Help Employees Align & Connect to Increase Employee Engagement * Lessons from BlessingWhite

Recognize This: People need a sense of connection and contribution to truly engage in your organization.

I was honored to host a webinar through Human Capital Institute (HCI) with BlessingWhite’s employee engagement practice leader, Mary Ann Masarech, yesterday. She gave color to the findings of their 2011 Employee Engagement Report.

Key take-aways from the webinar:

·         In every region of the world, more employees planned to leave in the next 12 months, with the percentage saying “no way would I remain” doubling (from 2008 to 2010). Globally, only 30% are fully engaged. 17% are disengaged. Australia/New Zealand and India have the highest engagement numbers; China has the lowest.

·         Employee engagement occurs when employees are making the maximum contribution while enjoying the maximum level of satisfaction. Engaged employees are using their talents to make a difference in the bottom-line.

·         Older employees and those higher up the ranks are more engaged. Mary Ann believes this to be because those in the upper ranks or who have been around longer feel they have more control over their work experience and greater insight into company strategy than those who are younger and at lower levels.

·         Employees closest to customer contact are most engaged. – Sales, HR/Training and Marketing. Least engaged are IT, R&D and Finance.

What does this tell me? People need a sense of connection and contribution – insight into the company strategy, connection to the customers who see the end result of efforts, and the knowledge that their efforts matter.

Mary Ann said in the webinar:

“I’ve heard Derek speak about recognizing and rewarding people for what you actually want them to do to drive your strategy. We found that the disengaged and the hamsters/honeymooners [those who are working hard, but not necessarily contributing well] were most in need of alignment. They need greater clarity about what they need to do, when and how to make the company successful. They are disconnected. You need to make sure all of your business process focus on that clarity piece.”

Register for one of the recast sessions on HCI to learn more about: 

1)      What you should not do to increase engagement

2)      What does work to increase engagement

3)      The responsibilities of executives, managers and individuals for engagement