This week I am delighted to present the first in a series of guest blogs from a leading expert in the field of Talent Management Strategy. Simon North from Position Ignition specialises in helping companies through the transition of Senior Leadership Team Members at Executive Level.
I would like to personally thank Simon for the support he has given to Expect Talent to date, it is a real pleasure to deal with him and his highly talented team of HR experts.
Employee Engagement: What's It All About?
In a job market where the war for talent is making it tough to find good workers and where key skills are likely to be getting scarcer, the need to treat people well increases every day. It’s vital to make sure your workers are engaged and fully invested in what they’re doing.
Employee engagement is about honesty – particularly in uncertain times. Your colleagues want you to be clear about what you’re saying to them and they want to be engaged on a regular basis. Regularity is contextual, whether it be every so often or weekly. The important thing is that contact is open and is as honest as it can be.
Systems that focus on people need simple processes. Employees absolutely hate performance management systems that have no human touch and are computer-based processes that require them to connect with loads of people to get facile comments which lead nowhere and bear no resemblance to anything important in their lives.
Instead, listen and tune in to every individual on a regular basis. This does not have to be formalised and structured as part of the standard appraisal process. This is much more about day to day management and supervision.
Avoid over-measuring --whilst it is important to measure outputs and performance, over-measurement can be a real irritant to high-performing individuals and may reduce their level of engagement with what it is that they do. An employer or manager might think that micromanagement shows the worker that they’re cared about and not ignored, but because micromanagement isn’t about listening and respect, too much of it will prove counter-productive.
It is far better to have regular input sessions on being clear about the future and the team’s performance, followed up by frequent shorter feedback conversations both one on one and in small groups to check that the individual and the team are going in the right direction. If it sounds simple that’s because it is. One of the biggest mistakes that we can make is by over complicating what is really a simple humanistic process based on personal relationships.
Good leaders have high touch, high personal integrity and connect on a one-on-one level as well as on the group level regularly and sincerely, both in imparting information and finding out how people are feeling. Systems and processes built around such simple, intimate processes can be more powerful for employees than super sophisticated HR systems.
Finally be fair.
The above points relate to being fair to your employees. It’s all aligned to how people feel about their engagement and there is nothing as powerful as the information that workers share with one another and that organisations and leaders rarely find out.
Guest Post by Simon North: Simon North is the Founder of Position Ignition, which specialises in helping organisations and HR with the challenges presented by a maturing workforce. They focus on creating and ensuring smooth employee exit paths for talented and valued employees. Simon a renowned expert in HR and career transition work, with a focus around the older worker and how best to manage the later stages in our careers effectively. Visit their HR Blog for more thoughts and advice on the latest HR challenges.
