Presentation given to CIPR Education and Skills Group at SOAS on 17 September 2010

1. Engaging employees for organisational success Kevin Ruck

2. A study for CIPD (Truss , 2006, p. xi) found that only 35 per cent of UK employees were actively engaged with their work. But what is this thing we call engagement?

6. MacLeod and Clarke (2009) Engaging for Success 1. LEADERSHIP - provides a strong strategic narrative which has widespread ownership and commitment from managers and employees at all levels. The narrative is a clearly expressed story about what the purpose of an organisation is, why it has the broad vision it has, and how an individual contributes to that purpose. 2. ENGAGING MANAGERS are at the heart of this organisational culture– they facilitate and empower rather than control or restrict their staff; they treat their staff with appreciation and respect and show commitment to developing, increasing and rewarding the capabilities of those they manage. 3. VOICE An effective and empowered employee voice – employees’ views are sought out; they are listened to and see that their opinions count and make a difference. They speak out and challenge when appropriate. 4. INTEGRITY Behaviour throughout the organisation is consistent with stated values, leading to trust and a sense of integrity.

7. A focus either on the individual role or the work activity with both approaches incorporating behavioural-energetic (vigor), emotional (dedication) and cognitive (absorption) dimensions Work engagement Organisational engagement A communicative approach whereby employees are informed, have a voice that is heard and acknowledged, and where managers show commitment consistent with organisational values.

8. Level v Credibility of Information Low/med High Believe information communicated Low/med High Feel informed CIPD (2006)

9. Downward v Upward Communication Low/med High Have opportunity for upward communication Low/med High Feel informed CIPD (2006)

10. Defining the values of the workforce has enabled Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service to launch a bold three-year employee engagement strategy . The HR team visited every full time station and carried out a focus groups with more than 800 employees to talk about what motivated them in their jobs and also what causes frustration. The focus groups were followed up with a service-wide staff survey. In their feedback, firefighters said that they wanted to be listened to and consulted with more and to have more communication from senior leaders. These conversations have helped inform the three year engagement strategy which will see a wide ranging review of communication between management and staff. Initiatives include new staff recognition and suggestions schemes, action by line managers to promote discretionary effort and more leadership and management development training. From: People Management 8 April 2010

11. How to engage people Smythe (2007) Telling the many what has been decided by the few Selling to the many what Has been decided by the few Inclusion – driving accountability down by implicating people as individuals (giving people the time, space and process to apply the change/ decision to their own work, regardless of the degree of delegation) Co-creation – judging who will add value if included in front-end decision forming and change/ strategy development (not to be confused with a laissez- faire culture which is poor at closure and ill-disciplined. Co-creation takes robust governance and skill). hooligans or spectators compliant collaborators outcome willing collaborators personally committed reformers outcome

14. Leadership and excellent organizations Ben Page Ipsos MORI Leaders in best performing local authorities place a high importance on communication – that is doing it not just talking about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9-9A3uM-Yw

15. Using social media for engagement

18. Making video part of your online strategy Just three years ago, most of the internal videos we made were for conferences, but we can reach a bigger audience online, helping to support critical initiatives. To make it easy to find and use our videos, we created Deloitte TV , a web portal available to all Deloitte member firms through our global intranet. Employees and partners can watch videos live, download high resolution versions to play at conferences, or even download a version for their iPod. http://www.melcrum.com/offer/scm/09J/deloitte.shtml

19. Much more in Exploring Internal Communication www.exploringinternalcommunication.com