Most employers want their employees to experience their work and the company as if it is their own (as if they are self employed). The level of commitment, passion and motivation to succeed and excel differs greatly between people who are employed vs. those who are self employed. Employees are supposed to go the extra mile and as the employer, you want them to enjoy and look forward to that extra mile. In essence you want employees to behave like entrepreneurs.

According to Gary Hamel, ranked by Wall Street Journal as the World’s Most Influential Business Thinker, engaged employees offer their employer initiative, creativity and ultimately passion(5). Studies show that engaged employees are more likely to innovate(3). In return, organisations with employee innovation programmes provide a platform for employees to engage(4). It is a win-win partnership.

What does engagement mean?

There are various companies that study employee engagement and in brief you engage employees by sharing knowledge and giving them a voice.

Gary Hamel compiled a hierarchy of employee capabilities(5), in a format similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The lowest 3 levels of capability have become commodities and that is where employees are least engaged. With a workforce that basically only offers you attendance and the assurance that
they will do as you say – you cannot deliver an excellent service to customers or consistently increase profitability – certainly not in a sustainable manner.

According to Hamel the average company only use 50 – 55% of people’s capabilities.

Engagement is when the organisation allows initiative and creativity. It is when the employee’s voice is heard and they are allowed to contribute to the organization – in a way that they are passionate about.

Engaged employees show the following characteristics(2)

• They are excited and enthused about what they are doing
• They resist distractions – they ‘re focused
• Tend to forget about time or place
• Ponder current challenges even when they are not directly involved in the activity
• Invest free time (discretionary effort)
• Identify with the activity
• Invite others in (emotional contagion)

What are the benefits of engaging employees:

Clearly from the above characteristics employers will get more than what they expect/ pay for if employees engage. Engaged employees focus on what they do and time “stands still” when you do what you love. Employees will be dedicated and focused provided their jobs include what they’re passionate about.
It does not matter if you are Public or Private Sector – everybody wants to attract the best talent. The best talent goes to and stays, where they feel their skills are used best. Create a platform for employees to engage with your organisation and the good people will stay longer.

A study completed in the UK Public Sector(1), proved that engaged employees:

• Take less sick leave
• Generate more revenue
• Are less likely to leave the organization

Through an innovation platform in your organisation you create the opportunity for an employee to incorporate what they are passionate about, in their day-to-day work. Employees are allowed to enrich his or her own work. This enrichment will make them much more excited about their work and it is very likely to have a positive impact on the organisation. The results could be increased efficiency, better customer service or generating new revenue streams. Is this not what you want all your employees to do?

In a presentation(4) by OVO a Consulting and Software Development Company, Jeffrey Phillips states that most leaders can demonstrate that their innovation programme help them. They are able to attract the best candidates, retain the best people and provide opportunities for high performance talent.

Linking innovation with employee engagement?

Buckingham & Coffman(6) developed an employee engagement study through meta-analysis over 25 years involving 1 million people. Through just 12 questions you can measure the strength of your workplace and understand the extent that your employees have bought into the vision and objectives of your organisation.

In a similar study conducted by Gallup Management Journal(3) among US workers, they defined three categories of workers:

Engaged (29%): People who work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.

Not engaged (56%): Employees are essentially “checked” out. They’re sleepwalking through their workday putting time, but not energy or passion, into their work.

Actively disengaged (15%): Employees aren’t just unhappy at work, they are acting out their unhappiness. Everyday these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish.

The results of the study showed that engaged employees are more likely to be involved in innovation. The graph shows the scores of the two extreme worker categories for selected questions.

Engaged employees feel that their environment allows creative ideas. They also feel that they “feed off the creativity of Colleagues” and they have a friend at work to share their ideas. This suggests that not only are engaged employees more likely to generate new ideas, but that idea generation can be amplified when it happens in a team setting.

How engaged are Public Sector employees?

Unfortunately no data is yet available for South African Public Sector. However a study that was conducted in the UK among the Public Sector workers(1) showed:

• 2 percent of UK public sector workers are highly engaged; 22 percent are disengaged 84 percent of highly engaged public sector workers in the UK believe they can have an impact on the quality of the organisation’s work — compared to about one-quarter of disengaged workers.
• Engaged employees in the UK take an average of 2.69 sick days per year; the disengaged take 6.19 sick days per year.
• Engaged employees generate 43 percent more revenue than disengaged ones.
• Engaged employees are 87 percent less likely to leave the organisation than the disengaged.

How do I create innovation opportunities in my organisation?

Every organisation can create a way for their employees to participate in shaping their future. Depending on your objectives you can focus on incremental innovation or you can simultaneously encourage and enable radical innovation. In Public Sector there could be laws that limit innovation, but let that not become your excuse for not allowing employees to engage with your organisation! You just need to structure your programme carefully.

An innovation programme needs to include the following two aspects:

Culture – there is no point in introducing a platform for employees to innovate if you don’t have/create a culture of innovation. Creating a culture requires that your understand the current organisational culture and identify the challenges, barriers and strengths within your orgainsation. Based on this understanding you can develop intensive and focused change management programmes to create an innovative culture. Typically these programmes include regular and structured communication and training and they start with your top Executives. It is essential to get more than just approval and funding from leadership - you need buy-in and active support. Innovation needs to get priority status on your organisation’s agenda on all levels.

You need a platform – The platform includes a strategy, structure, operational processes and procedures as well as an innovation system. Employees need to know where to go with new ideas to get them evaluated and implemented. They also need to know how they will be rewarded. Your platform needs to quantify (measure) how your organisation is benefiting from innovation – this information can secure ongoing management support.

So where do you start? You have to build the culture and the platform at the same time. They will evolve with your organization and your employees and together all will grow. You probably already have many existing platform elements like performance appraisal systems, communication channels and media, training schedules, processes and many more, that can be used as the basis for your innovation programme. You just need to build on it!

Get the best of both worlds:

Engaged employees will help you innovate more and innovation platforms will deliver more engaged employees. It is a magical partnership with proven Return on Investment. Would you want to miss out?

Sources:
(1) Development Dimensions International, Employee Engagement: The Key to Realizing Competitive Advantage, 2007 www.ddiworld.com
(2) Results Project EMP: Excelling at Employee Engagement, The Concours Group, 2004
(3) Gallup Management Journal, Gallup Study: Engaged Employees Inspire Company Innovation, 12 October 2006
(4) Talent Management, Employee Engagement and innovation – HR’s seat at the table http://www.slideshare.net/jdpuva/innovation-and-employee-engagement
(5) View a video where Gary Hamel explains the employee hierarchy of capability at this link:http://www.garyhamel.com/fullscreen.html
(6) First Break all the rules. What the World’s Greatest Managers do Differently, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, 1999

Freda Gray is a Director of Mindstir. This Innovation Company help clients design and implement innovation programmes where employees, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders contribute to their sustained growth. Mindstir helps turn your company’s potential into realized value. Freda in association with the University of Stellenbosch have developed an Employee engagement and innovation survey that can be applied within your organisation to measure your culture, innovation readiness and climate.

Freda can be contacted on 0836510774, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or join the Mindstir community on www.Facebook.com for
regular and topical innovation updates and discussions.