Engagement
LoyaltyOne has had great success in building an engaged workforce. How do they do it? What was striking is that they have many initiatives; so much so that it might be better to think of engaging employees as an enduring mission like improving efficiency, rather than a narrowly defined HR program. In fact, many of things Diane Dowsett, the assistant vice president of talent management, talked about might be labelled as something other than engagement in another firm. For example: they have a program to support employees in using public transit—that’s a benefit’s program right? Well, not really. The point of getting employees to use public transit is that it supports the mission of reducing environmental impact. That mission is a major driver of engagement.Any normal company would have offered the transit benefit and moved on to the next thing. However, LoyaltyOne authentically cares about the outcomes and wondered why they couldn’t increase the number of employees using public transit. It turned out that many needed to drive because they had meetings or errands during the day that required a car. OK, those are good reasons; not much they could do about that right? The company didn’t give up. Instead they bought several Smart cars employees could use on errands through the day. They painted the cars in the LoyaltyOne brand and employees think it’s cool to drive them around. The lesson here is that they really push: they take it a step further, they innovate.
We see the same push to create engagement in putting solar panels on the roof. By adding a display inside the building showing employees how much electricity is being generated they have turned a facilities decision into an engagement program.
Another good idea was a microsite that allows employees to share stories on how their work links to customer satisfaction. This is particularly important for non-customer facing staff; it allows them to understand and articulate their connection to the company mission.
LoyaltyOne does two things to make this push for engagement sustainable. One is that they keep it fun, even at the risk of being goofy. Sacrificing solemnity is an important business decision and a wise one. Humour keeps it fresh. Even more important it that they rotate the responsibility for programs every 18 months, sometimes passing the responsibility to quite junior people. New people bring new ideas and new energy.
Social listening
IBM spoke about how they have embraced social media for everything from internal communication to employee referral programs to sourcing contingent workers. The take away is that it’s already past time for social media to be part of everything you do: no more speculating about it, put it to work.One specific area that is important is the use of social listening as a way of understanding what employees are thinking. In any big organizations employees are saying a lot online; because it is online it is accessible and can be listened to. IBM positioned social listening as an alternative to surveys and that is probably a mistake, but the notion that it enhances what you learn from surveys is right on. It’s an initiative well worth adopting.
Career Paths
I was very pleased to hear Mary Silverthorn, provincial commander of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) give a frank talk about career paths. The OPP has almost no turnover and a steep hierarchy where the chances of going from constable to supervisor are 1 in 26. This means that, realistically, most people are not going to move far up the career ladder. This is of course true everywhere; relatively few people get to management levels let alone senior management. This truth is obscured when people move from organization to organization. At the OPP, however, where people stick around for their whole careers, they have to face the limits to upward progression. Fortunately, they have a solution.The solution is to recognize that a successful career is one where you do a satisfying range of interesting and important work serving the public. By enabling lateral moves people do not get stale and frustrated. People are moving, even if not moving up. It’s a smart way to operate and better than making unrealistic promises about the opportunities for upward movement.
Union Engagement
Les Dakens, CHRO of Maple Leaf Foods, talked about a bold (and successful) effort to enhance engagement amongst unionized workers. To Dakens the math was straightforward: 75% of work hours were performed by unionized workers. If management was going to turn around the company they need those people engaged.Much of Daken’s work did not follow what we might classically think of as ‘feel good’ measures. Instead, it stuck close to the core meaning of engagement which is to get people motivated about doing great work. The engagement initiative included ensuring unionized employees were getting feedback on their performance so they could improve. It included education on how the business makes money so employees learned how they could affect the top and bottom lines. It also included an employee share purchase plan so that engagement could be felt in the wallet as well as the heart.
One point Daken emphasized is that you can’t get unionized worker engagement without strong first level managers. Unless those people are in place, nothing is going to happen. Too many companies shy away from pursuing engagement with unionized workers. Maple Leaf shows it can be done.
Governance
Professor Richard LeBlanc gave a whirlwind of insight on corporate governance and what it means to HR. One important fact is that there is a huge movement to improve governance, and unlike some movements this one has teeth since it is backed by legislation. Many of these issues have to do with people management.HR needs to educate itself on changes to governance and then get involved.One big governance issue is board diversity. No one knows more about defining what diversity is, sourcing diverse candidates and creating an inclusive culture, than HR. HR needs to be involved in board selection processes. Furthermore, there is a movement to be more rigorous in defining competencies for board members. Lawyers and corporate secretaries do not have the expertise to define competencies but they won’t admit it. HR needs to step forward.
All the issues around improved internal controls and whistle blowing have a significant ‘people’ component. Successful controls are not just the result of processes; they arise from culture and behaviour. If HR is not stepping up when it comes to culture and behaviour then they are dropping the ball.
HR is needed not just at the leadership table, but also in the board room. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.
Economics and Humans
There were two unexpected presentations. One was from Todd Hirsh, an economist who thankfully made a full presentation devoid of equations. The take away was a reminder of how much human capital contributes to the economy. If we think economists are the natural allies of the finance function, we need to think again: economics is based on HR.The second unexpected speech was from Deborah Bakti, VP HR at Extendicare (Canada). She spoke about the difficulties of coping when her spouse was struck with a serious, chronic illness. One key moment for her was the realization that you can’t “just get through it”. She needed to restructure her life and expectations. So what does that have to do about HR? It’s the reminder that for all of this—work and business and HR—it’s all a human endeavour. We may get caught up in the latest changes to executive compensation regulations but that’s not what life is really all about. It’s all about being a person, that’s what Deborah reminded us of.
Clearly I’ve just scratched the surface here even without covering all the neat points that caught my attention. I hope this tasting of fresh ideas encourages the reader to keep learning and sharing your learnings so that the whole profession will benefit.
