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Employee Engagement: Verb or “An Active State?” by Suzanne Elshult, Executive Coach, HRNow

Suzanne Elshult, http://hrnow.net Executive Yak, sponsors live round tables for senior marketing and human resources executives in the Seattle area and offers executive / professional coaching and virtual learning opportunities for leaders, business owners, consultants and coaches committed to growth and high performance.

Is “engagement” becoming yet another over-used buzz word? Are we using engagement in the wrong way? Should we be asking whether we are “engaged as a state” not what we do: “we engage all the time.” Are you creating a culture of actual active engagement? These were some of the questions a couple dozen of my HR Executive Forum members discussed recently. No matter what we call “engagement” in our respective organizations, we generally agreed that what we were all talking about has to do with the strategies we deploy to attract, develop, retain and protect our employees to ultimately achieve that “state of engagement” that translates into tangible business results. The stronger the strategies, the stronger the results! About 50% of the executives at the table indicated they actually measure engagement in their respective organizations. Those HR executives seeing most meaningful results and actions coming out of engagement indexes, also tend to define the role of HR as providing consulting, not delivering an HR program. They do some slicing and dicing and relate the index to financial results: what would happen if disengaged teams became engaged or actively engaged – financially? Tying the engagement index to business results is key!!! One HR executive shared how by tying engagement to productivity, payroll and profitability got the impetus for an organization-wide initiative to turn low-engagement teams to high engagement teams.

Do you know where on the spectrum of engagement your employees fall? Are they actively engaged, engaged, actively disengaged or disengaged? Interesting questions we may not ask for fear of what answers we will be getting! Some organizations drill deep and explore whether high performers have higher levels of engagement. They keep the fingers on the pulse of the organization all the time to see where they are trending.

Britt Ricci, HR Executive wt Avanade shared her company’s very fresh and creative approach to retention and engagement: “The Deal” that Avanade has with it’s employees. What is important to them? Why should they be in an engaged state?

1. Adopt – Britt is putting together “recipes of “Best Practices”, kind of like a cookbook for connecting. It is still an evolving concept and she is working actively with her marketing department to brand the initiative.
2. Embed – the programs, for example the “on-boarding buddy program”. Note, these programs are NOT HR-centric and the objective is to get them embedded into the very fabric of the organization.
3. Connect – how to increase the level of connection throughout this organization, globally, laterally, horizontally, up/down/out.…you name it.
4. Greenlight – employee ideas that Avanade can replicate worldwide to increase connection

Regardless of approach, all executives in attendance agreed that communication is key, communication that uses a wide diversity of tools and vehicles, informal and formal. Communications have to have a rhytm, be transparent, real and instant. As leaders we have to learn to become comfortable with the uncomfortable and learn to not be defensive. Managers can be very key in developing engaged cultures, and one of the critical issues is how they can be held accountable and how you determine what is within their control and what has to do with outside influences.

In a brainstorm towards the end of the meeting, the group came up with a plethora of ideas for developing engagement. Here is a sampling:
• Leader open office hours
• On-the-road site visits by leaders – not a dog and pony show, but active engagement with employees
• President’s blog
• Onboarding processes that get new hires engaged with the company core values’CEO breakfasts.
• Volunteer days
• One-on-ones employee/manager
• Fresh approaches to recognition.
• Town hall meetings
• Story-telling strategies
• Initiatives to develop bonds socially (volunteering together, dinners, climbing gym and so forth).

Doesn’t sound so new? Well the key is in the delivery. You can do town halls, employee meetings and a whole horde of other initiatives without impacting your engagement index. The magic is in “how you deliver,” always asking yourself what is important to the employee, are you being genuine, transparent and timely?

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