{"id":132,"date":"2016-11-09T17:08:10","date_gmt":"2016-11-09T17:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/?p=132"},"modified":"2016-11-09T17:08:10","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T17:08:10","slug":"java-with-joe-building-engagement-i-wish-i-had-the-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/?p=132","title":{"rendered":"Java with Joe: Building engagement? I wish I had the time."},"content":{"rendered":"

During my tenure\u00a0as Chief Human R\"mugs\"<\/a>esources Officer at Cleveland Clinic, I held regular \u201cJava with Joe\u201d\u00a0sessions with small groups of leaders\u00a0at every level of\u00a0the organization. These informal meetings often\u00a0turned into Q&A sessions on the subject of employee engagement. These days, when I speak to other organizations about their employee engagement and leadership issues, the Q&A session is again one of my favorite activities. So I thought I\u2019d bring back Java with Joe to answer questions about engagement that I\u2019m often asked.\u00a0If you\u2019d like to join the conversation with a comment or a question of your own, something that\u2019s keeping you up at night, please jump in.<\/em> OK\u2026so\u00a0here\u2019s today\u2019s\u00a0question:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>How can we do a better job of sustaining the long term change that\u2019s required to turn around poor employee engagement?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This question often comes with some explanation of why it\u2019s so hard for the organization or its leaders to look past the short-term. In a large, public company, the issue may be pressure from analysts and stockholders to deliver outstanding quarterly results. In a not-for-profit, it may be pressure from the Board or a lending institution to sustain the organization\u2019s bond rating. Sometimes it just has to do with a leader\u2019s having too much to do and too little time to do it in. As one highly regarded manager in a mid-size firm told me: \u201cI\u2019m already working flat out just dealing with day-to-day stuff and the crisis of the week. I honestly don\u2019t see how I can find the time to execute a consistent, long-term engagement plan\u2014even though I know it\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

I appreciate that it\u2019s not easy for leaders at any level to sustain a long term engagement strategy in the face of all the day to day pressures they face. On the other hand, I also believe deeply that you can\u2019t build an organization that performs at the highest level unless you build an engaged workforce, and you can\u2019t build an engaged workforce without working at it consistently over the long term. So the question is, how do you find the will and the time to do that work?<\/p>\n

First of all, you need to make engagement a strategic priority. I often ask the leaders I meet with: \u201cDoes your organization have a strategic plan? Does it have an annual business plan to deliver on the strategy?\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019d say that at least 70% of the time I get a yes to both questions. But things change dramatically when I ask: \u201cDoes your strategic and\/or business plan have a \u2018people\u2019 component? Is that component just as robust as the others?\u00a0 Is it reviewed as frequently and closely?\u201d I get a yes answer to those questions around 30% of the time.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sorry, but that won\u2019t get the job done.<\/p>\n

If you want to sustain an effective engagement strategy, you need to include it in your organization\u2019s larger strategic plan. You need to put engagement on the agenda at your regular leadership meetings. You need to put key engagement metrics on your \u201cexecutive dashboard\u201d to help answer the question \u201cAre our leaders doing the things necessary to grow engagement?\u201d<\/p>\n

With respect to engagement metrics, one tactic I\u2019ve found valuable is to use Survey Monkey<\/a>\u00a0to periodically \u201cpulse\u201d on three management accountability questions: Has your group worked with your manager to develop an engagement plan?\u00a0 Does your group meet regularly to manage\/review the plan? Are you making progress against the plan?<\/p>\n

OK, but so far this is only relevant if you\u2019re part of the leadership team for the whole enterprise or a major division or business unit. But what if you\u2019re not a leader at that level? In that case, you still have to do what it takes to keep the spotlight on engagement in your own unit, however large or small it may be. Put engagement on the agenda at meetings. Talk to people about the issues that drive engagement. Ask what you can do differently to help them feel more connected to the organization and its mission.\u00a0 Keep doing the work, one step at a time, one day at a time. That\u2019s how you build engagement.<\/p>\n

I know: you\u2019re really busy. But this is important, more important than at least some of the stuff you do every day. (For example, I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s more important than answering at least some of those e-mails in your in-box. )<\/p>\n

What it boils down to is do you really believe that highly engaged organizations outperform those with less engaged employees? Do you view your role as leader as building the kind of culture and work environment that fosters high levels of engagement? Or deep down do you really believe that engagement is just \u201csome HR thing\u201d that takes time away from your real work?<\/p>\n

Since you\u2019re taking the time to read this blog, I\u2019m pretty sure I know how you\u2019ve answered those questions. And because of that, I\u2019m equally sure that you can find the time and the will to build a highly engaged workforce. Go for it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During my tenure as Chief Human Resources Officer at Cleveland Clinic, I held regular “Java with Joe” sessions with small groups of leaders at every level of the organization. These informal meetings often turned into Q&A sessions on the subject of employee engagement. These days, when I speak to other organizations about their employee engagement and leadership issues, the Q&A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greensummit.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}