We really overthink things in HR, always have done, and sometimes I think we always will.  

Take employee engagement surveys for example, 50 questions once a year to see how we are feeling on that day.  This week I want you to ask yourself, when was the last time you enjoyed completing an employee survey and have they ever made you feel more engaged?

Let’s start with the basics then: when I talk of employee engagement I’m not talking about the % of employees who have completed your survey, another mistake many businesses make. I’m taking about the number of employees that actively engage with their employer.  Regular studies show that employees who are engaged are more likely to have above average productivity, 38% according to the last study I read.  However, even though nearly every UK employer seems to conduct a type of engagement survey, a recent and unsettling survey by Gallup has shown that

“Just 9% of UK employees are engaged or enthusiastic about their work, putting us 33rd out of 38 European countries*.”  

So after all our “Have Your Say” or “A Penny for Your Thoughts” campaigns there seems to be very little correlation in how much employee feedback and employer action actually translate into increased employee engagement - or is something else at play?

Well like me you have probably taken part in countless “You Said, We Did” campaigns. After weeks of preparing the right questions, training engagement champions, promoting the survey itself and the time spent encouraging staff to take part; then of course there’s the correlation of all the results (normally done by a costly third party), and the results presentation roadshows and the subsequent engagement plans built on the results.  

All this time, money and effort only for 9% of UK employees to feel engaged.  The questions is not is it worth it but rather why are we bothering?

As we all know the biggest factor affecting staff engagement / morale is the quality of the leadership they receive.  So instead of wasting our time on an outdated annual process that we all hate why not concentrate on developing our managers how to engage employees, on a daily basis, by having great conversations with them.  Conversations that motivate them, that ignite a fire in their belly, that make them excited about the job they do and any potential career path they are on.

One of the best systems I’ve seen work is something called “Collective Honest Conversations” which was delivered by Truepoint.  Their strategy was to “unearth the friction points in any business” and to get people talking (from the ground up) about how to solve those issues.  Essentially the process involved structured, safe and honest conversations throughout the whole of the organisation which revealed barriers to engagement and ultimately to the execution of the business strategy.  We found that by giving a true and valued voice to all levels of the business not only did it help build trust in the senior levels of leadership but it also increased employees’ commitment to our purpose and goals, and ultimately their engagement to our business.  As I’ve always said:

Employee engagement is not rocket science, its harder !

It begins and ends, as always, with great and regular conversations, not with a 50-page tick box HR exercise. I would love to hear of your experience and what has worked to genuinely increase employee engagement, so please do leave your comments or even better get in touch.

(*Boardside Employment Law Website August 2022)