Written by: Hillary Feder
Ah summer…when television reruns rule. One of my favorites is the “Twilight Zone”, an anthology of stories steeped in various forms of fantasy, science fiction, suspense, horror, supernatural, psychological thriller and more, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist and almost always with a moral.
Many organizations are in the “Twilight Zone” about employee engagement. They’re in an alternate reality, thinking that participation equates to commitment. But failure to hold people accountable is keeping them from experiencing the truth. Learn how to use six critical tenets for bridging this gap between theory and practice in order to close the engagement loop and reap the benefits of a people-centric culture.
Not too long ago when I began consulting with a hospital and health care clinic on how to reshape their stagnating employee experience from a score of 73% to “rock star” status, I was pretty impressed with their weekly senior leadership meetings.
These seven leaders seemed organized. Meetings began on time, with a printed agenda that had been distributed prior to the meeting, a robust discussion about action items, and an on-time ending. However, with each passing week, my confidence in their process waned.
Each week the agenda was completely new prompting my curiosity about results of action items from previous weeks: What was the status? How was the result of the action item reported back? Finally, on the fourth week I asked the CEO for a few minutes at the end of the meeting.
With about 10 minutes left in the meeting, the CEO asked if I had any comments or thoughts now that I had sat in on a month’s worth of meetings. I pulled out the agendas from the previous three weeks and proceeded to ask about action items, directing my question to the individual who had accepted responsibility to look into it, gain more information, or discuss with others to determine next steps. Faces around the table lost color, heads turned toward each other in disbelief (and panic). For the most part the action items had not moved one iota. These leaders had accepted a responsibility, but without enough checks and balances to create meaningful follow through, they neglected their action item.
Gap between theory and practice
This story is not an isolated incident. I often hear business leaders express with confidence that their practices are “dialed in” and their leaders are connected, motivated, engaged, and committed to the work they do together. From my perspective the switch may be “on” but the basic tenets associated with people-centric practices are on remote control. In these cases, practices are not calibrated or optimized for true connectivity and engagement.
Shape of today’s U.S. workplaces
32% of the U.S. workforce is engaged with their job (Gallup 2022).
More than 50% of the U.S. workforce is actively looking for a new job or thinking about it (Gallup).
Each year the average company loses 10-15% of its client base, even when a client reports they are happy with the product or service they are purchasing (Bain & Co).
But there are practices we can use to combat this and create engagement that motivates employees to give their very best every day. When done well, people-centric practices more deeply connect people to your company, create increased employee productivity and retention, grow client market-share and retention, and generate overall bottom-line success.
People-centric practices must be “lived”, completing the circuit vs. simply turning on the switch. If you’re interested in shifting your practices from “on” to truly dialed in, make sure these six core tenets are on your radar to ensure they are reality.
Communication
Theory: Effective communication can foster a good working relationship and act as a conduit to success.
Practice: Effective communication includes:
Creating closed loop communication streams. As communication takes place, a meaningful way to give and receive information is as important as the discussion. Download our closed loop communication form to help you get started.
Creating cascading messages. In any organization, information on the same subject must flow from senior leaders to all individuals. How that information is delivered to each group makes a difference in how it is processed by the individual recipients.
Creating opportunities for people to be heard, including active listening to “hear” what is being said.
Authenticity
Theory: When leaders “walk the talk”, the workplace more naturally aligns with and reinforces your company’s values and business goals.
Practice: Building authenticity includes:
Creating accountability flow for people to own their responsibilities and limit some picking up the slack of others.
Knowing the people in your organization beyond direct reports. Set-up a system in which as a leader you encounter others in the organization with regularity.
Demonstrating empathy that values the whole employee as a person first and an employee or client second. Recognize that physical, emotional, financial, and work well-being are intertwined.
Recognition
Theory: What gets recognized gets repeated in an environment where people feel valued and appreciated for their contributions.
Practice: Meaningful recognition includes:
Creating recognition moments that are timely.
Ensuring that individual contributors who move into managerial roles are coached in how to create and deliver thoughtful recognition. How recognition is presented is as important if not more important than what is being recognized.
Creating authentic recognition moments that are relevant and align to your business objectives.
Collaboration
Theory: A collaborative environment encourages employees and teams to cooperate, share information, and recognize that the sum is greater than the whole of the parts.
Practice: A collaborative environment includes:
Bringing people together from different backgrounds and perspectives boosts creativity and problem solving.
Building in time to generate ideas and “marinate” on them will foster solutions with exponential value.
Debriefing when work is completed will identify motivators and demotivators that drove the outcome.
Autonomy
Theory: People thrive when given healthy dose of opportunities to work independently.
Practice: Factors in creating autonomous opportunities include:
Providing people the resources and tools they need, setting expectations, and getting out of the way.
Empowering people with freedom to make decisions with clear understanding of the final outcome and the expectation to hold themselves accountable.
Creating a process for sharing work product leads to understanding what others are doing individually and how each person contributes to the bigger picture, fostering mutual trust.
Development
Understanding your workforce’s personal objectives and providing them a path to reach their objectives.
Leveraging knowledge transfer to enhance your human capital.
Balancing traditional and reverse mentoring to promote healthy respect for the entire workforce.
People-centric practices are a dynamic living organism that needs to be nurtured with ongoing management. Their power reverberates on the bottom line through employee productivity and client loyalty. How companies institutionalize people-centric practices to engage their constituencies—employees, clients, suppliers, partners, the marketplace, and community—determines in large part their ability to grow and defend their market share against competitive forces.
Dialed-in engagement that delivers results can be a challenge, but knowing what dials to turn and how much, and frequently to turn them is the difference from so-so to stellar.
If you’re ready to deal with reality and “dial up” rock stars in your organization, enlist a cross-functional team to ensure a well-rounded approach. And if you want to button up all the details, consider enlisting professional assistance. Let’s start a conversation. Call 800-742-6800 or email today. For more information and tips for engaging and onboarding stakeholders, sign up for our monthly newsletter at askhillarys.com (bottom right corner of the page).
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About the author:
Hillary Feder is an expert in creating people-centric practices to make the people that matter, feel like they matter. With deep expertise in employee engagement and the client experience and all of the details that come with leading people and nurturing relationships. Learn more about Hillary!
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