PeopleGlue - Life by DesignGet obsessed – your future depends on it The greatest asset any organisation has is its people. The quality of your people determines the quality of your

PeopleGlueEmployee Engagement & Retention Solutions

THAT STICK!

“The essential toolkit for aspiring BEST EMPLOYERS” Victoria Bethlehem, Randstad

4 times Best Employer

OW

EVE

N STICK

2nd edit

ion

ERN

I

This work is copyright. All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of study, research or review, as permitted under Australian copyright law, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any other form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator”, at the address above. Every effort has been made to obtain permissions relating to information reproduced in this publication. The information in this publication is based upon the current state of commercial and industry practice and the general circumstances as at the date of publication. No person shall rely on any of the contents of this publication and the publisher and the author expressly exclude all liability for direct and indirect loss suffered by any person resulting in any way from the use or reliance on this publication or any part of it. Any opinions and advice are offered solely in pursuance of the author’s and publisher’s intention to provide information, and have not been specifically sought.

© 2009, 2013, 2016 LifebyDesign.com.au, text © 20016 Ian Hutchinson and LifeByDesign.com.au

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Author: Hutchinson, Ian, 1962-Title: People glue : employee engagement and retention solutions that stick / Ian Hutchinson.Edition: 2nd ed. Reprinted July 2013ISBN: 9781921874444 (pbk.) Subjects: Personnel management.

Employees--Recruiting.Employee selection.Employee retention.

Dewey Number: 658.3

Design and layout by Vanessa Wilton, www.billyboydesign.com.auCover Image by Brad Hook, www.lucidsurf.comDigital Layout by Eugenya Ignatova, www.hookmedia.co.nz

For Sierra and Katie

For being my “People” and my “Glue”always!

Client comments on the People Glue approach‘This program will change the way you think... with specific strategies to improve engagement.’

Eli Lilly

‘Excellent - provides useful ideas for short-term and long-term implementation of the 7 drivers of employee engagement’.

Roche

‘A must for the heads of departments… tools to use straight away.’ Deutsche Bank

‘Highly recommended. 9 out of 10. Provides a different perspective on employee engagement and practical solutions on how to improve it’.

Deloitte

‘Highly recommended. Simple for anyone to understand and easy to apply to your workplace.’ Novo Nordisk

‘Life by Design’s services and employee engagement platform, meCentral.com, were a critical element in our expansive culture and engagement strategy which resulted in engagement

moving from 46% to 73%.’ 3 Mobile

‘Provided a suite of simple, useable tools to enable the concept of ‘self-leadership’ to be applied to improve engagement.’

Cliftons

‘Will give four-fold return in team engagement and productivity.’ University of Western Sydney

‘Empowering!! We now know what to do - just do it.’ Datacom

‘Our Hewitt Employee Engagement scores went up 9 points in the last 12 months’ NTI

‘Great, thought provoking - clear tools for measurement and lifting performance’Glaxo Smith Kline

iv

Through my background in business management, psychology and career development, I have spent most of my adult life obsessed about human potential, understanding what motivates people, and developing innovative solutions to help major organisations lead the way in ‘Employee Driven Engagement’. My aim is to educate them about ‘people glue’ – the things that make people ‘tick and stick’ within an organisation simply and easily. I help them to keep the people that keep them successful.

In this book I’d like to share my learning and experience with a wider leadership audience – those people who play a pivotal role in fostering a culture of engagement in organisations large and small, and have such a profound influence on the well-being of the people they have the privilege to lead. The principles are the same, whether you lead a global organisation of 200,000 employees or a small business of one or two employees.

To have a real impact, employee engagement cannot be left solely to Human Resources to look after. Leaders need to understand engagement drivers inside out and back to front, so that they can have a more informed one-on-one dialogue with each of their direct reports and really engage them. The direct reports in turn need to have a one-on-one dialogue with their direct reports, and so on. Why doesn’t it usually happen? Simple: limited time, limited skills, limited understanding of the importance of engagement coming from leaders. It should now be a priority looking after your number one customer – your employees.

My aim here is to provide a short, sharp, relevant approach and simple quick win tools that will help time-poor leaders to better engage and motivate their people.

WARNING: Turnover of these pages may lead to

reduced turnover of your people

v

Most engagement can be employee driven

The overall People Glue objective is to shift the current dominant paradigm of the employment relationship from being ‘leader motivated’, to one that is ‘employee-motivated’. This means moving away from simply giving extrinsic benefits to employees, to having employees taking responsibility for their own engagement intrinsically and replacing a “whinge entitlement culture” with a culture of self-leadership and personal responsibility. This will create a much more sustainable employer-employee ‘win-win’ culture.

This is the focus of People Glue: to provide the new thinking around ‘Employee Driven Engagement’; to provide leaders of people with simple tools for change to help their staff identify what motivates and engages them as individuals and encourages them to take responsibility for their own engagement, motivation, performance and own their opportunity for change. The aim is to have solutions that stick, rather than just a fad that is here today and gone tomorrow.

Ian Hutchinson Chief Engagement Officer LifebyDesign.com.au

www.LifebyDesign.com.au

xvi

ContentsPart 1: Preparing the Surface

1.0 Why do you want employees to stick?................................. . 11

1.1 Why are organisations becoming unstuck?..................... ..... 37

1.2 The Super Glue: Employee Driven Engagement ........................................... ...... . 47

2.0 Reward................................................................................................. .. 56

2.1 Job fulfilment...................................................................................... . 66

2.2 Work life balance............................................................................. 76

2.3 Leadership........................................................................................... . 86

2.4 Purpose................................................................................................. 94

2.5 Opportunity......................................................................................... 102

2.6 Relationships........................................................................................ 112

Part 2: The Ingredients - Know what glues people

Available in th

e full e

dition

of People Glue

{ contents } xvii

CO

NTEN

TS

Part 3:How to apply People Glue3.0 Creating a ‘People Glue Action Plan’......................................................... .......... 121

3.1 Know what glues you Team Engagement Plan (TEP)......................................................................... ................... 122Personal Engagement Plan (PEP)...................................................................................... 128

3.2 Know what glues your people......................................................................... ......... 131

3.3 Applying People Glue to your people .............................................................. 141 Power tools ..................................................................................................................................... 143

3.4 Staying glued............................................................................................................................ 144

Part 4:Updates & further resources4.0 The 7 Driver Card System - coaching questions...................................... 148

The ‘Stay Interview’ template...................................................................... .............. 150 The ‘Exit Interview’ template.................................................................... ................... 152 Appreciations & acknowledgements................................................... .................. 154

Life by Design.............................................................................................. ........................... 155

Available in th

e full e

dition

of People Glue

“Best Employers understand it’s dangerous not to evolve. They are constantly looking for the next 2% improvement

to their employee engagement strategies to keep them ahead of the competition.”

People

preparing the surface

Best Employers understand that engaged people do more with less.“ ”

1.0

do you want employees to stick?why

04 { preparing the surface }

1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck? Get obsessed – your future depends on it

The greatest asset any organisation has is its people. The quality of your people determines the quality of your business. So get obsessed with engagement as your future depends on it.

‘Employee engagement’ is the degree to which employees are emotionally connected to their work and their employer. The positive emotional connection of an engaged employee is characterised by commitment, focus and job satisfaction.

Engaged employees help create organisational excellence because they want to, not just because it is their job. They care about the future of the organisation, and the role they play in it.

Engaged employees are productive, efficient and work hard to achieve outcomes. This reflects positively on business profits as well as areas such as reduced staff turnover.

Employee engagement is an investment we make for the privilege of staying in business

Employee engagement is by no means a soft, ‘nice to have’, discretionary aspect of doing business. When economic times are tough, leaders are tempted to cut expenditure on items such as human development initiatives but this is exactly the time you need your people to be most motivated, productive and engaged.

The no.1 success measureMany CEOs rate employee engagement

and retention as the No. 1 business success factor now and in the future. Former GE

Chairman and CEO Jack Welch, in response to a question on what measurements give the best sense of a company’s health, said:

‘Employee engagement first’.

{ preparing the surface } 05

1.0 WH

Y do you w

ant employees to stick?

Engage your people or your competition willWith decades to follow of skills shortages, it makes good business sense to make employee engagement your organisation’s key point of differentiation. Many organisations are trying to do just that, by becoming an ‘employer of choice’ – ‘a great place to work’ – or a ‘Best Employer’. These expressions refer to organisations that have workforces that have been measured and rated as highly engaged.

emotionally attached

empowered

motivated

involved

committedproductive

active

happy

reduced risk of work

related injury

passionate

innovation

The Engaged Employee

Highly engaged employees try 57% harder and are 87% less likely to leave.

Corporate Leadership Council


1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck?

The Engaged Employee:

• generates more revenue – they performbetter and are more productive

• gives better service – they take pride intheir work and this is reflected in howthey relate to customers and suppliers

• is easier to lead – they are less resistant tochange, because they want to do anythingthat can make things better for them, forcustomers and the organisation

• promotes the organisation – their positiveword of mouth reaches potentialfuture employees and customers of theorganisation in a way few recruitmentadvertisements could

• internalises organisational goals –individual goals will tend to align morewith business goals

• creates improvements – they want to dotheir best, and proactively think abouthow things could be done even better

• reduces risk – they care enough that if theyidentify a potential problem, they willimmediately raise it with their supervisor(most likely with a suggested solution!)

• is less stressed – they are sick less often,nicer people to be around and more likelyto be a team player

• sticks around – they are less likely to beattracted to the opposition or a role inanother field, meaning less staff turnoverfor the organisation, and greater retentionof organisational memory and knowledge

Engaged people do more with less


WH

Y organisations are becom

ing unstuck

Attraction …is the ability to entice the right people at the right time to join your organisation.

Retention …is about making sure people stay with the organisation.

Engagement …involves ensuring not only that people stay, but that they feel strongly about the role they play in the organisation and are internal raving fans.

This is why pure retention metrics can be misleading, as some retained employees may be complacent and disengaged and therefore contribute far less to the ongoing success of the organisation than do eager employees who are engaged.

Engagement is the key. You can attract and recruit plenty of people, and train them comprehensively, but unless you engage them, all your efforts may be a waste of time and money if you haven’t first created an engaging environment and culture.

The difference between attraction, retention and engagement

Retained but not engagedA friend of mine is in the army, he has a contract with them for the next couple of years. He is

retained, but he can’t wait to get out of there, so he

is not engaged.


1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck?

Traditional business thinking puts the customer at the centre of any business. There is merit in this, as without customers, there is no business. But flogging your people in the service of the mighty customer is neither productive nor sustainable.

The new model places your people/team before the customer, with self-leadership at the centre. The key philosophy of self-leadership is that you must first look after yourself before you can be a good leader of others.

Your number one customer is your people Your customers will more likely last if you put your employees first. If you are in a good position (through sound self-leadership) to put energy into the engagement of your team, they will be better motivated, productive, perform better and create better outcomes for the customer and ultimately that means the organisation.

It won’t be long before organisations with the ‘Our Number One Customer is Our Team’ focus will be the only ones attracting the best people talent.

Employees first and customers last

Customer

Team

Self


1.0 WH

Y do you w


Demand for talented human capital outstrips supply and this phenomenon will only increase in coming decades.

Why?

• Ageing population – baby boomers areretiring, and decline in birth rates meansfewer available people.

• Shifting priorities – increasingly people areopting for the lifestyle benefits of workingpart-time over the salary benefits of full-time work.

• Savvy employees – particularly thesupposed less loyal ‘Generation Y’, whodo not hesitate to change jobs for betteropportunities and choices.

• Globalisation – increases the overallvolume of commerce, and thus demandfor human capital.

There is no doubt that demographic forecasts clearly show that employee engagement will

continue to be the number one issue for organisations in the decades to come.

Employee engagement is more important than ever

Labour Required

Available LabourSHORTFALLGrowth

2000 2010 2020 2030

Workforce Supply and Demand


1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck?

Numerous studies have consistently shown that employee engagement and profitability are directly proportionate. It is commonly recognised that organisations with an engagement score of 60% or more have an average five-year shareholder return above 20%. Similarly, disengagement and performance are inversely proportionate. Organisations with engagement scores of less than 40% have on average a negative return of 10% to shareholders.

Engagement economics: the cost of unstuck people

ENGAGEMENT = PERFORMANCE = PRODUCTIVITY = PROFITABILITY

The cost of disengagementDespite its culture and lifestyle, a country such as Australia

has one of the lowest levels of employee engagement in the world, consistently averaging around 18%.

It is estimated that disengaged employees cost the Australian economy about $54.8 billion a year through loss

of productivity, sick leave and even sabotage. (Source: Gallup).


1.0 WH

Y do you w


Flipping human resources into a profit centre

Employee disengagement is reflected in staff turnover costs, including not only actual hiring and training costs, but also the loss in productivity in the period between losing one employee and completion of recruitment and training of a replacement. This is estimated at between one and two times the employee’s annual salary.

Let’s take an organisation with 1000 employees as an example. Assuming an average salary of $80,000, a drop in turnover rate from 25% to 22% can save the business over $3,000,000 per annum. Instead of a traditional cost centre, the Human Resources department can become a new profit centre!

Despite the impact of employee retention and engagement, and the value of human capital, these factors remain absent from traditional financial measures. The balance sheet typically has no line item for human assets.

Organisations that recognise the importance of employee engagement are increasingly those with appropriate metrics and whose leaders have Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on employee engagement.


1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck? A brief history of employee engagement… so far!

We know that:

• Employee engagement increases performance, productivity and profitability in organisations

• Utopia would be having 100% of our employees 100% motivated and engaged 100% of thetime. Unrealistic for sure, but the ideal goal!

• Generally speaking, we can expect a 20:60:20 engagement distribution across the averageorganisation:

– 20% of employees are “toxic” or actively disengaged. In fact many organisations wouldprobably be better off if these employees didn’t even turn up at work each day

– 60% of employees are “retained” as they haven’t yet been given a good enough reasonto leave yet

– 20% of employees are “actively engaged” and love working in the organisation, to thepoint where they’d probably like to buy shares in the company given the opportunity

• Employee engagement and motivation is a soft skill, so to make it harder (for the beancounters) we have researched the hell out of it. Arhhh… do we all feel better now? NO!


1.0 WH

Y do you w


• Many organisations spend the majority (some up to 80%) of their employee engagementbudget, time and effort on employee engagement research, but only 20% on effectiveengagement solutions

• Organisations are challenged, and getting frustrated as many of the engagement solutions theyare trying to implement aren’t getting ‘cut through’ and aren’t effectively improving employeeengagement scores

So why aren’t organisations getting the improved engagement results they were hoping for?

It’s a key question …

“Employee-driven engagement is the game

changer & future of engagement”


1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck? Challenges to effective employee engagement

If employee engagement isn’t really happening for organisations, when will it? Or are organisations still trying to solve engagement by doing more of the wrong things?

From our “Obstacles to Engagement” research study we identified six key barriers to effective employee engagement. In order of significance they are:

1. Ineffective solutions“The engagement initiatives we have put in place aren’t getting the results we had hoped for.In fact the more we give our employees the more it seems to create a ‘whinge entitlement’culture”

2. Employee clarity“Most employees know what they don’t want, fewer know what really motivates and engagesthem. If employees don’t know what motivates them – how am I as their people leader goingto have any chance of engaging them?”

3. Skills, tools and resources“Our people leaders/managers aren’t counsellors or coaches. They don’t have the confidenceor tools to have an involved discussion with our employees about motivation and engagement”

4. Time poor“We pay our people, so they should be motivated. I’m really busy…engagement isn’t part of myKPI’s … anyway engagement is a human resources issue isn’t it?”

5. Inaction“We are not sure what the best engagement solutions are for our organisation. We keepprocrastinating and our indecision means we haven’t really committed to any engagementinitiatives yet. Yikes - it’s almost time to do our next staff engagement survey again!”

6. Buy in“We haven’t been able to get full support for employee engagement from the most importantareas of the business yet”


1.0 WH

Y do you w


Are we still trying to solve engagement by doing more of the wrong things?“ ”


1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck? Who does your culture believe is responsible for

employee engagement?

A) CEO/senior management team*

B) Human resources

C) People leaders and managers*

D) Employees

E) Everyone

Hopefully you answered E) Everyone…Yes ‘E’ is for everyone… but…

Caution: there is some danger in having everyone responsible for engagement, in that if everyone is responsible, nobody is really accountable.

The key is to make everyone responsible for employee engagement; it’s just that different people (e.g HR, leaders and employees) need to be accountable for different sets of tasks:

• Human resources need to deliver onengagement measurement, umbrellastrategies or Organisational EngagementPlans (OEP) and monitor thatengagement plans (TEP and PEP) arebeing fulfilled by people leaders andemployees.

• People Leaders* need to be the catalystfor understanding, and thereforeoptimising, the seven engagement driversthroughout their Team Engagement Plans(TEP) and Personal Engagement Plans(PEP)

• Employees need to be responsible forgetting clarity around self-leadership,doing their Personal Engagement Plans(PEP) and for on-going self-awarenesswith systems such as meCentral.com.


1.0 WH

Y do you w


The good news is that each set of accountability tasks for each group should be less than a 2% time investment.

HUMAN RESOURCES (2% time investment)• Organisational Measurement• Umbrella Strategies (OEP)• Monitor Engagement Plans

PEOPLE LEADERS (2% time investment)• 7 Engagement Driver Optimisation• Team Engagement Plans (TEP)• Personal Engagement Plans (PEP)

EMPLOYEES (2% time investment)• Self-Leadership Clarity• Personal Engagement Plan (PEP)• On-Going meCentral.com Utilisation

Human Resources

People Leaders

Empl. Employees

People Leaders

HR

“Everyone is responsible

for engagement; its just that different

people must be accountable for different things”

Old responsibility model

New responsibility model

Accountability tasks


1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck?

Quantitative measures include turnover rates (staff resignations per annum / total employees x 100), absenteeism (average sick leave days per employee per annum) and employee engagement research percentages.

Levels of engagement in an average organisation:20% of employees are actively engaged (the ‘eager beavers’)

60% of employees are not engaged (the ‘complacent coasters’)

20% of employees are actively disengaged (the ‘toxics’)

Qualitative measures include exit interviews, performance reviews, and open-ended questions in Employee Engagement Surveys (EOS).

Ideally, employee engagement should be gauged through the use of both quantitative and qualitative metrics (measures).


1.0 WH

Y do you w


If you’re only going to do the basics in engaging your people, then check in and talk with your people more, and monitor your employee turnover figures annually.

Most organisations, should be conducting informal staff check-ins as well as more structured employee engagement surveys - or what we call simple ‘stay interviews’ (if you don’t want to pay for external employee engagement research companies) and exit interviews – see pages 144-145 for some sample templates. We are supposed to research our customers, but these days with the skills shortages, our number one customers are our employees. Therefore there is great benefit in doing more formalised and structured research into what makes them ‘tick and stick’.

Ideal turnover

There is a turnover ‘sweet spot’ of between 5-15%. More

than 20-25% can start to be a real issue for the business, and less

than 5% usually means that there is not enough fresh blood and

new thinking coming into the organisation.


1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck? Quick progress check-in

It’s time to assess your organisation’s current effectiveness in employee retention and engagement:

1. Measurement: Our organisation conducts employee engagement surveys: Never Informally Formally, annually Formally, sporadically

2. Implementation: The extent our organisation implements solutions and strategies as aresult of our employee engagement survey findings:

None Less then 25% 25-50% 50-75% 75%-100%

3. Priority: The time and money we put into:Attracting new employees: Monthly Hours _________ Monthly Cost $ ____________Engaging existing people: Monthly Hours _________ Monthly Cost $ ____________

4. Staff Turnover: Our organisation’s annual turnover: ______ % Industry turnover: _____ %

5. Costs: Losing an employee, in terms of recruitment and retraining, is in the range of: $ ______________ to $ _____________ per employee This means the overall annual turnover cost = $ _________ (percentage turnover xnumber employees x cost per employee).

6. Opportunity: for each 1% reduction in annual staff turnover, the organisation wouldsave $ __________ per annum.


1.0 WH

Y do you w


Glue not sticky enough? The simplest and single most powerful indicator of employee engagement is staff turnover - people voting with their feet. Even more illuminating are the reasons behind high staff turnover. Disengaged employees are most likely to leave the organisation, and their reasons for leaving indicate the most urgent areas to work on.

The seven key reasons employees become unstuck and leave (in no particular order) are:

1. Inadequate rewards – ‘I didn’t feelfairly rewarded, and I couldn’t see howremuneration reviews were linked to myperformance and achievements.’

2. �Unfulfilling work – ‘My day-to-day workdrained me, was boring and I couldn’t seethe point in it.’

3. Lack of balance – ‘I didn’t feel theorganisation supported the fact that I am ahuman being with a life outside of work.’

4. Poor leadership – ‘I didn’t feelappreciated and respected, or informedabout where the organisation was heading.’

5. Lack of purpose – ‘I didn’t know whatthe organisation’s main purpose and valueswere, or how they related to me as anemployee beyond simply making money.’

6. Lack of opportunity – ‘I felt therewere very limited opportunities for me todevelop my talents and career within theorganisation.’

7. Ineffective relationships – ‘I didn’t feelpart of a community at work. I didn’t feellike we could work collaboratively as a team,or that we were supported by management.’

Virtually all the employee engagement research on why people leave organisations, cascades into these seven reasons.


1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck?

Why people leave exercise

I regularly do an exercise with large groups where I get everyone to stand up. I ask people to sit down if they have left a job in

the past for any of the seven reasons indicated on the previous page. As I go through what disengages employees, the number of people left standing always dwindles, and by the time I have outlined all seven of them, there is usually nobody left standing. If there is someone standing and they name their special reason for leaving a position, that reason has always turned out to be a

subset of one of the seven reasons.


1.0 WH

Y do you w


In practice, reasons for staying are the converse of the reasons for leaving:1. Rewards – ‘I feel fairly rewarded

for my contribution to the successof the business, and I can see a clearlink between my performance and myremuneration.’

2. �Job�fulfilment�– ‘I enjoy my day-to-day work, it energises me, challenges mein a positive way, and I can see how itcontributes.’

3. Work life balance – ‘My priorities inlife outside of work are supported andencouraged.’

4. Leadership – ‘I feel the organisation’sleaders have trust and integrity, and theykeep us all informed and appreciate ourcontribution.’

5. Purpose – ‘I believe that the organisationhas a meaningful purpose beyond justmaking money.’

6. Opportunity – ‘I feel hopeful andpositive about my future career prospectshere. The organisation has a cultureof constant learning and developmentopportunities.’

7. Relationships – ‘I have positive, openand collaborative relationships with mymanager, my co-workers, and my clients.’

Reasons people stick like glue:

These are the key drivers of employee engagement. They are uniform around the world – what differs is the order of importance within the organisation and to the individual. Just as this varies from culture to culture, and country to country, it also varies from organisation to organisation, and from individual to individual. For example:

Merchant Bank Non-profit Charity

Drivers: 1 Reward2 Leadership3 Opportunity

Drivers: 1 Purpose2 Job fulfilment3 Relationships


1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck?

Remember, everyone is different, so the key to engagement is to first understand which of the seven drivers motivates individuals most. Only then can you start to develop relevant strategies and solutions to further engage them and thus build a productive workforce that is performing to its highest potential.

This is a Personal Engagement Plan (PEP)tool for gauging an employee’s individual engagement drivers. Before taking an employee through this, it is a very useful exercise to undertake it yourself:

Personal Engagement Plan (motivational driver tool)

Step 3: Identify some strategies that could be put in place to improve the current score. Ideally you will be better equipped to come up with strategies if you have gone through each of the seven drivers and the strategy ideas at the end of each chapter of this book. For coaching questions to further facilitate strategies refer to the Appendix (p141)


1.0 WH

Y do you w


Example

Strategies

a)

10

Motivator 1 Motivator 2 Motivator 3

Opportunity

Create a development

Do a career development

Get a mentor / coach

4

b)

c)

Strategies

a)

10

b)

c)

Strategies

a)

10

b)

c)

Strategies

a)

10

b)

c)

program: meCentral.com

plan with my manager

Step 1: Identify what are the top three motivators that would most engage you in your organisation and write them in the appropriate boxes.

Step 2: Give each motivational driver a score out of ten for how well it is actually driving you in your organisation (1 being low and 10 being high). Downloadable tools and worksheets are

available in these online courses

www.lifebydesign.com.au/OnlinePeopleGlueCourse

www.lifebydesign.com.au/OnlineSelfLeadershipCourse


1.0

WH

Y d

o yo

u w

ant

empl

oyee

s to

sti

ck? How to use the cards

effectively Step 1: Use the motivational driver cards in discussion with each individual, explaining the definitions of each motivational driver on the back of each card.

Step 2: Lay the cards on a table and ask them to choose their top three motivational drivers in order of priority.

Step 3: Ask them to rate (score out of 10) to what degree each of these 3 motivational engagement dirvers are currently being fulfilled.

Step 3: Collaboratively discuss possible solutions to enhance their engagement within each motivational driver. You will be better equipped for these discussions if you have read through each of the seven drivers and the strategies ideas in each chapter of this book.

The Motivational Driver cards Many people find using a tactile tool like our Motivational Driver card system more interactive and useful for stimulating a meaningful discussion around employees’ top motivational drivers.

These cards can be used independently or in conjunction with the Motivational Driver Tool on the previous page.

These cards can also be used in team facilitations. To order sets of these cards go our Systems & Tools page at LifebyDesign.com.au



1.0 WH

Y do you w


Good engagement is like a good marriage (minus the sex!)

The metaphor of marriage can be applied to employee engagement. A good marriage requires communication, trust, a united purpose, mutual and fair rewards, balance, the opportunity to

grow together and the ability to energise each other on a day-to-day basis (if you know what I mean?). These are also the essential ingredients of employee engagement.

“ ”If employees don’t know what truly engages them, leaders have virtually

no chance of engaging them.

z

why are

organisations becoming unstuck?

1.1


1.1

WH

Y o

rgan

isat

ions

are

bec

omin

g un

stuc

k Everyone pays for research, especially those that don’tMany organisations, having recognised the importance of employee engagement, take the natural next step of measuring how they are currently performing. The most common method is a staff survey, typically referred to as a ‘Climate Survey’, ‘Staff Perspective Survey’ (SPS), ‘Employee Engagement Survey’ or ‘Employee Opinion Survey’ (EOS). These are often contracted to external employee engagement research consultants such as AON Hewitt or Gallup.

Assessing employee engagement can happen at different levels of hierarchy, for example:• one-on-one coffee chat• exit interviews (better still a ‘stay interview’)• Personal Engagement Plans (PEP)• employee engagement survey

Many companies over recent times have been guilty of putting more energy into employee engagement surveys than strategies and implementation solutions that will create real momentum for positive change.

Majority Best practice80% employee engagement research20% implementation/solutions

20% employee engagement research80% implementation/solutions

The 80/20 RuleEmployee engagement

measurement is useful, but the findings provide you

with just the 20% starting point. Successful employee engagement results come

from the remaining 80% – the commitment to strategic and effective implementation of engaging solutions for your

people.


1.1 WH


ing unstuck

Engagement research flaws to considerProblematic assumption A: Taking the general common denominator approach to engagement results will improve research scores

Flaw Improvement strategyOnly focussing on umbrella engagement solutions or Organisational Engagement Plans (OEP) can help some employees but not all.

Example: An organisation’s engagement research suggests that, generally, Leadership, Opportunity and Relationships drivers need to be improved throughout the culture and therefore initiatives are put in place. This approach may be a useful starting point for some employees, but what if an organisation’s top talent is motivated by the Job Fulfilment, Reward and Work Life Balance drivers and these factors are not getting satisfied?

One solution doesn’t fit everyone, so focus more on individual engagement solutions (especially for key talent) more than global organisational engagement strategies.Strategy:Use the Motivational Driver Tool for Personal Engagement Plans (PEP) and Team Engagement Plans (TEP).

Problematic assumption B: Focus on the weakest scoring areas in the engagement research to improve research scores

Flaw Improvement strategyJust because an organisational area isn’t scoring well doesn’t mean it is an important motivational driver to individual employees.

Example:An organisation doesn’t have a strong purpose beyond just making money. So they invest time and money into improving the Purpose driver (see the chapter on purpose). The reality may be that purpose just isn’t that important to most employees, even though it isn’t scoring well. So why waste time and money on this driver?

Understand first what is important to employees before researching what is working well.Strategy:Use the Motivatnioal Driver Tool for Personal Engagement Plans (PEP) and Team Engagement Plans (TEP).


1.1

WH

Y o

rgan

isat

ions

are

bec

omin

g un

stuc

k Your organisation’s ‘hot spots’ Employee engagement surveys can be useful to determine the ‘hot spots’ of employee engagement: the weaknesses and failures so significant across the organisation that people are leaving because of them. They are usually systemic issues that affect a number of employees and may need to be addressed as a matter of risk management, not just employee engagement. Examples of ‘hot spot’ employee engagement issues and possible initial actions to address these are:

Issue Possible solutionRemuneration is 25% or more below the industry average. (Driver : Reward)

Announcement that a remuneration review will take place.

Someone with abrasive behaviour or in extreme cases, a workplace psychopath.(Driver : Relationships)

Information to staff about workplace bullying not being tolerated and structures put in place to confidentially report inappropriate behaviour and have counselling services available.

A CEO who does not speak to the people.(Driver : Leadership)

Preparation of a one-page bulletin for the CEO addressing high-level successes and organisational directions, and thanking staff for their contribution.

Employees are annoyed that for a role they aspired to and felt competent for, someone was recruited externally. (Driver : Opportunity)

Post positions on a job board while a section of the intranet is being developed to post current vacancies.

Employees feel that the organisation is soulless, a machine in which they are a cog rather than a person.(Driver : Purpose)

Brainstorm the bigger picture purpose of the organisation and communicate in various ways throughout the organisation.

Burn-out due to overwork in some sections or levels of the organisation.(Driver : Job fulfilment and/or Work life balance)

Identify simple tasks that temporary staff could be brought in to do, to take the edge off those who are routinely working excessive hours.


1.1 WH


ing unstuck

Listen, act and change

Acting on your hot spot issue(s) identified by your employees is essential, even if that initially only involves informing your employees that you are aware and are taking steps to look into the issue. Some of those who were intending to leave because of it might delay their decision, and this can stabilise any alarming trends in turnover rates in the short-term.

Of course, the announcement needs to be backed up by action or the staff will be doubly disillusioned with management and feel it is just giving the issue lip service. The other issue is to make sure you don’t over promise and under deliver!

Best practice of course, is to pre-empt employee engagement issues, have solutions ready to implement and to blend approaches which address individual employee engagement, not just broad brush ‘one size fits all’.

Working from strengths

Employee engagement surveys can also help to identify your organisation’s current strengths in employee engagement. These are the factors that make employees actively want to stay and can sometimes be used in employment branding and individual job advertisements. Examples include:

• ‘Our organisation’s strong communityinvolvement makes us feel that we makea real difference and we’re not just aboutmaking money.’ (Driver : Purpose)

• ‘We like the way the CEO visits people’soffices and takes a real interest in us.’(Driver : Leadership)

• ‘It’s easy to get our new ideas listened toopenly.’ (Driver : Relationships)

Benefitsofstaffinput Alcoa attributed a 100% increase in return on capital after identifying that employees wanted

an avenue to submit ideas for process improvements. Corporate Leadership Council, Engaging the Workforce


1.1

WH

Y o

rgan

isat

ions

are

bec

omin

g un

stuc

k

Our organisation’s hot spots and strengths

Hot spots: The top three reasons people leave my team/organisation are:

1.

2.

3.

Strengths: The top three reasons people stay with my team/organisation are:

1.

2.

3.

Strategies: What initial practical steps could you undertake to minimise the hot spots and/or maximise the strengths?

1.

2.

3.

{Organisations that are short of talent }probably deserve to be!


1.1 WH


ing unstuck

Artificial glue: the flawed ‘outside-in’ approach to making people stickOrganisations often use results from employee engagement surveys to identify and tackle any symptoms of employee disengagement. Many fall into the trap of initiating a mixture of short term ‘quick-fix band aid’ solutions through employee benefits (such as discounted movie tickets, 15 minute massages and yoga classes) and in some cases, major capital investments (such as in company gyms and childcare facilities). The following year another survey is undertaken, the bar is now raised and ‘whinge entitlement’ sets in. This gets managed through the unquenchable provision of even more employee benefits.

This has become the dominant, ‘benefits/incentives/rewards’ paradigm of employee engagement. This approach is fundamentally flawed.

1. It creates an ‘entitlement’ mentality or‘whinge culture’ across the workforce. Ittrains employees to think that employeeengagement is all about benefits, andtherefore the demands for benefitsbecome insatiable.

2. It assumes that employees have sharedwants and needs, as a homogeneousgroup. But one size doesn’t fit all –benefits may engage some employees,but not others. Those others may feeldisengaged where they feel the benefitsdo nothing for them. (‘They get a gym,and those others get childcare facilities,what do I get?’)

3. It may mask employee’s true motivators –they say they want rewards and benefits,but what they may actually want is otherdrivers, such as opportunity, purpose, orwork life balance.

What are the flaws in the ‘benefits’ paradigm?

The dominant ‘benefit paradigm’ of employee engagement really only addresses the symptoms and not

the problem.


1.1

WH

Y o

rgan

isat

ions

are

bec

omin

g un

stuc

k

Focus on individual not generational differencesSome organisations single out younger employees as wanting certain benefits, such as use of the latest technological gadgets like an iPhone. In reality it is about individual differences, not generational. Generation Y is just a magnified version of what we all want – they are just more assertive about sayingit and feel they can do so because they havenever experienced a war, depression, orrecession – thus they are the ‘have it now’generation.

Key PointProblem: Most employees know what they don’t want,

fewer know what they do want. If individual employees don’t know what they want, how

can you as a leader intelligently engage them?

Answer: Help individuals bet-ter understand what they want

and help them to get it.

Above-the-line vs below-the-line engagement‘Above-the-line’ are the big picture organisational approaches. These can be insufficient on their own, unless attention is paid to ‘below-the-line’ individual motivators for employee engagement.

‘Above-the-line’ OrganisationalEmployee engagement research

• General trends• Umbrella solutions

‘Below the line’ IndividualEmotional motivators

• Self-leadership• Personal Engagement Plans (PEP)


1.1 WH


ing unstuck

A quick note on performance reviews Q: How do we make performance reviews really improve performance?

A: Make them ‘motivational’ performance reviews

Road mapTraditional performance reviews are very employer-centric. They focus on cascading organisational goals down to an employee’s role in achieving specific requirements for the business. Performance reviews typically are like a road map: “Get from A to B. Now what milestones have you met and how far along the road have you got?” The result, a smack or a carrot.

Rocket fuelAlmost every time, the missing link in a performance review is what ‘rocket fuel’ is being given to the employee to help them navigate the map and move forward? Understanding the top motivators of your people and helping fulfil them is vital to performance.

Map x fuel = performanceWe need to reboot our thinking on performance reviews and supercharge them with a motivational element. You can bring performance reviews to life with any of these motivational (engagement) tools:

• The Motivational Drivers Card System (page 127)• Stay interviews (page 142-143)• Personal Engagement Plans (PEP) (page 126)

Best Employers understand that engaged people do more with less.“ ”“70% of initiatives to improve

engagement can be individually driven by the employee.”

z z

1.2

employee driven engagement the

super glue:


1.2

TH

E SU

PER

GLU

E: e

mpl

oyee

driv

en e

ngag

emen

t Your very own People Glue If leaders understand the seven engagement drivers and possible solutions, they can implement strategies to better engage their team. If there is any disengagement, in most situations, they can make great inroads to reverse this. Importantly, it is comforting to know that almost all of the seven engagement drivers can be controlled to a large degree by the individual employee. This is a new innovative approach now being used by many companies and is called ‘self-driven employee engagement’ or ‘employee driven engagement’.

For more than a decade we have found that psychologically, most employees know what they don’t want, fewer know what they really do want. This creates a serious problem, because if employees don’t know what truly motivates them, how have leaders got any chance? The employee driven engagement approach uniquely incorporates self-leadership, which helps people get clarity and become more resilient in times of change, with techniques to focus positively on what they can control rather than negatively on what they can’t control.

Employee driven engagement So the secret lies in employee driven engagement – providing tools to help employees identify what really motivates them in work and life, and how to get it. This helps resolve the ‘you aren’t doing enough for me’ attitude by encouraging employees to define and take responsibility for their own unique engagement motivators and priorities.

The philosophy is an ‘inside-out’ approach which puts individuals back in control. This gives them the mindset, tools and personal responsibility they need to get their priorities clear and better manage their own work, life and personal finances (and overall quality of life).


1.2 THE SU

PER GLU

E: employee driven engagem

ent

Best Employer ResourcesIf your finding this book useful, visit our websie for our mobile-friendly

online courses, available 24/7 in short, sharp video modules. For further information visit:

www.LifebyDesign.com.au/LearningCentre

People never have enough time to do everything they want, but they always have enough time to do the most important things. Therefore the key to self-leadership is taking the time with meaningful tools, to find out what the most important things really are, and how to incorporate them into our lives.

http://www.lifebydesign.com.au/services/learning-centre/


1.2

TH

E SU

PER

GLU

E: e

mpl

oyee

driv

en e

ngag

emen

t The self-leadership solutionThere are three main pillars of self-leadership:

Job satisfaction: Knowing and getting what you need in terms of positive challenges through your work. (Driver : Job Fulfillment)

Life balance: Knowing your priorities in work and life and what you will do to achieve them. (Driver : Work Life Balance)

Personal finances: Knowing how much you need and what for, e.g. personal cashflow management. (Driver : Reward)

By using these pillars to help employees benchmark and get real clarity on what is important to them, organisations are empowering employees to re-focus their energy.

Recall the ‘Your number one customer is your people’ diagram we discussed on page 8. It goes full circle – how can we better look after ourselves, so that we are in the best position to look after our team, our clients and our business? The key is better self-leadership.

Customer

Team

Self

$

work life


1.2 THE SU

PER GLU

E: employee driven engagem

ent

Self-leadership is an inside-out, ‘bottom-up’ approach with the buy-in of leaders. As everyone is in fact a leader – whether they are leading a team of thousands or simply themselves – the flow-on effects of self-leadership and personal responsibility become culturally contagious.

Many innovative organisations that make it a cultural priority to recognise that human capital is their most valuable asset are now assisting their employees to achieve a greater sense of self-leadership and personal responsibility. This creates a more sustainable ‘win-win’ culture.

A fish rots from the head

Organisational culture is personified by its leaders’

behaviour, internal communications, what the organisation

celebrates and how it recognises its people for their

achievements. These actions can dramatically support or

disable employee driven engagement.

Check our Self-Leadership online program for all employees in our Learning Centre at LifebyDesign.com.au

www.lifebydesign.com.au/OnlineSelfLeadershipCourse


People

4.0 UPD

ATES and further resources

Want a regular dose of People Glue?

If you’d like to get fresh thinking, how-to-video courses, tips, strategies, new insights, or have PSA Educator of the Year and People Glue author Ian Hutchinson speak at your next event, simply go to LifebyDesign.com.au

www.lifebydesign.com.au/OnlinePeopleGlueCourse


4.0

U

PDA

TES

and

furt

her r

esou

rces

Consulting services

Life by Design® are innovators and leaders in “Employee Driven Engagement”. This self-responsibility approach to employee engagement is the missing link to simply and effectively implementing employee engagement at all levels of the organisation.

LifebyDesign.com.au [email protected]. +61 2 9979 4949.

Conference keynotes & training workshopsIan Hutchinson (B.Bus, Grad.Dip.Psy, CSP) is Chief Engagement Officer and founder of Life by Design® and a world authority on “Employee Driven Engagement”. Ian is one of Australia’s top thought leaders, educators and conference speakers, has been awarded the PSA Educator of Excellence. He has worked with many Best Employers as well as organisations. Ian is also author of 52 Strategiesto Work Life Balance and presents on topics such as People Glue and Self-Leadership.

IanHutchinson.com.au

Online learningUnlock workforce potential with our engaging, mobile friendly, 24/7 online courses. Designed for any individual wanting to maximise their potential in work & life, or any organisation wanting to supercharge their employee engagement, motivation & productivity.

Learning Centre @ LifebyDesign.com.au



www.IanHutchinson.com.au

Documents

PeopleGlue - Life by DesignGet obsessed – your future depends on it The greatest asset any organisation has is its people. The quality of your people determines the quality of your