29th October 2009
‘Engaging for Success’ set out the big picture on employee engagement, but now the MacLeod Review is turning its attention to how government can help organisations put it into practice. Willy Coupar suggests a good place to start.
Getting the commitment of staff matters. The IPA has long recognized this and has worked for decades to achieve it. The recent government report on Employee Engagement, co-authored by David McLeod and director Nita Clarke reflects just how big an idea it has become. Published in July it argues that engagement can play an important role in strengthening the UK economy.
Crucially engagement delivers discretionary effort to organizations. As the SBAC review of the aerospace sector found in 20056, involvement is not an optional add on, it is the only source of guaranteed competitive advantage. Competitors can replicate every other component of your business from skills to technologies. They cannot replicate commitment.
McLeod calls on government and national stakeholders to embark on a major campaign to boost its profile. The list of sponsors of the report is impressive. I hope that they will bang the drum for engagement across all sectors. Their messages need to reflect the aspirations and values of each sector.
What plays well in business will not turn on staff in the NHS. They, however, respond well to the evidence that patients’ health outcomes are better when staff treating them feel motivated and engaged.
Whatever the sector, by far the best way to convince someone to try something new is to let them see it in action in a workplace to which they can relate. A few dozen beacons of good practice would work wonders raising the profile of the concept.
Organisations also need help. Everyone wants to know “What does good employee engagement look like?” and “Am I achieving it?” The help they need comes in three forms; mentoring, audit tools and guidance to avoid pitfalls.
Government should encourage imaginative mentoring across the country using people with hands-on experience, helping others to get started or overcome difficulties as they go forward. When I chaired the DTI Partnership panel this approach was very successful, helping hundreds of organizations move their partnership activities forward.
A self audit tool, focused on process, would be very helpful to those organizations who have a few years engagement experience under their belt. In 2007 the IPA developed some initial ideas for such an approach. It enables an organization to move from survey analysis to reflective action, posing stretching questions like:
“What steps are you taking to re-inforce top level buy in?”
“How are you ensuring that gaps in follow up actions are being addressed?”
“How are you validating your exercise to ensure it is not lapsing into tokenism?”
Finally people need help to avoid the pitfalls. Organizations would welcome guidance on things to avoid. Examples? Do not leave it to HR to own the activity. Do not make promises to fix things and fail to deliver. Do not lapse into “corporate speak” – keep communications straight and simple. Never forget that your survey does not equal engagement, it simply measures your direction of travel.
Finally we must not forget the advanced engagement organisations, which might be looking to up their game. They have been measuring staff attitudes for years, their reward practices will be in the top quartile and employment standards high. They will already have evidence of the benefits to performance.
Now these organisations are working on more challenging aspects of engagement, looking to achieve the next step change in attitudes and performance. The 2007 IPA survey found their concerns included;
- assessing how line manager behaviour impacts on results
- how to get more probing surveys of staff views
- how to follow through and action remedial steps
- job design, defining initiative and discretion and building it into roles
- the role of employee voice as a validating control
Altogether, this shows clearly that engagement must be seen as a journey. Some are at the start, some well down the road but everyone wants some help along the way. Its potency as an idea arises because there is now so much evidence that engagement offers a pathway to improved performance. Government wants to foster engagement everywhere. These are some of the steps needed to ensure it can play that role effectively in the future.
Willy Coupar was director of the IPA from 1996-2008. He is now director of the Bayswater Institute
