Engagement Research: Ready, Aim….Wait. But Why?
Ready to Jump On The Opportunities?
If you are waiting for your engagement research results to come out, you may be wasting valuable productive time for you and your organisation.
Most organisations spend 80% of their time and effort on engagement research but only 20% on effective solutions and implementation. It should be the complete reverse – 20% time on the research and 80% on implementation.
Ready, Aim, Procrastinate…
Virtually every organisation would be better off not doing any engagement research, rather than doing the research but procrastinating about possible organisational strategies. Your people have spoken, but to not be heard (as proven by inaction) can have a real and negative effect on workforce motivation and productivity.
In the Barriers to Engagement study, 62% of HR professionals said that inaction was a key obstacle to effectively maximising performance and productivity of the organisation post engagement survey results.
Why Not Be Ready Now?
Look, it’s understandable why many HR Directors feel they have to wait for the fully segmented engagement research results before they think about solutions, strategies and sourcing the best engagement implementation providers. But this approach can waste valueable time and workforce productivity.
Think about it this way… an organisation of 1000 employees with an average salary package of say $90,000 p.a has a total yearly payroll of $90 million. Every month of procrastinating about possible engagement solutions means $7.5 million worth of human assets are not being maximised. Or worse still, each month of not taking action on employees’ feedback can create a negative impact on productivity. If organisations don’t have the capacity or intention of following through on engagement research, in whatever small way, they shouldn’t research in the first place.
Position For Positive Action
Understandably many HR leaders are paralysed by perfection in dutifully striving for the most effective solution for their organisation – can’t blame them! Also, can’t blame them for not being sure which way to go with it.
The key to taking action now, or at least being ready to take action, is in being aware of the universal truths.
1. One Size Fits All Strategies – Don’t Work, Never Did
Each employee is motivated and engaged by different things, so perhaps holding out for generic engagement research findings isn’t as important as many are lead to believe. Read more…
2. Employee Driven Engagement
Most employees know what doesn’t engage and motivate them, but few really know what does. This awareness alone is the key, as it leads to employee clarity which should be the first fundamental step in any engagement strategy. When individual employees have clarity on what motivates them, they can drive and improve their own engagement, around 70-90% of the time. Read more …
3. People Leaders Knowing What Really Engages Individuals
Equally important is having people leaders (if they are to be the catalyst to increasing performance and productivity) understand what individually motivates each team member. Read more…
The Secret Is Out
The fact is, if you agree to just a small degree with any of the above three points, then the great news is you can stop procrastinating and get started today without the need for any traditional engagement research. Or at a bare minimum, explore these important principles further, so that you are ready to go at the starting blocks, when the gun goes off!
Having employees and people leaders understand individuals’ top motivators and working together to maximise them is VITAL to increasing performance & productivity, which is the ultimate desired outcome of engagement.
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