recnews.co.uk

While HR is now investing substantial resources in programmes to foster employee engagement it is still failing to make the all-important connection with business profitability. And without this link and the resultant buy-in from corporate boards such initiatives could be doomed to failure. That’s the message from the Ochre House Network think tank which includes over 650 major employers including Axa, Balfour Beatty, GE, KPMG and Orange.

At its latest meeting the think tank concluded that organisations are still relying heavily on employee surveys to measure levels of engagement. But while most delegates believed there was a direct link between happy employees, happy customers and consequent corporate success only 15% said their companies were proving this with parallel customer satisfaction research.

“The classic example of how the link can be made in practice is the twin survey approach instituted by Simon Patton during his time as HR director of the Somerfield supermarket chain,” says Ochre House’s Helena Parry who leads the think tank. “Both employees and customers were surveyed twice a year to establish a direct correlation between employee and customer satisfaction and a measurement of consequent financial results. Negative feedback resulted in immediate and demonstrable action at store level to ensure that both employees and customers felt empowered and that the research was much more than just ‘widow dressing’. And to ensure this action happened store managers’ bonuses were directly linked to effectiveness in this area.”

“What makes this approach so effective is its stripped down simplicity,” she continues. “It could quite possibly provide a template for any HR department committed to making employee engagement more than just a good idea.”