What problems of the day linger in your mind long after you’ve left the office? As it has been for the last four years, answering this question was the goal of Human Resource Executive®’s 2013 “What’s Keeping
HR Up at Night?” survey.
This year, 613 readers participated
in the poll, telling us what has them
tossing and turning these nights.
And it seems 2013 has brought HR
professionals many of the same worries
that kept them awake in 2012.
“Ensuring employees remain engaged
and productive,” for instance, topped
the list of biggest HR challenges facing
organizations for the second consecutive
year, with 35 percent of respondents citing
it as their biggest challenge. The second-
BY MARK MCGRAW
and third-most-common responses were
“developing leaders” and “retaining key
talent as the economy recovers,” at 28
percent and 25 percent, respectively.
These issues have hovered near the
top of the list each year we’ve conducted
the survey. In 2012, for example, 34
percent of respondents cited employee
engagement and productivity as their
biggest challenge. Thirty-three percent
said the same about retaining talent as the
economic recovery takes hold, followed
by “developing leaders,” at 32 percent.
Getting Engaged
It’s fair to say that engaged employees
are typically happier and better workers,
but getting a true picture of employee
engagement can be tricky.
It’s not that HR isn’t trying. In fact,
recent Bersin by Deloitte research
finds American companies spending
$720 million annually on improving
employee engagement. According to
the research, much of that money is
spent on creating and administering
employee-engagement surveys.
Engagement surveys are certainly
popular with employers, but are not
without potential problems. Proponents
will tell you engagement surveys are
invaluable in identifying what makes
workers happy and productive—and
what doesn’t—within your organization.
Detractors claim employees
can game the system by answering
questions in a way that furthers their
own interests—angling for a raise
by indicating they don’t feel fairly
compensated, for example. Or, some
employees may be reticent about
providing honest feedback, even
anonymously, if they have grievances
or negative comments to share.
No wonder employee engagement
remains the No. 1 HR challenge facing
organizations today.
Engagement and retention—another
top-of-mind matter for HR at the moment—
are intrinsically linked, of course. In
fact, “intention to stay is one of the
defining characteristics of engagement,”
says Kim Ruyle, president of Coral
Gables, Fla.-based talent management
and organization-development firm
Inventive Talent Consulting.
“Short of bribery,” says Ruyle, “I
don’t know how to retain talent in a
world of opportunities, other than to
engage the talent.”
For Robin Van Lant, senior
program manager at Denver-based
Key Equipment Finance, maintaining
high levels of employee engagement
has sometimes been daunting as the
company—a division of Fortune 500
financial-services company KeyCorp.—
has undergone significant changes.
“About two years ago, we just came out
Despite such uncertainty, Van Lant
has actually seen employee-engagement
scores go up in the two years since,
noting that she and the HR team
carefully tailor engagement surveys—
which the organization conducts every
12 to 18 months—to get at how HR can
help improve employee efficiency and
satisfaction.
