Employee Engagement: Where next?

HR Directors Business Summit Birmingham, UK

Feb 3rd 2015

Nicholas J Higgins CEO, VaLUENTiS Ltd & Dean, International School of HCM (‘ISHCM’)

Professional Services

www.valuentis.com

Smart. Smarter. Smartest...

‘PEOPLE SCIENCE®’

Organisation Intelligence

to improve organisation performance

• Human Capital Management Evaluation

• Employee Engagement

• Talent Management

• Workforce Productivity & Performance

• HC Analytics

• HC Forensics & Risk

• HR Function ROI Analysis

• Organisation Measurement

• Management Education

• Organisation Strategy

SOLUTIONS

‘The leading human

capital management

specialists’

“As evidence-based management practitioners, our purpose is to enhance effective people management (and its impact on productivity/performance) in organisations, whilst enabling greater individual managerial professionalism.”

THE EE

PLAYBOOK

Line of sight

Work environment

Operating culture

Development

Reward (equity)

Performance link

What we bring…

Employee Engagement Solutions Evidenced based definition,

understanding and application

Measurement wisdom and

expertise

On-line tools and analytics

Employee survey design expertise

and processing

Project management

expertise

Actioning strategies and

tactics

Frontline blended learning

‘License to manage’ programmes

Senior management feedback sessions and group management coaching

Global reach

‘Twelve years of innovation…’

Team productivity/ performance

modelling

6

Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work

William A. Kahn

Academy of Management Journal 1990

“Personal Engagement is the simultaneous employment and expression of a person’s ‘preferred self’ in task behaviors that promote connections to work and to others, personal presence (physical, cognitive and emotional), and active, full role performance.”

The concept of Employee Engagement ‘EE100’: A synthesis of antecedent theories and empirical evidence - 100 years in the

making

Source: The antecedents of Employee Engagement, Nicholas J Higgins & G Cohen, VaLUENTiS technical paper 2003

Wider Group

Immediate Team

Organisation Individual

•Group theory

•Trust theory

•Teams theory

•Conflict theory

•Decision-making theory

•Motivation theory

•Goal setting and task theory

•Equity (justice) theory

•Trait theory

•Expectancy theory

•Commitment theory

•Needs theory

•Social cognitive/ self efficacy theory

•Cognitive dissonance

•Wellbeing/Burnout

•Job satisfaction

•Organisation Citizenship Behaviour

•Learning theory

•Behaviourism

•Emotional Intelligence

•Psychological contract

•Leadership theory

•Organisational ‘fit’ theory

•Other I/O psychology contributions

•Organisation performance & measurement*

Human Capital Management practice/systems:

•Training & Development

•Performance management

•Reward & recognition

•Resourcing & selection

•Organisation communication

•Talent management

•Leadership

•Organisation culture

•Employer brand

•Human capital retention

•Organisation design

•Workforce diversity

•High performance work systems

•Fayol - Principles of management

•Taylor - Scientific management

•McGregor Theory X/Y

•Mayo/Hawthorne studies

•Tavistock – Socio-technical systems

•Lewin (MIT) - group dynamics/behaviour

•Munsterberg - Industrial psychology

•Follett - Management relations/integration

•Hertzberg – Two factor theory

•Drucker – Practice of management

•Kahn – Personal engagement

•Likert – Management system/measurement scale

‘Higher Employee Engagement and modes of productivity’

More likely to embrace ‘set

values’ and act accordingly

Less likely to suffer stress

(but more likely to suffer burn-out)

More likely to ‘own’ their development

More inclined to input into ideas/

innovation

More likely to give discretionary effort above contractual

obligations

Less likely to move employer

Less inclined to take days off

Each job role/family has its own ‘context’ and ‘specificity’ which impact on individual productivity and collective

performance

9

Sub-optimal performance, i.e. less than achievable

Or

Sub-optimal costs, i.e. higher than necessary

Or

Both

Impaired Employee Engagement: Impact on individual and team productivity/performance

Employee Engagement in Organisations: 3rd Annual Report 31st January 2015

in collaboration with

Authors: Nicholas J Higgins & Graeme Cohen

Does your organisation/business unit use a

definition of employee engagement?

Yes No

Don't know 2%

47% 51%

How do we know what we are measuring is

employee engagement?

Don't measure/ No answer provided

Answer provided doesn't explain

Use assumed model/advice of

consultants

Part research explanation but vague

*Note: Categories derived from open text reclassification

23%

42%

13

Embedding working EE definition for communication and understanding

More accurate measurement and focus with technical underpinning and checking of underlying premises

A maturing in terms of generic concepts backed up with technical definitions to provide organisational ‘stickiness’ (analogy with accounting)

Where next…?

Once a year (census)

Twice a year (census)

Once every two years (census)

Every quarter (pulse) including annual (census)

4%

12%

Our organisation conducts an employee survey....

53%

Don’t conduct employee

surveys As and when required

Our survey question set includes how many questions...?

[< 20]

[20-40] [41-60]

[61-80]

[> 80]

38%

17%

16

The move towards an ‘integrated’ system of annual (census) and interim ‘pulse-type’ surveys on blended media channels

Question sets ‘audited’ for balance and ‘fit for purpose’ together with analytics expertise

Technical expert ‘process ownership’ to protect against ‘objective hacking’ or ‘instrument morphing’

Where next…?

Yes 54% No

41%

Don't know 5%

As an organisation/business unit,

we link our employee survey data

with other people data

(e.g. appraisals, exit, absence

etc)?

Yes 41% No

54%

Don't know 5%

As an organisation/business unit,

we link our employee survey data

with other performance data

(e.g. sales, customer/patient/team

productivity, safety etc)?

Where next…? “EE BIG-small analytics…”

New (re)hire data

Performance appraisal data

Case data

Other internal survey/assessment data

Exit data

Organisation event log data

Critical incident data

Social media data

Customer/client/patient/citizen/ passenger data

Employee/management survey data

With regard to the evaluation/measurement of people management in

your organisation/business unit, which one of the following statements

is the most accurate?

Don’t know/Can’t decide

We don’t measure on an ongoing basis

We use a sophisticated mix of measurement approaches…

We have a basic scorecard of HR metrics like absenteeism, turnover etc

We have basic scorecard of HR metrics plus employee engagement scores…

We have some form of evaluation across the various supporting people processes/systems…

41%

23%

19%

7%

7%

2%

DIVERSITY

EMPLOYEE CENTRICITY

EMPLOYER BRAND

HR GOVERNANCE

HR OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

LEADERSHIP

ORGANISATION CLIMATE ORGANISATION

COMMUNICATIONS

ORGANISATION DESIGN

PERFORMANCE ORIENTATION

RESOURCING

RETENTION

REWARD

TALENT MANAGEMENT

LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

796

813

742

674

615

431

487

642

628 594 603

684

657 599 416

‘Out-performing’ (world class)

‘Out-performing’ (peer)

‘Comparable’ (peer)

‘Under-performing’ (peer)

Where next…? Advanced management analytics: Management Pathfinder®

Client example (extended HR

function version)

Which of the following statements describes our organisation/business

unit’s approach to embedding employee engagement infrastructure?

We don’t have any recognisable support infrastructure

We use employee surveys and other measurement instruments, linked with performance/ productivity data and actioning initiatives

We use employee surveys and other measurement instruments, linked with performance productivity data, backed up with L-M education and actioning initiatives

It’s basically in the guise of an action plan off the back of the employee survey

35%

26%

22%

16%

Where next…? Actioning Employee Engagement Infrastructure

Supportive top leadership and ‘signalling’…

‘Interactive’ people management evaluation process map

Multi-survey mapping and

planning overlay

EE related development/

learning programmes & workshops

People Manager evaluation/

appraisal (regular

‘practice runs’)

Defined ‘how to’ strategies around engagement elements

‘Live’ Employee Engagement adapted QFD (‘House of Quality’)

Dedicated internal focus team or nominated ‘on-point’

person

Nominated People Manager Engagement line

champions

Organisation event logs Links into wider

organisation intelligence analytics

Wider communications/

branding

Does your organisation/business unit utilise an ‘Employee

Engagement playbook’…?

Yes, in full 2% Yes, in part

13% Currently under

design 4%

No 72%

Don’t know 9%

Mo

del

s St

rate

gies

Im

ple

men

tati

on

Le

arn

ing

Contents

1. Engagement strategies

2. Engagement operating ‘system’ models and analytics templates

3. Question-statement selection and construct design

4. Measurement index construction, maintenance and reporting

5. Engagement Driver Factor (EDF) analysis

6. Engagement ‘forcefield’ analysis

7. EE project management methodology and flowcharts

8. Engagement ‘issue work-through’ tools

9. Management learning programme design and evaluative criteria

10. Engagement Transformation Programme (ETP) methodology

11. Core applied theory summary capsules

12. Human Capital Management framework

EE playbook 4

Where next…? The EE playbook

Does your organisation/business unit operate a ‘License to

Manage’ threshold for managers to become people managers?

Yes

No

75%

Don't know

26

Much more attention given to ‘manager’ engagement scores and their impact, based on deeper analysis

More pro-active, streamlined and frequent learning for managers to upgrade competency (or remove responsibility)

‘License to Manage’ to become the default setting within most, if not all, operating cultures

Where next…?

The ‘Six Pillars’…leading to strategy

EE PLAYBOOK

1. Grounded understanding of Employee Engagement

2. Working definition of Employee Engagement

3. Measurement wisdom

4. Actioning infrastructure

5. Dynamic EE-Performance ‘playbook’

DELETE 6. Competent leadership/management

Organisations and employee engagement:

The ‘4-ball’ success model

Play down

‘We don’t...’

Play act

‘It’s all about PR…’

Play safe

‘At least we audit/ benchmark...’

Play make

‘We do it…’

The four progressive states of employee engagement

embeddedness in organisations

Employee Engagement in Organisations

Play Safe

Play Make Play Down

Play Act

30

‘Playmakers’ continue to best leverage their employee engagement in organisation performance terms, i.e. ‘best in class’

‘Playsafers’ go one of two ways – either kick-on to PlayMaker™ level or eventually regress to Playactor level

‘Playactors’ look to transform to playmaker level or remain stuck in a ‘false PR loop’

‘Playdowners’ have the opportunity, with the right leadership, to transform to Playmakers or remain where they are.

Where next…?

Nicholas J Higgins nicholas.higgins@valuentis.com VaLUENTiS Ltd, 2nd Floor, Berkeley Square House, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6BD HO: +44 (0)207 887 6108 M: +44 (0)7811 404713 www.valuentis.com www.ISHCM.com www.NicholasJHiggins.com