cipr inside webinar - employee engagement and internal communication - a closer look
TRANSCRIPT
CIPR INSIDE WEBINAR
Welcome
Kevin Ruck
PR Academy
@AcademyKev exploringinternalcommunication.com
Just 27% of employees
in the UK are ‘highly
engaged’, with an
equivalent proportion of
employees being
‘disengaged’.
Engage for Success
Engagement
MacLeod and Clarke (2009) Engaging for Success
Leadership
Provides a strong strategic narrative.
Engaging Managers
Facilitate and empower.
Voice
Views are sought out; people see
that their opinions count.
Integrity
Behaviour is consistent with stated values.
Co
mm
un
ica
tio
n
Employee engagement theory
• Characterised by the beginnings of practitioner interest and
the term employee engagement came into use, widely
credited as being coined by consultancy firm Gallup in 1999.
Wave 1:
1990s
Wave 2:
2000 - 2005
Wave 3:
2006 - 2010
• Robinson et al., (2004) defined the concept as a positive
employee attitude towards the organisation and its values,
involving awareness of business context, and work to
improve job and organisational effectiveness.
• Saks (2006) extended the employee engagement concept to
encompass both job engagement and organisation
engagement. Saks's work is significant because it tackles
the question of the status of the concept.
Welch (2011)
In his original study that outlines the basis for employee engagement, Kahn (1990, p.
693), defines it as, “…the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work
roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively
and emotionally during role performances”.
Work engagement Organisational engagement
The work you do The vision of the organisation, where it’s headed
The team work environment The values of the organisation, what it believes in
Personal development opportunities The perceived support given to all employees
The relationship with your line manager The way that senior managers communicate with all employees
The opportunity to have a say about what goes on in your team
The opportunity to have a say about what goes on in the organisation
The response provided by a line manager to views expressed
The response provided by senior managers to views expressed
Work engagement
Intellectual engagement
I focus hard on my work
I concentrate on my work
I pay a lot of attention to my work
Affective engagement
I feel positive about my work
I feel energetic in my work
I am enthusiastic in my work
Social engagement
I share the same work values as
my colleagues
I share the same work goals as my
colleagues
I share the same work attitudes as
my colleagues
Organisational engagement
Think
I think about improvements to help
my organisation operate more
effectively
Feel
I feel positive about working for my
organisation
Do
I put extra effort in to help the
organisation succeed
Employees’ organisational commitment (%)
https://www.gov.uk/government/pub
lications/the-2011-workplace-
employment-relations-study-wers
21,981 respondents in
the UK
Three components of
employee engagement
Truss et al.(2006)
Manager
commitment
Feeling well
informed
Opportunities for
upward
feedback
49% Employees feel fairly well informed about important
organisational issues
29% Received only a limited amount of information
13% Reported they received not much at all
Truss et al.(2006)
Informed Employee Voice
Truss et al. (2006)
Feel
informed
Have opportunity for
upward
communication
Low/med
Low/med High
High
Informed Non-Communicators (6%)
Fully/fairly well informed but little
opportunity
to feed information upwards
Informed Communicators (32%)
Fully/fairly well informed and have
opportunity
for upward communication
This group is highly engaged
Uninformed Non-Communicators
(18%)
Little/no information and lack of
opportunity
for upward feedback
Uninformed Believers (5%)
Little information but have opportunity
to feed information upwards
Fence sitters
(39%)
Case study
HP
Discover 2012
“We highlighted times when Meg [CEO] would be
speaking about strategy, or when someone would be
talking about innovation or plans for the future. As
financial information was unveiled at the meeting,
MacNeil [VP Global Employee Comms] and her team
were able to simultaneously on the intranet.”
“They [employees] were getting information at the same
time as the analysts. But the key difference was that, for
the first time ever, the information was being put into
context for Hewlett Packard employees.”
Oct 2013
corpcommsmagazine.co.uk
Reinforced by
managers who
are open to
critical feedback.
Advanced
Based on people
feeling well
informed in the first
place, face to face,
actions taken as a
result or reasons
why action not
taken provided.
Basic Surveys, suggestion schemes, email boxes.
Upward feedback
Case study
Essex County Council
Your Voice
“In 2011, we ran our first ‘Your Voice’
engagement day. This was followed
up in 2012. On one day we held 48
separate face-to-face events which
enabled over 800 employees to have
discussions with senior leaders.”
http://ciprinside.co.uk/learning/
case-studies/
Case study
Glasgow Housing Association
Think Yes
“The objective of Think Yes was to raise
customer satisfaction levels by asking staff to
think positively when faced with a
customer request.”
“There is a popular Think Yes area on the
intranet. Colleagues can post any major
'blockage' anonymously if they feel it can't be
discussed with their manager. Again, we solve
the problem then openly publish the blockage
and solution.”
http://ciprinside.co.uk/learning/
case-studies/
PhD research
Internal Communication and Organisational
Engagement Questionnaire (ICOEQ)
123 closed questions using a 5 point Likert scale and
four open questions:
1. Information interests
2. Helpfulness of communication methods
3. General satisfaction with communication
4. Senior manager communication
5. Line manager level communication
6. Peer group level communication
7. Organisational engagement
Welch (2011)
5 organisations
2066 responses to survey
27 interviews
9 focus groups with 77
people
Differences in satisfaction
between organisations are
significant, for example,
satisfaction with ways to
communicate ideas to
senior managers varied
from 18% to 65%
Correlations: strategic planning
Analysing the strength of the
association of a specific aspect of
communication with a specific
aspect of engagement.
For example, satisfaction with
employee voice and emotional
organisational engagement.
Organisational Engagement
Internal Communication
Plans and aims
Change Progress
Employee Voice
Senior Managers
Informed
employee
voice
Informed
employee
voice
Feel
Think
What I do for the
organisation
Do
Diagram to represent summary of associations between internal communication and organisational
engagement based on 2066 responses from employees in five organisations
Source: Ruck (2013) Unpublished PhD research at University of Central Lancashire,
How to help employees get
strategy
Harvard Business Review – research
based on 60, 000 responses.
“Top management has a profound impact on
how well employees grasp and support
strategy – far more than any other variable.
Supervisors don’t play a direct role.”
“Only top leaders can give strategic
communication the appropriate weight.” Galunic and Hermreck (Dec 2012)
Senior management
understanding Practitioners’ perception of stakeholders who think that internal communications is really
important:
Ruck and Trainor
(2012)
Changing internal communication practice
Q4. In an ideal world, how would you change the amount of time spent on these priorities
Ruck and Trainor
(2012)
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Same
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Qualifications: CIPR internal communication certificate and diploma
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