By Linda Finkelstein, Founding Partner and Lisa Ryan, Senior Consultant
MICA Consulting Partners

A growing number of business leaders are learning that in order to set their people up for success they need to provide support and recognition, opportunities for development, and programs that enhance employee engagement.

Typically, these core needs are addressed with a variety of top-down approaches: Support comes through HR channels in the form of benefits or special recognition programs. Development most often takes the form of learning seminars or coaching and attempts to boost engagement can take a variety of forms, from improved communications from the leadership team to inspirational posters in the break-room.

But as the leaders at the natural gas utility SaskEnergy have recently discovered, a broad, integrated, and democratic program can be even more effective. An organization known for innovation in an industry that leans toward tradition, SaskEnergy is midway through an experiment that is shattering traditional hierarchies, bridging departments and geographic units, injecting informal and formal transfer of knowledge throughout the organization—and boosting engagement among the utilities’ 1,100 employees.

Identifying the Challenge
SaskEnergy, which provides natural gas to the province of Saskatchewan, views its people as being core to the organization’s success. “Our people provide our service, our service drives our growth, and our growth ensures our future.” Says Margot Almas
Director, Employee & Organizational Effectiveness SaskEnergy Human Resources. “Therefore, our future rests on an engaged and committed workforce.”

But according to employee engagement surveys, SaskEnergy faced some challenges on that front. The utility needed to lift its scores on the crucial measures of managing performance and recognizing employees for achievements. “We knew, looking at the survey results, that we simply could not achieve our strategic vision without improvements in these areas,” says Ms. Almas.

To help address the challenges, SaskEnergy engaged MICA Consulting Partners. MICA was charged with the task of determining how to create measurable improvements in:
• Individuals and teams being appreciated for the contributions they make to building a successful organization
• Perceptions that the organization has a culture and work environment that is positive and welcoming
• Beliefs that the organization supports and encourages the concept of life long learning experiences
• Capturing the “hearts” and “minds” of employees to be able to attract and retain them in a tightening labor market

The recommendation: a long-term coaching program designed to develop successful leadership behaviours and provide skills that managers throughout the utility could apply to their teams. The program integrated assessments, workshops, long-term peer-to-peer coaching triangles, and intensive follow-up evaluations, and ultimately seeded the company with effective, supported, and strategically aligned leaders who are changing the way the company works.

“The fact that behaviour change was key to achieving the objectives, meant that deep support and long-term follow-through needed to be a part of the solution.” Says Almas. “This program really hit the mark.”

The coaching program cast a wide net—managers at every level participated. To kick off the program, the leaders were evaluated using coaching assessments that incorporated information from supervisors, and reports. With a benchmark for personal strengths and challenges, each participant devised an action plan at an interactive workshop at the outset of the engagement.

From there, the leaders worked in self-selected coaching triads to hone successful behaviours, share challenges and achievements, and support one another in their efforts to improve their leadership skills.

In any leadership development initiative, support from top executives is crucial. SaskEnergy took this support all the way. Senior-level executives not only launched the program with talks in support of the mission—they participated side by side with leaders from all levels.

Built to win
The success of the coaching program at SaskEnergy can be attributed to a number of factors: Coaching goals were tied to the organizational strategy and to succession planning. The support of the executive suite was key. The number of managers enrolled in the program—more than 200—meant that what was learned cascaded throughout the organization. And by organizing the coaching triads into teams that functioned over the course of several months, SaskEnergy ensured long-term support for the development of new behaviours. A half-day workshop including follow-up evaluations helped drive the learning home.

One participant sounded a common theme in describing the coaching triangle as a “safe spot to share the challenges I was facing.” Another participant turned to the coaching triangle for support and ideas for how to provide feedback to an employee who needed to improve performance. And one participant formed an ad-hoc triad long after the program had ended to manage some critical decisions in his department.

The broad focus on leadership development has paid off throughout the ranks of the company. A recent survey of employees garnered the highest level of participation in the history of the company. 73 percent of employees rank SaskEnergy as a good place to work, and 86 percent indicated that they take pride in working for the utility. Areas tied to employee engagement, including leadership, direction, recognition, and opportunity, showed marked improvement over earlier surveys—and compared to other companies that were surveyed.

“This program is helping us build our leaders and realize improvement in employee engagement,” says Almas. “That’s critical to our strategy. It positions us for further success as an organization.”

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