Disengaged from the first day or just conditioned that way over time?

On average, 80 per cent of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged.

Do we, as leaders, hire them disengaged or do we condition them that way?

The clearest driver that differentiates Best Employers is leadership. Most employees do not leave jobs or companies - they leave managers. Leaders need to keep their people informed and appreciated. Australia has one of the highest management avoidance styles in the world. Any cultural change should start from the top down and employee engagement is no exception. When it comes to making your company a great place to work, management practices are vital.

ISSUE: Become the change we want to see in our people and organisation

Want to make CEO's see HR as a profit centre?

Even though most CEOs say "our employees are our most important assets", modern accounting is virtually devoid of employee engagement measurement. The balance sheet has traditionally had no allocation line for human assets. Engagement has not so much been about numbers, but it is about performance. An increase in productivity performance can result in increased profitability.

Companies with an engagement score of 60 per cent or higher have an average five-year shareholder return of more than 20 per cent, while companies with engagement scores of less than 40 per cent usually have a negative return of 10 per cent to shareholders.

Alarmingly, Australia has some of the lowest engagement levels in the world with 82 per cent of workers either not engaged or disengaged. Disengaged employees cost the Australian economy about $31.5 billion a year through loss of productivity, sick leave and even sabotage.

ENGAGEMENT ECONOMICS

Turnover is increasingly becoming one of the primary expenses for businesses due to additional hiring, lost productivity and retraining costs. Many researchers suggest turnover costs companies between one and two times an employee's salary in lost productivity. For an organisation of 1000 employees with an average salary of $60,000 and 22 per cent turnover, this equates to around $15,800,000 annually in lost productivity. Reduce turnover by just 2 per cent by engaging people and you could save your business over $1.4 million p.a.

ISSUE: Employee engagement can now be illustrated by HR as a profit centre

For more information go to Engagement Economics or Frequently Asked Questions

Do you really know why your people leave?

The key thing to be aware of is that, there are rarely talent shortages in great workplaces. It is the case that organisations short on talent usually deserve to be!"

There are many reasons why people leave, but almost all issues fall into these seven key areas:

1. POOR LEADERSHIP
Management that doesn't keep employees informed or show them appreciation and where there is a lack of respect, trust and integrity.

2. LACK OF PURPOSE
The organisation lacks a meaningful purpose that makes a real difference and isn't aligned with the values of the individual employee.

3. POOR REWARDS
There are no clear links between employee performance and business outcomes. The employee doesn't feel fairly rewarded for their contributions to the organisation's success.

4. LACK OF OPPORTUNITY
There are very few development opportunities and people have limited career advancement prospects.

5. POOR RELATIONSHIPS
Poor, negative and non-collaborative relationships exist between leaders, co-workers and within teams. Individuals don't feel like they have a community of friends at work.

6. POOR JOB FULFILLMENT
The nature of the day-to-day work is consistently unfulfilling and boring to employees and typically lacks challenge and the utilisation of their key strengths.

7. POOR WORK LIFE BALANCE
The business environment doesn't support a life outside work for employees.

Do you have more 'eager beavers' or 'complacement cows'?

I am still finding many people are unclear about the distinctions between attraction, retention and engagement. On the surface they can be seen to be very similar, especially retention and engagement, yet they are very different.

1. ATTRACTION
Attraction is about how you recruit and hire the right people into an organisation at the right time via techniques such as recruitment and employee branding strategies

ISSUE: Continually breaking in new employees is no way for your company to continue being competitive.

2. RETENTION
Retention is about making sure they stay in the company. They may stay, but not necessarily be engaged. Typically about 60-80% of your workforce will be retained.

ISSUE: Some employees quit and leave - the really bad news is others quit and stay

3. ENGAGEMENT

Engaged employees usually only make up about 20% of your team. Engagement is about making sure they not only stay but are passionate about the company and the work they do and are therefore more committed and productive. Employee engagement is the extent that employees are committed to the success of a business, believe in its values, are fulfilled and passionate, feel pride in working for their organisation and are motivated to go the extra mile.

Engagement is the heart and mind connection between employee and work. It is basically having the right people in the right place at the right time and at the right price. If you are engaged you will probably be retained. But you can be retained and not necessarily engaged. Engagement is about having an employee who is an "eager beaver" whereas retention can mean you may keep "complacent cows", who are just doing their job but not engaged.

ISSUE: Employee Engagement = Increased performance = Improved productivity = Greater profitability

The 7 drivers of employee engagement

In these times of skill shortages our No 1 customer needs to now be our people. An organisation that can engage its people will be more productive, perform better and therefore be more profitable. So in this issue of "Engaging People", we focus on the seven key drivers in engaging employees.

1. LEADERSHIP

Great leadership keeps people informed and appreciated. Be the change you want to see.

2. PURPOSE

A business with aligned values and a meaningful purpose makes a real difference. Purpose is increasingly becoming the emotional salary for many employees with 93% of engaged employees feeling that the company has a meaningful purpose.

3. REWARD

Clear links are established between employee performance and company objectives where individuals are fairly rewarded for their contributions to the company's success. Only 12% of employees leave because of money, so for most, money is not the main motivator. Our job is to find out what is.

4. OPPORTUNITY

A culture of constant learning, full of development opportunities is created where people feel positive about their future career prospects. Many people think; what if you train your people and they leave? Well worse still is; what if you don't train them and they stay?

5. RELATIONSHIPS

Good, positive, open and collaborative relationships exist between leaders, co-workers and teams. How well do you really know your people? Hobbies, interests, kids names, real motivations or life philosophy?

6. JOB FULFILMENT

The nature of the day-to-day work consistently energises people. When people love what they do, productivity and performance explode. Do you want to instantly maximise your people's job fulfilment?

7. WORK LIFE BALANCE

An environment exists where people's lives outside work are supported and encouraged. What are your teams top priorities and goals outside work? Want to create a sustainable win-win culture?