The Power of Employee Engagement

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The Power of Employee Engagement

• What We Do Makes a Difference!
• TEM Conference August 2006
• Robyn ClarkProfessional Organisational
  Development Consultant
• The Centre for Professional Development
• Macquarie University

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These cannot be the two miners, they are on
their feet they are hugging their wives. This is
the most incredible thing I have ever seen, these
blokes are on their feet, in their mine gear,
theyve tagged off Frances can you absolutely
believe what you're seeing? Tim Cox, ABC
Tasmania Mornings presenter.Its what I would
have expected of these two boys. Beaconsfield
Uniting Church minister, Rev. Frances Seen
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Engagement?

• (SMH 9/5/2006 pg 5) from a worker involved in the
  Beaconsfield mine rescue
• "I've never seen a bunch of guys work harder or
  better...There's guys you might not have thought
  much of as workers, blokes who when they got down
  the hole only wanted to get out again. Not any
  more. They come and they want to do more and
  more...They're just committed. Same with bosses
  upstairs. Its brought out the best in everyone."

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Presentation outline

• Compare contrast definitions of employee
  engagement
• Employee engagement in Higher Education
• Higher Education employee surveys - data
• Discuss the implications for Leaders in Higher
  Education using a reframing model

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What is Employee Engagement?

• the extent to which employees commit to
  something or someone in their organisation, how
  hard they work, and how long they stay as a
  result of that commitment
• (The Corporate Leadership Council - 2005)
• employee passion, representing the popular
  construct of employee engagement and three
  subcomponents of organisation commitment, job
  satisfaction and intention to stay
• (Dr P Langford, MQ 2006)

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Characteristics of Employee Engagement

• feeling valued for actions
• commitment to something or someone in the
  organisation, and how long they stay as a result
  of that commitment
• loyal employees (versus satisfied employees) stay
  because they want to
• emotionally and intellectually committed to the
  organisation as measured by three primary
  behaviours Say, Stay, Strive
• discretionary effort in the form of brainpower,
  extra time and energy.

Source DDI Talent Management Conference 2006
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What is discretionary effort?
Predicted/expected performance
Performance gap/ additional effort required
Current performance
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What is discretionary effort?

• difference between how well people actually
  perform and how well they are capable of
  performing.
• wholly within the control of the employee
• Collaboration required between employees the
  organisation to capture additional level of
  effort and performance

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Employee engagement Discretionary effort?

• According to May, Gibson Harter (2004), for
  the human spirit to thrive at work, individuals
  must be able to completely immerse themselves in
  their work. That is they must be able to engage
  the cognitive, emotional physical dimensions of
  themselves in their work.

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Engage Employees and Boost Performance

• Engaged workers exert more discretionary
  effort.
• Go beyond meeting the minimum standards for their
  job.
• Discretionary effort separates great performers
  from average performers.
• (The Hay Group, December 2001.)

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Managers can increase the engagement of their
employees by

• offering tangible rewards,
• ensuring quality of work,
• promoting work/life balance (or flexibility),
• acknowledging values,
• creating an enabling environment and,
• providing growth opportunities
• (The Hay Group, December 2001.)

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Does salary level impact engagement?

• Lower paid workers
• motivated by the quality of treatment they
  receive from their immediate manager
• Want fair performance evaluations and
  compensation.
• Higher paid employees
• want prestige
• are motivated by recognition for their
  contributions, the image of their organisation,
  career advancement, departmental collaboration
  and training in new skills.
• (Management Issues, 2005)

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Disengagement?

• May, et al (2004) describe this as lack of
  meaning in ones work that can lead to alienation
  or disengagement from ones work.
• results in a largely unproductive workforce
  will impact competitive advantage.

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Cost of disengagement

• Gallup survey 2006 of 1,500 Australian workers
• 20 actively disengaged at work
• costs the economy an estimated 31.5 billion
  per year.
• Causes identified
• not receiving praise or recognition for doing
  good work
• Lack of open honest communication

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Higher Education context

• Sectoral issues
• Corporatising universities
• Commercialisation
• Productivity efficiency
• Changes to work practices
• Changes to work climate
• Competitive market private providers, etc
• Szekeres,J. Journal of Higher Education Policy
  and Management 2006

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Definition of Employee Engagement in Higher
Education?

• Is it necessary to be different?
• Individual goals aligned to organisational goals
• Values respected yet sometimes challenged

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Academic freedom?Impact on Engagement

• Academic freedom is the discovery and
  dissemination of knowledge what university
  researchers and teachers are employed to do
• duty to engage in the process of uncovering and
  transmitting knowledge
• clear purpose of role
• Draft Senate Statement on Academic Freedom,
  Macquarie University July 2006

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Data source

• Voice Project
• Data from over 10,000 employees across more than
  700 organisations.
• Employee surveys

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Employee Engagement in Higher Education

• Using the data from Voice Project
• 7 Higher Education institutions
• 8419 staff (2500 academic 4500 general some
  did not nominate)
• Surveys over last 3 years
• Database of organisations - sample representative
  of the Australian economy

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Response ? Employee Surveys

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Voice Project Outcome measures

• Passion
• Purpose
• Participation
• Progress
• Property
• People
• Peace

• 7 Ps

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Voice Project measure Passion

• Job Satisfaction
• My work gives me a feeling of personal
  accomplishment
• I like the kind of work I do
• Overall I am satisfied with my job

• 76 of all university staff surveyed are
  favourable/satisfied about their job
• (better than 71 of all organisations surveyed
  n1003)
• No significant difference between Academic (78)
  and General Staff (76)

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• Organisational commitment
• I feel a sense of loyalty and commitment to this
  org/uni
• I am proud to tell people that I work for this
  uni
• I feel emotionally attached to this uni
• I am willing to put in extra effort for this uni

• 71 of all university staff surveyed are
  favourable about their organisation not their
  discipline
• (better than 59 of all organisations surveyed
  n1003)

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• Intention to stay
• I am likely to still be working here in 2 years
  time
• I would like to be still working here in 5 years
• I can see a future for me at this uni.

• 63 of all university staff surveyed are
  favourable about staying with their organisation
  
• (better than 77 or ¾ of all organisations
  surveyed n1003)
• Staff want to stay but indicated a need to
  improve participation only 49 favourable

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Universities All Staff
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Strategies to improve

• Improve Participation
• Performance appraisal
• Learning development
• Participation involvement
• Rewards recognition
• Supervision
• Leadership
• Communication cooperation
• Recruitment selection

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Macquarie University actions

• MQ_at_50
• Your Say
• Response rate 74

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What is Macquarie University doing?

• Improve Participation outcomes
• Performance Development System individual KPIs
  
• Participation involvement
• Reward recognition system

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What else is MQ doing?

• Supervision leadership development programs
• Increased institutional communication
  cooperation
• Recruitment selection procedure changes
• New staff advertised

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Organisational framing

• Bolman Deal (1997) developed a tool to view
  issues or challenges in an organisation
• Look across all four frames for ways
  to improve maintain employee
  engagement
• Variety of frames

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Frames through which we can understand
organisations

• STRUCTURAL HUMAN RESOURCE
• (reporting lines, accountabilities) (needs,
  skills, issues)

POLITICAL (power bases, decision making protocols)
CULTURAL (values, beliefs, norms)
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• STRUCTURAL
• Pay benefits
• Communication processes
• Roles aligned to talent
• Clarity of reporting lines
• Renew organisational systems

• HUMAN
• Professional development
• Individual motivators reward recognition
  schemes
• Defined outcomes - KPIs
• Autonomy Innovation

• POLITICAL
• Sources of power expert, positional, personal
  networks
• Decision-making forums - EBA
• Informal lines of influence - networks

• CULTURAL
• Attitudes and behaviours
• Values respect differences
• Symbols Town Hall meetings, VC website
• Rituals committees

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Conclusion

• Higher Education has some clear challenges
• Organisations value employee commitment
• Effective and ongoing organisational
  communication
• Recognition of the whole person

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Presentation outline

• Compare contrast definitions of employee
  engagement
• Employee engagement in Higher Education
• Higher Education employee surveys data
• Discuss the implications for Leaders in Higher
  Education using a reframing model

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QUESTIONS?