Assignment

Of
Organizational change and
development

Submitted to:
submitted by:
Ms.priyanka chhibber
simranmeet kour
Rol
l no: RT1903B44
MBA 4th sem
 Case study on employee
engagement:
Generation BEST: empowering and engaging young
employees
As a third of local government staff are set to retire in the next 10 years, the sector is faced
with an ageing workforce that threatens a deficit of future managers. Birmingham City
Council is addressing this by focusing on employees in the early stages of their career and
giving them a voice within the council.

Generation BEST is the council’s personal and professional development network. It was developed to directly
support the council’s core values of belief, excellence, success and trust (BEST) and is part of the organization’s
wider employee engagement strategy.

Key learnings for other councils

• Motivate young employees (in age or career) and allow them to engage with people outside of their team,
directorate and organization to learn and share best practice.
• Communicate the good work that young employees are doing and enable learning and networking
opportunities.
• Promote your employer 'brand', helping attract and retain talent for the future.
• Support the network and ensure senior managers interact with their young employees.

Background to the council

Birmingham City Council is the region’s largest employer with more than 55,000 employees. Crucially, fewer than 5
per cent of them are under 25 and 30 per cent are over 55. With these figures it’s not difficult to predict that councils
are facing a ticking time bomb.

Birmingham is Europe’s youngest city, with more students and graduates than any other UK city outside of London.
Those entering the job market now set a premium on personal development and potential career opportunities. What
they want most is the opportunity to develop their careers and their abilities within their job.

Who was involved?

The network was conceived by Bella Jones, BEST Communications Manager, and Raffaela Goodby, Corporate
Engagement and Recognition Manager. It is sponsored by Councillor Alan Rudge, Cabinet Member for Equalities and
Human Resources.
The concept for the network was adopted after both managers participated in the national ‘Young Programmed’. This
aimed at stretching the minds, broadening horizons and developing the communications skills of people who have left
full-time education and are in their early stages of their working life. They then developed a proposal, submitted to the
chief executive, to set up a network for Birmingham City Council. Raffaela Goodby says:

“Taking part in the Young Local Authority of the Year competition was a brilliant opportunity to learn about
other organizations and networks. We were pleased our chief executive supported us in setting up
Generation BEST as a result.”

The problems and how the council tackled them

Using a working group made up of the council’s employee engagement network, a set of principles was established
based on the council’s BEST cores values. The Generation BEST network was designed to:

• raise the profile of younger employees within the organization

• bring a fresh perspective to council debate and give younger employees a chance to have their say and
shape the organization
• promote home grown talent through personal and career development, and talent management
• give young employees a distinct identity
• help raise the council’s external profile as an employer of choice.

The network was well received by employees. However, the working group faced some hostility from older
employees who felt that the group only strengthened and developed careers for younger staff. Bella Jones says:

“We wanted to create a network that was inclusive to all members of staff, despite their age. We wanted a
personal and professional network to give young employees in terms of age or their career, a voice within
the council.”

The council’s 2009 ‘How are we doing?’ survey found that 84 per cent of network members wanted further personal
and professional career development that matched their individual needs. This resulted in Generation BEST working
closely with the organizational development and training department to identify individual training needs and what
could be provided.

However, the more training needs were identified, the more funding was required to fulfil them. This was largely met
by the successes of the BEST programme, the innovations and efficiencies of which freed up money for training. The
training programme used internal council services rather than external services, which also saved costs and
supported the council’s ‘internal talent’ philosophy.

Employees on the council’s graduate programme were asked to participate in lunchtime sessions with senior
managers to discuss career progression and managing people. These sessions were extended to network members,
as many felt they would benefit from learning about the career routes their senior managers had taken.
 Case study analysis:
Employee engagement, also called work engagement or worker engagement, is a business
management concept. An "engaged employee" is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic
about, his or her work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests.
According to Scarlett Surveys, "Employee Engagement is a measureable degree of an employee's
positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organization which
profoundly influences their willingness to learn & perform at work". Thus engagement is
distinctively different from satisfaction, motivation, culture, climate and opinion and very
difficult to measure.

The case basically deals with following things:

Emotional attachment
Only 31% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs.These employees work with passion
and feel a profound connection to their company. People that are actively engaged help move the
organization forward. 88% of highly engaged employees believe they can positively impact
quality of their organization's products, compared with only 38% of the disengaged.[3]72% of
highly engaged employees believe they can positively affect customer service, versus 27% of the
disengaged. 68% of highly engaged employees believe they can positively impact costs in their
job or unit, compared with just 19% of the disengaged.[1] Engaged employees feel a strong
emotional bond to the organization that employs them.[4] This is associated with people
demonstrating willingness to recommend the organization to others and commit time and effort
to help the organization succeed. It suggests that people are motivated by intrinsic factors
(e.g. personal growth, working to a common purpose, being part of a larger process) rather than
simply focusing on extrinsic factors (e.g., pay/reward).
Involvement
Eileen Appelbaum and her colleagues (2000) studied 15 steel mills, 17 apparel manufacturers,
and 10 electronic instrument and imaging equipment producers. Their purpose was to compare
traditional production systems with flexible high-performance production systems involving
teams, training, and incentive pay systems. In all three industries, the plants utilizing high-
involvement practices showed superior performance. In addition, workers in the high-
involvement plants showed more positive attitudes, including trust, organizational commitment
and intrinsic enjoyment of the work. The concept has gained popularity as various studies have
demonstrated links with productivity. It is often linked to the notion of employee voice
and empowerment.
Commitment
It has been routinely found that employee engagement scores account for as much as half of the
variance in customer satisfaction scores. This translates into millions of dollars for companies if
they can improve their scores. Studies have statistically demonstrated that engaged employees
are more productive, more profitable, more customer-focused, safer, and less likely to leave their
employer.

Employees with the highest level of commitment perform 20% better and are 87% less likely to
leave the organization, which indicates that engagement is linked to organizational
performance. For example, at the beverage company of MolsonCoors, it was found that engaged
employees were five times less likely than non-engaged employees to have a safety incident and
seven times less likely to have a lost-time safety incident. In fact, the average cost of a safety
incident for an engaged employee was $63, compared with an average of $392 for a non-engaged
employee. Consequently, through strengthening employee engagement, the company saved
$1,721,760 in safety costs in 2002. In addition, savings were found in sales performance teams
through engagement. In 2005, for example, low-engagement teams were seen falling behind
engaged teams, with a difference in performance-related costs of low- versus high-engagement
teams totaling $2,104,823.3 (Lockwood).
Life insurance industry
Two studies of employees in the life insurance industry examined the impact of employee
perceptions that they had the power to make decisions, sufficient knowledge and information to
do the job effectively, and rewards for high performance. Both studies included large samples of
employees (3,570 employees in 49 organizations and 4,828 employees in 92 organizations). In
both studies, high-involvement management practices were positively associated with
employee morale, employee retention, and firm financial performance.[4] Watson Wyatt found
that high-commitment organizations (one with loyal and dedicated employees) out-performed
those with low commitment by 47% in the 2000 study and by 200% in the 2002 study.[9]
Productivity
In a study of professional service firms, the Hay Group found that offices with engaged
employees were up to 43% more productive.
The most striking finding is the almost 52% gaps in operating incomes between companies with
highly engaged employees and companies whose employees have low-engagement scores. High-
engagement companies improved 19.2% while low-engagement companies declined 32.7% in
operating income during the study period. For example, New Century Financial Corporation, a
U.S. specialty mortgage banking company, found that account executives in the wholesale
division who were actively disengaged produced 28% less revenue than their colleagues who
were engaged. Furthermore, those not engaged generated 23% less revenue than their engaged
counterparts. Engaged employees also outperformed the not engaged and actively disengaged
employees in other divisions. It comes as no surprise, then, that engaged employees have been
statistically linked with innovation events and better problem solving.
 Outcomes and impact:
The network was established in 2008. There are currently more than 200 members and counting.

Feedback shows that 97 per cent of members would recommend the network to others. More
importantly, 74 per cent believe that Generation BEST has truly helped to raise the profile of
younger employees within the council. This is by identifying their training needs, and allowing
them to interact with senior management, gain confidence and generally be heard.

Generation BEST members have been involved in various training courses, events and
competitions. Successes include:

• Paul Lowney and Catherine Poyner won the Young Metropolitan Borough Council of the
Year Award for Birmingham: the title was defended by brothers Dharmendra and Jetendra
Singh in 2010.
• Network members were given the opportunity to join Birmingham Future, a city-wide
network for professionals.
• Dr Jonathan Adey, Senior Climate Officer, was one of only 25 delegates selected to
represent the UK at a prestigious political summit.
 Suggestions and recommendation:
Some Generation BEST members and trainers found that employees had more success when the
manager was supportive. They also found a need for a more targeted drive towards managers, to
allow members to be released for networking events.

The drive should have emphasised how the network would help strengthen an individual and the
team and how it supports the overall employee development experience.

More importantly, managers needed to be made aware of how the network is underpinned by the
council’s core values (BEST) and aligns with behaviours required as part of the performance
review process.

Based on feedback from a number of surveys and focus groups, the council is designing a
programme of activity for the next 18 months that includes:

• bespoke training for Generation BEST members

• continuing to give network members the opportunity to have input into the council’s
monthly management team meetings
• supporting candidates for Birmingham Young Professional of the Year if applicable
• supporting, mentoring and entering a team for the National 'Local Government Chronicle'
(LGC) Challenge
• planning a calendar of social and volunteering activities design for networking
• working directly with Birmingham Futures, Birmingham’s representative body for young
professionals, to provide mentoring, development and networking opportunities for council
staff.
 Conclusion:
Recent research has focused on developing a better understanding of how variables such as
quality of work relationships and values of the organization interact and their link to important
work outcomes. 84% of highly engaged employees believe they can positively impact the quality
of their organization's products, compared with only 31 percent of the disengaged. From the
perspective of the employee, "outcomes" range from strong commitment to the isolation of
oneself from the organization. The study done by the Gallup Management Journal has shown
that only 29% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs. Those "engaged" employees work
with passion and feel a strong connection to their company. About ⅔ of the business units
scoring above the median on employee engagement also scored above the median on
performance. Moreover, 54% of employees are not engaged meaning that they go through each
workday putting time but no passion into their work. Only about ⅓ of companies below the
median on employee engagement scored above the median on performance.

Access to a reliable model enables organizations to conduct validation studies to establish the
relationship of employee engagement to productivity/performance and other measures linked to
effectiveness.

It is an important principle of industrial and organizational psychology (i.e. the application of

psychological theories, research methods, and intervention strategies involving workplace issues)
that validation studies should be anchored in reliable scales (i.e. organized and related groups of
items) and not simply focus on individual elements in isolation. To understand how high levels
of employee engagement affect organizational performance/productivity it is important to have
an a priori model that demonstrates how the scales interact.

There is also overlap between this concept and those relating to well-being at work and
the psychological contract.

As employee productivity is clearly connected with employee engagement, creating an

environment that encourages employee engagement is considered to be essential in the effective
management of human capital.
References:
 http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=21744959.

 http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=12102058.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_engagement.