Employee engagement is often a misunderstood term; to many managers confuse it with employee satisfaction. In short, engaged employees aren’t just happy ones, but have a strong emotional bond to the organization that employs them and proactively look to improve the position of the organization.
An engaged employee is more likely to:
• Understand and support through action a company’s vision and goals
• Recommend the company’s products and services to friends and family
• Work smarter and longer hours without being asked twice
• Enjoy challenges and problem solving
• View their own personal growth as linked to the company’s performance
How do you make an average employee and engaged employee? Well, it’s one of the many topics we’ll cover in a special seminar on October 8th in Toronto, The Employee Engagement Imperative: Proven Techniques for Securing and Sustaining Employee Engagement. This is a 90-minute, breakfast seminar if you are in Toronto or can make the trip. We'll be marrying the latest Ipsos research to leading intranet and communications practices... Register here.
Of particular note, Intranet 2.0 tools are massively engaging if used correctly. Giving employees a chance to express their opinions – and seeing them count and contribute to change – are tantamount to highly engaged employees. To that end, make sure you please take 10 minutes to take the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey and you’ll get a copy of the full results including the good, bad and learned lessons.
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Friday, September 26
Employee engagement and the intranet
by
Toby Ward
on Fri 26 Sep 2008 11:39 AM PDT
Wednesday, September 3
Understanding the new breed of intranet managers
by
Toby Ward
on Wed 03 Sep 2008 08:35 AM PDT
(
In short,
the older generations are retiring in droves and the kids are taking-over
(disclaimer: this writer finds himself smack dab in the middle of the Gen X
cohort, and am only too thrilled to be loosely classified as a ‘kid’… my own
kids are uproariously laughing at my expense). Understanding the younger,
emerging workforce will be paramount to employing, motivating and retaining the
most capable Internet and intranet managers (and intranet consultants). The study
of 1,000 workers of various ages was conducted by The Learning Café and among other
things reveals:
While
there are plenty of similarities in the motivations and demotivations of the
various generations, we all know that there are key differences. For example, I
use Facebook (sparingly), but not like the typical 24 year-old does. I send the
occasional text message on my Blackberry, but the volume pales when compared to
that of the new generation of Crackberry profligates. The
principal of the study, Devon Sheef, explains some of the important, subtle differences
to ITBusinessEdge.com (see Generational
Differences Challenge Managers on): “What you
notice in the survey, regarding millennials and motivators, is millennials are
alone in having a motivator around pay. That makes complete, life stage sense
to us. When you’re younger, what you need is money. Considering that, combined
with the fact that the average millennial graduates from college with about
$20,000 in debt, that makes sense. A healthy work/life balance was a big one for the Xers. It distinguishes them just a bit from the other common motivators. We attribute some of that to how Gen X has been growing up, very independent. They pioneered work/life balance, pushed on us all for more flexible hours, and they are more determined than previous generations to spend time with their children. We found that, specifically looking at the younger portions of the work force, when Xers were asked what makes a bad boss, they said things like “the boss micro-manages me,” “the boss is in my face,” “the boss doesn’t just give me a goal, the boss outlines everything and does everything but go to the bathroom with me around it.” The Xers say they are mid-career, almost mid-life and they know how to do these things themselves. The other piece that Xers were quick to point out was around work/life balance. What supported the data we found was that Xers are spending more hours per day with their children than boomers did at equivalent ages, and they are defining good parenting as “being there” and not just “providing things.” So we saw that Xers were the quickest of all four generations to say that a bad boss was someone who tried to make them feel guilty or someone who placed nuanced pressure on them. Things like calling meetings very late in the day during Little League season, for example. Millennials have none of those concerns. When millennials were asked to identify characteristics of bad bosses, quite a few of the bosses they were talking about were Xers. That was kind of intriguing, because we find that millennials have come into the workplace and they actually like us. They’re looking for structure, looking for how to integrate into an organization. They’re looking for us not just to be their boss and say, “Here are your three goals for the year,” but also for personalized work. They want their boss to take interest in them as a person. Those two (generations) are a great contrast.”
So, why is this stuff important to intranet managers? For starters, if its not the most important communications vehicle (though a replacement for face-to-face communications), the intranet should be your most important (or one of the most important) communications vehicles. And human resource and employee engagement considerations should be a priority for any intranet manager or intranet owner. More importantly, it is critical for intranet managers and owners (and intranet consultants) to understand the target audience -- particularly their information habits, and how they navigate and digest that information. Shreef has a number of recommendations, but none bigger than taking the time to
understand the motivations and demotivations of employees through conversation:
“It’s helpful to be able to have conversations that count. So a simple
perspective about what’s important to a generation overall can help managers
have more meaningful conversations,” says Shreef in his IT Business Edge
article. “The second skill is to be engagement minded. That means really
thinking about the motivators and de-motivators” ADDITIONAL
How
to hire an intranet consultant 10
things to ask your intranet consultant BOOKMARK THIS:
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