What is employee engagement and why should it be high on your firm’s agenda?
A “hot topic” in human resources and business globally, employee engagement has been described as “the Holy Grail of organisational success”.
There is no single accepted definition or means of measuring it, but you know it when you feel it.
And you can feel its absence.
“Employee engagement” encapulates the attitudes and behaviours displayed by your people, how they approach their work, how they regard your firm, treat your clients, and how invested they are in your firm’s success.
It’s that indescribable energy you sense in a workplace when people feel valued, on-mission and motivated to perform at their best.
An engaged workforce is a significant source of competitive advantage.
Studies consistently show that workplaces with engaged employees are more profitable, experiencing enhanced productivity, improved quality of work, enhanced creativity and problem-solving, increased employee initiative, as well as reduced absenteeism, staff turnover, workaholism, unethical, deviant and counterproductive behaviours.
And if your firm is not prioritising it, investing in it, and weaving it into core business decisions, it should.
The challenge for professional services firms is that there is no single “magic bullet” policy or program that will boost employee engagement in every firm.
The academic and business literature cites several hundred programs, management practices and operational changes that can potentially boost employee engagement. What works in one industry or organisation may be ineffective or impossible to implement in another.
One firm may see significant boosts in engagement from making some careful, strategic changes to their performance review processes. Another might see engagement soar when their professional development program expands to include soft skills, leadership and team work. Another might benefit from a shift in their culture, policies and trainings around communication and workplace civility. Yet another might benefit from a specialised workplace wellness program that genuinely boosts employee wellbeing.
Our unique approach
With detailed knowledge of professional services firms, and decades of experience crafting sustainable, award-winning programs to meet genuine need, we take a “first principles” approach; one that is driven by the needs of your firm and its most valuable asset, your people.
Our approach puts firm leadership in the drivers seat.
We won’t push licensed programs or try to sell you on a single solution. Instead, we provide a series of “lenses” for you to take a fresh look at your firm as a whole, and its various practice groups and business units, in order to identify the most effective engagement-boosting strategies from the many options available.
Working within your budget, we help you:
Trouble-shoot engagement saboteurs: we can help you identify and rectify the issues that are currently draining your people of their energy, motivation and commitment;
Formulate effective engagement-boosting strategies: we can help you choose the most effective engagement initiatives to boost the motivation and commitment of your employees;
Track and tweak: we can set you up to monitor engagement levels over time, using the metrics that matter to your business.