Engagement' Case

Engagement' survey in 2006, which was further supported in the more recent CIPD report, 'Locus of engagement' in 2011, stating this as a top priority in increasing engagement. An employee is most connected with their line manager over any other manager within the organisation. They are there to provide guidance, feedback, and inspiration to the staff they manage. Line managers are an important cog in increasing engagement; an employee can feel connected to the organisation and share its values, but subsequently at the same time can feel completely unconnected and disengaged with their manager. This can also create a stop gap or barrier for engagement initiatives because managers are failing to inspire or filter down the information to their staff.

In 2012, Natalie Benjamin, head of communications for Lane4 stated "face to face communication affords the biggest opportunity to engage employees on an emotional level for deeper understanding and behavioural change, no amount of technological sophistication can replace an honest and meaningful conversation with your manager" (Benjamin 2012 and Hewitt 2006). Bedingfield (2013) highlights that in addition to providing support; managers should be seen as champions and messengers of the organisations values and missions. Their passion and commitment should be conveyed to employees through both 1:1 and team meetings in addition to the way in which they converse with colleagues and other stakeholders. The need to include managers predominantly in any sort of communication and engagement initiative is important, they should facilitate and empower rather than control and restrict their staff and are at the heart of the organisational culture (Macleod and Clarke 2009). Managers have a far bigger role to play than may often be anticipated. Ensuring that managers are communicated to and supported will allow them to do the same to their employees by inspiring and leading them. In an article by Tim Smedley in Personnel Today (2013), insurance giant Sun Alliance ensures that managers were at the heart of their engagement strategy; 'managers had to have leadership accountability and were held responsible for their team's performance to ensure their own progression within the company'. Organisations should recognise that managers are paid a higher salary to manage and to lead, to which they should be made accountable for to ensure that any strategies, be it

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