Opinion: Is employee engagement really HR’s most pressing challenge in 2017?

What can organisations, supported by HR teams, do to influence positive changes in employee engagement? Sarah Rodgers provides her tips

At the beginning of the year, there was a lot of talk about what the biggest challenge for HR teams is likely to be this year. Seems, no matter what you read or who you talk to, employee engagement has won out as the most pressing challenge. My question is really? Is it really the biggest HR challenge? I think it would be easy to suggest that it’s an HR issue; in reality, I think it’s much more than that. I think it’s an organisation-wide challenge, a challenge for every manager or leader in your organisation and a challenge for each and every employee. 

I got to thinking that no matter how robust or creative the HR strategy nor the resulting employee engagement initiatives, perhaps we are looking too far afield? Many HR teams, at times, are criticised for not thinking strategically enough, but when it comes to employee engagement, perhaps we need to start a bit closer to home? 

Since agreeing to write this piece, I’ve asked a lot of people what the key driver of their satisfaction or engagement at work is; not surprisingly, none of them have suggested it relates to their organisation’s HR strategies! Mostly they have talked about whether or not they feel valued, whether or not they are treated well by their manager. Almost none of them have said they didn’t like the work they do. None of them have said they don’t feel they are paid fairly (although I have no doubt, some people do feel this way). Nope, without exception, they have talked about how they are treated by and valued by their immediate manager. It’s been said, not by me, but I agree with the sentiment, that people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers.