{"id":1002,"date":"2018-07-26T11:27:28","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T11:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2018-07-26T11:27:28","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T11:27:28","slug":"paul-hebert-employee-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/paul-hebert-employee-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Hebert, Senior Director of Solutions Architecture, Creative Group, Inc."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grosum.com\/i\/#\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1003 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Paul-Hebert-Full-Color500-244x300.jpg\" alt=\"Employee Engagement Interview with Paul Hebert, Senior Director of Solutions Architecture, Creative Group, Inc. - GroSum TopTalk\" width=\"244\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Paul-Hebert-Full-Color500-244x300.jpg 244w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Paul-Hebert-Full-Color500.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/wphebert.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Paul Hebert<\/a> is the Senior Director of Solutions Architecture for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.creativegroupinc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Creative Group, Inc.<\/a> designing engagement and loyalty programs for business and employees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paul is a writer, speaker, and consultant and is widely considered an expert on motivation and incentives focused on influencing behaviors that drive business results through employees, channel partners, and consumers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other highlights include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being interviewed by the BBC on executive motivation and pay<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three interviews with the USA TODAY as an expert in incentives and channel travel programs<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">11-year contributing writer on the Fistful of Talent blog <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Writer and founding member of the editorial advisory board at the HRExaminer website<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contributing author of <\/span><b><i>\u201cEnterprise Engagement: The Textbook: A Roadmap to Achieving Organizational Results Through People\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b><b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contributing author of 3 books on social media \u201c<\/span>The Age of Conversation #1, #2, &amp; #3\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Follow Paul on Twitter:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IncentIntel\" target=\"_blank\">@incentintel<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h1><b>What does employee engagement mean to you?<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On a personal level <a href=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/employee-engagement-complete-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\">employee engagement<\/a> means I WANT to contribute to my company\u2019s and my own success. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From a company point of view, I think <a href=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/expert-roundup-employee-engagement\/\" target=\"_blank\">employee engagement<\/a> SHOULD mean that those that have employees reporting to them (all the way to the CEO) ensure their employees know how they contribute to the company\u2019s success and help them align that effort with what the employees need and want for their personal success.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>How to measure employee engagement? <\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t\u2019 know if there is a <a href=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/resources\/index.php\/2018\/05\/10\/measure-employee-engagement\/\" target=\"_blank\">simple measurement of engagement<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a multitude of companies who have their own system and each of them measures a component of what it means to be engaged. But at the end of the day engagement is so variable I don\u2019t know if it something you can measure. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As an example, an employee\u2019s engagement may wax and wane based on mood, their manager\u2019s mood, the market and even the news about the company. Think of being an Uber employee when all the bad press was swirling around the company. I may have been fully engaged before but then something happens at the very top of the hierarchy at the company and shows up as negative news. Nothing really changed in that employee\u2019s relationship with their manager, or their work, yet the market and what someone else in the company did, affected their engagement. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019d rather look at engagement as an operating system, the company OS so to speak, that focuses on the company and the employee working together to optimize their relationship. It\u2019s not something you measure as much as something a company just \u201chas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>What are the common causes of employee disengagement? <\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I truly believe there is only one real \u201ccause\u201d of disengagement and that is a manager\/supervisor who sees the employee as resources to be used to maximize company value. That is what you do with the machines in the factory. Maximize production. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I believe the lack of management skills is the main cause of employee disengagement because bad managers see employees as means to an end, not an individual. Employees are human beings and the work they do can\u2019t necessarily be \u201cmaximized.\u201d Treating them like machines to be maximized distances them from the company creating disengagement. Too often we look engagement through the lens of ROI to get the attention of the CEO. I think this increases <a href=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/resources\/index.php\/2018\/05\/07\/signs-low-employee-engagement\/\" target=\"_blank\">disengagement<\/a> because it puts a monetary price tag on it. What if I could prove a better ROI equation by treating employees poorly? Would (should) the company take that approach? Why not? If you use ROI to enable <a href=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/resources\/index.php\/2018\/05\/07\/employee-engagement-strategies\/\" target=\"_blank\">engagement activities<\/a> you have to live by the result that might show engagement initiatives won\u2019t help. You can\u2019t use ROI as a tool only when it fits your narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>What are the drivers of employee engagement in today\u2019s fast-moving world? <\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only one. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Validation. Managers validating employees worth and contribution <a href=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/resources\/index.php\/2018\/07\/25\/employee-engagement-drivers\/\" target=\"_blank\">drive engagement<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some call it recognition \u2013 I call it validation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everyone wants to believe they are unique and special. People want to believe that they are contributing and making the world better. Communicating with employees that the workplace, the work output, the company and their fellow employees would be worse off if they weren\u2019t there is the single best thing we can do to drive engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>What makes a really effective employee engagement programme? <\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The best engagement programme isn\u2019t an engagement programme. The best engagement program is three simple things:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Great manager training in human behavior and psychology.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having tools that managers spend more time one-on-one in real life with their employees \u2013 technology should only remove administrivia \u2013 not decrease face-to-face discussions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Holding managers accountable for employee relationships \u2013 part of their performance evaluation (probably 80% of it) regardless of functional outputs. In other words, don\u2019t keep a manager because they are hitting business goals if their employees turnover due to negative relationships, are unhappy, actively work against the company, etc. Make the managers&#8217; job management of people not output from a department. Very different things.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2><b>Any best practices to share. <\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My recommended best practices are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Promote managers who are good managers \u2013 not great functional experts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Really train managers on human maintenance (psychology) and human performance \u2013 not paperwork and rules.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Allow managers to improvise and work with their employees in the best way that makes sense.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Change the company\u2019s definition of manager success (not about output).<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/forms\/SCz80c78zRSbKtVy2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-488\" src=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-300x300.png\" alt=\"Do You Want To Recommend Anyone?\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-594x594.png 594w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_-250x250.png 250w, https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Do-you-want-to-recommend-anyone-for-a-Toptalk-interview_.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Hebert is the Senior Director of Solutions Architecture for Creative Group, Inc. designing engagement and loyalty programs for business and employees. Paul is a writer, speaker, and consultant and is widely considered an expert on motivation and incentives focused on influencing behaviors that drive business results through employees, channel partners, and consumers.\u00a0 Other highlights [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1005,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions\/1005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grosum.com\/topTalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}