Employee Engagement – Who´s responsibility is it?
Feb. 26th, 2015
Herdis Pala

About me
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» Internationally certified ACC coach, ICF, 2013
» Executive Coaching, CoachU, 2012
» MBA, UNH, 2000 (concentration in HR)
» B.Ed., University of Iceland, 1994
» RB, VP - Human Resources & Communication, Nov. 2013 -
» Speaker, lecturer, author, coach, consultant, Jan 2012 -
» Byr bank, COO, 2006-2012
» Islandsbanki, Director – T&D, 2002 – 2006
» Capacent, HR Consultant, 2000 - 2002

What is Employee engagment?
» Employee Engagement ≠ Job satisfaction or loyalty
» Possible to be happy in job, but still not engaged, not willing
to work for maximum contribution for the company.
» Engaged employees
» Work on goals and share values of the workplace,
» have intrinsic motivation, to do what they can so the company does
well and at the same time
» able to work on improving their wellbeing.
» Emotional/Psychological commitment towards the company
and its goals
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Screenshot from video by BlessingWhite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ3wxgog4nc
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© www.herdispala.is
Why does this matter?
Affects organizations results
Affects wellbeing and quality of life for the
employees
On average we spend 50% of our waking
hours at work
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Employee Engagement – soft or hard?
» Some used to say Employee Engagement was some soft and
fluffy stuff
» Now more and more realizing this is one of organizations main
challenge
» Wide gap between what we know about engagement and how
well we are doing in building and increasing it
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Outdated definition,
in business everything is rock solid!
Challenge to reach
maximum contribution and
maximum satisfaction
at the same time

Soft or hard?
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...relationship with next-in-line manager...
» So often it is talked about the relationship
between employee and manager as the main
driver or factor behind employee engagement
(trust, feedback, motivation)
» I want to talk about more factors…
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Various explanations
» MMR
» Relationship with manager
» Faith in top management team
» Pride in working for the organization
» HCI
» Training and development (opportunities and encouragement)
» Faith in managers
» Expectations and joy/fun
» Modern Survey
» Faith in top management team
» Faith in opportunities for personal growth and development
» Experience of getting results in own job
» Faith in the future of the workplace
» Faith in organizations´ behavior is controlled by its values
» Getting constructive feedback from manager
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Management.
Communication Skills.
Self-Confidentce.
Not a one way
responsibility.

Isn´t this something we have to look into...
Self-leadership is about having a good understanding of who you
are, what you are capable of, where you are headed, what you
want to stand for etc.
Also the capabilities to influence others, communication-skills,
emotional intelligence and habits/behavior that will get you to
your desired destination.
1. Self-leadership 2. Lead others 3. Lead results
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Who is responsible?
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 Top management?
 Have to be clear on the vision and what is wanted from line
managers:
 Create a good community, connect with people, help
employees see the connection between their assignments
and the strategy in whole
 Be authentic and true in what they do
 Help people see the purpose in what they do
 Create the atmosphere for wanting to reach further with
the workplace
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 Line managers
 Responsible for teams, assignments and help employees to
become more capable:
 Coach and support their employees
 Have the right people doing appropriate/right assignments
 Feedback, motivation and recognizing
 Ambition for job and connecting with people
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Who is responsible?

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 Employees:
» Not so much talked about this but recent study by
Leadership IQ showed that employees can have to 94%
affect on own engagement
 Assess own job satisfaction and contribution
 Communication about their job satisfaction, wellbeing and
expectations
 Look for help and support to get to the APEX (high in
contribution and satisfaction)
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Who is responsible?

Values and Engagement
» Employees that say they know and understand the values of the
workplace are 30x more likely to by highly engaged at
work
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First things first...
» To boost employee engagement we have to start by increasing
everybody´s understanding on what engagement is, its affects
and everybody´s responsibility in that matter
» Annual workplace survey not enough, even though they are fine
» Conversations with teams and individual employees and get a
good and deep understanding what affects employee
engagement and work strategically with results
» Different factors between industries, teams and individuals
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5 key things
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» Even though companies are different and may need
different approaches to engagement there are still some
key things every organization needs for high employee
engagement
1. Set clear values everybody know and understand
2. Work strategically on building up good culture
3. Demand good management from those in
management roles
4. Create platform for fun
5. Let employees in on the game

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3 Good management
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Chris Bones, professor at Henley Business School:
 Line managers are the lens employees use to assess the
workplace/organization and that the company uses to assess
the employees
 Therefore they have a big affect on engagement
 Employees hire themselves to companies but leave live
managers (or quit but don´t leave…)

Dr. Bob Nelson
» “43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a
week compared to only 18% of employees with low engagement.”
TowersWatson
» Communication is the lubricant of any well-functioning relationship
so it comes as no surprise that those who receive almost two-and-a-
half times more feedback at work will likely be more engaged than
those receiving far less feedback where they work.
» All the better if the feedback can first-and-foremost focus on those
things employees have done well as opposed to dwelling upon any
mistakes they have made or offering up criticism as to what they
could do better.
» It’s as easy to build a person up as it is to beat him or her
down and the former is far more productive for all involved.
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Outdated or not
» Some say that the conversation on Employee Engagement is
only a hype and is already outdated…
» Just be humane and work with your people!
» Human Resources or Human Beings
» Others say that budgets will be increased to all kinds of wellness
programs to boos engagement, motivation, improved workplace
culture and wellbeing
» And decrease absenteeism, disengagement etc.
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VirginPulse.com

What can we do?
» Communication and
motivation key factors along
with managers letting
employees feel they matter.
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Managers´ support
» Give employees space and support to
» create new ideas,
» find purpose in what they do,
» set challenging goals,
» work in alignment with strategy,
» have clear vision for everyday work,
» connect with customers
» etc.
» Servant Leadership
» Remove possible hindrances for employees
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Boosts employee
engagement

Engaged employees…
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 …..give better service
 …. which leads to happier customers
 …. which leads to increased sales, loyalty of customers and
great testimonials / word of mouth
 ... create better quality and more productivity
 …. greater results of company
 …. creates better environment for employees
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Communication or mind-reading?
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Orðið „hlusta“ á kínversku
Hear ≠ Listen
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Take aways
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Q&A...
» Thanks
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