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Successful Staff Engagement

Dilys Robinson

Background: IES’s research into employee engagement

Started in 2002 by defining and measuring engagement, and identifying engagement drivers in the NHS:Drivers of Employee Engagement 2004

Extended into other sectors and settings to test our early findings:Engagement: The Continuing Story 2007

Reviewed all the engagement evidence:Employee Engagement: A review of current thinking 2009

Most recently, investigated managerial behaviours:The Engaging Manager 2009

Programme for the session

What is engagement, and how is it measured?

Why does it matter?What helps and what hinders

engagement?The importance of the managerEngagement challenges

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Engagement: Definitions and Measurement

Engagement definitions: Companies

‘an emotional attachment to the organisation, pride and a willingness to be an advocate of the organisation, a rational understanding of the organisation’s strategic goals, values and how employees fit and motivation and willingness to invest discretionary effort to go above and beyond.’

‘the degree to which employees are satisfied with their jobs, feel valued,

and experience collaboration and trust. Engaged employees will stay with the company longer and continually find smarter, more effective ways to add

value to the organisation. ’

‘an outcome measured or seen as a result of

people being committed to something or someone in the business – a very best effort that is willingly given.’

‘the extent to which an employee feels a sense of attachment to the organisation

he or she works for, believes in its goals and supports its values.’

Engagement definitions: Consultancies

‘a state of mind in which employees feel a vested interest in the company’s successand are both willing and motivated to perform to levels that exceed the stated job requirements. It is the result of how employees feel about the work experience

– the organisation, its leaders, the work and the work environment’

‘can be seen as a combination of commitment to the organisation and its values plus a willingness to help out colleagues (organisational citizenship). It goes beyond job satisfaction and is not simply motivation. Engagement is something the employee has to offer: it cannot be ‘required’ as part of the employment contract’

The Corporate Leadership Council

‘the extent to which employees commit to something or someone in their organisation, how hard they work and how long they stay as a result of that commitment’

‘maximum job satisfaction and

maximum job contribution’

Engagement definitions: Academia‘the harnessing of organisation

members selves to their work roles; in

engagement,people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances’

Kahn (1990)

‘a persistent, positive affective-motivational state of fulfilment’

Maslach et al. (2001)

‘An engaged employee extends themselves

to meet the organisation’s needs, takes initiative, is proactive, reinforces and supports the organisation’s culture and values, is in the flow, shares the values

of the organisation, stays focused and

vigilant and believes he/she can make a

difference’

Macey (2006)

‘being charged with energy’

Hallberg and Schaufeli (2006)

IES’s own definition

Based on inputs from 46 organisations:‘A positive attitude held by the employee towards the organisation and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organisation. The organisation must work to develop and nurture engagement which requires a two‐way relationship between employer and employee.’

Measuring engagement

Done via employee attitude surveys: IES Engagement Survey (12 statements) Towers Perrin Rapid Engagement Diagnostic Survey Roffey Park Institute’s Engagement Diagnostic Service Gallup Workplace Audit (known as the ‘Q12’) Utrecht Work Engagement Scale Workplace Insight Tool NetPromoter ‘People Survey’ for the civil service, NHS staff survey for the

NHS – nothing standard for local government yet …and many companies have their own measures,

developed in house or with a survey provider/consultancy

Measuring staff engagement in the NHS

NHS 2009 annual staff survey contained an engagement indicator for the first time● enables comparisons and benchmarking● also enables correlations with other data eg

patient satisfaction, absence, turnover● made up of responses to the following:

Care of patients/service users is my trust’s top priority

I would recommend my trust as a place to work

If a friend or relative needed treatment I would be happy with the standard of care provided by this trust

I look forward to going to work I am enthusiastic about my job Time passes quickly when I am at work

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Engagement Benefits

Why is engagement important?

Why does it matter? The engagement belief 1

The engaged employee:identifies with the organisationunderstands organisational context and

the bigger picturerespects colleagues and helps othersis willing to ‘go the extra mile’works to make the organisation better

… and so brings business benefits

Why does it matter? The engagement belief 2

Engagement

Performance

Experiences at work

Attitudes to work

Job characteristics

Personal characteristics

Predisposition

Virtuous circle

Why does it matter? Benefits identified from IES’s evidence reviewcustomer loyaltyemployee retentionbetter productivitypositive advocacyimproved performancereceptivity to changeenjoyable workhealth and well-beingself-efficacy

Why does it matter?It has Government backing

MacLeod Review of employee engagement (Oct 2008 to May 2009)

Reported 2009: Engaging for Success: enhancing employee performance through employee engagement by David MacLeod and Nita Clarke

Lots of evidence, case studies and support from big hitters in business eg Justin King at Sainsbury’s

Accepted in its entirety by the Government

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Engagement Barriers and Enablers

Enabling engagement: the drivers feeling valued and involved good management interesting, satisfying work with job autonomy two-way communication organisation is serious about staff safety,

equality of opportunity, corporate social responsibility and staff well-being seriously

development opportunities aligned performance – staff understand their

contribution reward and recognition (not necessarily

financial)

Engagement diagnostic tool: NHS

feeling valuedandinvolved

engagement

training, development and career

immediate management

performance and appraisal

equal opportunities and fair treatment

health and safety

co-operation

family friendliness

job satisfaction

communication

pay and benefits

Barriers to engagement

bureaucracy that stifles initiativeheavy workloads with little control over

thempoor day-to-day management poor communicationlack of trust in top teamjob insecurity

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The Role of the Manager

Highlights from IES’s ‘Engaging Manager’ research

Why focus on managers?Engagement and harassment

2.8

2.9

3

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

3.6

3.7

none racial sexual verbal violence from

colleagues

from

managers

from

clients/

customers

overall mean(3.58)

Research participants

Funded via IES’s membership HR NetworkSeven participating organisations:

●Centrica●Sainsbury’s●Rolls-Royce●Corus●Association of Certified Chartered Accountants●HM Revenue and Customs●London Borough of Merton

What we did

Participating organisations nominated 2 to 5 managers whose teams had scored highly for organisational engagement in the latest employee survey

We then:● interviewed these engaging managers (25)● interviewed their managers (22)● facilitated a focus group with their teams

(154)Report published late 2009

The good news

Our managers were very different – personalities, age, experience, background, roles, levels

Engaging managers are made, not born – engaging behaviours can be learnt

All our managers said they had learnt about engaging behaviour by observing themselves and others

However, some find it easier than others

Effective communication

Engaging managerscommunicate clearlyin particular, give clear directionslisten to their teamsconsult with their teams involve their teams in decision-making

Integrity

Engaging managershave personal integrityare respectedare honest, truthful and opencan be trustedshare their understanding and learning

Taking an interest

Engaging managersare supportive and protectivedisplay empathy when appropriateare interest in individuals in their teamsdevelop individualsare approachable, visible and availableare enthusiastic about their organisations

and their teams

The bigger picture

Engaging managersare performance focusedhave high expectations and standardshave clear strategic vision understand the contribution they and

their teams make to organisational success

are not afraid to confront or challenge

Engaging managers and performanceEngaging managers are well liked, but are not pink and fluffy‘Very, very focused…he sees the results of the business as being

his main driver.’‘She has very high expectations.’ clarity about expectations preference for informal discussions adopt a coaching style frequent interaction and feedback identify good performers and give additional challenges and

opportunitiesBUT tackle poor performance or behaviour straight away get tough if necessary use formal procedures where appropriate – and stick to them

The difficult conversations

Poor performers and tricky people:‘They face it and have difficult conversations, in a

supportive way.’ tackle immediately find out the facts keep calm use empathy and get on wavelength get tricky people on side coach to improve set clear goals and expectations but get tough if they have to

Managing teams for performance

‘They are performance driven ... There is no distance between them and their teams, which leads to higher motivation and very high energy levels.’

all our managers had high performing teams frequent monitoring of performance against targets good feedback to team involvement of team in improvement discussions aim high – stretch targets able to evidence success

Delivering bad news

‘He took a fairly direct approach. He explained why. He empathised, but made it clear that we still had to get on.’

homework open and honestcalm and serioussensitive to individual circumstancesanswer questions straightforwardly, or

refergive people time to reflect about impact

The impact of engaging management

1 2 3 4 5

Engagement

Immediate management

Feeling valued & involved

J ob satisfaction

Team working

Performance & appraisal

Training & career development

Coping with stress & work pressure

range of mean values: other IES studies mean values: engaged teams

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Images of Engaging Leaders

Positive, optimistic and warm

Communicating and listening

Team focused and supportive

Protecting team and individuals

Reliable, dependable and loyal

Understands organisation and contribution of self and team

Manager as a high performer

Versatile, manages several things at once

Maverick, not following company line

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Engagement Challenges

Training in people management

A good shop assistant, customer service adviser, accountant, engineer, teacher, nurse, doctor doesn’t automatically become a good people manager when given supervisory or line responsibilities

What training do supervisors and first line managers get in managing people? Many training budgets have been diverted away from people at this level – have yours?

Senior management

Managers are people, too, who need to be managed in an engaging way – are they? Will they take their behavioural cues from how they are treated?

There will always be engaging managers in any organisation, but to really embed engaging management, senior leaders need to lead by example – do they?

Engaged – with what?

In a complex organisation, just what is it that people are engaging with?

Think about the NHS – are employees engaging with their NHS trust, their hospital or clinic, their patients, their staff group/profession, their directorate, the wider NHS?

Professionals can be especially tricky eg in the NHS, doctors typically have very high job satisfaction but low organisational engagement

Think about your organisation

Do you know how engaged people are, and how engagement levels vary?

Is the senior team on board with engagement? Reflect on the managers and leaders you know,

including yourself:● How engaging (or disengaging) are their

behaviours?● Can you see a relationship between engaging

management and performance? ● Can/do the more engaging managers share their

methods?● How would people in your organisation depict

your senior managers?● And how would your team depict you?

… thank you

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