Employee Engagement Strategy

• Setting clear and compelling direction.  Employees value accurate information about where the company is heading, even if it's somewhat unclear during these times.  By keeping the employees focused on the future direction, the employees will be working on the "same page," causing a more focused energy which is exactly what the company needs in tough times.
   
• Open and Honest Communication.  When the news isn't all that positive, leaders can fall into a trap of thinking that no news is good news and that they'll only communicate when something is looking positive.  In reality, the exact opposite is true and when there isn't any news to report, effective leaders communicate there is no news.   The alternative to limiting the amount of communication is that the employees will eventually make up their own version of the news.  This can be very dangerous because the made-up version of the news could be much worse than the reality.
   
• Continued focus on career growth.  When we stop to think about employees' concerns during these economic, we usually assume the employees are only concerned about their current job and whether or not they'll be able to keep it in the near future.  That's only half the picture, though.  Employees also continue to think about their long-term futures as well.  As they consider their long-term career plans, they look to their employers for help with continuous career development.
   
• Recognizing and Rewarding High Performance.  The employers whose employee engagement scores increased from 2007 to 2008 recognize they still have to reward people who are working extra hard during these tough times.  No, it's not necessarily easy to come up with the same kind of rewards in these economic times but it is possible, it just needs more sustainable innovation to be more efficient with limited funds. 
   
• Employee Benefits that communicate commitment to employee.  Employers who scored higher on employee engagement in 2008 did a much better job in the benefits area of the survey.  It didn't necessarily mean the companies continued to pay more for the employee's benefits.  In some cases, it just meant the companies did a better job communicating the benefits that were not going to change.  The "no change" message, in and of itself, communicated a commitment on behalf of the employer that the employees security needs were going to satisfied.

East Alabama Medical Center  - Building Trust...One Employee at a Time

In 1983 when Terry Andrus became the President of East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC) in Opelika, Alabama, it was known as “a place where you only go to die.”   Financially troubled when Andrus arrived, he set about to put the hospital on a sound financial basis…to get the business and financial processes on track and to increase the operating margin by adjusting the fee structure.  He began improving organizational performance; he succeeded in getting the hospital out of fiscal hot water.  And over time he began to make progress on deeper problems...the less than stellar patient satisfaction statistics.

He began almost immediately practicing a leadership philosophy known as Management by Walking Around (MBWA)--an early employee engagement strategy. To this day, he walks around the hospital every morning on his way to his office.  He spends time every day stopping by to talk with folks.  People were suspicious at first. He began to get to know people…he listened to their challenges at work; he listened to their joys and fears at home.

Through his MBWA, he began to take note of challenges that people were facing in doing their job.  He listened and he acted.  He developed a collaborative leadership model.  Soon, a culture evolved of engaging employees to solve problems…it became an environment where managers listened to their employees.  Andrus and his colleagues focused on improving the patient experience in the hospital.  They created an operating philosophy that directly linked the patient experience to the employee experience.  Employees who were treated well would in turn treat customers well.  The patient experience began to improve dramatically.  A customer service code entitled What we Expect from Every Employee was adopted that outlined every employee’s commitment to the patients:

• Assist people in finding their way; escort them to their destination if necessary
• Greet others in hallways, elevators and workstations with a kind word or smile.
• End each encounter with a warm and positive smile.
• Anticipate patients’ needs so they will not have to use their call lights.Listen carefully; do not interrupt; give other people your full attention.  

Customer service forums were created.  Humorous videos were used in training courses…to highlight good, bad, and ugly customer service practices.  Patient satisfaction scores rose dramatically.  At about the same time, the hospital adopted a quality management program.  Seeking best practices from other hospitals and educating employees in high performance practices is a key part of the campaign. 

In 2001, EAMC was the first public organization to get on Fortune Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list.  In 2002, it was #18 on the list.   In May 2005, they were named the top performer in Alabama (Alabama Quality Assurance Foundation). Today,  EAMC’s patient satisfaction scores are in the 95-99th percentile. They have achieved sustainable excellence.

Last year, I told my friend Mike about the hospital.  With a big smile on his face, Mike told me that he had admitted his ailing father to East Alabama Medical Center the week prior.   On his third day at the hospital, walking thru the lobby on his way to his father’s room, he felt a tap on his shoulder.  He turned, and a woman asked: “Mr. Mears how’s your dad.”  My friend was in awe as he told me the story.  Never had he received such care and attention in a hospital.  He went on to tell me that the woman who greeted him had checked him into the hospital two days earlier. 

My friend’s story demonstrated a simple fact.  Showing that you care about your employees—Terry Andrus’ morning walks thru the hospital—can build a tremendous reservoir of trust which can heal very sick organizations...even at places where “you only go to die."

The first is compiled by a set of about 15 authors under the editorial leadership of Jeana Wirtenberg. This Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook includes significant attention to issues of leadership at various organizational levels, as firms seek to direct attention toward the measurement of “externalities” like carbon dioxide emissions, etc.

William Blackburn authored the Sustainability Handbook, which at 800+ pages is the most extensive of the three. The extensive diagrams and tables make it highly useable by those who want a break from endless text.

The third in the trio is Making Sustainability Work by Marc Epstein. This book gives extensive attention to both internal and external measurement systems for implementing Triple Bottom Line (TBL) evaluation and reward systems essential for developing a successful employee engagement strategy. Since most existing corporate measurement systems need major changes to comply with the G3 standards of the Global Reporting Initiative and the Carbon Disclosure Project, Epstein’s guidance can be very valuable to those executives responsible for society’s rising expectations for organizational transparency in various forms.

Given everyone’s busy schedules, it is worth noting that all of the above books can be read in parts and any sequence. In short, they can be used as reference documents.