Maximising the Potential of your workforce in troubled times

By Richard Reid

Given the current economic uncertainty, most organisations are clearly looking to minimise operating costs whilst still maintaining a profitable business. As the overall trend continues to move away from a labour based workforce towards a knowledge based one, investing in your existing intellectual property is invariably the most effective means of optimising your organisation’s productivity and profitability. Often this investment can prove to be fairly minimal in terms of financial expenditure, but it can reap massive benefits for everyone concerned. By aligning the interests of your business with those of the individual employee, it is possible to create an environment which can actually take advantage of any economic downturn and which can provide you with a distinct advantage over your competitors.

Within virtually every organisation, there is a huge amount of untapped workforce potential. In fact, there is an ever-expanding body of research which suggests that organisations cannot fully achieve their business objectives without satisfied and engaged employees. Reports consistently show a positive correlation between levels of engagement and an increase in the following areas:

Productivity
Customer satisfaction
Staff turnover & retention
Employee morale & motivation
Teamwork
Loyalty and commitment
Public image
Innovation
Profitability

Moreover, when employees feel engaged they are more likely to act as advocates for an organisation than those employees who may feel disengaged. In doing so, they can play an influential part in promoting an organisation as an employer or supplier of preference.

Issues such as staff turnover, retention and absenteeism levels are often key performance indicators for the health of the organisation as a whole. Not surprisingly perhaps, those organisations which are most able to achieve and to sustain excellence tend to have, not only low levels of staff turnover and absenteeism, but also a strong sense of employee engagement and satisfaction.

The workforce within most organisations can effectively be grouped into three distinct sections:

Engaged employees

Those employees who are engaged tend to be enthusiastic about their job and the organisation as a whole. They often actively demonstrate loyalty, motivation, commitment and productivity.
Not engaged employees

Those employees who are not engaged tend to lack any obvious emotional connection to their job or organisation. Although they will often work hard, they are less likely to be driven to excel than their peers who are engaged within the workplace. They are also likely to take more time off work and to seek alternative employment.
Disengaged employees

Those employees who are actively disengaged tend to lack not only an emotional connection to their job or organisation, but they also lack a cognitive connection. They often display dissatisfaction and can exert a powerful and detrimental effect upon staff relations and overall morale within the workplace. Engagement in its truest and most effective sense is about creating an environment whereby your employees’ feel prompted to access the discretionary behaviour which leads to greater productivity.

There are a number of factors which can have a bearing upon the levels of employee engagement within an organisation. These factors include:

Quality of the relationship with the Line Manager
Transparency of the job role responsibilities
Level of variety, interest & stimulation within the job role
Appreciation of how the job role is linked to company goals and performance
Nature of the job and extent to which it is varied, interesting and stimulating
Career development & advancement opportunities
Culture of fairness and respect
Integrity and ethics of leadership
Availability of effective coaching, mentoring and feedback provision
Sense of ownership and control over job and problems and their solutions

One might argue that given the current economic situation and the obvious ramifications that this can have for organisations, there is perhaps an even greater need to acknowledge these points at present.

Particularly during periods of redundancy and organisational upheaval, HR and senior management can often fail to implement a proper communication strategy which takes these points into account. This can cause an already emotionally charged situation to become increasingly traumatic for those on the receiving end of redundancy. In doing so, it can bear a huge weight upon levels of employee engagement.

The use of counselling, coaching and outsourcing consultancies can frequently help to soften the blow of redundancy. These services can help employees to come to terms with the both the emotional and practical implications of redundancy. Moreover, by demonstrating a caring attitude towards their outgoing employees, HR and Management can serve to limit the negative publicity which frequently surrounds redundancy within the media, local community and industry sector. Moreover, they can also send out a clear message to remaining staff, as to their inherent level of concern for their employees.

In addition, there is also the 'survivor syndrome' to consider. This often affects those employees who remain with the organisation and who represent the lifeblood of the business. As a result of redundancy cutbacks, this particular section of the workforce may find that they need to work harder and longer in order to compensate for the absence of their former workmates. They may also need to accommodate alternative working patterns and management structures; all of which circumstances can lead to additional stress, frustration and disorientation. Members of this group often feel guilt about the fact that they have kept their jobs at the perceived expense of colleagues or a fear that they may be “next for the chop”. Therefore, it is vital that this section of the workforce is also invested in, through one-to-one meetings, training and motivation incentives. Increased management visibility and transparency and regularity of company communications are also imperative.

Whilst there are no immediate shortcuts available in the effort to engender an enhanced sense of employee engagement within an organisation, the potential rewards which can be achieved by pursuing this ultimate aim can be substantial in terms of increased morale, productivity and profitability. As a first recourse, it is vital to implement a process which regularly measures, assesses and reviews predominant employee attitudes. This can often be achieved by means of periodic and confidential employee satisfaction surveys. HR and senior management can then begin consider appropriate measures to ensure that any areas of concern with regard to employee engagement can be actively addressed.

Another effective means by which to develop levels of employee engagement is to afford your staff opportunities to air any complaints, suggestions or general questions which they may have. These can often be done by means of regular open forums or by organising staff representatives taken from a cross section of the workforce. This can offer a great basis for proactively addressing many of the issues which tend to impede greater levels of engagement:

Including employees in decision-making processes of & demonstrating how individual roles can contribute to the organisational future
Responding to employee grievances, issues and queries
Providing transparency in communications and reducing the potential spread of rumours
Demonstrating that management really values employees’ wellbeing

Clearly, in a working environment where employees are able to experience these phenomena firsthand, there is much more likely to be a prevailing culture of commitment and cohesion.

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