1. Empower Managers to Take Ownership of Employee Engagement
Transfer the ownership of employee engagement from HR to team managers.
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2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Key Insight: SAMPLE Situation
The responsibility of employee engagement has been on the shoulders of HR and the executive team for years, but employee engagement is a shared accountability and also includes managers and employees.
Managers have a large impact on employee engagement and retention. According to McLean & Company’s engagement data, every 10% increase in the category “my manager inspires me to improve” resulted in a 4.15% increase in an employee’s intent to stay (N=113,245; 2017).
To improve the manager relationship driver, managers cannot abdicate the responsibility of strengthening relationships with employees to HR – they must take the ownership role.
Complication
Managers often fail to take steps to improve this driver for the following reasons:
They don’t understand the impact they can have on engagement.
They don’t understand the value of an engaged workforce.
They don’t feel that they are responsible for engagement.
They don’t know what steps they can personally take to improve engagement levels.
Resolution
When an organization focuses on strengthening manager relationships with employees, HR should act as a facilitator and empower managers to own their impact.
McLean & Company recommends starting with the three most important actions to improve employee trust and therefore engagement: inform employees of the why behind decisions, interact with them on a personal level, and involve them in decisions that affect them, (also known as McLean & Company’s 3i model.)
Use this deck to prepare to train managers on how to apply the 3i model and improve the score on this engagement driver.
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3. GUIDED IMPLEMENTATION
MCLEAN & COMPANY OFFERS VARIOUS LEVELS OF SUPPORT TO BEST SUIT YOUR NEEDS
CONSULTING
“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”
GUIDED IMPLEMENTATION
“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”
DIY
TOOLKIT
“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”
WORKSHOP
“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options
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4. Plan the training session and customize the materials
Use McLean & Company’s process to empower managers to improve employee relationships
Track training success metrics and follow up
Understand key concepts and HR’s role
Prepare for training 3 1
Plan the training session and customize the materials 2
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5. SAMPLE SLIDES
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6. Tell employees the whys. Solicit input from employees.
Apply McLean & Company’s 3i model to help managers earn their employees’ trust
To earn employees’ trust, managers must inform, interact with, and involve employees: the three components of openness.
Inform
Interact
Involve
DOWN UP
CONNECT
Tell employees the whys.
Get to know employees.
Solicit input from employees.
For more advice on developing trust, see McLean & Company’s blueprint:
Train Leaders to Adopt an Informed Trust Approach to Drive Employee Engagement and Business Results.
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7. On average, these scores have not seen improvement, year over year.
The manager relationships driver usually scores moderately, but tends to stagnate
Although the manager relationships driver usually scores moderately, there is still room for improvement
On average, less than 58% of respondents agree to these positive statements about their managers.
On average, these scores have not seen improvement, year over year.
According to a SHRM report, manager relationships were rated as the third most important condition for engagement, and jumped two spots from the previous year (SHRM, 2016).
Over half (53%) of employees rated the relationship with their immediate supervisor as very important to job satisfaction (SHRM, 2016).
(McLean & Company, N=137,243 to 187,359; 2017)
The percentages represent the percentage of employees who responded “agree” or “strongly agree” to the above statements.
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8. “Engagement is an HR thing. Why should I be responsible for it?”
So, why aren’t managers making this a priority?
Manager objections:
Reframe:
“Engagement is an HR thing. Why should I be responsible for it?”
No, engagement is a manager accountability – HR is there as a support mechanism.
HR's role is to facilitate the feedback through a survey and help managers with next steps; however, managers have the greatest impact on their team's engagement due to the closeness of the working relationship.
“Having an impact on my team’s engagement seems overwhelming. I don’t know where to start.”
Engagement is actually not very complicated at all. The first step is to talk to your employees about what can be done to improve their engagement on the team.
The key to improving the manager relationship driver is developing trust with your employees through informing them, interacting with them on a personal and professional level, and involving them in decision making.
This storyboard and accompanying manager training deck provides specific advice for both HR and managers on how to follow through on the 3i’s.
“I have a lot of things on my plate and engagement is not one of them.”
It should be – engagement impacts almost every aspect of employment. Remaining engaged will help your team achieve other goals and targets, such as increased levels of productivity and performance.
You don’t need formal initiatives to keep your employees engaged. As a manager, your biggest impact on engagement comes from having employees’ trust and building positive relationships with them. You can achieve these outcomes through everyday interactions with your team.
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