Increase IT Productivity by 25% by Actively Focusing on Employee Engagement Don’t just measure engagement, act on it. Info-Tech's products and services combine actionable insight and relevant advice with ready-to-use tools and templates that cover the full spectrum of IT concerns.© 1997 - 2016 Info-Tech Research Group

Our understanding of the problem CIOs Increase the engagement of your employees and address the factors that are leading to employee disengagement. Measure the engagement levels at your organization. Interpret and present the findings of employee engagement diagnostics in a meaningful way. Identify engagement initiatives that will have the highest impact. Managers, directors, IT leadership Create action plans for implementing engagement initiatives and measuring them. Tailor engagement initiatives to their teams using input from their teams.

Executive Summary In IT, high turnover and sub-optimized productivity can have huge impacts on IT’s ability to execute to SLAs, complete projects on time, and maintain operations effectively. With record low unemployment rates in IT, retaining top employees and keeping them motivated in their jobs has never been more critical. Engagement is fundamentally about leadership. As the leader of the IT department you need to take accountability for your team’s engagement levels in order to improve IT performance and lower IT costs. Employee engagement is the tool – not the end goal. Engaging employees has a clear ROI which you can measure in productivity and staffing costs, and through IT innovation. The first step is measuring your engagement. The second is acting on it. Engagement initiatives are often seen as being HR’s responsibility, however, IT leadership needs to take accountability for the retention and productivity of their employees in order to drive business value. IT leaders often lack the experience and time to execute IT engagement programs and even when organizations have an engagement survey, leaders don’t know how to turn that data in to actionable results. Leverage Info-Tech’s Engagement Diagnostic and deliverables to see dramatic improvements in staff engagement, retention, and productivity. This blueprint provides three core customizable deliverables which you can use to start improving engagement today. Engagement Diagnostic Program: Choose from two customizable engagement diagnostics to measure staff engagement levels and identify key areas for improvement. Employee Engagement Survey Facilitation Guides: Use our customizable presentation script to understand and validate staff feedback and prioritize your efforts based on the results. Engagement Program Plan: Use Info-Tech’s customizable Engagement Program Plan to work with staff to identify and build engagement initiatives that suit your organization and teams.

Employee Engagement Engaged employees do what’s best for the organization: they come up with product/service improvements, provide exceptional service to customers, consistently exceed performance expectations, and make efficient use of their time and resources. The result is happy customers, better products/services, and saved costs.  Three Reasons Why CIOs Need to Care About Engagement: Engaged employees are 3.4X more productive than disengaged.1 Sub-optimized productivity can have huge impacts on IT’s ability to execute to SLAs, complete projects on time, and maintain operations effectively. 1 65% of IT employees are not engaged.1 Engaged employees are 55% more likely to agree they regularly accomplish more than what’s expected of them, and 500% more likely to agree they are committed to the organization.1 2 66% of CIOs are concerned about losing top IT professionals to other opportunities.2 The cost of losing an employee is estimated to be 150% their annual salary.3 Can you afford to not engage your staff? 3 Sources: 1 - McLean & Company, 2 - Robert Half Technology 3 - Inc.

Don’t seek to satisfy your employees Don’t seek to satisfy your employees. Drive IT success through an engaged and motivated workforce

Engaged Employees Report: Engaged employees report significantly higher commitment to the organization, performance, and willingness to innovate Engaged Employees Report: 30% 39% 29% Higher willingness and openness to innovate. Higher intention to stay at the organization. Higher performance and increased likelihood to work harder and longer hours. IT employee engagement has a clear ROI, particularly when you look at costs associated with barriers to innovation, real costs of talent loss, and overall employee performance. Performance, retention, and innovation in turn drive increased revenue, decreased costs, and improved overall IT reputation and value.

Engagement is critical for organizations looking to foster innovation An engaged workforce is a must have if you want to drive innovation. Engaged employees are significantly more willing to try new things and are more likely to believe that their suggestion will be taken seriously. On top of that, engaged IT staff are significantly more likely to go above the call of duty to look for opportunities to innovate, driving cost and time savings. Impact of Engagement on Innovation McLean & Company; N=1,308 IT Employees

Disengaged employees are 40% less likely to agree that they expect to be at the organization a year from now The cost of turnover is estimated to be 150% of an employee’s annual salary.2 Turnover costs include all costs relating to hiring, recruitment, training, and lost productivity, as well as the impact on SLAs, deadlines, and other staff members. Lack of growth opportunities and an inability to see a long- term career at the organization are huge retention risks, particularly for Millennials who are extremely career-centric. By 2025 Millennials will make up roughly 75% of the workforce.1 Engaging millennials in growth opportunities will be critical for retention and maintaining a productive workforce. Impact of Engagement on Retention McLean & Company; N=1,308 IT Employees Source: 1 – Erica Dhawan, Gen Y Workforce and Workplace Are Out of Sync. 2 – Inc.

Engaged employees report not only working longer but also that they feel a higher sense of pride about their work Engaged employees don’t just work harder, they deliver higher quality service and products. Engaged employees are significantly more likely to agree that they regularly accomplish more than what’s expected of them, choose to work extra hours to improve results, and take pride in the work they do. Without this sense of pride and ownership over the quality of service IT provides, IT departments are at serious risk of not being able to deliver quality service, on time, and on budget. Knowing the engagement levels of your staff and actively looking to improve them is therefore critical for success. Impact of Engagement on Performance McLean & Company; N=1,308 IT Employees

Engagement is fundamentally about leadership – it’s your responsibility Many organizations would argue that improving employee engagement is the responsibility of the human resources department. This traditional view of engagement can be beneficial for organization-wide initiatives and it allows for a consistent approach across an enterprise. However, despite human resources’ involvement, IT leadership is ultimately accountable for the engagement of their staff. Why Should IT Leadership Be Responsible for Their Staff Engagement? 1 Leaders have the single greatest impact on engagement. The highest impact drivers of engagement for IT are related to leadership, including Employee Empowerment, Culture, Company Potential, Senior Management Relationships, and Departmental Relationships. When CIOs engage their team, all of these engagement drivers are affected. 2 Engagement happens every day, through every interaction. When engagement is owned by IT leadership, engagement initiatives are incorporated into day-to-day management practice – and managers begin to view every interaction with employees as an opportunity to engage. It is this active, dynamic leadership that inspires ongoing employee engagement. 3 Leaders should tailor engagement to individual team members. If IT leaders know their team members well, they can engage employees based on their individual characteristics: what motivates them, their likes and dislikes, and their goals. There is nothing more powerful in engagement than personalization.

If these symptoms resonate with you, it might be time to invest in improving IT employee engagement Signs you may need to improve employee engagement… “Employees rarely offer to stay late to finish work.” “The rate of turnover is higher than industry average or in previous years.” “Employee rankings of the IT department on social networking sites (e.g. Glassdoor) are low.” “Missed deadlines don’t seem to trouble employees.” “Key employees are regularly oppositional to suggestions or requests.” “Employees are frequently absent from their jobs.” “Business partners complain about the lack of effort or care put in by IT employees.” “Lack of creativity and innovation – staff do not look for new opportunities to improve products or services.” “Staff meetings are not well attended or there is a lack of participation.” “Staff members vocally complain about the organization.” “I struggle to motivate my staff to change.” “Certain IT staff seem to be putting in time rather than effort.”

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