“ Research conducted in 2012 makes clear that employee engagement strongly relates to key organizational outcomes in any economic climate, regardless of the organization, industry or country. Even during difficult economic times, employee engagement is an important competitive differentiator for organizations. Business units with more engaged employees have better odds of achieving the outcomes their organizations desire such as revenue, profit, customer engagement, safety, quality work, and employee retention.
Engagement at Work: Its Effect on Performance Continues in Tough Economic Times (Gallup, Inc., 2013)
Challenge
The client wanted to become one of the “Top 100 Employers in Canada”. A newly appointed CEO knew that employee satisfaction was key to this goal and that the managers and leaders in the organization needed to be on top of their game. Feedback was showing that morale was low and there was uncertainty around recent turnover and the future under the new leadership.
Strategic Approach
Working first with the senior leadership team, we clarified that their goal was to gather specific feedback from their employee team—what was working and what could be improved. It was critical that employees be involved in this process from the outset to model the way.
We designed and ran a project that encompassed an employee satisfaction survey, focus groups, town hall meetings and working groups, ultimately getting the employees to participate in, and adopt, the strategic plan. The participation rate for the survey was 92% – an extraordinary rate showing the employees trusted the process and wanted to be part of the solution to achieving a best employer status.
Result
During the immediate nine month period after the employee engagement survey, the employees were aligned to the process of driving better business results from new vantage points. They worked with senior management to effect change for their clients and reported that their feedback had been heard and was being acted upon.
Critical opportunities for improvement were identified from the survey data and directly integrated and tasked to Key Result Area cross-functional working teams. One specific next step included a detailed survey process with their direct clients. This enabled the organization to target areas to enhance customer service.
Of importance is that everyone in and connected to the organization has adopted processes and behaviours over the longer term which positions the company well to be among the Top 100 Employers in Canada.