The Importance of Engaging Line Managers
When it comes to an employee health and wellbeing programme, the line manager can often be the determining factor between it’s success and failure. The Employee Wellness Magazine explores just how important the role of the line manager is and why we should seek their engagement in workplace wellness initiative from the outset.
Any business that attempts to change the dynamics within an organisation that has existed longer than the foundations of their head office will find it difficult without the endorsement of its line managers. To roll out an effective wellness program without the full dedication and support of senior staff could prove incredibly challenging, an opinion echoed at the BITC Summit panel debate by business leaders from some of the UK’s largest organsiations.
Once a business has committed to developing a health programme for employees, the next step is to start thinking about how to engage its line managers succesfully. Following this commonly-accepted school of thought, achieving this engagement is ‘one step up’ from commitment (1).
Why Engaging Line Managers is Vital to Success
Research by the Corporate Leadership Council established that the engagement of managers accounts for 40% of observed improvements in performance. What’s more, these highly-committed employees try 57% harder and perform 80% better than their disengaged colleagues (2). Equally significant is the fact that it is the line manager, as the individual with the power to directly influence employee perception of the organisation’s goals and values, who is believed to be single most crucial component of employee engagement (3). The importance, therefore, of a line manager’s support for workplace wellness programmes, is clear: it is logical that in order for employees to be engaged in the new initiative, their managers must be engaged as well.
But as discussed by the BITC in the Business Spotlight section of the Employee Wellness Magazine this month, evidence is showing that UK employers are still lagging when it comes to linking wellbeing to engagement or in achieving employee engagement at all. They discuss a recent survey of managers by Right Management which indicated that just 18% of organisations use employee engagement strategies to a great extent and 63% to a fair extent .
Practical Framework to Engage Line Managers in Wellbeing Programmes
According to the IES (Institute for Employment Studies) the strongest driver of engagement is a sense of feeling valued and involved and they suggest several key components, which we have to create a quick practical framework for a business to use to engage their line managers in a health and wellbeing initiative, described below 1.
• It is vital that you involve your line managers in the decision making process. For example if you plan to offer health tests to all of your employees, ask your line managers when they feel it would be the best time to take people away from their desks or off the production line, at what times of the day/week staff will the employee be most responsive to an intervention, what are the best ways to promote it to their teams etc.
• It is important that you allow line managers to voice their opinion and share their ideas, so look to establish a regular forum for this discussion. This could be done through a weekly scheduled meeting with line managers or representatives from the group, or alternatively an online forum on the business intranet may work better.
• Detail your expectations of your line managers in relation to the wellness program in their job description, as you would with any other aspect of their day-to-day role. Clearly describe their duties, responsibilities and the reporting procedure in relation to the initiative.
• Be open with line managers and tell them what the businesses motivations are for implementing a worksite wellness programme. Highlight the extent to which the organisation is concerned for employees’ health and wellbeing, but be sure to conceal the business case for it. Regularly updating line managers with the progress of the initiative will also help.
At the end of the day, line managers are people, and despite your very best efforts to ensure they feel valued and involved in your wellness programme, some may choose to oppose it. However following this basic framework will allow you to avoid many of the common root causes for the lack of engagement of line managers when it comes to an employee wellness initiative.
Sources:
1.http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pubs/summary.php?id=408
2.http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/8DD2561A-D3E3-4E63-9F63-EF74736A17B1/0/hr_director_guide_employee_engagement.pdf
3.http://workplaceculture.suite101.com/article.cfm/employee_engagement_the_key_ingredient
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