I came across a blog post titled “Employee Engagement: What Exactly is it?” The post points to a study by The Conference Board which studied different research reports published by various consulting firms. Interesting thing is that they look at the top drivers of engagement and I have always maintained that there is a lot of value in attempting to identify the key drivers of engagement. The post concludes that these research studies generally agreed on the following drivers:

Trust and integrity – how well managers communicate and ‘walk the talk’.

Nature of the job –Is it mentally stimulating day-to-day?

Line of sight between employee performance and company performance – Does the employee understand how their work contributes to the company’s performance?

Career Growth opportunities –Are there future opportunities for growth?

Pride about the company – How much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with their company?

Coworkers/team members – significantly influence one’s level of engagement

Employee development – Is the company making an effort to develop the employee’s skills?

Relationship with one’s manager – Does the employee value his or her relationship with his or her manager?

The post acknowledges that there are lots of variances in the data, but concludes that across all variables “the relationship with one’s manager” is the strongest driver. I completely agree with the fact that the quality of direct supervisors plays a crucial role in shaping engagement. However, there are times when organizations need to focus differently. What happens when broad workplace systems / processes / policies are not in place? A manager can still soothe his people, but not for long. Discontent will brew fast with the organizational functioning. And, managers may be helpless.

Whether organizational functioning or workgroup experiences shape engagement really depends on the unique situation of the organization in question. I would rather not be so quick in putting all the onus on managers.

On another note, the Towers Perrin’s Global Workforce Study of over 90000 employees identified the following key drivers of talent attraction, retention and engagement. Interestingly, the drivers are different, indicating different solutions for different issues.

It’s almost the end of November and I just can’t wait to hit the holiday season. But, before that, there are issues to work on, chapters to close and of course, Read Up!

So, here are a few things that I found to be very interesting:

• Want to increase your effectiveness at work? Check out the 3 mindsets that are going to support you in getting there.
• I stumbled on the “Who Needs Employees Anyway?” blog, which has some great data on engagement. Always a good read.
• If you are not doing it already, I recommend following Gurprriet Siingh’s blog. He always comes up with thought-provoking, insightful posts. Some of his recent ones are on Choices, Do Nothing and Engaging Today’s Employees.
• Are there any bright sides of the underutilized (but over-capable) employee you have in your team? Find out here.

Finally, I once again had a conversation on employee satisfaction vs. employee engagement. I could go on and on about it. But, out of impulse, I ran a Google Trends on these two terms. the graph below shows the search volume index for these two terms. At the bottom, you also see a mini chart on the “news reference” for these two terms.

What’s happening here?

Many a times, employees express that their supervisors are not so approachable and that they feel hesitant to go & talk to them on matters – critical or trivial. Employees may feel a sense of distance or alienation because of a number of reasons. And this effectively closes down an important channel of communication – a channel that is important to keep one’s ears close to the ground, to generate breakthroughs and ideas.

Here are some of simple things that managers could do to enhance their approachability:

• The First Minute: When an employee approaches you, make sure that you are forthcoming in the first 1 minute of every such interaction. Make sure that your people are made comfortable, so that they can accomplish what they came to you for.

• Listen: As simple as it gets – two ears, one mouth – so listen more than you speak! Don’t interrupt. Ask clarifying questions. Para-phrase what was said to signal your interest and understanding.

• Share: People don’t relate to a mystery. People don’t relate to robots. And, people don’t relate to machines. Reveal your personal side to your employees and see how they open up!

• Personalize: Try to forge common ground and connections by connecting with your employees at a personal level. How difficult is to put a few birthday reminders on your calendar? How difficult is to carry a conversation about a sport or hobby that a person enjoys? Find things to talk about that are not strictly related to work.

• Watch Your Non-Verbals: It’s importance cannot be over-emphasized. And, sadly, so many of us fall in this trap. Don’t have that “I’m busy” look when someone approaches you. Speak at the right pace. Relax. Nod when the other person is talking. Maintain eye contact. And, please don’t fiddle.

• Ask: Use the power of questions to your advantage. In meetings & interactions, don’t just focus on informational statements or conclusions – ask “what if” “what do you think” “what else can we do” etc. Encouraging feedback from employees will make them feel more comfortable in approaching you.

Approachability can potentially have a rub-off effect on a number of positive outcomes, including motivation and engagement. What else do you think we can do to make managers more approachable?

David Zinger has done it again with his Employee Engagement Network. He has been asking his network members – a bunch of people focused on employee engagement – to give a one-sentence advice on employee engagement. David has compiled 200 of these advices in a neat file for everyone to read and learn.

Head to this post to download the PDF. As David would say, it’s free and freeing!

I have two pieces of advice in the document:

• Treat your employees as you would like them to treat your customers.
• And, the other advice is not even a sentence, it’s a single, simple word – ACT!!

And the big take-out for me is that social media is powerful, engaging and demonstrates The Long Tail phenomenon so very well.

Happy Reading!

Many a times, I find that HR folks rush too fast to make employee engagement metrics a part of KPIs or balanced scorecards. The idea is that there should be a “carrot” to ensure that managers take accountability for their people, otherwise they won’t spend time on open dialogue with their teams and co-create action plans for improvement in engagement levels. I was recently asked if the carrot and stick approach could be abandoned in favour of inculcation of engagement as a part of life in the organisation. Well, I think it is a difficult proposition for companies which are starting their engagement journeys. Inculcation of the engagement principles is a long journey of education for managers.

I had a chance to work with a company in the Middle East sometime back. Here is what they did over a 4-5 year period when it comes to building accountability for action planning:

• Since managers were not sensitive regarding employee engagement and had very transactional relationships with employees, the company set engagement targets linked with bonus payments. However, the engagement target was not merely an increase in scores year on year. This is not a great measure as it can lead to fudging of scores. So, this company looked at a few things: 4% weightage for increase in scores year on year, 4% weightage for exceeding industry benchmark, 4% weightage for exceeding national benchmark, 4% weightage for submitting action plans to HR dept. and 4% weightage for submitting a mid-year update on the action plan.

• Side by side, they wanted to gradually make engagement a part of their core principles, a part of their corporate lingo on a daily basis. The best bet was to get the leaders to drive this. The first task that was done was to prepare a solid business case demonstrating the business impact of engagement on measures like profitability, revenues, attrition etc. Once the leadership team was on-board, the leadership team decided that they will start any meeting, forum, town-hall, event etc. with the topic of engagement, before touching on business issues. This was because engagement is a business issue. Over a period of years, employees, even at the lower levels of the hierarchy, now have a basic idea about engagement and speak the language. And, the company is even mulling de-linking engagement targets from manager KPIs!

How is your organisation ensuring that the employee engagement initiative doesn’t lose steam? How are managers being made accountable? How is HR and the leadership team facilitating the change process?

So, October is almost done. And it looks like the quality of contents on the blogs I follow just keeps getting more interesting with time! So, here are a few posts that I recommend as Essential Reading:

• A good, though-provoking discussion is happening at the Inflexion Point blog. The post mulls about the future of HR and whether “doing nothing” is an option for HR.

• We have all heard about HR needing to develop strong business orientation. Prasad Kurian from Bangalore (my favorite city) writes an interesting piece titled “Paradox of Business Orientation of HR.”

• Cathy Missildine-Martin discusses Change Management and wonders if it should really be called Strategy Implementation.  I tend to agree with her.

• Finally, SystematicHR is one of the blogs that I really like a lot. It carries a a guest post titled “Normative Data for Employee Surveys – Worth the Spend?” The post highlights a number of points why benchmarking may not be effective when it comes to employee survey data. I do not agree in entirety with all the points, but it makes for an interesting read. I feel that though benchmarking may not be the “holy grail” to get all the answers, it does serve a purpose by putting data into perspective and helping in target-setting.

Towers Perrin (disclaimer: my employer) has released a new paper discussing Employee Engagement in conjunction with Employee Well-Being. Employee Well-Being has been defined as a combination of 3 important aspects of an employee’s working life:

Physical Health: health, energy etc.

Psychological Health: stress / anxiety, accomplishment, optimism, confidence, empowerment, safety etc.

Social Health: work relationships, work-life balance, equity, fairness, respect etc.

Through extensive research, Towers Perrin has established a framework for measuring and managing Employee Well-Being. I particularly like the way  to study the relationship between Employee Engagement and Employee Well-Being. A construct has been presented to evaluate both these concepts:

Image credit & Copyright: Towers Perrin

Do you measure employee well-being in your organization? How? Have you attempted to link it  to Employee Engagement? Drop in a comment or write to me if you would like to discuss this in details with respect to your organization. My contact details are on the “About” page.

WordPress.com just announced that they have launched mobile themes which will be displayed automatically if you reach this blog on your mobile phones. This is an important move, given that more and more people are getting on to the mobile web. And we all know how important the mobile web is. (Check out a presentation by a Morgan Stanley exec)

So, if you use your mobile device to browse the internet and keep up with your favorite blogs, just point your mobile phone’s browser to http://abhishekmittal.com for a neat way to read this blog.

KnowHR, an organization communication consulting firm, has an absolutely great post on their blog. The post talks about “The Naked Truth About Great HR Communication”.

It is relevant not only for the HR folks, but professionals from different fields can all learn something important about communication from this. Out of the 35 points highlighted, my favorites are:

• You’ll never get the exact right word.

• The exact right word doesn’t matter.

• If you write like people talk, they’ll get it.

• Stock photography of impossibly happy and diverse employees is a joke.

• Employees need stories to remember.

• There’s no synonym for synonym

What are some of your communication mantras?

It’s Monday! And, here is a quick tip from Harvard Business:

Most customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives have impressive goals, such as to increase sales, drive cross-selling, and minimize resources. These goals are important, but they represent an inside-out view that focuses more on the company’s systems and internal metrics than on the customer. Instead, start with the customer experience. Ask yourself: what makes for a positive and productive experience? Then build your CRM initiative from there: design the interactions, touchpoints, procedures, and systems that will allow your company to deliver that positive experience. There will no doubt be internal limitations that affect your ability to create the experience, but by starting with the customer, you’ll make better decisions when it comes time to implement.

Bang on! So, think about your customers first before implementing that fancy CRM solution.

The web continues to buzz with some great pieces on the topic of HR. Here are a few that I found particularly interesting and decided to share with you:

• Gautam Ghosh wrote a guest post on Mike VonDervort’s blog. The post is titled “The Development of Human Resources in India” and immediately caught my attention. Gautam invites HR professionals to take up exciting challenges in one of the most interesting and fast-growing economies of the world.

• Barbara A. Hughes explains her views on a successful employee engagement model in this post.

• From the same blog, here is another interesting post on employee engagement. This one features a YouTube video with a 1-minute crash course in Employee Engagement! Must watch!

• Gurprriet Siingh wrote a post titled “The Ugly Duckling”. Without me writing anything about it, head to his blog to read this very interesting post that resonates with many of us.

• Another interesting post from Gautam Ghosh, where he extrapolates and muses about “Tomorrow’s HR Professional”.

Happy reading!

Most of the times, when I discuss with employees the issue of Recognition, I get typical answers – “Yeah, we have a “star of the year” award” or even better “annual Chairman’s award.” I have never some across a situation where the first instant response points towards recognition flowing from the manager. That makes me question the overall efficacy of the way managers recognize their people and energize them further.

So, people…head over straight to the Incentive Intelligence blog to get started with some basics of individual recognition. The post encourages you to use the SAIL method of recognition:

• Situation: the problem or opportunity
• Action: what was done in specific terms
• Impact:  the result of the action
• Link:  to department/organizational goals and objectives

Start relying less and less on the “annual” or “quarterly” recognition schemes. And recognize and engage your people by treating them as people, by individualizing.

David Zinger, the host of the Employee Engagement Network, has written a post titled “22 Awful Employee Engagement Mistakes”. As I went through the list, I found many of the points interesting and worth taking note of. The ones that I really liked include:

Rules are for Rulers. Thinking employee engagement can be reduced to rules. Rules are for Rulers and board games, not for people. I don’t want to work for someone who thinks they are my Ruler or that they can Monopolize me.

HR and Beyond. Thinking employee engagement is just another HR issue. And while we are at it, I think it is time for HR to morph into this century. Just as we let go of Personnel it is time to let go of HR and become Internal Community Mobilizers or Internal People Artists or something that doesn’t just keep pairing humans with the word resource.

Them is us. Leaders and managers and supervisors looking at employee engagement as something that they are not a part of too. Leaders, managers, and supervisors…you are employees too. Don’t ever refer to employees as them because, “them is us.”

Better systems. Believing the answer to employee engagement relies in a better system like a new performance management system and failing to see the importance of authentic, connected, and engaged dialogue.

No time to talk. Thinking engaging dialogue will take too much time. I believe NASA has proven it can occur in about 45 seconds and save lives.

Avoiding immediacy with social media. Engaging employees through email, slogans, and cute You Tube CEO videos while failing to really show up and  talk with them face-to-face.

What do you think? What are some of the key employee engagement mistakes that organizations should watch out for?

I am a consumer too. I consume a lot of services like banking, telecom, insurance, retail shopping, medical etc. When I look back and think what draws me repeatedly to some service providers, I realize it’s not usually the product. The product is almost similar. Price could play a role, but “search” costs are high. Product and pricing are mere hygiene factors – necessary to keep you in the game. What brings me back is “People”.

Ultimately, all service organizations are “people businesses”. Think of the last time you called up the phone-banking of your bank. That very interaction left you feeling either “better off” or “worse off” that what you felt before making that call. As you walk into a grocery store, the staff made it all too easy for you or you were left searching the mazes. Your perceptions of the organization are impacted by people.

And, every interaction a customer has with an organization’s employee is either a “deal maker” or a “deal breaker”. Either you can engage your customers through these interactions or end up with “lost opportunities” for engaging your customers.

And, positive employee-customer interactions are going to happen only when your employees are engaged. Start treating your employees like the way you would like them to treat customers. Because, it’s not just about the product. People are the software powering your business. They are your strongest marketing tool!

Employee motivation is one of the key components of employee engagement. Employees who are motivated are willing to invest discretionary effort to go above and beyond the call of duty. They are more likely to go the extra mile to help the organization succeed.

There are a variety of ways in which companies and managers seek to motivate their employees. Some of these succeed and some don’t. I thought it will be a good idea to jot down a few basic principles or broad themes you should keep in mind, while designing programs for employee motivation. Basically, one needs to keep in mind what really motivates people. These serve as a good starting point for initiating & refining the thought process around employee motivation programs.

• Enjoyment Motivates: People really feel charged up when they are doing things they like to do. They feel motivated when they do things which utilize their talents. For instance, it is extremely difficult to motivate and employees with sharp analytical skills, when he/she is put in a role that focuses on raising invoices and collecting dues from customers.
• Positive Thoughts Motivate: Positive psychology is super critical. For instance, recall the teacher, friend or parent who motivated you to do well by telling you that you can succeed. Employees need to be brimming with positive emotions.
• Sense of Significance Motivates: People feel motivated when they derive a sense of significance from what they are doing. If they feel that their contribution, ideas and suggestions matter, they feel motivated.
• Success Motivates: Being successful at a task makes one feel as being a part of a fruitful endeavor and triggers positive motivation. Try setting up your employees for successes (no matter how small).
• Benefits Motivate: This is dead simple. All humans ask “What’s in it for me?”
• Clarity Motivates: People can feel very unmotivated towards tasks and activities, if the instructions and objectives are unclear.

These are just top of the mind thoughts. What are some of the other things that you have found to be powerful motivators?