Economists are predicting a slow economic recovery. This means managers will need to work harder to improve the performance of their teams and retain key talent.

Research conducted by The Human Resource Practice in 2009, illustrated that employees seek a shift from an organisational-focused to a more individual-based management approach. The latter resembles Gary Hamel and renegade brigades' management innovation, called Management 2.0. This moots a shift from the company orientated paradigm to one flexible enough to adapt to each individual employee. This framework focuses more on the meaningfulness of work than merely on job and organisational connectedness.

The research confirmed that South African managers need to positively influence the extent to which employees connect to their jobs and the organisation. The new age skills required to engage employees involve emotional intellegence, critical conversations and coaching skills. Employee engagement is  critical to create the managers and ultemately the organisation of tomorrow.  

The employee engagement validated instrument such as that developed after the study can be applied to assess the degree of connectedness among employees to their jobs and the organisation. The results can provide a useful guide to identifying measures for improving performance and retaining key competencies.

 The Human Resource Practice is planning a follow up national employee engagement survey including organisation profiling to better understand employee engagement within the South African context. For more information on the South African Employee Engagement Survey - 2010, contact Ruwayne Kock on 011 453 0555 or ruwaynek@hrpractice.co.za