The World According to Cachia

I recently read an article entitled “How can HR engage bored employees” and it confused me a little… the opening statement told me that having an engaged employee in the workforce would equate to an increase in productivity of approximately 44%, interestingly, the article went on to say that if a happy employee gives 100% then an engaged/motivated employee will give you 144%.

Suffice to say, and going by this article, if a company can ensure their employees are engaged and therefore more productive, the cynic in me could say that an engaged employee is in fact almost one and a half times better than the average employee, the Company could reduce overheads?

Now I know this is not the premise of the article, but I would also wonder how likely it is to increase productivity by 44%... I would wonder how accurate are the position descriptions as well as the accompanying Key Result Areas (KRA’s) that allows the employee to ostensibly underperform this much?

Engaging employees at work, for mine, is a fundamental. I have seen my fair share of disgruntled employees who leave the Company because they are not happy with their work, or are disillusioned with the direction of the Company, or the classic, they don’t get on with their manager!

One key strategy of a good HR Manager, is to develop programs that focus on the retention of the employee… I remember an anecdote that the cost to the business of losing an employee (on say $50k p.a.) was approximately $60k… this was made up of obvious recruitment costs (i.e. ads, agencies), but also made up of additional costs like overtime, to cover the exiting employee, or training costs of the new employee, but of course this amount includes hidden costs with regards to loss of productivity of the employee who is leaving.

So keeping employees engaged and productive and happy is a good idea. This however is the domain of the employees’ direct manager.

Next the article tells me (the HR guy), that we (I’m presuming all managers within the organisation), need to give the employees a sense of purpose and to ensure employees that the company has a direction. Yep, and that would be found in the Company’s Vison and Mission Statements and Strategic Plan; from that each division develops an Operational Plan that helps the [respective] division meet the overall plan. HR will then work with the divisional head to develop the so-called ‘people’ strategies (i.e. Performance Management).

If we are considering all things retention, then HR need to promote a number of initiatives, like Recruitment & Selection; On-boarding & Induction; Remuneration & Benefits; Education & Development; Performance Management (incl. Appraisals and Succession Planning); Health & Safety and Employee/Industrial Relations, to name a few… allowing HR to work with Senior Management to develop these, in keeping with the Company’s Strategic Plan, will go a long way to retaining its employees… and as we know, one of the goals of recruiting, is to find a person, who can not only be effective in their current role, but also be  able to stay and grow within the business and be promoted up the corporate ladder!

The beauty of being in HR is that we don’t have to manage each division, its people nor its finances; HR will however support the line function, provide advice and the tools required, plus the necessary coaching (of the line manager), to ensure that she/he can effectively manage the team… HR can’t interfere in the running of the Department/Division, unless of course, the manager is acting contrary to policy/legislation etc… It’s like in the recruitment phase, HR shouldn’t be making the final decision/offer, that’s the job of the direct manager, and after all he/she is the one working with the employee, not the HR Manager.

Notwithstanding all of the above, one very important piece of advice from within the article, was that Managers need to have conversations with their employees. Yes that whole communication thing is paramount! I recall a survey that was conducted many years ago, where both the employee and the supervisors were quizzed on “What do Employees want from Work”?

Listing the top two responses from each… The Supervisor listed Good Wages and Job Security as 1 & 2 (respectively), whilst in contrast the employee ranked Appreciation of work well done and Feeling of being ‘in on things’ at the top of their list…. Now this doesn’t mean that employees don’t value Good Wages and Job Security, they are very important to the employee, however good supervisors/managers need to work respectfully having good communication with the employee on the positives as well as being constructive and measured when discussing areas of improvement.

One of the best approaches to having your employees work with you is to remember and implements the following:-

a)      Communication,

b)      Consultation,

c)       Participation, and

d)      Counselling.