Employee engagement; how will we feel in 2016?

We are coming towards that time of year again when everyone is making predictions about what the coming year will bring. So please forgive me as I also join this merry bandwagon.

My desire to share some of my predictions for 2016 has not come about from some deep academic assessment of future trends, but from a personal observation. My son is 24 and joined a large Fortune 500 retailer approx. a year ago. For retailers this is the most important time of year with both Black Friday as well as Christmas coming one after the other. The reason for mentioning this is that he is currently working 8am — 8pm every day without a break and sometimes longer. In fact, he came round this last weekend, not to see the family but because it was quieter and he could work more effectively at our house.

This cannot be right! Does the previous generation, who head up business today, really think that burning out the young bright stars of tomorrow makes sense? I surely hope not.

In a recent Gallup “State of the Global Workplace” study, “currently, 13% of employees across 142 countries worldwide are engaged in their jobs — that is, they are emotionally invested in and focused on creating value for their organizations every day.”

The study goes on to state however that of the remainder, 63% are not engaged and 24% are actively disengaged, meaning they are negative and potentially hostile to the organizations they work for.

It should come as no surprise to leaders, team heads and heads of HR that this is the case but why are they doing so very little in response? My predictions are therefore wrapped more in hope than actual belief. Perhaps there might suddenly be a transformation in thinking.

However there are positive signs that this very important issue cannot be ignored for much longer. HBR are leading the way in raising the profile of this topic and even the Economist are headlining with why organizations need to be reinvented.

So with this premise in place, here are my top ten thoughts for what will happen, well in reality needs to happen, in 2016:

1. Purpose over process; leadership will start to wrestle employee engagement from HR teams and take direct responsibility for how employees feel. Employee engagement is not about process, it is about purpose, culture, caring, wellbeing, training and personal development. Successful organizations will be those that are able to establish their core purpose at the heart of the company and empower their employees to act on it everyday. To create a work environment where each and every employee is regarded as an asset; to be nurtured, supported and motivated to become the best they can be.
2. Living values everyday; employee engagement will become more of an everyday conversation and language where values are no longer just words on a wall poster in an office corridor. Organizations will start to hold managers responsible for employee engagement and will weave this into performance expectations with goals that are meaningful to everyday activities. By directly linking employee engagement to commercial performance, managers will need to put words into action. These types of initiatives will also start influencing the type of managers being hired and promoted with those that have the right talents for supporting, empowering and developing their staff, taking centre stage.
3. Employees First, Brands Second; the savvy Chief Marketing Officers will establish employee advocacy as a core priority in brand building rather than as an add-on that is rarely considered. “Brand reputation wins over brand promise every time”. Employees make a difference, a big difference, whether they are in the customer front-line or managing back office processes. Every customer touch point can transform a relationship and is where a brand’s reputation can either be destroyed in an instant or where a customer advocate can be created for life. The forward thinking CMO’s will radically change their thinking from traditional advertising to establishing employees at the heart of the brand by making each and every one a brand ambassador. “To win customers — and a bigger share of the marketplace — companies must first win the hearts and minds of their employees”.
4. Corporate Social Results (CSR) not responsibility; employees care about who they work for, especially the younger generations. Take a look at the 2015 Deloitte Millennial Survey. “For six in 10 Millennials, a “sense of purpose” is part of the reason they chose to work for their current employers”. Deloitte defines sense of purpose as “an important objective that creates meaningful impact for stakeholders”, those stakeholders being customers, employees, investors and most importantly their local communities. It is no longer good enough to treat CSR as a tick box on an annual report. CSR needs to be translated into results where employees can engage directly with local communities and see for themselves how they positively impact the people around them.
5. Software that cares; team collaboration technology is changing. There is a growing realization that technology should not just be used to create formalized structure and regimented processes to try and improve productivity. This is plainly not working. Technology also needs to provide for the individual and to help them better manage their responsibilities, objectives and activities. Jason Fried is leading this thinking with the launch of Basecamp 3. In his words “….. But we do believe toolmakers can build tools that help you draw a line between work and life. We’ve baked these good manners into Basecamp 3 with a feature we’re calling Work Can Wait.” I expect other software companies to follow.
6. Digital and physical office blending; employees are no longer all co-located in the same office, they are likely to be distributed in some way. They will either be working from different offices, or adopting some flexible working or even working remotely from home. In addition, there will be many cases where team members are meeting with customers, attending events or just travelling. The lack of having everyone together in one office compounds this challenge of employee engagement. The answer is using technology to recreate the characteristics of a physical office environment by enabling employees to informally and spontaneously interact, irrespective of distance or location. These technologies will come to the fore in 2016 and help transform the workplace of the future.
7. Context trumps transparency; as individuals we are becoming accustomed to better understanding our context in relation to things around us. An obvious example is location. We are constantly being made aware of our location in regard to friends, offers and points of interest. Business has made some progress in becoming more information transparent but they are still light years behind in helping employees know what is happening in the moment. Leading organisations will embrace the power of contextual information by providing real-time information on daily performance, live project status, actual meetings taking place, location of employees etc. This “information radiator” will help employees better connect and align to both their colleagues as well as the company and thereby transform how they work.
8. Lean Collaboration; the Boston Consulting Group identified that in the top 20% of complicated organizations, managers spend more than 40% of their time writing reports and between 30% and 60% of their total work hours in coordination meetings. Organisations, whose businesses are built around knowledge working, will look to their counterparts in manufacturing and adopt lean principles to improve team performance and reduce waste.
9. Talent Amplification; there will be a shift in thinking in how to optimize team performance. Historically too much emphasis has been placed on productivity alone, rather than creating an environment and encouraging a set of behaviors that helps unlock employee talent. Leaders will come to realize that if 95% of a company’s Intellectual Property is locked up in their employee heads, then this is where they need to focus. Organizations will shift from document capture and sharing to talent amplification whereby employees will be empowered to share their insights, viewpoints, creativity and innovation, irrespective of organizational structure.
10. Rapid Response; there is far too much latency in the way organizations work. Just take a look at email statistics. The Radicati Group 2014–2018 Email Statistics Report finds that the average number of business-related emails sent and received is set to soar, from 121 each day now to at least 140 each day in 2018. It is clear that communicating in this way slows down decision making and the ability to respond quickly. Companies will start to recognize the need to adopt more spontaneous communication technologies and encourage employees to engage and connect in real-time. “Speed of response, fluidity and agility to react to what is happening in the moment will define the teams that win or lose in the future.”

The employee engagement problem is a serious one and one that cannot be ignored. It has serious repercussions not only to whether businesses succeed but more importantly whether we can all live happy, fulfilled and fruitful lives. 2016 needs to be the year of change. “True leaders need to step forward and transform their teams to the benefit of all stakeholders; shareholders, customers, employees and communities alike.”

Everyone at Sococo would like to wish you, your family and your company a fun, engaging, passionate and fulfilling 2016. We hope to see you soon, so do feel free to pop in at any time.