Sharing slides from the workshop I ran today, September 28 at PRAXIS 2013. The current employee engagement approach needs s revisit. Trends indicate a shift to occupational commitment, personalization, involvement and empowerment at the workplace. How and what we do to engage staff makes a difference to the final outcome.

1. Employee Engagement and Beyond
PRAXIS 2013
Aniisu K Verghese
@aniisu
September 28, 2013
1

2. Presentation covers
 Why our current approach needs a revisit
 Trends shaping the world
 Strategies to engage in the future
2

3. Why our current approach needs a revisit
3

4. Why do expectations and responsibilities
change after an employee joins an
organization?

5. Who owns employee engagement?

6. State of affairs in India
• Only 21% respondents said that the internal communications
team owned employee engagement at their organization
although 57% agreed that the team believed internal
communications had an impact on engagement within the firm.
Source: State of the Nation 2012 Internal Communications Survey

7. What Indian internal communicators think
leaders grapple with
Attrition Low Morale
Poor communication
skills
The complex nature of
our business
Understanding the mindset
of our professionals
Doing things that all
leaders agree
Articulating their
message
Engaging employees
Communicating tough
messages to employee
State of the Nation: 2011 India Internal Communications Survey

8. Only about 34% leaders highly involved with
engagement
Unlocking the Power of Employees to
Drive Success: Actionable ideas for companies of any size, Interbrand’s (2010)

9. Engagement effort lacks direction
90% of companies invest in some form of employee engagement
activity.
But these tend to be unrelated and/or uncoordinated, meaning
opportunities are missed to build on prior initiatives and enable
engagement to truly take root.
Unlocking the Power of Employees to Drive Success: Actionable ideas for companies of any size,
Interbrand’s (2010)

10. What do organizations measure?
Leveraging Employee Engagement for Competitive Advantage, 2007 SHRM® Research Quarterly

11. Different frameworks offered often confuse
Sources: http://www.greatplacetowork.in, www.blessingwhite.com and http://www.aon.com
GPTW
AON-HewittBlessingWhite

12. Trends shaping our world

13. Company’s employee is more credible than the
CEO
Source: Edelman’s Trust Barometer, 2013

14. ‘We’ society to a ‘Me’ lifestyle
“Individualism, one’s aspirations and a personalized way of life,
emerged as the central theme amongst 18-35 year olds in India”
14
Source: VML Qais, Generation Asia Study
http://www.wppindia.in/wpp/press/2013/jan/09/vml-qais-research-finds-individualism-is-the/

15. Involvement and empowerment: shift in
engagement trends
15
Source: Empowering employees: new rules of engagement. Engage and youGov study, October 2008
http://www.ioic.org.uk/content/training/knowledge-bank/1457-engagement-yougov-survey-results.html

16. Making progress in one’s work—even incremental
progress is more frequently associated with high
motivation
16
http://hbr.org/2010/01/the-hbr-list-breakthrough-ideas-for-2010/ar/1

17. Engagement is highest when….
• Employees are well informed because information is widely
shared early and often
• Employees views are sought and followed up
• Explanations are given if ideas or views are not adopted
• Employees are involved in developing solutions early.
Source: 2009 UK government report: Engaging for Success: Enhancing Performance Through
Employee Engagement

18. “Employee commitment may be shifting from
the organization to one’s occupation.”
18
An individual with higher occupational commitment would strongly
identify with his occupation and have positive feelings towards it
Probably why Engineers Day gets a lot more attention these days?
http://www.vikalpa.com/pdf/articles/2007/oct_dec_13_to_27.pdf

19. Impact and implications
19

20. Employees seek greater connection
Sources: 2011: Trends in Internal Communications (Edelman Change & Employee Engagement)
http://2020workplace.com/blog/?p=988
Millennials: “Notorious job-
hoppers who dislike
bureaucracy and distrust
traditional hierarchies.”
“Your best talent is looking to
become more engaged with the
organization or brand. Especially
in a manner that suits their
interests and ambitions.”

21. Employee understanding of brand =
engagement
“If there’s no clarity of
purpose
around what your
brand stands for, that
seeps into the
customer experience.”
“On the other hand, if your
people are pulling
together, competing
constructively and in
harmony with an identity
well developed
and defined, then your
customers will
experience that positive
coherence every time they
interact with you.”
Unlocking the Power of Employees to
Drive Success: Actionable ideas for companies of any size, Interbrand’s (2010)

22. Coach employees about your company
• Reputation—What does your organization want to be famous for
in the job market?
• Only 52% of employees on average can answer this question and
answer it positively
22
Empowering employees: new rules of engagement. Engage and youGov study, October 2008

23. Greater responsibility rests with the manager
“Managers have powerful influence over events that
facilitate or undermine progress. They can provide
meaningful goals, resources, and encouragement, and they
can protect their people from irrelevant demands. Or they
can fail to do so.”
23
http://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins/

24. Strategies to Engage in the Future
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25. There is an opportunity for the IC team
“IC should play a leading role in designing, leading and influencing
organization wide employee and leadership engagement programs.
Few companies have shared understanding of what they mean by
engagement and there is an opportunity for the IC team to lead the
creation of this definition and become the custodian of it”
25
Internal Communications – More to Deliver. The Watson Helsby Reports (2009)

26. Involve staff in ‘big issue’ and ‘everyday’
decision making
26
Empowering employees: new rules of engagement. Engage and youGov study, October 2008
http://www.ioic.org.uk/content/training/knowledge-bank/1457-engagement-yougov-survey-results.html

27. “It’s only by letting go that companies can gain
more. And an important part of that letting go
is about enabling employees to co-create
messages via digital channels.”
http://www.simply-communicate.com/news/event-reviews/internal-
comms-lessons-le-web
27
Crowd is the company

28. What you ask is what you get!
• Question not to ask: “what should we do to engage
employees?”
• Questions to ask: “what do employees need in order to
be engaged?”
28
AON-Hewitt – 2013 Trends in Global Employee Engagement
http://www.aon.com/attachments/human-capital-
consulting/2013_Trends_in_Global_Employee_Engagement_Report.pdf

29. Every human interaction in a company is an
opportunity to create engagement
“It’s in those key interactions between employee and
customer, employee and employee, employee and
manager that ‘engagement’ becomes real.”
29
https://www.melcrum.com/blog/has-employee-engagement-lost-its-
humanity?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=130703

30. What messages do these send?
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31. Leaders can influence employee engagement
The #1 driver of employee engagement is employees’ belief that
senior management is interested in their well-being. Only 42% agree
that this was true in their organization!
31
Source: Tower Perrins Talent Report: Understanding what drives Employee Engagement,
2003

32. Employees trust a social media
active leader
Source: 2012 CEO, Social Media and Leadership Survey, BrandFog

33. High alignment of ‘say-do’ = greater
engagement
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Source: Roger D’Aprix’s Say-Do Model

34. Cases
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Personal Branding Week for new hires
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-11-12/news/27609177_1_eureka-forbes-efl-
representatives
• Compensation at the largest tomato
processor on the planet – Morning Star is
peer-based.
Euro Senate decides on employee change needs

35. Internal Communications – Insights, Practices
and Models (Sage Publications, 2012)
• India’s and Asia’s first book on internal
communications
• Addresses employee engagement,
internal social media, crisis
communications, skills and
communications that leaders,
communicators, academicians and
students can benefit from.
• Available on Flipkart, Crosswords,
Infibeam, Indiaplaza and other leading
bookstores
• Visit:
http://www.facebook.com/ICbook2012

36. Thank You & Stay Connected
 Linkedin: http://in.linkedin.com/in/aniisu
 Twitter: www.twitter.com/aniisu
 Visit the Internal Communications Book FB page
:http://www.facebook.com/ICbook2012
 E-mail: intraskope@yahoo.com
 Visit my blog: www.intraskope.wordpress.com