Most organisations today accept that employee engagement is a key differentiator between them and their competitors – those that are high performing, innovative, and with high levels of retention tend to be characterised by higher levels of engagement, while others have a very different culture and less positive outcomes.

Engagement is taken so seriously that many large organisations have a Head of Employee Engagement. Indeed, the wide-ranging and well-established business case for engagement across the public and private sector was the subject of the government’s popular MacLeod Review, the findings of which were published in a report entitled “Engaging for Success”.

In order to try to benefit from engagement, a large proportion of organisations undertake engagement surveys to assess the extent to which it is present across their workforces. These surveys range from Gallup’s Q12 (just 12 questions in total), to much longer and detailed surveys which gather data not just on current levels of engagement, but also information on employee views on a range of factors that are essential to maintaining wellbeing and positive attitudes to work including motivation, morale, and satisfaction.

Where engagement surveys face their limitations

You would think that with these surveys being widespread, and many having established brand names in the field, that they would be doing the trick in contributing to increasing engagement and providing organisations with the data they need for increased success in this area.

Our experience, however, suggests this is far from the truth. While these surveys are very important, they are not sophisticated enough in their current state to do what is necessary to provide organisations with the means for increasing engagement.

From clients, we regularly hear the same story – HR Directors are proud to work for forward-thinking companies where engagement surveys are part of the fabric of the organisation and where the leaders of teams and departments are held accountable for the results.

The problem is, these leaders feel frustrated and demoralised because they simply don’t know where to start when it comes to using the data to leverage genuine increases in engagement and performance.

What do leaders need?

The good news for organisations is that there is a simple solution to how to leverage engagement, and it will make common sense to the leaders tasked with the effort.

Organisations are absolutely right in believing that their leaders hold the key to increasing employee engagement – research consistently shows that leadership behaviour can either have a very powerful negative effect, or a very positive one. Unless the right leadership behaviours are displayed, the 60% of people in a typical organisation who are neither engaged nor disengaged will likely remain so, which is an utter waste for them and their company.

It is ok to hold leaders accountable to leverage performance through engagement – but they must be provided with the appropriate data and tools to do so, for their sake and that of their organisation.

Empowering leaders to leverage performance

As experts in engaging leadership, Real World Group has for the past 10 years been researching and assessing the factors in organisations that genuinely make the difference to performance, innovation, wellbeing, motivation, satisfaction, and commitment, among other factors. We have the world’s only proven model of leadership for enhancing engagement – with published findings in many international journals.

Alongside asking questions of employees on the extent to which they are engaged or not, organisations must also collect data (either through the same survey, through an additional survey or 360-degree feedback) across departments, grades and sites about the extent to which leaders are behaving in ways that increase engagement. Specifically, leaders need to know what they need to do more of, or differently, in order to correct the situation.

Will the baby be thrown out with the bathwater?

Our concern is that if the approach is not changed soon, organisations that have tried and failed to leverage engagement will start to reject the idea that it is important, because it is perceived as “too difficult”. In other words, there is a real danger that the baby will be thrown out with the bathwater.

The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that, from whatever angle you look at it, engagement is crucial to organisations surviving and thriving, and the key differential between those that are successful and unsuccessful.

It would be a real tragedy for an organisation and its leaders to turn a blind eye to such an important development – especially when the behaviours that need to be adopted in order to make all the difference are actually very simple.

Get in touch

Do these issues resonate with you? We invite you to get in touch with us to discuss how our bespoke survey tools, 360-degree individual and team diagnostic instruments can effectively and validly assess and increase engagement through leaders within your organisation.

With the right data, and an understanding of the key drivers of engagement that your leaders can make sense of and leverage, there is no end to what your organisation can achieve.