The Engagement Question CEO’s and HR Director’s found difficult to answer.
I've just completed a round of interviews with CEO’s, Entrepreneurs and HR Directors from FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 listed companies across Finance, Media, Logistics , Retail and Hospitality.
My aim was to gather views on ‘people engagement’ and whether they consider it as a driver for their business success and growth.
According to Gallup, 83% of employees say they’re not engaged (or actively disengaged) at work which is costing the global economy and its companies billions.
Business leader and bestselling author Jack Welch’s made his first 2016 Linkedin post all about the importance of improving employee engagement and explaining to leaders its the quickest way to achieve results in both customer satisfaction and cash flow.
With so much evidence promoting employee engagement as the driver of business and economic growth, why isn’t it top of the board room agenda?
Explanations from my discussions concluded that engagement was being overcomplicated' it had too many definitions, lots of ‘initiatives’ and not enough bottom line measurement.
What I believe might help business leaders is a clear strategic and realistic approach to people engagement and here’s three ways to start;
1. Get the people promise right.
The people promise covers your mission, values, leadership, culture, benefits, progression and other variables. It’s your ‘purpose’ that needs to be compelling, relevant and exciting for your people and should evolve and grow as you do. If you want some real hard evidence to support this I'd read GROW by Jim Stengel which follows a 10 year study.
2. Now do it.
Communicate, recruit and live your values show how your people deliver your purpose, the roles they play and what’s in it for them. Treat them as adults which means consult, listen, respect and learn from them.
3. Trust and support your people to get on with it.
This covers making sure your people have relevant learning and development and feel empowered to get the job done. Always provide feedback and recognition when the job is done well, as Simon Sinek says “A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected”.
So what was the question that really tested CEO’s and HRD’s alike?......
....Surprisingly it was the one I naively thought easiest to answer, it was simply;
If you had a blank cheque what would you do to improve engagement in your organisation?
So why do you think they found this the hardest question to answer?
How would you answer the question?...... Let's engage, share and chat about it here.
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