Employee engagement scores show HR could do better | HR strategy round-up

hrvetting May 14, 2012 0

by Noel O’Reilly

If you ask HR directors what are their most important strategic priorities then employee engagement is likely to be at or near the top of the list. But in reality few are getting this right, according to recent global surveys. For example, the recent Modern Survey finds only 10% of employees are engaged, according to an article by Jacob Morgan. He cites other reports with similar results, by Gallup and Blessing White.

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Another article, “The Sharp Drop-Off In Worker Happiness–And What Your Company Can

Do About It”, by Mark Crowley on Fast Company’s Expert Blog, cites New York’s Conference Board, whose employee satisfaction survey has shown satisfaction and engagement has gone down every year since the survey started 25 years ago.

Crowley offers advice on what employers can do to address this and provides supporting evidence. His three key messages are:

1. What makes people happiest in their jobs is all profoundly personal.

2. People only thrive when they feel recognized and appreciated.

3. Your employees will stay if you tell them directly you need them, care about them, and sincerely plan to support them.

Another survey, Richmond events employee engagement report, has more positive findings but concludes:

“Unfortunately the number 1 area where the panel (of over 1,300 directors, heads of departments and senior Managers) feel they need to improve to increase employee engagement levels within their organisation is good line management. Fix that and you fix the problem.”

Unfortunately, line management is precisely the area where organisations are failing, according to the latest Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) latest Employee Outlook survey. Three-quarters of employees report a lack of leadership and management skills, and believe that too many managers have an inflated opinion of their management abilities, according to the research released last week. The (CIPD) latest Employee Outlook survey suggested that there is a “reality gap” between how good managers think they are in their roles and how effective they actually are.

Read on to find links to the latest articles on a range of other HR strategy related articles including HR data and analytics, social media, organisational change, talent management, leadership and performance management.

HR metrics, data analytics

What’s Wrong With HR Metrics? Pretty Much Everything! argues Dr. John Sullivan on Ere.net.

HR Metrics on Mr Dashboard Business Metrics website gives a range of metrics on turnover, recruitment, absence and turnover.

The Age of Big Data: 3 Ways Workforce Analytics Can Improve Business Execution by Dmitri Krakovsky on Business Execution blog.

HR and ROI (Return on Investment) by Emily Douglas on Human Capital League

Good Data Won’t Guarantee Good Decisions by Shvetank Shah, Andrew Horne, and Jaime

Capellá on arvard Business Review magazine.

Social media

Socializing HR – Why HR needs to embrace social media and mobile technology

Posted by Joanne Royce of Royce Associates. The article is based on a presentation by Sidneyeve Matrix, Queen’s National Scholar and Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Film at Queen’s University, Canada.

10 Easy Ways To Build Social Media Into Your HR Practice by Trish McFarlane on HR Ringleader.

Innovation

Are we adapting instead of innovating? A thought-provoking series of articles on Flip Chart Fairy Tales. The first is “Are we adapting instead of innovating?” The second is Creativity: Should the ‘mediocre middle’ be kept inside the box? And the third is “Is there a creativity crisis?”

Organisational change

Putting leadership development at the heart of a major operations-improvement effort paid big dividends for a global industrial company, explainAaron De Smet, Johanne Lavoie, and Elizabeth Schwartz Hioe on McKinsey Quarterly.

Susan Popoola address the problems relating to implementing a change programme on Discuss HR, the blog for Human Resources UK Linked In group.

High Impact HR is in Your Future There is high impact HR in your future, IF (and that is a big IF) you learn how to use predictive analysis, by Michael Haberman, on Omega HR Solutions

Talent management

Research Shows Recognition Increases Retention & Performance, by Derek Irvine on

Human Capital League.

Challenges and opportunities for talent managers/ No 6: Measurement by John Ingham on his Human Capital Management blog.

Leadership

HR ‘must devolve to line managers despite risks’ in People Management

CSR

Are Worker Rights Human Rights? Framing worker rights as human rights elevates individual entitlement over what is in the interest of the community, solidarity, or civic virtue. By Richard Mcintyre on CSR Wire.

Matchmaking CSR and Corporate Wellbeing Strategies, By Désirée Tennant on CSR International.

RBS Group Sustainability report on employee engagement.

GSK 2011 Corporate Responsibility report section on employees

HR and technology

Clouds in the forecast – Deloitte Human Capital Trends 2012 Cloud computing is changing the way people and businesses work, upending conventional ideas.

General HR strategy content

How has the work of HR changed over the last decade as revealed in XpertHR research.

HR Strategy for Dummies, by Tim Sackett on the Tim Sackett project blog.

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Noel O’Reilly is an editor of Occupational Health and Employers’ Law magazines and a contributor to PersonnelToday.com. Another recent role was conference adviser for XpertHR Events, where I had responsibility for programmes and content for a wide range of HR and employment law conferences and master classes.