With greater access to local, national and international research, we hear the Gallup statistics a lot these days.
That leaders and managers can make a massive difference to staff wellbeing and that 87% of employees worldwide are disengaged at work is a real ‘dur’ moment for any of us that have been poorly managed (which is clearly most of us at some point).
Should someone running a tiny enterprise be worrying about this?
How many HR departments are putting meaningful actions into place to address the challenges of the workplace?
Assuming we have our ears and eyes open to what’s going on around us, there is a wealth of advice, data and ‘good practice’ to draw on. And in the social media age we’re all shouting about the great stuff we do with our teams. With this bombardment critical faculties have never been more important.
Having worked for the local authority, I’m conscious that trying to shift culture, invest in people and bring about change can pretty much only be achieved by superheroes.
So when you give up on being a superhero (or waiting for one) you start your own business. This means working for a micro enterprise you have it really easy ;). You can build culture and employee engagement from the bottom up and tweak it quickly and transparently when it falters. We can choose our people with care. At scale it becomes about systems that don’t forget people.
In this knowledge my focus for staff engagement in 2020 will be the following three things:
⁃ Finalising and communicating our Staff Engagement Strategy embedded in our values. This will include wellbeing, staff remuneration, volunteering at work, flexible working and living our values through who we partner with and buy from.
⁃ Developing metrics across the organisation, the team, the Board and myself to ensure real progress as well as a sense of shared common purpose.
⁃ Being financially sound. Healthy finances mean better job security, prospects to develop, exciting projects and more resource to relieve pressure.