Firms host events as engaged employees lead to bigger profits
Ireland can learn from US firms when it comes to employee engagement. One recent study found that employees who are either not engaged or actively disengaged cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity
The sound of silence. For some it’s bliss. For others hell. But in the workplace, quiet can mean trouble’s brewing. Quiet firing on the part of bosses who demoralise workers into resigning. Quiet quitting on the part of staff intending to flee.
Nobody envies the quiet quitters or the constructively dismissed. But we all know them, and they tend to have one thing in common:They’re unlikely to be engaged in the workplace.
According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report, employees who are not engaged or actively disengaged, cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity — a figure equivalent to 11% of global GDP. Figures representing the negative impact on corporate margins are easily measured. As for the mental toll on the workers concerned, we can only guess.
How far progressive organisations will go to engage staff is an ever-shifting phenomenon. At Lumon Industries, office employees are sometimes rewarded with a Waffle Party. This isn’t what you might think.
The workplace reward involves a prize-winning employee donning a mask of the Lumon founder’s face, while engaging in a carnal encounter of sorts with a quartet of others. This is weird, of course. But that’s the point. It reflects the company culture and the imagination of the writers behind Apple TV+’s Severance show.
Chances are, bosses you and I know don't go that far to engage staff. But most organisations use events as an employee engagement tool, according to Paul Davis, CEO of The Davis Agency.
This is something with which he is professionally familiar. He creates events for some of the biggest brands across the globe. His glittering client list reflects the flair, prowess and business acumen of him and his team, as does the recent opening of their newest branch in Austin, USA.
“Engagement,” he says, “is about allowing staff to have a sense of independence, while connecting to the company’s culture.”
Asked how production line workers and others whose jobs are largely task-based can feel a sense of independence, he replies: “That does require different skill sets and ways of managing the set up. But nonetheless, it’s still about a community of people that work for the company. They can bring their own sense of identity, ethics and culture into that workplace.”
As for what we learn from Americans and what they learn from us in relation to employee engagement, Davis says: “US organisations developed the concepts of company values and company culture. With the growth of multinationals here, this spread to Ireland and across Europe.
“This all taps into employee events. So when we are running those, often — even if it’s for an American multinational — they will be about supporting local causes that feel connected to, while also supporting the community they’re in.
“It could be the guys from a multinational out cleaning the streets, or teaching maths in a school in their locality, on team-building days.”
Recalling the wisdom of an American boss who heads up a multinational tech company, he says: “He has a test to see if people bring the culture back to the kitchen. Where he works, everyone is expected to clean up after themselves. Even the really highly paid. For him, it’s critical that everyone is treated equally.”
Davis says company culture helps to build a community and bring people into that community. “It tends to be about authenticity, honesty and transparency. It’s also about getting involved in Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG), so people can support causes they care about.”
Asked why Irish companies tend to do so well in the US, Davis replies: “It’s because they’re known to be good with the human touch; good at humanising what might otherwise be a bit awkward.”
‘Human’ is a word Davis uses often as we talk, and always in a positive way. This is not surprising. He seems kind by nature, so it makes sense that he’s the events expert of choice for so many enterprises, particularly in diversity and inclusion campaigns.
Asked what engages employees, Davis replies: “Really good face-to-face events and activities that bring people together. Also, ESG, diversity and inclusion. So people can have their individual identity brought into and supported in the workplace. This is really important for employees, because it wasn't always that way.”
He’s right. It’s commonplace now for corporates to ensure the ‘G’ in ESG includes a diverse workforce and an inclusive work culture, while striving to reflect, support and engage their communities, clients and workers.
Davis and his team regularly work on campaigns and other supportive events for a wide range of different groups within client organisations: “That could be within the LGBTQ+ or any diverse or ethnic community,” he says.
“Or it might be about seasonal celebrations for minorities within a large company. Often, there’s a budget set aside for this, and somebody like ourselves is brought in to help deliver and develop activities around those to support a minority, fringe or other culture.
“This is something that has been important in the US and other countries for a long time. But it is really important now in Ireland. It’s understood that it’s good to allow workers to support their own personal causes, so long as that isn’t offending anybody else.”
Explaining then how workers also engage with a company’s causes, he says: “ESG staff can get involved in delivering on the environmental sustainability promises that a company might make. Also on the social, which are likely to include a culture of diversity and inclusion culture. In that way, ESG is an important and interesting space for employees to get involved, here, in the same way that American companies do.
“Multinational tech and pharma companies based around Ireland don't feel like ‘foreign’ companies, because they are connected to the local community.”
Davis believes this is because engagement with communities both in the workplace and in the localities in which companies are based, is something that comes more naturally to Irish people and Irish businesses. “We have taken this on with gusto and we do it really well,” he says.
We do for sure and it’s to our credit. But the question remains: why is it that according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report, the employment engagement figure for the US and Canada is 33%, compared with 11% for Ireland?
In answering that question, employee engagement expert, Susan Elliott, says it’s because the Americans and Canadians are doing something right.
“But then, they were always doing something right,” Susan says. “Perhaps because they were already quite geographically spread, they were always a bit better at this.
“We have a lot of SMEs in Ireland, where everyone knows the CEO and feels very connected,” she says. “But when an organisation gets bigger, people are sometimes slow to put in proper mechanisms to keep people connected. If that happens too late and the organisation has become too big, employees may feel a bit lost and disconnected from it. They used to know everything that was going on and now they don’t as they’re not invited to all the meetings anymore.
“The beauty of a lot of Irish companies is that for employees, work is about who you work for. The person or people you work for. How you feel you are involved. How you feel you make a difference. Small companies are brilliant at engaging people in this way, but this changes when they grow.”
Elliott believes that this doesn’t have to be the case: “They can learn from watching the structures and frameworks that bigger organisations — be they American or whatever — use for keeping people connected as they grow,” she says.
She also believes that along with how change is managed, whether employees are more expectant of change might play a role: “Comparisons have been made between how Elon Musk and the Limerick boys (the Collison brothers) that manage Stripe went about cutting staff numbers. How people were treated. The communication styles used. Hard things can be done to employees. But how it’s done is important.
“In American culture and particularly in the technology space, change happens often. Maybe the Americans are better at it. Maybe they manage it differently.
“It might also be about employee expectation,” she says. “Because employees working for big American technology companies are more accepting that change will come, than are those working for long-established Irish companies. So that change — when it happens here — comes as more of a shock, and workers are possibly more resistant.”
Elliott also believes that American employees having a more positive outlook about now being a good time to look for a new job, may also play a role in their being more engaged than Irish workers.
According to the 2022 Gallup report, 50% of Irish polled believed now is a good time to find a job. The corresponding figure for the US and Canada was 71%.
“This sort of positivity gives hope about the economy and the world of work,” says Elliott.
“If you feel you are stuck in a job, that has a massive impact on your mindset. Employers want people to work with them because they choose to, not because they have to.”
Employee engagement plays a core role in this. Paul Davis explains it this way: “It pertains to staff at every level in an organisation. It helps to flatten the workplace and helps to make people feel more equal.
“It isn't just about engaging top talent and senior management. Because they have more of an impact on things, they might do things that get recognised straight away. So, it is everybody else that really needs to be engaged. Those who might not be pulled up to be applauded and lauded.
“It’s about including everyone and trying to motivate and incentivise everyone. No matter what the situation or whether it’s a good or a bad day in that workplace.”
Where the American multinationals have led, we have followed and thrived. That we complement one another in the workplace and that there’s a natural synergy between us is evident in the recent American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland survey, which shows that almost two thirds of US multinationals in the State expect to hire employees over the next 12 months.
Employee Engagement as glimpsed through the Gallup State of the Global Workplace, 2022 Report:
- Globally, 21% of employees are engaged at work.
- In Ireland and Belgium, 11% of employees are engaged, compared with 33% in the US and Canada.
- Business units with engaged workers have 23% higher profits.
- 60% of people are emotionally detached at work and 19% are ‘miserable’.
- Teams with thriving workers see significantly lower absenteeism, turnover and accidents. They also see higher customer loyalty.
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