RetentionBestPractices

8/7/2019 RetentionBestPractices

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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

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3B Y A D R I E N N E H E D G E R

Three Steps to a MoreEngaged Workforce

This much is clear: A highly engaged

workforce drives deeper customer loyalty,

increases productivity and improvesprofitability. Study after study confirms the

links. What’s not so clear: How to get there,

how to accurately measure and strategically

improve engagement. These three steps can

make that goal more achievable.

TTRYING TO “MOVE THE NEEDLE” ON EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT CAN SEEM LIKE a Herculean

task; one that involves complicated survey administration, data analysis, sub-committees,

action items, and more. A daunting set of activities. Important, yes, but too much to take

on right now.

“This is a common myth,” says Mike Dolen, managing partner of Kenexa’s Global SurveyPractice. “Improving employee engagement doesn’t have to be overwhelmingthere are

many ways to take small, incremental steps that lead to sustained improvement.”

And forget about putting it off any longer. “Your employees are on the front line, talking

to potential customers and representing your brand,” adds Dolen. “It’s vital to make sure

they are engaged.”

So what’s a company to do? Start by focusing on these three steps:

• Clarify “engagement”

• Understand the role that leaders play

• Simplify, simplify, simplify



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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

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Step 1: Clarify “Engagement”

Definitions of “engagement” vary,

so to help organizations clarify the

concept, Kenexa breaks it down into four

related areas:

1. Pride in the organization

2. Satisfaction with role in the organi-zation

3. Willingness to advocate to potential

employees and customers

4. Intentions of remaining with the

company

“These are the basic underpinnings

of engagement,” says Dolen. “Taken

together, they determine whether or not

someone will be highly motivated to

contribute to the organization’s success

and contribute in a way that is above andbeyond what’s expected.”

To figure out how employees are feel-

ing, you need to conduct an assessment

that is customized to your business

culture and your goals. And measuring

engagement is only part of the value;

you can also measure the factors that are

driving engagementor hindering it.

For example, the Kenexa Research

Institute identifies four macro drivers of

engagement:

• Confidence and trust in senior lead-

ership

• Managers giving respect and recogni-

tion to employees

• Employees having the opportunity to

grow and develop

• Employees having an interesting job

that they know how to do

“Depending on the company, some of

these drivers might be more pronounced

than others,” says Dolen. “We also break

these down into more detailed micro-

drivers, so companies can see exactlyhow engagement is being influenced.”

Assessments not only measure what’s

driving engagementthey can also

identify employees who are capable of

becoming engaged, and employees who

are, by their nature, probably not going

to engage.

This gets to the heart of a critical issue,

says Greg Barnett, director of domestic

consulting at Hogan Assessments. “If the

fit isn’t right, it’s going to be hard to

engage someone no matter what you

do,” he says. “Sometimes an employee’s

values and the company’s values simply

don’t align.”

Measuring these gaps provides impor-

tant insight to companies. It can helpthem better understand their culture, and

make hiring and promotion decisions

that, over time, will strengthen employee

engagement across the company.

“If the values match, employees will be

more likely to work harder and with a

better attitude,” says Barnett. “If the fit

isn’t there, even capable performers

won’t be motivated to do their best.”

All of these factors come into play

when a company is trying to determine

how to engage its workforce. But thereis another powerful influence as well:

the manager.

Step 2: Understand the role that lead-

ers play

Companies typically come to Hogan

Assessments with some type of leadership

challenge, says Barnett. “We come in

and assess executives and teams,” he

explains. “And over the years we’ve seen

the critical role that managers play. Good

management creates engagement, bad

management destroys it.”One interesting exercise is to analyze

the top 25 percent of managers with the

highest engagement scores (meaning they

oversee teams that are highly engaged),

and the 25 percent of managers with the

lowest engagement scores. With this

information, a company can determine

which attributes contribute to success.

Then they can create development plans

to focus on those attributes; and they also

create a blueprint for selecting better

managers in the future.But there’s another reason that leader-

ship assessments are important: They

serve as a cross-check for other data. For

example, consider a team that fills out a

survey and indicates that they trust their

manager. Meanwhile, the leadership

assessment indicates that the manager is

overly controlling and prone to anger.

Taken together, the data might suggest

that employees were intimidated by their

supervisor and, even though the survey

C O M P A N Y P R O F I L E

For more than 20 years,

Kenexa has studied human

behavior and team dynamics

in the workplaceand has

developed the software

solutions, business processes

and expert consulting thathelp organizations impact

positive business outcomes

through HR. Kenexa is the

only company that offers a

comprehensive suite of

unified products and services

that support the entire

employee lifecycle from

pre-hire to exit., including:

• Recruitment Process Outsourcing

• Employment Branding

• Employee Assessments

• Recruitment Technology

• Onboarding

• Performance Management

• Employee Surveys

• Learning Management

• Leadership Solutions

• Succession Planning

www.kenexa.com

877.734.0002



877.734.0002www.kenexa.com

When you multiply the right individual by the right environment, success is inevitable.

Learn how Kenexa® uses science, technology and consulting to create transformation in your company.



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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

was anonymous, felt pressured to give an

inflated response.

“We use a people-centric approach that

asks, ‘what are employees truly experi-

encing?’” says Barnett. “What’s really

going on? It could be that there are

‘derailing’ personalities in upper manage-ment that are undermining employee

engagement.”

Sometimes managers don’t understand

the impact they are having, or how they

are perceived. And there are many

instances when leaders will continue to

use management styles and techniques

that worked early in their career, instead

of evolving their styles as they move up in

the organization.

“These aren’t easy conversations to

have, but they’re necessary,” saysBarnett. “In some cases, the manager

may not be the right fit. But in other

cases, you’ll have a manager who is open

and interested in developing new skills

and motivating their teams.”

Step 3: Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

It’s one thing to understand the factors

that influence engagement; it’s another

thing to undertake a program to drive

improvements.

The good news is that depending on

the partner you select, the process can bequite easy.

“Companies don’t need to reinvent the

wheel,” says Kenexa’s Dolen. “Your

assessment partner should take care of

tailoring an approach based on your com-

pany’s specific culture and needs. And the

assessment itself should be completely au-

tomated, so you don’t need to worry

about administration or data collection.”

After the assessments are complete,

Kenexa delivers detailed reports to

managers, explaining what’s drivingengagement in specific teams or groups.

The information packages also include

concrete action plans for improvement,

based on research and best practices. It’s

a tool that appears to be working;

the company has shown that use of its

online action planning makes a manager

75 percent more likely to see year-over-

year improvement.

“We’re not just diagnosing the issues,”

says Dolen. “We’re helping managers

understand the treatments that will be

effective. What they can do to improve

engagement in their area.”

Barnett agrees that effective solutions

can be simple. “Personal assessment and

coaching can be appropriate for top

executives, but at lower levels there’srarely the budget to offer these services.

At the same time, companies recognize

the important role middle managers play

in employee engagement and the overall

success of the company.”

To fill this need, Hogan Assessments

created the Hogan ThinkBox, an online

portal that aligns in-depth leadership

assessments with hundreds of bite-sized

development resources designed to help

managers succeed.

“It’s an easy way to send a positivemessage to managers,” says Barnett.

“You’re letting them know that they

matter, and you’re giving them skills that

will position them for the future.”

It’s also a way to address leadership

gaps that could be affecting engagement.

In many companies, particularly those

that have experienced layoffs, people

may have been promoted faster than

usual; and they may be selected for

management positions based on their

technical skills, rather than leadership

skills. Tailored coaching and develop-

ment can help fill in the gap and strengthen

leadership qualities.

Small Steps, Big Impact

Measuring and influencing engage-

ment doesn’t have to be a daunting

experience. The key is to remain steadily

focused on making incremental progress.

“Organizations, leaders and teams are

continually evolving,” says Barnett. “By

understanding engagement and howto influence it, you can help steer the

evolution in a positive direction.”

“It’s not about taking huge, drastic

steps,” adds Dolen. “It’s about gaining

the right insight so you can drive

improvements year over year. Small

improvements, multiplied over hundreds

or even thousands of people. That is

the path to powerful and sustainable

engagement.” I

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C O M P A N Y P R O F I L E

As an international authority

in personality assessment and

consulting, Hogan has over

30 years of experience

helping businesses reduce

turnover and increase

productivity by hiring the

right people, developing

key talent, and evaluating

leadership potential.

The Hogan assessments

predict job performance by

assessing normal personality,

derailment characteristics,

and core values. The assess-

ments are grounded in

decades of research and

evaluate every major job

family. The portfolio of

employee selection, develop-

ment, and leadership tools

allow companies to better

manage their human resource

capital and retain top talent.

www.hoganassessment.com



Even if it’s not, there’s no getting around the fact that employee engagement is a function of

corporate culture, which is in turn defined by the strength of leadership. The best managers

know how to build creative, ef fective teams that drive innovation, growth and organizational

longevity. Hogan’s Leadership Forecast Series™ is designed to help your company develop

stronger leaders, better employees and a corporate culture that works for the long term.

All-

Management

Friday, January 13

All Employees

Lunch with the boss!

From:

Date:

To:

Subject:

Lunch with the boss!

hoganassessments.com/hogan-lead Hogan Assessment SystemsHoganAssessment

T H E S C I E N C E O F P E R S O N A L I T Y

®

If this is your company’sidea of engagement,

you need us.

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