Chapter 20

Ten (Or So) Additional Employee Engagement Resources

In This Chapter

Boosting your understanding of employee engagement

Continuing your commitment to engagement

Really? After all that, you want more? A little greedy, don't you think? Well, greedy or not, you've come to the right place. In this chapter, you find ten (or so) additional resources, including books, videos, reports, and websites, presented in no particular order, to help you understand engagement and drive it in your organization. You'll probably recognize several of the titles and authors, but a few may be unfamiliar to you. That doesn't mean they're any less important, just less famous.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink

In this work, Ryan Gosling plays a Hollywood stunt driver for movies by day and moonlights as a wheelman for criminals by night. Er, wait . . . that's the description for Drive, the movie. In the book Drive (Riverhead Books), author Daniel H. Pink asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction is people's ability to direct their own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by themselves and their world. Pink breaks down the belief that the best way to motivate people is through rewards (think: “carrot and stick”). Through extensive scientific research, Pink establishes that there are, in fact, three elements of motivation: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Strapped for time or just sick of reading? Watch Pink's “Drive” YouTube video, spectacularly animated by RSA Animate, at http://youtu.be/u6XAPnuFjJc.

Investing in People: Financial Impact of Human Resource Initiatives, by Wayne Cascio and John Boudreau

Hmm . . . a book about risk, return, and economies of scale. You may be wondering, “Do I really want to read this?” If you're in human resources and you're passionate about employee engagement, the answer is an emphatic “Yes!” More than ever before, HR practitioners must empirically demonstrate a clear link between their practices and firm performance. In, Investing in People: Financial Impact of Human Resource Initiatives (FT Press), Wayne Cascio and John Boudreau show exactly how to choose, implement, and use metrics to improve decision making, optimize organizational effectiveness, and maximize the value of HR investments. Cascio and Boudreau reveal powerful techniques for looking inside the HR “black box,” implementing human capital metrics that track the effectiveness of talent policies and practices, demonstrating the logical connections to financial and line‐of‐business goals. Using their powerful LAMP methodology (short for Logic, Analytics, Measures, and Process), the authors demonstrate how to measure and analyze the value of every area of HR that affects strategic value. Also included are powerful ways to integrate HR with enterprise strategy and budgeting and for gaining commitment from business leaders outside HR.

Gallup's State of the American Workplace Report

Gallup is a recognized leader in surveys and workplace engagement, and this report, which you can download free from www.gallup.com/strategicconsulting/163007/state-american-workplace.aspx, shows why. It reveals the results of a study of U.S. workplaces between 2010 and 2012 (itself a continuation of a study from 2008 to 2010). Gallup's CEO, Jim Clifton, opens the report with a bold statement that sets the tone for the entire document: “The single biggest decision you make in your job — bigger than all the rest — is who you name manager.” The report goes on to reveal the engagement level of American workers and how the people who manage these workers, more than any other factor, affect their level of engagement. It shows how “managers from hell” disengage their employees, costing American businesses at least $450 billion (yes, that's billion, with a b) each year. How much of that total is coming from your company's bottom line?

The Employee Engagement Group

Shameless plug: At www.employeeengagement.com, The Employee Engagement Group, a company headed up by yours truly, provides extensive free (yes, free) resources on the topic. You'll find articles, white papers, case studies, research, and videos from an extensive list of experts like Gallup, Towers Watson, and the Harvard Business Review. No membership is required!

1501 Ways to Reward Employees, by Bob Nelson

I thought Bob Nelson was an overachiever way back in 1994, when he came up with 1,001 ways to reward employees (and published them in a book of the same name). Since then, he has somehow found an additional 500 ways to nurture talent and retain employees.

A key component of engagement is recognizing and rewarding employees who exhibit the “right” behaviors, but it's often difficult to come up with innovative ways to do so — especially on a budget. 1501 Ways to Reward Employees (Workman Publishing Company) is not just a list of reward ideas, however. It's much, much more. In this book, Nelson educates the reader on the fundamentals that make providing rewards and recognition effective. He explains the difference between rewards and recognition, why money is not enough (does that sound familiar?), and the benefits of appropriate rewards. Additionally, he outlines recognition strategies, and emphasizes the importance of recognition in attracting and retaining top talent. A well‐used copy of 1501 Ways to Reward Employees should be on the desk of anyone who manages people!

How to Win Friends & Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

An oldie and a goodie, Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People (Simon & Schuster) has long been a staple in the people‐skills genre. First published in 1937, it has since sold more than 15 million copies. Based on an understanding of human nature that will never become outdated, Carnegie hit the nail on the head with his insights into how people work together. Carnegie believed that success is 15 percent professional knowledge and 85 percent “the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people.” An early pioneer in engagement, Carnegie asserted that you can make someone want to do what you want them to by seeing the situation from his or her point of view and “arousing in the other person an eager want.” Employee engagement is not about things, it's about people, and although this book is not marketed as an engagement book per se, the concepts in the book reflect the keys to an engaged culture.

Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer, by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell

Ernest Shackleton was the first engaged leader. Instead of using coercive leadership techniques, which at the time and in his industry (exploration) were common, Shackleton pioneered ways to lead people, resulting in mutual commitment and high performance through an increase in discretionary effort. If you haven't read Shackleton's story, don't walk but run to the nearest bookstore and pick up Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer, by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell (Penguin Books). I also recommend Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing (Basic Books), and the A&E movie Shackleton, starring Kenneth Branagh.

As a quick overview, Shackleton and his 27 men became stranded in Antarctica for almost two years. Under his leadership, all 27 men survived extraordinarily harsh conditions and often insurmountable challenges. Shackleton's Way takes the leadership skills of Ernest Shackleton and describes them through anecdotes and actions that can be practiced on the job immediately. It addresses many of the key factors covered in this book: the importance of hiring the right people; getting the best from each individual by relying on strengths and challenging weaknesses; crisis management (stranded on a chunk of ice qualifies as a crisis); developing teams and sub‐teams for the really tough jobs; overcoming insurmountable obstacles; and much more. It's a definite must read for anyone looking for an extraordinary tale and practical guidance to becoming a leader who is able to create an engaged culture.

Who's Sinking Your Boat, by The Employee Engagement Group

This video, found on YouTube at http://youtu.be/y4nwoZ02AJM, illustrates the key concepts of employee engagement, exploring the topic in a light and entertaining fashion, using the analogy of a crew team rowing in a race. Three team members are rowing like crazy, five are giving some effort, and two are actively trying to sink the boat. The statistics, culled in 2013, tell a story all their own. The message is clear: Engagement is essential for success . . . so why don't more companies do something about it? This video can serve as part of a presentation, an introduction to engagement for managers and employees, and/or a promotional video to kick off a new engagement initiative.

The University of Windsor Employee Engagement & Development Website

There's a Trivial Pursuit question that goes something like this: “If you wanted to get to Canada from Detroit, what direction would you travel?” Most people would naturally answer, “North.” (Isn't all of Canada north of the United States?) But in fact, you travel east from Detroit, crossing the Detroit River into Windsor, the southernmost city in Ontario. Why am I telling you this? Because it seemed like a great way to introduce Windsor, home to the University of Windsor, which is itself home to one of the best internal employee websites to engage employees, with a focus on employee development, wellness, communication, and recognition — all keys to an engaged workforce. Developed and hosted by the Department of Human Resources, the site, found at www.uwindsor.ca/engagementanddevelopment, is easy to access, provides quick links to all resources, and offers an extensive collection of training and development opportunities. If you want a model on which to base your own internal engagement site, this one is a good place to start. (If not, at least you'll no longer live with the mistaken belief that you would drive north out of Detroit to visit Canada. You're welcome.)

Love ’Em or Lose ’Em: Getting Good People to Stay, by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans

With replacement costs high and startup time critical, employee retention is more important than ever. That means hiring the right person the first time, even if it takes a little longer, and then retaining that person for as long as possible. Love ’Em or Lose ’Em (Berrett‐Koehler Publishers) provides 26 strategies to keep talented employees productive and fully engaged. Citing research and experience with dozens of organizations, the authors present many examples of how today's companies have applied their retention strategies and increased their retention rates. The chapters are arranged alphabetically, from “Ask” to “Zenith.” Each chapter includes a series of to‐do lists, company examples, and an “alas” story drawn from the authors’ personal experiences. The latest edition features new tips and to‐do lists, stories, and additional research from the media and from the authors’ own extensive knowledge.

Business Gamification For Dummies by Kris Duggan and Kate Shoup

For an in‐depth look at gamification (introduced in Chapter 11), check out Business Gamification For Dummies, by Kris Duggan and Kate Shoup (Wiley). It goes beyond the discussion of using gamification to boost employee engagement to cover the use of gamification to entice and retain customers. With gamification, you pinpoint your business objectives and identify what behaviors will help you meet those objectives. Then you use game mechanics, combined with knowledge of what motivates your users (be they employees or customers), to drive those behaviors. Business Gamification For Dummies shows you the ins and outs of building your own gamification program to do just that.