August 2008

What is Employee Engagement? Who is Generation Y?
Key Speaker: Paula Bates (Head of HR at Davis Langdon LLP)

Welcome

The topic of Employee Engagement would appear to be the “hottest of hot” topics for HR professionals. Certainly if the turnout at this most recent Hub event is anything to go by, as despite the event falling in the midst of the Summer holidays we saw one of our largest turnouts. The event also saw some welcome new faces and proved that Hub is gathering momentum, becoming one of the West Midlands most valuable forums for Senior HR professionals.

Interestingly the attendees came from a mix of organisations ranging from Professional Services and Retail to the Civil Service but as people introduced themselves around the table it was clear that despite their perceived differences Employee Engagement is a project affecting different industries and different sized organisations in equal measure.

Paul Wright
MD Wright Solutions

Introduction from Paula Bates (Head of HR at Davis Langdon LLP)

Paula Bates (Head of HR at Davis Langdon LLP), who chaired the forum, looked initially to gain some consensus on how we should define both Employee Engagement and also Generation Y. As mentioned above all of the attendees are currently focusing (or are about to focus) on Employee Engagement as a topic and so agreement could quickly be agreed about the definition.

“The productive use of one’s talent and energy and the desire to perform”

All of the businesses present reported having a sizeable percentage of their workforce who can be described as Generation Y “the generation as the children of the Baby Boomer generation” and dealing with the needs of this new Generation, as opposed to others, is the major challenge for them.

It was agreed that, in comparison to those Hub Members present, Generation Y is different and will look for motivation and inspiration from different things and Paula gave some food for thought on what some of those things might be:

• Excitement in the workplace
• A sense of community
• A feeling that they are “working to live” as opposed to “living to work”

The problem with Generation Y…

In some respects Generation Y gets a bad press but is this totally fair? On paper the desire that they have to seek “excitement, community and a work/life balance” are hardly outrageous and in fact these are ambitions that we could all do well to mirror. However such is the attention that they get from so many corporate projects some of the Hub members reported some of their senior managers complaining, semi seriously,

“We spend so long understanding them…. What about them trying to understand us!?!”

The Hub in August seemed to agree with the fact that Generation Y is however a valuable element within many organisations and for so many is the future of their businesses. Whilst it is fun to speculate about how much easier it might be to ignore them or force them to adapt it is simply not realistic.

Therefore it was useful to note some of the tools and methods that some of the attendees have used successfully to motivate, inspire and engage this section of their workforce.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Paula described how Davis Langdon have a 12 month project team pulled together from the younger Generation Y. Sponsored by the Managing Partner they are given license to work on a cross departmental project chosen by themselves and are encouraged to suggest and implement process improvements. Paula emphasised to the attendees that in her experience this has proved to be a real hit and she observed that invariably the chosen project has been focused on Green or other CSR issues.

Many of the other members felt they could utilise this CSR focus as it accommodates the request from Generation Y to feel that they are part of a wider Community.

Embracing (not avoiding) social networking

The rise in popularity of Social Networking sites like Facebook and Bebo has been well documented. In many senses the response to this from management teams is a microcosm of the problems that they have in responding to the challenges presented by Generation Y.

Management teams often want to change Generation Y to suit them rather than changing their mentality to get the best out of Generation Y.

So many organisations have looked to block these websites, seeing them as a time wasting activity, rather than exploiting the opportunities they present. Generation Y is looking for a “sense of community” and companies could be using these sites (developing companies groups and forums) to encourage this community and encourage cross departmental camaraderie.

Career shaping

It was agreed that one of the key approaches to engaging Generation Y is to appreciate that whilst the days of a “job for life” has been numbered for some time it is now important that businesses can offer employees variety and an ability to shape and develop a career that has flexibility.

A number of the members mentioned that their recruitment strategies have already changed to accommodate the move towards people having at least 2 distinct careers throughout their working life.

Accommodating this desire to switch careers in house could be a fantastic method of retaining and motivating the in house talent who might previously have looked elsewhere for their next challenge. Whilst we did not have time to discuss the topic in detail it was mentioned that perhaps companies would benefit from the idea of utilising sabbaticals or secondments more.

Flexibility. The Holy Grail for good Employee Engagement…

The key message delivered by the Hub in August was that any Employee Engagement strategy needs to be flexible and tailored to meet the needs of the individual rather than having a “one size fits all” strap line.

As mentioned above, today’s employees are looking to shape their careers and are invariably seeking roles that offer flexibility and secondment opportunities. This new generation is determined to avoid being shackled or pigeon holed and is looking for opportunities to develop skills that might naturally sit outside of their job descriptions.

In the past Graduate Development programmes where employees were required to spend time in a variety of job roles were very much the norm. However the new tendency towards vocational degrees like Business Management, HR Management or Bachelor of Laws (LLB) means that most of today’s graduates naturally gravitate towards specific business disciplines and most organisations no longer even offer that general Graduate Development Programme. A remarkable situation when you consider the demand of Generation Y to be included in a wider corporate community.

… but a Problem?

The simple solution is perhaps to (re)instate a rotational development programme but therein lies the problem. Generation Y is looking for an opportunity to try their hands at different disciplines and shape their careers, they are looking to be wowed and they are looking for different challenges. Being told after 3 months that it is time to move in to a sales role as the rotation demands is not offering flexibility.

This highlights the real problem concerning the pursuit of flexibility. Namely that flexibility is ideal but championing flexibility is the precursor to a “free for all” that does not sit well within the reality of commerce.*

*Wright Solutions would direct readers to Douglas Miller’s Business Guide HR and its role in Innovation as this offers a practical framework for managing risk. Click here for more

However what remains key, if you are going to successfully engage with Generation Y, is the need to communicate a message of “individual and tailored approaches” rather than championing “schemes”.

Don’t forget the other generations…

Whilst it makes sense to focus effort at Generation Y all of the Hub members commented on the need to develop an Employee Engagement strategy that makes reference to all employees.

Research suggests that within an organisation you can realistically expect that 20% of the workforce is practically disengaged, 60% of it simply turns up and only 20% of it will make a decision to engage.

Therefore an organisation looking to engage its workforce should only look to target that 20% who are actually prepared to invest the discretionary effort. Limiting that focus again to only consider the demands of Generation Y would make you wonder if the effort was worth it at all!

Additional comments…

Clearly the current economic climate is beginning to impact on HR projects with many organisations at least experiencing a tightening of the belt. As outlined earlier Employee Engagement should remain a focus for businesses and so it is important for HR professionals to think about how they can prove a Return on Investment when it comes to Employee Engagement projects.

Employee surveys and exit interviews are crude yardsticks that could prove to be useful tools as is the measurement of staff turnover. However HR professionals would do well to relate these findings to turnover and the bottom line.

It was felt that using monetary reward as an Engagement tool is overly simplistic and potentially risky. To paraphrase a recent People Management article

“Getting reward right does not guarantee engagement. Getting it wrong can however cause disengagement”

That said though a number of members highlighted that Holidays is a cheap currency that will appeal to a generation keen to “work to live”.

Conclusion

Employee Engagement is getting massive coverage in the professional press at the moment with scarcely an edition being published without some article or editorial being dedicated to the topic. Clearly there is much debate and discussion as HR professionals look to understand the topic and come up with some key solutions to the issues.

Looking to come to a consensus or agree a “magic bullet” at this Hub would have been an unrealistic ambition and in many respects members would have left with as many unanswered questions as they arrived with. However the opportunity to debate and discuss contentious subjects is just what the Hub meetings are designed to do and in that respect it was a highly successful event.

If a conclusion can be drawn to this event then HR professionals looking to develop an Employee Engagement strategy need to consider the following:

• Whilst it is important to highlight your focus on Employee Engagement as part of an Attraction Strategy, a successful Employee Engagement strategy will focus on the individual and flexibility rather than championing “Schemes”

• Remember that realistically only 20% of your workforce will make the decision to engage with you as an employer. With that in mind it is important not to expend too much effort or money trying to please everyone just because the media coverage given to Employee Engagement suggests that you should.

• Don’t forget that although the current economic climate is pushing businesses towards cost cutting a successful Employee Engagement strategy will offer real business benefit in the fight for talent and also in terms of employee profitability.

• Your Employee Engagement strategy needs the buy in of the Management Population and an understanding of what it is and how it can benefit their business performance.

Hub Community Update

In response to a request from Hub members Wright Solutions have set up a group on the leading Business Networking website www.linkedin.com. This site allows Hub attendees to share contact details enabling you to network with fellow delegates, share ongoing thoughts on some of the issues that have been raised at previous meetings, or discuss any other key issues.

The Wright Solutions MasterClass Series

Wright Solutions newly launched MasterClass series includes a specific title "Understanding Employee Engagement". Our next scheduled date is 2nd October 2008 and we are taking bookings now.

Call 0121 687 4040 now to book a place for you, your HR team or key operational Managers.

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Please contact Wright Solutions on 0121 687 4040 for a more detailed discussion on your unique commercial challenges and how we can support you with them