Employee Engagement - in a Play format

Scene 1: Staff Meeting; Venue: Nandi hills conference room

Characters:

Aditi – Manager – One of the top performers in the company

Aryan – Manager – another top performer

Javed – Manager

Elizabeth – Manager

Ram – HR Manager

Manish – Leader of this group

As usual, Aditi, Aryan, Elizabeth are seated in the conference room ahead of time waiting for others to join in. Aryan, who is a cricket fanatic, was talking about Dhoni’s recent comment on rotation policy.

Aryan – “Dhoni is not talking about the fielding ability of the seniors. He is expressing doubts about their batting ability. Even with all their batting powers, he believes that they cannot score 20 more runs than the juniors – gap caused due to their slow fielding.”  Meanwhile, Manish, Ram and Javed join the meeting.

Manish kicks off the meeting. “We have a tight agenda. Let us first start with Attrition analytics. Ram, All yours”

Ram – “I’d like to present today attrition analytics of our group. As you all know, attrition this year is lower than last year but still high from where we would like it to be. So, let us start with the first slide that shows comparative attrition percentages for each of your groups”

Manish – “I see that all the groups relatively have higher attrition percentages except for Aditi’s group. Aditi, what is happening in your group that has your attrition levels lower than others?”

Aryan jumps in and says – “This happens every year that Aditi’s attrition levels are lower than rest of us. Initially, we attributed it to timing, and then we said luck. I think we should see what some of the best practices are, in Aditi’s group and apply them in our groups. Aditi, what do you do differently?”

Elizabeth – “I agree.  All our associates are in similar job families with similar compensation levels. What is happening specifically in your group?”

Aditi – “I am not sure. I believe we have lower attrition levels because we have good engagement with people and focus on their development.”

Javed – “You mean to say we are not doing the same? We also have 1-1 with associates and focus on employee development plans”

Aditi – “I am not saying that. Only reason I can attribute to retention in my group is engaged employees. I am not sure what is different in my group from other groups”

Aryan – “We should definitely figure it out. Maybe, I should become your assistant for a dayJ”

Team covers rest of the topics and concludes the meeting. Aryan meets up with Aditi outside the conference room and asks her “Are you ok if I spend couple of days with your team observing what is happening from employee engagement perspective? I was not joking when I said that I’d like to be your assistant.”

 Aditi – “I do not know about you being my assistant but if you want to spend some time with my team, you are most welcome”

Aryan goes into Manish’s office and says “Manish, I think our organization would benefit for us to really know what is happening in Aditi’s shop. I’d like to spend couple of days with her team observing what is happening out there. I’ll ask my team to operate as if I am on leave so that I can pay full attention to this task. I spoke to Aditi and she is ok with the arrangement. Hope you do not see any concerns.” Manish agrees with Aryan.

Aryan spent time on the floor speaking to associates and leads in Aditi’s group. He sat through various meetings, discussions and also spent lot of time with Aditi. He now has a better insight of what is happening in Aditi’s group and is confident that if they replicate those best practices in the rest of the Organization, attrition levels will go down.

Scene 2: Manish’s staff meeting; Venue: Nandi hills conference room

On agenda is Aryan’s debriefing of his self-initiated assignment of observing Aditi’s group.  Aryan and Aditi have spent time in putting together the presentation and plan to share their findings with the rest of the group.

Manish – “Aryan, looks like you enjoyed doing assistant duty for Aditi. Maybe, we should permanently move you into that positionJ”

Aditi – “Maybe you should do that Manish. I’ll then have a very strong deputy and I can go on vacationsJ”

Manish – “On a serious note, I’d like to congratulate Aryan for his initiative. He has identified good results in another group and took the initiative to spend time to understand what is happening out there. Aryan, good job!!”

Aryan – “Well, for being deputy of Aditi, I got to learn few important lessons in employee engagement. I’d like to share them with you. To make it easier for us to understand, I have put them in a framework. Well, you see, being an MBA, I have to create a framework even to say simple thingsJ”

Aryan – “In order to effectively manage a large workforce, HR team and Business Heads tend to define segmentations in workforce. These segmentation could be based on performance, potential or any other drivers (or such combination) as is critical to the organization. These segmentations help them to drive different compensation/training/promotion guidelines to different segments and ensure as much as possible that right set of associates receive right rewards. However, we tend to drive such segmentation down to a front line manager level where his/her associates are being treated in a manner based on segmentation as against being recognized as distinct associates with distinct skillsets and aspirations. One thing that I have seen in Aditi’s group is the focus on each and every associate”

Aryan – “I have recognized that there are six key drivers for associates. In my framework, I call them 6Cs – Culture, Career, Compensation, Coaching, Camaraderie and Communication. While Culture, Career, Compensation are drivers that are distinctly visible to the associate (and to others), Coaching, Camaraderie and Communication are soft drivers that are not distinctly visible but have a significant influence on retention”

Aditi – “I agree with Aryan. While thinking this through with Aryan, it became clear to me that while organization policies drive Culture, Career and Compensation in which manager does play a role, each one of us can significantly influence the softer drivers Coaching, Camaraderie and Communication that could potentially reduce attrition.”

Aryan – “Before we share the details of each driver, it is important for manager to recognize what critical drivers (top 2) are, for each associate. Even if the associates fall in the same segment, for some, it could be compensation and for others it could be learning opportunities that could be delivered through coaching. This ensures that manager do not apply cookie cutter solution across to all people in the same segment but is more responsive to individual drivers”

Aditi – “We will not spend too much time talking about three drivers – Culture (Respect for Individual, Integrity); Career (Opportunities for career advancement and ability to build/switch careers within the organization) and Compensation (are we fairly priced from market perspective. Note: it is not about whether we are highest paying company in market but more importantly, are we competitive from market perspective)”

Aryan – “We will deep dive into other drivers. Coaching is all about learning opportunities that manager can provide to their associates. These take into consideration not only performance aspects of the associate but also their career aspirations. What I have seen distinctly happen in Aditi’s group is that most of those learning opportunities are provided on the floor and not in the training rooms. While associates do go to trainings, I have seen manager create opportunities for learning on the floor. This ensured that associates continue to learn while doing their jobs and build new skillsets. This could happen either in terms of initiative, project, travel or added responsibilities. One other key aspect that I have observed is that leads in Aditi’s group are willing to take risks. They are willing to bet on associates knowing very well that if the risk does not pay off (in some cases), Aditi would not be critical but would recognize them for their willingness to take risk. I do not see the same happening in my group or in the rest of the organization”

Aditi – “Camaraderie is about the quality of engagement with peers and managers. I have always noticed that people would like to surround themselves with smart people and if the quality of peers is higher, all of us would see many learning opportunities by working in such a team. Hence, we should never compromise on hiring. Also, relationship with manager is critical. We know the famous adage that says employees do not leave Organizations. They leave managers. It does not mean that managers have to make popular decisions but it is important for them to be fair & transparent; and invest time in building relationships with their team members”

Aryan – “Communication is critical driver and has many aspects. This is one driver that determines transparency and hence has a significant influence on the culture of the company. Communication is also about letting associates know how they are doing and recognizing them (different from rewards). I have seen Aditi take time to talk to an associate recognizing his recent achievements and also highlighting areas he should be focusing on. More importantly, when she highlighted areas of improvement, she related them to his strengths and to his career aspirations; and promised him support. This kind of communication helps reinforce the confidence of the associate and they place lot of trust in their manager.”

Aryan – “Manish, we do have lot more detail around these 6Cs. I strongly recommend that we share the framework with all our managers and get them to focus on Coaching, Camaraderie and Communication drivers”

Manish – “Great presentation Aryan and Aditi. I’d like all of you to think though on what you have just heard and we can discuss clear actionable in our next staff meeting.”

Mindset Vs Skillset

Let me start by telling you a story about Rahul who is a manager in an Organization. Prem (an average performer) and Preeti (a high performer) are his team members. Rahul has observed that both Prem and Preeti have opportunities for improvement. He has a conversation with Preeti, creates a development plan, assigns relevant trainings and asks her to sign up for the trainings agreed on the development plan. He similarly has a conversation with Prem, creates a development plan, assigns relevant training and asks him to sign up for those trainings agreed on development plan. During the course of the year, he observes that both Preeti and Prem have not improved in their development areas despite undergoing the relevant trainings. Promptly in the next meeting with HR, Rahul enquires about the effectiveness of the training programs offered by the Talent Development team and asks the training team to put together metrics to measure their effectiveness. HR and Rahul have a debate over how and who should be measuring the effectiveness.

What is wrong with the above scenario? Like all good managers, Rahul has observed development areas of his team members and worked with training team to offer relevant trainings. He was frustrated that the trainings have not yielded the desired results and wants the training team to fix the problem. But, what could Rahul have done differently?

Rahul, like most people, focused on Skillsets and ignored the critical piece of Mindset. When he assigned training programs to Prem and Preeti, he assumed that they are completely onboard with him on the need for change and hence are ready to acquire the skills to improve in their specific areas of development. They could have learnt new skills in the training programs but without the right mindset, there is no motivation in them to apply these learning at the workplace. Hence, there is no observable behavior change on the floor.

In the absence of mindset, Skillset is of no use. We all know the story of Elephants who are tied with strong bonds/chains when they are young. They try very hard to escape but are not successful. They quickly resign themselves to the fact that escape is not possible and even when they grow up and are tied with thin rope, they continue to believe that they cannot escape. A classic case where they have the required strength (skill) to break away; but due to mind block (mindset), they still remain in captive.

We have heard multiple stories where people have great skills but without the right mindset, they continue to fail.  Skillset building is primarily focused on improving effectiveness of people in certain area and can be led by the training team. However, Mindset is primarily focused on paradigm change in the thought process and has to be led by the Manager.

So, how could Rahul work with Prem and Preeti to change their mindset? Following are few steps that Rahul can take to influence the mindset of his team members.

Manager as a Coach: In order to influence Mindset, it is critical for Rahul to play the role of a Coach. As a Coach, it is important to recognize that the conversation is about Prem/Preeti and not about his own experience or expertise. He also has to ensure that he has a trusted relationship with his team members (they sincerely believe that Rahul has their best interests in mind).

Exploratory style: Rahul has to follow exploratory style by asking series of questions that would allow Prem/Preeti to explore their underlying beliefs/mental models. He has to recognize that everyone is different and that there are no right answers. It is also very important that these answers come from Prem/Preeti and not by Rahul providing answers/solutions to them. Prem/Preeti will have a buy-in only when the solutions are arrived by them. While this step looks simple, it requires manager to dramatically change his/her approach to conversations with their team members, which means a change in the mindset of the manager. Once manager is open to change the conversation style, he/she can attend classes on coaching to better explore this area.

Series of conversations: Rahul has to recognize that the whole process would happen through a series of conversations and not in just one meeting. It is important not to rush through the process but lead the conversation at the pace comfortable for Prem or Preeti. While this process looks inordinately long, you would be surprised how less time this would take. Frequent short conversations are more effective than one long conversation and from an end to end perspective, would consume less time for the desired change.

Buy-In: Once Prem/Preeti arrives at a solution, Rahul has to get them to put down action steps that they would be undertaking over next 6-12 months. These could include the trainings offered by the training team but he should not impose them. He should instead offer them as suggestions that Prem/Preeti could consider.

Follow up: In today’s fast paced world, it is very easy to fall off from the path that we set ourselves on. Hence, as a manager, Rahul has to continue to follow up with Prem/Preeti on their action plans. He should provide positive feedback whenever he sees an improvement in their developmental area. Positive feedback acts as a great reinforce to the team and would invigorate them to pursue the action plans more diligently.

Change in Mindset arrived through the above process is sustainable and is portable across jobs/roles. Such a change would enable Prem/Preeti to sign up for training programs much more enthusiastically as they know what to achieve out of these programs, enhances their participation during the program and bring back the learning to implement in their workplace. Rahul, as a manager, would be able to observe the change (higher effectiveness) on the floor as Prem/Preeti would now have both the Mindset and the Skillset.

The reason why I have constantly used two names Prem and Preeti together is to emphasize on the point that the process does not change whether the associate is a high performer or an average performer. We can still go through the same steps to influence the Mindset. Rahul is also undergoing a change from being a manager who gives instructions to a coach who works in collaboration with his team members and lets them find the answers.

If we examine the top talent in any Organization, we see the following traits: They bring in lot of energy, deliver results, willing to take challenging assignments, operate outside of their comfort zone but more importantly, they are always willing to learn, willing to see things from different perspective. This is all about Mindset. If as Managers, we are able to influence the mindset of our team members, we could develop a high performing team that could surpass all expectations.

So, are you willing to change your Mindset to influence the Mindset of your team?