What is EMZ and what does it offer? How did we launch it ahead of schedule? How is EMZ making an impact in the workplace? Read on to find out!
By Gary Gill
The launch of EFS’s Engaging Managers’ Zone (EMZ) in October has already caused quite a stir!
In the first 30 days, it received 1000+ hits on the EFS website. Being actively promoted within the Civil Service through a presentation to the departmental Heads of Internal Communications early in November has helped.
The Communications Hub has been amplifying this ‘one-stop knowledge hub’ to bring it to as wide an audience as possible. We also count on you, our volunteers, to promote it across your own networks. Social media platforms are so great for spreading the word!
Before highlighting a few things about the EMZ itself, it is worth mentioning that it was launched quite a bit earlier than anticipated. EFS volunteers who lead Thought and Action Groups (TAGs) will recognise the difficulty we often encounter in completing our research projects to a specific timetable.
This is almost inevitable because we rely on volunteers to give their time and to fit it around other priorities. Earlier this year, EFS offered to link a member of the TAGs Steering Group to each TAG so they can tap into extra resources and expertise. This was intended to help each group with the final ‘oomph’ that might be needed to deliver and launch their projects.
The EMZ was the first TAG to use this new approach, which helped to speed up completion and publication of the launch by around six months. The EMZ’s impact in organisations large and small will be felt much earlier during these tough times, delivering the benefits of greater wellbeing, job satisfaction and productivity.
So, what is EMZ exactly? It is EFS’s latest development to provide the very latest thinking and free practical resources to boost employee engagement and productivity.
It complements our online Team Engagement Diagnostic Tool and gives leaders and their teams access to free resources that illustrate how cultivating a highly engaged, high-performing team does not need to be an impossible, superhuman task.
“The EMZ is not just another toolkit. It’s a source of ideas, options and things to think about,” said co-author Oliver Blackwell. “It’s not our intention to prescribe ‘the answer’ or any ‘quick fixes’. Instead, we encourage readers to browse and explore, following their own interests and priorities, asking their own questions and reflecting on what their answers might be.”
The Engaging Managers’ Zone has seven parts designed for ‘dipping in’ at any point, depending on the reader’s knowledge, experience and confidence.
- Context and purpose. What employee engagement is, why it’s important and what it means for you.
- The role of the engaging manager. Understanding your roles and responsibilities as a manager.
- Taking ownership of employee engagement. Clarifying your objectives, building your strategy and taking ownership of your own engagement.
- Your employee engagement landscape. Exploring the engagement dynamics that permeate your organisation.
- Your local drivers of engagement. The drivers of engagement within your responsibility and control.
- Taking action. Continuously reinforcing and improving engagement whilst championing and promoting the engagement agenda.
- Additional resources and further reading. Continuously reinforcing and improving engagement whilst championing and promoting the engagement agenda.
The Engaging Managers’ Zone is a free resource from the EFS website. Everyone involved in improving employee engagement – which is pretty much anyone in an organisation, including YOU – is invited to dip in to find out what it can offer.
Do take a look at this one-stop knowledge hub and if you would like an informal discussion about how the EMZ can help your team or organisation, please get in touch at info@engageforsuccess.org.
Gary Gill is Director of Public Sector Innovation at Engage for Success and an engaging manager at HMRC
