Because they’re worth it….Why investing in your employees is money well spent

A guest blog post by Nigel Curtis

Even in these chastened times, the old, ‘Our people are our greatest asset’ line is regularly reeled out by CEOs and HR directors. 

And I’m sure some even think they believe it! After all, many companies spend huge amounts on recruitment and marketing, competing fiercely to be considered an employer of choice.

But having secured top talent, do these same companies continue to invest in their ‘greatest assets’ or do they actually consider them more of a liability – particularly when the going gets tough and people are inevitably first in the firing line.

Bay Jordon, author of the thought-provoking A Feeling of Worth, points out: “Unless managers have not been doing their jobs properly, these people were, presumably, all hired because they were needed. Consequently, that being the case, unless the economic change is a permanent one, they are likely to be needed again in the future.

“Redundancy programmes are therefore nothing more than a cost reduction exercise for a limited short term benefit, taking no account of either the past investment in people or the future costs of replacing them. This is something most managers freely recognise but argue that their hands are tied due to market pressures. This runs completely counter to any sense of people being assets.”

The thing is, in the real world, if we are honest, not all employees are great assets to their employers. Which is odd really if you assume they must have had something about them to be offered the job in the first place – and I don’t know anyone who goes to work with the intention of being rubbish.

So how and where can it all go so horribly wrong?

Well, the employer/employee relationship is really no different to our personal relationships if you think about it. At the beginning, both sides are trying hard to impress, making the effort, constantly communicating, looking to understand each other and working towards common goals.

Where this continues to underpin the relationship, it grows and prospers because it is mutually beneficial. But when one partner loses interest, the writing is generally on the wall.

In the workplace, employee engagement is the phrase we associate with commitment levels.

David MacLeod, writing in his comprehensive Government report on the subject published in 2009, (Engaging for Success: enhancing performance through employee engagement) says: “Engaged employees have a sense of personal attachment to their work and organisation; they are motivated and able to give of their best to help it succeed – and from that flows a series of tangible benefits for organisation and individual alike.”

If we assume there is a level of capability and potential that exists within each employee, the way in which their employer engages with them, or not, will determine the degree to which that potential is fulfilled.

In other words, organisations that continue to invest in their people using multi-channel, regular, effective and two-way internal communications will see an ROI many, many times greater than they spend. They will have aligned and engaged employees: aligned, they know what to do; and more importantly, engaged, they want to do it.

The best employees will naturally look to proactively contribute to the overall success of the organisation because this will motivate them to build on their skills and knowledge so they can become more effective and productive, generating growth for their employer and better prospects for them. A virtuous circle.

If your company does not respond to this, your strongest people are likely to soon become actively disengaged and look to move on.
Consider these statistics among many in the MacLeod Report:

• Engaged employees in the UK take an average of 2.69 sick days per year; the disengaged take 6.19
• Engaged employees are 87 per cent less likely to leave the organisation than the disengaged
• 67 per cent of engaged employees advocate their company or organisation against only three per cent of the disengaged

So, a more accurate statement would appear to be, ‘‘Our engaged people are our greatest asset’.

And the evidence strongly suggests organisations that don’t take this seriously are not only failing their employees, they are actually risking their own long term viability.

Biography:

Nigel Curtis is a former newspaper journalist and group publications manager for Cadbury Schweppes. He established CW Corporate Communications in 1988, an agency that helps organisations optimise employee engagement and improve their competitive position through effective, multi-channel internal communication.

nigel.curtis@cwcorpcomms.co.uk

www.cwcorpcomms.co.uk

1commentComment on this article