The RWC has kicked off unleashing with it a sense of national pride, passion, fun and excitement.  All these factors also lend themselves to a sense of engagement whether at work or play. High employee engagement is what all employers and business want as research shows a direct correlation with bottom line measures such as profitability and productivity.    Engaged employees produce better results with higher sales, greater teamwork, loyalty and customer service and less absenteeism. 

So how do we get the best out of people during the RWC – when they are likely to be distracted, fatigued, and some would rather be watching the games than be at work?

Whether you are a business owner, employee or manager and leader be mindful of the following over the next five weeks.  These issues were discussed at a recent HRINZ (Human Resources Institute New Zealand) leadership SIG meeting in Auckland, attended by over 40 managers and Human Resources professionals from a diverse range of industries and where Coca Cola Amatil – a major RWC sponsor – shared strategies for encouraging employee engagement at work. (more…)

1. Employee engagement is a three-way process and requires responsibility, accountability and ownership from employer, employees and the organization.  We talk about employee engagement including the kinds of things employees need to feel engaged and what the managers and leaders need to provide. The latter certainly have an active role in harnessing the best of their talent and creating a rich culture that people want to be part of and enjoy coming to work.  There is certainly a lot that can be done at the level of leadership engagement behaviours.  However, employees aren’t mere passive receptacles of these initiatives but are also active players who have a role in shaping a great workplace. (more…)

A very natural tendency for the human mind is to focus on problems and what needs fixing.  If we are given feedback that is mostly positive, we still gravitate towards the one negative in the mix. The mind is a problem-solving apparatus and zeroes in to resolve the ‘incomplete” or unresolved.  

In our work, with the ever expanding “to do” list and multiple projects on the go, it is easy to ignore what is working well and acknowledge milestones and progress made.  In the pursuit of the incomplete, we easily overlook the complete!  

This is not to say that we overlook the risks or what else may need addressing but more that we acknowledge and build on the strengths. That we have that as a strong reference point to build on rather than the default negative  weakness focus.

In our careers too, we are much more effective when we are driving off our strengths and putting these to good use in the service of others while also gaining a sense of personal fulfillment.

A colleague asked me, “How do we get organizations and managers recognizing and acting on the strengths concept, rather than the negative weakness focus we see so regularly?” (more…)

Employee engagement is an issue of major concern for most organizations as the price of ambivalence or worse, disengagement in the work place can indeed be very costly. Employees are engaged when they have a sense of commitment to the company regarding it as a great place to work, when they willingly go the extra mile and put in the discretionary effort, and when they don’t want to work anywhere else.   According to global human resources management and outsourcing firm Hewitt, engagement is the extent to which an organisation has captured the ‘hearts and minds’ of its people and is made of three key behaviours – Say, Stay and Strive.  (more…)

 If you were to pause and take a reading on the current levels of engagement in your team, what might you discover? How engaged are your people in the work they are doing?  Are they fully engaged in doing what is fundamental to your business success? Or worse, are they disengaged or even actively disengaged? (more…)