Emma Bridger - Employee Engagement: A Practical Introduction

This book is a practical and much-needed guide to improving and developing employee engagement. Featuring a comprehensive range of case studies, tools, templates and tips, it has everything the practitioner needs to ensure that their approach to employee engagement makes a positive difference to their workplace and people. Nita Clarke, Director of the Involvement and Participation Association and Co-Chair of the Employee Engagement Task Force

Employee Engagement is the must-read book for any manager or HR professional who is concerned about raising and maintaining high levels of engagement. Written in an authoritative yet accessible style by one of the UKs leading experts, the book guides the reader step by step through the complex decisions that need to be made in developing and implementing a successful engagement strategy. Katie Bailey, Professor of Work and Employment, Kings Business School, Kings College London

Emma Bridger brings a practical and effective approach to the big subjects of employee engagement and organizational culture, which are so vital for any organizations success today. Beneath her warm and friendly style lies considerable expertise, and this book shares the insight she has gained over many years helping organizations like ours to unlock the potential of our people. Richard Parry, Chief Executive, Canal & River Trust

Emma Bridgers book Employee Engagement is a concise reference for the practical implementation of staff engagement approaches within organizations. Managers, HR staff and academics can use this book to plan how to introduce a thorough staff engagement programme and research how it all works in practice. Employee engagement design, measurement, implementation and future action planning are all investigated within this comprehensive book and Emma also provides an easily digestible literature overview within the field. Dr Julian A Edwards, Research Fellow, The Open University

Utterly practical, totally helpful and beautifully written. Emma brings us the ultimate how to that weve all been waiting for. Anyone who understands the importance of people in their organization should give this a read. You wont regret it. Ruth Dance, Managing Director, The Employee Engagement Alliance

This is essential reading for everyone working in employee engagement and, beyond that, an invaluable source of learning for all individuals working in teams as critical components within organizations striving to deliver better results. Rob Neil OBE, Head of Project Race, Ministry of Justice

HR FUNDAMENTALS

Second Edition

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

A practical introduction

Emma Bridger

Publishers note

Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publisher and authors cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or any of the authors.

First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2014 by Kogan Page Limited

Second edition published in 2018

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:

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Emma Bridger, 2014, 2018

The right of Emma Bridger to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN 978 0 7494 8351 7

E-ISBN 978 0 7494 8352 4

Typeset by Integra Software Services, Pondicherry

Print production managed by Jellyfish

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Downloadable resources are available atwww.koganpage.com/engagement

My greatest thanks and appreciation go to David MacLeod and Nita Clarke and all the Engage for Success team. Firstly for giving me permission to reproduce some of the wonderful case studies, research and stories originally submitted as part of the Engage for Success movement. But also for their inspirational leadership in helping to create the Engage for Success movement. I really think weve created something quite special and Im proud to be a part of it.

When I was first approached to write this book, a misunderstanding meant that I initially thought I was just contributing a chapter. On finding out it was actually an entire book, I couldnt say no to such an amazing opportunity. However, when the romance of writing a book had faded, and the hard work really kicked in, there were a whole gang of friends and family behind the scenes, supporting me every step of the way. Id like to dedicate this book to all of them and say a specific thank-you to those people who maybe had to come second to the book-writing for a while.

For Ted, Harry, Eadie and Teddy.

Since the term engagement was first coined by William Kahn in 1990, it has steadily moved up the business agenda. Year on year there has been increasing interest in, and focus on, employee engagement from businesses. The term is now everyday parlance within the workplace. However, despite this increased attention and focus, we are still not seeing the improvements in employee engagement that we would expect. I refer to this paradox as the employee engagement gap. Back in 2016, People Lab launched their first Spotlight on the Employee Engagement Profession research programme to better understand the employee engagement gap why it occurs and, more importantly, what we can do about it. The first of its kind, the study gathered insight directly from experts in the field the people championing engagement every day, in a variety of job roles and industries.

Theres no doubt employee engagement continues to be a significant area of focus for companies. Deloittes 2017 Global Human Capital Trends include employee experience in their top 10 global trends, with 79 per cent rating this as important or very important. They define employee experience as employee engagement, culture and beyond. And yet despite this focus, companies are struggling to develop and improve employee engagement. In their annual Global Trends in Employee Engagement publication, Aon report that employee engagement around the world has retracted in the last year. Just 24 per cent of employees fall into the Highly Engaged category, and another 39 per cent can be categorized as Moderately Engaged, with a global engagement score of 63 per cent for 2017, compared to 65 per cent in 2016. There are many benchmarking reports that detail engagement levels, and they tend to differ greatly from report to report. Gallup, for example, state that just 15 per cent of employees worldwide are engaged, with 85 per cent either not engaged or actively disengaged (State of the Global Workplace Report, 2017). Despite these differences in levels of employee engagement reported, what is clear is that very little improvements are being made.