Engaging Employees

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Engaging Employees

• Impacting Employees to Stay, Perform, Influence
  and Recommend

Kelly Groehler, APR
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Whos Line Is It Anyway?

• If you are going to treat customers first, you
  must treat employees more first.

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Employees More First?

• 83 of workers plan to look for a new job when
  economy heats up
• 35 of top performing employees are at high
  risk of leaving their jobs
• 60 of workers feel pressure to work too much
• 83 of employees want more time with their
  families
• 56 of workers are either somewhat or completely
  dissatisfied with their jobs

Source 12/2003, CNN/Money, based on data from
Society for Human Resource Professionals, Sibson
Consulting, Gallup, Monster.com
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Learning Objectives

• Strengthen the value of employees
• Discover the prevalence of communication
  opportunities
• Understand how effective communication strategies
  build engagement and achieve outcomes

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Todays Environment Presents Significant
Challenges

• Performance-driven everything what have you
  done for me today?
• Relentless pressure for profitable results
• RIFs
• Higher compliance costs
• Escalating health care costs
• Performance-based environments and systems (e.g.
  compensation)
• Increasingly intense competition
• Products services
• Talent
• Investment capital
• Battered institutional trust, credibility and
  reputation
• Ultra access to information (or misinformation)
• Everybody is a communicator
• Altered lifestyles
• Intense mind-share competition

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In Which Communication Opportunities Are
Prevalent
Top 10 Barriers to Effective Supply Chain
Management

• 1. Inadequate information-sharing
• 2. Poor/conflicting measurement
• 3. Inconsistent operating goals
• 4. Organizational culture
• 5. Resistance to change - lack of trust
• 6. Poor alliance management practices
• 7. Lack of supply chain vision/understanding
• 8. Lack of managerial commitment
• 9. Constrained resources
• 10. No employee passion/empowerment
• Achieving World-Class Supply Chain Alignment
• Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies

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Effective Communication Builds Engagement,
Achieves Outcomes
INFORM EDUCATE
BELIEVE DO
Awareness
Understanding
Acceptance
Engagement
Engaged employees significantly more likely to
achieve desired outcomes
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Why Engagement Matters!

• 38 higher customer satisfaction
• 22 higher productivity
• 27 higher profits

Source Gallup Organization
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Effective Communication Builds Engagement,
Achieves Outcomes
Engagement
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Communication Framework to Drive Employee
Engagement
Performance effectiveness is maximized when all
five information needs are successfully
communicated
Source Roger DAprix
HOW ARE WE DOING?
WHERE ARE WE GOING?

• Financial results
• Market results
• Operational results

• Strategic direction
• Local
• BU/group
• Company

Organizational
WHATS MY JOB?
DOES ANYBODY CARE?

• Reward recognition
• Total compensation
• Career development
• Affiliation/loyalty
• Satisfaction

• Job clarity (across roles/units/groups)
• Aligned objectives
• Skills development

Individual
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Engagement Factors Impacted by Communication
Effectiveness
Effectiveness of Supervisor
Open, two-way Communication
Communication Priority
Understanding Business Strategy
Integrity/ Trust
Teamwork Collaboration
Attitude Toward Job, Company
Commitment// Personal Action
Reward Recognition
Source Padilla Speer Beardsley
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Key Performance Metrics
Driven by an Engaged Workforce
Perform
Stay
Influence
Recommend

• Retention
• Affiliation
• Recruiting
• Internal job movements
• Performance ratings
• Employee satisfaction

• Growth
• Profitability
• Productivity
• Service levels
• Quality
• Speed
• Innovation
• Customer satisfaction

• Organization achievement and momentum
• Growth
• Profitability
• Productivity
• Service levels
• Quality
• Speed
• Innovation
• Customer satisfaction

• Prospective customers and partners
• Prospective employees
• Prospective investors
• Public opinion

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Effective Communication and Engaged Employees
Accelerate Adoption
Late Majority
Early Adopter
Early Majority
Innovator
Laggard
Source Everett Rodgers
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Application - Case Studies

• Case Study Disclaimers
• Learn from failures and successes
• Be careful about trying this at home

1 Culture Change 2 Critical Issues 3
Operational Efficiency
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Case Study 1 Culture Change

• Outcomes (metrics)
• Revenue growth (with future product mix)
• Profitability (re-allocate resources to new
  product lines)
• Employee sat, Customer sat (define new culture
  adapt to change)
• Key Engagement Factors

• Financial services industry
• Specialized segment
• Top 5 player, competing against industry
  heavyweight
• Initially family-owned, now led by new team of
  outsiders
• Strong employee ownership history
• Profitable on ongoing basis, led by
  diversification strategy
• Downsized operations

Understanding Business Strategy
Attitude Toward Job, Company
Empowerment/ Line of Sight
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Case Study 1 Culture Change

• Communication Strategies
• Assess employee engagement factors on regular
  basis
• Work with leadership development group
  participants to analyze and build roadmap
• Correlate (systemic) with customer satisfaction
  data
• Ongoing counsel with senior leadership
• Determine degree of internal and external change,
  both in business operations and culture
• Identify and execute their leadership
  communication roles
• Dialogue-based teaching with employees and
  customers
• New business strategy What it is? Why this is
  our path now?
• Culture reset What stays? What is new? How
  will we cross this bridge?

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Case Study 2 Critical Issues

• Goals ( metrics)
• Maintain service quality (customer sat, quality)
• Move ahead with new central library, consolidate
  facilities and services (productivity,
  profitability, et al)
• Expand services (customer sat, recruiting/retentio
  n)
• Key Engagement Factors

• Municipal service
• New 100 million-plus central library
• Improve efficiencies and cost-savings
• Approved by voter referendum in 2000
• Recommended branch closings, subject to approval
  vote
• Driven by loss of state-funded revenue
• Save our library vs. Save our library system
• New director with public policy background, no
  library background

Organizational Trust
Communication Priority
Understanding of Business Strategy
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Case Study 2 Critical Issues

• Communication Strategies
• Involved all employees in change process, with
  regular updates and input roles in the planning
  process
• Developed facilitated scenario planning (with
  employees and Library Board)
• Extensive outreach to key external constituencies
  (patrons, elected officials, media), again
  involving employees
• What services are most critical and beneficial
• Leverage the fresh perspective and public
  policy experience of new library director
• Internally ? significant visibility, empathy,
  demonstrated ability
• Externally ? key spokesperson

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Case Study 3 Operational Efficiency

• Goals ( metrics)
• Decrease production costs (productivity,
  profitability)
• Improve quality and safety (customer sat, safety)
• Be a Top 5 player (market position)
• Key Engagement Factors

• Food and beverage industry
• Top 10 player, competing against industry
  heavyweights
• Industry being globalized and consolidated
• Opportunity to improve efficiency, thereby making
  company stronger
• Ongoing focus of continuous improvement

Communication Effectiveness of Supervisor
Attitude Toward Job, Company
Teamwork Collaboration
Reward Recognition
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Case Study 3 Operational Efficiency

• Communication Strategies
• Messaging to be simple, relevant and redundant
• Build the burning platform and avoid program
  of the month language
• Reach (access and understanding) everyone in the
  organization
• Develop influencing and teaching skills of key
  implementers and enablers
• To build process change, theres need to drive
  behavior change
• Transfer lessons learned and success stories
• Build on culture of relationships and recognition
• Openly discuss setbacks celebrate early wins
• Focus on pride and respect of workforce in
  contributing to significant organizational effort

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Summary

• Strengthen the value of employees (more first!)
• Discover (and act on) the prevalence of
  communication opportunities
• Focus on outcomes (not outputs!)
• Make consistency more important than volume
• Be genuine real
• Courageously advocate for discomfort regarding
  communication

The basic problem with communication is the
illusion its completed.- George Bernard Shaw
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Suggested Readings

• The Leadership Solution (Jim Shaffer)
• Absolute Honesty (Larry Johnson, Bob Phillips)
• Execution (Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan)
• Fish! (Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, John
  Christensen)
• Amusing Ourselves to Death (Neil Postman)
• Youre In Charge Now What? (Thomas Neff, James
  Citrin)

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Questions?

• Thank you!