Without a doubt, one of the greatest challenges SMEs face is the attraction and retention of talent. Intelligent, honest, hard-working staff are critical to an organisation's ongoing success, but now more than ever, good people are hard to find – and to hold on to! To ensure employee job fulfilment, loyalty and maximum return on investment (ROI), the key ingredient that is so often missing is engagement.

In a Gallup poll from 2013, it was revealed that about 70 per centof Australians feel disengaged at work, and most disengaged employees would change employers right now for as little as a 5 per cent pay increase. Engaged employees on the other hand, would need at least a 20 per cent increase to even consider the same switch.

 The engaged employee - works with a passion and feels a profound connection to the organisation they work for. They drive innovation and move the organisation forwards, providing maximum return on salary investment

 The non-engaged employee - is essentially there in body only. They're sleepwalking through their day. Marking time, but not energy or passion, into their work. They provide minimum return on salary investment

 The actively disengaged employee - isn't just unhappy at work; they're busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day these workers undermine the efforts of their engaged co-workers, often providing negative return on salary investment.

Many organisations believe that strong leadership, and an exclusive focus on the development of their leaders is the key to a winning culture. They are mistaken. Leadership is not the heart of your organisation. The heart of your organisation is its people and their contribution. Without actively engaged employees, the leadership message cannot be heard, making it somewhat irrelevant.

Trained leaders today have been overloaded with leadership knowledge and theory, but too often they are not sufficiently activated. We need to turn our attention equally to our staff, getting them actively engaged regularly through new, innovative and inclusive methods, thus creating shared vision and buy-in. It's called "leadership living" and all levels of the organisation participate together in the workplace. It is an all-action methodology, which means all team members will live, breathe and grow together as a united force. It breeds true engagement, uncovers more leaders and builds a powerful and united culture. To ensure maximum impact, and lasting change, everyone needs to be involved and everyone needs to be accountable.

So how do we engage our staff, encouraging maximum productivity, loyalty and ROI? It starts with changing habits as a collective. It's about working as a unified team to change everyone's individual and collective behaviours. The only way you can do this is through structured, strategic and regular discussions built on shared ownership, individual empowerment, and group understanding.

Also, traditional hierarchy has to go. The traditional organisational structure is not the most efficient option for businesses in the 21st century. Instead, successful companies are moving to an organisational structure that allows employees to make more of their own decisions and avoid the rigidity of traditional models. Generations X, Y and Z respond and are motivated differently to baby boomers. Equality creates unity, and unity will bring the truth out in your organisation. Think of truth as the splinters that need to be removed from your business. It may hurt, but we need to hear it, or the pain will continue and exacerbate. We need to create an atmosphere for the truth to be tabled discussed and addressed without judgment.

One of my recent clients had a small workforce whom had all been with the business for 3-5 years. None of them were actively engaged. The business owner was frustrated and exhausted, relationships had deteriorated, and the company was barely performing in terms of productivity and profitability. The business owner had completed numerous leadership courses, and he was always actively working to improve himself. His efforts would usually result in small, short-term improvements, but momentum would inevitably be lost, and the culture and team engagement levels were at an all-time low. Individual leadership was not enough.

Upon completion of a structured 12-week program that involved everyone in his business, we saw a rapid and significant transformation. In short, this was achieved by giving everyone the opportunity to offer honest, constructive feedback, along with their valuable and innovative thoughts. Once everyone had established a voice, the energy really started to flow and a thriving culture kicked in. The end result was a staggering 47 per cent increase in profitability. Each team member made individual and group commitments and everyone was regularly held accountable in an open and public environment. Everything was streamlined, systems were advanced, the energy shifted and the team became united.

Key program requirements:

1)     Schedule weekly group discussions aimed at growing the organisation and each individual.

2)     3-month duration with an end goal focus.

3)     A proven system to uncover all participants' neurological motivational touch points

In closing, it is engagement, not leadership that generates a thriving culture. It is for this reason that in-house collective engagement strategies must take priority over mainstream leadership training. This methodology underpins the success I have achieved bringing 39 teams to grand finals for 24 premiership wins as well as dramatically improving bottom-line profitability in business. Register at our website for the latest dates and information on our national events.

Richard Maloney is the author of The Minds of Winning Teams – Creating Team Success through Engagement & Culture and specialises in the development of high performance teams. Visit engageandgrow.com.au