This
is our last newsletter of 2012. As we close out the year, we
at Excellerate Solutions wish you and your family a most joyous and
blessed Holiday Season.
In
this newsletter we discuss an important question that should be on
the mind of every leader: How do I engage the people in my organization
in a way that leads to our collective success? It's especially
important to consider this topic as we're often asked to do more with
less, and the resulting stress which can be created.
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Employee Engagement: a Differentiator for Your Success
By: Dave Vogelpohl
As 2012 rapidly winds
down, some disturbing news about employee burnout has emerged from a
survey completed in October of nearly 2000 employees done by ComPsych Corp, which is a Chicago-based provider
of employee assistance programs to more than 17,000 organizations
worldwide, covering more than 45 million employees.
As reported in a November 4, 2012 News and Observer article
"Burnout among workers is on the rise", among the findings
of this study are:
- Nearly 1 out of 4 employees say their top
work priority is just being present at work
- About 2 in 3 workers report high levels of
stress with extreme fatigue and a feeling of being out of
control.
- More than half of those surveyed said they
miss one to two days per year because of stress.
The cost of
employee burnout and the resulting disengagement can be quite
high. The following findings reinforce the problem:
- Within the U.S., Gallup estimates the cost
of employee disengagement to the bottom line to be more than
$300 billion in lost productivity alone.
- Fewer than 1 in 3 employees worldwide are
engaged at work. (Blessing White Research - Employee Engagement
Report 2011)
While this news
is probably not a surprise to most people who work with large
companies, the degree to which it is affecting our workforce is cause
for alarm and opportunity. Organizations with high
levels of engagement (65% or greater) posted total shareholder
returns 22% higher than the average in 2010. (Aon Hewitt - Trends in
Global Employee Engagement). The opportunity presented by
this statistic is immediately compelling.
You may say, in
the face of increased productivity demands to get more done with
fewer people, how do we find the time to increase employee
engagement? In coaching executives with larger
organizations, here's a few ways that have made a difference:
- Set a Coherent Direction for
the organization: It's an easy thing to say that this
is important. It's also one of the most challenging tasks
for a leader when faced with multiple and seemingly conflicting
demands. It requires determining the organization's
purpose, assessing what's possible, collaboration with allies,
and perhaps getting out of a comfort zone.
- Communicate Why the
organization should take this direction: Once the work is completed
to set the direction, it takes additional energy from the leader
of the organization to make a compelling case for WHY this
direction makes sense. Continue to ask the Why
question until a compelling case emerges for the why that's big
enough to engage the organization. What are the
expected results? Why do these results help the
organization, the company, the world? Occasionally,
bringing in leaders from other organizations who are important
allies in achieving the end result will help in making the
case.
- Explain How Individuals
in the organization Fit in:
Each group and person in the organization needs to see how they
contribute to the direction and the desired results set by the
leader of the organization. Cascading the direction
of the organization to groups and individuals through a goal
setting process can be very effective for linking group and
individual outcomes to the desired organizational result.
- Answer the WIIFM Question:
If the leader has set a direction and communicated a big enough
why, everyone in the organization will need to be engaged to
achieve the results. Each person needs to know the
answer to the "What's In It For
Me" question in order to put in the effort
needed. How are the individual's strengths, talents
and more importantly, passions
being engaged in pursuit of the organization's mission?
Recently, we have launched a couple of tools, The Bigger Game workshop and the
Passion Profiler, that have also
proved effective in helping individuals and organizations achieve
improved employee engagement. While the steps
necessary to fight employee burnout and disengagement are not easy,
the rewards for making employee engagement a way to differentiate
your business are great. Give us a call if you'd
like to explore your options.
Copyright protected, all rights reserved worldwide.
©2012
Dave Vogelpohl - Excellerate Solutions, Inc.
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Small Entrepreneurial
Business of the Year for Companies with 1 to 5 Employees
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On Nov 14, 2012, Excellerate
Solutions was honored to present Passion Driven Innovation at
Innovation in RTP.
To learn more and view the slides, click this
link:
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We invite you
to get to know us better as we talk about how we can add value to you
and your business.
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Quick Links
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Previous
Newsletters
September 2012
·
Passions, Passions, What are your Passions
July 2012
·
Storytelling: The Power to Shift the Conversation
June 2012
·
The Keys to Our Success - What Doors Can We Help You
Unlock?
·
8 Reasons Passion Matters
- The Power of Perspective
- 6 Steps to Achieve the Results you want
as a Leader
- Three Ways My Coaching Will Improve Your
Life
- Change: Something Lost, Something
Gained
February 2011
- How to Create a Positively Contagious
Attitude
- Do You Have a Coach?
January 2011
- The New Normal
- Becoming an Entrepreneur: Taking a Leap
of Faith
December 2010
- Powerful Resolutions for 2011 and Beyond
- Think Purple
- Just Do the Next Right Thing
- Resiliency: How Well Do You
Bounce?
- Your
Board of Advisors
- Three
Circles to Success
- Happiness
Is ...
- Coaching
for Professionals In Career Transition
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Motivational Quotes
"Brains,
like hearts, go where they are appreciated."
Robert
McNamara, former president Ford
Motor Company
"You
shouldn't be looking for people slipping up, you should
be looking for all the good things people do and praising those."
Richard
Branson, founder of Virgin
"Employees
who believe that management is concerned about them
as a whole person
- not just an employee - are more productive, more satisfied,
more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers,
which leads to profitability."
Anne
M. Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox
"There
are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need
to know about your organization's overall performance: employee
engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow...It goes without
saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run
without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand
how to achieve it..."
Jack
Welch, former CEO of GE
.
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