22 February 2008

Get the lowdown on employee engagement essentials

Survey says 54% of organizations are incorporating engagement as "just a general philosophy".

Melcrum's employee engagement survey 2007/08 delivered some surprising results including that 47% of the organizations questioned that have formal engagement programs introduced them during 2005, 2006 or the first 9 months of 2007.

Below is a summary of the main research results, which are included in Melcrum's latest Practitioner's Guide: Essential Techniques for Employee Engagement. (Hub members note you can claim a 25% discount on the full guide).

Survey overview
The survey data are based on 1,625 responses from professionals working primarily in communication or HR at organizations in a wide range of industries, and the full findings in the Practitioner’s Guide also includes further data segmented by size of organization and by region.

More information about the guide can be found at the end of this summary.

Graeme Ginsberg (pictured, right), managing editor of research and reports for Melcrum breaks down the survey findings in detail and explores its conclusions, while also discussing the contents of the Practitioner's Guide.

Asked if he was surprised about the results that show employee engagement isn't on the agenda for 19% of organizations, and just a general philosophy for 54% of other organizations, Ginsberg said "For the 19%, I'm surprised, absolutely. I think to myself, 'How can any organization these days afford not to put motivating employees, helping them understand the strategic direction of the organization and their part in delivering it, and encouraging them to go the extra mile, at the top of their agenda?'"

Engagement lacking due to firefighting
Ginsberg's guess, however, is that "for many of these 19%, it isn’t a lack of understanding about how important having a motivated, engaged workforce is. I think it’s more a case of the leaders and managers having to juggle lots of time-consuming, stressful projects and responsibilities and feeling they just don’t have the time to conduct research, develop engagement strategies and tactics, change team structures and find new ways of working."

To them, Ginsberg suggests, an engaged workforce would be "a 'nice-to-have luxury' rather than a 'must have". They’re too busy 'firefighting' to recognize that it’s probably the other way round – engagement is actually a must have."

"With an engaged workforce, the organization would be more secure and perform better, and they wouldn’t have to do so much firefighting! Meanwhile, with the 54% of organizations that are incorporating engagement as 'just a general philosophy', I think how surprising these results are will depend on how much you stress the word 'just' – too much stress and it implies that this approach is an inferior one," Ginsberg says.

You can read more of Ginsberg's comments about the report on the Hub, originally published in a 5-part interview series on David Zinger's website, Employee Engagement: Results That Matter.

Organizations’ approach to employee engagement
The survey suggests that 81% of organizations worldwide now have employee engagement on the agenda (see Figure 1, below). A quarter of organizations address engagement through a formal engagement program, while 54% treat engagement as part of a general philosophy, incorporated into overall people practices.

Figure 1. Approach to employee engagement [All data]

Large organizations are more likely than small ones to treat engagement as part of a general philosophy (see Figure 2, below). However, although nearly 40% of large organizations have a formal program, compared with 23% of small organizations, some 13% of large organizations still don’t have employee engagement on the agenda.

Figure 2. Approach to employee engagement [Large and small organizations]

 

Figure 3 below highlights that organizations in the UK, North America and Asia-Pacific region are most likely to have employee engagement on the agenda, and in the UK only 14% of organizations don’t. However, similar proportions of organizations in all regions have formal engagement programs.

Figure 3. Approach to employee engagement [All data; by region]

When did organizations start focusing on employee engagement?
We found that one in 5 organizations introduced their program before 2001. There seems to have been a “lull” in commitment to a formal program during 2001 and 2002, but there has been a progressive increase since, with 47% of organizations with programs having introduced them during 2005, 2006 or the first nine months of 2007.

Which functions manage employee engagement?
We asked organizations with a formal engagement program which function is primarily responsible for it. The responses suggest that responsibility more often rests primarily with HR, while internal communication also has considerable ownership.

Figure 4, below, shows that the employee engagement programs in 40% of organizations worldwide are overseen primarily by HR, while for 27%, internal communication is the key function. In 13% of organizations, a designated employee engagement team oversees the project.

Figure 4. Function responsible for overseeing employee engagement
[All data; organizations with a formal program]

Key drivers of engagement
Employee engagement is complex and likely to be influenced by many (interconnected) factors. In this survey, we found that 33% of organizations with employee engagement on the agenda conduct a key driver analysis and we asked this group to rate drivers from a set of 10 that are commonly cited by organizations as important.

Figure 5, below, shows results segmented by size of organization. Both large and small organizations rated the actions of senior leaders and direct supervisors the most important drivers of employee engagement. However, senior leaders seem to have considerably greater impact on engagement in smaller organizations than in large ones.

Figure 5. Key drivers of employee engagement
[Large and small organizations that conduct a key driver analysis]

 

How organizations measure engagement levels
A quarter of organizations that have employee engagement on the agenda don’t have a formal method for measuring it (see Figure 6, below). Meanwhile, 44% measure engagement levels through their standard opinion survey and 23% have a dedicated engagement survey.

Figure 6. How organizations measure levels of employee engagement
[All data; organizations with a formal program]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which employee engagement techniques are organizations currently using?
Organizations use engagement techniques individually or in combination. The survey revealed that 86% of organizations with employee engagement on the agenda are using at least 1 of the 4 most widely used techniques – action teams, Appreciative Inquiry, message maps and storytelling – which are covered in Melcrum’s Essential Techniques for Employee Engagement.

Figure 7, below, shows proportions of this group of organizations currently using these techniques. The most widely used techniques are action teams and storytelling, with 55% of this group of organizations using the former and 49% using the latter. More than a quarter use Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and 19% use message maps.

Figure 7. Techniques used by organizations [All data; organizations with employee engagement on the agenda and using at least 1 of the 4 key techniques]

 

About Essential Techniques for Employee Engagement
This new Practitioner’s Guide, published by Melcrum, helps readers understand the 4 key techniques for engaging employees, why organizations need them and how to apply them. There are also case studies to illustrate how the processes have been applied in major organizations, including McDonald’s, Rolls-Royce, Royal Mail, DRS Technologies and O2. The chapter authors are:

• Action teams – Linda Dulye, President and Founder, L.M. Dulye and Co.
• Appreciative Inquiry – Caryn Vanstone, Business Director, Ashridge Consulting.
• Message Maps – David Grossman, President and Principal, dg&a.
• Tony Quinlan – Principal, Narrate.

They provide step-by-step processes, practical advice, key considerations, tips, checklists and troubleshooting so that communication professionals can get up and running with the techniques.

(N.B. Hub members. As part of the Hub's editorial board Linda and David are both available to answer questions from Hub members. Pose your questions to them anytime via the Hub's editor, Annie Waite.)

Also included are data from an extensive, global employee engagement survey conducted for this publication. This provides readers with insights into how organizations are approaching engagement, what techniques they’re applying and what they’re planning to do in the next 12 months, with key data segmented by size of organization and region. The summary above is abstracted from this chapter.

Don't forget, if you're a Hub member, you can claim your 25% discount on the full guide.

Network with your peers for free
If you're in the neighborhood, network with your peers about employee engagement and other communication issues at the free Hub event in Chicago, March 28th. Check our networking page for more details or register online.

For those based elsewhere, discuss engagement issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.

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