We have seen a massive growth of the importance of employee engagement in the workplace as employers understood that a more engaged workforce would be likely to be more productive.  It’s fairly obvious in logic for a knowledge-based economy, but it was a long gestation, with great research by academics and through slow progression, in the science of ‘engagement’, from satisfaction to the deeper meaning of engagement – supported by the work of the pollsters [e.g., Gallop’s Q12 in 1996].

A further big step came in 2009 with a government sponsored initiative led by one of my former colleagues [Engaging for Success, David MacLeod with Nita Clarke].  This certainly gave the concept a higher, business focused, impetus.  While the science has cotinued to develop, a bigger and more impactful leap forward came with the use of technology in the collection, analysis and reporting of engagement survey outcomes. This had the impact of reducing costs and improving insights through smart analytics. 

As is often the case, however, this has led to engagement services becoming commoditised. In a perverse way engagement has been turned into a ‘tick-box exercise’ rather than something to bring strategic insights for business improvement.

So, today, where does this leave us?

Well, for sure there is a long tail of predominantly smaller companies who still have to embrace engagement, and some who have scope to take it to a higher, more meaningful level. 

But the dominant market trend is for clients looking to continue what they are doing in the cheapest and most efficient way possible. This is not an environment that will lead to significant progress on the journey of continuous improvement, especially at a time of social change, when employee expectations are sky high.

If employee engagement is coming close to the end of its natural life, then there needs to be a step change.  This can only come from, in our view, doing three things:

1. Re-thinking the science aligned to the changing cultural and social norms in the workplace;
2. Using ‘smarter’ software solutions to test and validate a greater number of variables; and
3. Re-thinking the audiences – not just those in employment, but also customers or other stakeholders.

This is not a short-term, easy fix.  But we believe it’s time to start – and this is our plan:

Step one – move the science forward.  We at QCG have trialled and now launched a new QCG Employee Value Proposition (EVP) diagnostic tool.

This both streamlines and modernises the key factors that underpin the employee experience.

Step two – upgrade solutions – we are at ‘alpha’ stage on this, using an existing (and excellent) platform, with scope to improve, but this can only follow the developing science, not lead it in our view.  However, to meet modern needs, we are also exploring how the diagnostic tool can operate on variable software platforms.

Step three – re-think the audiences – we are in alpha + on this and starting to trial options, including testing prospective employees’ expectations and or those of customers (exciting stuff).

Conclusion

We live in fast moving and exciting times - needing to keep pace with technology and changing social norms.  Engagement is not dead, but slumbering, and new thinking must come into play.

Want to join us on this journey?   To help accelerate moving forward is the key lesson from the slow gestation of employee engagement.  We see this being achieved through combining thought leadership with practical experience, providing a fast track to the next big step in gaining productivity and business success from your key asset – your people. Get in touch

Alan Hurst, Managing Director at QCG - March 2019