Highly engaged employees are more likely to feel that their workload is manageable and that they can cope with their current workload. Sensing that work is sustainable in the longer term is important from an individual’s perspective, as unsustainable work is detrimental to the health and safety of the workforce. In our study, almost three-fifths of respondents consider their work highly sustainable; however, about a third are unsure about whether they could continue to work at their current pace in the future and almost 10% clearly indicate that their workload is not sustainable. Although our study revealed that engagement generally leads to higher sustainability, our qualitative and quantitative data also demonstrate that this relationship does not
Figure 18: Levels of well-being (%)
40 70 10 20 50 30 60
hold for very high levels of engagement. Employees at the extreme ends of engagement show lower levels of sustainability. Constantly thinking about work, taking extra work home on a regular basis and not switching off from work at any time during the day has a serious impact on individuals and might lead to ill-health and burnout symptoms, as these individuals are more likely to become ‘workaholics’ with the associated risks.
‘I had a guy who used to be full-on and he had a heart attack, one of my sales managers, lovely guy, quite young, 31. When he was in hospital, he starts emailing, “I spent the weekend in hospital, they’ve done all these tests on me, I’m just on down for an ECG, but I thought I’d just copy an email to you, I hope you’re alright”...I was virtually the same. When I was in hospital last year, they didn’t have an Internet connection, so I asked my wife to bring my laptop. She would bring it to the hospital, I sent her back home so she could upload and send the emails,
collect the new ones and bring it back.’ Manager, ServiceCo
Similar to this quote from a manager in ServiceCo, other interviewees told us about incidents from their working experience where people have become too engaged. This has had serious effects on their health, but also impacted on their personal life and their ability to concentrate and focus, which in turn affected their productivity. Managers have a critical role to play in ensuring that the engagement levels of their team members are sustainable. Additionally, it is important to prevent organisational cultures from developing that reward working long hours and encourage 24/7 availability.
Figure 20: Sustainability (%)
Very low Low Moderate High Very high
40 70 10 20 50 30 60 0
Figure 19: Individual performance vs well-being (%)
High High Low Low Fence-sitters (59) Fit non-performers (6) Unfit non-performers (1) Fit performers (32) Unfit performers (2) Performers W ell-being
KEY FINDINGS
• Engaged employees enjoy greater levels of personal
well-being.
• Engaged employees perceive their workload to be
more sustainable than others.
• One-third of employees are ‘fit-performers’, enjoying
CASE STUDY:
ConstructionCo
ConstructionCo is an international consultancy and construction firm. Founded in 1990, the organisation has experienced rapid growth to a turnover in excess of £500 million in 2007. The firm has been responsible for several high-profile construction projects in the UK, Asia and the Middle East. The company employs close to 2,900 people and operates in 28 countries around the world. The company offers services that span the entire property lifecycle, including planning and building, maintenance and facilities management, waste management and ICT consultancy. Senior management have set ambitious growth targets to have a £1 billion turnover by 2012. Around 63% of current turnover comes from consultancy and 37% from construction. The workforce is currently 70% male and has a relatively young age composition.The company is particularly proud of its relationships with clients and suppliers; over 70% of contracts come from returning clients. The company has also established a good reputation for employee experience. It has been listed in the ‘Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For’, been named in the top 50 in Building magazine’s ‘Good Employers Guide’ and holds Investor in People recognition across the UK business.
ConstructionCo has a simple vision: ‘to be the best at what we do’. Feeding into the vision are a number of core values, which include – respecting people, listening to views of all staff, delivering with trust, honesty and integrity, and promoting positive collaboration. The company already
has in place a progressive set of HR practices and a team with responsibility for facilitating employee engagement. Participation in the Kingston Business School Employee Engagement Consortium was therefore to feed into existing initiatives rather than to kick-start a redirection. Further sources of information include an annual staff survey, Investors in People feedback and Sunday Times Best Companies feedback. The employee engagement survey was distributed to employees working in the UK. An online questionnaire was distributed to 346 employees and was returned by 180, providing a response of 52%. Twenty interviews were also conducted with a range of managerial staff.
ENGAGEMENT LEvELS
The results from the survey are very positive, with 77% of employees being ‘highly’ engaged and 12% ‘very highly’ engaged. Less than 1% fall into low engagement categories. Levels of engagement frequency are even higher. Almost 90% of all respondents are engaged on at least a weekly basis and only 2% are engaged only once a year. The general results clearly suggest that ConstructionCo is a very engaging company to work for.
What do these results mean for engagement initiatives within the organisation? During one research meeting the employee engagement manager reflected, ‘Maybe this means I am out of a job! There is nothing for me to do.’ We will consider whether this is the case by looking at three things the organisation is currently doing well – creating an entrepreneurial culture, fair and consistent management
Figure 21: Extent and frequency of employee engagement at ConstructionCo (%)
Very weak/
Never A few times a yearWeak/ Once a monthModerate/ Once a weekStrong/ Very strong/Daily 40 70 10 80 20 50 30 60 0
practices and high levels of organisational advocacy – and three areas where the organisation is not doing so well – sharing ideas for improvement, work–life balance and staff perceptions of senior managers.