Employee Engagement – Are Your Managers Up to The Task?

An engaged workforce can make the difference between being the front runner in your industry and going out of business.

Employees who are engaged will demonstrate improved performance, greater productivity, lower levels of absenteeism, greater retention and advocacy, high levels of innovation and a higher standard of customer service.

 

The Macleoad Review identified 4 pointers of employee engagement. These are:-

• Strategic narrative
• Engaging managers
• Employee voice
• Organisation integrity

Reviewing the case histories of leading Companies, who actively engage their employees, will show lots of different strategies for creating an engaging work environment. These include skills and leadership training, feedback forums, social engagement programmes, flexible working options, and career development pathways to name just a few.

All of these strategies have their merits but is there something more fundamental that is missing?

One of the key criteria identified for having an engaged workforce is the impact the Manager has on their teams. Managers who themselves are deeply engaged are more likely to inspire and engage their workforce. And on the other hand, poor management skills can lead to employee disengagement.

It is often quoted that “people join organisations – but they leave managers”.

So what are the characteristics of a great manager?

Gallup identified the following talents –

• They motivate every single employee to take action and engage them with a compelling mission and vision.
• They have the assertiveness to drive outcomes and the ability to overcome adversity and resistance.
• They create a culture of clear accountability.
• They build relationships that create trust, open dialogue, and full transparency.
• They make decisions that are based on productivity, not politics.

And the research demonstrated that managers possessing all these talents demonstrated a 48% higher profit to their companies than average managers.

Unfortunately Gallup’s research also showed that only 1 in 10 people possess all these traits.  And only 2 in 10 demonstrate some of them.

Which, if this is the case, means unless you identify the right people, who naturally have these talents and place only them in managerial positions, you are going to end up with 8 out of 10 teams unengaged.

Judging by Gallup’s State of The Workplace 2013 Study this currently appears to be the case. The figures for the UK show that only 17% of employees were currently engaged in their work with 57% not engaged and 26% actively disengaged.

There are worrying figures – not only for the profits of an organisation but also for the health and wellbeing of the employees.

So what’s the answer?

Well if you believe that these talents are fixed at birth then there is only one way. To have the right recruitment/promotion strategies in place and put only those possessing these traits into managerial roles.

And if you get it wrong?

Then it comes down to damage limitation and hoping you have enough teams, led by great managers, to ensure overall success.

But what if these traits aren’t just confined to 10% of the population?

Perhaps it’s not that great managers possess talents missing in everyone else but that they naturally, without necessarily knowing, allow these traits to shine through.

And if that’s the case what if they are just hidden from view in everyone else. But due to a lack of understanding, of what stands in the way of great performance, they are unwittingly kept suppressed?

After all we have all seen flashes of brilliance from lower performing managers and moments of stupidity from otherwise great managers.

This is great news!

By seeing that we all possess the ability to tap into these characteristics and by realising for ourselves the intrinsic nature of these qualities, we can unlock a greater potential within.

Managers that realise the full extent of their potential will naturally act with wisdom, clarity, compassion and decisiveness. They will listen, be empathetic, demonstrate natural leadership and motivate their teams.

What’s more they are able to help their teams see that they also possess an in built design for success. Which in turn increases their employees motivation, enthusiasm, drive and resilience.

The bottom line result being a more engaged organisation, happy and healthier employees and the financial results to reflect that.