P02 One team, many voices P03 No more carrot and stick?

P06 Switch yourself on:

Nita Clarke on what it means to listen Why financial incentives don’t work The role of social media in engagement

Employee engagement
Improving business performance

Stripping down:
How the recession helped us
find our inner worth P10
 02_Employee engagement
One team, many voices
A strong, independent and informed employee voice is one of the key ingredients of
employee engagement in successful organisations, writes Nita Clarke.
T It’s a good rule of thumb: if you want
he most effective companies
and organisations really do
believe that their people
are their best asset. Employee voice
means involving people in the way
the business is run. Organisations
with an effective and empowered
employee voice make sure that people
at all levels are actively encouraged
to give views, submit ideas and raise
questions. They have a culture in
which people are listened to – not just communicated with - and
have a real input into decision-making on important issues, as
well as day to day ones. Above all, these organisations ensure
that employees are informed about the issues facing the business,
big and small.
David Macleod and I visited organisations around the country
while we were writing our report Engaging for Success. Where
engagement worked well, we found informed, involved and
energised employees. We could sense the strength of common
purpose, trust and commitment within the workplace. We saw
the positive impact that such practices have on performance and
productivity, across all sectors of the economy. And equally we
saw the positive impact that being listened to and trusted has on
individual employees.
This is no ‘touchy feely’ issue. There is a clear business
imperative. Leaders need views, feedback and ideas from people
at the front-line to help meet the challenges of competition,
of providing a better service. It’s a good rule of thumb: if you
want to know how to do something better, ask the person
doing it. Employers could save a fortune by talking to their
‘internal consultants’. And employees who feel involved in the
organisation, and who understand how their role fits into the
bigger picture, are more motivated, committed and eager to
improve business performance. It’s a ‘win win’ for all concerned.
Listening to employees takes courage: as one senior manager
told us during our review, “Balance sheets don’t answer back.
The risk of listening is that you may hear things you don’t want to
hear.” But failing to listen can only undermine the potential of an
organisation’s people to drive the business forward. It can mean
that little things later blow up into a full-blown crisis, because that
essential early-warning mechanism on the shop floor, or the ward,
or the production line, has gone unheeded.
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An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group
to know how to do something better,
ask the person doing it.
performance - with staff can be daunting too. But without this
openness it is hard to see how staff can understand how best to
help improve performance at every level.
Feeding back is vital: many organisations have a ‘you said; we
did’ approach which emphasises the value they place on listening,
demonstrating that employee input doesn’t just disappear into
the ether. When employee proposals cannot be implemented
giving an explanation of the reason is important too.
As well as engaging with employees individually, or in teams,
many organisations had developed strong collective mechanisms
too, to deal with overarching issues like pay and conditions,
pensions, redundancy and health and safety. Trade unions were
playing an important part in many workplaces, often working in
partnership with employers, facing up for example to the huge
challenge of coming through the recession. Other organisations
had a company council, or information and consultation
machinery. Many employers told us they valued this collective
approach as an essential underpinning for employee engagement;
and they emphasised the importance of aligning employee
relations strategy with employee engagement. As one employer
said: ‘we want the staff council backing engagement – not telling
employees not to fill in the staff survey!’
Taking the decision to listen and engage with employee voices
is a key step on the road to employee engagement. It is important
that each organisation develops the approach that is right for
them. But it is hard to see how companies will face up to the
challenges of increased global competition, and how the public
sector will meet the twin challenges of reduced spending and
of improving services without a fundamental change in culture,
based on trusting employees and listening to them.
Nita Clarke: Director, The Involvement and Participation
Association (IPA) and co-author of the Macleod Review
Engaging for Success. The IPA is a no-for-profit registered
charity that has worked for workplace partnership and
engagement for over 100 years.
What gets
measured, gets
managed
D
rawing on a database of opinions
from millions of employees around the
world, Towers Watson has developed
a framework that defines engaged employees as
having:
• A rational understanding of and support for their
organisation’s goals and values (“Think”)
• An emotional attachment to and pride in their
organisation (“Feel”)
• The motivation / willingness to invest
discretionary effort in their role to meet the
organisation’s goals (“Act”)
Measuring – and benchmarking – all three
components is crucial to reaping the bottom-line
benefits of engagement.
In a Towers Watson study using data from
over 360,000 employees across more than 40
companies in the world’s ten largest economies;
we examined the relationship between different
levels of employee engagement and financial
performance. Comparing high-engagement to
low-engagement companies over a three-year
period, the differences were substantial:
About Towers Watson
Towers Watson is a leading global professional
services company that has been delivering expertise
in the field of employee surveys since 1956. Our
practice was further bolstered in March 2007 by
the acquisition of International Survey Research
(ISR). We maintain the world’s largest database
of workforce opinion norms by country, industry
and job level, as well as global high-performing
companies.
An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group Employee engagement_03

No more carrot and stick

We have known for
decades that financial
incentives don’t
improve the way
people work. It is only
now, after damning
criticisms of excessive
pay, that businesses
seem to be taking it on
board, writes Anthony
Beachey.

T
he news that banks are handing out
bumper bonuses has predictably reignited
public rage over the financial rewards
bestowed upon City “fatcats”. But does all this
money actually motivate staff in the best way?
And does it make them happy?
David Marsden, Professor of Industrial Relations
at the London School of Economics, believes that
income is important up to a point but beyond
that, there is not much correlation between extra
money and greater happiness.
People are motivated by a whole variety of
factors, Marsden says, and the interest they
derive from work can be as important as any
financial incentive. Motivational factors also vary
enormously from one person to another and
among cultures. “Clearly there are some people
for whom extra money is a big motivator, while
for others it isn’t,” he says. “The City has obvious
attractions, but remuneration is not so important
for people who decide to become teachers,
nurses or firefighters.”
Consequently, says Marsden, when an
organisation is seeking to develop a strategy
for motivating its staff, it’s important that the
organisation looks at the type of people it has
attracted and that it wants to attract.“Teachers,
for example, may grumble about their pay but
the things that really motivate them could be
having pupils who are eager to learn, pleasant
surroundings and good equipment.”
Blame the bonus
Geraint Anderson, author of “Cityboy: Beer and
Loathing in the Square Mile,” has little doubt that
the global financial crisis has discredited the bonus
system in the UK and the USA. “I honestly believe
the credit crunch is a direct result of the City’s
short-term gambling and the bonus culture. I was
told from the very moment I entered the City (in
1996) that it was a hire-and-fire world and that
‘jam tomorrow’ was worthless.”
Anderson, a former utilities research analyst at
Dresdner Kleinwort bank, argues that a bonus
system based on performance over the past 12
months inevitably prompts an individual to take
reckless and massive gambles because “while the
casino is still open”.
“You learn on day one that the risk is
asymmetrical,” he says. “If you gamble and
succeed, you can get a huge reward. If you lose,
the worst that can happen is that you lose your
job, and it’s not that difficult to get another one.”
The system of rewards also leads to criminal
behaviour, he argues, in the form of insider
trading and false rumours, and that it “ultimately
caused people in structured finance knowingly
to infect the world with perhaps a trillion dollars
of dubious loans, backed by dodgy mortgages in
America”.
Anderson comments that he never saw a
correlation between how much money people
received and how happy they were. “You have
to remember that the City is full of young,
testosterone-filled men who are incredibly
competitive. If they get a bonus that is twice as
large as a colleague’s, they immediately think they
are twice as good a human being.”
Winds of change?
Anderson believes it’s unlikley there will be te
global co-ordination necessary to bring about
significant changs to teh bonus system. However,
he does suggest changes that would encourage
more responsible behaviour. People could receive
a higher proportion of their bonus in shares,
“Teachers may which they would not be allowed to sell for a long
time. Or it could be made possible to claw back
grumble about bonuses when an employee loses a bank money –
pay but the a measure which he thinks could have prevented
thing that really the credit crunch.
Professor Marsden also advocates a change in
motivates them the City’s bonus culture: “Banking staff should
could be having be concerned with maximising shareholder value,
pupils that are They have a duty to look after the funds that
are entrusted to them by investors. The ethical
eager to learn” considerations that should apply to auditors or
accountants, for example, may be overridden by
offering large bonuses.”
Bottom up
There is plenty of academic support for the idea
that factors other than money will motivate
people in their work. In his groundbreaking
studies in the 1950s and ‘60s, the American
psychologist Frederick Herzberg found that people
are motivated by interesting work, challenge,
and increasing responsibility rather than financial
incentives and argued that spiralling wage
increases simply motivated people “to seek the
next wage increase”. In ‘One More Time, How
Do You Motivate Employees?’, one of the most
requested articles ever published in the Harvard
Business Review, Herzberg concluded that “job
enrichment remains the key to designing work
that motivates employees”.
continued on So why has it taken so long for businesses
page 04 >> to catch on? One problem is that many of the
 04_Employee engagement An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group

Constant flow The role

of the brand
Dominic Walters discusses the
importance of internal communication QBE, the specialist business insurer, employs
close to 3000 people across Europe, and 13,000

in supporting employee engagement. globally. In 2008 there was a sense that operating
completely independent businesses under one
banner may have been precluding potential

R
esearch shows a close correlation between
high levels of employee engagement and
the achievement of overall organisational
objectives.
In our experience, the extent to which
employees are in tune with their organisation
and committed to its goals depends on three key
factors – do they feel valued by their employer in
terms of pay, benefits and the way people behave;
are they proud of their workplace’s values; and do
they believe in its products or services.
Clearly, employee engagement requires effective
internal communication. And as understanding
about engagement has increased, so has the
realisation that communication cannot simply be
about ‘telling’ people things. Today’s employees
expect ongoing conversation rather than simply
being given information.
Today’s employees expect
ongoing conversation rather
than simply being given
information.
Demands on communicators have also intensified
– now they must appreciate the complexities of
workplace dynamics and be just as comfortable
helping leaders and managers to communicate
better as developing communication programmes
and writing clearly. The array of tools and
technologies also means that communicators
need the understanding to determine the most
appropriate strategy.
The evolution of CiB very much mirrors the
development of internal communication. Originally
formed in 1949 for editors of staff publications,
the association’s activities have expanded and
in May it will become the Institute of Internal
Communication (IoIC).
Recognising internal communication as a
professional specialism in its own right, the
IoIC will focus on raising the function’s profile,
developing professional qualifications and
promoting best practice.
Employers are increasingly seeing employee
engagement as an integral element of overall
organisational strategy development – rather
than something to add on later. A focus on
professionalism and standards in internal
communication will help to support this welcome
trend.
Dominic Walters is chairman of the British
Association of Communicators in Business
(CiB). More information: http://cib.uk.com
opportunities for cross-business-unit collaboration
and multi-category relationships.
Working closely with the QBE senior
management team , Engage for Change, the
Case study: leader and employee engagement consultants,
How QBE drove considered the business case for adjusting the
balance between almost complete independence
up engagement and a measured degree of joint approaches
through a brand to clients and more internal efficiencies. The
based approach consensus by and large was that this was the
time to start creating more of a one-QBE internal
and customer experience by developing a brand
which had greater shared meaning amongst staff
and which was more visible and differentiated in
customer markets.
Once the top group was aligned and confident,
the decision was taken to engage QBE’s entire
European staff in what became called ‘The Big
Difference’ programme. This invited staff to
understand the changing market conditions and
the present customer brand experience, and help
match reality with brand promise by drawing up
team-specific actions focused on internal and
external customer experience.
By licensing staff to contribute their own ideas
on how to make the brand meaningful, the
programme drove up levels of engagement and
helped to build awareness of the role of the brand
in achieving success.

continued FROM PAGE 03

>>

lessons need to be learnt at the lower end of the pay scale, and applied to workers who don’t often get
much of the limelight. Alison Noel, Director of Skills for Work Ltd, whose specialisms include employer competitively – you don’t have to award huge
and employee engagement, deals with people far removed from the culture of the City. bonuses. But to get into the top quartile,
“Our work focuses on lower-skilled and lower-paid employees, and we have found that there are companies need to adopt consistent and coherent
usually three things that people value about their employment, namely their pay, whether they enjoy their methods of non-financial recognition and arrange
job and whether they get on with the people they work with.” business processes to facilitate, rather than hinder,
People clearly need a decent wage, but providing opportunities for skills development is also vital. an employee’s job”.
Employers can motivate staff and retain their loyalty by offering educational opportunities, mentoring and Not only do financial rewards not lead to
asking for their views on how work processes can be improved. “Given the cost of training a new worker, happiness, they often don’t make business sense.
it is clearly in an employer’s interest to nurture staff and encourage them to progress,” says Noel. Having enough pay to enjoy life, doing a job that
stimulates and interests you, working with people
Fair game that you like and respect, these are the things
Nick Starritt, Managing Director of Sirota Survey Intelligence,says the results of their employee Herzberg argued people want, even if they don’t know it yet. A
engagement surveys suggest that there are three main areas that people value about their work.
“Most people come to work seeking: to be treated fairly and equitably in their place of work;
that spiralling lucky few might even find them.

achievement (people want to work for organisations of which they are proud and receive recognition for wage increases
their own personal contributions to an organisation): and camaraderie – we are social beings. Our data simply motivated
indicates that equity is by far the most important of these factors.”
That is not to say that money is not important. As Starritt points out, “there is no alternative for being
people “to seek
paid fairly and competitively. Equally, there is no replacement for a pat on the back, but the two - money the next wage
and praise – are not substitutable”. increase”
Leadership and management are the main influences affecting all of these factors, according to Nick:
leaders because they create the overall climate in an organisation; and managers because their actions
will have a direct impact upon the workers under them.
He explains: “It’s comparatively easy to achieve a fairly high level of engagement simply by paying
An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group
Knowing your top team’s DNA
Rhea Duttagupta makes the case for how to build the returns
from an aligned and engaged top team
Q: Why is engaging the top team so important?
A: The team at the top sets the tone for the rest of the
organisation to follow - mindset, values and behaviours.
Getting that tone right makes all the difference.
Q: How can leaders remain decisive and inspirational
when some of the fundamentals of the way business
has been done in recent years have been questioned?
A: The basic tenets of good business remain intact. They,
unfortunately, have not always been adhered to, or
developed, or tested in line with today’s challenges.
Therefore it is not about questioning the fundamentals,
but allowing leaders to maintain their confidence to be
inspirational and decisive in adversity and its aftermath.
Current circumstances do not look for a whole new kind of
leadership but one with different tweaks and edits. Being
resilient in turbulent times is more than surviving. It is having
the inner strength to know your personal “core”. No boom,
bust or transition lasts forever, but when adapting to these
backgrounds sometimes, consciously or unconsciously,
core values are compromised. Recognising this reveals how
a leader can flex the influence (“the doing”), impact and
presence (“the being”) facets of their leadership self-image
to stay true to the core.
Q: Have you been able to identify common
management problems that you think may have either
helped cause or resulted from the global downturn?
A: Introspection and being “frozen in the headlights” are
not, unsurprisingly, similarities found across companies in the
fall-out from the recent economic turmoil. The “it’s different
this time” alarm signal is rarely heeded. This is because
the common threads of human reaction to the peaks and
troughs of business cycles (which contain the clues to
avoiding the booms and busts in the first place) are often
clouded by the view that today is different to yesterday.
We know how the human psyche responds to such events
and we at CorporateDNA train that psyche to adjust for the
different economic factors each time. It is a self-help concept
that we bring to clients.
Q: What is the one thing you mention to a board that
they need before starting the DNA alignment process?
A: The ‘wanting’ to do it! Achieving genuine synergy and
interdependence at the most senior executive level of a
company requires courage and curiosity to look at the old in
new ways while exploring new horizons. The process is not
an onerous one, though it is based on a clear methodology,
a willing mindset and a sharpening of skills that can go
beyond many executives’ previous experience. By adding to
your toolkit, the light bulb moments will transform the way
you operate as a board.
Q: What necessitates your proprietary DNA analysis?
Why is it unique?
A: Today’s business environment sees an increasing number
of industry regulators mandating that boards review their
effectiveness. But often these reviews focus purely on
financial, governance and risk aspects (left brain). Corporate
DNA’s intervention is unique because (a) it offers boards
Some recurring themes and patterns across boards that we have addressed and resolved
• Cultural, relational or behavioural ‘interferences’ between members
• Poor dynamics between executive and non-executive directors, old pulls a global team on the same page with one voice
and new members
• Transitioning leaders ‘feeling unsettled’ or at the risk of derailing
• Lack of confidence and security to have real conversations, rather than • Fragmented views on where people individually and collectively think
just the safe ones
Employee engagement_05
“You are the leadership team. Imagine
picking up your DNA report on one
hand, and your financial report on the
other…. the complete picture”.
the insight and advantage of an external, independent,
qualitative and benchmarked review of those other
areas, e.g. relationships, trust, values, resilience and
complementary strengths (right brain). And (b)
the process combines a rich and unique blend of leadership
dynamics, psychology and creative interventions to bring it
to life. By carrying out this exercise, boards demonstrate
their commitment to good, conscious and responsible
leadership to their internal and external stakeholders by first
“holding the mirror” on themselves and then paving the
way.
Q: You say you ‘earn the right’ to tell organisations
what they should hear? How do you go about earning
their trust?
A: By understanding them really well. Knowing how clients Q: Do some industry sectors need this more
think and what makes them tick or not tick is key. Earning than others?
the right to ask questions is a function of three Rs: A: Contrary to what might be the current perception, our
rapport, respect, and reciprocity. clientele is not exclusively within the financial services sector
and extends to a wide range of other sectors.
Q: How does an understanding of organisational
psychology help you to ‘fix’ a company’s DNA? For more information visit:
A: It gives those answers that are not found easily. In the www.corporatednaconsulting.co.uk
same way that organisations define financial capital (“what
you have”), intellectual capital (“what you know how to Rhea is the founder of CorporateDNA Consulting, a team
do”) and social capital (“who you know”), we understand combining organisational behaviour, coaching, leadership
psychological capital to be “how you are.” psychology and creative facilitation to design powerful
interventions. An ex-Director of PricewaterhouseCoopers,
Q: Is emotional commitment just as important as she has a 14 year track record of working with management
rational commitment? boards, Chairmen, CEOs and HRDs.
A: People try more (or don’t try) as a result of emotional
commitment, not rational commitment. Competencies
such as ‘deliver transformational change’, ‘influencing’,
‘negotiating’, ‘manage ambiguity’, ‘tenacity’ and ‘resilience’
are all underpinned by emotional commitment more than
rational. This will determine discretionary effort, or how hard
an employee is willing to work, going “above and beyond”
what is required. As research proves, emotional commitment
is four times as valuable as rational commitment.
Q: What does the board alignment process involve?
A: It is a brief program delivered in two parts, the first half
gives a tangible measure on the psychological climate of
the dynamics between its insiders and the second part looks
at the AAA process: Authenticity, Alignment and Action,
followed by a team debrief and reporting on strengths,
derailers, blindspots and one big opportunity. A specific
aspect is ‘mapping polarities’: looking at the healthy and
unhealthy tensions of the climate. The entire process is
strongly grounded in actions and metrics with a re-measure
in 6 months.
• Lack of a common “mindset” and “language” of achievement which
• Not enough awareness and understanding of each other’s strengths to
invest in each other’s success
the team is at in terms of performance, alignment and maturity
 06_Employee engagement An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group

Learning how to switch on Emotional Intelligence

– the strongest
predictor of success
Charles Jennings examines the role of social media Emma Jones, chief executive of
in engaging employees. change management consultancy
SFL, outlines the importance of
emotional intelligence (EQ) in

I leadership through culture change.

n our fast-changing knowledge society, learning has become Jon Husband, a colleague in the Internet Time Alliance,
the work and the work has become learning. Learning and describes organisational hierarchy as being overlain with
knowledge work both require engagement. And we know “Wirearchy”, or “dynamic two-way flows of power and authority

W
that engaged employees increase productivity and perform to based on knowledge, trust, credibility and a focus on results, ith the economy set to grow by at
high standards over time. So how do managers sustain workforces enabled by interconnected people and technology”. This new best 1% this year and 2.5% next,
that are eager to engage, hungry to learn, and dedicated to environment opens up new connections and opportunities, the question facing all CEOs is:
creating value to the organisation? empowering workers and enabling the workforce to be all that how do we deliver more for less and maximise
Dan Pink points out in his new book Drive: The Surprising Truth they can be. Wirearchies lift organisations to new levels and the performance of our people? The answer
About What Motivates Us that engagement is baked into human sharpen the game for managers who need to learn to lead in new is the application of EQ and the subsequent
nature, and using carrots and sticks dampens enthusiasm rather environments. transformation of business culture.
than flames it. On the other hand, a purpose-driven organisation Organisations that are adopting social media tools for If it is accepted that culture is the sum of
appeals to workers’ workforce development behaviour, then in order to transform the culture
intrinsic motivation to are finding that when of an organisation, you must first transform the
their jobs well. used wisely they behaviour within.
In light of all this, provide the ‘glue’ to
managers have a woeful support and engage
“Emotional intelligence accounts
record of maintaining employees. A case in for 90 per cent of what’s required for
the success factor of point is British Telecom’s leadership” Daniel Goleman
employee engagement. new DareToShare
There are other social learning platform The cultural tone of an organisation is set and
approaches. One is to where any employee embedded by the top tier of leadership. Therefore
focus on learning and can upload videos and EQ governs the performance that is transposed
development. On-the- podcasts to support their across the business.
job development activity colleagues in doing their As identified in Goleman’s theory of EQ, a level
is one basic indicator of jobs better. DareToShare of behavioural self-awareness is crucial. Indeed,
increased engagement. was rolled out by BT’s the first element of culture change endorsed by
Evidence shows that Chief Learning Officer SFL is to hold up a mirror to the organisation and
engaged employees, Peter Butler last year. understand the starting position. Identifying the
those that contribute Butler’s team surveyed development areas of a business ensures that the
discretionary effort, will BT’s engineers before right strategies can be deployed.
take their learning and embarking on a solution To enable transformational change;
development into their to the challenge of moral courage, humility and a balance of
own hands rather than reducing employee professionalism and realism are required. These
wait to have it served time-to-competence and are traits synonymous with EQ and successful
to them. These people improving BT’s customer leaders who deliver and maintain sustainable
want bite-sized pieces in service. results will inevitably display them.
context for the challenge They found that 78 per Emotionally intelligent leaders provide a
they’re facing right now. cent of the employees platform of engagement and involvement that
They’re not interested in ‘just-in-case’, content-heavy, context- surveyed had a preference for learning from colleagues over other wins the hearts and minds of the workforce,
poor learning. modes of learning. So they built a social learning platform to ensuring that the culture is fit for purpose. By
We need to look at ways to use this self-service learning address that. DareToShare has proven a tremendous success for embedding robust performance and consequence
approach as a lever to support already engaged workers and to BT. It has also delivered a double-whammy – tapping expertise management, strong performance is recognised
engage others. This approach is less costly than instructor-led across the workforce as well as releasing employees from the and poor performance is not tolerated.
programmes and, being self-selecting, is more likely to have tyranny of time-based development. Employees can engage in The resulting employee engagement leads
staying power and greater impact. Added to this the rise of social development activities whenever it’s convenient. to high performance, commitment, dedication
media tools is providing fodder for this migration from ‘push’ to The ultimate result of this type of approach – using social media and cultural alignment in addition to exceptional
‘pull’ learning. for employee development – is a more effective, more engaged service levels, stakeholder management and the
We have a huge opportunity to build employee engagement and happier workforce. delivery of positive KPIs and bottom line results.
through social media. Smart companies are encouraging their Undoubtedly you can coach certain aspects
people to leverage personal and professional networks across Charles Jennings is Director of Duntroon Associates and the which contribute to EQ. However, great leaders
and beyond the enterprise. At the same time, organisations Internet Time Alliance will be those that possess a natural and inherent
themselves are becoming more networked as they evolve from level of EQ and apply it to successfully galvanise
nineteenth and twentieth century hierarchies. their workforce behind a sustainable, results
driven culture that can survive a challenging
economic climate.
“Why are we complacent when confronted with data that suggest most managers
www.sflworld.com
are more likely to douse the flames of employee enthusiasm than fan them, and are
more likely to frustrate extraordinary accomplishment than to foster it?” Gary Hamel,
writing in a recent Wall Street Journal blog post
An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group
Insight: State of the Nation
New research from
Towers Watson
reveals some
worrying tensions
in UK companies
that need to be
addressed.
T
he 2010 Towers Watson Global
Workforce Study confirms that the
recession has fundamentally altered
several aspects of the way employees view their
work and leaders in the UK.
A startling 8 out of 10 of the respondents
said they want to settle into a job, with roughly
half of these saying they would prefer to work
for a single company their entire career and the
rest wanting to work for no more than three
companies.
The study also shows that over half of
disengaged employees are not making plans to
leave their current employer. These high levels of
‘retained but disengaged’ staff pose a risk to UK
businesses as the economy begins the long road
to recovery. Furthermore, the study finds that key
talent, such as high potential employees, are more
likely to move jobs if opportunities arise.
In the face of such worrying trends, companies
need to continue to understand what drives
engagement in their business and to act on the
factors that have the greatest impact on improved
business performance. The study points to a
number of key areas they should focus on in order
to sustain or improve employee engagement:
Close the “disconnect” between what
leaders and employees think is important for the
leadership role
Figure 1 shows the attributes employees desire
of their leaders. What may be of concern to senior
leaders is the low importance employees attach to
the “business” aspects of the role that they would
consider to be essential, such as: maintaining
a high profile outside the organisation or
positioning the organisation to compete in the
global business environment. The 2010 study
supports our previous findings that senior leaders
play a key role in driving employee engagement.
Rather than ignoring the role of leaders in driving
engagement, companies may need to redefine
how they intend their leaders to build trust and
demonstrate interest in employee well-being. And
this is much more than simply creating a “great”
workplace.
Redefine the role of the line
manager: Nearly one in three employees think
there are substantial obstacles to doing their
job well, and that conditions in their job are not
conducive to achieving exceptional performance.
The immediate manager role therefore needs to
be less about oversight and control, and more
about enablement, removal of obstacles, creating
opportunities for development, linking local
objectives to the greater goals of the organisation,
and helping teams adjust to change.
Redefine what career advancement
looks like: The study highlights how a new
model of career advancement has become
embedded in the minds of UK workers (Figure
2). 53 per cent of employees define career
advancement as being about acquiring new skills
to do their current job better, and to make them
eligible for other jobs. This is higher than those
who define it as being about moving up a defined
career path (37 per cent), or even about increased
compensation (36 per cent). While high potential
employees are more demanding in their career
expectations, they also show different preferences
- such as placing a higher ranking on formal
career progression (57 per cent, compared to 37
per cent in the population as a whole).
A New Way Forward? The findings send a
clear message to leaders: you need to better
communicate the business’s strategic priorities Figure 1
and plans (and their importance to the success
of the business) to regain employee trust and
confidence. You also cannot delegate your role
in driving employee engagement, and you will
need support from line managers in closing the
“disconnect” between you and your employees.
HR’s priorities and requirements may need
to change as well. Leaders and managers will
need mentoring and developing if they are to
be successful. Career development will need to
look and feel different for different workforce
segments.
At the same time, the manager role needs to
be much less about oversight and control, and
more about enablement, removal of obstacles,
creating opportunities for development, linking
local objectives to the greater goals of the
organisation, and helping teams to adjust to
change.
The Towers Watson Global Workforce Study
2010 is a survey of more than 20,000 private Figure 2
sector employees in 22 countries. It’s the most
comprehensive analysis of post-recession
employee attitudes and engagement levels
available today.
For a free copy of the UK Executive Summary of the
Study, visit www.towerswatson.co.uk
 08_Employee engagement An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group

Why don’t we talk anymore?

A lack – or breakdown – in communication is a danger
sign in the workplace as much as in private life.
M
eaningful conversations are
a key factor in employee
engagement, and a major
contributor to innovation and cost
control. Yet many organisations simply
fail to notice when they stop happening.
The internal communications team is
still pumping out the right messages;
employees are ‘involved’ at opportune
moments. But like a personal relationship
that’s lost its sparkle, deep down there’s
something missing.
Religion and philanthropy aside, iconic
companies like Cadbury, Guinness and
Colman’s knew the value of a workforce
that felt like family, and these days it’s
pretty much a given that engaging
employees and building profits are linked.
But that doesn’t mean the process is
well understood, or understanding
translates into good practice. As Jonathon
Scott from internal communication and
engagement specialists em(ic)* says,
“Organisations invest huge sums in reward
and recognition, staff facilities, training
“There’s a huge difference
between saying ‘we’re
listening’ and sitting down
and paying attention”
and development, and communication.
But if it’s a one-way conversation –
broadcasting messages without listening
for the response – then inevitably the
return on investment is disappointing.
“And without genuine dialogue
the fundamental building blocks
of engagement break down. Trust,
confidence, respect, shared values and
pride are all difficult to maintain or
recover.”
In the wake of the MacLeod report, the
team at em(ic)* have been helping Defra,
BIS, Volvo, Renault Trucks and others to
have meaningful conversations across and
between all levels of their organisations.
One of the key techniques they have
developed is the World Café – enabling
valuable informal discussions between
staff who might not normally meet face
to face.
“World Cafés can be astonishingly
powerful,” says Scott. “There’s a huge
difference between saying ‘we’re listening’
and sitting down and paying attention
– and people respond very positively.
The sense of belonging and being heard
creates a sea change in attitudes, as
everyone takes ownership of success and
their own part in it. It generates energy,
optimism and real trust – and clients can
take that and start working on all the
other elements of engagement.”
Scott talks a lot about nurturing trust, Jon and his team can be contacted on:
and with uncomfortable examples such T: +44 203 286 1799
as Royal Mail, BA and Network Rail in E: info@eminternalcomms.com
the news, it’s not hard to see why. When W: www.emic-communications.com
trust breaks down – on either side - the Twitter: http://twitter.com/
results can be dramatic, and commercially eminternalcomms
catastrophic.
So whatever you do, keep talking.

Engage for Change is the leading advisor to corporations and public-sector

institutions on the best ways to engage leaders and employees to drive
day-to-day performance, operational change and business transformation.

We’ll help you:

• Engage your leaders to coalesce around purpose, vision, change, or strategy and
to demonstrate an engaged role model.
• Engage your people in developing and executing strategy and change.
• Engage your own people and your corporate partners to contribute to and
deliver the brand and customer experience.
• Engage your leaders, managers and supervisors in developing their own
engagement skills capability.
• Create an employee value proposition that will attract and retain people.

Contact:  
Lynette Proctor
t. +44 (0)7969 651 853

John Smythe
t. +44 (0)7710 130 755

Jerome Reback e. info@engageforchange.com

t. +44 (0)7802 865 114 w. www.engageforchange.com
An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group Employee engagement_09

Employee Health Check engagement are several times more likely to

come out on top at the end of a recession.
Helen Giles is Managing Director of
Broadway’s Real People, a multi award-
winning HR support service for SME
Helen Giles gives a quick guide to engaging your staff. Common practices guaranteed to
drive down engagement
companies and charities.

• Delegating ‘engagement’ to HR instead www.broadwaysrealpeople.com

Q: What is employee engagement?
A: People feel valued by the organisation
so that they want to ‘go the extra mile’.
Engaged employees are more creative and
committed, give better customer service,
take less sick leave, are less likely to leave
you, and will recommend you to others.
Q: Why bother with engagement?
A: The most innovative and successful
organisations are those with the highest
levels of employee engagement. Low
engagement means a poor experience for
your customers. Research has shown that
less than a third of UK employees are fully
engaged.
Q: How can we inspire
engagement?
A: Staff need to understand where the
organisation is going next and what
their part is in that. They need engaging
managers who will empower them to
become the very best they can be. They
need clear ways of making their concerns
and ideas heard, consistency of behaviours
and stated values.
Q: Who’s got time for all this
stuff when times are hard?
A: In financially difficult times you can’t be
tempted to go the lazy and unproductive
way of throwing money and benefits at
people to keep them sweet. Engagement is
about relationships and quality time between
managers and staff. Organisations with high
of leading from the top. E-mail: realinfo@broadwaylondon.org
• Appointing managers who have no self-
awareness or interest in people.
• Failing to train and support managers.
• Balking at running a staff survey
‘because we’re going through a difficult
time’.
• Over-focusing on pay and material
awards – these are not the primary
drivers of engagement.
• Forgetting to thank people for doing a
good job.
• Letting under-performance and bad
behaviour go unchallenged.
• Mishandling redundancies in a way that
makes people feel like disposable trash.
Helen and her team

Engagement at work… Advanced learning

Helping RBS deliver its new business strategy New technology is being used to develop highly
personalised learning environments, writes Karen Velasco.

A
s well as being a great way to give ever for our human capital strategy to provide

employees a ‘voice’, an employee survey
is a vital tool to understand how well
an organisation is doing at creating the specific
culture that best supports the performance of its
business strategy.
However, as Steve Young, Senior Consultant
at Towers Watson, says, “It is important to
note that there is no ‘one size fits all’ high
performance culture. It really depends on the
strategy the organisation is pursuing. For example,
pharmaceuticals stress ongoing innovation in
product development, whereas retail banks
emphasise delighting customers and providing
efficient service.”
Building on decades of research and client work
in the area of culture-strategy alignment, Towers
Watson has identified five major strategic business
priorities, along with profiles of the specific cultural
differentiators that support each of these strategic
priorities: Customer service; Efficiency; Innovation;
Quality and Image (brand perception/reputation).
Guided by knowledge of a co mpany’s strategic
business priorities, the content of an employee
survey, and all follow-up actions, can be directed
to those aspects of culture and behaviour that
drive business performance.
RBS
Since it’s near collapse in late 2008, when the UK
Government took majority ownership, the RBS
group has a new strategy to return it to stand-
alone strength. RBS see it as imperative therefore
to restore levels of pride and ensure employees are
fully engaged around the new strategy.
Greig Aitken, Global Head of Human Capital at
RBS explains: “It is now more important than
our businesses with a deep understanding of the
links between effective people management,
risk management, superior service and financial
performance. Our survey strategy ensures we
understand exactly how motivated our people
are around each of the key pillars to our business
strategy, and we feed this directly into our
Executive Performance Assessment.
“Towers Watson has been supporting us in
all these activities. The team is providing real
insights from the survey data which are helping
our businesses understand the people decisions
they need to take in areas such as leadership, risk
culture, talent management, and reward.”
About Towers Watson
Towers Watson is a leading global professional
services company that has been delivering
expertise in the field of employee surveys since
1956. Our practice was further bolstered in March
2007 by the acquisition of International Survey
Research (ISR). We maintain the world’s largest
database of workforce opinion norms by country,
industry and job level, as well as global high-
performing companies.
T
he nature of the workplace
is constantly changing, and
employers and employees
must change with it.  Today’s
workers are not only more reliant on
technology to do their jobs, they are
more reliant on it to help them learn
the skills and knowledge required
to keep up-to-date.  The last few
years have seen many developments
relating to these trends, with
mobile devices such as BlackBerrys
and iPhones being used to deliver
engaging learning.
 The advent of Web 2.0
technologies like social networking
has provided employees with the
opportunity to create their own
flexible learning environment away
from the constraints of formal
systems.   More
organisations
are
embracing
virtual
worlds
to deliver
personal
learning environments (PLEs) that
are realistic, interactive and meet
the demands and learning style of
younger workers. 
 Whilst PLEs are used frequently
in compulsory and post-compulsory
education, their take-up within the
workplace is limited.  Organisations
are often reluctant to give staff carte
blanche use of the Internet to get
access to Facebook and YouTube.
A cultural shift is therefore needed
to create the environment in which
informal learning via the Internet
can take place, and employee
engagement can be enhanced. 
The ROLE project is a European-
wide project addressing the responsive
and intuitive element of PLEs and
building a learning environment that
is truly engaging. 
For more information, and to help
shape the future of technology-
enhanced employee engagement,
visit www.role-project.eu
 
Karen Velasco is Deputy Chairman of
the British Institute for Learning and
Development and Managing Director
of PeopleSolve.
 10_Employee engagement
Far sighted?
The MacLeod review gave
employee engagement a boost,
but the way businesses have
responded to the recession
suggests there is already a deep
understanding of the concept,
writes Anthony Wilks.
W
hen David MacLeod and Nita Clarke
published their report into employee
engagement in the middle of the
recession last year, there were fears that the issue
could get buried beneath the stresses of economic
survival.
“I did fear that all the positive work companies
have done will disappear,” says Dilys Robinson,
principal research fellow at the Institute for
Employment Studies, who was on the specialist
forum for the review. “But luckily they are still
saying it’s important. The recession could actually
have helped the employee engagement issue.”
For MacLeod, the strength of the case for
engagement comes from the fact that it has
been built on the need to improve productivity.
The simple argument, backed up repeatedly with
statistics in the review, is that improving levels of
employee engagement correlates with improved
performance.
There’s the IES/Work Foundation report, for
example, that found that increasing engagement
related workplace practices by 10 per cent
raised profits by £1,500 per employee per year.
Or the Towers Perrin-ISR cross-organisational
study showing that over a 12 month period
those companies with high engagement scores
increased net income growth by 13.7 per cent,
compared with a 3.8 per cent decline in those
with low engagement.
The figures are all there, but maybe there’s a
longer history to consider. MacLeod states that
one of the key drivers of employee engagement is
a clear story of where your company is going. One
of the benefits of a recession is that it brings its
own story, ready-made. As Robinson says, “what
you find in a recession is that people don’t want
to just sit around finding out if they’ve got a job
but contribute to the success of the organisation.”
But for Robinson this recession has a particular
story of its own. “In the past companies have
shed the older, more expensive employees, but
now they’ve hung on to them,” she says “There
is an attempt to keep on people who are valuable
to the organisation, with things like shorter weeks
and pay cuts.”
These are employee engagement strategies,
whether those implementing them understand
them as such or not. Leaders have been looking
for ways to survive, and the strategies they’ve
chosen have been moulded by an environment
that has changed significantly since the last
recession.
Ben Willmott, employee relations adviser at the
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
(CIPD) says that in the last decade or so the deal
between employer and employee has changed.
“The so-called ‘nice decade’, as Mervyn King
put it [referring to the period of ‘non-inflationary
consistent expansion’ after Labour came to
power], gave employees a lot more choice in the
labour market. Employers had to become a lot
more watchful of the war for talent and offer
more attractive conditions.”
What is encouraging is that the tools businesses
developed to remain competitive in the good
times have been carried over to help them survive
in the bad. “People seem to intuitively understand
employee engagement,” Robinson says. “They
say they get it, though when you question them
about it in details they’ll probably give different
answers. But I don’t think that matters too
much.”
But this shouldn’t encourage complacency.
MacLeod says we are still a long way off fulfilling
the potential of our workers, and the amount
we invest in managers is till a lot less than other
developed countries. The importance of line
managers, in particular, is frequently stated. As
Willmott says, “they are the ones that need to
be providing employees with clear objectives,
feedback and coaching on a day to day basis.
Too often we get management by accident
in this country, where someone gets put in
a management role simply because of their
technical skills.”
This is a particular problem in the public sector,
Willmott says, which is threatened with “savage”
cuts in the year ahead. So far the interest in
employee engagement strategies in the public
sector has been variable, and what action has
been taken has often revealed the same problems
An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group
in attitudes to leadership as found in the private
sector.
Essex County Council (ECC) is unusual in setting
up its own, four-person employee engagement
team last year. In its 2009 survey, only 39 per
cent of employees believed that senior managers
would take action from the results of the survey.
Indeed, a common problem MacLeod points
out is that senior management think that doing
employee engagement means doing a survey.
If this isn’t followed up with action and a clear
strategy then it will make the situation worse.
And this attitude comes from the top. MacLeod
says that while the line manager is certainly key to
engagement, it is the leadership who set the tone.
Senior management are often simply too afraid of
doing surveys in the first place because they don’t
have the confidence to face negative feedback.
In the case of ECC, Laura Sibley, head of the
employee engagement team, welcomes the
feedback regarding leadership. “It highlights
the fact that is the job of the leader to engage,”
she says, “and you can never do too much
leadership communication.” This has prompted
her team to work closely wit the leadership group
in organising events and engaging directly with
A survey isn’t enough employees through a number of forums, such
to engage people on as the employee panel. If the private sector is
its own anything to go by, such changes will out them
in a good positions to adapt to the difficulties
presented by slashed budgets.
For MacLeod, there is still too much
misunderstanding and fear surrounding the issue
Leaders have been
looking for ways
to survive, and the
strategies they’ve
chosen have been
moulded by a
new working
environment
of engagement issue. At the heart of it are some
very simple practices which managers should
follow. They need to know how to focus their
people on what’s required, and give them some
scope within that. They must treat their staff as
individuals, and they must give them feedback
and coach them.
An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group
Brain at work
Emotions are a potent force, and when harnessed in the
right way they can bring huge value to your business.
E
very driver knows that you don’t get full
power from the engine until the clutch is
fully engaged, and every manager knows
that their workforce needs to be engaged to
release its full potential.
Engaged employees don’t just turn up on
time and do their job. They love their work and
bring all their creativity and energy to it. And
if everybody is engaged, they are more than a
workforce - they are a team, and they go the
extra mile.
Managers are increasingly recognising that
emotions are at play here, not just an intellectual
recognition that they need to put in a day’s
work to gain a day’s pay. Getting employees
emotionally committed to the company’s aims
and objectives is one of the toughest challenges
facing any manager, from line supervisors to chief
executives, and our mission at TALTalent is to
provide them with the knowledge, skills and tools
to get their employees engaged.
TALTalent has built up a wide knowledge of
the principles of psychology and experience
of the practical tools and methods that are
available to build a workplace culture that fosters
engagement. The general tenet is that what you
think influences what you feel and what you feel
influences what you think, and that people are
naturally hedonistic, seeking out pleasure and
avoiding pain.
However, the latest research in brain imaging
is revealing a complex system of feedback loops
that govern our behaviour and which can override
the hedonistic principle. Our work focuses on
understanding and influencing these positive and
negative feedback loops that underpin behaviours
both as individuals and as organisations.
TALTalent believes strongly that a ‘one size
fits all’ approach is not effective in promoting
employee engagement. Every individual is
different, and every organisation has its own
unique challenges and requirements.
Our long experience with clients has brought
us to an understanding of the behavioural
patterns that lead either to engagement, success
and a loyal and committed workforce, or to
disengagement, a demoralised and fragmented
workforce and mediocre performance.
The first step to employee engagement is to
understand the individual dynamics of the
organisation, as each operates in a different
culture and market and has a different structure.
These factors will have created a brand that
employees may or may not subscribe to, with
a direct impact on their commitment. Some
companies have strong employee brands that
makes it easy to recruit and motivate the best-
qualified staff who are proud to work for them.
The next challenge is the organisation’s
leaders, who may themselves have developed
unconsciously into barriers to engagement.
Most leaders know how to behave in theory but
have developed their own ways of doing things
that become comfort zones. Stepping outside
those zones activates defence mechanisms that
can impede the ability to do the right things.
It is our experience that the level of employee
engagement in an organisation can be predicted
by examining senior management - if they are
self aware, flexible, open to change and skilled
communicators, they more likely to be motivate
employees.
At the employee levels, the indicators of a
poorly-motivated, disengaged workforce are clear
to see for a leader who knows what to look for.
The main indicator of disengagement is people
working to their own agendas who resist new
ideas or ways of working. The next is a general
decline in enthusiasm and energy levels as a result
of lack trust and buy-in to the company and its
purpose.
Now look at communication flows within the
organisation. Are all the ideas and input coming
from the leaders? If the employees do not feel
their ideas matter, but simply ‘do what the bosses
tell them to do’, engagement has seriously
lapsed.
Are employees defensive? If they tend to be
isolationist and protective of their role, they will
respond to pressure by keeping their heads under
the parapet and getting on with their jobs rather
than going on the offensive and seeking solutions
to problems. There is a danger that people
will rationalise a narrow view of their own job
responsibilities, without regard to what might be
best for the company at the time.
Larger organisations often have established
intelligence networks in the form of employee
surveys and appraisals, staff turnover data and so
on, and these can give valuable information on
levels of engagement.
Engagement is particularly important at times
Employee engagement_11
of change, yet it often gets diluted in the
general fray of day to day priorities. TALTalent
have worked with start-up organisations, with
new leaders and teams, in M&A and business
transformation situations to ensure enagagement
People are remains on the performance management
agenda.
naturally
hedonistic, For more information call 020 7378 6884
or
email info@taltalent.com
seeking out web: www.taltalent.com
pleasure and
TALTalent speaker events debating current
avoiding pain. hot business issues. London April 27th Justin
Webb talking about the parallels between
the US and the UK elections.
London Seminar May 25th “Performance
Management from 3 Perspectives”: how to
maximise it; financial rewards; managing
people when things go wrong.
These events are free but attendance is by
invitation only so please contact us if you are
interested in joining us.
This article was written by Graham Johnson
and Ingrid Blades from TALTalent
Five indicators of disengagement taking hold
• Conflict is avoided, not resolved
• Procrastination rules and decisions are not taken promptly
• More important business information is shared round the water
cooler rather than at official meetings
• Correct procedure is more important than success
• People fail to make their expectations clear and then resent the fact
that they are not met
Five features of an engaged workforce
• Employees are loyal - they talk to each other rather than
about each other
• Both leaders and individuals challenge each other openly
• People are accountable for their own actions and take pride in their
contribution to success
• Individuals support the organisation’s brand and work to deliver on
what the company promises
• Mistakes are regarded as inevitable incidents on the road to
experience, but experience is not the name given to the same
mistakes we make over and over again
Six ways to promote employee engagement
• Tap into the wealth of experience and ability of the workforce
• Establish a system of recognition and rewards for effective work,
that are merit based, emotionally satisfying and not always
financial-
• Face up to change as a given and invest in developing employees
who can adapt their skills accordingly
• Balance top down and bottom up leadership to create an
environment conducive to optimal performance had maximum
engagement
• Never assume a message given is the message received –use
more than one approach to communicating and always consider
employees as individuals
• Make innovation and success everyones issue
 12_Employee engagement
Time to change
The opportunity to change an organisation is an
opportunity to engage employees, but only if it’s done right.
A
s the country moves out of recession,
companies are faced with the opportunity
to grow turnover and profits. Yet some
will find it difficult if their staff have become
demoralised during the downturn.
When companies had to put some staff on
short-time or make others redundant, it made
all employees fear for the future. “That kind of
unsettling change doesn’t do anything to promote
positive employee engagement,” says Matt
Clark, a director at Boxwood, an award-winning
management consultancy which specialises in
business transformation.
But that’s all changing. “We’ve seen a lot of
opportunities for growth coming back onto the
table again since the recession ended,” says Chris
Wakerley, managing director of Boxwood. “That’s
just the climate in which businesses should be
looking to make transformational changes in their
performance.”
Yet Wakerley warns that major change is
a double-edged sword. Done well, it helps
a company engage its employees and lifts
everyone’s performance to new levels. Done
poorly, it may backfire and make staff disengaged
and less productive.
Boxwood, which has worked with dozens of
companies to raise performance, has noticed
a new appetite for transformational change in
corporate Britain.
Colin Wilson, one of the company’s directors,
explains, “We’re often called in when managers
are looking at their business and get a sense of
frustration that they should be achieving more
– for example, in terms of creating shareholder
value, growing the company’s turnover or
improving its profit. These are people who sense
there is more potential in their business and want
to make a real step up.”
Among others, Boxwood has recently been
asked by two FTSE 250 companies to use its
transformation skills to help them double in size.
“They want to make it into the FTSE 100
and become more profitable,” says Wakerley.
Ambitious, certainly. But what Wakerley calls
“unreasonable” results become reasonable – and
attainable – when a company is determined to
involve all its employees on its transformation
journey.
That is certainly the case for the first of the FTSE
250 companies that wants to double its size. The
chief executive plans to use the dramatic changes
to engage staff more closely in the company and
to identify the rising stars in his business.
The second FTSE 250 company has seen its
performance and profit hit by the recession.
But the chairman of the company now sees an
opportunity for growth. “There are competitive
pressures in their market, but they want to find
new ways to drive growth and improve their
profitability,” says Wakerley.
“We are designing a whole transformation
programme that will lift the performance of
all aspects of the business and will, over time,
change the culture of the company as well.”
However, wanting to be more successful isn’t
enough. “You also need the ambition and the
stomach for the big changes which are necessary
to deliver transformational results,” he says.
That is because companies which seek these
kinds of unreasonable results, shouldn’t imagine
they’re easy to achieve. Sustainable change must
start at the top – with the board of directors.
Unless they are willing to embrace transformation,
it is difficult if not impossible to get other staff to
change.
Wakerley believes the starting point for
companies that want to achieve transformational
An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group
results that last long into the future is to build the
capability and capacity for change.
“We bring experience of change and best
practice across many different industries and
match it with the knowledge the client has of its
own business and markets,” he says. “By putting
those two things together in a very organised
Engagement is a key way – with a focus on seeking outcomes and
source of competitive accelerating change – we drive up our clients’
advantage ability to successfully deliver their goals .
There are three intertwined “threads” to a
sustainable transformation project, explains
Clark. The first is having a clear vision for the
organisation - what needs to be delivered to
succeed. The second is about designing a future
business model that delivers the vision and can be
implemented in practice.
And the third is about managing the change
that needs to happen. “And that’s where
engagement becomes very important, although
it’s involved in all threads,” says Clark. “You have
to take people with you on a transformation
journey. If you don’t, you will fail,” he warns.
“To do that, you must listen to and include all
the people in the organisation you need to make
it successful. And then you need to embed the
new ways of working, along with processes and
systems, by ensuring that people have the right
capabilities to do the job properly.”
Engaged employees – those who are willing to
go that extra mile and challenge themselves to lift
their performance – will be the key for all those
companies that want to reap the fruits of Britain’s
recovering economy.
“These are the staff who are not just sitting
there doing their jobs, but who are actively
looking for ways to provide excellence either to
their colleagues or to customers,” says Wilson.
The results of Boxwood’s sustainable
transformation approach can be dramatic. The
consultancy recently worked on a programme
with a large retailer. It involved some pain, such as
redundancies. But the company also introduced
new ways of working and fresh product lines.
The result: a £100m improvement in profit
before interest and tax. Besides the cash, the staff
are more positive too. “There was a 20 per cent
improvement in employee engagement, even
while the difficult changes were being made,”
notes Clark.
So the opportunity is there: add a willingness to
change to a growing economy and there’s a real
opportunity for sustainable transformation.
“Unreasonable” For more information call Claire Webster on:
tel: +44 (0) 203 1707240 or
results become email: info@boxwoodgroup.com
reasonable when
a company
involves all its
employees on its
transformation
journey.
An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group
The talent war
We talked to Tim Drake, Head of Talent Management at
Hudson Global Resources, about how companies can make the
most of their most valuable assets.
Q: How does our attitude to talent
need to change in this country?
A: We need to recognise great talent and the
value it creates for us. My challenge to CEOs and
other leaders in any organisation is to view their
great people as assets on the balance sheet. You
have to start with the belief that talent delivers
real value to the organisation. Top talent is the
only asset that will allow organisations to deliver
on future ambitions and challenging business
plans. Too often the HR department is charged
with identifying and monitoring the talent, while
the CEO and leadership are preoccupied with the
pressure from the stakeholders to focus on ROI
and profit. But the leadership need to own the
dialogue and the delivery of talent management,
and the process of when and how. Concern often
only arises when the great people leave, and
then there’s a lot of hand wringing and the HR
department gets blamed unfairly.
Q: How do you know who the top
talent are?
A: The top talent is defined by two key groups;
high performers and high potentials. Nothing
can be done without knowing exactly which
employees fall into these categories. High
performers are generally a good cultural fit
and perform consistently higher than most
When the CEO
turns up to a
conference or
other event
in a different
location, he has
to make sure
that he meets
up with the key
talent
other employees. These people are crucial to
the organisation and are best nurtured with
standard hygiene factors, such as financial reward,
coaching and monitoring roles, and security.
But then you need to find out if they have the
potential to take the next step. Only a small
percentage of high performers are high potentials.
These people won’t be so concerned with hygiene
factors, but driven by challenge and real learning
opportunities. They will learn much more quickly
than their peers and relish the opportunity to
prove themselves.
Q: So what do you do when you’ve
identified your top talent?
A: You need to find out more about them.
What really motivates them and what are their
development needs and desires? What actually
gets them out of bed each day? What do they
want to achieve in the organisation? Then for the
leadership it involves taking the time and effort
to attend to those people. When the CEO turns
up to a conference or other event in a different
location, he has to make sure that he meets up
with the key talent, have a coffee with them
perhaps. And if there’s a change project coming
up, you need to have these people involved, to
allow them to prove themselves and learn through
the experienceThe most recent McKinsey survey
of the Top 500 CEOs revealed that most of them
said they learnt the most from doing the job and
new development opportunities, not from formal
training. It’s much more valuable than training
courses.
Q: How do you build this into an
organisation?
A: The process also has to be open – it must
Employee engagement_13
be known that you do different things with the
top talent. It shouldn’t be done in secret, with
handshakes behind closed doors. An open process
is appealing to high potentials. There needs to
be a bi-monthly agenda item, reporting on what
has changed, how talent is being developed and
what are the concrete next steps. If it’s not treated
with that kind of respect then there won’t be
any progress. Also, people will always pick up on
inconsistency - if it doesn’t happen one week then
it gets picked up and loses credibility.
Q: Does this not risk excluding some
employees?
A: To a certain extent, but those excluded by it
will be the average to poor employees, and that
is an acceptable consequence of doing this. It’s
always the average people who stay, you find,
because they haven’t got the oomph to move on
and make plans. The danger for organisations is
that they get left with the averages. So you need
to ask: do we have the right people to take the
company forward? Where are we going, and have
we got the right people to get us there?
Q: Aren’t most businesses too busy
trying to survive to worry
about this?
A: Talent management is crucial to survival. The
last two years people have battened down the
hatches. Great people will always be in demand
are great at finding ways to move on. This well
get exacerbated as we come out of the recession.
So the ongoing war for talent will come back
and bite those companies that haven’t nurtured
their most important people. It will be too late
to introduce a talent strategy once the economy
has stabilised. If you are known for having
great people, then you will attract great people.
Successful organisations always have this stuff
high on the board agenda. This will particularly
affect the public sector, which is still getting to
grips with talent management. When cuts are
brought in, they need to have the processes in
place to make sure they keep the best talent.
Q: Do UK leaders have the ability to
achieve this?
A: There are three main things that will make you
successful: learning ability, emotional intelligence
and intellectual ability. Around all of this you
can wrap ambition. What is often lacking is the
drive to be successful, even though all the other
elements are in place. Top talent will always be
pushing at the door.
For more information please contact:
tim.drake@hudson.com
tel. 0207 187 6077
www.uk.hudson.com/talentmanagement
 14_Employee engagement An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group

The basics of performance

Andrew Leigh explains why business leaders need straight forward terms of engagement

T
he message to leaders, managers promises impossible to deliver, trust has been global survey found a persuasive 19.2 per would be foolish and shortsighted to ignore.
and other stakeholders could not affected. We have not just been through cent improvement in operating income in Andrew Leigh is a founding director of
be clearer. If you want to improve a financial recession, but through a trust companies with high levels of engagement.   Maynard Leigh Associates (www.maynardleigh.
organisational performance then raise your recession as well – and the latter will take Inspiration at work is easily dismissed as co.uk), a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of
people’s level of engagement. Holding the longer to fix.” fanciful because it is hard to measure and Personnel and Development and author of a
key to persuading people to go that extra For employees to feel Involved they even harder to manage. Over half of UK number of books on management.
mile and seeing a real improvement in profits need to be more than just informed, they executives say they want inspiration from
is surely every chief executive’s dream? So need a certain kind of communication. their leaders, yet only 11 per cent say they More information: “Talent Engagement,
when convincing research surfaces showing According to Towers Watson only 31 get it. There are many practical actions that How to Unlock People’s Potential” on line
how to achieve such mouth watering results per cent of employees feel their senior leaders and managers can do daily that at: bit.ly/dzpQja; “Talent Engagement—
you might expect those at the top to grab on managers communicate openly and honestly. steadily feed people’s need for inspiration. the facts”, at www.maynardleigh.co.uk;
with both hands. Employees need to understand their impact Another study by the IES/Work foundation “Promoting the value of learning in
Yet the recent government sponsored on the workplace. It also means promoting in 2008 reported an increase in profits adversity, CIPD publication
report, ‘Engaging For Success’, that good collaborative relationships as a way of per employee per year in companies that
portrays unequivocally the benefits of staff enabling teams and individuals to perform at increase investment in a range of workplace
engagement, continues to struggle to win their best. practices that relate to engagement. 59 per
over the skeptics. So is one of the barriers Growing and developing is a natural cent of engaged employees say work brings
to leaders accepting the challenge of human drive. At work a focus on out their most creative ideas, versus the 3
engagement a fear of not knowing what to development can be a powerful way to per cent of disengaged employees.
do, or how to do it? engage and challenge people. Unlocking Leaders might fear the challenge of
We have something to offer in that area. potential creates the opportunities needed Engagement but the latest evidence certainly
For over 20 years our work on company for your staff to shine. A Towers Watson/ISR suggests it is a major factor that companies
cultures, individual performance and
behavioural change has brought us to VIDI
(the Latin to see).
VIDI shows that for people to be fully
engaged at work they need to be Valued,
Involved, Developed and Inspired. These
are also the essentials of people-centered
leadership, which so many corporate leaders
are trying to embrace.
For your people to feel valued they need
to experience being treated as individuals,
respected and treated fairly. “Most
employee engagement is based on feelings,”
says Stuart Mackenzie, managing director,
Maynard Leigh. “Employees ‘feel’ engaged,
and that relies to a large extent on the trust
they have in the management’s promises.
Because the downturn made a lot of

Top work the Middle East and Africa, says: “Higher engagement
levels mean higher productivity, lower absenteeism, greater
employee retention, superior service quality, more satisfied
and loyal customers, and improved bottom-line results. By
success and more willing to apply discretionary effort
to accomplish tasks that are central to the goals of the
organisation,” Jackson says.
Other factors that drive employee engagement are
Why effective management is making a concerted effort to improve the effectiveness of ‘exciting work’, the extent to which employees can improve

key to engagement your managers, you can radically raise the level of employee
engagement in your organisation.”
their skills and whether the organisation demonstrates a
genuine responsibility to its employees and its communities.
Kenexa recommends that organisations should create a

E
mployees who work for an ‘effective manager’ have
three-four times higher engagement levels than
those who don’t, according to a global study by HR
solutions provider Kenexa.
An effective manager is someone who keeps his/her
commitments, evaluates employees’ performance fairly,
makes use of employees’ ideas, quickly solves problems and
practices open, two-way communication. Their behaviour is
consistent with the mission and values of the organisation,
they provide opportunities for employees to improve their
skills and they reassure employees that they have a promising
future.
Andrew Jackson, Managing Director of Kenexa in Europe,
framework of skills (such as communicating, giving feedback
and problem solving), behaviours (such as being organised
and acting in a way that’s consistent with the vision and
values of the organisation) and attitudes (such as being
respectful, open and encouraging) that managers need in
order to be effective in their role.
This framework should be used as a benchmark
when recruiting managers. It should also form the basis
of management development programmes and the
organisation’s performance management and succession
planning processes.
“When ‘effective management’ prevails, employees
become more motivated to contribute to the organisation’s
An independent supplement produced by Lyonsdown Media Group
The secret of success
If you want your employees to help drive your company forward,
you need to be clear about what you’re offering them.
There is never a good time to stop thinking
about your employees. But as the economy picks
up, and companies think about how to move
forward, the task of ensuring that your most
valuable assets are committed to your future is
more important than ever. Not only that, but
you want to be confident that your values and
commitment are clearly communicated, so that
when you take on new recruits you know they
will be a ‘good fit’.
This is only possible if what you are offering
both existing and potential employees is unique
and compelling, both emotionally and rationally.
You want your employees to delight your
customers, but they will only do that if they
feel good about where they work. You also
want them to contribute to the development
of the company, which will only happen if they
know their employer cares about their career
development.
The way a company acts and behaves to
communicate these messages to its employees
can be captured in its Employee Value Proposition
(EVP). As Anna Barras, consultant at employee
engagement specialists Ketchum Pleon Change,
explains, “An EVP reflects the image an
organisation wants to portray to current and
prospective employees. Having a clear EVP is
a vitally important part of a strong employer
brand”.
In late 2008, popular restaurant chain KFC
asked Ketchum Pleon Change to help them
engage their employees, retain and attract talent
and promote KFC as an Employer of Choice. The
task was to identify what people loved about
working at KFC and translate the findings into a
clearly articulated EVP. This would then form the
basis of increasing staff loyalty and performance
levels, and lowering turnover.
“Our approach was to immerse ourselves in
KFC’s business by effectively becoming temporary
KFC employees,” says Barras, “that way, we were
able to directly observe and experience employee
life in KFC restaurants – we even attended a full
induction and a enjoyed working a restaurant
shift.” This immersion approach was reinforced
with traditional research techniques such as desk
research, focus groups, interviews and surveys
across a representative sample of the business.
The data gathered was then sorted into
categories and analysed against the stages
of the employee lifecycle. At this stage
Ketchum Pleon Change also developed
practical recommendations with input from the
management team, HR, employees and franchisee
representatives that built on existing KFC culture
and values.
As Barras says, a successful EVP should align
with existing organisational values. “Having an
EVP which sits in opposition to existing values
is confusing, both internally to employees and
externally from a brand perspective.” Crucial
too is to have key stakeholders on board from
the start, such as the senior management team,
Employee engagement_15
marketing, internal and external communications
and HR.
In the case of KFC, the immersion phase
quickly revealed what the KFC secret was – the
people. “Employees enjoy their jobs at KFC
because of their colleagues and the supportive
family-like atmosphere which exists at all levels,”
Barras says. “Therefore we focused on enhancing
this experience across all levels of the business and
the entire employee lifecycle to make it an even
better place to work.
”Further workshops helped to refine and
distill these findings into a key message that
would embody what makes KFC unique. Ketchum
Pleon Change took advantage of the company’s
iconic ‘secret recipe’ with a new employment
tagline, “The Secret is You”. This creatively
communicated the fact that employees felt it
was the people and culture which make KFC so
successful. The tagline has since been used most
visibly on KFC’s new careers website (launched in
early 2009), which has so far seen over 200,000
applications. 2009 was a great year for KFC in
the UK and Ireland. Greater staff engagement
and stability helped to drive same store sales
growth of 10% and turnover at all levels has been
falling consistently. To top it off, the company
KPC took The correct response
also recently received an accreditation as one of
Britain’s Top Employers.
advantage of Ketchum Pleon Change - a new
business created through the
Given the dispersed nature of KFC’s KFC’s iconic combination of Ketchum’s and Pleon’s
Change and Transformation consulting
employee base, with almost 800 restaurants in
the UK and Ireland, it was important to reinforce “secret recipe” businesses - helps organisations
respond to today’s complex and
the employee brand work with a number of
additional projects. A new intranet is currently with a new challenging environment. We create
integrated communication strategies,
being developed to improve communication
across the organisation, and a more consistent
tagline, “The craft meaningful and responsive
messages, and reshape organisational
induction experience for new starters has been
successfully implemented. Projects like these help
Secret is You” behaviour to enable employees to
remain focused on performance that
to ensure that employees continue to be aware helps businesses achieve their goals.
In this way, we focus on a single,
of the benefits and rewards available to them,
overarching mission: to improve
which is crucial if they are to remain proud brand
business results by effectively managing
ambassadors for the company. and communicating change, while
So how should a company go about aligning the workplace and the
identifying its EVP? Barras suggests you should marketplace.  
 

start by taking the time to understand what
makes your company, and what you have to offer
your employees, unique. “Too often companies Paul Teuton
assume they already know this, and don’t bother Director UK
actually asking their people,” she says. “But Ketchum Pleon Change
companies must also accept that they cannot be +44 (0) 207 611 3644
all things to all people. A strong employer brand paul.teuton@ketchumpleon.com
and EVP will help attract those people that will www.ketchumpleonchange.com
thrive in your company; ensuring your employer
brand in turn aligns with your consumer and
corporate brands is a recipe for even greater
success and will really differentiate you in the
marketplace.”
Fundamentally, it’s about building on existing
strengths, not throwing out your existing values,
mission and vision. The answers most likely
already lie with your people. You just have to take
the time to look for them.