One the challenges that I face constantly is making sure that my team performs, and performs well. The dream of any manager is to have an empowered, enthusiastic and dedicated team of subordinates that delivers on the KPIs. Most managers are good people, and they spent adequate time grooming and training their people. Yet most subordinates disappoint us. Where is the gap? What's wrong?
I am not an Ivy league professor nor a Human resource expert. I don't do mubo-jumbo or academic theory. Just real world stuff that I've used myself.
One of the things that I learnt the hard way is that people everywhere are unhappy and stressed out at work. Gallup 2012 Employee Engagement Index says only 29% employees are engaged at work and only 45% are satisfied with their job.
The root cause of non performance is not in manager alone, but also in the broader frame of work. The environment, the culture, the strategy and the policies.
Engaged employees work harder, longer, with more focus, increase productivity, increase customer service, better quality, more satisfied customers, more sales, more profits and better performance. In other words you can have the best strategy in the world, but if nobody cares - it isn't going to matter.
Companies should invest in Employee Engagement. A good EEI score is 4+ on a scale of 5 being best and 1 being lowest. The rule of thumb is 4 + is great and if you see 2 you're going to lose people like rats leave a sinking ship.
You would be thinking, it costs millions to create engaged employees, or to measure EE. It's not. You can get a readymade questionnaire online easily. Run a quick survey in your company. At a very nominal cost you can get the basic hang of things. What are the areas that need attention.
The challenge is Employee Engagement like most other initiatives that matter, is a Top Down initiative. Its easy to implement but difficult to accept the scores of the first survey. And thus most Top Mgt avoid it, and build artificial recognition systems and farce initiatives to show that they care.
It takes just 12 weeks to run a Employee Engagement Survey cycle, and change the skepticism into engagement. Engagement is a habit. Habit of communication, growth, recognition, and trust.
