Are you telling staff your main business aim this year is survival? It's not good enough, experts warn
By Martin Kornacki (23-04-2009)
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Businesses need a “cause greater than just survival” if they are to sustain employee engagement during the economic upturn, warn leading HR practitioners.
David Smith (pictured), formerly of Asda and Philippa Hird, formerly of ITV, were speaking at the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) HRD conference in London on Wednesday.
They said developing an organisation where people understood their contribution to the business and their role in meeting its objectives was vital if employees were going to find meaning and purpose at work.
Both drew on the experience of restructuring their respective companies and recommended developing ways to measure long term employee moral.
Smith, who is credited with contributing to the business revival of Asda in recent years, said: “Metrics is critical to what we do in HR, from experience I have found a correlation over time between how people feel and the success of their organisation.”
He found that Asda stores with the highest staff morale also had the highest profits.
“Engagement fundamentals are much more important then giving staff more money. Money is a de-motivator in most cases, feeling valued is much more important.”
He added engagement should be targeted broadly across an organisation by recognising outstanding work and delivering the wider message of the organisation to employees at every opportunity.
“We absolutely overdosed on communication at Asda, despite having 170,000 staff they all knew where they were going,” said Smith.
And despite running a very different business, Hird said communicating the real cause of your company was universally important.
“Survival could be a good cause, but you can only do it once and you have to give reasons for why you should survive.
“You need a cause greater than just survival to motivate staff, strong businesses that get behind their missions do well.”
Bad times were a good time for change, the speakers said and implementing a thorough system of metrics from the start would encourage manager participation - which ultimately was the key to delivering the company's message.
David Smith (pictured), formerly of Asda and Philippa Hird, formerly of ITV, were speaking at the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) HRD conference in London on Wednesday.
They said developing an organisation where people understood their contribution to the business and their role in meeting its objectives was vital if employees were going to find meaning and purpose at work.
Both drew on the experience of restructuring their respective companies and recommended developing ways to measure long term employee moral.
Smith, who is credited with contributing to the business revival of Asda in recent years, said: “Metrics is critical to what we do in HR, from experience I have found a correlation over time between how people feel and the success of their organisation.”
He found that Asda stores with the highest staff morale also had the highest profits.
“Engagement fundamentals are much more important then giving staff more money. Money is a de-motivator in most cases, feeling valued is much more important.”
He added engagement should be targeted broadly across an organisation by recognising outstanding work and delivering the wider message of the organisation to employees at every opportunity.
“We absolutely overdosed on communication at Asda, despite having 170,000 staff they all knew where they were going,” said Smith.
And despite running a very different business, Hird said communicating the real cause of your company was universally important.
“Survival could be a good cause, but you can only do it once and you have to give reasons for why you should survive.
“You need a cause greater than just survival to motivate staff, strong businesses that get behind their missions do well.”
Bad times were a good time for change, the speakers said and implementing a thorough system of metrics from the start would encourage manager participation - which ultimately was the key to delivering the company's message.
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