Where eagles dare

Delegates dive for cover as Lark, the peregrine falcon, dive bombs the gantry at nearly 150mph. This wasn't in the script of Festo Training's principles to Engage, Enable & Empower Employees course at the Hawk Conservancy, Andover. The falcon was supposed to have been heeding his handler's calls to swoop down and collect carrion in a field some 50 metres away. But Lark believes rules are made to be broken. "Every business has a Lark, a classic high performer," says Mark Hemming, training facilitator and senior consultant at Festo Training of our Stuka tribute act. "He's the Ferrari of the bird world. An incredible performer, but very temperamental. He can be outstanding when he wants to be, but a nightmare when he's disengaged." The hard business case for soft skills Lark is just one of a flock of bird stars being used by Festo Training to teach UK manufacturers the importance of employee engagement. What us Brits once laughed off as management psycho babble is rapidly being recognised as a harbinger of business success. An engaged worker, defined as motivated, proud of their work and prepared to run through walls for the company cause, equals profit. Companies with highly engaged employees notched up a 52% higher operating income than those with low engagement in a Towers Perrin-ISR study of over 50 businesses. Another study, this time from Gallup, shows engagement experts notching up 12% higher profits and 18% higher productivity. Disengaged contemporaries averaged 30-50% more employee turnover and 62% more accidents. Your engaged worker takes fewer sick days and improves products, processes and customer satisfaction. The trouble is the star performer is in short supply. You'll be lucky to count more than one in 10 engaged workers on your books. And before you launch a Daily Mail tirade over the social decline of our once great nation you might want to take a look in the mirror. Disengagement is down to bad management "There are three main reasons for high levels of disengagement," says Hemming. "Senior managers, senior managers and senior managers. Engaged employees will tend to have managers who are effective in reflecting and communicating the values of their organisation, involving and showing respect to their teams and adapting to individuals." It reads like the antithesis of classic British management culture. Our Anglo-Saxon sensibilities tell us to instil a fear factor in our reports, let them know who's boss and steer clear of the soppy stuff. "Many people we spoke to pointed to the danger of engagement being written off as 'soft and fluffy' rather than a bottom line issue," notes the government's 2009 MacLeod report on enhancing performance through employee engagement. "Other listed reasons which enabled leaders to avoid dealing with the issue included 'it won't work here' and 'I don't have time'. Festo's avian mission is to convince otherwise. "Just like their human colleagues, the birds need their managers to understand their different character traits and to be able to adapt to them," explains Hemming. "When a bird isn't engaged effectively it won't moan about it around the photocopier as can be the case in some companies, instead, it leaves the manager in no doubt about its feelings." Adapting your style equals success Just ask Mike Riley, the stricken handler of our rogue peregrine falcon, Lark. "He's trying to bully Mike," comments Jane Robertson, registrar at the Hawk Conservancy, from the viewing gantry as the falcon comes swooping out of the sky just yards from the handler. "That's Lark trying to show him he's boss. But see how Mike stands firm and absolutely still. He is not letting the bird fluster him, he keeps calling Lark and swinging the food on the lure [a small leather pouch containing chicken on a line]." It's the shopfloor tête-à-tête given a Really Wild Show makeover. Mike is the team leader: He wants production to perform a quality check as agreed in the factory strategy. But one flighty operator has other ideas; he wants to do it his way and gives Mike what for. But Mike stays calm, he doesn't bite, just reinforces the need for quality and the rewards for doing things in the agreed way. Lark has met his match and the browbeaten bird descends like an angel to take his scrap of chicken. Moments later he is perching on Mike's arm, every inch the world's best bird buddie. Not everyone is a Lark. "The Harris Hawk is your company's grafter," says Robertson as the bronze feathered Clare tiptoes across her leather glove. "Clare and the hawks are very reliable. They'll perform day in, day out. However, they still need to be carefully managed. See how Clare is looking around now she's eaten the chicken from my glove. It's all a bit easy for her and she's switching off." Make sure your factory's hawks don't do the same. Cajole them, or, like Clare, they might switch on the auto-pilot. The eagle brings a whole different set of management challenges. "They're extremely majestic and they know it," says Hemming of bald eagle, Orion. "They're the employee who is full of themselves: Persuasive, charming, but also mischievous. If you're not assertive they'll get away with murder." Flutter forward Goose – a stunning African eagle and femme fatale. "She can be aggressive and sulky," says Robertson. "If she thinks she can get away with it she'll give you the occasional pinch with her beak. It hurts, but you must never hit out or you'll lose the bird's trust forever." The owl misdiagnosed with vertigo Our fourth and final personality type is the owl. Analytical, logical and timid – the owl likes nothing more than following protocol. The merest hint of flamboyance will have him or her scurrying for safety in the nearest spreadsheet. Troy is your classic case. The pint-sized tawny owl gave his handlers an unusual headache after arriving at the conservancy, explains handler Kim Kirkbride. "He wouldn't fly up to perch on a tree and for a long time we thought we had a bird who suffered from vertigo." But Troy's true rationale turned out to be far more logical. "It was only when one of the handlers started to climb the tree that he flew up and perched," says Josie. "He wasn't afraid of heights, but was only going to go if his handler went there too." It's a useful parable for anyone who manages an owl. Never ever leave anything open to interpretation: Facts matter. So there you have it. All of us, to a greater or lesser extent, veer towards the personality traits of one of the birds of prey on the Festo Training course. All you need to do as a manager is figure out your hawks from your eagles and adjust your style accordingly. It's an inexpensive way to ensure your factory is not among the old-school thinkers who cost the UK economy an estimated £60 billion in lost performance through disengagement in 2008. Expect plenty of locker room jibes from colleagues over your feather brained ideas. Laugh them off; it won't be their reputation that's soaring at the next board meeting as your 'soft' skills deliver some rock solid results. Engagement: Beware of the squeezed middle A typical UK company will have 16% of employees who are engaged and 24% who are actively disengaged. The remaining 60% are the factory equivalent of floating voters: Productive, but not psychologically connected to their company. These are the key group who will make or break your workplace culture. If your actively disengaged workers run riot then their bad influence will corrupt the middle 60%. You can regard the actively disengaged as "mood hoovers" according to one Festo course delegate: determined to suck up the slightest ray of sunshine. Managers should keep the disengaged in check and champion their 16% of star performers. Doing so will convert the impressionable middle 60% into top-tier engaged performers. Employee engagement by numbers 2 of the biggest mistakes organisations make in disengaging employees are appointing the wrong leaders and not supporting leadership development 3 There are three key characteristics of an engaged employee. Their attitude, which will be one of pride and loyalty. Their behaviour, typically going the extra mile. And, finally, the outcomes they achieve, such as higher productivity, greater innovation, or reduced accident rates 32% An engaged employee is 32% more productive than a disengaged employee 43% The extra revenue generated by an engaged employee versus a disengaged employee 89% of UK workers do not feel actively included in their workplace 9 The average number of sick days taken by a disengaged employee; engaged counterparts take three 1:1.5 The ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees in typical UK firms 8:1 The ratio in world-class organisations 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work, according to Gallup's 142-country study on the State of the Global Workplace