February 2005

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<I>February 2005</I></div> <div> <I>The following article was first published in the Eastern Daily Press' 'The Business'  on 1 February 2005</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Engaged employees - the key to a strong business</B></div> <bR> <div> I suspect that many business owners, if asked what single attribute they would most want displayed by their employees, would reply `loyalty'.   Loyalty as in reliability, conscientiousness and consistent performance.  All valuable goals for any organisation, to be sure, but what can the business do to ensure such loyalty?</div> <bR> <div> The work of the Gallup Organisation, which I introduced in last month's column, has for many years looked in detail at the characteristics of high-performing individuals and the organisations in which they work.  The clear conclusion that they reached is that businesses that consistently outperform their competitors have a highly engaged workforce who work happily in their jobs and who provide excellence in customer service.  The businesses with highly engaged staff are more profitable and score better in terms of customer satisfaction.  And, also, it should come as no surprise that engaged employees such as these are demonstrably more loyal, in hard measures such as sick-days, staff turnover and shrinkage. </div> <bR> <div> So, how do you measure such a thing as `employee engagement'?  To some, it probably sounds a bit `soft and woolly'.  The Gallup researchers developed a consistent methodology by which they could interview and learn from many thousands of organisations and millions of people over a number of years.  As their work progressed, clear patterns emerged and they realised that there were a relatively small number of questions which could help them judge how strong the workplace was and how involved or engaged their people were.  And, the higher the score against these questions, the better the business performed in hard measures like profitability, productivity, customer satisfaction and staff turnover rates.</div> <bR> <div> In the Gallup findings 12 questions evolved that gave a consistent picture of just how engaged people were in the organisations where they worked.  I believe that the first six alone give a very good indication of how strong your business may or may not be.  Try asking everyone in your business to answer each of the following questions on a 5-point scale, with 5 for `strongly agree' and 1 for `strongly disagree':</div> <bR> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Do I know what is expected of me at work?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Do I have the resources I need to do my work properly?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Does my boss, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700dc00000000.png" HEIGHT="15" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Is there someone at work who encourages my development?</div> <bR> <div> Each of these is worthy of further discussion in its own right, but I think the two most telling replies will be to numbers 1 and 3.  I hear all too frequently that people don't really have a clue what is expected of them in their job and that all they really want is a bit of guidance.  Also, if your people don't know what the outcome of their work should be, how will you ever achieve your overall business objectives?  Think about question number 3:  to do what I do <U>best</U> every day.  Most people just do what they do every day.  People who are encouraged to play to their strengths, to use their natural talents rather than merely following a prescribed process, achieve more and are happier.  In other words, they're more engaged.  And the businesses they work in are stronger and successful.</div> </td> <td valign="top" width=180 BGCOLOR="#CC3333" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>