Real culture change in any organization starts at the top.
Specifically, any employee engagement effort is first a leadership engagement effort.
It seems obvious but what commonly happens is the leader – CEO, executive director, owner – has the epiphany that the front-line workers don’t seem to care.
There’s a sense of apathy or just going through the motions of the job.
The leader, understanding this isn’t good for business, pronounces that it needs to change. Then promptly assigns it to a committee or the head of human resources to come up with a solution.
It’s clear from research, that while that might improve things a little, it won’t lead to significant transformation.
Who says?
Two of the biggest workforce researchers in the world. Gallup and ADP Research Institute.
You’ve heard me talk about these organizations before. We use their data all the time in our work transforming employee and customer experiences.
When they are saying the same thing, it’s a good bet they’re right.
First, I was reading “Gallup’s Perspective on Building a High-Development Culture Through Your Employee Engagement Strategy” the other day. It’s a massive analysis of many studies over the past 20 years.
It includes 1.8 million employees in 49 industries and 73 countries.
It starts with the reality that digital technology has changed the relationship between employer and employee. And that efforts to improve employee engagement aren’t working.
Why?
“Leadership commitment is the primary reason that organizational change succeeds or fails. That’s why it is essential that top executives across the organization believe in a high-engagement, high-development strategy — and lead by example.”
Marcus Buckingham, the company’s head of research, people + performance, said much the same thing in a recent webinar on employee engagement.
“Any initiative that goes directly to the workforce doesn’t matter without the leadership,” he said.
Now, there’s a LOT more that goes into it, that I can’t get into here.
But it goes back to this. The level of engagement of your workforce directly predicts the quality of your customer experience which is ultimately what drives the success of your business.
Which raises the question: What is the employee engagement strategy at your business?
Want to get a quick look at what employee disengagement may be costing you? Use our calculator to find out.