C
Comment | Catalyst
Teamwork lies at the heart of
an engaged workforce
I
n many organisations, there
is a common acceptance that
employee engagement is
good for business, with robust
evidence now connecting high
levels of engagement with superior
profit, customer advocacy, and lower
staff turnover.
Yet, we are still not getting it right.
In Gallup’s most recent State of the
Global Workplace report, only 15%
of people across 155 countries were
found to be engaged in their work,
with the lowest levels of engagement
reported in China, Japan, South Korea
and Taiwan. This may be explained,
in part, by traditions of hierarchical
leadership in East Asia, where
command-and-control structures
continue to dominate.
But despite flatter organisations
and more collaborative management
practices, Western Europe falls
immediately behind East Asia at the
bottom of the global list. In Italy and
France, only 5% or 6% of workers
respectively describe themselves as
engaged, and among 18 European
countries surveyed, the UK ranks 13th,
reporting some of the highest levels of
active disengagement in the region.
Actively disengaged employees
are damaging to organisations as
they tend to be most vocal about
their unhappiness; they monopolise
managers’ time and show the highest
rates of absenteeism. Globally,
employees are most highly engaged in
North America and Latin America, but
with engagement levels of 31% and 27%
respectively, there is still plenty of room
for improvement.
If we are able to understand why
global engagement levels are so low
alexandermannsolutions.com
56
Amy
Armstrong
“In engaged
teams, members
have a strong
sense of
connection
with, and
responsibility
for, one another,
and work
towards a
shared
purpose”
and figure out what can be done about
them, we could potentially transform
the world of work. This was a starting
point for recent Hult-Ashridge research
in which we explored barriers to
engagement in teams.
In the UK’s largest study of team
engagement to date, our research found
that the key to engagement is teamwork.
This suggestion aligns with recent global
studies of engagement that show that
if we are part of a team (or even better,
part of more than one work team), we
are twice as likely to feel engaged in
our work overall. Countries with the
highest levels of team workers, such as
India or Saudi Arabia, were found to
have the highest levels of engagement.
That said, organisations do not appear
to understand or act on the vital power
of teams. HR practices tend to be geared
towards the individual, with systems an
extension of finance systems. But by
focusing on what makes a great team, we
have the potential to transform global
engagement.
Our research suggests that the secret
to an engaged workforce is creating a
climate in which teams can grow and
thrive. This comes down to trust and
autonomy. In engaged teams, members
have a strong sense of connection with,
and responsibility for, one another and
work towards a shared purpose.
Leaders in engaged teams can be
difficult to identify as hierarchy is
invisible; leadership is often distributed
with certain team members stepping-up
at different times and taking the lead on
projects that play to their energy and
strengths. Engaged teams are dynamic,
with members moving on within 18 to
24 months, which enables these teams
to maintain high levels of engagement.
By ensuring teams are given freedom
and autonomy around decision
making, reward and recognition is in
the form of choices made by members
in consultation with one another
about where and when they work
and how much time they take off.
Here, the currency of engagement is
empowerment, trust and freedom.
Dr Amy Armstrong is member of
faculty and lead researcher at Hult
International Business School at the
Hult-Ashridge Executive Education
campus in Hertfordshire, UK.