Yesterday I posted some basic reactions to WorkUSA\u2019s research on employee engagement and manager communications.\u00a0 Today, I\u2019d like to continue with some reactions to the second half of their \u201ckey findings.\u201d\u00a0 Some of you may thing \u201cDoes Dubs always have to disagree?\u201d\u00a0 Well, I don\u2019t always.\u00a0 But I do like to put my particular spin on things.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the list:<\/p>\n
Employees are concerned about changes to health care benefits and pension plans. Top-performing employees are far more likely to cite benefits as an important reason for leaving than employers realize.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ((Watson Wyatt.\u00a0 2006.\u00a0 \u201cWorkUSA\u00ae 2006\/2007: Debunking the Myths of Employee Engagement, Executive Summary.\u201d\u00a0 Retrieved from WatsonWyatt.com on December 18, 2006.))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I actually disagree with how this finding was spun, and I really do think there\u2019s some spin here.\u00a0 Top performing employees probably are as interested in benefits as anyone else.\u00a0 However, this leads you to believe that compensation and benefits is the key area for retention issues.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to suggest that top performing employees simply want to do their jobs, and not have restrictions around how they think about, perform, and fulfill their jobs.\u00a0 In other words, so long as your compensation and benefits are not lagging the rest of the industry or local area, it\u2019s really the work that matters.\u00a0 When we talk about highly engaged employees rather than top performing employees, we\u2019re really talking about people who care about their work.\u00a0 Certainly you can have top performers who are not engaged, and these people might be more willing to leave over compensation rather than the quality of the work.<\/p>\n
Senior management is receiving lower marks than in the past from employees on instilling confidence in long-term business success, making decisions in a timely manner, making changes to enhance competitiveness and grow the business, and controlling costs.\u00a0 ((Ibid))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019m not sure what to make of this one but I haven\u2019t really seen anything out there that suggests this is correct or incorrect.\u00a0 What I\u2019d guess is that with the ongoing accounting issues in the industry, the prevailing mood that employers cannot afford their pensions, and the rapidly accelerating M&A environment, that these are all actions that cause doubt within employee ranks.<\/p>\n
Organizations that have created strong engagement shouldn\u2019t rest on their laurels. By going beyond engagement to employee effectiveness, these organizations can continue to earn superior total returns to shareholders.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ((Ibid))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This seems to be obvious, but perhaps it\u2019s not.\u00a0 (See?\u00a0 Sometimes I do agree)\u00a0 Many organizations are going to great lengths to measure engagement and identify ways to increase it.\u00a0 However, there are intricate networks of closely aligned tactics that can be more easily pursued when the workforce is highly engaged.\u00a0 I sit around talking about innovation and innovation networks on systematicHR.\u00a0 It\u2019s difficult enough getting employees to collaborate in the most effective manner and create new innovative thinking around their work.\u00a0 I also sit around talking about productivity.\u00a0 Now these topics are all areas where HR may not currently play a role, but they are certainly areas where HR should be seeking to participate in.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll go beyond this and get a little bit preachy.\u00a0 When we talk about HR having a seat at the table, we\u2019re not just talking about HR being there and being taken seriously about HR issues.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about HR\u2019s ability to participate in discussions that are clearly in the domain of other corporate functions, and being able to provide additive value.\u00a0 Why can\u2019t HR talk about collaboration networks?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday I posted some basic reactions to WorkUSA\u2019s research on employee engagement and manager communications.\u00a0 Today, I\u2019d like to continue with some reactions to the second half of their \u201ckey findings.\u201d\u00a0 Some of you may thing \u201cDoes Dubs always have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30,10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benefits-management","category-compensation","category-engagement","category-strategies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}