Purple Patch Blog / Engagement

Increase employee engagement in one simple step

Jo Harley on how developing your managers can lead to an increase in engagement.

It’s a year since we launched our free engagement survey (click here to set yours up) and therefore a year since we first completed it ourselves; time to practice what we preach and run it again to see how things have changed. You’d think that specialising in the areas of employee engagement, best places to work, retention and development we’d be scoring a whopping 10 out of 10. However there are always improvements that can be made and we were pleased with our rather respectable score of 8.5 (especially as this was 1.5 points up on last year –phew!) Compared to all the organisations that have taken part since we launched (over a thousand people) we compare very favourably as the average score is five out of a possible ten.

A recent poll by Gallup states that 24% of people are not engaged in their job at present, which reflects similar studies by Blessing White and the Corporate Leadership Council. Although they found that that the number of actively disengaged had doubled from 20% of the workforce in 2008 to 40% in 2009 which is very worrying and presents an opportunity to make improvements.

Continue reading Comments (0) 28 July 2010

Room to Change

MJ Flanagan talks about the importance of housekeeping within the hospitality industry and the key issues facing this valuable role.

Whenever I speak to hoteliers they talk about occupancy levels and average room rate achieved, events and F&B. And often when I attend meetings with them the GM, FD and other senior managers will be present; it is rare to have the head housekeeper in attendance. Yet with all hotels the occupancy rates and guest retention is dependant on the ‘non – negotiables’ - those factors that will make or break a guest stay. During a recent values session for a well known hotel these were identified by all the team members as: comfortable bed, clean room, everything working, great shower, WIFI, warm friendly service, deliver on the promise and problems solved efficiently without any fuss. Although food and drink features highly it may not be a deciding factor on a guest’s stay, if the other non-negotiables were in place they may well stay but not eat in.

Continue reading Comments (1) 18 June 2010

Winning the world cup…

Will we? Won’t we? Have we got a chance? Love it or hate it you will be affected by ‘world cup fever’. Even if you are planning to take yourself off to a silent retreat on a remote island somewhere or / go shopping/ watch Sex and the City or all eight series of ‘24’ on DVD for the duration, there is the likelihood that it will encroach on your life in some way.

If you are in ‘the world cup zone’ how are you going to watch it? Especially if the games are taking place during working hours (many of them are kicking off at 4pm). Maybe you’d rather not take a whole day off, and perhaps you don’t have the holiday allowance? And if your team wins and you have a few drinks, are you really going to feel like working the next day? And therein lies the problem for business of all sizes, how to manage world cup fever and its associated absenteeism, whilst staying fair and not discriminating against anyone.

Continue reading Comments (1) 9 June 2010

Induction and beyond... an opportunity to engage your people

Jane Sunley looks at the employee journey and how it presents many engagement opportunities.

I’m happy to report that the Purple Palace is good and busy and with organisations acting now to engage and retain their talented people. As the recession lifts our products and services are more in demand than ever and we were lucky enough to keep all of our people last year as well as continue to develop them. Even better, as a result of recent developments, it’s been necessary to employ some new people - Caroline on the talent toolbox side, and David who is concentrating on our public courses. Having been involved in their inductions this week made me think what a huge opportunity to engage new people a really well crafted induction really is.

Continue reading Comments (2) 10 May 2010

Having your say…

Jo Harley comments on election fever (or not)...

In less than a month we’ll be deciding who is going to run our country for us, a pretty big decision and one that impacts on the way that we all live our lives. So why is it that in the last general election that only 61% of the population turned up to the UK’s polling stations and voted? Perhaps its laziness, or the perception that there isn’t anyone is worth voting for or is it that some we think that their voice won’t be heard; that their vote just won’t make a difference? And I suppose some people feel that even if they do register their vote, or their opinions, little will be done as a result.

Continue reading Comments (1) 12 April 2010