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Employee Engagement – MacLeod Review

July 15th, 2009 by Sean Trainor

It’s been a long time in the making but we are now on the eve of the publication of MacLeod review of employee engagement. see here

I have 3 hopes for this report

1. It goes beyond the study commissioned by the Scottish Executive 2 years earlier see here

2. It is more enlightening than the author’s presentation to ACAS CIPD in April see here

3. It builds on HMG’s vision for Britain’s economic recovery in New Industry, New Jobs published last week see here

Whatever the content, my belief is that the timing of this publication is perfect.  

We have recently witnessed British brands struggling to remain competitive under existing regulatory frameworks – BA, BT, National Express, Royal Mail, RBS, Lloyds Group to name a few. 

Lord Mandelson recently fired warning shots over the bows of British business by making it clear that HMG is not an ATM for bailing out British brands who cannot remain competitive. 

I think most business leaders understand the link  between engaged employees and performance and can also see the link between driving innovation in products and services and brand differentiation. 

I don’t think that the Macleod review will draw the explicit link between employee engagement and brand, which is unfortunate as I believe that employee brand engagement absolutely addresses why Macleod believes engagement matters in the future: realise untapped potential; enable the best of people; compete with BRIC economy; provide public services we want; innovate; bespoke.

But three hopes in one day is enough for anyone, right?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Brand advocacy, Employer branding, Leadership engagement, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Employee Engagement – MacLeod Review”

  1. Philip Jones Says:
    July 22nd, 2009 at 3:15 pm

    Thanks for your post Sean and your comments. Thanks also for bringing so many documents together

    I wonder if you can say more about you hope to see in the review? I get the feeling that – with respect – McLeod is churning out the same stuff. I’m interested in the debate becoming a little grittier!!

    I work in all sorts of organisations where employee engagement is a big issue – notably

    - Child Protection Social Workers who have seen themselves publically vilified, not supported by goverment ministers and on the front page of the red tops with rewards offered for their colleagues home addresses
    - small voluntaries where there are service users in the workforce or indeed on their board
    - public services generally who are geting a bashing which is only going to get much much worse
    - criminal justice sector who are blamed for a further fear-of-crime epidemic supported by the (by me) most respected of media

    These agencies need more than just advice about involving their staff in business planning, managers need confidence to have the really tricky conversation which don’t dodge the difficult issues

    Thanks!

    Phil

  2. Sean Trainor Says:
    August 6th, 2009 at 11:00 pm

    Thanks Philip. personally I think we are past the debating stage. It’s a bit like climate change, whether you like it or not there is overwhelming evidence in support of it. It’s now time for action. Businesses need solid practical advice and the only debating ground should be why things arent improving.

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