Culture to Engage

Learning's Role in a Culture of Engagement

November issue of Chief Learning Officer includes Dianne Durkin's How Loyalty and Employee Engagement Add Up to Corporate Profits. For the entire article click the title. For its heart and soul, the gist of Durkin's article follows.

Her words are in italics. After some points I've placed links to earlier posts in this blog, Culture to Engage. I'm including the links to give you added information about building a culture of engagement and so building customer and employee loyalty.

• Put your purpose out there. This means establishing organizational purpose and values and communicating them clearly with employees. Please see What'd You Expect (10/28)

• Clearly articulate your company's values. The more an individual feels on the same page in terms of what has meaning, what gives worth, and what propels the organization, the more she is willing to engage her time, energy, and effort in that company. Please see Voicing Values (10/20) and Expressing Value (10/21)

• Establish a culture of trust. Strong agreement. I should have made the time to post just a fraction of the info I have regarding trust and its power (and powerful absence) as a positive factor in an organization's culture of engagement.

• Align and communicate. OK, Durkin and I diverge slightly. Her article stresses communication regarding alignment with company strategy and direction. I stress communication regarding the interpersonal, to build stronger relationships among members of the organization, which I believe is fundamental engagement. Please see What to Say (10/26).

• Listen to employees.There are thousands of ideas sitting in employees' heads, but many companies suppress them, which brings down employee morale. Once morale is down.... Well, you know what happens. Listening is more than just hearing. Listening benefits (and so do the employees) when a number of forums that encourage employee expression exist. Please see If I May Make a Suggestion (11/05).

• Engage people in solutions. Durkin's refers to allowing employees to work the suggestions you've listened to them present. There's powerful ownership in this. Please see If I May Make a Suggestion (11/05).

• Learning is the new 401(k). Here's Durkin's point: Employees want to be in continuous growth and learning mode, and learning is a benefit to them, as well as the company. Give them the opportunity to continuously learn, and they will be forever loyal. (I like that I'm not the only one to shamelessly split infinitives.)

• Celebrate successes. Sometimes we place too stringent or too high a definition on "successes." By recognizing, discussing, and appreciating even the minor "feel goods" we can celebrate what makes the organization successful. Please see Engagement and the FGQ (10/31).

• Leadership and management training. The influence of an employee's manager on her engagement is proven. Durkin states, An employee's manager, supervisor or leader is the most important person to him or her. This person is an employee's lifeline to information, recognition, challenges and future vision. Please see Engaging Leadership (11/19) and Whose Job Is It, Anyway? (10/23).

• Create a caring corporate culture. The surest way to let employees know their company (and its culture) cares for them is to communicate the value they bring to the company. Not only when they are hired. Nor upon their 5th, 10th, and 30th anniversaries of service. Please see Expressing Value (10/21).

It must be obvious that I'm in pretty complete agreement with the points Durkin has researched and assembled.

And you?

How to Hire a Candidate (You Want) to Stay

The cover story in the November issue of Talent Management magazine focuses on the importance of "Finding Candidates with the Right Fit" for the job. In a sidebar Manny Avramidis of the American Management Association makes this observation:

A challenge an organization faces is it never establishes a foundation--they just go out there and say, 'I need a marketing professional,' and they don't tie it in to the other pillars...that are important to make sure the person will fit into the organization.

An organization increases its chances for successful hiring when it knows what it takes for the candidate to fit the job/organization and for the job/organization to fit the candidate. Avramidis suggests hiring professionals should ask three questions (italicized). I offer comments.

Does the organization have identified corporate values?
Those values should have been identified long before the current hiring situation. Seriously, the values should be shared with the candidate, discussed with the candidate, and scenario'd for the candidate to consider and "play with." How much will that show and tell the hiring professional about the candidate's talents and the candidate's fit? My 10/21/07 posting, Expressing Value, presented how corporate values are relevant to an employee's engagement in her work and how managers can convey those values to the employee. What's said there applies to job candidates as well.

What are the core competencies most jobs would expect?
You cannot assume this "goes without saying." Assuming you and the candidate know the expected competencies makes it possible that, in time, you will not pay attention to the core competencies during the candidate search. Assuming may reduce speaking explicitly (and listening just as explicitly) to the candidate about what skills, abilities, and talents he brings to the job. The candidate should not only fit the job; the job should fit the candidate. He deserves the chance to excuse himself from possible failure by seeing up front the absence of fit. (B/T/W, a manager's core competency must be communication with his personnel.)

Is it clear into what absolute role the job candidate will fit? Does that align with the corporate vision?
The significant phrase in this pair of questions is corporate vision. It is important to know that the individual applying her specific talents to a specific job role. I believe it is just as important to know if the individual and the corporate vision meld. That means the corporate vision warrants being open discussion during the interview process. Avramidis states the candidate should be allowed to ask questions. My hope is that those questions are about more than job expectations, that they extend to Big Picture areas like corporate vision. The hiring professional does everyone good service by conducting interviews that encourage such questions.

Interesting Reading

I will have more (much more) to write about several articles in the most recent issue of Talent Management magazine.

In the meantime, you may wish to click that title. You can peruse the current issue on line.

A good bit of interesting in articles such as

• "Finding Candidates with the Right Fit"

• "Training the Ethical Workforce"

• "The Art and Science of Influence"

• "Making the Best Managers"

See you tomorrow.

Let's Hang On to Who We've Got

In earlier postings I’ve claimed that employee engagement can be root cause of successful results (benefits) for your organization. And more than once I’ve listed employee retention as one potential result/benefit.

I'll bet your organization wants to hold on to its positive performers as long as it can. The costs of recruiting, hiring, training, and maturing employees make retention a high value benefit.

Let me suggest 9 ways in which you and your organization can use your Culture of Engagement to promote employee retention definitively.

• Apply the formula: Engagement >> Performance >> Results (specifically, retention)

• Recognize the manager/supervisor’s critical role in the above formula. Abundant evidence supports that, for more than any other reason, people stick with a job because of their boss...or leave a job because of their boss.

• Develop a top-of-mind awareness of trust in the positive throughout the organization. It’s likely that the last time most of your people spoke of trust positively was either at their marriage altar or when they read the flip side of a dollar bill.

• Make communication matter. Listening, appreciating, remembering and replaying are often more critical to good communication than just “speaking clearly.”

•  Ensure clear expectations for and by everyone concerned. Expectations apply to goals, objectives, behaviors, processes, and policies. (Note the definite link between communication and expectation.)

• Promote and demonstrate creativity at work. Employees engage more fully in situations that encourage creative ideation, recognize creative risk-taking, and stimulate creative (new) approaches to tried and true ways of working.

• Attend to employees’ physical, mental, and emotional/spiritual energies. Rather than assume your staff will keep their several energy bins filled, provide information and opportunities for them to re-energize continually.

•  Make humor a continuous element of the culture. Invite humor-engagement by having staff members recommend and champion “humorizing activities.”

• Generate commitment. I’ve got lots to say about this—an entire program that involves 8 commitment-generating steps. Keep your eye peeled for these.

If you expect to see future postings on one or more of these Retention Engagers, you're right! They'll be coming at you very soon.

If you have a preference as to which one(s) you'd like to see first, let me know. Quickly, please.