Ultimate - uwcentre.ac.cn · Ranking just behind leadership, engagement is now the #2 issue on the...

Guide toUltimate

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

2 Ultimate Guide to Employee Engagement

It’s Time to Engage About EngagementRanking just behind leadership, engagement is now the #2 issue on the minds of HR leaders today.

No wonder—low engagement is a serious risk to recruiting and retention, productivity, competitive position, and profits. And it’s not getting easier in this transparent job market. Unhappy employees can quickly spread a virus of discontent across social media, pulling down your company’s brand and making it harder to hire good people.

Even when you hire top talent, if they disconnect from their jobs and the company’s vision, metrics like productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction will head in the wrong direction.

The swelling ranks of remote workers further complicate the picture. What tools and techniques can keep those mobile individuals “connected” to the culture and their co-workers?

Clearly, it’s a new landscape for employee engagement. How can organizations get on the right path to address this issue?

Surveys Not WorkingLeading HR consulting firm, Bersin by Deloitte, found that while more than 80 percent of companies survey employees on an annual basis:

∑ Most executives don’t know what to do with the findings

∑ HR leaders feel the surveys are not timely or actionable enough

A New DirectionIt’s time to re-think the approach to employee engagement. Instead of viewing it as checklist item or an annual survey, HR leaders increasingly think strategically and plan deliberately for engagement.

The Ultimate Guide to Engagement offers insights and guidance to help you lead your organization toward strategic employee engagement and better business results. You’ll learn about:

∑ Essentials components of employee engagement

∑ How to measure ROI and lead the business value discussion

∑ Ways to improve existing programs

∑ Companies that have transformed employee engagement and achieved real business value

Yes

No

Don’t Know

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Source: SilkRoad Employee Engagement Survey


Employee Engagement EssentialsStrategic employee engagement includes these essentials:

1. Data and Insight

2. Effective Planning

3. Targeted approaches

4. A continuum of engagement

5. Leverage technology


ESSENTIAL #1: Data and Insight In order for engagement to become more than just an interesting conversation piece, organizations need to better understand what motivates and drives their top talent. But new techniques may be needed to uncover the information that really matters.

Real-Time Input NeededThese days, loyalty is fleeting, especially among sought after high-performers. Ongoing input is needed to keep engagement programs current. While the traditional annual employee survey and town hall meetings can help with input and measurement, those methods usually provide months-old snapshots. In today’s fast-changing environment, that may not be enough.

HR technologies and social media offer a range of convenient tools for more timely information. Two-way communication with the workforce can enable talent management professionals to gather real-time information and “course correct” as issues emerge, rather than waiting months for survey results.

Start with High PerformersIf your priority is to attract and retain top talent, make it a priority to understand what keeps those high-value employees engaged and loyal. Focus your conversations to gather data on three key subjects:

∑ What attracts high-performers to the organization in the first place?

∑ What makes some leave in the first six months?

∑ What makes top talent want to stay long-term?

Those data and resulting insights can help you guide the organization to a better understanding of what’s needed to engage and retain the talent that will drive business success.


ESSENTIAL #2: Effective PlanningStrategic workforce planning is crucial to employee engagement, and HR excels at this. To tackle the problem of employee burnout, HR must work with the C-suite to redefine work expectations and to provide more support for employees.

1. Source of employee disengagement must first be identified and discussed with company executives to help ensure business leaders understand the scope of the situation

2. HR can help design distinct packages that relieve stress and engage different generations in the workplace, such as flexibility in work/life issues

3. HR can facilitate new tools, techniques, and technology to tie together remote workforces, such as social media applications, video conferencing applications, intranets with current news, or “crowd sourcing.”

4. Budgeting for employee engagement is a perennial challenge. Corporations must develop a strategy around which they can build programs, as funds become available. People are the company’s greatest competitive asset. Can organizations truly afford disengaged, unproductive, and disgruntled employees?


ESSENTIAL #3: Targeted ApproachesWhen it comes to engagement planning, one size doesn’t fit all.

Generational DifferencesMillennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers have distinctly different engagement thresholds:

∑ Least engaged: Millennials

∑ Most engaged: Generation X Targeted programs make it easier to accommodate each generation’s key engagement triggers:

∑ Millennials: want to know they’re part of a passionate, engaged workforce, and they value flexible work options

∑ Generation X employees typically value work/life balance and opportunities for professional development

∑ Baby Boomers tend to respond to cultures where achievement is recognized and rewarded

Millennials – a Special ChallengeStudies have shown that Millennials are the least engaged employees. At the same time they are self-confident to a fault, social, and technologically and media savvy.

They have entwined their work and personal lives with gadgets. And as a result of their affinity for social media, they may push for more transparent and open communication in the workplace. In addition, they are well known for aggressively seeking career development and requiring continuous feedback about their on-the-job performance.

When considering approaches for Millennials, keep in mind that this group has bias toward technology and a higher bar for engagement. Programs without social tools and technology options like a self-serve development management may fail to get their attention.H

Gender and Educational DifferencesAlso look beyond generational segmentation. For example, while each workforce and culture is unique, it’s common in many organizations that:

∑ Women have slightly higher overall engagement than men*

∑ Employees with college degrees tend to report less engagement than those with less education*Insights like those can help you focus limited resources where they will do the most good.

*Gallup, State of the American Workplace: Employee Engagement Insights for US Business Leaders, 2013

Yes

No

Don’t Know

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Source: SilkRoad Employee Engagement Survey

Fast Fact10% Companies that differentiated their employee engagment programs by generation.


ESSENTIAL #4: A Continuum of EngagementEmployee engagement operates as a continuum. HR teams need to think of this as one integrated system where each part works independently to accomplish goals while all linked into a total employee experience, for example:

Engage from the Start…Engagement starts during onboarding. By minimizing paperwork and maximizing socialization during the process, companies can help new hires feel more connected to the culture, motivated to perform, and eager to contribute to overall business objectives right from the start.

...and Maintain the MomentumOpportunities for development and career growth are a foundation of ongoing employee engagement. That’s why many high-engagement organizations use a continuous learning and development model that begins on day one. Employees set learning goals in the first 90 days of employment, through the onboarding system.

Then the development process never stops, with some amount of formal training magnified by expert and managerial support, developmental planning, and assignments. These all play into more frequent performance appraisals, rather than traditional annual reviews.


ESSENTIAL #5: Leverage TechnologyMeasure the PulseEngagement is becoming a real-time topic. Today’s HR technologies and social media tools help managers and leaders measure the engagement pulse in real-time, with feedback on employee satisfaction and sentiment in almost every possible area. Think in terms of an “always on, anonymous suggestion box.”

Act FastHR needs to tap these many sources and collect the data, use it to develop actionable insights, and implement solutions quickly.

Talent Management Technology HelpsThe multiple levels of a fully integrated engagement program can be easily managed with integrated talent management technology. This provides an efficient infrastructure for things like day-to-day management, integrating social tools, two-way communications with on-site and mobile employees, connecting training and development, gathering data, and documenting impact on business results.


ROIEngagement Tied to Business ResultsGallup estimates that actively disengaged employees—the least productive—cost the American economy up to $550 billion per year.

Their recent “State of the American Workplace” study found that organizations that ranked in the top 25% for engagement “have significantly higher productivity, profitability, and customer ratings,” plus “less turnover and absenteeism, and fewer safety incidents than those in the bottom 25%.”

Engagement’s Effect on Key Performance IndicatorsMedian outcomes between top- and bottom- quartile teams

Profit ImpactTowers Watson, a leading global consulting firm, also found a link between engagement and operating margins. Their research shows that:

∑ Companies with low engagement scores reported 10% avg. margin

∑ Companies with high engagement scores reported 14% avg. margin

∑ Companies with the highest sustainable engagement 27% avg. margin

Source: State of the American Workforce, Gallup, 2013

Engagement has measurable negative and positive impacts on key performance indicators.

-80% -70% -60% -50% -40% -30% -20% -10% 0% 10% 20% 30%

Absenteeism

High-Turnover Orgs.

Low-Turnover Orgs

Shrinkage

Saftety Incidents

Patient Safety Incidents

Quality (Defects)

Customer

Productivity

Profitability

TUR

NO

VER

-37

-25

-65

-28

-48

-41

-41

10

21

22


Ways to Improve an Engagement ProgramTight-Money TipsWhen it comes to engagement, you may have big ideas but small resources. Here are 9 low-cost ways to help lift your engagement program to the next level.

1. Do talent reviews for everyone. Find at least one meaningful developmental activity for everyone—a new assignment, responsibility or training program will stretch them and demonstrate the company isn’t taking them for granted.

2. Enable employees to learn from each other. Casual lunch and learns can be a nice opportunity for employees to share a tip, a skill, or some knowledge. Try a “knowledge café,” where small groups converse about a business issue or something they have recently learned.

3. Make space by (temporarily) killing programs. You can’t do new stuff without getting rid of old stuff. Try giving up a stale program just for the year. If it is a worthwhile program, add it back. If no one misses it, then it stays gone.

4. Implement the secret that sits at the core of continuous improvement. Empower people to make suggestions for improvements they can implement in their own department. It is not just the improvements that matter, implementing suggestions gives employees a sense of ownership of their workplace.

5. Shift responsibility for programs around. Nothing brings more energy to a process than new blood. Shifting responsibilities around can be a good tactic for creating interesting projects people can take on. You will be surprised how even junior people will step up with hard work and good ideas when challenged to take responsibility for a meaningful project.

6. Get your executives on the front lines. Employees love to see the executives spending a day doing front line work. It helps employees feel connected to the mission of the business and helps executives understand the issues that stand in the way of workers achieving peak performance.

7. Let them blog! In HR we know how important and motivating it can be to have a chance to express yourself. Encourage employees to blog and then get out of their way. If you have concerns, all you need is a policy that says HR will remove any blogs that are offensive. That is it. Experience shows offensive postings are rare. Try it and you will find the benefits far outweigh the occasional hiccup.

8. Tap the fountain of wellness. Wellness initiatives have the unusual property of being good for employees while saving the company money. Where organizations fall down is that they create programs without figuring out how to get employees enthused about them. Focus on making participation fun and the program will pay off.

9. Ask employees what they need. Often, the best thing is just to ask employees what they need and what they would like. You do not need surveys, focus groups or a task force. Just talk to people. Talk in the elevator, on the way to the parking lot, over a coffee, or in the hallway. Asking people what they think in casual, everyday chats will generate all the insights you need.

5 Keys to Onboarding EngagementHere are 5 keys to transform a traditional orientation process into an onboarding strategy that builds engagement to drive business results.

∑ Empower managers with tools, resources, and insights to engage their new hires during the process

∑ Communicate core values to help new hires feel connected to the company and co-workers from the start

∑ Provide access to training and coaching as soon as possible—some organizations provide it before day one

∑ Measure effectiveness with new hire engagement surveys and tracking the use of available tools, such as new hire portals

∑ Simplify communications – provide ways for new hires to connect and collaborate with their peers and managers, so they can hit the ground running


“We’re increasing sales productivity, trimming costs, making things easier for customers. That’s all good for the bottom line.”

— Audrenia Graham, Director, HR

Case StudiesThese organizations took talent management to the next level and improved business performance:

BenefitMall

As a provider of employee benefit services, BenefitMall offers a self-service portal for their clients (brokers) to obtain insurance quotes. But brokers all-to-frequently asked BenefitMall sales reps to spend time running the quotes. That pulled the sales team away from what they joined the organization to do—drive business growth.

With a SilkRoad Learning solution, the company positively transformed its customer service culture and re-engaged its sales team. Instead of running quotes for brokers, salespeople now direct them to BenefitMall’s learning system. Brokers can easily find the content they need to learn how to use the portal and run their own quotes. This has:

∑ Re-engaged salespeople with their preferred focus—selling

∑ Increased insight into broker engagement

∑ Created a competitive advantage—proof point for outstanding customer support

With a single, flexible learning destination for 28,000 users, BenefitMall has accomplished its business goal…and more.


“The participation statistics were impressive, but what was even more amazing was being there on day one to see how the kids were taken care of and watching the physicians in action. It truly brought home how much training mattered.”

— Kim Evans, Project Manager

Lurie Children’s Hospital

When Lurie Children’s Hospital was planning its move from a 130-year old building and into a new facility, executives realized that they needed to engage and train the entire organization to ensure a smooth, safe transition.

With the extensive scope of the training needed, 3,900 employees to be trained, and a tight timeframe, the institution looked for a highly flexible, modular learning system that would make it easy to engage a wide range of employees. SilkRoad Learning was selected to help:

∑ Prepare employees to complete a safe and efficient move of medically complex patients

∑ Make training accessible without interfering with 24x7 patient care

∑ Provide visibility into readiness

∑ Support completion of all needed training by the move date

Through this program the training department achieved its highest training engagement ever with 95% employee completion. And the facility transition was completed—127 patients moved—with zero patient safety issues on the move day.


APPENDIXI) ROI – Getting Started

Taking your organization’s employee engagement to the next level starts when you engage executives with an ROI story. Best practice indicates a wide range of ways to gain C-Suite support for engagement programs. Try these:

1. Use HR metrics such as turnover rates and compare those to engagement scores.

2. Use business indicators, such as employee productivity, performance, and company revenue to demonstrate engagement—or lack of it.

3. Show outside case studies as proof that employee engagement programs are effective in a wide range of companies—and are not just hype.

4. Employ a three-pronged approach: communication, education, and results.

5. Show executives the results of employee feedback from all available sources.

6. Actively involve the executive team in decisions about employee engagement programs.

Worth the EffortCompany downsizings, mergers, acquisitions, and startups in recent years have changed the way that talent is managed. These issues have brought employee engagement to the forefront. Instead of viewing it as checklist item or an annual survey, HR leaders increasingly think strategically and plan deliberately for engagement. Their effort is worthwhile. Better engagement can pay measurable dividends in terms of less turnover, better productivity, customer satisfaction, and higher profits.

SilkRoad is a leading global provider of cloud-based, end-to-end talent management solutions that enable customers to find, attract, develop, and retain the best talent. The award-winning SilkRoad Life Suite includes Talent Acquisition, Talent Development, and HRMS solutions that are delivered through a tablet-friendly Talent Portal. The suite is easy to deploy and use – a single platform to rapidly boost employee engagement and business performance. Visit www.silkroad.com, follow on Twitter @SilkRoadTweets or call 866-329-3363 (U.S. toll free) or +1-312-574-3700.© Copyright 2015 SilkRoad Technology, Inc.

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