29/03/2011

Task Force To Improve Levels Of Employee Engagement

The Prime Minister today gave his backing to a new independent Employee Engagement Task Force during a launch event at 10 Downing Street.

Members of the Government sponsored, industry led Task Force - including the Chair, David MacLeod, Deputy Chair, Nita Clarke and other leading professionals from the public and private sector - joined the Prime Minister and Business Minister Edward Davey for a breakfast roundtable discussion.

The Task Force will ensure that a range of practical opportunities are made available for organisations wanting to learn about engagement. It will share good practice, generate debate and offer support via a new website. It will build on the report ‘Engaging for Success’, which David MacLeod and Nita Clarke produced in 2009 for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

At the launch of the Task Force, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “This taskforce has my full support because I know that it will work to bring together two of my government's top priorities – delivering sustainable growth across the UK, and coming up with new approaches to help people improve their wellbeing.

“I think the public and private sectors can learn a lot from each other. This initiative fits well with our agenda of devolved power and authority and shows how effective companies can be when they feel empowered. I am delighted that the Employment Engagement Taskforce has come together to develop practical ways to help all employers learn from the best, to break down barriers to engagement and to raise the profile of this whole agenda.”

The Task Force will collaborate with leading academics, think tanks and leading practitioners. It will report back next year on the strategies it recommends that organisations should adopt to promote best practice and learning.

The Task Force will also tackle key issues identified in the MacLeod Review such as the barriers to wider adoption of engagement, how to harness engagement for innovation and how to maintain morale through difficult challenges such as downsizing. The remaining members will be confirmed when the Task Force next meets in April.

(BMcN/GK)

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