7 Elements of

Next Generation

LEARNING STRATEGIES BROUGHT TO YOU BY: CHRIS OSBORN, VP OF MARKETING, BIZLIBRARY

and JESSICA BATZ, MARKETING SPECIALIST, BIZLIBRARY

How to Create a Culture

That Fosters Employee

Engagement.

Created by:

Chris Osborn, VP of Marketing, BizLibrary and

Jessica Batz, Marketing Specialist, BizLibrary

Brought to you by:

In this eBook, we are going to provide some data that will not be a surprise to most HR and learning and development

professionals. Employee engagement is important and disengaged employees cost their employers money. We’ve known this for

quite a while. So why haven’t organizations gotten better at engaging their employees?

The reasons appear to range from a foundational misunderstanding of the concept of engagement to a lack of actionable

advice about exactly what organizations can do. In the pages that follow, we plan to clarify some of the misconceptions and

myths about employee engagement, and provide some actionable tips your organization can begin using right away to improve

the engagement level of your employees.

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When leaders in the United States of America — or any country for

that matter — wake up one morning and say collectively, “Let’s get

rid of managers from hell, double the number of great managers

and engaged employees, and have those managers lead based on

what actually matters,” everything will change. The country’s

employees will be twice as effective, they’ll create far more

customers, companies will grow, spiraling healthcare costs will

decrease, and desperately needed GDP will boom like never before.

Jim Clifton

CEO Gallup

Forward to, State of the American Work Place, Gallup, 2013.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Employee engagement seems to be on everyone’s mind lately and for good reason.

Disengaged employees are like the walking dead in our workplaces. The actively

disengaged – the zombie-like employees – spread a malaise that is contagious and

poses a risk to everyone around them. Lastly, these disengaged employees cost

employers a lot of money.

In one of the most comprehensive reports ever published on the subject, Gallup

estimates that active employee disengagement costs the U.S. economy $450 billion to

$550 billion per year. State of the American Workplace, Gallup, 2013. Gallup’s data-

driven report identified three different levels of engagement:

ENGAGED employees exhibit a “profound connection” to their employer. Some commentators view engagement as

the level of discretionary effort these employees exert.

Gallup goes on the note that these employees “drive

innovation and move the organization forward.”

NOT ENGAGED are those employees who are

emotionally “checked out.” These are the “zombies”

who sleepwalk through their day and simply go through

the motions.

ACTIVELY DISENGAGED are those employees who aren’t

just unhappy at work. These are employees who are

actually undermining the efforts of those around them.

These are the “zombies” whose attitudes are contagious

and pose real risks to organizations.

“Engaged workers stand

apart from their not

engaged and actively

disengaged counterparts

because of the

discretionary effort they

consistently bring to their

roles day after day.”

To read more about how

Gallup defines these

categories, see, State of

the American Workplace,

Gallup, 2013, p. 21

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WHAT EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IS NOT…

Some of the confusion stems from the use of “employee satisfaction” and “employee engagement” interchangeably. The terms

are not synonymous. Employee satisfaction is the degree to which employees have their basic needs met by their employer.

They are “satisfied” with their jobs and exert an appropriate amount of effort to perform at an adequate level .

ENGAGING MANAGERS IN TRAINING

A side note on engaging managers…

Most HR professionals understand the business

benefit of training, but many managers don't. This

video will help you engage your managers in your

training program.

• Understand what motivates

• Explain the business benefits from the

employee’s perspective

• Manage expectations

Engagement is not driven by extrinsic things like monetary rewards. In fact,

there is some interesting writing about how monetary rewards can have a

negative effect on engagement. See, Drive, The Surprising Truth About What

Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink, Chapter 2.

Engagement is a complex topic, and there is no simple answer. In a quote

from The Manager’s Guide to Employee Engagement by Scott Carbonara, a

VP of HR said:

“I am concerned the popularity of employee engagement may result in

reducing a complex topic to slogans and easy-to-implement lists without

ensuring managers, leaders, and human resource professionals have the

necessary context for understanding them. If employee engagement were

simple to understand, define measure, implement, change, and sustain,

everyone would have achieved high engagement and we would all be

challenged with how to distribute the significant profits it generated. My goal

is to continue to learn more about (and continue to question) employee

engagement — what creates it, what sustains it, what destroys it, and how

can I impact those elements. “ Nikki Baker, VP Human Resources

BACK TO ZOMBIES…

Let’s go back to our zombies for a moment, because in

spite of everything negative about the impact of

disengaged employees, there is still reason to hope.

There was a fun zombie romantic comedy released in

early 2013 called, “Warm Bodies.” I know, fun zombie

romantic comedy seems like an oxymoron, but trust me

on this one. In the film, some zombies, including the

protagonist retained just a glimmer of a human heart

beat – not much to be sure. But the hero is brought back

to life – reengaged, so to speak – by his interest in a

young woman.

SOURCE: Google images

Our zombie employees are a lot like the protagonist in this

movie. Many of them can be brought back. They just need a

spark, and we have to provide it. The question is, “How?”

How can we overcome the walking dead and create a culture

that fosters engagement? The cure? Your managers. The

answer is right in front of us, but executing and delivering is a

different matter.

Scott Carbonara summarizes it perfectly:

Why do employees quit? What disengages them? While

employees may learn more about the company’s

operations—including details they dislike—these factors

don’t usually send them fleeing. Brick-and-mortar

companies can’t love or hate people; so at the core,

employees rarely have feelings of love or hate for

corporate entities. No, employees reserve that level of

emotion for individuals—like their supervisors or

managers. Disengaged employees act like they’ve been

hurt—as if something has been done to them personally.

In fact, the leading cause of attrition and disengagement

is poor leadership.

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1. Work with data.

2. Focus on engagement at multiple levels – senior leadership

and grass roots.

3. Select the right managers.

4. Train and coach managers on key skills and strategies that

lead to employee engagement.

5. Define engagement in realistic and everyday terms.

6. Find ways to connect to every employee.

WHAT CAN ORGANIZATIONS DO TO IMPROVE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT?

WORK WITH DATA

Organizations need to use good engagement survey tools so they

are measuring the right indicators of engagement. This is crucial so

organizations can work with information that allows for corrective

action when engagement levels are low and need improvement.

The problem organizations face is the sheer volume of employee

engagement survey tools that are available. Gallup uses its Q12 tool

and SHRM has an engagement survey service, too. The tool you

select is less important than the fact that you must develop data

that illustrates at what level your employees are willing to exert

discretionary effort to perform their jobs. Once you have data, you

can develop plans to make improvements.

One of the most fascinating aspects of improving

employee engagement is the way senior leadership

involvement tends to start cultural shifts, however in

the end employee involvement is where the action is.

You must make employee engagement a part of the

routine job expectations of all of your managers, and

that requires senior leadership support, involvement

and buy-in. Once that occurs, you’ll start to see the

grassroots transformation you seek.

FOCUS ON ENGAGEMENT AT MULTIPLE LEVELS

SELECT THE RIGHT MANAGERS

Employee engagement centers on managers,

manager performance, manager skill and manager

capability, so it is entirely logical that getting the right

managers in place to begin with is important. In many

cases top performers get rewarded with promotions

but very few top performers are adequately prepared

to be managers. You must promote people to

manager roles based upon the skills, competencies

and traits necessary for success as managers, and the

success profile for a manager is different than the

success profile of individual contributors.

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DEFINE ENGAGEMENT IN REALISTIC AND EVERYDAY TERMS

A side note on how to balance the need for speed with the need

for competence…

BALANCING THE NEED FOR SPEED WITH COMPETENCIES

• Have employees own their

learning and development

• Provide information that

employees can use in their

own way

• Hold them accountable

Employees must work towards realistic goals on a

day-to-day basis led by managers using effective

managerial skills. Gallup’s report describes four

stages of employee engagement, and the stages

are not too dissimilar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Essentially, once we have some basic workplace

needs met, we move to more complex needs, and

eventually we rise to the level of looking for

improvements and opportunities for professional

growth and fulfillment. Managers must express these

needs in easy to understand ways for employees.

SELF-ESTEEM

SENSE OF BELONGING

SAFETY

PSYCHOLOGICAL

SELF ACTUALIZATION

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

FIND WAYS TO CONNECT TO EVERY EMPLOYEE

This is a critical piece of the puzzle to employee engagement, and

it’s one of the reasons manager performance is so closely linked to

engagement. Each person must feel valued, and that sense of value

must come from his or her manager. We have to rely upon our

managers to make these connections.

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MANAGERIAL COMPENTECIES AND CHALLENGES

Every organization will need to evaluate the unique

requirements for their managers and supervisors. For instance,

managers in certain industries may require a unique set of

competencies such as regulatory requirements in healthcare,

financial services or transportation organizations. Regardless

of the industry, organizations will likely have some unique

requirements based upon culture and specific organizational

goals or objectives.

However, there are some foundational managerial

competencies and behaviors that appear to directly affect

employee engagement. We recommend that you develop

these core competencies in your managers:

Each of these competencies and the skills needed to execute

can impact the areas and factors that the data and research

indicates affects employee engagement.

Emotional Intelligence

Coaching

Communication

Delegation

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive,

control and evaluate emotions. It’s not intelligence per se, EI

is a complex competency that involves our ability to

understand and monitor not only our own feelings and

emotions, but also the feelings and emotions of those around

us. Then EI allows us to use this information to guide our

actions and thinking. For a much more complete explanation

of the concept, refer to a scholarly article by Peter Salovey

and John D. called "Emotional Intelligence” written in 1990.

Another leading authority on the subject, Daniel Goleman

wrote in his book, Working with Emotional Intelligence,

“Emotional Intelligence is the largest single predictor of

success in the workplace.” Goleman describes Emotional

Intelligence as “managing feelings so that they are expressed

appropriately and effectively enabling people to work

together smoothly towards their common goals.”

The value of EI for our managers can best be illustrated by

referring to the immense changes we are witnessing to the

demographics in our workplaces, and the challenges in

working with employees with widely varying motivations,

needs and perspectives.

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This is a critical competency for managers that few

organizations take the time to adequately develop.

Coaching is crucial to developing the skills and abilities of

each manager’s team, so this begs the question. Why isn’t

coaching a core competency for managers in every

organization?

Coaching doesn’t have to be a complex process for any

manager. In fact, it’s not complicated at all. At its core,

coaching is primarily about a perspective where the

manager focuses on the actual needs of his or her employees

and puts those needs first.

A study conducted by Bersin by Deloitte showed that

organizations with senior leaders who coach effectively and

frequently, improve their business results by 21 percent as

compared to those who never coach.

Some specific examples of coaching behaviors are:

Taking an “Ask vs. Tell” approach. Coaches ask their

employees questions and help employees solve problems.

They don’t tell employees what to do.

There is a focus on the employee and not on tasks. So the

focus is on the development of employees.

There is a structure for accountability, action and

outcomes. The manager and employee stay tightly

focused on achieving goals using this structure.

Coaching is an everyday, consistent part of every

manager/employee relationship. The best way for employees

to learn is for a trained manager to coach and teach the

employee as things occur. Additionally, this type of day-in-

day-out interaction and adjustment helps the employee,

manager, and team and by extension, the organization

actually attain goals.

To put the idea of coaching into an equation it would read:

Coaching = Effective Conversations. Effective conversations

are a dialogue where the manager asks open-ended

questions and stays focused on positive and useful results.

COACHING

DEVELOPMENT OF MENTORS

A side note on developing the skills of mentors…

Target three areas:

Coaching

Emotional Intelligence

Communication

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This key competency flows very naturally from coaching.

However, communication in today’s complex workplace also

requires the application of EI (emotional intelligence) so the

communication message AND method are appropriate to

the situation and desired results.

Another critical aspect of communication skills and

competencies many organizations tend to overlook in their

managerial employees is virtual communication skills. Many

organizations now have remote employees or multiple

locations. We are more reliant than ever before on

technology tools to effectively communicate and in many

instances we are forced to rely upon these tools to supervise

and manage these remote employees and locations.

Even if organizations do not have remote employees, how

well prepared are managers to communicate using current

technology tools? The communication challenges for

managers with remote employees are radically different. For

instance, how do managers provide:

Feedback

Coaching

Keep employees connected

Maintain relationships

All of these things are possible, but these require a new and

emerging set of communications skills that require a high

degree of comfort with technology.

COMMUNICATION

RECOMMENDED BIZLIBRARY RESOURCES

Telecommuting Basics: Communication Strategies for the

Remote Employee (60 minute, eLearning Course)

Business Etiquette: Written Communications (7 minute,

Video Course)

Global Scenarios Series: Building the Virtual Team (18

minute, Video Course)

For a free 30-day trial of these courses and more, click here.

According to the 2013 Regus Global Economic Indicator –

research that includes over 26,000 business managers across 90 countries:

48% work remotely for at least half of their work week.

55% say that seamless remote management is an

achievable goal, but only if managers undergo special

training.

54% consider trust an important issue.

43% use video communication between managers and

employees.

39% believe remote management helps maintain a more

professional relationship.

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DELEGATION RECOMMENDED BIZLIBRARY RESOURCES

Delegating - Strengthen your leadership capabilities

through delegation (2 minute, Video Course and

Competency Toolkit)

Developing Employees through Delegation (15 minute,

Scenario-Based eLearning Course)

Q&A: Delegating and Empowering (13 minute, Video

Course)

A Leader’s Guide to Delegating (23 minute, Video Course)

For a free 30-day trial of these courses and more, click here.

One of the hardest transitions for new mangers to make is to

learn to delegate tasks as opposed to simply doing them. For

many managers, there is a feeling that they are “dumping

work” on their employees when they ask employees to do

things. This mind set must be shifted, and managers must

master the competency of delegating to their teams.

Employees actually NEED to feel connected to their work,

and they NEED their managers to demonstrate confidence in

them. So rather than “dumping” on employees, delegating to

them is not only appropriate, it’s necessary. The trick is in

delegating the right tasks to the right people.

Gallup has found that managers who focus on their

employees’ strengths can practically eliminate active

disengagement and double the average of U.S. workers who

are engaged nationwide.

Managers have unique opportunities in their daily

interactions with employees to empower them to

discover and develop their strengths, and they have the

ability to position employees in roles where they can do

what they do best every day. When managers succeed

in these endeavors, their teams become more engaged.

And Gallup has found that employees who feel

engaged at work and who are able to use their strengths

in their jobs are more productive and profitable and

have higher quality work.

SOURCE: Gallup Study, 2013 State of the American Workplace

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DIFFFERENT TYPES OF EMPLOYEES NEED DIFFERENT ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES

One size does not fit all. That’s why the four foundational manager competencies we identified are so vital. Each competency

revolves around building managers’ ability to deal with employees as individuals on different levels. This is crucial when we begin

to look at the data about the levels of engagement among different employee demographics.

Employee Engagement Video Series. In this series

we answer the questions, 'How important is this

and what do we do about it?' Is this one of those

teddy bear and fluffy bunny topics that

organizations get hooked on? Is this a ridiculous

subject? NO! Watch this series to learn more about

employee engagement!

Ridiculous or Strategic?

The Business Case for Engagement

Measuring Employee Engagement

Managing for Engagement

Creating an Engaged Organization

For instance, generational differences matter. Research tells us that

employees at the beginning (Millennials) and near the end (Traditionals) of

their careers tend to be the most engaged. Women tend to be slightly more

engaged than men, and people with college degrees tend to be slightly less

engaged. Surprisingly, remote employees log more work hours AND tend to

be slightly more engaged.

Organizational size can impact engagement, too. Generally speaking,

engagement across larger organization mirrors the engagement figures for

the broad population. But there is an interesting exception uncovered in

Gallup’s research. Organizations with fewer than 10 employees see much

higher levels of engagement, and employees working on TEAMS of fewer

than 10 members likewise see much higher levels of engagement.

Engagement tends to be lower for teams of more than 10, suggesting

managers with larger teams have a bigger challenge when it comes to

engaging their employees.

RECOMMENDED BIZLIBRARY RESOURCES

For a free 30-day trial of these

courses and more, click here.

THE DIFFERENCE MAKER – PLAYING TO EMPLOYEE STRENGTHS

Gallup’s research revealed a stunning piece of data.

Managers who focused on their employees’ weakness cut active disengagement

roughly in half, to 22%, proving that even negative attention is better than no attention

at all in employees’ eyes. By contrast, for the 37% who agreed that their supervisor

focused on their strengths, active disengagement fell dramatically to 1%. What’s more,

nearly two-thirds (61%) of these employees were engaged, twice the average (30%) of

U.S. workers who are engaged nationwide. This suggests that if every organization in

America trained their managers to focus on employees’ strengths, the U.S. could easily

double the number of engaged employees in the workplace with this one simple shift in

approach.

This simple shift in focus by the manager – from weaknesses to strengths had the

remarkable effect of virtually eliminating disengagement. It’s so stunning and simple that

it’s a wonder every organization doesn’t do this already. And what’s even more stunning

is that the finding is even a surprise at all.

Everyone performs better when we play to our strengths. There are no exceptions. Think

of great athletes in this context. Would a great basketball star achieve the same level of

greatness if he or she attempted baseball? Do you remember Michael Jordan’s failed

attempt to play professional baseball? That’s because his strengths were on the

basketball court. Our employees are no different. They will excel when they play to

their strengths.

10 REASONS TO INVEST IN MANAGER TRAINING

Victor Lipman, wrote a great article for the Leadership section of Forbes Online Magazine in Sept 2012, titled 10 Reasons to Invest

in Manager Training. We’ll paraphrase his top 10 as follows:

1. The employee/manager relationship is the most important single factor in driving employee engagement.

2. Employee engagement leads directly to higher productivity and profitability, and disengaged employees are

disruptive.

3. Managers don’t become managers and automatically “know” how to manage. They have to learn.

4. Sound management practices are not complicated and can be taught.

5. It’s important to develop the next generation of leaders from within.

6. Investments in front-line manager training are likely to yield a better return on investment and be more needed than

any other type of leadership development and training.

7. Good management training can help develop a better level of consistent manager performance throughout your

organization.

8. Respected, high-performing managers boost engagement, productivity and retention – all of which improve the

bottom-line.

9. Well-trained managers help mitigate risk and avoid litigation – which is expensive and disruptive.

10. Repeat #1 – it’s just that important!

We know employee engagement is important and employee engagement has a direct impact on the bottom line. We also

know that our managers are the critical element in our organizations that can either engage OR disengage our employees.

The research proves that by employing some simple, common sense management best practices, we can radically shift the

playing field so that our employees are far more likely to be engaged. How do we do that? We train our managers, and we

teach them to play to the strengths of their employees. It really can be that simple.

So – what do you plan to do about it?

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Whatever training your employees need, you’ll find it with BizLibrary.

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