Employee engagement:
How to be a team player
By Sally Gillespie
My experience
Agenda for today
• Introduction
• Key insights
• Team exercise
• Team presentations
• Top tips to get the most out of your team
• Wrap up – questions
What is employee engagement?
• How the employer interacts with its employees
• It encompasses internal communications, training and has a
strong link with a business’ leadership approach and corporate
culture
• It often sits within HR
•A central concept is how we make individuals feel valued
What not to do…
https://youtu.be/mXytRC0k-K8?t=1m27s
Why is employee engagement so
important?
“A workforce that is highly engaged is the engine driving the
gain in profitability and productivity that are critical to
business success in a competitive global environment.”
Accenture report, 2011
Some interesting stats…
Happy
employees
are 12%
more
productive
Leaders who
model the
desired
behaviour mean
the workforce is
55% more
engaged
Employees
with
supportive
bosses are
1.3 times
more likely to
stay
Why is being a team player so
important?
How to create a culture of
engagement
Your challenge
• Get into groups of 5 – 6 people
• Review the case study. Imagine that you are the manager in charge
• Identify the problem (s)
• Develop an action plan
• Present your ideas to the wider cohort
1. Be authentic
• Authentic leaders have self-awareness of
one’s strengths, limitations and emotions
• They show themselves to their followers
• And they lead with their heart
2. Walk the walk
• Why should your team act in a certain way if
the senior managers do not?
• When leaders model the desired behaviour,
employees are 55% more engaged
• Employees are also 53% more focused and
likely to stay with the business
3. Be visible and approachable
• Consider your body language
• Small things make a big difference
• Do you always say hello to team members when they
enter the room?
• Do you offer to make the team a cup of tea?
• Do you ever buy biscuits for the office?
• Do you reply swiftly to team members’ emails?
4. Be transparent
• This can support the company culture and
promote honesty
• By being transparent and adopting face-to-face
communication more often, you can build trust
and loyalty
5. Be flexible
• There may be occasions where a
team member needs to leave early or
work from a different location –
showing flexibility gains loyalty
• Understand what they need from
you to succeed – do colleagues need
much direction from you? Do they
prefer to make decisions
autonomously?
6. Say “thank you”
“A grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts to
itself great things.”
– Plato
7. Invest in your team members’
careers
• This doesn’t have to mean going on
expensive courses, it could be shadowing a
colleague
• Mix up responsibilities to build a strong
team e.g. who chairs the meetings
8. Be social
9. Celebrate individual’s performances
•Enter individuals for company awards or
external awards
• Ask them to take a session with others to share
their story
• Congratulate them verbally or via email
10. Building a team identity
Thank you and good luck with your MBA!