Employee Engagement Workshop
Posted by webmaster 4 April 2007
Today’s VPSCIN workshop “Unlocking the Power of Employee Engagement”, presented by Pamela Frost explored some definitions of employee engagement and got us thinking about what it is that really engages us (or doesn’t!) in our work.
Pamela compared our relationship with work to a marriage, where there are mutual expectations and a “psychological contract”. Employees fall into three different categories – those who are engaged and work with passion and drive, those who are not engaged – “time servers” and those who are actively dis-engaged or “divorced”, who are unhappy at work and undermine the work of their engaged colleagues.
Some interesting recent research results made us realise that employee engagement is not just a nice optional extra, but is a critical factor in attracting and retaining high quality employees in an environment in which the war for talent is raging, the workforce is aging and there are significant skills shortages. Some of these statistics include:
- Highly committed employees perform up to 20% better and are 87% less likely to leave their organisations than employees with low levels of commitment.
- In a study using data from more than 36,000 employees from 41 companies, those companies with low overall engagement levels lost 2.01% operating margin and 1.38% net profit margin over a 3 year period, contrasted with companies with higher engagement, which gained 3.74% operating margin and 2.06% new profit margin.
- A 2005 survey of 7,100 Australian workers indicated that 56% of respondents are unhappy in their current roles (up from 45% in 2004).
The risks to successful business outcomes are obvious! Pamela outlined a structured approach to address these risks through the Employee Engagement Consulting Model, which incorporates diagnosing the level of employee engagement, developing a business case and strategy, implementing a range of interventions and evaluating the outcomes.
Also explored were some of the rational and emotional drivers and levers that influence employee engagement and suggested a range of strategies to elicit more discretionary effort (which constitutes up to 40%, compared with 60% merely compliance), thereby increasing productivity.
Many thanks to Pamela Frost of Because and her impressive range of assessments, tools and programs for engaging staff, which helped us to leave the session with some fresh perspectives on this fascinating and challenging topic. (The ppt presentation from this session will be made available on the Because website.)
Post kindly provided by suzanne.walshe@dhs.vic.gov.au
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April 5th, 2007 at 11:55 am
The workshop was highly beneficial to me – not being a manager at this point, but understanding what I need to consider as an employee and how I can bring this knowledge back to the project team, working on a related subject.
It was highlighted to me, that as Gen Y – our needs are very similar to other generations, and flexibility and variety are not just for the young.
Another highly valuable aspect was the importance of simple ideas, that make for a happy environment. And something as simple as ‘Saying YES’ can make the world of difference.
In a climate where managers are too busy or don’t have the time to spend with staff – simply taking the extra time to understand what staff are asking, and find a creative way to achieve a mutual outcome, makes for a more engaged member.
Great food for thought.
April 5th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
I gained another perspective to employee engagement. A method that targets causes of engagement/disengagement rather than forcing compliance.
The workshop alerted the human approach rather than the traditionally more mechanical approach in engaging people towards achieving common goals rather than just satisfying delivery tasks.
Thanks.
April 5th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I found the workshop to be very beneficial, and I acknowledge the difficult situation Pam was in – to confine the presentation to just an overview, or to give us some tools. I thought she did a great job of finding a balance.
Today I was required to provide a verbal reference for an employee of my organisation. I realised yesterday during the workshop, that she is one of the most engaged employees I have every worked with. It was so easy to provide a balanced, detailed, summary of her work performance, focusing on her ‘engagement strategies’.
Having seen the success she has achieved using the Individual Levers and the Organisational Drivers (as summarised in the handout), has given me a clearer understanding of why her teams have always been highly motivated and exceeded expected outcomes.
Thanks.
April 6th, 2007 at 10:39 am
I agree with Lindy, it was a great overview of a complex and broad area, but it also incorporated the tools and techniques needed to address employe engagement. My personal favourite was possibly the simplest of the oferings in the list of handy hints, or ‘low hanging fruit’ that we could quickly look at get things moving.
Many thanks again to Pamela and the tremendous amount of preparation that went into this session.
April 10th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Thanks to the Co-ordinator for organising such a wonderful workshop for us. I wish more Managers paid attention to Employee Engagement. If we can successfully increase Employee Engagement it will definitely improve staff turnover- an engaged employee less likely to leave, work life balance – positive disposition end of a work day and ultimately productivity gain – self actualisation at work.
April 18th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
[...] The CIN has two upcoming workshops on the issue of Employee Engagement. The first on April 24 with Pamela Frost (who recently ran a very successful session on April 4 ) and the second, a practical hands on staff engagement session on June 8. Archived in News | Trackback | Top Of Page [...]