WHITE PAPER
5 ways to avoid the
engagement abyss
Once considered soft science, engagement
is now one of the most critical challenges
strategic organizations are focused on.
Yet we’re in an abyss — with a massive
gulf between how important we know
employee engagement is and how well
we’re doing achieving it.
Five Ways to Avoid the Engagement Abyss // 2
Why engagement matters
If you think about people as the engine that powers company progress, full engagement
is a set of well-oiled cylinders that fire consistently. More engaged workers are simply
more productive. According to Gallup research, companies in the top quartile when it
comes to employee engagement have 21 percent better productivity and 22 percent
higher profitability than companies in the bottom quartile. (Figure 1)
Absenteeism
-37%
High - Turnover Orgs.
-25%
Low - Turnover Orgs.
-65%
Shrinkage
Figure 1
ENGAGEMENT’S EFFECT ON KEY
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS.
-28%
Safety Incidents
-48%
Patient Safety Incidents
-41%
Quality (Defects)
-41%
Customer
10%
Productivity
21%
Profitability
22%
-70
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
MEDIAN OUTCOMES BETWEEN
TOP- AND BOTTOM-QUARTILE TEAMS
SOURCE: Gallup 2013 State of the American Workplace Report
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
Figure 2
WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING ARE THE
MOST IMPORTANT HR CHALLENGES TO
YOUR ORGANIZATION? (SELECT YOUR
TOP THREE CHOICES)
25%
20%
15%
47%
39%
SOURCE: 2013 SHRM/Globoforce Survey
35%
33%
31%
26%
19%
18%
10%
18%
10%
10%
5%
0%
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HR professionals are keenly aware of the connection between passionate employees
and business performance, which is why engagement is at the top of their list of
business challenges. In fact, according to a 2013 SHRM/Globoforce survey with more
than 800 respondents, employee engagement dwarfs all other HR concerns. (Figure 2)
4%
r
he
Ot
Five Ways to Avoid the Engagement Abyss // 3
Engagement Scores:
A Dark Picture
The vast majority
of US workers (70
percent) are not
reaching their
full potential — a
problem that
has significant
implications for
the economy and
the individual
performance of
With so many arguments for—and so much attention on—employee engagement,
you might jump to the conclusion that companies are hitting it out of the park on
engagement scores.
Not exactly. In fact, not at all. That engine of business progress—it turns out that most of
the cylinders are either misfiring or seizing up altogether.
According to data from Gallup, the state of employee engagement is dismal. In its 2013
State of the American Workplace report, Gallup reported that 7 out of 10 employees are
either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged.” And that’s a slight improvement over
the last four years.
As Gallup puts it in its report, “The vast majority of US workers (70 percent) are not
reaching their full potential — a problem that has significant implications for the economy
and the individual performance of American companies.”
American companies.
- Gallup
Figure 3
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AMONG THE U.S. WORKING POPULATION
2012
18%
52%
30%
2011
19%
52%
29%
2010
19%
53%
28%
2009
18%
54%
28%
Actively disengaged
Not engaged
SOURCE: Gallup 2013 State of the American Workplace Report
Engaged
Employee engagement is essential. Yet employee engagement is floundering. It’s a
perilous chasm, and HR is often left trying to fill that void. But needless to say, HR
can’t fix engagement on its own. In fact, some of the biggest engagement drivers—
relationships with managers, trust and belief in company leaders, having a feeling of
personal accomplishment at work—can be largely out of HR’s control.
The trick for strategic HR professionals is creating the environment, tools, and platforms
that allow the organization—and employee engagement—to flourish.
While every company is different and requires its own engagement approach, there are
critical areas every company should focus on to stay out of the engagement abyss.
Here’s a list of five key things every company can do to bolster engagement, and tips on
how recognition can play a role in each.
the five key elements to engagement
1
2
3
4
5
Create a Clear Set of Company Values
That Are Known & Understood
Build Culture Intentionally
Insist on Good Manager Hygiene
Provide Platforms for Positivity
Give People Skin in the Game
Five Ways to Avoid the Engagement Abyss // 4
Getting out of the Abyss
When it comes to creating high engagement, having a set of company values that
permeate the company is table stakes. People want to feel connected to their companies,
and feeling a bond with the values of the company is one of the essential ways of creating
that connection.
Modern Survey, an employee survey company, conducts a bi-annual National Employee
Engagement Study, in which it analyzes more than 1,000
employee surveys. “We ask people a simple question:
‘Yes or no, does your organization have a set of values
Those who say the
that are known and understood by most employees?’,”
company’s values are
explains Don MacPherson, Modern Survey’s CEO. “If
you say ‘yes’ to that question, you are 30 times more
“known and understood”
likely to be fully engaged than someone who answers
are 30x more likely to
‘no’ to that question. The absence of values almost
be fully engaged.
guarantees employees will not be fully engaged.”
These are some practical tips on ensuring values are
truly embedded in your organization:
• H
ave executives talk about them regularly. The company’s values should be part of
the company’s daily vernacular.
• M
ake them part of your corporate communications strategy. Internal and external
communications should contain references to the company’s core values.
• Link daily accomplishments to your company’s values.
Recognition Tip
A powerful way to help connect employees to values is creating a systematic way
of publicly recognizing employees who demonstrate core values.
Five Ways to Avoid the Engagement Abyss // 5
1
Create a Clear Set of Company Values
That Are Known & Understood
You have no choice but to have some kind of company culture, and company culture can
be a primary driver of engagement. While culture can’t be built by edict from on high,
smart companies are deliberate about cultivating it.
The foundation of a great company culture is employee happiness. While happiness can’t
be achieved through an executive mandate, there are three goals we can strive for to help
ensure employee happiness:
1 / Alignment: Alignment means employees understand how their specific role fits into
the bigger purpose of the company. To have good alignment, it means that the person
has to be a good fit for the job but also a good fit for the company. They must genuinely
believe in the organization’s vision, goals and values.
2 / Positivity: Positivity and happiness are flip sides of the same coin; they are mutually
reinforcing. So how do you build and sustain positivity in spite of the inevitable
workplace challenges we all face? Here is one way: Promote platforms of gratitude and
appreciation. Showing appreciation is an essential component of positivity.
3 / Progress: We all want to feel like we are getting somewhere and accomplishing
things—whether it’s at work or in our personal lives. Ensuring employees feel like
they’re achieving milestones—and being acknowledged for their accomplishments—is
critical to their happiness.
Recognition Tip
A strong recognition program can help create alignment, increase positivity, and
give people that sense of progress they covet.
Five Ways to Avoid the Engagement Abyss // 6
2
Build Culture
Intentionally
Five Ways to Avoid the Engagement Abyss // 7
3
Insist on good
manager hygiene
As Chris Bones, a professor at the Henley Business School puts it, “The line manager
is the lens through which I see the company and the company sees me.” Indeed, it’s no
secret that managers are one of the most important components of job satisfaction and
engagement. There’s the old axiom that “people don’t leave bad companies, they leave
bad managers.” And similarly, great managers can evoke high engagement levels.
At the heart of the matter, employees want to feel that managers care about them as
professionals and as people. They want to have the belief that their managers want them
to succeed. That’s why insisting that managers show employees they care about them is
essential. Good manager hygiene is a key factor in keeping engagement at healthy levels.
5 Key Components of good “manager hygiene”
A habit of
amplifying
accomplishments
Strong
communication
skills
Ensuring
people are put
in a position to
succeed
A tendency to
thank people for
their efforts and
contributions
A bias
towards
positive
feedback
SUREVEY QUESTION: MY IMMEDIATE MANAGER
RECOGNIZES AND APPRECIATES GOOD WORK
60%
Employee Engagement
50%
52%
40%
30%
33%
20%
10%
0%
Stronger Recognition
& Appreciation
Weaker Recognition
& Appreciation
SOURCE: Towers Watson, Turbocharging Employee Engagement
Figure 5
SUREVEY QUESTION: WHAT HAS A GREATER IMPACT ON
PERFORMANCE - NEGATIVE OR POSITIVE FEEDBACK?
100%
94%
80%
60%
40%
20%
6%
0%
Negative feedback
Positive feedback
SOURCE: 2013 Globoforce Workforce Moodtracker Survey
Recognition Tip
A formal recognition program is a great tool to put in managers’ hands, and when
recognition is given on one consistent platform across the company, you’re able
to pinpoint your star managers—as well as your laggards—when it comes to
recognizing their teams’ achievements.
Five Ways to Avoid the Engagement Abyss // 8
Figure 4
While it’s great to have an environment in which managers and leaders habitually
provide positive feedback to employees, the holy grail of engagement is when the entire
organization is empowered and encouraged to recognize one another’s achievements.
This kind of environment blankets the organization in positivity, it broadcasts the
daily achievements of the company, and it creates a pattern of something organization
psychologists refer to as “pro-social” behavior, which essentially means that colleagues
are actively looking for ways to help one another.
Adam Grant, a professor at Wharton Business School and author of Give and Take, says
that “Research shows that when you have groups of people who are engaging in prosocial behavior, you get faster problem-solving, more efficient coordination, and less
variability in work, because people are willing to step up and cover for one another when
they make mistakes.”
Globoforce research corroborates Grant’s assertion. According to the 2013 Workforce
Mood Tracker survey, of those who have recognized a colleague in the last month, 62
percent describe themselves as highly engaged. Of those who say they’ve never recognized
someone at work, only 27 percent say they’re highly engaged. (Figure 6)
60%
50%
62%
40%
Figure 6
REPORT BEING HIGHLY ENGAGED
30%
20%
21%
10%
0%
Those who have
recognized a colleague
in the last month
Those who have
recognized at colleague
SOURCE: 2013 Globoforce Workplace MoodTracker Survey
Recognition Tip
Creating a strategic recognition platform that promotes not only a positive
feedback loop but feedback that reinforces the company’s core values is a
powerful tool for any organization. It also allows and encourages everyone to be
the keepers of company culture.
Five Ways to Avoid the Engagement Abyss // 9
4
Provide platforms
for positivity
One of the ultimate business benefits of engagement is getting maximum “discretionary
effort” out of employees. While we’d love to think that employees will always give it their
all because of their emotional commitment to the company, tapping into people’s own
personal interests is also a great way to motivate employees.
It’s no secret that many companies lure the best talent by giving them equity in their
companies. That kind of skin in the game gives these employees extra motivation to do
what is necessary for the company to achieve financial success. Many private companies
offer profit-sharing plans to their people, and of course, companies spend millions on
performance bonuses programs to incentivize their workforce. These are all tried and true
components of the total rewards package.
Recognition Tip
An additional subtle (but perhaps more powerful) program to inspire people
is to recognize and reward their ongoing achievements at work. In fact, in
Gartner’s Strategic Roadmap for Employee Performance Management report,
James Holincheck writes: “Leading organizations will start to move toward
more bottom-up feedback, recognition and rewards. This will likely manifest
itself in the shifting of budgets from traditional, top-down-determined, annual
merit increases and incentive compensation to bottom-up, event-specific and
more frequent rewards.”
The takeaway?
In the end, HR needs to empower the organization and its
people to create engagement on their own. Focusing on
building platforms that make engagement infectious and
allow everyone to participate in a healthy company culture is
the smartest way to avoid the engagement abyss.
Learn about the amazing impact strategic recognition can
have on employee engagement. Call us at 1-888-7-GForce.
Five Ways to Avoid the Engagement Abyss // 10
5
Give people
skin in the game
According to experts, recognition is
Learn
more of
about
strategic,
social
the #1 driver
employee
engagement.
recognition
can drive
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