Articles & White PapersAre your employees engaged - or ready to walk out?
September 5, 2010
Do your employees have what they need to drive peak performance?
How much warning will you have before the wheels fall off the wagon?
Business leaders today are faced with almost unprecedented HR challenges.
The labour market has become extremely competitive with the lowest unemployment levels in over a generation.
The shift from manual to intellectual labour has increased the developmental curve required of senior contributors: senior professionals and other knowledge workers make valuable contributions to their respective enterprises based largely on their experience - which, by definition, takes time to accumulate. They cannot be easily replaced.
The very nature of knowledge work makes such workers highly portable - the value they contribute is not tied to the tools they use in the workplace, it's resident in their heads.
Finally, management practices at many organizations, driven by economic ups and downs, may have produced organizational cultures with lower employer-employee loyalty than existed when the Baby Boomers entered the workforce 40 years ago.
The result?
Modern enterprises may be more exposed than ever before to the loss of key employees. Highly capable employees at all levels feel less loyal to their employers and possess highly transportable competencies. Faced with a shortage in supply, the demand for these competencies is driving up their value - creating a market value that may entice all but the most satisfied employee.
When key contributors do leave, organizations are finding it increasingly difficult and expensive to replace them.
All of this adds up to one clear conclusion: smart enterprises are investing significant effort and resources in ensuring their key performers are fully engaged in the enterprise, feel a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that would be hard to replace, and are strongly motivated to remain with their employers and help them succeed.
What to do is clear. How to do it is the challenge every business leader and HR professional is currently grappling with.
Is your company at risk?
One of the first steps business leaders should take is to do a quick reality check. How at risk is your organization? How engaged are your employees? Are they generally satisfied, or are their undercurrents and hidden issues that are weakening the bond between employer and employed and increasing the risk that highly-valuable key performers may jump ship at an inopportune time?
Perhaps even of a concern, are all employees motivated to perform at their full potential - or is there a significant cohort of "ghost workers" - those who are showing up, being paid, but not really contributing as well as they might?
Felix recently launched a proprietary assessment instrument called CultureTrax™ that provides business leaders with unprecedented early warning of potential issues such as those outlined above.
Developed for Felix by Dr. Maryann Fraboni, Ph.D., CultureTrax™ is a flexible survey instrument that can be used to identify potential risks, strengths and opportunities for development.
"We can use CultureTrax™ to establish a baseline snapshot of the employee engagement level within an organization," explains Jim Graham, President & CEO of Felix. "From that baseline we can then identify areas for development and can measure changes over time so we know what's working and what isn't."
CultureTrax™ is relatively easy to deploy. The survey includes 40 standard questions and can include additional customer/issue-specific questions as well. It can be conducted in many ways: on paper, online or using FelixLive!™ a revolutionary new web-interactive hosted focus group.
Data is then analyzed by Felix experts and results presented back to the customer with recommendations and tactics designed to achieve specific results.
Beyond early warning of potential flaws, CultureTRAX™ also helps business leaders determine if employees have what they need in order to perform at peak levels. And, if not, it can pinpoint exactly what is missing and where in the organization the issue exists. This enables business leaders to invest their efforts on focused solutions, rather than using "shot-gun" tactics that consume resources across the whole enterprise, but deliver few or no results.
By measuring employee engagement, goal alignment, management support and other key drivers of high performing cultures, business leaders can anticipate problems before they occur and take corrective measures to mitigate their impact.
"By identifying potential issues in their latent stage, organizations have an opportunity to fix problems before they impact on customer loyalty and business performance," explains Fraboni.
They can also identify what's happening in teams and departments that are performing well, so that those success drivers can be transplanted, where appropriate, to other areas of the organization.
For further information on CultureTrax™ and how it may be helpful to your organization, contact your Customer Relationship Manager or call Felix at 416.512.7244.
How much warning will you have before the wheels fall off the wagon?
Business leaders today are faced with almost unprecedented HR challenges.
The labour market has become extremely competitive with the lowest unemployment levels in over a generation.
The shift from manual to intellectual labour has increased the developmental curve required of senior contributors: senior professionals and other knowledge workers make valuable contributions to their respective enterprises based largely on their experience - which, by definition, takes time to accumulate. They cannot be easily replaced.
The very nature of knowledge work makes such workers highly portable - the value they contribute is not tied to the tools they use in the workplace, it's resident in their heads.
Finally, management practices at many organizations, driven by economic ups and downs, may have produced organizational cultures with lower employer-employee loyalty than existed when the Baby Boomers entered the workforce 40 years ago.
The result?
Modern enterprises may be more exposed than ever before to the loss of key employees. Highly capable employees at all levels feel less loyal to their employers and possess highly transportable competencies. Faced with a shortage in supply, the demand for these competencies is driving up their value - creating a market value that may entice all but the most satisfied employee.
When key contributors do leave, organizations are finding it increasingly difficult and expensive to replace them.
All of this adds up to one clear conclusion: smart enterprises are investing significant effort and resources in ensuring their key performers are fully engaged in the enterprise, feel a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that would be hard to replace, and are strongly motivated to remain with their employers and help them succeed.
What to do is clear. How to do it is the challenge every business leader and HR professional is currently grappling with.
Is your company at risk?
One of the first steps business leaders should take is to do a quick reality check. How at risk is your organization? How engaged are your employees? Are they generally satisfied, or are their undercurrents and hidden issues that are weakening the bond between employer and employed and increasing the risk that highly-valuable key performers may jump ship at an inopportune time?
Perhaps even of a concern, are all employees motivated to perform at their full potential - or is there a significant cohort of "ghost workers" - those who are showing up, being paid, but not really contributing as well as they might?
Felix recently launched a proprietary assessment instrument called CultureTrax™ that provides business leaders with unprecedented early warning of potential issues such as those outlined above.
Developed for Felix by Dr. Maryann Fraboni, Ph.D., CultureTrax™ is a flexible survey instrument that can be used to identify potential risks, strengths and opportunities for development.
"We can use CultureTrax™ to establish a baseline snapshot of the employee engagement level within an organization," explains Jim Graham, President & CEO of Felix. "From that baseline we can then identify areas for development and can measure changes over time so we know what's working and what isn't."
CultureTrax™ is relatively easy to deploy. The survey includes 40 standard questions and can include additional customer/issue-specific questions as well. It can be conducted in many ways: on paper, online or using FelixLive!™ a revolutionary new web-interactive hosted focus group.
Data is then analyzed by Felix experts and results presented back to the customer with recommendations and tactics designed to achieve specific results.
Beyond early warning of potential flaws, CultureTRAX™ also helps business leaders determine if employees have what they need in order to perform at peak levels. And, if not, it can pinpoint exactly what is missing and where in the organization the issue exists. This enables business leaders to invest their efforts on focused solutions, rather than using "shot-gun" tactics that consume resources across the whole enterprise, but deliver few or no results.
By measuring employee engagement, goal alignment, management support and other key drivers of high performing cultures, business leaders can anticipate problems before they occur and take corrective measures to mitigate their impact.
"By identifying potential issues in their latent stage, organizations have an opportunity to fix problems before they impact on customer loyalty and business performance," explains Fraboni.
They can also identify what's happening in teams and departments that are performing well, so that those success drivers can be transplanted, where appropriate, to other areas of the organization.
For further information on CultureTrax™ and how it may be helpful to your organization, contact your Customer Relationship Manager or call Felix at 416.512.7244.