We need to raise employee engagement levels
Latest employee engagement figures from CIPD do not make great reading
The latest report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Winter 2012/13) shows that 35% of employees are engaged but the majority (61%) remain neutral. 4% of respondents are disengaged.
In comparison to twelve months ago there is a very slight downward change, 36%, 60% and 3% respectively.
The summer of 2012 offered the high point in terms of overall employee engagement at 39% (with just 3% disengaged) but we now find that scores are now inline with Winter 11/12.
The highlights (although not at all surprising) of the latest report are that micro organisations (between 2 and 9 employees) have typically higher levels of engagement as opposed to large organisations (more than 250 employees) – 60% compared with 31%. Although small organisations (between 10 and 49 employees) have the highest level of disengaged employees at 6% compared with 1% for micro and 5% for large businesses.
The extent to which employees are engaged at work, by gender, sector and size of organisation (%)
| CIPD Winter 12/13 | Engaged | Neutral | Disengaged |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | 35 | 61 | 4 |
| Men | 33 | 62 | 5 |
| Women | 37 | 60 | 4 |
| Voluntary Sector | 41 | 56 | 3 |
| Private Sector | 37 | 59 | 4 |
| Public Sector | 29 | 67 | 5 |
| Micro Businesses | 60 | 39 | 1 |
| Small Businesses | 44 | 50 | 6 |
| Medium Businesses | 38 | 58 | 5 |
| Large Businesses | 31 | 64 | 5 |
With the advent of (Government backed) initiatives such as Engage for Success and a considerably higher profile for employee engagement – these scores are worrying. The issue right now, for many, is how can we raise employee engagement levels?
Given the economic background we are being asked more and more for practical advice on employee engagement that doesn’t resort to wide scale costly engagement initiatives. We do advocate the approach of using simple techniques to drive up engagement but recommend ensuring that these are ‘joined up’ to your wider employee engagement remit – so you can easily track and monitor their positive effects.
PRACTICAL EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT EXERCISES:
Use the diagram above as a group exercise for finding out what things you could do to better engage and inspire your people. Place the common elements at the intersection of the circles as these are the strongest. Communicate the results and build the ideas into your engagement efforts (Remember when communicating: swap ‘I’ for ‘We’).
Consider setting up a ‘What on earth?’ group, whenever anyone working within your organisation comes across a policy or process that is duplicated, convoluted or just plain silly! This group has the authority and skill to modify or remove that policy or process.
Give your customers and suppliers a voice – setup an exercise whereby groups of your customers and suppliers come into your business to talk with your employees. This exercise is ideal to engage your back office and support staff who rarely benefit from external perspectives.
Let us help you increase employee engagement within your organisation, call us on 01255 850051 or click here to drop us an email.