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Workplace engagement
Measuring the true impact of leadership
A vital question business leaders should be pondering right now, is which organisations are emerging from the recession in better shape than others, and why?
Those who adopted a ‘slash and burn’ philosophy over the past 18 months might now have leaner organisations and balance sheets that make their accountants smile, but do their employees still consider they have a ‘great place to work’?
Others navigated a different path, and whilst their short-term results might have taken a hit, the conscious decision they made to continue engaging their employees by focusing on building a great workplace puts them in a strong position to capitalise on the economic upturn. JRA’s research over the past ten years clearly indicates that one of the characteristics 
of these ‘great workplaces’ is that they never stop investing in their people – especially their leaders
“When we analysed our 2009 JRA Best Workplaces Survey data we found that the
top performing organisations placed a much higher priority on leadership coaching and development, and that their leaders in turn performed the role of coach, mentor and developer significantly better,” says Brett Oetgen, a Senior Consultant at JRA.
“We found satisfaction with measures such as ‘receiving regular feedback’, and ‘coaching to help improve performance’ rating 14 percent higher in ‘Best Workplaces’, where ‘dealing effectively with poor performance’ and
'confidence in leadership' also rated 24 percent and 14 percent higher respectively.”
One of the leadership development tools used with increasing frequency by ‘Best Workplaces’ is 360-degree feedback. “We’ve seen a growing demand over the past 12 months for this service as organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the need to develop and, importantly, measure leadership capability,” says Oetgen. “Multi-level feedback via a 360 tool is a highly-effective way of doing that, and of providing leaders with the means to ‘see themselves as others see them’.”
And a recent study by JRA Research Consultant Jessica Xu’s highlighted the benefits of this focus. In her study, managers identified as ‘great leaders’ (top 25% of leaders) had significantly more ‘engaged’ staff (62%) compared to less effective managers of whose staff a mere 12% were classified as ‘engaged’ in the workforce.
JRA is running the 2010 JRA Best Workplaces Survey in association with The New Zealand Herald and sponsored by the New Zealand Chambers of Commerce, KiwiBank, Department of Labour and Haines Attract. The survey runs from 1 June to 31 August and registrations are now being taken.
On the web: www.bestworkplaces.co.nz
Preparing for Recovery
7 July - As the green shoots of recovery start appearing organisations will want to be in the best possible position to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. And retaining and engaging key talent will be fundamental to an organisation’s success when the upturn comes.
Around 220 organisations employing 32,000 New Zealanders took part in the JRA Best Workplaces Survey last year and while those that underwent structure change and/or who faced significant down-sizing experienced reduced levels of employee engagement, the majority of those 220 organisations actually experienced an increase in engagement during recession year 2009 (up from 33% to 35% engaged).
Less surprising perhaps were JRA’s findings that reported ‘intention to stay’ showed an increase 2008/2009 (up from 77.2% to 79.3%). Not such good news however was that the biggest increase in ‘intention to stay’ was among the “disengaged” employees – those who are ‘disconnected’ from the organisation’s goals and activities, and certainly not the ones who will be ‘going the extra mile’ to help you climb out of recession.
So as the economy picks up and job opportunities start to reappear, organisations will face a new challenge, because it will be the ‘best and brightest’ who up sticks and move on, and the disengaged, poor performers who stay behind. According to JRA managing director John Robertson, which group you are left with will largely be determined by the quality of your workplace strategies and practices.
“The top 25% of organisations in our 2009 Best Workplaces Survey showed clear differences in the way they managed their people during the recession, and significant differences in the levels of engagement they sustained. Communication became more important than ever, as did clarity of purpose and the role everyone had in achieving organisation goals and objectives. ‘We’re all in this together’ was the rallying cry for many, and 2009 became a great opportunity to demonstrate what ‘values’ really meant in practice. We’ve heard many stories from organisations who experienced the benefits of an engaged workforce as people responded with performance that went way above the norm.”
As the economy moves out of recession the relevance of these same enlightened workplace practices remains, putting those who adopt them in a better position to reap the rewards of recovery.
JRA is running the 2010 JRA Best Workplaces Survey in association with The New Zealand Herald and sponsored by the New Zealand Chambers of Commerce, KiwiBank, Department of Labour and Haines Attract. The survey runs from 1 June to 31 August and registrations are now being taken.
On the web – www.bestworkplaces.co.nz
What can we learn from the past decade?
29 June 2010 - If we consider the economy over the past decade, New Zealand has experienced a period of extended growth followed by one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. An analysis by JRA of the key drivers of employee engagement over this period may offer some insight as the economy moves out of recession.
Looking at the period 2000 to 2009, there have been some consistent drivers of engagement regardless of the boom or bust cycles. “People have some basic and intrinsic motivation needs” says JRA Managing Director John Robertson. “The internal factors which drive us to do the things because we want to do them (sense of personal achievement, for example), or because we believe it is the right thing to do (alignment to what the organisation is trying to accomplish). There is also a need to work in a fun, enjoyable workplace where there is clarity in terms of roles and responsibilities. Lastly, employees respond positively to strong leadership.”
Whilst there has been some consistency over the past decade, there have also been some interesting changes. In the mid 2000’s for example, when the labour market was buoyant, employee engagement levels were more likely to be influenced by the perceived fairness of their pay. Probably not surprising, given the relative ease with which people could leave one organisation and join another willing to offer a higher salary. But during the recession, pay has been replaced as a key driver by more intrinsic drivers, such as understanding how one contributes to the organisations success and feeling valued. In the later part of the decade, confidence in leadership also became more important in difficult times, whereas a fun and enjoyable workplace dropped in importance.
Based on of the observations made over the past decade it is clear that regardless of the state of the economy there are some consistent factors which drive employee engagement. However, as the economy moves out of the recession, the factors which were more important in boom times, such as perceived fairness of pay and creating a fun place to work could come to the fore again. Organisations looking to maintain or lift engagement during the upturn may need to adapt to meet their employees changing needs.
JRA is running the 2010 JRA Best Workplaces Survey in association with The New Zealand Herald and sponsored by the New Zealand Chambers of Commerce, KiwiBank, Department of Labour and Haines Attract. The survey runs from 1 June to 31 August and registrations are now being taken.
On the web – www.bestworkplaces.co.nz
All Aboard – Working Together Brings Results
17 November 2009 - One of the things workplace survey and analysis specialist JRA has noticed over the past 12 months is that taking the time to survey workplace climate and engagement levels has generally not been put on the back-burner until the recession goes away. On the contrary, they have seen the number of organisations undertaking this vital ‘pulse check’ actually increase.
But how effectively are these organisations using the valuable information gleaned by such surveys? How often do they go beyond identifying the issues needing attention to actually putting in place initiatives designed to address these?
A study carried out by JRA has found that between 2007 and 2008, by far the majority of organisations undertaking surveys (97.4%) communicated their survey results back to staff, while around 72% went further and responded with specific initiatives designed to address issues highlighted by their surveys. Of interest was the comparison between large organisations employing more than 400 staff, and SMEs employing fewer than 150 people.
According to JRA, the larger organisations seem to be doing better on this front with 87% reporting initiatives underway, while only 64% of the SMEs reported similar progress. One of the reasons for this gap may be that SMEs are struggling to resource their post-survey initiatives.
JRA’s Leighton Abbot feels this doesn’t need to be the case. “Often organisations focus on too many things, and make their follow-up strategies just too complex. Usually the best results come from doing small things well”. And if you are an SME, have just run a survey and are feeling overwhelmed about what to do next, Abbot’s suggestion is to “involve your people!”
“Organise a workshop and involve everyone - discuss your results, brainstorm broad areas for improvement initially, then move on to more specific areas” is Abbot’s advice. “Recognise that everyone has a role to play in building a better workplace, and encourage open dialogue in question and answer sessions to encourage broader ownership of the issues and their solutions.”
“A next step might involve cross-functional groups refining these ideas further to identify initiatives designed to get ‘runs on the board’, set improvement goals, and agree how progress will be evaluated,” says Abbot. “The key is to keep it simple – discuss your results openly, and encourage input from everyone. Stay focused and don’t be too ambitious – one or two important improvement targets are generally more than enough.”
JRA runs the annual JRA Best Workplaces Survey in association with the New Zealand Herald and sponsors the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and HainesAttract. With the survey now closed for 2009 JRA are hosting a black-tie awards event on 26 November when this year’s finalists and category winners will be announced.
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On the web – www.bestworkplaces.co.nz
Make layoffs your strategy of last resort
16 July - With unemployment tipped to reach around 7% by first-quarter 2010 and conflicting views on whether our ‘green shoots’ are browning off or not, the reality for many businesses remains survival in a shrinking market comprising more demanding customers and more desperate competitors.
It is exactly this environment where organisations need every performance advantage they can muster, and while increasing unemployment rates suggest headcount has become an obvious target for cost reduction, organisations should think carefully before taking this drastic step.
“Anyone who’s worked somewhere where layoffs and redundancies have taken place will tell you just how damaging this can be to the morale of those left behind, and to levels of trust generally - it can take years to recover,” according to JRA general manager Heather King.
“That’s not to say some reduction in headcount may not be necessary – but it’s a step that should only be taken once every other cost-reduction initiative has been exhausted, and even then it needs to be managed well,” she says.
“Managed poorly, the impact on productivity and customer service can be disastrous, putting even more pressure on the organisation and creating a deteriorating cycle of performance that can be hard to stop.”
A far better approach is to start by looking at how your organisation can become the ‘last one standing’.
“In a tough market you need to stand out from the crowd, either by offering a better product, superior service, or a more competitive price.”
“This is where our best workplaces have a big advantage. By definition they have a much sharper focus on what they are trying to achieve and people who are much clearer about their contribution to this.
They have also created a strong ‘we’re all in this together’ feeling that draws people together and encourages a joint effort. And because they have invested in their peoples’ development, they have a skilled group of people who really want the organisation to succeed – people who are more than willing to ‘go the extra mile’, who look to improve the way things are done, and who treat customers like VIPs.”
JRA’s research bears this out, with organisations achieving high levels of employee engagement reporting return on assets twice as high, and sales per employee 40% higher than those organisations with a disengaged workforce.
The JRA Best Workplaces Survey in association with The New Zealand Herald, and sponsored by The Auckland Chamber of Commerce and HainesAttract runs until 31 August. Already more than 150 organisations are taking part. To find out more about the survey, or to register your organisation now go to www.bestworkplaces.co.nz or call the team at JRA (NZ) Ltd on (09) 378 2003.
Engaging people when times are tough
23 June - Business leaders find themselves facing some very difficult strategic questions during the current economic downturn. Do we layoff staff in an attempt to reduce costs? Should we institute a hiring freeze? How do we keep our key talent intact for when the economic tide turns? Can we get the jump on our competitors by snatching up talent they've been forced to let go?
If you’re considering staff layoffs yourself, it might pay to stop and look at the issue in a different way. Instead of thinking how your organisation’s talent pool places a significant drain on the bottom line, consider how that very same talent pool is the single most important maximiser of your revenue. Whilst a 30% staff reduction may add 10% to the bottom line, a mere 1% increase in employee productivity can add so much more. And the secret to boosting employee productivity? Finding better ways to engage your people.
Employee engagement is fundamental to business success. Organisations with a highly engaged workforce almost invariably outperform those with less engaged workers across a host of important business outcomes - staff retention, productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability. And that’s what makes employee engagement more important than ever during hard times, times when everyone needs to be pulling in the same direction and giving every ounce of effort to guide the company towards its goals. Times also when the need for fully engaged employees is much higher because of the considerably smaller pool of potential customers.
Organisations strive to create engaging workplaces using a host of different methods and approaches. This makes perfect sense of course, given there is no one set of management practices or methods that will engage all people across all organisations in the same way.
However, research conducted by workplace survey and analysis specialists, JRA, has found that the very best workplaces - the top 25% in terms of their employee engagement scores - tend to share four ‘best-practice’ characteristics: a strong vision and values that are clearly defined; a strong sense of community; a focus on developing people to reach their potential; and a strong performance culture.
JRA call this the ‘Anatomy of a Great Workplace™’.
These four ‘pillars’ are enduring organisational qualities that are the product of a variety of management practices - communication, job design, reward and recognition, and so on - each of which has been crafted by local leadership according to their knowledge of what particular practices engage their people the most. And that’s one of the key differences between an effective leader who practices fact-based decision-making using the employee survey as an important diagnostic tool, and the manager who relies on preconception and faulty assumptions about human behaviour.
One of the most common of these preconceptions, and one still held by many senior managers, is that their employees are motivated primarily by money. Unfortunately such a belief can derail many engagement efforts as pay levels are not something managers can influence too readily. However, sophisticated analysis of employee survey data would likely confirm that once pay levels are at least aligned to industry norms, there are many other far more important ‘key drivers’ of employee engagement – most of which can be influenced by managers.
JRA’s extensive analysis of survey data gathered in 2008 from a variety of industry sectors identified these ‘key drivers’ as including a sense of belonging, jobs that provide a strong sense of personal achievement, feeling valued, confidence in the organisation’s leadership, career and personal development opportunities, and working in fun and supportive workplaces. Which of these will be included in the list of key drivers unique to your organisation?
How well would your organisation rate on these all-important drivers of engagement? Herein lies the power of the survey and analysis of employee perceptions - the ability to focus your scarce organisation resources on the things the matter most and which offer you greatest leverage to performance improvement.
Develop your people into leaders and accomplish more
23 June - Managers need to take risks in developing the next generation of leaders. That’s the view of Sam Knowles, CEO of Kiwibank.
He says the time is right to put young people in high-risk situations at work and give them the chance to lead firms out of the recession.
“I argue that it is often the experienced people that have got us into the problems we are now experiencing and it may be that the younger people who are coming through will be the best ones to get us out,” says Knowles. “Companies should not get too carried away looking for experience.”
Knowles was himself given a lot of opportunity at a young age during the financial downturn of the 1980s.
“A lot of what I learned came from came from being given a lot of opportunity in the crash of ’87 to ’91,” he says. “And in that case it was the rebuilding of the BNZ. A lot of the business skills I have today came from that experience – of helping to form a new business plan for the bank.”
Knowles says it is worthwhile reflecting that this is the time that the next generation of leaders will come through and that “this is the time that the batten does get handed over”.
Heather King, General Manager of workplace survey company JRA, agrees saying great workplaces go beyond just training for the job in hand and seek to develop their people much more holistically – making them better, more rounded people who are able to step up to the plate when the going gets tough.
She says firms with an eye on the future are already using the current climate to further develop their people’s capabilities and leadership potential.
“Our research shows best workplaces spend more on training and development and give more people access to these opportunities. Certainly they put much more effort into their leadership development activities. And right now we see them prepared to take risks with their people by stretching them to accomplish more,” says King. “The recession certainly offers plenty of scope to challenge people by pushing their goals, inviting their ideas and suggestions, and involving them in cross-functional activities that extend their existing knowledge and skills”.
Run in association with The New Zealand Herald, and with support from the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and HainesAttract, the 2009 JRA Best Workplaces Survey is available for your organisation to participate in until the end of August.
To find out more about the survey, or to register your organisation now go to www.bestworkplaces.co.nz or call Leighton Abbot at JRA (NZ) Ltd on (09) 378 2003 if for more information.
The 2009 JRA Best Workplaces Survey in association with The New Zealand Herald ran1st June through 31st August, and is sponsored by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and HainesAttract.
Visit www.bestworkplaces.co.nz.
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