Employee engagement lessons from some of the UK’s most sustainable businesses
Around a quarter of UK SMEs are prioritising energy saving management in 2014 after research has shown that, on average, a typical business wastes around 20% of the energy it uses. Whilst government initiatives, such as the Green Deal, have been put in place to ensure that both businesses and home owners UK-wide do more […]
Employee engagement in the recession – weathering the storm
Nita Clarke OBE Co-Chair of the Engage for Success Taskforce. The last few years have been tough for many employees. Many have experienced difficult workplace change as their organisations were rocked by the recession. Most have suffered under years of pay restraint which is only now starting to ease. Yet remarkably despite these challenges, as […]
Sustaining engagement: why health and wellbeing are vital
While I firmly believe in and support the important messages coming out of the Engage for Success movement about the value, benefit and significance of employee engagement, I would like to use this blog to sound a note of caution: ever increasing levels of employee engagement may not be an altogether good thing. If engagement […]
New report: Best Places to Work 2014
Every year Great Place to Work put out a report profiling the organisations that have ranked highest in their employee engagement programme and display long-term commitment to creating cultures where employees thrive. The Great Workplaces Special Report, just released today, profiles 2014's 100 Best Workplaces and shares insights into how trust and engagement drive their […]
How often should you conduct an employee survey?
This article is based on data and conclusions from our report, The State of Employee Engagement 2014. You can download the report here and learn what best-performing companies are doing when it comes to engagement, and how you can ramp up your employee engagement efforts. How often should you conduct an employee survey? To help […]
Why don’t employee engagement surveys work?
‘The fundamental element required for an organisation to thrive and grow is having employees who are committed, motivated and engaged’. That was the conclusion of the UK government’s 2009 review on employee engagement[1]. This and other research studies – such as those by Gallup[2] and the Corporate Leadership Council[3] – champion the transformational possibilities of engagement and […]
Employee development through CSR programmes
Employees are increasingly demanding that their workplaces not only provide opportunities for them to develop within the business, but outside of it too. With CSR remaining high on the agenda and workers craving the challenges and learning that come via volunteering and community-based initiatives, organisations must master the world of ‘intelligent volunteering’ that not only […]
NHS and employee engagement – what works?
Employee engagement is increasingly being seen as a priority by employers. Nowhere more so than in the NHS. Research has shown that NHS Trusts which effectively engage their employees have higher levels of staff wellbeing and more satisfied patients; they have better clinical outcomes and they are more efficient. It’s increasingly clear that engagement is […]
Competent individuals – at risk from social undermining?
Complexity is everywhere in the business world today. Businesses struggle with issues such as global interconnectedness, sustainability, hyper-competition and pervasive organisational change. And naturally, we all believe that the more skilled and competent our workforce, the more able we are to manage these issues successfully. We never focus on competence As HR professionals and managers, […]
Are line managers doing performance management or forms management?
How’s this for a performance management scenario: It’s mid-February and a manager in your organisation bursts into an employee’s office. “HR’s getting really annoyed. I was supposed to submit everyone’s performance plan no later than the end of January. Here’s your plan from last year. The work hasn’t really changed and you’re doing a great […]
Corporate psychopaths and mental health
This article was written by Clive Boddy and Derek Miles. Clive and Derek are, respectively, Professors in Leadership and Human Resource Development at Middlesex University Business School. You can email them at c.boddy@mdx.ac.uk or d.miles@mdx.ac.uk. In relation to a previous article in HR Zone on how corporate psychopaths influenced the workplace, one commentator on the […]
Do CEOs do HR’s job?
These are loaded statements, but do any of them sound familiar? “CEOs do the job of HR."“HR has become all about processes and not people.”“HR has lost the plot.” On the face of it these words seem rather harsh, after all HR work extremely hard often under difficult conditions, but this was the consensus of […]
Engage and retain staff in 2014 and beyond
It’s a common misconception that an individual’s performance at work is based solely on just their capability. Whilst possessing the right skills and abilities is important, in today’s competitive business world, it is based on so much more than this. The silent threat of ghost turnover The period of economic recession played host to […]
Onshoring and employee engagement – is there a link?
Over the past few decades China has become the manufacturing centre of the world, but a trend that started in the US is filtering to UK shores as businesses are starting to bring their manufacturing bases back home. This on-shoring shift in business behaviour is of course great news for the UK economy, and has […]
Talent mobility – essential to organisational success
In the first of a four part series of articles, Matt Russell, Head of Talent at Lee Hecht Harrison, introduces his concept of ‘talent mobility’ and the results of an in-depth research programme into the subject and looks in brief at what HR professionals need to do in order to ensure and benefit from talent […]
Embracing employee engagement in 2014
Employee engagement may have been the new ‘buzz word’ from America just a few years ago but now businesses large and small are buying into it in some shape or form. However, in many companies it still seems to be a side project or a matter on the agenda, rather than an intrinsic part of […]
Finding your “Why” – the crucial starting point of employee engagement
No leadership team will commit time and money to a plan to increase employee engagement unless they believe it will improve performance. So the first question any HR professional should ask themselves before committing to an employee engagement survey is, “What are we looking to achieve?” This simple but thought provoking question sets the context […]
Secret to brand engagement? Trust in good leadership
Brand engagement only works if there is employee trust in the new values. But trust cannot be won through good internal marketing alone, although it undoubtedly helps. Leaders need to be seen to be involved, to be actually leading the programme and above all, to be trusted. We must remember though, that leaders include all […]
Four ways your employee survey is holding back internal communications
The degree of success enjoyed by your organisation’s internal communications can depend on many factors – yet ultimately all decisions you make on these matters rely on good quality information. And where does much of that information come from? The employee survey, naturally, by now a traditional (but not necessarily venerable) annual event for many […]
Employee attitudes in Britain – trends for 2014
It is too early to tell for sure but 2013 could become known as the year the UK turned an economic corner and started a slow but definitive road to recovery. Currently the economy is still 2.5% smaller than its peak in 2008 but the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has just announced 0.8% growth […]
