Who does the work at your place of [tag]business[/tag]? The managers? The individual contributors?
In today’s organizations it should be both, but I doubt that many managers or leaders would be able to get much done without the involvement of the individual contributors.
I picked up today on the results of an [tag]employee engagement[/tag] survey by the online survey firm Modern Survey reported in November.
The survey findings “confirms that employee engagement as a whole has clearly declined over the last year. An astonishing 21% of U.S. workers were actively disengaged as of this past August when the study was conducted, a difference of four percentage points from August 2007.” (original emphasis)
Simply put “more people are checking out at your workplace” even in today’s competitive job market. Why?
A Leadership Gap
“All five components of the Engagement Index show erosion in favorability, and organizational pride shows the largest (and most statistically significant) decline over the last year.
“Notably fewer workers feel a strong sense of pride in their companies. Now only about half say they are willing to put in extra effort to help their company succeed and only about half say they intend to stay with their company for a long time.
“According to Modern Survey President Don MacPherson, “These findings should serve as a wake-up call to leaders and managers in any type of organization. As economic conditions worsen, you’ll be counting more and more on your employees to put forth their best efforts and to pull your organization through. These results suggest that unless you pay special attention to the engagement of your workforce, and to maintaining the type of work environment in which employee engagement flourishes, fewer and fewer of your employees will be willing to “give their all” to help your company succeed.” ” (emphasis added)
These are indications of a losing organization – people not being proud about where they work, not being willing to put in extra effort, not planning on staying. How to leaders ‘pay special attention to the engagement of your workforce’ to overcome this challenge?
Communication and Opportunity
Two areas provide quick – and real – engagement / connection points for employees, and can be accomplished by leaders and managers without a lot of effort.
First: communication.
A recent survey by public relations firm Weber Shandwick highlights a gap between employees’ desire for more [tag]communication[/tag] on the impact of the current economic challenges and how company [tag]leadership[/tag] is providing information.
“The research shows that 71% of people felt that their company’s leadership should be communicating more about current economic problems, and 54% have not heard from company leaders at all on the impact of the financial crisis on their company. By comparison, 74% said that they had heard colleagues and co-workers talking about the issue.”
Managers will be focused primarily on managing the operations of the business. Leaders need to be out front leading the communication of how the company is doing, and what the company is doing or is going to do to deal with today’s needs. Employees will generally assume a more negative approach will be taken in the absence of information:
“The survey found that 70 percent of respondents expected that current economic and financial problems would have a negative impact on the company they work for over the course of the next year. Of those, 26 percent believed that their company would have to lay off employees, and 62 percent said their company would have trouble meeting its goals.”
Second: opportunity.
One of the critical factors Gallup has found in their multi-year studies on the connection between employee engagement and business [tag]performance[/tag] is the key linkage of using employees’ [tag]talents[/tag] and strengths. (See one example here.)
Managers will be focused on making sure their employees are doing their jobs according to their current processes and procedures. Leaders must be out front understanding their employees’ strengths – even if they are not directly aligned to their roles today – and figuring out how to put those strengths to use for the benefit of the business.
Where are You?
Employees who have leaders communicating with them (listening as well as providing information) and acting to make their work align more with their strengths will be willing to put in more extra efforts to help the business succeed.
Are you Managing, or Leading?
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