There’s been a lot of talk lately on the topic of employee engagement. Some say that the economic downturn and the ‘do more with less’ attitude prompted HR to re-examine the role of engagement, hoping that if addressed, employees would be motivated and more prepared to work in an uncertain environment.
Although this may be a reasonable assumption, the fact is that employee engagement has been referred to for years. Yes, it’s compelling to claim that employee engagement drives bottom-line results – but is it true? After all, the definition, metrics and practices vary widely – and academic researchers and practitioners differ in their terms and scope.
This month we are diving into the topic of employee engagement with a 3.5 hour workshop on August 26th. We have expert speakers and practitioners, including Steve Knight, EVP at Integral Talent Systems Inc., Doug Klein, President, Sirota Survey Intelligence, Lindsay Nelson, MSOD, Great Place to Work Institute, and Jodi Krause, Director of Organization Development at Cisco Systems, sharing their views on the sub-topics:
- Reframing the concept of employee engagement
- Practical guidance on building a solid employee engagement survey
- Defining and assessing best people practices
The theme of employee engagement began for BOLD in May, when members were invited to three different Roundtable group discussions with the primary topic of employee engagement. The conversations were rich with practical suggestions on ‘what’ and ‘how to’ foster engagement depending on a company’s time and budget.
One group referenced the Corporate Leadership Counsel’s definition of employee engagement from their 2004 Employee Engagement Framework and Survey. Another group discussed the challenges they were having keeping employees focused and committed to their work and the company.
BOLD recently added a “Retention and Engagement” category to the members-only portion of the website. In that category we added a Communication ROI study submitted by Watson Wyatt, and a reference to a CFO.com article among others. We don’t post copy written information without permission; however, members and non-members are welcome to contribute their ideas, presentations and/or white papers as well.
Are you curious about all this talk about engagement? Then join us for the August 26th workshop "Clarifying Employee Engagement" at Genentech.
Share your point of view, personal experience, and relevant suggestions – and bring best practices back to your company.
Lead by example: be BOLD!
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