Playbook  Building an Engaged Workforce

Playbook
Actionable strategies based
on rigorous research

Building an
Engaged
Workforce

www.i4cp.com Institute for Corporate Productivity

www.i4cp.com
 Playbook  Building an Engaged Workforce

About this report

Playbooks provide actionable strategies based on a

comprehensive global survey of industry respondents,
often supplemented with interviews of practitioners.
They include real-world examples of how some com-
panies have addressed a particular issue. Playbooks
help members develop or modify current strategies to
improve productivity and effectiveness.

Target Survey Population

The target survey population of the Learning and En-
gagement Survey 2007 consisted of the i4cp e-mail Editorial
list of primarily high-level human resource profes- Address:
sionals and the ASTD membership list. In addition,
HR.com sent the survey to its membership. In total, 5959 Central Avenue, Suite 201
776 respondents filled out one or more engagement- St. Petersburg, FL, U.S.A. 33710
related survey questions. Respondents represented a Telephone 727-345-2226
variety of organizational sizes and industries.
Fax 727-345-1254
Survey Instrument www.i4cp.com
In this survey, multiple questions used the well-
accepted 1-5 Likert-type scale, with a 1 rating gener- Inquiries:
ally designated as “very little” and a 5 rating as “very
much.” There were 19 questions in all, five geared to- 411 First Avenue South, Suite 403
ward the demographics of respondents. Various ques- Seattle, WA, U.S.A. 98104
tions had multiple parts. Telephone 866-375-i4cp (4427)
Fax 206-624-6951
Procedure
A link to an online survey was e-mailed to the target inquiries@i4cp.com
population during September and October 2007.

Member companies may reproduce and distribute

this report on an unlimited basis to their em-
ployees for internal management purposes only.
Nonemployees (including outside consultants) may
not be given copies of or access to i4cp’s reports,
online services or conference materials. Copyright
the Institute for Corporate Productivity, St. Peters-
burg, Florida, U.S.A. All rights reserved.

Institute for Corporate Productivity www.i4cp.com

 Playbook  Building an Engaged Workforce

Contents

 Executive Summary 2
 Know Your Challenges 4
Challenge One: Your Organization Probably Has a Problem with Poor Engagement 4
Challenge Two: A Lot Rides on Your Organization’s Engagement 4
Challenge Three: Your Organization Might Not Know How to Define,
Much Less Manage, Engagement 5
Challenge Four: Your Organization Probably Doesn’t Measure It Well 6
Challenge Five: It’s Likely Your Leaders Aren’t Being Held Accountable Enough for Engagement 7
Challenge Six: Your Organization Might Not Hold Enough People Responsible for Engagement 8
 Adopt and Implement the Right Engagement Practices 9
Start with Your Leaders 9
Learn What Today’s Organizations Are Doing to Develop Engaging Leaders 9
Learn Which Leadership Practices Should Be Used More 10
Take Steps to Make Engagement a Leadership Priority at All Levels 11
Forge an Engaging Corporate Culture 13
Learn What Today’s Organizations Are Doing to Engage via Culture and Values 13
Learn Which Culture and Communication Practices Should Be Used More 13
Take Steps to Promote a Culture of Engagement 14
Utilize Engaging Practices and Processes 16
Learn What Today’s Organizations Are Doing to Integrate Engagement into Work Processes 16
Learn Which Integration Processes Should Be Used More Often 17
Take Steps to Integrate in Engagement via Rewards, Evaluations and Other Practices 17
Leverage Learning and Development 19
Determine What Organizations Are Doing to Use Learning as an Engagement Process 19
Determine Which Learning Practices Should Be Used More Often 20
Take Steps to Build a Learning and Development Culture 21
 Conclusion 23
 Bibliography 24
 Authors and Contributors 25

www.i4cp.com Institute for Corporate Productivity 1

 Playbook  Building an Engaged Workforce

Executive Summary
Engagement is top of mind in most organizations right now, but there’s
not enough solid evidence about how to boost engagement. This report,
which is partly based on a survey conducted by the Institute for Corporate
Productivity (i4cp) and commissioned by the American Society for Training
& Development, highlights the problems that organizations face in regard to
engagement and the potential solutions for addressing those problems. The
problems and solutions are detailed throughout the rest of the report. Here
are just a few of the highlights.

Problem #1: Solution #1:

Although most companies see Create a culture of engagement by focusing on a

engagement as being very important,
not enough workers are highly en-
gaged in today’s organizations. Yet
higher engagement is correlated with
better market performance.
variety of specific messages and practices geared to-
ward boosting engagement. Our study shows that com-
panies with more highly engaged workforces differed
most from their more poorly engaged counterparts by
actively promoting a culture of engagement.

Problem
Problem #1:
#2:
Few companies say their lead-
ers take (to a high extent) effective
actions to improve employee engage-
ment, though most say their leaders
should do so. What’s more, most of
today’s leaders aren’t held account-
able for engagement to a high extent.
Solution #2:
Engagement isn’t likely to “just happen.” Make
managers at all levels of the organization responsible
for engagement. This means not only rewarding them
for engaging employees but also evaluating them in
terms of their ability to do things such as coach work-
ers in ways that boost engagement.

Problem #3:
#1: Solution #3:

Most leaders aren’t well trained Put more effort into developing leaders so they
to engage. acquire good engagement skills. Organizations should
keep engagement goals in mind when designing learn-
ing programs for managers at all levels.

2 Institute for Corporate Productivity www.i4cp.com

 Playbook  Building an Engaged Workforce

Problem #4:
#1: solution #4:

Most organizations don’t have Learn from the research which strategies actu-
well-understood strategies for boost- ally work, and clarify which ones to utilize in your
ing engagement. organization.

Problem #5:
#1: solution #5:

You can’t manage what you don’t
measure, and engagement is a case in
point. Few organizations have formal
engagement assessments in place to a
high extent. Moreover, the most com-
mon method of measuring engagement
is “after the fact” through the use of
exit interviews and turnover tracking.
There are proactive methods to measure engage-
ment, such as surveys, one-on-one interviews or focus
groups with employees. Research indicates that there
is a correlation between responses to certain questions
and engaged employees. To manage engagement bet-
ter, companies should measure it better.

Problem #6:
#1: solution #6:

Companies don’t even use their Find out how your organization can maximize the
benefits, rewards and recognition results of your benefits programs as well as your reward
programs to engage to the extent that and recognition programs to support engagement.
they should.

The Bottom Line:

Organizations can do a lot to improve employee
engagement and build an engaged culture. In
this playbook, we’ll outline important things for
you to consider and provide steps on how you
can improve engagement in your organization.

www.i4cp.com Institute for Corporate Productivity 3