Some really interesting research released today by CIPD in their Employee Outlook 2015 Survey got me thinking…again!
In the survey, “around 50% of the 2,226 respondents described their organisation culture as ‘a formalised and structured place to work, where procedures govern what people do and hold people together.”
At the same time, more than half of the respondents to the survey said, “they would prefer to work in an organisation ‘with a family feel held together by loyalty and tradition.'”
This is a strong message isn’t it? People want connection, particularly if you combine it with another finding that, although employee engagement shows a slight improvement over the previous year, 59% of people described their engagement as neutral.
The connection between higher employee engagement and better business results has long been acknowledged. There is a very strong argument, in my mind anyway, that there is a huge opportunity for leaders and managers in businesses to do more to improve engagement.
Measures around job satisfaction were interesting, too. Overall they remained at the same levels as in the previous survey. But for medium-sized businesses there was a two-point drop in job satisfaction scores “from +40 to +38″ and a four-point drop in employee engagement “from +44 to +40″.
The message is strong!
There is one other result from the survey that caught my eye, which was the measure of employee attitude towards senior leaders. The net score relating to “Leaders consulting with employees on important decisions” is -22. This showed a slight improvement over the previous years but a negative score? That can’t be good.
So, my question is what is the culture like in your business? Does it promote true connection with people? What can you do to improve the culture and deliver better business results?
It may be easy to dismiss all of this with either, “well my business isn’t like that” or “culture is what it is and can’t be changed easily”.
Whilst this could be true, it strikes me that the opportunity to do more and see the benefits of this in real, tangible business results is way too big to be ignored. I also truly believe that “a small step in the right direction might be the biggest thing you ever do”.
One small step could be to look at what happens in meetings in your business–meetings reflect the true culture of a business so if you want to make some changes this is not a bad place to start. Beware though falling into the process trap–this will only emphasise the “procedures governing what we do” part of your culture–it is not just about having agendas and agreed outcomes.
What really matters is the conversations and engagement that takes place between people when they meet. Work to improve this and strengthen the purpose of your meeting so that it clearly delivers toward the purpose and mission of your business and you will see some amazing results.
At Meeting Magic, and also now with Scribing Magic, we have been working with people in businesses who have wanted to make a difference for over 16 years. So, whether it is one important meeting you want to make a difference in or if you want to build capability in your business to make all meetings more engaging and productive, we can help.
If you want to take that one step, it’d be great to talk.
To get in touch with Fiona, anyone else at Meeting Magic or Scribing Magic, or our AsiaPac office in Singapore, either call +44 (0)1628 471 114 or complete our contact form. She will get back to you as quickly as she can.