Workforce engagement is driven by more than just the obvious HR practices. Non-HR business practices are also contribute in significant ways.
Employee Engagement
The Problem
Building an engaged workforce sounds like a good idea – one that many companies build into their business strategy; however, many engagement improvement efforts fail. Why? The term “employee engagement” has become synonymous with an engagement survey. And the mere act of conducting a survey creates expectations that something new will happen. Unfortunately, the frequent reality is that nothing happens. And worse, considerable time is wasted on “cascading action plans” that are soon forgotten or never started. At GeNovo Consulting, we believe that many of the wrong factors are measured. Most popular engagement surveys focus narrowly on HR topics that the organization has no appetite to change. Second, too many hastily assembled “local” change plans get lost in the clutter of managers’ daily routines. As a result, nothing happens. The consequence is often deepening employee cynicism and less engagement.
“. . . many engagement surveys today focus on form over substance. More effort is placed on snazzy formats and exciting buzzwords than uncovering real strategic insights that can be used to take action and drive change.” -Talent Quarterly The Engagement Issue, 2016, Num. 9
SOLUTION
We use a simple 4-step approach.
- First, we carefully look at what is being surveyed, how it is measured, including the relationship between engagement and 31 key organizational practices that cluster around 4 dimensions: People, Leadership, Operations, and General Business practices.
- Second, we assess how frequently these practices are used, whether any are broken or sub-optimized, then determine which ones impact employee engagement.
- Third, based on your business’s needs, we focus on those practices that you are willing and able to change.
- And forth, we ensure the design of a robust change plan to make improvement a reality.
Framework
Based on our research combined with that from peer-reviewed scientific literature, we have created a proprietary organizational capability diagnostic framework. Ours is a model that looks comprehensively at your business and includes practices such as process efficiency, supplier management, innovation, leadership, talent management, customer orientation, performance rewards, among others – 31 separate practices in total (see chart). We also measure customized practices that might be completely unique to your business.
Reporting
Our reporting includes traditional data frequency counts and percentages; however, we go beyond mere descriptive reviews and include actionable insights based on a deeper analysis of the data. We use procedures such as stepwise regression, multiple regression, correlation, significance testing, among others. Most importantly, we do the interpretation and communicate it using plain, practical language that you can act on to create lasting improvements. The principle we embrace is simple: “actionable insight simply delivered”.
At a Glance
- 31 key management practices that span people, leadership, operational & general business areas
- Validated & normed engagement scale
- Online and paper-and-pencil administration
- Customized reporting
- Customized questions available (if necessary)
- Long and short versions
- Suitable for company & business unit levels
