creating an engaging performance environment | talentdrain | march 2009 creating … ·...

Creating an engaging performance environment | TalentDrain | March 2009

Creating an engagingperformance environmentWithin the context of dramatic change in the global economic environment, organisations need

more than ever to focus on creating an engaging performance environment for their employees.

Gordon Barker explains how to create an employee engagement strategy, how to communicate

it internally and how to measure the return on investment from employee engagement.

Recent research has highlighted HR’s

lack of strategic firepower. A 2008

McKinsey survey found that 60 per

cent of senior managers see HR as

‘an administrative department, not a

strategic business partner’, whilst

TalentDrain’s 2008 Employee Retention

Survey revealed that 75 per cent of HR

departments have no retention strategy

in place for their organisation.

Without a compelling strategy or

business case, it’s no wonder that the

HR budget is often one of the first to be

cut in difficult times.

The good news is that the basic value

of employee engagement is well

established and largely accepted, even

by senior managers who recognise that

employee-related expenditure is

typically an organisation’s highest cost.

With the war for talent, and the fast-

approaching global labour shortage,

it is increasingly important not only to

retain employees but to ensure that

they are capable and motivated to

deliver high performance.

How do I create an engagingperformance environment?The first step is to define a clear strategic

vision of what you are looking to

achieve, your Employee Value

Proposition (EVP). Your EVP is

ascertained by aligning your

organisational objectives, with what

you need from your employees in order

to deliver these - and with what you

offer employees that is compelling

for them.

Your EVP must be aligned to your

organisational vision and business

strategy. It needs to articulate what

value employees will get from working

for you and how you are different to

competitor organisations. It should

encapsulate what current and potential

employees perceive as the value of

being part of, and contributing to the

success of, your organisation.

Given the EVP is about the organisation,

it needs to be owned by your leaders

with a high degree of input from all levels

of employees. HR’s role is to facilitate

the process and to communicate the

results.

Delivering the valueHaving defined your EVP, you need to

develop an engagement strategy that

will deliver it. Research highlights

that there are 12 core areas that drive

employee engagement, all of which

are central to any HR strategy - from

compensation and benefits to

organisational communication, from

leadership behaviour to performance

management.

Whilst your strategy will focus on the

entire employee life cycle, the exact

balance of where you place your

priorities will depend on your EVP.

Developing a strategy will enable you to

confidently allocate budget to your key

priorities. However, it is more than an

exercise in developing SMART goals.


It should be about creating a coherent

story that articulates how engaging

your employees is central to delivering

your organisational objectives.

As such, an engagement strategy is

essentially the same as an HR strategy,

but with one subtle but key difference.

An HR strategy tends to focus on

creating a series of related initiatives

aimed primarily at increasing

organisational efficiency through

people processes. An engagement

strategy should focus on creating the

best performance environment possi-

ble for your people. This distinction,

if delivered correctly, can transform HR

from being an interested party into a

central player in business planning.

Communicating the strategyIn simple terms, organisational

communication is about delivering a

message, and checking it has been

received and understood. Engagement

is about bringing the message to life

and helping people make sense of it

and what it means to them.

A common communications mistake is

to simply announce the initiatives

being run, rather than how they will

add value to the organisation. For HR,

the key to successful communication

lies in changing the language it uses

and investing time to ensure that

people understand and engage with

the message.

For example, instead of focusing on

the cost of recruiting and ‘onboarding’

a new employee, focus on the question:

‘At what point, do we make a return on

investment (RoI) in a new employee?’

This immediately shifts the focus

towards how HR can work with the

business to either increase an

employees’ speed to performance

or adjust the levels of investment in

them, so they can more quickly

contribute to the organisation.

It is also important to set the strategy

in context. For example, whilst one

impact of high attrition rates is an

increase in recruitment and training

costs, the longer-term, more serious

impact is likely to be a decline in

customer satisfaction and ultimately a

reduction in customer spending.

Measuring the return oninvestment To demonstrate a return on

investment, you need access to the

right information at the right time.

This information will come from

different sources - from business

metrics, feedback from employees

and managers, feedback from

customers and from every stage of

the employee life cycle (including staff

turnover rates, employee engagement

survey data and absenteeism rates).

It should be quantifiable in real costs

to the business.

Ultimately, the return on investment is

dependent on what your engagement

strategy is looking to deliver. However,

each aspect of the strategy should

have metrics that are aligned to the

overarching Employee Value

Proposition.

As well as the organisational benefits,

what makes this really compelling is

that it can change the perceived

strategic value that HR provides to the

organisation.

Our expertGordon Barker is director of consulting

at employee engagement and reten-

tion specialist TalentDrain.

http://www.talentdrain.com


Top tips …

To create an engaging environment: ■ Focus on creating the performance environment required to deliver future organisational goals

■ Define your Employee Value Proposition

■ Set your priorities, then focus on the key elements and deliver them to an outstanding level

■ Create a coherent story, not just a series of related initiatives

To communicate your engagement strategy: ■ Involve as many of your HR population in the process as possible, so that the strategy becomes a shared story

■ Spend one-to-one time with key senior managers to address their concerns and ensure they see the benefits

to their part of the business

■ Share the strategy directly with the wider management population - don’t assume they’ll read emails or that

others will articulate your strategy clearly

■ Bring the strategy to life - focus on the benefits for each group and on the role that managers will play in delivering it

■ Ensure people have plenty of time to ask questions

■ Keep revisiting the message and highlight the benefits as they become apparent

To measure the RoI from engagement:■ Use a combination of business and HR metrics

■ Evaluate all aspects of the employee life cycle using a range of measurement sources

■ Ensure you can access reliable data when you need it

Source: TalentDrain.

Tel: +44 (0)870 760 [email protected]

engagement & retention specialist

creating an engaging performance environment | talentdrain | march 2009 creating … ·...

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