The Employee Engagement Task Force will launch a website, which will include advice, tools and networks, in the next phase of its work around improving the employee engagement of the UK workforce.
Speaking during the keynote address at day two of Employee Benefits Live, David MacLeod, co-chair of the task force and co-author of the MacLeod Report on employee engagement, outlined the plans, which will all be rolled out on 26 November.
The website will include a summary of the evidence around employee engagement, tools and ideas for employers, case studies that tie together engagement and workplace motivation and productivity, and details on a range of practitioner events around the UK.
MacLeod said: “If we’re going to engage our people, we need to understand why we’re doing it.”
Nita Clarke, co-chair of the task force, and director of the Involvement and Participation Association, added that the reason engagement is such a critical issue for UK organisations is because the world has changed and the old management paradigm no longer works.
“The death of deference and the loss of trust has really changed the workplace,” she said. “Under these circumstances, employees have to be engaged. Engagement brings a sense of consensus into the workplace.”
Louise Beardmore, head of organisational development and HR operations at United Utilities and a senior member of the task force, added that the most important role around engagement and reward is how the HR team enables its line managers.
“It is about how much we help them to join up the dots and package that employee deal,” she said.
