lack of trust in the vision of the leaders.

“Employee engagement is a leading indicator in terms of how successful a strategy will be. In Festo, we saw increasing levels of employee satisfaction and engagement before we saw the full impact of this on the business results. It’s also an influence on customer satisfaction.”Gary Wyles, Managing Director, Festo Ltd


Part of understanding successful practices for employee engagement is the fundamental realisation that the modern day workplace has changed. Pay and perks have been replaced by flexibility, self-realisation and work-life balance as key motivators.

The first step to understanding employee engagement is to see what the levels are like in your own organisation. For some leaders this might be the first time that they’ve listened to the views and opinions of their own employees. It can be tough and it can be challenging. Issues can also easily be glossed over. Some organisations proudly state that they have 66% engaged employees in their organisation. While remarkable when compared to the 20% average, it still means that one third of your workforce is not engaged or even actively disengaged! Measurement is equally no good if it’s just for measurement’s sake. As we stated earlier, if you’re focussing on achieving a certain percentage as a target, then measuring employee engagement can become toxic.

The act of measuring employee engagement is a form of communication in its own right. And like any form of communication, it needs to be a conversation. If people give

Mark Hemming, Senior ConsultantFesto Training and Consulting

their time to tell you what they think, then equally you need to feed back to them the top line results, and identify priorities for action and when these are going to be put in place. This is back to the beginning. It’s what you hear, the action that you put in place, and then communicating back that you’ve listened and what you’re going to do about it.

Employee engagement is not something to be entered into lightly but it is something that business leaders, in all sectors – and especially in manufacturing and engineering – need to focus on.

And why? Because having high levels of engagement in your organisation will ensure that your business goes from strength to strength, outstripping the performance of your competitors, attracting the best talent, and becoming one of those companies that others look at with admiration and, quite often, with a touch of envy.

Employee engagement is the difference that makes the difference – and could make all the difference as we face the realities of globalised competition and of millions of graduates and even more skilled and committed workers that China, India and other economies are producing each year.”Engaging for Success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement 13

“One step up from commitment, two or three from staff satisfaction, employee engagement is fast becoming the Holy Grail for firms which need a productive workforce to sustain a competitive advantage.”Payroll Professional magazine

Festo and employee engagement

Festo is a leading world-wide supplier of automation technology and the performance leader in industrial training and education programs. Our aim: maximised productivity and competitiveness for our customers.

To achieve this aim we see employee engagement as the critical factor. Our people are key to achieving our goals. People in Festo know how they contribute and get a shared sense of satisfaction when company figures are released. It’s not just about the financial performance though. We are well known in the industry for investing in the training and development of our people through our own learning and development programme, ‘Fit for Change’. We also have a strong coaching culture that ensures people are supported and personally developed. We put much of this in place when times were good. When the recession bit, it really paid off.

At Festo, we believe in three key leadership principles: • Open and honest communication• Respect and recognition • Driving a shared vision

Our open and honest communication begins by listening to our people. We started our Employee Engagement Survey in 2001 and that led to some changes in communication. They said they wanted to know from the leadership team how the business is performing, what their role is to achieve business objectives and how we’re doing on our mission.

So, we modified our Business Reviews – biannual appraisals of business progress – and required managers to cascade key messages through departmental meetings within four weeks of each Review. The results of this survey also ensured the business could easily and swiftly access an important feedback mechanism to not only measure success but also to drive future people-focussed initiatives.

Respect and recognition means that all employees have the opportunity and capacity to voice their opinion and share their experience and learning for the greater good. In 2007, we introduced ‘Recognise’ where any employee can nominate a colleague for efforts taken ‘beyond the call of duty’. Every nomination is personally acknowledged and notified by individual managers and every quarter a winner is selected by management vote.

When it comes to driving a shared vision within Festo, it really is a case of leading from the front. In the face of the recession, the business has developed (and retained) a ‘we’re all in this together’ attitude that has encouraged the business to work as a team that is succeeding amid this turbulent market. External recognition is also essential for us to recruit and retain the best talent. We have achieved a 1* rating in The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies To Work For and also are accredited with the Gold Investors in People standard.

Conclusion

We have a tough battle on our hands. We’re recovering from a recession, seeking to secure and develop a new vision for manufacturing in the UK, suffering from a skills shortage and competing against new markets in the world-wide economy. Employee engagement is one of the key differentiators that we have to adopt.

“Measuring and monitoring employee engagement is the latest gauntlet to be thrown to employers because it can be linked directly to the bottom line!”Gallup, Inc 14

20Manage to Engage

1 ‘David MacLeod, Nita Clarke. Engaging for Success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement’. Crown copyright. 2008.

2 IES (2004). The Drivers of Employee Engagement.

3 State of the Global Workplace Report 2013’. Gallup. 2013.

4 ‘Tough decisions in a downturn don’t have to lead to disengaged employees’. Hay Group. 2009 http://www.haygroup.com/ww/press/details.aspx?id=21404

5 ‘Skills for Growth: A more productive and flexible labour force’. EEF The Manufacturers’ Organisation. http://www.eef.org.uk/publications/reports/skills-for-growth-a-more-productive-and-flexible-labour-force-.htm

6 ‘International Comparisons of Productivity – Final Estimates, 2012’. Office for National Statistics. 2014 http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_353315.pdf

7 ‘Skills for Growth: A more productive and flexible labour force’. EEF The Manufacturers’ Organisation. http://www.eef.org.uk/publications/reports/skills-for-growth-a-more-productive-and-flexible-labour-force-.htm

8 ‘People & Productivity 2013’. Festo Training & Consulting, Works Management. 2013.

9 Tough decisions in a downturn don’t have to lead to disengaged employees’. Hay Group. 2009 http://www.haygroup.com/ww/press/details.aspx?id=21404

10 Source: IES (2004). The Drivers of Employee Engagement.

11 Lord Leitch, “Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class skills’. The Leitch Review. 2006.

12 ‘Real-life leaders: closing the knowing-doing gap’. CIPD. September 2013. http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/research/real-life-leaders.aspx

13 ‘David MacLeod, Nita Clarke. Engaging for Success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement’. Crown copyright. 2008.

14 Customer Management Magazine. The Gallup Organisation, July/August 2006.

Sources

Festo LtdApplied Automation CentreCaswell RoadBrackmills Trading EstateNorthamptonNN4 7PYPhone 0800 626422Fax 01604 667001

E-mail: [email protected]:www.festo-didactic.co.uk

Manage to Engage

manage to engage… the role of managers in employee engagement

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