Is Employee Engagement a Competitive Advantage?
By Michael Lee Stallard
Check out a wonderful column in today’s The New York Times written by one of my favorite journalists, Joe Nocera. The column is entitled, “The Sinatra of Southwest Feels the Love.” In it Nocera contrasts the sober atmosphere at American …

Sharing Vulnerabilities Builds Trust
By Mike King
I recently shared a brief life biography at my workplace as part of a team building and employee engagement emphasis at our monthly staff meeting. I was a bit apprehensive at the idea at first but once I prepared for it and wrapped my …

Click here if you want to keep track of the most recent blog posts relating to employee engagement. This is a special Netvibes page I set up to display lists of recent posts from Employee Engagement Network members.

Authors who are listed include: Terrence Seamon, Derek Irvine, Tim Wright, Steve Roesler, Michelle Malay Carter, Theresa Welbourne, Michael Lee Stallard, Rosa Say, Andrew Rondeau, Michael Kanazawa, Scott McArthur, Judy McLeish, Karl Edwards, Rocky Noe, Ajit Chouhan, Phil Gerbyshak, Anna Farmery, Deri Latimer, Ian Mckenzie, Scot Herrick, Kevin Eikenberry, Stephanie Oden, Keith Bossey, Michael Specht, Kris Robinson, Cindy Ventrice, and Barbara Truminski-Roberts.

An interview with Cindy Ventrice to get your work week percolating with engagement.

It is my pleasure to interview Cindy Ventrice, author of Make Their Day: Employee Recognition That Works. Cindy is from Santa Cruz California and has worked with a wide variety of organizations including Cisco, MIT, WorkSafeBC, and State Farm Insurance. She works to improve engagement through enhanced recognition efforts.

1. Cindy, what do you see as the relationship between recognition and employee engagement? How well is this being done in the current workplace?

First, David, you need to understand that when I talk about recognition, I am not talking about handing out company logo pens or t-shirts. Recognition is a behavior not an award.

With a management style that leaves employees feeling recognized the ties with engagement are extraordinary. With solid recognition practices employees are more productive, produce higher quality products, give better service, create a more safe work environment, and work to engage each other.

2. As you know, I love the title of you book, it has a Clint Eastwood, Make My Day connection for me. Briefly, if we are a manager why do we want to make employee’s days?

If you think about a manager who really made your day, hopefully more than once, you will realize that you would go the extra mile to make that manager look good. It really is a reciprocal relationship.

3. Explain to the readers why you believe employees want to love their job. Isn’t a job just a job?

Study after study shows that while employees talk about the importance of money, they will stick with a job that lets them use their skills and strengths, challenges them to grow, and allows them to help their organization achieve its goals.

4. In the book you talk about the importance of everyday recognition as opposed to giving out T-shirts and having gala once-a-year recognition ceremonies. How do I do this as a manager when I am so busy already.

You are right, everyone is challenged for time. In fact, I have had no luck getting managers to add recognition to their extraordinarily long to do lists. That’s why, a number of years ago, I started telling managers not to put recognition on their to do lists, but instead I ask them to make recognition the header of the list. I want them to look at that list from a new perspective; ask themselves where they can build recognition into what they already have to do. For instance, when they have a project to delegate they can tell each member of the team why they were selected. It might be because of stellar work on a previous project or because it provides an opportunity to build skills that will help them grow. Both offer recognition.

5. We need to identify and acknowledge the people that work with us. You write about the 4 elements of recognition that work. You give us a PORT (Praise Opportunity Respect Thanks) to anchor our recognition efforts. Can you leave the readers with one example of how we can use each of these 4 factors to both recognize employees and enhance employee engagement.

Thanks, or appreciation is pretty self-explanatory. Simply thank people for their efforts. Don’t take them for granted.

In the previous delegation example we have Praise for previous work and Opportunity in the form of a new challenge. Praise acknowledges success and accomplishments. New opportunities demonstrate that the manager really understands what the employee values.

It is important to remember that there is no recognition without the element of respect. I often ask employees to tell me about the most meaningful recognition they have received. One said it was when her manager said she couldn’t take her vacation at the same time he did! How many people would consider that recognition? He had developed such a strong respectful relationship that she interpreted his comments to mean that she was too valuable to be gone at the same time.

Interview by David Zinger

This is the fifth in a five part series interview with Graeme Ginsberg from London. Graeme is the Managing Editor, Research and Reports for Melcrum - the international research and training company focused on internal communication. I requested the interview go get a better understanding of Melcrum’s research and their current publication: The Practitioner’s Guide, Essential Techniques for Employee Engagement.

The Practitioner’s Guide really delves into these techniques with practical processes, advice, tips, and checklists. What will the reader be able to do after reading about these techniques?

Readers will gain a thorough understanding of what the techniques are, why organizations need them and how to apply them. Each chapter is written by a leading engagement expert, who walks readers through the steps of the process, providing templates, meeting agendas, sample questions and other tools so the readers can get up and running straight away. 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, dg&a
• Tony Quinlan – Principal, Narate

Are there any other statistics in your latest survey research of 1,625 professionals in HR and communications that stood out for you?

I’m certainly surprised by how many organizations aren’t measuring employee engagement. Around a quarter of organizations with engagement on the agenda use a dedicated survey and 44% use a standard opinion survey, but a quarter still aren’t measuring it at all. Those organizations with a formal program are much more likely to use a dedicated survey than those that have engagement as part of a general philosophy, but even 7% of those with a formal program don’t measure.

Also, a really important and interesting area is regional variation. We’ve recently published some very extensive research into communicating effectively with global workforces, and national culture is a very major factor when it comes to engagement. For example, if you look at those key engagement drivers mentioned earlier – senior leadership and direct supervisors – the perception of what ‘good’ leadership or management is may be very different from country to country. For example, employees in North America and Western European countries tend to like their leaders to involve them in decision-making, while those in Russia and Eastern countries expect their leaders and managers to be authoritative

Actually, it’s even more complex than this. Even sweeping terms for territories like “the West” are misleading – there can be quite major differences within any particular territory also. For example, in our employee engagement survey data, if you look at ‘large’ organizations (i.e. more than 10,000 employees), 17% of respondents from large organizations in North America (US and Canada) said their organization doesn’t have employee engagement on the agenda, compared with 3% from UK large organizations. And, when it comes to techniques being used by large organizations, employee action teams are significantly more prevalent in North American organizations compared with those in the UK, while storytelling is significantly more prevalent in UK organizations compared with those in the US.

So, global organizations have to be very careful when they’re looking at engaging employees in different countries and not just take a ‘one size fits all’ approach. They can’t just adopt engagement strategies or techniques and apply them in the same way across all their different offices.

Graeme, as we conclude, is there anything else you’d like to add?We’ve produced a summary of key findings from the employee engagement survey – please let your readers know they can download it free of charge at: http://www.melcrum.com/offer/etee/surveysummary.pdf This summary also includes further details about the Guide. Thank you for your time and input. I believe that Essential Techniques for Employee Engagement will be a very valuable contribution to any organization’s employee engagement efforts.Many thanks, David, great to talk with you.

This is the fourth in a five part series interview with Graeme Ginsberg from London. Graeme is the Managing Editor, Research and Reports for Melcrum - the international research and training company focused on internal communication. I requested the interview go get a better understanding of Melcrum’s research and their current publication: The Practitioner’s Guide, Essential Techniques for Employee Engagement.

I think the technique that many readers may be unfamiliar with is message maps. I believe a message map is a visual communication tool to help individuals tell their organization’s story more effectively. Is that correct? Can you tell us a little more about this.

Message maps help managers capture the core messages of a topic. The topic might be something quite broad and abstract in nature – like where the organization, an initiative or an individual is heading. Or it might be something tangible – for example, an announcement about a product launch or annual conference. Message maps act like blueprints that guide all subsequent communication on the topic – ensuring consistency, whether it’s a CEO speech, an employee newsletter, website copy, a press release, marketing collateral, or whatever.

When it comes to creating the message map after the messaging session, less is definitely more – it’s presenting core and supporting messages so they’re really transparent and accessible. But the message map doesn’t necessarily need to be ‘visual’ in the sense of having arrows and boxes. It’ll depend really on the organizational culture and the topic – the message map could equally be a more traditional page of bulleted text. The Guide gives an example of each type of message map.

Can you tell us why you focused on these particular techniques? What was the background to this Guide?

It was becoming clear to us from our conversations with communication and HR professionals that the discussion around engagement had moved on considerably. Organizations weren’t so much debating what employee engagement means and whether it can drive business performance – they were now telling us that they wanted to know how they could actually achieve it. We had already produced our Employee Engagement report in 2005 – a very comprehensive research report covering the strategic issues around engagement – and we realized that one of our Pracitioner’s Guides would be the best way to provide the hard-hitting “how to” information that they needed for implementation.

We talked to practitioners at our annual employee engagement conferences in the UK, US, Australia and Europe and they told us that they really wanted to understand the techniques for engaging employees, rather than simply getting more information about particular channels. Action teams, Appreciative Inquiry, message maps and storytelling quickly emerged as the techniques most widely used by organizations – and also the ones that people wanted to know most about – so we focused on them.

Part 5 (next post): Conclusion

This is the third in a five part series interview with Graeme Ginsberg from London. Graeme is the Managing Editor, Research and Reports for Melcrum - the international research and training company focused on internal communication. I requested the interview go get a better understanding of Melcrum’s research and their current publication: The Practitioner’s Guide, Essential Techniques for Employee Engagement.

What conclusions do you have about the key drivers of employee engagement?

Senior leadership and direct supervisors are still by far the most important drivers – nothing has really changed there since our engagement survey in 2005. Around 25% of respondents in organizations that conduct a driver analysis said senior leadership is the most important driver and around 25% said direct supervisors. This probably isn’t too much of a surprise since these are the people that employees look to for understanding what the organization’s values are and where it’s heading, and these are the people who shape the environment the employees work in and their day-to-day work. If leaders and managers are giving the ‘wrong’ messages, employees feel insecure, confused, cynical, demotivated – in short, disengaged.  The next most highly rated drivers in our survey were “compensation and benefits”, “opportunities for career advancement” and “people-centric culture” – each rated as most important by around 9% of respondents. I mention this to people and they say, “Well the first two are hardly surprising, everyone wants more money in the bank and a bigger desk to work on”, but I don’t think it’s only about that at all. There are really emotional elements underpinning these – salary, skills and job title have a major impact on self-esteem, confidence, security, trust, and so on. If organizations are keen to engage their employees, they need to look more deeply at the drivers – not just which drivers are important, but also why they’re important.The Guide focuses on four key techniques: action teams, appreciative inquiry, message maps, and storytelling. Would you briefly outline each one. Sure. Very broadly speaking:Employee action teams are created to work with leaders to identify engagement goals and develop strategies to achieve them.Appreciative inquiry brings employees at all levels together in a collaborative process to discover what are the factors that have made the organization or an initiative succeed, then envision ideals built on these factors and design how these ideals can be turned into a reality.

Message maps are a way of capturing the core messages simply and efficiently. The focus in the messaging process is on achieving the deepest understanding of the topic, who the key audience are and what that audience’s needs are.

Storytelling is the gathering, distilling and communicating of essential information about the organization through a narrative or narrative elements. This brings a ‘human’ quality to the facts and data so employees can really relate to it.

Part 4 (next post): Message maps and the rationale for the specific 4 techniques.

This is the second in a five part series interview with Graeme Ginsberg from London. Graeme is the Managing Editor, Research and Reports for Melcrum - the international research and training company focused on internal communication. I requested the interview go get a better understanding of Melcrum’s research and their current publication: The Practitioner’s Guide, Essential Techniques for Employee Engagement.

Aside from the changing business environment, are there any other factors that you think have encouraged such an acceleration of focus on employee engagement since 2005?

I think that socioeconomic trends have had a colossal impact. Organizations have been understanding and adapting to the changing business environment, but they’ve also been understanding and adapting to the changes in employee attitudes, values and behaviors. Ten years ago, the Internet was beginning to give people more tools to question what they were being told. They could quickly and easily go online, get back all sorts of data and viewpoints, and develop their own, informed opinions. Since then, this has really mushroomed – not only access to more information, but also the ability to express themselves, to discuss and share views extensively through interactive social media – blogs, online video like YouTube, podcasting, wikis and social networks like Facebook and Second Life.

People use these technologies in their personal lives and they expect to use them at work. They aren’t going to accept traditional, ‘static’ communications and channels anymore. Even email has become old-fashioned and frustrating for them – their inboxes are totally overloaded with endless emails containing lines and lines of dry text. Organizations have really had to re-examine how they phrase, present and deliver their communications to employees. Quite simply, if communications aren’t engaging, employees won’t give them the time of day.

We did a social media survey in June 2007 for our report How to Use Social Media to Engage Employees and I think this really illustrates just how seriously organizations have been taking engagement and changes in employee behaviors and needs when it comes to technology. For example, half the respondents (communication and HR professionals) said their organizations were already using online video to engage employees and another 27% said they would be introducing it by June 2008. Meanwhile, a quarter of respondents said their organizations were already using online social networks, and another quarter were set to introduce them by June 2008. Organizations are definitely taking note of what people are doing in their personal lives. But, there again, it’s not totally surprising. A lot of the time we’re talking about “organizations listening to their audiences”, but it’s not “us and them” – a lot of these respondents have been using these technologies in their personal lives themselves.

Part 3 (next post): Key Drivers of Employee Engagement.

This is a five part series interview with Graeme Ginsberg from London. Graeme is the Managing Editor, Research and Reports for Melcrum - the international research and training company focused on internal communication. I requested the interview go get a better understanding of Melcrum’s research and their current publication: The Practitioner’s Guide, Essential Techniques for Employee Engagement.

Today I am pleased to interview Graeme Ginsberg. Graeme is based in London and is the managing editor of research and reports for Melcrum. Graeme I was excited to read the abstract from your new Practitioner’s Guide, Essential Techniques for Employee Engagement. Thank you for agreeing to the interview.Are you surprised that employee engagement is not on the agenda of 19% of organizations and just a general philosophy in the people practices of 54% of other organizations?

For the 19%, I am 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?” The market is increasingly fluid and changeable, and organizations need to stay sharp and up their game if they’re going to compete, or in some cases even survive. My guess, though, 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, 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. It may be argued that incorporating engagement more generally into people practices is better for the organization than having a formal engagement program. After all, shouldn’t we be looking to engage employees as much as possible – through all our leadership and manager communications, change communications, business strategy communications, and so on – and not just within the context of an engagement program.

Perhaps organizations have the potential to achieve higher, more sustained levels of engagement by letting the ‘spirit’ of engagement flow through all their initiatives – even those areas that might be considered “necessary but by their nature not intuitively natural platforms for engagement” (for example, health and safety messages) or “difficult enough just to get the information across” (for example, financial results). Tim Haynes, Director of Executive Development at GlaxoSmithKline, makes this point really strongly in the Guide in the context of Appreciative Inquiry and employee surveys. I would think that there isn’t ultimately any one correct approach for all, though – it’ll depend on the nature of the organization, the strategic direction, the structures in place, the culture and so on.

Part 2 (next post): The acceleration of focus on employee engagement.

But why go with my answer when we have the author of Improv Wisdom here to share insights and practices. Tom Peters, one of the top management speakers/consultants has included Patricia Madson as one of his cool friends for her thoughts and insights that can help managers!

It is my pleasure and honor to introduce Patricia Ryan Madson to you. Ms. Madson wrote one of my all time favorite books, Improv Wisdom: Don’t prepare, Just Show Up.

Patricia was on the drama faculty of Stanford University since 1977. I encourage you to read through this interview and to use the creative lens of improvisation principles articulated by Patricia to see how you can elicit, foster, and enhance employee engagement in yourself and others.

Patricia can you briefly explain the subtitle of this book (don’t prepare, just show up) it seems so counter intuitive to how most people see work and life.

You are right that the injunction, “Don’t prepare, just show up” flies in the face of conventional wisdom. And, this is precisely why it is useful. The real emphasis of the two phrases is on the “Just Show Up” part. When you think about it, preparing may actually keep us from getting things done. It is not uncommon to spend our lives “getting ready to do stuff” instead of actually taking the plunge.

The key thing, in improvisation is to START THE SHOW. GET THERE. Move your body to the place where it is happening . . . then, the action can begin. When our minds are absorbed in the act of preparing, (in planning ahead, in crossing all our “t’s”, etc) we are not available to the present moment. We are missing out on what is happening right now, right here. And, it is precisely the here and now that is our locus of power. I advise players (and this includes professionals as well as students) to substitute ATTENTION for preparation. Become an expert on THIS MOMENT.

Planning can become an end in itself. Don’t let this rob you of the power that comes from engaging in real time with all your senses. (The second and third maxims in my book give a more thorough explanation. of this advice. )

In the book you have 13 fabulous maxims ranging from say yes to enjoy the ride. Do you personally have a favorite maxim or a maxim that is most helpful to you?

Yes, I think my favorite is maxim 9: “Wake up to the gifts.” It is so easy for my mind is to see the problem, notice the flaw, ruminate on what is wrong with the situation. This maxim is a splash of cold water to remind me to realign my perspective. And, I don’t just mean “positive thinking” . . . I mean that it is important to train the mind to actually see the specific gifts that are present and around us all the time.

If you are like me , I NOTICE (and sometimes curse) the driver who rudely cuts me off in traffic. But, I can go for years without taking notice of all the courteous drivers who obey the laws, stay in their lanes, drive safely and even allow me to merge onto the freeway. When others drive safely, I BENEFIT. So, in some real way, ordinary traffic is a gift to me. When I start looking for the ways in which I benefit from the acts of others I open up a new world of privilege. It is easy to see what is wrong. It sticks out. Can you find a way to notice what is right, who is helping, who is making your path smooth? “Waking up to the gifts” is ultimately about seeing our lives (both at work and at home) from a new perspective–a realistic perspective– which is not egocentric.

There is a book with the wonderful title: Thirsty, Swimming in the

(by David K. Reynolds, an American anthropologist). I see most of us as being in this pickle. We are literally surrounded by the things we are seeking. When we “Wake up to the gifts” we are able to counter the nay-saying mind, the selfish mind, the mind that is only self-interested.

It strikes me that “employee engagement” has as a fundamental goal developing habits of mind and body that increase our awareness of others. Waking up to the gifts invites you every day to notice how much others are doing for you. Look for the specific ways that you benefit from the work of others. Further, when we see the gifts it becomes natural to say “thank you.” Saying thank you a lot is the mark of an attentive manager and employee. (or parent or spouse . . .)

It seems to me that many disengaged employees say no, not just to work but to their organization and maybe even themselves. Is there an authentic way they can begin to say yes to work and engagement?

I’m afraid that you are right in this. Just earning a paycheck may be what some of us are doing. . . rather than “making a contribution” or “doing useful work,” or “making a life”

For the disengaged I’d say: “What have you got to lose? Why not see what happens if you change your attitude instead of just thinking about changing your job? Apathy becomes its own reward. It is all too easy to look outside of ourselves and blame “the company” or “our boss”, “the economy” or even “the times we live in.”

I would suggest “stop finding fault and casting blame” and see what happens if you look at your job to see “what you are receiving from it?” Make a list of all the things you receive from your position being an employee. Include material things (paycheck, benefits, etc.) as well as other kinds of benefits–such as a having a desk and a computer– being part of a support system– having job training– etc. See how long you can make your list of “what you receive from working where you do.” Avoid any sarcasm or negative jibes.

Engagement is about connecting to what you do . . . to your purpose. I tell a story in the book about a waitress who was full of life–full of enthusiasm and pride in what she was doing in a small sandwich shop. She was alive inside her job, taking every opportunity to serve, to do her job well. Her smile will stay with me for a long time. I don’t think it would occur to her to ask that her job “be fulfilling.” Instead she GAVE MEANING to what she was doing. This was inspiring. I think many of those disengaged workers are truly, “Thirsty, swimming in the lake” . . . if they could only wake up to it.

To me, one of the strongest improv maxims is take care of each other. One way I heard it expressed in improvisation is that we are here to make the other person look good. Do you have a recommended activity to help people in the workplace take care of each other?

A great way to “take care of each other” is to acknowledge each other’s work. NOTICE what others are doing and comment on it favorably. I’ve never met a worker who gets enough appreciation. You can never say thank you enough. In addition pay attention to what others are doing, and if there is something YOU can do to support their work or fill in a gap– just do it.

Improvisers do this all the time: they see something that “needs to be done” and they just do it.

Not because it is “in their job description” but simply because it helps the work move along. It needs to be done, and I saw it. Step out of the pigeon hole of “what is my job description?” Work for the greater good of the company, for the welfare of your colleagues, and ultimately at the end of the day, I’d predict that you will find yourself “engaged.”

And, don’t worry about “burnout”. It isn’t work that burns people out . . . it is RESENTING the work you are doing. Do the job well. That the best way I know to create a fulfilling work life.

Patricia your book is loaded with try this exercises to move the reader beyond word consumption to active engagement. What are you trying these days to stay engaged with your current work focus?What a wonderful question. I am trying to be a better partner to my husband. I am attempting to listen more carefully and more honestly when he is talking about a subject that i don’t have a personal interest in. I want to support him instead of turning away to things that interest me. This is a challenge. I don’t always do it well.

Also, now that I am retired I have a lot more discretionary time. I’m pursuing a passion of mine: botanical art. I have included a picture of an apple I just did with colored pencil. And, your readers should know that even with all the “improv wisdom” in my pocket,

Drawing by Patricia Ryan Madson

I am sometimes engaged fully and sometimes I’m not. But when I find myself off the track I have some tools to get me back on course. I really appreciate the chance to chat with your readers. I want to wish everyone good fortune as they face the challenges of daily life. Aren’t we lucky to live in a world where we can help each other become happier at what we do. May you all “enjoy the ride.

*****

To learn more about Patricia Ryan Madson and Improv Wisdom visit her website www.improvwisdom.com I also encourage you to click here to read the interview she did for Tom Peter’s cool friends series.