Sep 23, 2013 | Blog

Fueling Engagement: Is a Great Career Proposition the Answer?

Engage Your People
Develop Your Workforce

Engagement and passion are without question interlinked. John Sumser in his blog earlier this week told the story of a disenfranchised employee working in retail selling shirts and doing an exceptional job of entertaining and delighting every customer. This guy had come to the realisation he was never going to be rich or famous in retails sales, but then made a conscious decision to make his job the most fun that he possibly could. This exceptional person made such an impact on John that he decided to re-visit the link between passion and engagement in his blog. 

 

However, the sad fact is that this guy was probably a rarity. 

 

How can we get the passion factor in all of our employees and get the resulting engagement benefits? There is an answer, and that answer lies in tapping into the unique ‘engagers’ in each employee. Every one of us has some personal goals or dreams or hidden talents that are just begging to be used at work. Every managers’ task is to tap into what will drive and motivate each member of their team.

 

Tapping into the personal values and motivators of employees can be easy when you have simple tools like the Career Engagement Groups’ Values exercise in the careerCENTRE, which can be used by managers and employees from the first day in employment or as part of the onboarding experience. This activity is critical to really understand what will light the fire of that employee and get that spark at work going.

 

Recent research from Aon Hewitt has shown that, without question, Career Propositions are a primary driver of engagement in organisations. Of the top 6 drivers they identified, careers or a career proposition were related to four of the highest ranking factors contributing to engagement. 

 

Let’s look at each one of these and how your organisation can use them to fuel engagement.

 

  • 1. A clear career path.  From the minute someone joins your organisation, they have expectations about where this new job or opportunity will take them. They joined your organisation for a reason and have expectations about how your business is going to help them achieve their goals. Providing a clear line of sight into the opportunities that lie ahead may even impact their decision to join your business. Many organisations are including career path software such as the careerCENTRE as part of a unique recruitment experience. 
  • 2. Career Development. The second factor driving engagement in organisations is providing career development so that each employee grows their skills and capabilities. Planning for development is critical to delivering on that employment career promise. Most employees are thinking, “I will stay with you, as long as I believe I am growing my career and can see how the work I am doing will benefit me long term. “
  • 3. Necessary Development. Delivering the development around an individuals’ career goals will have a positive impact on engagement according to Aon Hewitt. This does not have to be hard or costly. The best development is delivered in real-world learning experiences like mentors, expanding skills on a project, or taking the lead in an area that is slightly beyond current competence levels. Being asked to ‘step-up” is where we achieve our best learning.
  • 4. Understanding managers. So simple and not yet not always easy to achieve, as only the most skilled and experienced leaders have great insight into the motivators of others are able to do this with ease. For the rest of us, there are simple questions that we can ask in one-on- one conversations with our employees such as “what skills and talents do you most enjoy using at work?” and “what aspects of your work do you find most enjoyable?” If managers and employees have tools like the Career Engagement Groups’ careerCENTRE  they can use quick and simple exercises to tap into individual motivators and access DIY guides to find the answer as to what WILL motivate and engage each and every employee.  The fastest way to impact engagement across the entire organisation is to obtain this key information.  One of CEG’s clients, a 2012 Best Places to Work winner, experienced a 10-point percentage gain in engagement within 15 months after launching the careerCENTRE.

 

Anne Fulton, the CEO and Co-founder of the Career Engagement Group has been a Registered Organisational Psychologist for over 20 years, combining this with years of coaching people at work through her previous businesses Career Analysts and Talent Technologies.  She has worked with many organisations to design and deliver engaging career propositions that deliver a measurable ROI. She can be reached on twitter @CareerEngagementGroup or through LinkedIn’s Career Engagement Group – an open learning community.