How Great Managers contribute to a
great workplace culture
“People join a company and resign from its
workplace culture”    Dr Wilfred Monteiro

You've seen it happen many times. An organization that provides top wages and benefits loses a great employee to a competitor for no apparent reason. Of course, some employee turnover is to be expected, but if your company is truly engaging your employees, there is no good reason for the unexpected loss of quality staff members. Many companies already know that wages and benefits are important to employees, but compensation alone is not enough to keep the highly skilled, motivated and experienced workforce your business needs to excel.
Employee engagement as the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values.The primary behaviors of engaged employees are speaking positively about the organization to coworkers, potential employees and customers, having a strong desire to be a member of the organization, and exerting extra effort to contribute to the organization's success. Many smart organizations work to develop and nurture engagement. It is important to note, the employee engagement process does require a two-way relationship between employer and employee.
Why is Employment Engagement so important?
An organization's capacity to manage employee engagement is closely related to its ability to achieve high performance levels and superior business results.
Engaged employees will stay with the company, be an advocate of the company and its products and services, and contribute to bottom line business success. Engaged employees also normally perform better and are more motivated. There is a significant link between employee engagement and profitability. Employee engagement is critical to any organization that seeks not only to retain valued employees, but also increase its level of performance.
What is the Alternative to Employee Engagement?Conditions that prevent employee engagement seldom alleviate themselves. They should be assessed and addressed as soon as possible. Left to multiply, negative employee satisfaction issues can result in:

 

• Higher employee turnover - Employees leave, taking their reservoir of knowledge and experience to another workplace
  
• Diminished performance - Competency of the workforce is reduced, at least short term, until new employees are trained
  
• Lost training budget - Time and money invested in training and development programs for departing workers is wasted
  
• Lower morale - Remaining employees can be overburdened with new duties, in addition the unresolved issues that already prevent their full engagement
  

Factors of Engagement
Many organizational factors influence employee engagement and retention such as:

• A culture of respect where outstanding work is valued
  
• Availability of constructive feedback and mentoring
  
• Opportunity for advancement and professional development
  
• Fair and appropriate reward, recognition and incentive systems
  
• Availability of effective leadership
  
• Clear job expectations
  
• Adequate tools to complete work responsibilities
  
• High levels of motivation
  

Many other factors exist that might apply to your particular business and the importance of these factors will also vary within your organization.
How will you know to what degree your employees are engaged?
The first step is to determine the current level of employee engagement. The best tool to determine this base line is a comprehensive employee satisfaction survey. A well administered satisfaction survey will let you know at what level of engagement your employees are operating. Customizable employee surveys will provide you with a starting point towards your efforts to optimize employee engagement.
The key to successful employee satisfaction surveys is to pay close attention to the feedback from your staff. This is the only way to identify their specific concerns. When leaders listen, employees respond by becoming more engaged. This results in increased productivity and employee retention. Engaged employees are much more likely to be satisfied in their positions, remain with the company, be promoted, and strive for higher levels of performance.
Listening to employee ideas, acting on employee contributions and actively involving employees in decision making are essential to employee engagement.
Taking Action to Improve Employee Engagement
The ultimate point of a Great Workplace & employee delight is the workplace culture….
 1 - Articulate what the vision, mission, and goals of your organizations are. This should clarify what the organization is about; the legacy it wants to leave; and how you plan to achieve service, performance, and operational excellence. Keep them short and simple so that every employee, top-down, can understand it. Also, don't be afraid to refine the organization's vision, mission, and values every few years so it stays fresh, and always relevant to your current work environment.
2 - Educate your employees on the vision, mission, and goals of the organization. Help them see how they fit into the big picture, what you expect from them, and how their individual and team contributions will lead to organizational success. This can be accomplished during the New Employee On-Boarding process, at departmental meetings, at all-employee general sessions, or one-on-one. Don't miss any opportunity to align employees, so that you feel confident in holding them accountable for contributing to improving the culture.
3 - Hold leadership accountable for driving a culture of excellence. Demonstration and execution of the organization's vision, mission, and goals should be linked to their job performance, incentive program, and future career advancement. Look at it this way... if a leader is incapable of consistently driving excellence, to some extent they are negligent in their job, and may be impeding the organization's ability to improve the culture. Leaders are crucial in improving organizational culture.
4 - Reward and recognize employees who consistently exemplify the qualities that will lead to organizational success. Once you have clarified what is needed to improve and drive a culture of excellence, educate employees on what is expected of them and how to deliver on the expectations; then its time to reward those who are uncompromising in their commitment to excellence.
5 - Coach, counsel, and develop employees who are deficient in driving organizational culture. You do this by first finding out "why" they are unable to meet organizational expectations. Is it a commitment issue? Or is it a competence issue? If it is competence, they need further training and development to help them connect the dots. If it is a commitment issue, they need further one-on-one coaching to increase their motivation and buy-in; they need to know "what's in it for me?
6 - Refine your new employee selection process. Going forward, make a commitment to only select and hire potential job candidates who can help the organization positively advance, and enhance the culture you are trying to create or improve. Integrate questions into the interview process that will help you identify job candidates who will naturally fit in with the culture you are trying to create, and definitely avoid those who may erode or destroy it. Undeniably, this will require waiting for the right hire, and not just filling a job opening with a warm body.
7- Determine the current level of employee engagement. The best tool to determine this base line is a comprehensive employee satisfaction survey. A well administered satisfaction survey will let you know at what level of engagement your employees are operating. Customizable employee surveys will provide you with a starting point towards your efforts to optimize employee engagement.
The key to successful employee satisfaction surveys is to pay close attention to the feedback from your staff. This is the only way to identify their specific concerns. When leaders listen, employees respond by becoming more engaged. This results in increased productivity and employee retention. Engaged employees are much more likely to be satisfied in their positions, remain with the company, be promoted, and strive for higher levels of performance.
8-Take Concrete Action: Taking action starts with listening to employee feedback. Then the data needs to be analyzed. Next, a definitive action plan will need to be put in place and finally, change will be implemented. It is important that employee engagement is not viewed as a one time action. Employee engagement should be a continuous process of measuring, analyzing, defining and implementing.

Best wishes,

Wilfred Monteiro.