CorpComms Magazine

With a Gallup survey reporting just 24 per cent of employees feel engaged by their work and another quarter identify themselves as actively disengaged, internal communications consultancy The Training Foundation has released its Rules of Engagement - a collection of strategies for motivating a weary workforce.

Formerly, organisational development in the workplace tended to focus on practical and rational rather than emotional strategies. So techniques for engaging employees have tended to target secondary factors such as flexible work patterns, or pay and reward systems.

But the study insists that engagement is sustained by emotional factors and founded on trust. It goes on to argue that workplace engagement is 20 per cent culture and 80 per cent climate. In the survey, 'atmosphere in the office' was rated very important by 85 per cent of employees compared to just 55 per cent for pay and reward and 38 per cent for flexible working. According to a publication by the Chartered Institute for Personnel & Development, '70 per cent of people leave their manager and not the job'.

The white paper identifies six universal engagement drivers as identified by occupational psychologists. These are:

A sense that I am valued as a person and appreciated for my contribution

A sense of honesty and fairness in the way I and my colleagues are treated

A sense of openness, where I feel tuned in to what's going on and listened to

A sense of being involved in decisions, having some autonomy in how I do my job

A sense that I am personally growing and developing my skills

A sense that the organisation is engaged in something worthwhile and 'does what is right'

The Training Foundation insists that employee engagement is a strategic imperative for UK employers. The recession and consequent closures and lay-offs have dented the trust of some employees and an actively disengaged workforce has an impact on the books, reducing the quality of production and increasing the cost of sickness and absence. In a 2010 survey of human resources professionals, more than half identified employee engagement as one of their biggest challenges.

Nick Mitchell, chief executive of The Training Foundation, said: 'An engaged workforce is a huge competitive advantage; disengaged workers impose enormous financial costs, resist needed change, and inhibit customer advocacy. Finding a solution to any problem requires first making an accurate diagnosis, and the evidence suggests that employers are generally barking up the wrong tree; it is the way that people are treated in the workplace that is the critical factor.'

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