Growing engagement – Kia Tu – Rotorua Lakes Council

“Ultimately, our ability as managers is measured by what our team members do, not by what we do ourselves. We need our team more than they need us. So, your primary role is to create and maintain a highly engaged team, if you do that the results will follow.”

Geoff Williams

What is employee engagement and why does it matter?

“Employee engagement is the measure of an employee’s positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organisation that profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work”

Engagement is vital to our success because it drives retention, performance, customer service, discretionary effort and ultimately determines whether we will achieve our 2030 vision. Research shows that as manager you have the greatest influence on your teams engagement levels. The people you hire, the climate and standards you set, the behavior you encourage or discourage, the feedback you give, the development opportunities you create all contribute to engagement and hence to the performance of your team.

“Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”

Anne Mulcahy

Background learning on engagement - why it matters and how to grow engagement

These video clips explain the concept of engagement – why it matters to you as a manager, what drives engagement and how you can grow engagement in your team.

- What is employee engagement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JbWInqfKLk
- HR Get your employees engaged Campbells Soups Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9buGE_vKxcc
- Employee engagement strategy for managers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNr4tE74xUE

Your responsibility

- Understand the concept
- Understand the drivers of engagement
- Work with your team to grow individual and collective engagement

What you can do to grow engagement from today

Because you, as manager, directly influence so many of the factors that drive your teams engagement it is important you know what you can do that will grow engagement amongst your team. Listed below are everyday people management activities which will positively impact your teams engagement. Use our Toolkit for growing engagement to diagnose opportunities for growing engagement and put action plans in place. Key activities that will grow engagement include:

Recruiting the right people into your team – people who share our values and vision.
Onboarding quickly and effectively – helps get them established and equipped for success.
Setting high standards and expectations – so people are clear what success looks like.
Manage H&S so people get that you care about them.
Solve performance/behaviour issues – so people see you resolve situations where people aren’t showing commitment or letting the team down.
Use our P&PD process – regularly talking and listening to people about their performance, development and progress.
Give feedback & coaching – recognition, praise, correction and coaching are essential for growing/maintaining engagement.
Actively develop people and teams -to give people growth opportunities.
Delegate – to give your team opportunity for growth.
Help people handle their personal problems – to show we care.
Give praise, recognition and reward – to reinforce and encourage performance.
Instil our values – to help people buy in and align.

“To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace”.

Doug Conant

Our annual engagement survey process

Each year in October, we undertake an employee engagement survey. Its purpose is to benchmark levels of engagement across the business and help us identify how we can grow engagement to the levels necessary for us to be successful. Your responsibility is to encourage your team to participate, communicate the results, and work with them to plan and implement actions which will grow engagement or address issues arising from the survey. The results of the survey are communicated to the organisation at the start of the following year. You will find all the background you need to the survey process in the employee survey process for managers. Use the action planning template to capture what you want to improve, how you will go about it who was responsible to help you need and the timetable for action.