CIPR INSIDE WEBINAR: Internal Communication and Employee Engagement2013

CIPR INSIDE WEBINAR

Welcome

Kevin RuckPR Academy

@AcademyKevexploringinternalcommunication.comkevin.ruck@pracademy.co.uk

Just 27% of employees in the UK are ‘highly engaged’,

with an equivalent proportion of

employees being ‘disengaged’.

Engage for Success

Engagement

MacLeod and Clarke (2009) Engaging for Success

Leadership

Provides a strong

strategic narrative.

Leadership

Provides a strong

strategic narrative.

Engaging Managers

Facilitate andempower.

Engaging Managers

Facilitate andempower.

Voice

Views are sought out;

people see that their opinions

count.

Voice

Views are sought out;

people see that their opinions

count.

Integrity

Behaviour is consistent with stated values.

Integrity

Behaviour is consistent with stated values.

Com

mu

nic

ati

on

Employee engagement theory

• Characterised by the beginnings of practitioner interest and

the term employee engagement came into use, widely

credited as being coined by consultancy firm Gallup in 1999.

Wave 1: 1990s

Wave 1: 1990s

Wave 2:2000 - 2005

Wave 2:2000 - 2005

Wave 3:2006 - 2010

Wave 3:2006 - 2010

• Robinson et al., (2004) defined the concept as a

positive employee attitude towards the organisation

and its values, involving awareness of business

context, and work to improve job and organisational

effectiveness. • Saks (2006) extended the employee engagement

concept to encompass both job engagement and

organisation engagement. Saks's work is significant

because it tackles the question of the status of the

concept. Welch (2011)

In his original study that outlines the basis for employee engagement, Kahn (1990, p. 693), defines it as, “…the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally during role performances”.

Work engagement Organisational engagement

The work you do The vision of the organisation, where it’s headed

The team work environment The values of the organisation, what it believes in

Personal development opportunities The perceived support given to all employees

The relationship with your line manager The way that senior managers communicate with all employees

The opportunity to have a say about what goes on in your team

The opportunity to have a say about what goes on in the organisation

The response provided by a line manager to views expressed

The response provided by senior managers to views expressed

Work engagement

Intellectual engagementI focus hard on my workI concentrate on my workI pay a lot of attention to my work

Affective engagementI feel positive about my workI feel energetic in my workI am enthusiastic in my work

Social engagementI share the same work values as my colleaguesI share the same work goals as my colleaguesI share the same work attitudes as my colleagues

Work engagement

Intellectual engagementI focus hard on my workI concentrate on my workI pay a lot of attention to my work

Affective engagementI feel positive about my workI feel energetic in my workI am enthusiastic in my work

Social engagementI share the same work values as my colleaguesI share the same work goals as my colleaguesI share the same work attitudes as my colleagues

Organisational engagement

ThinkI think about improvements to help my organisation operate more effectively

FeelI feel positive about working for my organisation

DoI put extra effort in to help the organisation succeed

Organisational engagement

ThinkI think about improvements to help my organisation operate more effectively

FeelI feel positive about working for my organisation

DoI put extra effort in to help the organisation succeed

Employees’ organisational commitment (%)

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-2011-workplace-employment-relations-study-wers

21,981 respondents in the UK

Three components of employee engagement

Truss et al.(2006)

Manager commitment

Manager commitment

Feeling well informed

Feeling well informed

Opportunities for

upward feedback

Opportunities for

upward feedback

49% Employees feel fairly well informed about

important organisational issues

29% Received only a limited amount of

information

13% Reported they received not much at allTruss et al.(2006)

Informed Employee Voice

Truss et al. (2006)

Feel informed

Have opportunity for

upward communication

Low/med

Low/med High

High

Informed Non-Communicators (6%)

Fully/fairly well informed but little opportunity

to feed information upwards

Informed Communicators (32%)Fully/fairly well informed and have

opportunity for upward communication

This group is highly engaged

Uninformed Non-Communicators (18%)

Little/no information and lack of opportunity

for upward feedback

Uninformed Believers (5%)Little information but have

opportunity to feed information upwards

Fence sitters (39%)

Fence sitters (39%)

Case study

HP

Discover 2012

“We highlighted times when Meg [CEO] would be speaking about strategy, or when someone would be talking about innovation or plans for the future. As financial information was unveiled at the meeting, MacNeil [VP Global Employee Comms] and her team were able to simultaneously on the intranet.”

“They [employees] were getting information at the same time as the analysts. But the key difference was that, for the first time ever, the information was being put into context for Hewlett Packard employees.”

Oct 2013corpcommsmagazine.co.uk

Reinforced by managers who are open to critical feedback.

Reinforced by managers who are open to critical feedback.

Advanced

Based on people feeling well informed in the first place, face to face, actions taken as a result or reasons why action not taken provided.

Advanced

Based on people feeling well informed in the first place, face to face, actions taken as a result or reasons why action not taken provided.

BasicSurveys, suggestion schemes, email boxes.

BasicSurveys, suggestion schemes, email boxes.

Upward feedback

Employees’ rating of management’s active consulting (%)

Case study

Essex County Council

Your Voice

“In 2011, we ran our first ‘Your Voice’ engagement day. This was followed up in 2012. On one day we held 48 separate face-to-face events which enabled over 800 employees to have discussions with senior leaders.” http://ciprinside.co.uk/

learning/case-studies/

Case study

Glasgow Housing Association

Think Yes

“The objective of Think Yes was to raise customer satisfaction levels by asking staff to think positively when faced with acustomer request.”

“There is a popular Think Yes area on the intranet. Colleagues can post any major 'blockage' anonymously if they feel it can't be discussed with their manager. Again, we solve the problem then openly publish the blockage and solution.”

http://ciprinside.co.uk/learning/case-studies/

PhD research

Internal Communication and Organisational Engagement Questionnaire (ICOEQ)

123 closed questions using a 5 point Likert scale and four open questions: 1.    Information interests2.    Helpfulness of communication methods3.    General satisfaction with communication 4.    Senior manager communication5.    Line manager level communication6.    Peer group level communication7.    Organisational engagementWelch (2011)

5 organisations

2066 responses to survey 27 interviews 9 focus groups with 77 people Differences in satisfaction between organisations are significant, for example, satisfaction with ways to communicate ideas to senior managers varied from 18% to 65%

Correlations: strategic planning

Analysing the strength of the association of a specific aspect of communication with a specific aspect of engagement.

For example, satisfaction with employee voice and emotional organisational engagement.

Organisational Engagement

Internal Communication

Plans and aims

Change Progress

Employee Voice

Senior Managers

Informed employee

voice

Informed employee voice

Do

Diagram to represent summary of associations between internal communication and organisational engagement based on 2066 responses from employees in five organisations

Source: Ruck (2013) Unpublished PhD research at University of Central Lancashire,

How to help employees get strategy

Harvard Business Review – research based on 60, 000 responses.“Top management has a profound impact on how well employees grasp and support strategy – far more than any other variable. Supervisors don’t play a direct role.”

“Only top leaders can give strategic communication the appropriate weight.”

Galunic and Hermreck (Dec 2012)

Senior management understanding

Practitioners’ perception of stakeholders who think that internal communications is really important:

Ruck and Trainor (2012)

Changing internal communication practice

Q4. In an ideal world, how would you change the amount of time spent on these priorities

Ruck and Trainor (2012)

More

Same

Less

Evidence based practice