the Key to Increasing Employee Engagement

How many times over the last six weeks have you heard news reports assigning accountability for the oil spill disaster in the Gulf Coast? Who is accountable - BP or Transocean or Halliburton or Mineral Management Services?

As with this oil spill, achieving desired outcomes in an organization is extremely difficult if accountability for those outcomes is not abundantly clear. Even when accountability is clear, for a variety of reasons desired outcomes are sometimes not achieved. But assigning accountability is the first step.

Research by some of the world's largest consulting firms has clearly shown that Employee Engagement drives desired business outcomes. For example, Gallup found that employees answering Engagement survey questions positively work in business units with:

·        12% higher profitability

·        12% higher customer satisfaction

·        18% greater productivity

·        27% less absenteeism

·        51% less employee turnover

·        62% fewer accidents

Gallup also found that employees' responses to Engagement survey questions are formed based on their opinion of their immediate supervisor - not the policies of the company. Supervisors are the key to Employee Engagement.

So logic would tell us that organizations striving for high levels of Employee Engagement should be holding each supervisor, manager and leader accountable for the level of Engagement within their team. Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of 'First, Break All of the Rules' says it this way "Companies don't have one culture. They have as many as they have supervisors or managers. You want to build a strong culture? Hold every manager accountable for the culture that he or she builds."

But common sense is not always common practice. For example, Right Management found in a study just last month that only 18% of the organizations surveyed formally and consistently hold leaders accountable for Employee Engagement.

If Employee Engagement drives organizational performance and an employee's immediate manager is the primary determinant of that employee's level of Engagement, how can you establish clear accountability with each manager? We at The Focus Group assist our clients in establishing managerial accountability by:

·        Communicating that accountability directly to each member of the management team

·        Explaining to managers the benefits of Employee Engagement - to the company, employees and them as managers

·        Surveying each manager's employee team to determine each team's current benchmark level of Engagement

·        Meeting individually with each manager to discuss his/her Engagement survey results - which Employee Engagement needs are and are not being met

·        Establishing with each manager mutually agreed upon Employee Engagement goals and targets

·        Providing training in utilizing practical managerial initiatives that will address each manager's specific Engagement opportunities

·        Tying levels of Employee Engagement to managers' merits, incentives, bonuses and promotions

·        Publicizing and celebrating managers' Engagement achievements

Conveying clear managerial accountability will lead to enhanced Employee Engagement and drive your desired business outcomes - manufacturing and service organizations like the Ritz-Carlton, Chick-fil-A, GE & Campbell Soup are building their cultures on this process