Who really understands how to achieve engagement in the workplace? My guess is that many board directors around the country are struggling with the basic concept of engagement, and entirely miss the point that employees are human beings who need some kind of emotional connection to the brand they work for, before they will buy into the company values, and give their all.
The HR industry itself seems to be ignoring the fact that engagement isn’t achievable until you have expertly marketed the organisation to the people you want to engage. Quite simply communication of an employer brand must be marketing-led, but far too frequently, it isn’t. This would explain why so many organisations are failing to instil anything like the levels of engagement that will be needed to drive performance and power long-term growth and future prosperity.
In the US, where employee engagement has been an accepted business strategy for many years, there’s real respect for the power of internal communication and the marketing of employer brand values, and I believe this is what sets US organisations apart from UK groups when it comes to tackling the issue of engagement. There’s an acceptance that the path to successfully engaging large workforces starts with good planning and brand-rich communication. Plenty of emphasis is put on designing the employer brand and clearly setting out ‘the deal’ – the Employer Value Proposition – the company offers its people, which will hook them in emotionally.
A high profile champion of employee engagement in the States is management consultant Jim Shaffer (www.jimshaffergroup.com, or follow him on LinkedIn). His view is that: “Engagement is not a synonym for involvement, as some think. It’s not an activity, program, event or the number of meetings people attend. It’s not how many suggestions people make. Employee engagement is a condition that occurs when employees share the values and purpose of the organization and are willing to ‘do whatever it takes’ to help the organization succeed.”
Shaffer’s wide experience has taught him that creating the condition of engagement is hard work but incredibly worthwhile. His clients have achieved measurable results around staff retention, productivity, customer service and ultimately improved profitability. Of course success stories here in the UK are filtering through, but I believe so much more could be achieved once the penny drops in boardrooms across the nation – employer brands need to be powerfully marketed before engagement will work its magic. Apple, Coke and Abercrombie & Fitch don’t expect brand fans to flock without meticulously-executed marketing effort, so why should employer companies? If you’re serious about engagement, it’s time to sell, sell, sell.
