(1888PressRelease)
May 01, 2009 - LSA Global, the premier one-stop global training and consulting firm that focuses on achieving measurable business results with a select group of clients, announced the release of research on one of the most pressing issues facing companies today—ensuring that employees are fully engaged in their organization’s critical business priorities.
"Employee engagement was once primarily considered an HR concern. But those in the executive office have learned, some painfully, that a lack of engagement not only impacts employee performance, but the company’s bottom line as well," states Russ Silva, Head of the Leadership Practice for LSA Global. "Increasing an organization’s employee engagement is not just a 'nice to have;' it is a critical factor in a company’s financial performance."
However, engagement alone is not the answer. According to Silva, "Imagine an employee who is involved in a project. You may believe the individual is highly engaged because he works long hours by choice and fully enjoys his work. This is desirable, right? Not if the project he’s devoted to lacks relevance to the current business imperatives or the organization’s longer term strategy. Employees need to be engaged in work that is aligned with business priorities. You need to foster what has been called "aligned engagement." So Action #1 is to focus not on "aimless," but on "aligned" engagement efforts.
Some factors that have been shown to make a significant difference in an employee’s level of engagement include accountability, ownership, and execution success. As Silva says, “The more an employee has a sense of accountability for his performance, the more he feels ownership for his work, and the greater the connection and pride in a successful execution.” This concept forms the basis of the next 3 action steps: Action #2 - Manage Accountability; Action #3 - Focus on Ownership; and Action #4 - Become Obsessed with Execution.
Other factors that are fundamental to employee engagement are change readiness and a sense of purpose. With change a constant in today’s corporate environment, having a workforce that can accept and adapt to change is a significant company advantage. “If you have an employee who is ready to accept and adapt to change, he is much more likely to contribute to the change efforts and maintain a high level of performance,” says Silva. "As well, having a sense of purpose at work, whether generated by the company’s mission, an individual’s relationships with coworkers, a person’s impact on the organization, or the work one does, will more tightly bind an employee with the company and heighten engagement."
Silva concludes, “To be successful, in the midst of the current economy where few employees are safe from a pink slip and high levels of focused performance are not just important but critical to the existence of many companies, serious consideration must be given to efforts needed to understand and increase your workforces’ level of engagement in your key business priorities.”
For more details on any of this research, the rest of the Action Steps you can take to improve engagement, or to discuss how building employee engagement will strengthen the critical business initiatives in your own organization, please contact us using this link (http://www.lsaglobal.com/about/contact.asp) or call us at 1-800-889-6452.
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