Employee Engagement – the solution in difficult times?

Employee Engagement – the solution in difficult times?

Yet another weekend where the news broadcasts and the Sunday papers have been full of the economic doom and gloom. With many of the retail stores starting with 20% & 25% discounts with four weeks before Christmas you know things are changing.

If the key to survival is employee talent, then retention of talent has got to be a prime drive. But security is not the only factor, often when organizations offer redundancy, it is those that are most marketable that jump at the challenge. These people believe in their abilities, and of course one there has been one set of redundancies then the thought of more is always in peoples heads.  How you an an employer treat those that leave provides vital information about how you will treat those that stay.

One way to measure and keep measuring the “temperature” of employee attitudes and engagement is through the many employee satisfaction or engagement surveys available. While designing your own may be cheapest in terms of out going cost – what is the real cost you your organization in time and lost resources. There are many commercial offerings, some turnkey and all done for you, others where the design and reporting are done and you manage the data collection.

There are a bewildering range of employee engagement models available on the market, your role is to find the one which closely matches the cultural and budget needs of your organization.

Whatever model you chose, ensure that:

1. you can afford to use the same method to measure progress in 6,12 or 18 months hence
2. it allows organisation specific questions to be asked
3. that the questions have good face validity
4. that all employees/ staff can answer anonymously
5. that you manage the action plan and feedback to those that participated in a timely way.

Keeping an open mind and regular data capture shows employees that they are important, and that keeping employees engaged in what you do is a distinct competitive advantage.

See how the RapidBI EESS (Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey) can help your organization

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RapidBI is an organizational effectiveness consultancy based in the UK but working internationally.
© RapidBI & Mike Morrison 2011 - this article/ page is free to copy and use on the condition that an active link back and reference is made to this site and page. Thank you for your understanding and co-operation.

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