Pester Esther: 'Engaged'

Q. We’ve just done our annual employee opinion survey, and there’s a still way to go with engagement. In your experience, what is the biggest factor that influences staff motivation and discretionary effort?

I see the results of many such surveys, and some of them are terrible. (Four out of ten employees not engaged, 65% of employees cite stress for being off work, and so on.) I believe that the biggest cause of staff disengagement is easy to spot: immediate line managers.

If you want to crack engagement, take a look at these line managers and listen to the conversations they’re having, particularly with their teams. Are their people allowed to express themselves freely at work? We know that employees become disengaged when they feel constrained and are afraid to speak up. Is it OK for them to say “I’m feeling stressed” at work? Or would their manager frown upon this and think they were weak, unable to cope?

Also, do your managers avoid having difficult conversations? Many want to appear nice and be liked, but avoid telling the truth, which is what their people really want. HR should be helping managers have effective dialogue with people: being friendly helps, but being honest is far more important.

Q: I work in a technical environment where seemingly everything has to be explained in precise terms. The result is a lot of low-key, over-complicated communication that seems to have no impact at all. Ideas?

First, do what you can to get your HR comms in order.

Think about simple things like your policies and procedures. Are they too technical, full of (HR) jargon? Simplify them as much as you can. Consider re-writing them as a dialogue, and don’t let them run to more than two or three pages.

Think too about the Twitter protocol. I don’t necessarily mean getting everyone connected with social media at work, but there’s a lot to be said about the discipline of a communication that can be no more than 140 characters. Sometimes short bursts have much more impact and really get the messages through.

Q: Our managers don’t have enough time to spend with their reports. Any tools you can recommend that ease the communication burden?

Sorry, but I have to question your basic logic there. Were I you, I’d be encouraging managers to spend more face-to-face time, not less, with their teams.

I’ve seen a few surveys lately where 60%+ of managers feel they give plenty of time to their employees and meet with them regularly for reviews – yet the employee feels they get hardly any time at all. Consequently, they suspect their manager doesn’t really value them, which usually results in reduced motivation.

Nothing engages like immediate contact. Convince your managers, if you can, to reconsider their priorities. And don’t forget that walking the floor (see my previous column) can be one of the strongest tools of all.

Want to Pester Esther? Send your problems to editorial@hrville.co.uk

About the author

Esther O'Halloran

Esther runs an independent HR Consultancy offering business-savvy commercial skills, practical solutions and insights to senior leaders and HR teams. She has been Managing Director at Paul, and worked as an HR practitioner for organisations such as Jigsaw, EAT, Pret a Manger and SpaceNK. Esther is a Fellow Member of the CIPD and enjoys Extreme Baking in her spare time.