The more leaders get involved, the more employees will give in return

Ever wondered if effective and involved leaders really have an impact on employee engagement in the workplace? Research into leadership competency and ownership of post-survey performance-improvement initiatives would definitely indicate it has a significant impact.

"We see a key theme emerging with senior management teams (SMTs) now driving post-survey initiatives with less reliance on HR", says Nicola Halliday, senior consultant at JRA, when speaking about the behaviour of successful organisations.

Halliday claims that "when comparing year-on-year results of businesses whose SMTs drive the process, marked improvements in engagement perceptions can be seen. On the flipside, we have seen organisations where the CEOs and executives have not been involved in the post-survey phase and consequent engagement levels have not shown marked improvements".

The next step for executives is to filter down responsibilities to individual team leaders. JRA's analysis using a 360 degree measurement tool shows a strong correlation between high scores among line managers and team leaders and the engagement levels of their team members.

Jessica Xu, a consultant at JRA, says "there is no doubt a link between those `great leaders' who sit in the top 25 per cent of the leadership scores with 62 per cent of engaged subordinates, compared to those leaders in the bottom quartile with 12 per cent engaged team members".

So what are the implications? With senior managers looking to build an engaged workforce, Xu suggests SMTs should consider the middle management level with leadership coaching as an effective starting point. Lifting poor leadership performance and putting together development frameworks are essential to increase the effectiveness of these individual team leaders. Once they possess the skills needed to subsequently work on engagement improvement techniques within their own teams, they will be in a better position to take ownership of the specific initiatives and be responsible for driving these themselves.

Annually JRA have looked at what the key factors are that motivate staff in the workplace and drive engagement. Consistently, confidence in leadership has emerged as one of the most important aspects. The bottom line for organisations then is, put your energy into your leaders.

JRA runs the annual JRA Best Workplaces Survey in association with the Herald and sponsors the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and HainesAttract.