Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Employee engagement

I was talking with a co worker today on the subject of employee engagement. We were discussing strategies for getting workers to feel more connected to their jobs and thus increasing employee satisfaction in the workplace. We discussed giving various employees responsibility for implementing new initiatives. This idea came from Trevor Gay an author from England and a good friend of mine. Trevor has written 4 books on leadership and management practices. One of his main tenets comes from his book Simplicity is the Key. Trevor makes the point to let the front line staff solve the problems because they know all the answers. As I think about this I realize that it has a lot of truth to it. When I read studies on job satisfaction and employee engagement I find that pay and work schedule are down the list of priorities on what makes employees happy. Near the top of the list is feeling valued and having the ability to feel as though one is making a difference. So, it makes perfect sense to give front line staff the opportunity to be in charge of new initiatives. As we begin to turn over these initiatives to the frontline staff the initial responses are favorable. I will have to keep a track of how they progress and what effect it has on productivity and morale.

Check out Trevor's Simplicity blog at http://simplicityitk.blogspot.com/ and check out the article that was recently published about his simplicity is the key theme in the New York Times and his his recent appearance on Fox Business Network TV

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aloha Rocky!
Loved seeing your feed light up for me again.

David Zinger just started a Ning network on employee engagement that is shaping up to look very promising too... You might want to take a look here:
http://employeeengagement.ning.com/

Rocky said...

Thanks Rosa. We can always count on you for great content and great connections. I hope all is going well for you. I have missed being in contact with everyone and I am looking forward to getting re aquainted with everyone. Great to hear from you.

Mike Gardner said...

Rocky, glad to see the PHD is active again. I hope everything is going well for you, I mean for y'all. I still tell folks the story about the evening you took me to meet Mrs. Noe in Bardstown.

Take care,

Mike

Anonymous said...

Great to hear from you Mike. It has been a rough year, but I am looking forwardto getting active in the blogosphere once again. I am glad you got the chance to meet Annis. She is wonderful. Take care and keepin touch.

Annie G said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

To increase employee morale and engagement, you need to know about one thing: ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment). Check out ROWE and more about its creators at www.caliandjody.com/blog.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Jesse. I will give the site a lok.

Gabe said...

Rocky,

Hey man, good to see you back in the 'sphere. Hey, I repeat this to everyone I meet, but the greatest example of a business and a CEO that relinguished control is SEMCO run by non-other than Ricardo Semler (he's my favorite author to date on business management). Check out this great article about him Set Them Free. His books, Maverick and The Seven Day Weekend are awesome and will completely change the way you look at leading any organization.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Gabe, I will give the sight a look. I am always interested in good books and I will see If I can pick up a copy of Semlers.

SOS Booster said...

SOS presents an Engagement calendar for employees to create an engaging, high-performance culture that empowers employees, teams, and your business to achieve its most important goals.