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Employee Engagement:

Strategies & Practices An i4cp Report

Strategy Leadership Talent Culture Market

Employee Engagement: Strategies & Practices

The five domains of

high-performance organizations

About i4cp i4cp focuses on the people practices that make high-performance organizations unique. Years of research

make it clear that top companies approach their workforces differently. At i4cp, we work with our network of

organizations to:

Reveal what high-performance organizations

are doing differently.

Identify best and next practices for all levels

of management.

Provide the resources to show how workforce

improvements have bottom-line impact.

Through our exclusive, vendor-free network – in which peers

collaborate to drive strategic research and share tools and

insights – i4cp provides a unique, practical view of how human

capital practices drive high-performance.

Visit i4cp.com to learn more.

About this report Having an engaged workforce has a high correlation with market performance. This fact drives high-

performance organizations to manage engagement much the same as they measure and monitor

financial and operational performance. By combining data with on-the-ground initiatives from some of

the world's top organizations, this report clearly shows where the critical connections between employee

engagement and business performance should be made. It also provides actionable strategies for

implementing the practices that will put your organization on the road to a more engaged and

productive future.

About the Market Performance Index (MPI) i4cp’s Market Performance Index, or MPI, is based on self-reported ratings of organizational

performance in four key areas—market share, revenue growth, profitability and customer satisfaction—

as compared to the levels achieved five years previously. The average of the four ratings determines

MPI score.

http://www.i4cp.com/

Contents Aligning culture, strategy and performance ................................................................................................................... 1

Promote a culture in which employees understand organizational goals and are empowered to

achieve them ....................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Trust is the foundation of engagement at 3M .......................................................................................................... 3

Measure the impact of engagement on the business................................................................................................... 4

Rio Tinto links engagement to business results ...................................................................................................... 6

Include engagement in managers’ performance reviews ............................................................................................ 7

Jack in the Box links engagement to profits ............................................................................................................. 8

Ensure prompt, focused follow through by managers .................................................................................................. 9

Conclusions and recommendations .............................................................................................................................. 10

Recommendations for conducting employee engagement surveys ................................................................. 10

10 Steps for increasing employee engagement ................................................................................................... 11

Authors and contributors ................................................................................................................................................ 15

References ........................................................................................................................................................................ 15

©2013 Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp)

Use of all results, analysis and findings requires explicit permission from i4cp.

www.i4cp.com Page 1 | Proprietary

Time-to-full-productivity Employee Engagement: Strategies & Practices


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Aligning culture, strategy and performance

i4cp's research on employee engagement confirms that in high-performing organizations (HPOs) engagement

is much more than a periodic survey followed by activity-planning. Engagement is about aligning culture,

strategy and performance, and re-thinking the ways in which these connect. It is the result of a series of

activities that need to be embedded into every step of the

employee life cycle process from the employer brand

portrayed, recruiting and onboarding, to leadership, learning

and development, and reward and recognition. A critical

element of this alignment is a culture that makes engagement

the responsibility of frontline managers and top leadership

rather than an activity wholly owned by human resources.

Having an engaged workforce has a high correlation with market performance. HPOs excel at practices that

increase engagement—far out-performing lower-performing organizations (LPOs). These practices include:

Maintaining cultures in which employees understand organizational

goals and are empowered to achieve them.

Measuring the impact of engagement on the business.

Including engagement in manager performance appraisals and

development plans.

Emphasizing prompt and focused follow through on engagement issues

with frequent and regular communications on the impact to the business.

i4cp’s 2012 survey on employee engagement revealed that 35% of HPOs actively measure and regularly

monitor the impact of engagement on the business and act quickly to respond compared to 21% of low

performers. HPOs manage engagement much the same as they measure and monitor financial and

operational performance. The most commonly used metrics for analysis are customer satisfaction, profitability

and revenue growth, with HPOs much more likely to use these metrics in all three areas.

HPO's describe difficulty defining engagement across global workforces, identifying the right metrics to use in

different markets, sustaining focus on engagement during difficult periods, and effectively tackling the action-

planning element—much the same as LPO's. However, HPOs persevere through these issues to realize results

by recognizing that not following up in meaningful ways can be more counter-productive than not surveying

employees at all.

Some organizations have yet to begin to connect operating and financial information with employee

information. The good news is that it can begin with small, incremental steps working with basic metrics that

can be refined over time. Making those critical connections between employee engagement and business

performance may be challenging at first, but prove well worth the investment.

Engagement is about

aligning culture, strategy and

performance, and re-thinking the

ways in which these connect.


Proprietary | Page 2 ©2013 Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) www.i4cp.com

Promote a culture in which employees understand

organizational goals and are empowered to achieve them Employees in high-performing organizations understand their company's business strategy and operating

goals, and most importantly, what they need to do to contribute to their success. Equally important is that they

genuinely want—and are able to—take ownership of challenges and find solutions.

HPOs recognize the importance of creating and

sustaining an environment that aligns their business

objectives with a culture that empowers their

employees. HPOs also use employee surveys as only

one method of identifying how well they are doing.

Additionally, they monitor and manage performance,

individually and collectively, to ensure it is successful

and aligned to the key business performance

objectives.

Over two-thirds of respondents from high-engagement

organizations (HEOs) agreed to a high or very high

extent that there is a clear understanding in their

organization of what the company stands for, what it

wants to achieve and how employees contribute to

that success.

This reinforces the importance of clear and consistent

communication by all levels of leadership throughout

the organization. Messages employees receive about

the organization and their contributions to plans and

strategies are absolutely critical to engagement.

When asked about the extent to which they agreed with the statement that their organization’s leadership

helps employees see and feel how they are contributing to the organization’s success and future, over a third

of the overall (aggregate) respondents agreed to a high or very extent, but respondents from HEOs (47%) were

twice as likely to agree as those from LEOs (21%). This finding had significant correlations with both market

performance (r =.21**) and engagement (r=.42**).

High-Engagement Organizations (HEOs)

Respondents to the survey indicating >70%

of their workforce is highly engaged

(96 of 334 survey respondents).

Low-Engagement Organizations (LEOs)

Respondents to the survey indicating <30%

of their workforce is highly engaged

(94 of 334 survey respondents).




STRATEGY IN ACTION

Trust is the foundation

of engagement at 3M 3M differentiates between employee satisfaction and employee

engagement by looking at how the perceptions, behaviors and drivers

associated with each word differ. The company found that while engaged

employees are satisfied and demonstrate satisfaction behaviors as well as

engagement behaviors, the same is not necessarily true in reverse:

satisfied employees don’t always display engagement behaviors.

3M defines engagement as: “an individual’s sense of purpose and

focused energy, evident to others in the display of personal initiative,

effort and persistence directed toward organizational goals.”

With this in mind, 3M’s engagement model looks at conditions for

engagement that include engagement attitudes, engagement behaviors

and organizational outcomes. The basic building blocks of engagement at

3M are:

Fair/consistent treatment leads to people

trusting their environment,

Trusting one’s environment leads to a sense of safety,

People feel safe to take action on their own

initiative, supporting engagement and innovation.

How does a global company ensure alignment worldwide?

Karen B. Paul, Ph.D., who leads Global HR Measurement for 3M, says that

the fundamentals of engagement are universal; the desire for meaning and

purpose in the workplace knows no borders; how the company capitalizes

on the fundamentals is local, and how these two facts are aligned can

produce engagement and financial success.

At 3M, employee engagement is definitely on the rise with consistent

increases on key measures—commitment, innovation, engagement and

risk-taking, even during a time of economic uncertainty. 3M’s research

validates the business case for employee engagement, finding that

engagement attitudes predict 3M plant absenteeism (short-term disability),

reduced benefits costs, evidence that lab employee engagement attitudes

are linked to innovation and profitability, and linking employee engagement

with customer loyalty and sustainability.

3M improves

trust by: Providing education and

training for supervisors

and managers;

Promoting employees’

understanding and

involvement with 3M;

Ensuring that

compensation is seen as

fair and equitable, and

opening the channels of

communication;

Building accountability

and rewards -metrics, pay,

promotions and

performance

management;

Focusing on interpersonal

elements such as

approaching one another

with respect and warmth;

Expecting leaders keep

their promises, involve

people in decision-

making, distribute work

equitably, communicate

openly and demonstrate

concern;

Emphasizing engagement

in all leadership classes

and through mentoring

initiatives such as

“Leaders Teaching

Leaders.”



More than

1.5x

1.5x

4.5x

3x

Measure the impact of engagement on the business Among those organizations that are measuring the impact of engagement on the business, more respondents

from HPOs (35%) reported doing so than those from LPOs (21%). Among organizations that are actively

measuring the impact of engagement on the business, the most commonly used metrics are customer

satisfaction, profitability and revenue growth, with HPOs much more likely to use these metrics in all three

areas.

Significantly more HPOs measure the impact of employee

engagement on key business performance indicators

*Percent of organizations measuring the business impact of engagement

Customer satisfaction

HPOs 83%

LPOs 50%

Profitability

HPOs 67%

LPOs 38%

Revenue growth

HPOs 63%

LPOs 13%

Market share

HPOs 42%

LPOs 13%

Source: i4cp's Employee Engagement Survey

While researchers and HR practitioners have been able to establish a relationship between employee

engagement and business performance in a specific context, developing an approach that can be applied

widely has proved elusive.

Hank Jonas, who leads Organizational Effectiveness at Corning says that it’s important to keep in mind that

making these connections is much more complex for some organizations than others. Companies that are very

singular industries, such as banks or retailers, that ascribe to the basic model of employee satisfaction drives

customer satisfaction—which in turn drives business results—are able to identify specific, consistent measures

of customer satisfaction. Others, by virtue of their industry and scope, don’t have that same ease; it would

require a very sophisticated process in order to establish those linkages Jonas says.

Some leaders may be hesitant or even resistant to the notion of tying employee survey data to hard business

data altogether because they believe that survey results are simply reactive. If business is good, the results will

be good and if the business is not doing well the employees will be unhappy—and this is what will be

represented in survey results.




But companies can and should start modestly, says Jonas, if not by looking at hard business results, looking at

engagement scores by performance ratings or by talent designations—those are the things that will start to get

the attention of senior leaders. “When you’re looking at survey data that may be telling you that your most high-

potential people are less satisfied and engaged, that will pique some interest,” Jonas says.

Organizations don't always start with a major corporate-wide initiative measuring a multitude of metrics and

indicators. Most successful HPOs report a simple formula for success:

1. Start small Work with individual business unit leaders to build curiosity, then interest, and

ultimately commitment for resources and action. Many HPOs report using simple

spreadsheets and/or database management vs. HRIS big-box systems.

2. Collect readily available metrics first Compile available data for both HR and business unit performance. Limit your impact

to the business while gathering data.

3. Look for reasonable correlations Don’t look for or conclude cause-and-effect at first; check your data before drawing any

conclusions or recommending action.

4. Ensure accuracy Build rigor and validity in your processes. Challenge your own observations. Be your

own worst critic---it still won't be enough.

5. Establish a history Extend your analysis retrospectively looking for patterns and trends. Structure your

collection with an eye to the future to prepare for an accumulation of data. Prepare for

organizational changes in structure.

6. Build momentum Harvest and share success stories and seek endorsements from executives that have

found the data valuable.



Items with a strong, consistent

link to the performance measures

most important to Rio Tinto were

more meaningful than standard

conceptual measures of

engagement.

STRATEGY IN ACTION

Rio Tinto links engagement to business results Rio Tinto has been conducting surveys of employees for quite some time, initially focusing on gathering input

and opinions regarding issues that affect the organization rather than employment. Culturally, there was a

sense that the contributions of people impact business performance, but the company’s leadership wanted to

make solid connections between employee engagement and performance of the business.

Rio Tinto’s approach to demonstrating that employee engagement is much more than an HR initiative to gauge

satisfaction began with the appointment of an advisor on employee engagement. A case study by Towers

Watson, Rio Tinto’s partner on the initiative, notes that Rio Tinto already had a broad spectrum of business

measures, and rather than adopt standard engagement measures, was eager to establish links between

employee engagement and business performance unique to the organization. This was achieved by using

linkage analysis to define the engagement measure. Towers Watson and Rio Tinto designed a wider survey

than usual to allow a broader field for correlation. The routine employee opinion analysis was completed

swiftly, but the linkage analysis demanded more complex and time-consuming statistical modeling. Rio Tinto

provided performance data based on safety, production and maintenance measures.

Six survey items emerged that showed strong, consistent links to the performance measures that are most

important to Rio Tinto’s plants and mines managers, far more meaningful than a standard conceptual measure

of engagement. From this, Rio Tinto had a key performance indicator (KPI) linking engagement to business

results. Towers Watson and Rio Tinto analyzed the underlying drivers—identified as leadership, external

reputation, and safety practices—to develop action plans for improvements as well as benchmark themselves

against similar organizations in Towers Watson’s database.




Include engagement in managers’ performance reviews The role of the manager in employee engagement cannot be underestimated. Of course, the messages sent to

the organization by senior leadership regarding the importance of engagement are important, but frontline

managers are the linchpin for building and sustaining engagement. The study found that high engagement

organizations are twice as likely as low engagement organizations to include engagement measures as part of

each line manager’s performance review. With a correlation to engagement of 0.22**, organizations that fail

to tie engagement to performance measures are missing a key opportunity to improve engagement.

i4cp’s Talent Management in the Trenches report bears

out the importance of line managers taking responsibility

for managing talent, which also showed a strong

correlation to high performance. Context is a key point,

however, as it’s important to acknowledge that the work

environment, culture and company type can alter the

talent management activities of line managers.

Paul Humphries, EVP of HR and President, Medical,

Automotive, and Aerospace for Flextronics, noted that

the talent management priorities are quite different for

frontline managers in his organization. “When we think

of talent management responsibilities for our frontline

managers, we primarily think of employee engagement,

retention, attraction, reducing turnover, and trying to

provide a better work environment,” Humphries said.

Half of the survey respondents agreed that engagement is a reflection of how employees feel about their

relationship with their immediate supervisor, and far more respondents from HPOs agreed with this statement

than did those from LPOs. Managers who invest time in getting to know their employees and provide them with

regular feedback, coaching and development opportunities are more likely to have effective, highly engaged

teams that contribute to the success of the organization. i4cp’s report, Purpose Driven Performance

Management in High-Performance Organizations revealed that HPOs differentiate themselves by providing

supervisors with critical training related to performance management. This held true in every category of

training―giving/receiving feedback, conducting a performance appraisal meeting, maintaining ongoing

documentation, writing performance appraisals, providing motivation, developing goals. Tying engagement to

the performance measures of managers is not a common practice today (only 26% of companies reported

doing it) but it should become one for organizations serious about increasing engagement among the

workforce.

Incorporating action planning into the performance management process makes sense as it establishes clear

and specific accountability. Organizations can help managers by focusing on key insights garnered from the

engagement survey rather than bombarding them with a massive dump of data. By identifying key drivers that

managers can focus their time and energy on in terms of relevant and specific actions that will improve

engagement, organizations have a better chance of gaining support from managers and with it, meaningful

change. This can be facilitated by assisting managers in ensuring that their direct reports have line of sight to

the organization’s purpose and goals.

Includes engagement as part of each

manager's performance review

HEOs 40%

LEOs 19%

2x

Agrees with the statement:

"Employee engagement is a reflection of

how employees feel about their relationship

with their immediate supervisor"

HEOs 65%

LEOs 40%


1.5x

http://www.i4cp.com/surveys/talent-management-in-the-trenches

http://www.i4cp.com/surveys/purpose-driven-performance-management-in-high-performance-organizations

http://www.i4cp.com/surveys/purpose-driven-performance-management-in-high-performance-organizations



STRATEGY IN ACTION

Jack in the Box links engagement to profits Jack in the Box Inc. has conducted annual employee surveys for nearly two decades,

following the familiar cycle of conducting a survey each year, summarizing and

sharing the results with the organization. Mark Blankenship, the company’s SVP and

Chief Administrative Officer, arrived to find that the company ascribed to the service

profit chain model* for operating its restaurants. The concept at the heart of this model is that if restaurant

managers excel at hiring the right employees, those hires will provide superior service to guests, resulting in

happier (and loyal) guests, who would then be more loyal to the brand. This idea of hiring the right employees,

treating them well, training consistently and paying above average—all of which leads to high levels of

customer service, loyalty and retention—was, as Blankenship wrote in HR Magazine, “ … the belief system or

logic chain. We put language to that effect in our annual reports” (2012).

HR measured employee satisfaction and engagement through the annual survey and “demonstrated

relationships between satisfaction with the boss, benefits, training, turnover and so forth, but that's where HR's

analytical connection to the business stopped,” says Blankenship, who was intrigued that HR professionals did

not engage in connecting the "people" data to the financial and operational data, nor did leaders in finance

and operations express interest in that same people data as an integral, strategic element of their analytical

work. “After all,” says Blankenship, “they measure every aspect of restaurant and business performance.”

Blankenship moved to assemble the restaurant performance data and connect the organization’s people

metrics and business performance, the beginnings of what became “a strategic shift in decision-making,"

Blankenship says. The data told a story—restaurants staffed by happier employees had happier guests and

correspondingly higher sales and profits. “We learned that the manager controlled much of what we saw as

employee satisfaction but that ‘happy employees’ were only part of the equation that led to our current ‘people

equity scorecard.’”

The organization began to change the way business was discussed—based on the data and process—and they

added quarterly internal service surveys to follow-up the annual survey. The quarterly surveys defined eight

dimensions: communication; feedback; interpersonal treatment; leadership; physical environment; rewards

and recognition; staffing; training and development. Blankenship says that the quarterly follow-up surveys

measured the performance of restaurant managers, which were a component of the manager's performance

review. “We used those results to inform our restaurant operations team about what was really driving

employee engagement and performance. To their surprise, it was less about pay—despite entry-level wages

associated with the quick-service restaurant industry—and more about consistent staffing, training and

feedback.”

Jack in the Box was able to refine its people data down to eight dimensions of service and had employees rate

their managers on these eight dimensions. This information was then shared with the restaurant managers,

which enables them to assess their own performance. After a year of sharing this feedback with managers

quarterly, the company made this process part of a manager’s regular performance review in order to hold

them accountable.

*For complete information on the model see, The Service Profit Chain: How Leading Companies Link Profit and Growth to Loyalty,

Satisfaction and Value, by James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser Jr, and Leonard A. Schlesinger, Free Press, 1997.




Ensure prompt, focused follow through by managers It may seem simplistic, but the fact is that many organizations falter merely by failing to follow-through in

meaningful and visible ways or by depending on HR alone to drive execution. The onus here is on the leaders

of the organization to set the tone—engagement becomes relevant in an organization in which the senior

leaders understand that engagement drives business results and view it as a business imperative rather than

something that should be invested in simply because it is the right thing to do.

It stands to reason that employees who have

participated in engagement surveys and observed real

action come out of the result of those surveys beyond

the presentations of the results and discussions about

change strategies will be more engaged. Our survey

found that 38% of the respondents agreed to a high or

very extent with the statement:“My organization’s

leadership helps employees see and feel how they are

contributing to the organization’s success and future.”

Among those, the respondents from HPOs were much

more likely to agree (50%) than those from LPOs (24%).

The imperative for companies today is to act, but

differently than they have in the past. Managers must

focus on employees, individually, as the key to improving

employee engagement throughout the enterprise. By

leveraging universal motivators—autonomy, mastery and

purpose—to make mutually rewarding progress, each

manager can readily create natural win/win outcomes.

To do their best, managers need: leaders to set the stage and lead by example; HR to facilitate the ongoing

process; and finally, upper middle managers to become subject matter experts, who competently advise

leaders and mentor managers on an ongoing basis.

Moreover, sustainable cultures of engagement are built on solid foundations of trust and engaged employees

are those who have confidence in their senior leaders. Leaders earn trust by being visible, communicating

clearly and often about company values, and walking the talk. Cultures in which employees are motivated and

engaged are likely those in which leaders communicate effectively with employees about performance goals

and expectations. They are also visibly invested in employee engagement and demonstrate their commitment

by taking swift, decisive and transparent action on what is learned from employee surveys.

Most respondents to the survey reported that their

leaders demonstrate investment in employee

engagement, and respondents from HPOs were much

more likely (76%) to say this than LPOs (59%).

Respondents from high engagement organizations were

twice as likely (89%) as those from low engagement

companies (46%) to report that their leadership

demonstrates investment in engagement, which had a

0.34** correlation to engagement.

Leaders demonstrate investment in

employee engagement

HEOs 89%

LEOs 46%


2x

Agrees with the statements:

"My organization does an effective job of

taking meaningful action following

engagement surveys"

HPOs 31%

LPOs 14%

"My organization's leadership helps

employees see and feel how they are

contributing to the organization's

success and future"

HPOs 50%

LPOs 24%


2x

2x



Conclusions and recommendations Employee engagement has a high correlation to market performance. Increasing it is worth the investment and

the effort required. High-performing organizations cultivate high engagement among their employees. And

companies with highly engaged workforces generate better financial and customer satisfaction results than

those with less engaged employees. Our study reveals that companies should take four key steps to ensure the

value of their employee engagement survey efforts:

Recommendations for conducting employee engagement surveys

Recommendation Action Benefit

Tailor your approach Connect engagement activities to the

business strategy and identify linkages

between engagement data and

business outcomes.

Builds the business case for employee

engagement.

Involve top leaders Engage senior business and corporate

leaders in conversations about

engagement data and improvement.

Builds leadership commitment to and

involvement in employee engagement

activities.

Communicate results quickly Hold town hall-style meetings with

senior leadership presenting scores,

areas of strength, areas for

development, and discussing action

plans being created.

Acknowledge the input of employees

and communicate in a concrete way

what changes the company will make.

Develop a consistent message and

theme that communicates the value

and business importance of

engagement and the organization’s

commitment to employees.

Demonstrates the commitment of

senior leaders to employee

engagement.

Helps to shift the view of engagement

from the focus of an annual survey to an

integral part of the culture of the

organization.

Take action Respond to employee feedback by

taking action on items as quickly as

possible and communicating about it.

Recognize and reward engagement by

emphasizing when it is done well and

celebrating successful efforts.

Sends the clear message that” we

heard you said, here’s what we did

about it.”

Sets the tone for and reinforces the

importance of engagement to both

employees and managers alike.




Engagement is the result of a series of activities that need to be embedded into every step of the talent

management process. Our survey of close to 200 organizations and discussions with i4cp’s Employee

Engagement Exchange members identified 10 key steps that organizations can take to increase employee

engagement:

10 Steps for increasing employee engagement


Re

cru

itin

g

1. Design/ enhance your employer

brand around key engagement

drivers.

Build an employee value

proposition and workplace

environment around attributes

that most engage employees.

Creates a culture that

continually engages

employees and helps improve

internal employee referral

rates.

2. Hire people that are more likely

to “fit’ your organization (from a

values/culture) standpoint.

Embed values and behaviors

into candidate identification,

interview and assessment

practices.

Acclimates new staff more

quickly into the organization.

On

bo

ard

ing

3. Focus onboarding process on

assimilation.

Implement process to ensure

managers meet with new staff

on start dates, have working

environment prepared

(including technology) and are

assigned “buddies” to help new

staff with acclimation and

introductions to key people in

the organization.

Accelerates time to full

productivity and reduction of

learning curves for new

employees.




Lea

de

rsh

ip

4. Give workers line of sight from

the work they do to the bigger

strategic goals of the

organization and or business

unit.

Educate workers on the

business; make company

performance data available,

identify drivers of performance

and show how what employees

do affects them.

Conduct town hall or group

meetings in which senior

leadership discusses strategy

and other issues.

Creates a greater sense of

ownership among employees

and establishes transparency

between executives

leadership actions and

objectives.

5. Involve employees in

organizational strategy.

Establish an Employee Council

to increase communication with

front-line staff.

Create a venue for employees to

submit ideas on internal

improvements to a panel of

peers who discuss and

determine the feasibility of the

idea and the potential impact to

the organization.

Builds ownership of strategic

goals among employees.

6. Focus on developing better

leaders and managers.

Make the provision of

developmental support such as

training, coaching and

mentoring to line managers a

priority.

Train frontline leaders on the

following: giving and receiving

feedback, conducting

performance appraisal

meetings, addressing employee

performance issues, and setting

the goals the employees will be

measured against.

Ensures that engagement is

treated as a process by

leaders rather than an event.





Ap

pra

isa

l

7. Hold leaders accountable for

engagement.

Walk the talk. The tone of the

culture is a foundation set by

the leadership upon which

employee engagement is built

(or not). If the conduct of the

organization’s leadership is in

conflict with the messages

being sent to the workforce,

investments in building

engagement with employees

will be wasted.

Tie engagement scores of direct

reports and or business units to

appraisals and rewards.

Builds trust among

employees and reinforces the

importance of engagement

with and by leaders—“what’s

measured matters.”

Lea

rnin

g

8. Provide ample learning options

and opportunities.

Establish development plans

and career paths for all job

roles.

Offer a mix of classroom, online

and experiential learning.

Provide career development

support including online portals

and tools and coaching and

mentoring.

Builds commitment to the

organization as a place to

learn and grow.

9. Use social and collaborative

tools.

Implement a social media rich

intranet to facilitate quicker

communication, information

sharing, collaboration and

connecting team members to

'communities' they have

interest in.

Provides a vehicle for

organizational transparency

and messaging. Also,

reinforces key engagement

drivers as well as surfaces

issues that may soon (or

already does) impact

engagement.




Re

wa

rd a

nd

Re

cog

nit

ion

10. Prioritize and communicate on-

going employee recognition and

rewards.

Institute programs such as

“spot rewards” where managers

can reward employees who go

above and beyond.

Spotlight employees (e.g. in a

company newsletter) that

consistently demonstrate

organizational values and/or

came up with a new idea that

improved company

performance.

Use social media to recognize

employees publically. For

example, posting a

“congratulations” to their

LinkedIn page. Tie to key

performance indicators.

Makes employees feel valued

and appreciated. Also,

increase morale and instills

greater organizational pride.




Authors and contributors Analysis and input was contributed by Tony DiRomualdo, VP of research and Kevin Copestick, Director,

Member Exchange Programs.

Andrew Dixon is i4cp’s research coordinator and contributor to this report; managing the survey

implementation and conducting the data analysis.

Eric Davis, i4cp’s senior editor, provided editorial oversight, graphic design and proofing for this report.

i4cp’s Employee Engagement Exchange This report and the associated survey are products of i4cp's 2011-2012 Employee Engagement Exchange. The

group was comprised of representatives from the following organizations:

Abbott Labs

Alere

Choice Hotels

Grainger

Hertz

ING

Jack in the Box

New York Times

RBC Dexia

Sony Pictures

Entertainment

Toyota

Zebra Technology

We extend our gratitude and appreciation to the many contributors, whose dedication to the study of employee

engagement made this research project possible.

References Blankenship, Mark. (July, 2012). “Happier Employees + Happier Customers = More Profits: HR Professionals at

Jack in the Box Restaurants use Metrics to Make the Connection.” HR Magazine. www.shrm.org

Blankenship, Mark. (October, 2012). "How to Use the People Equity Model to Better Understand Business

Performance." 2012 HRPS Strategic Talent Management Forum. HRPS. Chicago. www.hrps.org

Institute for Corporate Productivity. (2012). Talent Management in the Trenches. www.i4cp.com

Towers Watson (2011). “Towers Watson and Rio Tinto: Providing a Rock-Solid Link Between Employee

Engagement and Business Performance.” www.towerswatson.com

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http://www.hrps.org/

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http://www.towerswatson.com/

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