ATTITUDE SURVEYS
Current engagement practices are not delivering results
The latest research into employee engagement practices from Hewitt Associates shows that while many organisations are taking a similar approach to gathering information, only a few are actually linking feedback to action and managing to increase employee engagement.
Hewitt’s study, “The Future of Engagement”, looks at the efforts to measure employee engagement at 150 companies across Europe:
85% reported that they had collected employee feedback in the last 24 months
64% of those gathering feedback had done so within the last year
only 16% of the organisations reported a significant increase in engagement levels.
In other recent global research, Hewitt found that almost half of organisations around the world saw a significant drop in employee engagement levels at the end of the second quarter of 2010 - the largest decline Hewitt has observed since it began conducting employee engagement research 15 years ago.
%ADVERT%
What's different at the successful organisations?
The findings in the “The Future of Engagement” show that for leaders at many organisations, employee engagement data is all too often viewed as an administrative step or as simply another survey. While engagement surveys contain interesting facts, they lack linkages to the day-to-day decisions that management need to take.
Jenny Merry, UK Engagement Practice Leader at Hewitt Associates, said: "The difference with leading organisations is that they don't just regard these as exercises in collecting employee data. Instead, leaders take accountability for responding to the employee feedback. In these organisations, HR plays a supporting role and leaders take accountability for action as they understand the positive impact this will have on their financial performance."
DOCUMENT EXTRACT
So, what are the golden rules for getting it right? The Hewitt study showed that successful organisations:
1. Start with a very specific objective for their survey: They go beyond measuring employee attitudes and benchmarking to addressing the impact of business and HR strategies.
2. Hold leaders accountable for taking action: There are more practices in place to build accountability among leaders and less likelihood that HR alone will be responsible for taking action.
3. Take direct actions to the areas that matter most to engagement: They focus on the fundamentals, first making sure that they focus managers on the areas that really do impact on engagement, and not just on satisfaction. They take action in areas where employees see immediate impact.
4. Involve employees in identifying actions: Employees and managers work together to identify and agree those actions that will be most effective in addressing the issues raised.
5. Understand what engages their top talent: They use their data to understand what impacts engagement for critical employee groups such as high potential employees.
6. Focus on collecting data earlier in the employment relationship: They focus on understanding employee needs and wants sooner, rather than later. They canvass the perspectives of potential employees and new hires. They seek to understand the employee experience and to take action to address aspects of that experience that are not aligned with the employee promise.
7. Link employee feedback and business outcomes: They demonstrate links between engagement, leadership behaviours and business performance to increase commitment for action.
Merry said: "The research into current practices reveals that while a few organisations are putting in place practices that create management ownership for employee engagement and provide managers with the skills and tools to do this, for others there is still a lot to do.”
She added: "The research findings are clear; organisations are more successful if they respond to their employee feedback as part of existing business or people planning processes. Organisations which run a separate process to determine engagement actions are failing to integrate their actions into the overall business plan successfully. If that is the case, employee engagement will inevitability remain an HR-led process rather than an integrated approach to addressing business challenges.”
A final word
"Harnessing the power of employees is not easy. Yet, now more than ever, engagement matters. In the economic climate of the last three years, when organisations have been looking to cut or reduce expenditure, organisations have had to recognise the need to keep their best people engaged. Even so, many organisations are clearly struggling to make progress in driving employee engagement and in improving organisational performance.
"At a time when organisations are looking to employees to help them reduce costs, identify areas for growth, streamline processes and innovate faster than their competitors, our research shows that employee loyalty and engagement is waning. Employees in many organisations are showing fatigue in response to the lengthy period of stress, uncertainty and confusion of the economic downturn." - Jenny Merry, UK Engagement Practice Leader at Hewitt Associates.
Want to know more?
Title: The Future of Engagement, Hewitt Associates.
Availability: Contact Hewitt by email: enquiries@hewitt.com or tel: 020 7939 4000.
Hewitt Associates provides “leading organisations around the world with expert human resources consulting and outsourcing solutions to help them anticipate and solve their most complex benefits, talent, and related financial challenges”. Hewitt works with companies to design, implement, communicate, and administer a wide range of human resources, retirement, investment management, health care, compensation, and talent management strategies. It has offices in more than 30 countries and employs approximately 23,000 associates. For more information, visit www.hewitt.com.