Employee Engagement
Author: Rick Cronen
Not long ago Wachovia hired a new CEO, to help them overcome the poor performance of the company. They gave him over $41 million dollars a year to do so. The first two quarters under his ‘command’ they lost billions of dollars. He responded by laying off over 2,000 people. “This is unacceptable” he said, referring to losing money not loosing people. Recently, faced with lean financial times Fed Ex announced that the entire management team will be taking a pay cut in order to save jobs.
Wachovia went under. Fed Ex continues to thrive.
If you listen to the news, we are in a mad rush to catastrophe. Many people are ‘trimming down’ and ‘tightening-up’. In all honesty, these are good business practices in good times as well; but, the one thing that is making a real difference is the level of employee engagement.
For those companies that are doing well in health care, pharmaceuticals and the expanding green industries – their challenge is how to hold on to the ‘windfall’ of exceptional talent they are attracting right now. For those companies that are forced to cut back and lay off valuable resources, their problem is how to keep people motivated and focused on shared goals.
The answer for both is the same – employee engagement. According to James K Hartner, Gallup’s ‘Chief Scientist of Workplace Management, “In good times, employee engagement is the difference between being good and being great. In bad times, it’s the difference between surviving and not.”
At Meridian, we have a long history of helping companies, just like yours, develop and implement strategies to improve employee engagement. This approach frequently starts with the management team, because attitudes, values and work styles often cascade from that core team to the rest of the organization.
What are the core values of your workplace? How engaged are your employees? How do you know?