The Power of an Engaged Workforce!

If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired for a lack of enthusiasm.

Vince Lombardi (1913 - 1970)

What is the definition of engagement?

Engagement is defined as an employees willingness and ability to contribute to a companies success, which ultimately comes down to the peoples desire to invest that extra level of discretionary effort that separates outstanding performers from the rest of the pack.

How Engaged are your Employees?

Just how committed are your people to your organization's goals, and how motivated are they in their quest to meet those goals? If your organization is like most today, you have some challenges on your hands when it comes to employee engagement. Difficult economic times tend to do that:

• Companies in crisis mode often focus more on the crisis than on the people working to overcome it
• Once the storm has passed and they turn to ask their employees, "How are you doing?" they may not like the answer
• A recent Gallup Management Journal survey of more than 1,000 US employees found that 71 percent describe themselves as either disengaged or actively disengaged from their function in the workplace
• And a recent Accenture survey of more than 500 full-time middle managers in the United States revealed that one in five is either currently looking for or plans to look for another job. In other words, one crisis appears to have led to another
• The stakes here are considerable. A fully engaged workforce can pay big dividends. In fact, research has shown that the more engaged the workforce, the more innovative, productive and profitable the company will be in all areas

What is the benefit of a Engaged Workforce?

Assessing the engagement of a worker, or a workforce, requires measuring five important characteristics.

• Satisfaction. Satisfied employees are ones whose expectations are met—expectations having to do with their work and their organization, and also with the supervisor to whom they report. Satisfied employees are those who do not feel frustrated in the pursuit of their personal goals
• Understanding. Engaged employees are focused on more than their own well-being or satisfaction. Highly engaged employees have a good understanding of their own organization's strategic direction and objectives
• Contribution. This characteristic takes understanding one step further. Not only do engaged employees understand the strategic direction of the organization; they also are clear how their individual work contributes directly to the execution of that strategy and to the company's success
• Alignment. Engaged employees feel that their personal values align with the values and mission of their organization. If you draw a Venn diagram with two circles—one representing individual goals, the other representing organizational goals—there will be a healthy amount of overlap
• Retention. Unlike the other characteristics, this is an external metric. Still, employee retention is a vital measure of the benefits of engagement. Sure, even the most engaged employees leave their companies, and employees who are not engaged stay around (often to a company's sorrow). But retention is nonetheless a crucial measure of engagement.

Some of the benefits of an engaged workforce:

• Take an active role to contribute to business results
• They Impact the quality of their company's image and products
• They Affect customer service and relations
• They tend to Impact costs in their job or asset group with higher productivity
• They will make a difference in their company (thus are less likely to leave for another job)
• They become contagious and affect others that work with them

What Steps Can be Taken to Create?

But can organizations actually take specific steps to increase the engagement of their workforce? Yes. With a proper understanding of what employee engagement really means and how organizations can positively influence engagement, they can dramatically improve how their companies perform. And by getting their workforces up to speed fast, they can gain a significant advantage over the competition and improve the value of the company.

the top ten ways to positively influence employee engagement

1. Rewards and Recognition
   Ensure that recognition and rewards are clearly and consistently tied to job performance and overall business results.
2. Human Capital Infrastructure
   Ensure that your human resources systems provide managers with the data they need to perform their work in a timely, accurate, and consistent manner. Engaged employees are provided by their organizations with the resources they need to effectively do their jobs.
3. Learning & Training Management
   Provide the learning and training opportunities that are needed by management to know what is required to engage the workforce and engage the employees in training to excel at their current jobs and to grow into new ones.
4. Knowledge Management
   Provide employees with the means to find the knowledge and resources they need to perform optimally.
5. Performance Appraisal
   Provide frequent, direct performance appraisals. Organizations that perform this process well have 52% higher employee engagement scores than organizations that perform it poorly.
6. Workplace Design & Atmosphere
   Create a physical workplace environment conducive to high performance and low strife.
7. Employee Relations
   Communicate details about major organizational changes and initiate programs to reduce the negative impact of such changes on morale and productivity.
8. Career & Character Development
   Provide frequent and personalized attention to employee's career and character development and planning. Since the character of your workers will define the culture of your organization.
9. Be Fair at all levels
   Ensure that all managers and employees have access to the training and culture training and that company policies are consistent and fair for all employees.
10. Recruiting
    Recruit from a pool of people most likely to be engaged with your organization's mission. Make sure you employ people that can engage in your culture and contribute to the health of your organization rather than the demise thereof.

to be purposeful you have to be intentional

Contact Ron to begin your "Pathway to Success"

~ (C) 2007 Strategic to the Marketplace, LLC. ~ www.strategictothemarketplace.com ~

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