Do you have a team of sherpas?
One of the challenges of growing a business is ensuring that the staff you employ are as productive as you used to be when you were delivering the products or services. I know when I used to run a software company, we were never as productive once I stopped writing code. There are so many reasons why this might be the case, and one of these lies in the engagement of the people in the business.
Gallup has been monitoring employee engagement for 18 years. In its 2017 global survey, it found that in Western Europe only 10% of employees are engaged, 19% are disengaged, while the remaining 71% are not cognitively and emotionally attached to their workplace. In the UK the disconnected figure is 21%.
There is a considerable correlation between employee engagement and productivity. Engaged workforces are 17% more productive than are workgroups in the bottom quartile of engagement. The Gallup report states:
“...engaged employees produce better business outcomes than do other employees across industry, across company size and nationality, and in good economic times and bad.”
Jim Collins conducted a study of 1,435 good companies over 40 years. During that time, 11 companies became great. In his book Good to Great he shares the things that got them there. One of the most important being ‘who’ is in the business. He talks about ‘getting the right people on the bus – and the wrong people off the bus.’
Running a business with low levels of engagement and productivity is like trying to climb Mount Everest without a team of Sherpas.
