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Cultivating Engagement and Building Opportunities

The economic recession is placing increased pressure upon employees, both in the workplace and in their personal lives. Marion Stone points out that now, more than ever before, do we need to invest into developing the levels of engagement within our organisations. She provides practical suggestions on establishing ‘high commitment’ people practices and shows us how we can build on opportunities presented by the downturn.

by Marion Stone

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marion Stone has 15 years of experience both nationally and internationally in talent and leadership development, a first degree in chemistry (UCT) and an M.Sc. in Strategic Training and Development (University of Surrey Roehampton). She has worked in both complex global environments and in the SMME market. Currently Marion acts as an independent consultant to a number of SMME’s where she assists organisations to manage performance and develop talent and as an associate to Deloitte. Marion is accredited as a Chartered HR Practitioner with The South African Board of Personnel Practitioners and she has a keen interest in enabling people to fulfil their potential for themselves and the organisation.

Response to a changing environment
High inflation, the recession, political changes and legislation amendments (e.g. in lending) have impacted not only the way in which we do business but also the employment environment in which we work. During the last year we have seen retrenchments, recruitment freezes, decreased budgets, union activity and let’s not forget the tough environment in which we are trying to make sales! At an individual level employees are experiencing shrinking salaries, reduced opportunities for development and promotion and increased uncertainty and stress.

Before the recession there was a big focus on employee retention. What can we do and offer to attract the right staff and keep them happy? Unhappy employees found it relatively easy to find another job in a buoyant market. The downturn has shifted the power of the psychological contract a little over to the employer’s side. While those people with scarce skills will still be sought after, the rest of us are pretty much grateful to have a job at all. I hear those sighs of relief from business owners and HR departments – the pressure is off, or is it?

Here is the conundrum – while you may not have to contend with weekly challenges as to why people should want to work for you, you do have employees who are being battered by the tough employment environment. This impacts motivation and engagement and if you choose the ‘be grateful’ approach, you will get only a grudging commitment from employees. As soon as the economic upturn comes, employees will leave. With turnover comes loss of skills and the costs associated in finding replacements not to mention the potential impact on the quality of service and customer satisfaction.

I would like to propose an alternative to ‘be grateful’ and that is to invest what you can into developing the levels of engagement within the organisation. Engagement is the willingness and ability to contribute to company success (Towers Perrin). A Gallup study showed that a retail branch of a specific organisation with high levels of engagement could achieve 3.4 times the productivity of other branches with low engagement and there are many of other studies that show that working on engagement levels makes good business sense! Yet engagement levels are typically very low inside organisations and in the current climate they have dropped even further.

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