Don’t just talk about it

Are you tired of reading the same platitudes about employee engagement? Every HR related journal seems to bang on about the cost of disengaged employees, the impact on the economy and how much greater productivity can be if people are committed motivated and engaged. We don’t really need to be told that over and over, do we?

Why isn’t there more focus on how people can be turned to their jobs and their organisations? That’s because it is very, very difficult to change behaviour in organisations and much easier to talk about it.

So, what should we do? Five things:

First agree what engagement actually is in behavioural terms have a serious discussion at top management level, based on some up to date information about relative levels of engagement among employees. Why do some teams consistently outperform others?

Second – go out and measure whether your assessments are correct – across the organisation and within individual teams.

Third – have a serious, grown up debate about what those measures show at top management level and decide what the remedial priorities are.

Fourth – develop an engagement index and set some improvement targets and make specific individuals accountable for achieving the results; publish the targets

Fifth – re-measure after an agreed period – 6 or 12 months for example.

We’ve seen organisation after organisation follow these steps and achieve remarkable changes for the better.

So don’t just talk about it. Try it! You’ll be amazed at what you can do.

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