Getting and keeping the right quality professional staff is an increasing challenge for advisory, accounting and legal firms of all sizes.  Not only is a skill shortage putting pressure on existing professionals, it takes time to recruit the right people (I was quoted 5 months at the time of writing), incurs increased recruitment fees and it takes longer for new people to become truly productive.

The increased pressure is also one of many factors impacting the resilience – and productivity – of existing staff.

And it’s not all about money, nor the work itself. For emerging leaders, especially from the ranks of millennials, it is as much about the way people are treated, working in a way that fits with what they want from life, being part of an enterprise, they value, and being involved and listened to.

It’s not going to happen in organisations with a strong command-and-control leadership culture!

It has prompted me to revisit an article written in 2012 as well as The Macleod Report (‘Engaging for Success: enhancing performance through employee engagement’), commissioned by the UK Government around that time.

The Report is a rich study of the factors that contribute to effective staff Engagement. There is a link in the article.

The revised article – which can be downloaded here – discusses criteria for implementing a project to put some of the key factors to work in professional services.

You will also find some interesting statistics on the links between Engagement and performance in this article .

Let us know if this triggers any thoughts!