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“Will Corporate Giving Suffer In The Crunch?”

19 Feb

 charity1

The Times Online asks this important question, one which I hope all employers are carefully considering. I may be more sensistive to this as a former nonprofit executive, who knows how important corporate giving is to providing needed services in a community. Cadbury is featured in the article as one company that is holding firm:

These are uncertain times for charities dependent on corporate giving but Cadbury – associated with philanthropy since its Quaker founders created the Bourn-ville workers’ village in 1895 – insists that it, for one, will continue to give in the recession.

“It’s part of our heritage,” said Cheryl Phillips at Cadbury. “It brings a sense of cohesion to the company, increases employee engagement and develops our people.” my emphasis)

The article also points out another factor that should be considered– employee engagement– which is the theme of this blog. I know of many employers who have seen these same benefits of corporate social responsibility (CSR)– connections in the community, growth in skills, helping the brand image, a sense of satisfaction for employees involved in charitable work– these can bring a nice ROI to a company that is genuinely committed to giving back.

I certainly understand that times are tough and cutbacks may be necessary, but I encourage all employers to add employee views into the mix before making any significant changes to corporate giving.

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Onboarding– Even More Important Than Ever

15 Feb

shake

According to a study published at CNN/Money.Com, getting employees off to a great start is even more important than ever:

Engaging employees early in their career with a new company is essential to employee satisfaction, retention, and performance, says data from the latest Human Capital Management benchmark report from Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS). Effective onboarding of new employees is so crucial that 50% of more than 600 human resources, talent management, and line of business executives surveyed and interviewed by Aberdeen in December 2008 and January 2009 for this study indicate that the current state of the economy will increase the importance their organization places on onboarding in 2009.

Aberdeen’s research found that the percentage of organizations with a formal onboarding process has grown from 62% to 68% over the past year. In addition, two-thirds of Best-in-Class organizations are now beginning the onboarding process before the new employee’s start date, nearly one-half of which are starting the process as soon as the employment offer is extended. “Best-in-Class organizations are utilizing a formal onboarding process to drive positive impact in the pre-hire and through the new employee’s first year with the company,” said Kevin Martin, vice president and principal analyst, Human Capital Management at Aberdeen. “In fact, at the majority of Best-in-Class organizations, onboarding is seamlessly integrated with both recruitment and performance management.”

I continue to be amazed at how many employers, who desparately want an engaged workforce, do such a rotten job of assimilating new employees. Let’s committ to starting the engagement process the day a person applies for a job at our company, and continue  that effort relentlessly– our survival may depend on it.

(Image courtesy http://www.lumaxart.com/)

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“Happy Hospitals Make Happy Patients”…

11 Feb

happy-cookies

… Or says a study recently published in Science Daily. The research, conducted by University of Michigan Professor John Griffith, concludes:

In a newly published report, Griffith examined the attributes of 34 community hospitals in nine states that have earned the Health Care Sector Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a nationally recognized quality benchmark for various industries.

Griffith’s findings suggest that the single-biggest factor in patient satisfaction is hospital employee morale, which starts with outside-the-box thinking at the very top management levels.

These community hospitals had the happiest patients and caregivers, but only because these hospitals departed radically from traditional hospital management, Griffith says.

My co-author Leigh Branham and I conducted a study of the employee engagement in over 100 hospitals, and came to the same conclusion– there is a direct link between employee engagement  and patient satisfaction. Moreover, employee at hospitals with very low engagement results were far more likely to report patient safety and other complaince-related problems, something no hospital wants. Perhaps one way to deal with our health care crisis is to create more engaged workplaces like these honored today.

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Think You Know What Your Employees Are Thinking Right Now? Think Again.

9 Feb

listen

Salary.Com Inc. has conducted a survey of employee and employer perceptions about employee job satisfaction and intent-to-stay. The study, reviewed at Occupational Safety & Health Online reports:

According to the survey, employee satisfaction levels are often overestimated by employers. A set of questions new to this year’s survey found that the current economic climate was less of a deterrent to job seeking than employers anticipated, while variables such as income, job level, industry and age remained consistent factors that affect job satisfaction year-over-year.

Key data points:

• Overall, the survey showed that 65 percent of employees are at least somewhat satisfied in their jobs while employers estimated that figure to be 77 percent. 
• Approximately 65 percent of employees admitted to passively or actively looking for a new job, compared to employers’ estimate of 37 percent. 
• While employers have a good sense of overall employee satisfaction, they often overestimate the degree of extremely satisfied employees nearly 2 to 1. 
• The levels of satisfaction among employees surveyed varied by job level and salary. Not surprisingly, the results of the survey suggest there is a direct link between pay and satisfaction — the higher the salary and job level, the greater the number of extremely satisfied employees. 
• Age affects job satisfaction — millennials report the lowest job satisfaction.

Perhaps this study doesn’t shock you, but it does reveal an important insight that should call us to action–the best way to find about how employees are feeling is to ask them. We need to do a much better job of listening, really hearing, what our associates are feeling right now.

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“Using Integrity to Repair Trust”

8 Feb

shaking-hands

That was the headline of an excellent article in my hometown newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald. The article reported on a conference called “Aiming Higher”, sponsored by the Greater Omaha (Nebraska, USA) Business Ethics Alliance. The conference brought community leaders and students together to discuss this topic. The article quotes Creighton University professor Beverly Kracher as to why a conference like this is important:

“Everybody seems to lack trust in business as a whole,” Kracher said. “One of the ways to repair that trust is for the public to have good examples. These examples are so powerful they help us all learn.”

This topic of business ethics is particularly important to me this weekend, and I just learned that someone I care about deeply has been affected by the Bernard Madoff scandal. My heart just sank at this news. That sad story has now become quite personal. I am even more upset that his actions have affected how all of us view business and leadership.

Trust in our leaders in many quarters, sadly, has eroded. The hope, from my point of view, is that not all is lost. Our studies of highly engaged workplaces shows that employers with outstanding engagement survey results still present high “Trust In Senior Leaders” ratings. Truth- telling, employee engagement and success in business go hand-in-hand. I think it incumbent on those of who are passionate about great workplaces to continue open dialogue about this topic. The scars of Madoff will not easily be healed– it’s up to us to make that happen.

For excerpts from the Omaha World-Herald of interviews from leaders who participated in this event, Click Here. The full interviews, along with additional information on this topic, can be found at the Business Ethics Alliance web site.

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Start ups don’t have to worry about this human capital stuff, right? Wrong.

7 Feb

light-bulb

You’re a fledgling, but promising, start-up. The patents for your sassy new widget have been approved. Your carefully crafted business plan has attracted outside investment. You’ve never had to hire and manage a staff before, but how hard can that be– the heavy lifting of getting this business off the ground and on your way to the big IPO pay day is just a matter of time, right? If that’s what you’re thinking, I encourage you to reconsider your position– the success of your new venture may depend on it.

Mark Waltzoni has several outstanding posts on this question at his site Building Sustainable Ventures. One hits this question head on:

The human capital side of the investment equation has traditionally received less emphasis during the due dilligence process, except for quantative analysis of benefit plans, pension obligations, and salary costs.

I believe that determining the full value of any investment benefits from a review of the organization’s talent pipeline, ability to access external talent, potential flight risks; and leadership team gaps that could swiftly erode an organizations’ ability execute against their strategic objectives, and current human capital performance such as turnover rates, staffing metrics, employee engagement indicators, and who and when ot offer retention, development, or separation agreements.

I spoke to the Executive Director of a large angel investing organization recently and he told me that in his experience early stage companies rarely failed due to poor technology or financing, but rather a leadership team whose talent, knowledge, and execution gaps doomed it’s ability to scale to the next milestone.

In the course of reviewing business plans over the years I’ve seen too many founders ignore this advice– always to their detriment. I should note that the research database my colleague Leigh Branham and I are studying for our book Lucky To Work Here contains over 10,000 employers, a third of which are small businesses. Our studies again confirm that engaged employees make a difference in all enterprises– big and small, public and private, profit and non-profit.

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“Survivors Guilt”– Impacting Engagement & Productivity

7 Feb

There’s a very sobering article in Time Magazine about so-called “Survivors Guilt”, the feelings of those working at a company that just went through a layoff and are still working– they survived the RIF. The article describes this syndrome:

Losing your paycheck in a recession is certainly awful, and those who hold on to their jobs are no doubt better off than their fallen colleagues. But watching colleagues pack their things and go — and dealing with guilt that it wasn’t you, anxiety that you might be next, exhaustion from the extra work you must take on and even envy of those who get to leave such a sullen environment — that’s not much cause for celebration. “Companies use the word affected with people who lose their jobs — the implication being that the people who remain aren’t,” says Joel Brockner, a social psychologist and professor of management at Columbia Business School. “They’re very much affected.”

Here’s how it feels to be one of the lucky ones: “It’s depressing,” says a market researcher in New York City who recently watched an entire division of her company be jettisoned. “You walk into the office and it’s quiet, the entire atmosphere is different. When someone gets promoted you want to say, ‘That’s great,’ but then you realize they got the job because the two other people in that group got laid off; this person was cheaper. You start feeling evil. People say at least you have a job, you should be grateful. Well, I’m not sure how happy I am. And then I feel selfish about that.”

The terms psychologists toss around to describe these feelings include survivor’s guilt (why him and not me?), survivor’s envy (thinking you might be better off gone too) and emotional contagion (the tendency to pick up your laid-off colleagues’ feelings of gloom and desperation). These feelings are with us in every recession, but as layoffs spread to more industries, people in all walks of life are increasingly experiencing them.

Fellow blogger Robin Tucker at The Proper Angle offers excellent advice to assist survivors. Her counsel is similar to what Leigh Branham and I have seen in our work in Beating the Bear Market with Engaged Employees.

Consider:

  • What can we do to make sure that departed employees are treated with dignity, so that their transition is as smooth as possible?
  • How can we work to allow “surviving” employees the communication channels they need to deal with their own feelings about this event?
  • Can we train our managers to more effectively spot employees who are not dealing well with this change?

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Can’t Ya Just Feel Their Engagement?

6 Feb
Boy, here’s the look of three young people that are just thrilled to be working!
I know the photo is a bit dramatic, but it does raise an important issue, that being the level of employee engagement of the younger generation. After careful statistical analysis of over 300,000 employee engagement surveys we can report that employee engagement does vary by age. In fact, our studies clearly show that older employees are generally more engaged than younger employees. There are, of course, exceptions to this statement, but the general rule holds true.
Is this the fault of the younger generation? Are they simply not as motivated as Boomers like me? I think not. I believe the responsibility for those gaps lies, in great part, at the feet of management. Many organizations have yet to figure out how to more effectively engage younger workers. I’m convinced this  most recent generation to join the workforce is very motivated– we just need to figure out how we can motivate them when they come to work. Remember, engagement is what leaders do to create an environment that is conducive to:
  • people feeling energized for what they do,
  • makes them want to go the extra mile, and
  • keeps them from looking for other employment.

Employee engagement, then, is something we as leaders can largely control. It is our charge to create the conditions necessary to engage all employees, young and old alike– even more important now as we face this difficult economic times.

 (This is the first in a series I am calling “Funny Photos”. Our topic will remain earnest, but the photo, I hope, will bring a smile. We can and should take this work seriously, but we don’t have to always take ourselves seriously, right? Enjoy your weekend.)

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The ROI of Employee Engagement

5 Feb
Yet another study showing that more engaged employers enjoy financial rewards was reported by the web site Knowledge @ Wharton. The paper, which is available to download, reports:

In a paper titled, “Does the Stock Market Fully Value Intangibles? Employee Satisfaction and Equity Prices,” (Wharton finance professor Alex) Edmans examines the stock returns of companies with high employee satisfaction and compares them to various benchmarks — the broader market, peer firms in the same industry, and companies with similar characteristics. His research indicates that firms cited as good places to work earn returns that are more than double those of the overall market.

Companies on Fortune magazine’s annual list of the “100 Best Companies to Work for in America” between 1998 and 2005 returned 14% per year, compared to 6% a year for the overall market, according to Edmans. The results also hold up using an earlier version of the survey that dates back to 1984. “One might think this is an obvious relationship — that you don’t need to do a study showing that if workers are happy, the company performs better. But actually, it’s not that obvious,” says Edmans. “Traditional management theory treats workers like any other input — get as much out of them as possible and pay them as little as you can get away with.”

This study corroborates our own research, as well as twenty-seven other studies we’ve collected over the years for our book Lucky To Work Here. If you would like a copy of a bibliography of those studies, please email at markhirschfeld@gmail.com— I’d be happy to send it to you.

The evidence is now clear– there is a business imperative to creating a more engaged workplaces. Let’s get to work!

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An Outcome Of The Economic Crisis

5 Feb

An article in the New York Times points to one clear symptom of employee engagement in the midst of this economic crisis– an increase in contact with employee assistance programs. The article, in part, states:

A widely available but often ignored corporate perk — the employee assistance program — can help workers who are suddenly facing a layoff, as well as those who worry that the same fate will befall them.

E.A.P.’s, which generally are managed by counseling firms or divisions of health insurance providers, offer advice on family relationships, drug and alcohol problems and dollars-and-cents issues, among other matters. With so many people out of work because of the recession, and signs of economic rebound hard to glimpse, the number of calls to the programs has skyrocketed.

Aetna Behavioral Health, part of Aetna Inc., the health insurer, said it saw a 60 percent increase in program members seeking help in the third quarter of 2008, versus the same period of 2007. Financial stress was the main source of the increase, Aetna said.

“We’re hearing more and more people raising financial and economic concerns,” said Dennis Derr, who runs the firm’s E.A.P.’s. “We started noticing that trend in the middle of last year, with people saying they’re in debt or concerned about being laid off.”

In our research study, Beating the Bear Market with Engaged Employees , we identify five differentiators that can make a positive impact on employee engagement in the midst of these tough times, and taking care of employees is front and center.

Consider:

  • Do you have an EAP program?
  • If so, is the program well publicized?
  • Can you help managers to encourage the use of services such as EAP?

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