blue collar engagement

[Lucie tremblay]

Hello everybody !

I work  for  a public utility for many years now and my interest for engagement is very strong. We have an engagement survey since 1995, so I have 15 years of specific data for our organization. During those years, engagement improve a lot, but there is still an important group - blue collar - who scores very low.  In my  researches I found very few papers specific to this group.

I assume that  blue collar employees don't engage the same way  professionals do ( we did the same things for all groups) but from here, this is a big puzzle...

Does someone can help me start somewhere? I look for:

• papers
• specific researches
• successful experiences
• best practices
• insight
• practical tools
• and so on....

I am eager to hear from you

Lucie

p.s. I hope my english is understandable...

[Lucie tremblay]

Hi Blaine,

I am anxious to read your book. In the meantime, I would like you to read my previous answer to Craig and tell me what are your thoughts about it.

In the same direction I read again your post and something new appears to me. I did focus on this part of your answer about union leaders. You said: «They serve their membership» . Maybe this is the key real bosses can use to unleash engagement. They have to serve their workers. They have to help them make their job done. This means that they have to facilitate their job, to brake down the barriers instead of ordering and then attending the most part of their time in never ending meetings, analysing finances and data.

On the other hand, like you, I do have a pretty long background in labor relations. I can say I know a few things about how unions work. My concern now is about the whole system. Unions, union leaders, organisations and top leaders. Sometimes, I must confess, I am near to think that those big players became so concern with results, custumers, economic and political concerns, promotions, elections, conflicts, collective bargaining and so on, that they have forgotten as well workers and their line managers. The worst is that this system just add pressure on workers and line managers.

This is like the whole system is running too fast with too many important things to care about...and almost forgot what it is suppose to be for in the first place. Too busy to do important things, to do the right things...

I often dream that I am about to find THE solution, to stop all this and make the system works better... but I always woke up too soon...

Is there anything we can do to help the whole system wake up and adjust ?

[Blaine Donais]

Yes I believe so. This was one of the focuses of my book. While there are alot of books about employee engagement, I don't think any of them consider carefully an approach that is self-reflective and strategic in the sense of a complete systematic approach. I have reviewed the major engagement efforts in North America over the last 20 years and have come to the conclusion that engagement projects need to contain three types of strategies: process management, change management and relationship management. No one will ever know I suppose if that amounts to THE solution. But I believe that it is A solution.

[Lucie tremblay]

Your book has been ordered. Just have to be patient now and wait until delevery...

Thank you for those hints and I will come back to you as soon as possible.

Best regards,

[Mireille Jansma]

Hi Lucie,

I have a bit of a different take on employee engagement. Summarized it in 6 words like this: "Motivation is personal. Stop 'engaging' me!"

Because I got a question about it, I tried to explain a bit here: http://employeeengagement.ning.com/forum/topics/write-a-6-word-empl....

Complexity thinking has been quite fruitful for my own understanding; crux is that you cannot 'manage' complex issues because there is no way to predict the outcomes of what you do. I put some more details in my other post (see link above).

Another angle is John Seddon (who builds on Demming a.o.). Google "John Seddon Vimeo" and watch his seminal moments video to get an impression of what he is about. He explains that you cannot manage engagement directly, but have to change the way the work is done. Another great lecture by him is 'Culture change is free'.

Have a watch and consider these angles, which are very different from the idea that we can and should 'manage' engagement and change and such?

Best, Mireille

[Blaine Donais]

Great Lucie! I look forward to your comments on it.

[Rob Fox]

Lucie,

You might wish to take a look at www.engagingideas.co.uk for practical tools and exercises designed to inspire higher employee engagement and change.

Best,

Rob.