Virtually every management book, magazine or blog is talking about Employee Engagement, but what’s it all about? Is this something new or just a new name for something we have been doing as managers for years?
Whilst there appear to be many definitions of EE what we probably all agree on is that it has become a major focus for senior management of late. It is not really surprising that ‘engaging with your employees’ has been shown to be correlated with superior business performance. However, there is no consistent definition of it and, while HR directors are increasingly being tasked with finding ways of improving Employee Engagement, there is often little understanding of what that means or how to go about it.
Clarity of thinking and an understanding of how it works in your particular organisation is critical. When provided with a request to ‘help me with employee engagement’, a good starting point is to ask ‘What is it that you want your staff to be engaged with?’ Every organisation is different so the answers to that question will be different.
Working with my colleagues at Lamberhurst we have developed a unique framework to help businesses develop their thinking in this area. It is summarised in the Lamberhurst Employee Engagement Wheel. Asking yourself the critical question in each segment is a first step towards understanding what your business needs to do to improve engagement. Lamberhurst can provide expert facilitators who can guide you through the process and also consultants in a variety of disciplines who can help you address major issues you have that are preventing your staff from engaging effectively with your business.
We have just started using the wheel so I would appreciate your feedback on its usefulness for your organisations. Either PM me or let’s start a dialogue.
Domonique Goldson says
27/11/2011 at 20:15Hello.This post was extremely interesting, especially since I was investigating for thoughts on this topic last Wednesday.