Alive HR

Duchenne (Genuine) Smile

My blog is called aliveHR because I am passionate about people who are engaged. Not ‘engaged to be married’ (although that’s nice too) but engaged in life, immersed in one’s craft, lost in activities that are somehow greater than oneself, that bring intrinsic joy and gratification when done well. I love to watch people “in the flow,” using strengths in service of an activity they love, whether those people are musicians, children, athletes, acrobats, HR professionals or employees.

Of course, as an HR person, I also love observing engagement at work. I work at a nonprofit that serves people with disabilities. The necessary evening and weekend hours are grueling to our staff; the pay is not lucrative and the duties are not highly valued by society. In addition, our counselors work in remote locations with infrequent face-time with supervisors. Recruiting, onboarding, training and supervising in such an environment are challenging activities at best. As you can imagine, having engaged staff is critical to the completion of our mission.  While high employee engagement is a strategic competitive advantage at any time, it’s especially important during these lean economic times when margins are tighter for most businesses, especially nonprofits. Here are some ways we have approached engagement at our organization:

1. Select engaged people. Chances are you won’t turn a sullen, bored candidate into a rock star employee. In my interviews, candidates have a number of opportunities to talk about what’s important to them. If their faces don’t light up at least once during our conversation—and truly light up with a real smile, not a fake one—it’s unlikely they’ll come to work for us. This is not a test of how outgoing or extroverted they are; it’s an indication of their passion for life and their chosen vocation.

2. Encourage connections. Applicants often comment on our friendly environment; you can feel it when you walk in the door. Although we work hard and some of the issues we handle are life or death, the air is not tense or stressed, but rather friendly and convivial. Because of the potentially isolating nature of our employees’ work, we have worked intentionally to build and nurture community, including work teams whose purpose expressly includes the emotional and social support to its members.

3. Meaningful work. Most people want to know that their 8+/- hours of effort aren’t in vain, that their day results in a product or service they can believe in and feel proud of. If you work in social services, as I do, create a compelling vision, and not just any vision, but the highest vision of the difference employees make together in the lives of others. Or if your factory makes widgets, help your employees see how the widgets save consumers effort, bring families together, prevents injuries or otherwise enhances lives.

4. Values. We use our values to select, orient, train, and evaluate our employees, as well as to help us solve ethical dilemmas and real-life issues. Values, if accurately identified and broadly accepted, can also be a great way to define an identity and provide a common source of pride and meaning in shared work.

5. Quality. Our little nonprofit has an excellent reputation locally and regionally; we’ve even garnered some national attention for some innovative projects. I believe most achievers prefer to work for a high quality organization that does exciting things. This branding makes it easier to attract, engage and retain talent; which in turn helps ensure you’ll continue to operate at a high standard of excellence

6. Organizational participation. In addition to teams events, we hold monthly meetings where we gather our employees together, share news and updates, introduce new people and bond over a meal. We have used these meetings to brainstorm about organizational challenges, such as budget cuts or the rising cost of health-care. Twice a year we hold day-long retreats. The Fall retreat is a feel-good event with a motivational speaker; it culminates in some very touching awards to employees who’ve provided excellent service while exemplifying our our values. At the Spring meeting, our employees help set the next year’s short-term goals; every three years, they participate in planning the strategic plan along with other stakeholders.

7. Use strengths. “Gary” organized exercise classes out of his passion for health and fitness, “Martin” shoots videos for us because he loves making documentaries, and “Maya” facilitates a self-advocacy group because she loves the social aspects. None of these duties are on job descriptions, but it’s a win-win to encourage employees to exercise these gifts at work.

This above list is not exhaustive. It doesn’t cover every aspect of engagement, such as setting expectations and giving continuous feedback. But I hope it shows that an organization doesn’t have to be big/have a large budget to find creative ways to provide an atmosphere conducive to engagement.

For us, some pay-offs related to employee engagement have been a waiting list of families interested in our services; turnover less than half our industry average over a span of 10+ years; positive licensing reviews; positive customer surveys; staff that routinely promote us in the community; and employees who help us continue our legacy of high quality and innovative services. In addition, I can’t prove how much of this can be attributed to employee engagement, but while many of our competitors are contracting, laying people off, freezing positions and salaries, we are actually expanding, building programs, maintaining and adding positions and operating in the black.

I hope some of these ideas are useful and of course I always want to hear yours as well.

photo by UggBoy