Employee engagement is not something that is done to employees – Interview with Kevin Kruse

Summary: Following on from my recent interview, Social Business: walking the talk and debunking some of the myths: Interview with Will McInnes of NixonMcInnes, today I want to share with you an interview that I recently conducted with Kevin Kruse, a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and NY Times bestselling author. He speaks and writes about human capital, startup success and how to unleash your inner entrepreneur. This interview makes up number twenty-four in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that I think that you will find interesting and helpful in growing your businesses. I caught up with Kevin at the end of July. Below are highlights from our interview: Note: Apologies for a few intermittent quality issues with the podcast. Over the last couple of years, Kevin has written two books. The first: We: How to Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement (written with Rudy Karsan, CEO of Kenexa) was published in 2011 and was a New York Times best seller. And, the second: Employee Engagement 2.0: How to Motivate Your Team for High Performance (a Real-World Guide for Busy Managers) was published earlier this year. Kevin is an ex-Kenexa partner after Kenexa acquired Kevin's business a number of years ago. Kenexa is a leading player in the employee engagement survey space and provides employment and retention solutions to assist organisations in hiring and keeping workers. However, Kevin is a business guy not an HR guy. 'We' was written as a book on how we take the Kenexa research on engagement and make it more accessible to the regular business guy and not just for HR professionals. The book, Employee Engagement 2.0, came about due to requests from business leaders when they asked ‘what do I tell my managers to start doing on Monday morning’. Rather than being a 300 page book it is a 50 page manual that is very practical and a step by step guide about how to create an engaged team or workforce over a 90 day period. The employee engagement debate is being driven by the fact that employee satisfaction is at an all time low. That is being driven by many factors not just the economic recession that we now find ourselves in. Employee engagement is, in the main, talked about being something that is done to employees. However, in the book and this one of the things that makes it different, is that Kevin and Rudy talk about engagement that is something that managers and employees do together. It is a collaborative, two-way conversation with both sides having an obligation and a responsibility for their own contribution. Hence, the title: 'We' On an individual level, they talk about the 3 P's of the career-life bullseye: Passion (what do you like doing, what gets you out of bed, what do you like having fun with), Purpose (where do you want to serve, in what area do you want to make a contribution) & Pay (what can you earn a living doing, what standard of living do you want to achieve). From a company and managers standpoint, they talk about results from Kenexa's research that shows that over 70% of engagement (how one feels at work) is driven by three things: Growth (personal and professional challenge), Recognition (a feeling that you are appreciated) & Trust (which is not just ethics but that the employee trusts that the future is bright). Employee engagement surveys when done right can identify the areas that need work are money well spent. When done wrong then they are just cosmetic and a waste of money and resources. However, engagement surveys are not the be-all and end-all and changes in managers behaviour that focus on the growth, recognition and trust idea can generate much greater returns. Appraisal and development conversations should not just be an annual event but should be ongoing conversations that are tied to both real world objectives and career development, particularly when aligned with what the employee wants.