3 April 2008
Focus on your "almost engaged" employees for quick wins
BlessingWhite's global survey addresses widespread employee dissatisfaction.
How many "honeymooners" or "hamsters" do you estimate your company employs? Research results from training and consulting firm, BlessingWhite, says you could be holding as many as 12%.
Turn on your hamster radar
Wendy Fencl, BlessingWhite's leader of employee engagement and senior consultant introduced the research findings at a breakfast event earlier today in Chicago.
Honeymooners ("those whose satisfaction is high but their contribution is low," Fencl says), and hamsters: ("those who work very hard, but at the wrong things"), even though they've "perfected staying under the radar" aren't necessarily the worst of your problems, she says.
These people are high performers, but they're not happy. The problem is they complain, and they take prisoners, and they become toxic.
Of the 7,508 line and HR leaders surveyed around the world, Blessingwhite discovered that in North America, which accounted for 3,342 respondents, 29% are actively engaged at their workplaces, while 19% are disengaged.
"A fifth of employees are really not happy, and not contributing," says Fencl. "And according to figures from Gallup, disengaged employees cost up to $300 billion annually in lost productivity."
Tackle your "almost engageds"
Using the recent Heathrow Terminal 5 debacle in the UK as an example, Fencl suggested that had employees been more engaged in the new Terminal's opening, and the company changes that surrounded it, the problems it faced last week might have been avoided.
Whether that's the case or not, another group that BlessingWhite's survey identified – the "almost engageds" (27% of them) – "are the ones organizationally you want to focus on," Fencl says. Attendees at the event said that this group were the "most salvageable" and provided "quick wins" to companies.
The remaining 13% of respondents were identified as "crash and burners". "These people are high performers, but they're not happy. The problem is they complain, they take prisoners and they become toxic. You can't afford to have people stay on who are so dissatisfied with their work," says Fencl, when discussing the projected retention rates of all the employee groups identified within the survey.
Talkin' bout all generations
Delving further into the results, attendees discussed a range of reasons why many generation Y employees were often classified as disengaged, or at least, not fully engaged.
"Noone ever told them that they have to crawl before they can walk," said one delegate, who agreed that many generation Y employees are impatient at the speed of their career development and expect instant gratification.
Do Millenials really need handholding, or is it just because they're new to the workplace that they need reassurance?
"Generation Y doesn't know what it wants, apart from work-life balance," said another attendee, while someone else suggested "Generation Y multi-tasks like crazy. But what we [referring to gen X and baby boomers] think of as unfocused behavior isn't necessarily that."
"Do Millenials really need handholding, or is it just because they're new to the workplace that they need reassurance?" asked another delegate.
Two clear satisfaction factors
Fencl announced that as part of the 19 questions survey respondents were asked to answer, they were requested to choose 1 factor which would contribute to increasing their workplace satisfaction. Two clear factors emerged:
- More opportunities to use talents.
- Career development and training.
When asked what factors would affect their contribution in the company, "better communication with managers" and "better relationships with co-workers" were mentioned, and the 3 most cited factors were:
- more resources.
- greater clarity about what the organization wants and why; and
- regular specific feedback about how I'm doing.
When all data was aggregated, a clear, but worrying message came through: the majority of employees don't trust senior leaders. However, the figure for the statement "I trust my manager" was greater by far.
China lagging behind with engagement
A geographical breakdown of the results shows that China has the most disengaged and the least fully engaged employees, while the opposite is true for North America and India.
China has the most disengaged and the least fully engaged employees, while the opposite is true for North America and India.
Check back on the Hub for the full survey results when they're released in May.
Have your say
Do BlessingWhite's findings tally with the state of employee engagement at your organization? Do you act on the feedback collected in your employee engagement surveys?
What do you think about why generation Y and Millenials need reassurance in the workplace? Do you have an alternative theory?
How do you communicate to help engage all employee groups at your organization?
Discuss these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
Other recommendations:
A communicator's guide to Generation Y
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