Employee Engagement

Employee Orientation from Administrative to Strategic

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For decades, the HR world has been spouting the following statements on an endless verbal loop:

  • Move all HR practices from an administrative to a strategic focus
  • Employees are our best assets
  • Develop a culture of employee engagement for success

The assumption is that if HR does all of the above, everything will be perfect; however, HR never really does these things. They usually do the exact opposite of what they believe in. Let’s look at what HR usually does during new employee orientations.

On an employee’s first day, HR inundates the new employee with administrative policies and procedures, which are nothing more than strict guidelines and rules that demean the new employee’s intelligence. Then, the HR professional is shocked when the employee does not embrace their culture of engagement. This orientation merry-go-round is happening on a perpetual loop at most organizations.

Successful employee onboarding, or orientation, is not about learning HR’s administrative rules. According to John Hilton, in his article “4 ways onboarding processes must change,” successful employee onboarding is about submerging employees in the organization’s culture, and the key to making employees engaged and productive in their new positions. This is noted by Hilton, when he states, “There’s a misconception that an intensive onboarding experience requires a high administrative burden.”

Additionally, Hilton suggests some ideas on how HR can successfully transition from an administrative to a strategic focus:

  • Engage employees’ emotions
  • Explain that organizational culture and behaviours are not just about meeting administrative goals on paper
  • Automate lower value activities
  • Focus all orientation activities with the intent to expose employees to the organizational culture

HR professionals know that onboarding sets the tone for the quality of long-term employee engagement. So, when HR creates an onboarding process with intention, it sets the tone for sparking a higher level of long-term employee engagement and productivity.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Research and identify if there is a difference between employee orientation and employee onboarding. State and defend your position.
  2. Research and find an organization that has an exceptional onboarding program. Summarize the main elements of their program.
  3. What would you present to your VP of HR to demonstrate the value of a strategic onboarding program?

When 81% Is Considered a Failure

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81%—Why Current Workplace Leadership Gets a Failing Grade

Usually a rating of over 80% is praised as a positive HR Key Performance Indicator (KPI); however, in this case, 81% is a failing grade.

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According to a recent global report by the O.C. Tanner Institute, 81% of Canadian employees are experiencing some type of workplace burnout, which is 2% higher than the global average. The 2020 Global Culture Report of the workplace done by the O.C. Tanner Institute has provided some startling insights about current workplace cultures:

  • 59% of employees would leave their job for a comparable one
  • Only 42% of employees rated their employment experience as positive or extremely positive

These are very discouraging results revealing that many employees have negative workplace experiences, and some of these experiences can be related back to the dominant workplace culture, which is not supportive of employees.

Creating a supportive workplace is a function of organizational leadership and having a supportive workplace can reap very positive employee engagement benefits. In the very same survey, the O.C. Tanner Institute reported that organizations that have a positive workplace culture are:

  • 13 times more likely to have highly engaged employees
  • 3 times less likely to have layoffs
  • 2 times more likely to have increases in revenue
  • 7 times more likely to have employees innovating

The above list is not just great for the HR departments of these organizations, but are great business results overall. If one extrapolates their research though, this shows that only 19% of Canadian employers are reaping the benefits of positive employee engagement.

The O.C. Tanner Institute commented that current workplace leadership is dead. To counteract this, organizations have to fundamentally change their leadership style to one that promotes hope, employee engagement, and inspiration. No longer will mindful mediations, onsite yoga, and weak work–life balance policies work to reduce employee burnout. There needs to be a fundamental change in how leaders in organizations treat their employees.

Organizations must cultivate an environment that is one of mentoring and coaching rather than managing. Understanding current research, such as the O.C. Tanner Global Report, is a great starting point for organizational leadership to turn their dismal employee engagement numbers around.

Discussion Question:

Briefly review the O.C. Tanner Institute Global Report on Culture. Use this link to assist your research. Once done, prepare a 5-minute presentation outlining the highlights of the report that could be presented to a VP of HR.

Entrance Interviews May Be Replacing Exit Interviews

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All HR professionals are well versed in the “exit interview.” But have they heard of the “entry interview”?

We spend so much time and energy trying to find and select the correct employee – but that really is only the starting point. The real HR work starts when the new employee shows up for their first day of work. Orientation and effective employee on-boarding is vital to any organization’s success.

Most organizations are not very good at on-boarding new employees. According to statistics from Hierology website:

  • Approximately one-third (33%) of new hires look for a new job within the first six months, and about one-quarter (23%) leave before a year on the job.
  • The total cost of turnover per employee typically ranges from 100–300% of the individual’s salary.

These are shockingly high numbers and all HR professionals should take note.

It may be time to expand on the exit interview concept and bring it forward as part of your company’s on-boarding process. The entry interview can be a great tool to get to know new employees, make then more productive sooner, and reduce the chance that they will leave your organization.  Click here to read more about entrance interviews. 

Entry interviews are relatively new and there is not much evidence-based research on them yet, but it may be a trend worth watching and implementing.

Discussion Questions

Your VP of HR has asked you to research the benefits of making entry interviews. Conduct some research and develop a list that identifies organizations that are using employee entry interviews.

Develop a five-minute PowerPoint presentation on the potential benefits of these interviews.

‘Pawternity’ Leave Has Tails Wagging

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(Kseniya Ivanova/Shutterstock)

Your chief human resources officer (CHRO) comes up to you one day and asks: “Have you have seen the most recent HR KPIs? Our employee engagement score is dropping like a rock. Do you have any ideas how to turn that around?”

You respond confidently, “I have an idea that could improve employee engagement by up to 30% percent with very little costs. It is called ‘furternity’ (or pawternity) leave it is so new no one has settled for a common term yet.”

The CHRO looks at you funny and suggests, quite wryly, that you might be violating the company’s new cannabis policy.  “What the heck is ‘furternity’ leave?”

You state “it is part of a new benefit trend that seems to be catching on with employers and engaging employees.”  The CHRO says that it is nonsense and you hand them a copy of this study.

Click here to read the workplace wellness study.

Furternity leave is a paid leave so an employee can take time off or work from home if they have a new pet.  It is part of an even larger trend called the “pet effect” on workplace wellness.

To enlighten the CHRO, on some of this study’s findings about companies with pet friendly policies, you state the following list of statistics:

  • A significant positive increase in employee engagement from 65% to 91%
  • Employees feel their work is more rewarding from 46% to 83%
  • Retention: employees would decline a similar job offer from 44% to 72%
  • And the topper: improvement in the relationship with their bosses increased from 14% to 52%

Paid leave to take care of a new pet is just one possible benefits. Others include pet insurance as part of the company’s benefit package, stress reduction by having pets in the workplace, and some even say, better customer relations.

The CHRO says, “I had no idea. Prepare me a proposal of how we could implement pet friendly policies in our workplace and have it on my desk by next week. Don’t forget to include the research.”

And off you go back to your office wagging your tail behind you.

Discussion Questions:

Research two companies that have pet friendly workplace polices and create a list of the most common pet friendly policies.

From that list, create a 5-minute PowerPoint presentation, which you could present to your CHRO on the benefits and drawbacks of implementing pet-friendly policies.

The Disengagement Gap

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In many of the HRM NOW! blogs, I have talked about various gaps.

We have the pay equity gap, the PPE gender gap, and now we have a new gap for HR professionals to ponder – the disengagement gap.

But before we get to that, let’s discuss pondering.

Pondering is something more HR professionals should do. HR is good at strategizing, executing and implementing, but pondering is something to add to the HR toolbox.

To ponder is to weigh in with the mind, think about and reflect on, and with this disengagement gap, HR may need to ponder the causes. There seems to be some illogical human behaviour in the disengagement gap, and this is something HR should definitely ponder.

What is the disengagement gap and why is it happening?

An article on HRD calls the disengagement gap ‘a complacency conundrum’:

This DG or the complacency conundrum seems to be incessant in modern day workplaces. A recent North America survey showed the following:

  • 70% of employees are disengaged
  • Only 35 % are planning to leave their organization

This is a strange workplace behaviour. Employees are not happy with their work but are unwilling to change jobs.

This is especially strange when North America has some of the lowest unemployment rates in years. Low unemployment rates should make it easier for employees to leave jobs they do not like.  However, this was not happening in 2018, where 74% of employees were willing to leave their jobs, but in 2019, only 35% are.  Why the drastic drop?

HR professionals must consider why the change in employee’s attitudes. It’s not because employees love their jobs, because most do not.  All HR departments should begin a quest to understand how to engage their employees on a personal level. HR departments that start to ponder and develop some solutions to resolve this disengagement gap will see great performance benefits.

Discussion Questions

Improve your skills as a new HR professional by clicking on Dr. Natalie Baumgartner’s website. Pick one of her posts to read and review, and then ask yourself how an HR department could start to implement some of her ideas about employee engagement.