PART 7 - ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Introduction: Keeping your finger on the pulse
As we mentioned back at the beginning, the purpose of the Engaging Managers’ Zone is not to give you all the answers, but to give you a place to start.
Where you go from here is up to you. Our parting advice is this: keep going, keep exploring, keep asking questions, keep challenging yourself, and keep your finger on the pulse. Hunt, gather and equip yourself with as much of the latest thinking, knowledge and tools as you can. Build yourself the best toolkit that you can…and use it.
To navigate through the noise, we recommend that you find yourself some steady sources of relevant, reliable news, research and commentary; sites that will bring you the best of what’s out there; sites you can keep coming back to.
In this section, we’ve listed some sites we think are worth exploring and bookmarking. We’ve also provided some examples of what they have to offer. We’ve avoided cheap and cheerful promotional and filler content. We’ve also steered away from pure academic content.
Instead, we’ve focused on accessible sites who provide useful content or connections. Some of them offer limited free content only – requiring registration, subscription or membership to access more – but we think what they offer freely is worth a look.
Engage for Success
Our thinkers and doers include practitioners, academics, researchers, consultants, service providers, representatives from membership organisations and professional bodies, all with extensive experience in the theory and practice of employee engagement. At https://engageforsuccess.org/resources you’ll find our content organised by topic; or you can look for specific content using the search field.
Examples of what’s available:
- The four enablers
- Case studies
- Engaging managers in the current climate (2020)
- Psychological safety in the workplace as a base for productivity (2020)
- How the public sector improves citizen outcomes through employee engagement (2018)
- Using communication channels (2018)
- The A-Z of better wellbeing (2018)
- Engagement through CEO eyes (2013)
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
The CIPD and Engage for Success have formed an alliance to elevate the importance of employee engagement in creating more productive and aligned workforces. Together we are connecting a wide community of people professionals, business leaders and volunteers to understand and address the employee engagement challenges and opportunities that form a fundamental part of what makes good work.
Note: The majority of links here are for material available free to non-CIPD members. Free registration on the CIPD website is required.
- CIPD Knowledge Hub homepage
- CIPD podcasts index
- Fundamentals of engagement
- Job quality
- Wellbeing
- The future of employee voice
- CIPD Good Work Index (2020)
- Employee turnover and retention (2020)
- Ethics at work: an employer’s guide (2019)
- The engagement myth (2018)
- Developing managers for engagement & wellbeing (2017)
- Is it ‘engagement’ or simply good management practice? (2017)
- Management competencies for enhancing employee engagement (2017)
- Developing managers to manage sustainable employee engagement, health and well-being (2017)
- The importance of organisation culture to governance (2016)
- Training line managers (2016)
- Management guide to employee engagement (2012)
- Stress at Work: Line Manager Competency Indicator Tool (2009)
Research and commentary: membership/subscription organisations and websites
Institute for Employment Studies
- Supporting line managers to foster engagement (2018)
- The engaging manager and sticky situations (2014)
- The Engaging Manager (2009)
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
- Employee engagement surveys: why do workers distrust them? (2018)
- 7 tips to improve employee engagement without spending a dime (2016)
Chartered management institute (CMI)
Mindtools
- How Good Are Your People Skills?
- Team Management – Start Here: Discover 115 Top Team Management Skills
Harvard Business Review
- A Guide to Managing Your (Newly) Remote Workers (2020)
- Employee Surveys Are Still One of the Best Ways to Measure Engagement (2018)
- How Managers Drive Results and Employee Engagement at the Same Time (2017)
- What Great Managers Do Daily (2016)
- What Great Managers Do to Engage Employees (2015)
- A Primer on Measuring Employee Engagement (2014)
- Take Ownership of Your Actions by Taking Responsibility (2012)
- Engage Yourself (2009)
Research and commentary: consulting firms
Aon
- Trends in Global Employee Engagement (2014)
- Managers: Your Strongest (or Weakest) Link in Driving Employee Engagement? (2011)
PWC
- Employee Engagement Landscape Survey Results – Evolving an engaging work experience (2017)
- The keys to corporate responsibility employee engagement (2015)
Gallup
Research and commentary: industry news websites
HR Zone
- Delivering engagement through experiences (2020)
- Employee engagement: why small businesses need to do it too (2019)
- The five biggest mistakes in employee engagement (2019)
- The 5 Cs of Employee Engagement for Managers (2016)
HR Magazine
- Lack of recognition is biggest barrier to engagement for UK workers (2020)
- Make sure your surveys aren’t disengagement tools (2020)
- Employees’ views on engagement (2019)
- Employees feel they don’t need managers’ help (2019)
- Four employee experience myths that must be tackled (2019)
- The line manager’s role in engagement (2017)
Personnel Today
www.personneltoday.com/hr-strategy/employee-engagement
- Seven engagement survey myths and how to bust them (2020)
- Keeping a global workforce engaged in times of crisis (2020)
- Employee engagement isn’t just HR’s responsibility (2020)
- Four ways to empower teams and unlock potential (2020)
- There’s more to recognition than stroking egos, finds study (2020)
- Why performance management and engagement should be linked (2019)
- ‘Conclusive link’ between happiness and productivity (2019)
- Five behaviours of engaging line managers (2012)
Management Today
- How to improve your people skills (and why you desperately need to) (2019)
- How to empower employees without losing direction (2019)
- How to hold on to high performance teams (2019)
- How to be an authentic leader (2018)
- How to manage moaners (2006)
Forbes
- Improve employee engagement with these 6 questions (2020)
- How to boost remote employee engagement on a shoestring budget (2020)
- How to use stay interviews to boost employee engagement (2020)
- 4 elements of an effective manager’s mindset (2019)
- Management tip: small things make a big difference (2019)
- Seven truths about listening that can improve employee engagement and workplace culture (2020)
- Let’s change our perception of employee engagement (2018)
- 5 powerful steps to improve employee engagement (2017)
- Why Employee Engagement Is Not Just The Job Of Management (2013)
Other sources of news, research, commentary and tools
ACAS
www.acas.org.uk/research-and-commentary
- Building back: making working lives better (2020)
- Stress and anxiety at work: personal or cultural? (2019)
- Employee engagement: Happy and productive people equals growth (ACAS Archive)
Business in the Community
Investors in People
www.investorsinpeople.com/knowledge/
- A people first approach to crisis (2020)
- 5 tips for motivating your team during uncertain times (2020)
- Managing remote teams so BAU still happens as normal (2020)
- Leading & Inspiring (2020)
- Time to stop dreading… delegating work (2020)
- Redirect, don’t deflate: how to direct passion and ideas (2020)
- Time to stop dreading… managing different people (2020)
- Time to stop dreading… holding people accountable (2020)
- Your employees’ experience: Why you’re not seeing the truth (2019)
TED Talks
- The cost of work stress — and how to reduce it (2020)
- The human moment (2019)
- 8 lessons on building a company people enjoy working for (2019)
- How to break bad management habits before they reach the next generation of leaders (2018)
- How diversity makes teams more innovative (2017)
- The power of appreciation (2013)
Alison
Global online learning community, offering free resources to help develop workplace skills.
For example:
- Training course: Effective communications skills for managers
- Training course: Business communication – managing successful team meetings
- Training course: Supervision skills – managing employee performance
OpenLearn
Free learning from The Open University.
For example: