Name of weekly column: Purple Patch
This week's contributor: Jane Sunley, managing director, learnpurple

When we started learnpurple seven years ago,  it was in response to shocking labour turnover statistics in service industries. At that time the big word (BW) was retention and of course if you recruit the right people and fully engage (today’s BW) them, you’re more likely to retain them. Nothing earth shattering there, so why don’t organisations do just that?

Research indicates that only about 20% of employees are engaged (according to our own research and also surveys by Blessing White and the Corporate Leadership Council to name but two). It’s a frightening statistic and one which shocks. When I quoted it at a conference recently there was a very audible sharp intake of breath. What is going on?!

To make matters worse, of the 80% who aren’t engaged, about 20% are actively disengaged. And this is within some very successful businesses – imagine how much better things could be if the opportunity was taken to really engage the workforce.

So 20% of your workforce could be, at best, spending their time on Facebook or surfing the net and, at worst, actively sabotaging your organisation.  While you might not be able to turn them round easily – there’s still the middle 60% section who are ripe for the picking.

So what is engagement? Being fully engaged goes further than being motivated; it’s about commitment and being prepared to go the extra mile for the organisation and their colleagues. We ask our people: ‘How Purple are you?’ on a one to ten scale. If they’re not a ‘ten’, they’re not fully engaged and we then have an opportunity to find out why and improve the situation. And when people are engaged they are more productive and more likely to stay.

If organisations make a commitment to discover what employees need to become and remain engaged (the ‘employee value proposition’), and deliver this over and over again, it's very likely they will become engaged. One of our promises to our people is to have fun. 

You wouldn’t believe that though if you were to come into our office. It’s really, really quiet with everyone beavering away at their desks. We discuss this with prospective recruits so they know what to expect as most are surprised. During work time in the office, we are serious and focused and not at all fun. However, every day we do all stop and share communal lunch together and have lively chats (generally with lots of laughing). And we definitely like to party.

Last night was our annual ‘cook off’ at my co-director Jo Harley’s house. We have two businesses, learnpurple and talent toolbox, working out of the same Covent Garden office. The team that comes in closest to their profit target for the year is pampered by the other team. So, recently, talent toolbox people relaxed with cocktails and snacks while dinner was prepared by the learnpurple people.

The menu had been compiled via a warm up exercise ‘Food heaven and food hell’ which had taken place at our last quarterly meeting. Admittedly, this made for a mish-mash menu of delicious delicacies. The brief is to make everything from scratch – and we were wowed by Japanese duck dumplings and a range Italian treats though the berry cheesecake did look suspiciously as though it had started life at Patisserie Valerie.

There was much hilarity, dancing, singing and generally great hospitality. We have a range of ages, generations, personalities and backgrounds within our businesses but the one thing we all have in common is that we all like to have a good time. In fact one of the things we consider within the selection process is ‘would I choose to spend social time with this person?’ Last night reminded me that I would definitely choose to spend social time with each and every one of our people.

All of this helps top up the ‘engagement fund’ – what sort of simple, little things do you do to help engage and re-engage your people?

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