The late Philip Larkin once wrote that sex was invented in 1963, in a wry reflection on his (and each generation’s) own discovery for itself of that Adam and Eve of all human drives. I do wonder if there’s a similar perception about a very different kind of human motivator, employee engagement (yes, I probably should get out more). While there’s no doubt that we’re witnessing an engagement boom, it wasn’t ‘invented’ until 2009 with the publication of the now celebrated Macleod and Clarke report. However, the report undoubtedly fired the starter gun for the boom itself. Worth noting, too, in this election year of ritual (and sometimes real) clashes between the political parties, that a minister from one government (Lord Mandelson) commissioned the original report while the prime minister of the next government (David Cameron) chose to sponsor it, thereby enabling it to make its galvanising impact on the world of work.

This wasn’t inevitable. Anyone with a few years of corporate experience will probably be able to name at least one perfectly good, viable and potentially beneficial project that was prematurely stopped in its tracks following a change of regime. The reasons can be strategic and budgetary and follow a certain logic. They can also be pointed, personal and simply perverse. Happily, the case for highly engaged employees leading to high-performing workplaces survived the last change of government. That case seems pretty bomb-proof now.

IoIC has long championed some of the report’s key principles, notably those to do with creating and delivering a strong strategic narrative and with making sure employees’ voices are heard loud and clear across the organisations that employ them. But I’d also like to pay homage to another professional body which has been a pioneer in the engagement territory. Take a bow the Involvement & Participation Association (IPA), a long-term advocate (since 1884 in fact) of active employee involvement as a key contributor to organisational success. I was reminded of this recently at the IPA’s annual end-of-year reception, chaired by Nita Clarke OBE, who is director of the IPA as well as co-author of that report (the OBE was conferred on both authors “For services to employee engagement and business” in 2013). 

“Just as the act of procreation predates the Beatles’ first recording, so the origins of the current engagement tide go back a long way, too”

Just as the act of procreation predates the Beatles’ first recording (to paraphrase Larkin’s actual lines), and football history didn’t begin with the creation of the Premier League (some commentators give that impression), so the origins of the current engagement tide go back a long way, too. With due credit and humility, I recognise that the wave has undoubtedly helped to lift internal communication’s boat, too. Again, these things aren’t inevitable. The IPA’s Guest of honour Alan Johnson MP, himself a long-term advocate of employee participation, reminded the IPA’s 100 or so guests of a piece of legislation that promised to change the internal communication landscape nearly a decade ago – and didn’t. Despite the keen anticipation on this side of the IC fence, the law on information and consultation (I&C) proved to be a false dawn. Some employers may not have warmed to the introduction of legally-backed parallel channels of organised communication or more red tape of employee rights. Perhaps they saw I&C as an imposition. In turn, some trade unions may not have welcomed the creation of I&C forums, perhaps wary of the potential these might have had to bypass their own established channels of communication with employers. The reasons why I&C didn’t gain traction but employee engagement so evidently has sounds like a topic waiting to be researched and written. PhD thesis, anyone?

Steve Doswell is chief executive of IoIC