How HR Can Get Leaders to Own Employee Engagement

Last week we talked about the fact that many senior leaders hand-off culture and employee engagement to Human Resources (HR) to manage.  Why?  Because leaders hear the word people or employee and immediately think, “We have a group who is responsible for that – HR.”

For decades HR has known it’s misplaced, but chose to “own” it anyway.  However, in order for employee engagement to improve, this must change.  To re-engage disengaged workers, the leadership team must “own” it, commit to making fundamental changes to the way we do business here, and hold supervisors accountable.  How do you get the leadership team onboard, HR?  Data.  Leaders love numbers.

From my experience, when you show leaders that there is a direct correlation between employee engagement and profitable revenue growth, they sit up and listen.  So what are some compelling data points that you can use to get your leadership team onboard?  Here’s a start:

• Companies with the highest engagement levels outperform their peers by 147 percent in revenue growth.
• Engaged employees are 480 percent more likely to commit to helping their company succeed
• Engaged employees are 250 percent more likely to recommend improvements.
• Engaged employees are 370 percent more likely to recommend their company as an employer.
• Engaged workers sell more, provide better service, are more productive, are safer, make fewer mistakes, and stay with their company longer.

Once you share this data with leaders, ask them to champion an employee engagement revolution, and share the four actions they must take to re-engage the workforce, driving higher productivity, performance, and profits.  What are these actions?  The four-step process is outlined in my new book,If Not You, Who? Cracking the Code of Employee Disengagement.  It works, so go forth confidently and conquer, HR!