by Brian Clark | capability, culture, Employee Engagement, engagement, learning and development
When you were taught how to swim did you experience the shock and awe of being forced to enter the water while consumed in fear? Or were you first coached on the pool deck and acclimated psychologically and physically for the inevitable entry into the unknown environment of a large body of water?
If you have been in the workforce for some years, chances are you have experienced the shock and awe and/or the coaching method of training and development. If you have been around as long as I have you have probably experienced both to differing degrees.
Training and development is not an optional tactic – it is a critical component to your engagement strategy. It demands its own structured strategy and measurements to ensure it is delivering results for your organization. The training and development starts on day one [or before] with an effective on-boarding program and continues thereafter in a roadmap of personal and professional development that enhances a person’s ability to contribute to the organization and grow as a human being. Lofty? You bet.
Here are a few prime elements that I have found contribute to a solid and effective training and development tactical component to your engagement strategy.
- There is a linkage between a person’s position or job title to at least one of their learning pathways. This is often compliance based.
- The learning and development has a mix of modalities and these do not need to be concurrent – they can occur at different times and for different purposes. For example:
- Quality online self paced learning programs.
- Webinars, seminars and discussion groups.
- Targeted coaching programs with agendas and feedback.
- Mentoring programs – particularly effective for succession planning.
- The business owners and/or leaders are engaged and committed to the learning and development activities in the organization.
- There is alignment between the organisation’s strategy and the learning and development programs down to the individual level.
- Learning activities of employees are visible to managers.
- Learning and development is included in the performance management strategy.
- Learning for personal development and interests is included in the offerings for all employees. [I cannot count how many clients initiate an LMS implementation with compliance and corporate learning the only pathways].
I realize I could go on and on with this list. Give me a call or email me and we can share some more ideas. If you are seeking some ideas or help in developing or implementing an engagement strategy, I can help you out.
by Brian Clark | e-learning, Employee Engagement, engagement, Performance
The Interview
Client: Charles Clayton, Learning & Development Consultant
Industry: Healthcare provider
Location: Dallas, TX, USA
Organization: Baylor Scott & White serves North and Central Texas through 46 hospitals, more than 500 patient care sites, more than 6000 affiliated physicians and 36,000 employees.
Current Situation: BSWH was looking to improve employee engagement and purchased Vado’s 85 courses specifically targeted to increase engagement and retention. BSWH selected five units with high employee turnover and low employee satisfaction to pilot the courses. BSWH conducted a pre-pilot survey to measure current employee satisfaction. They analyzed the results and for each unit identified three areas to improve. To improve in those areas, the managers were directed to the Vado courses mapped to the selected area. After the managers implemented the courses, they re-surveyed to assess if employee satisfaction improved. One manager in the pilot commented that they liked having resources to address their challenges.
Customer Success: Across the five units, employee satisfaction improved across the three areas on average by 6.56%.However, for the lowest employee satisfaction score in the pre-pilot survey, the average employee satisfaction improvement was 12.65%!
Customer Comment: Charles shared that these employee satisfaction increases are “statistically relevant”. Due to the success of the pilot, BSWH renewed their Vado license and will be rolling out the courses more broadly.
by Brian Clark | culture, Employee Engagement, Innovation, on-boarding, Performance, succession planning, Uncategorized
Welcome Aboard. Sink or Swim With On-boarding.
Imagine you are marooned on an island inhabited by a tribe of friendly people but culturally vastly different to what you are used to. All of the norms of this tribe are not threatening but far outside your patterns of behaviours. You can imagine how difficult and intimidating this would be. Why do you think it is any different when people join organisations as new hires?
The experience a new recruit has joining a new organisation has an enormous impact on how soon a person ramps up to effectiveness and how quickly they become engaged with the organisation and its culture. You can refer to the previous blog for a great definition of employee engagement.
If you have ever experienced a bad hire and either had to take action to remove a new hire or they leave quickly on their own accord, the impact goes way beyond the cost, pain and frustration of having to start a recruitment process again or settle for your second or third choice. The ripple impacts of a bad hire hit your culture widely and deeply. You can reduce or eliminate these risks by developing a solid on-boarding strategy.
Here are some ideas that I have seen work well in some of my clients’ organisations. Some of these ideas work better for some organisations and less so for others depending upon a number of factors such as industry, location, resources and culture. You should also consider the type of position you are inducting.
You may have a different style of on-boarding processes in your sales team as opposed to your finance team. These differences take into account the type of individual[s] you are inducting and the culture of the team they are joining.
Here are some ideas:
- Start the induction early using your LMS or other web based platform. Start the process before they arrive for day one by offering some online videos, courses and information they can review in their own time. Make this fun, interesting and collaborative.
- Include a social gathering either prior to day one or shortly after. You can make it a dinner with their new manager or a small gathering of their manager and team members.
- Make the induction a ‘high touch’ experience. I am always surprised how often a new hire is sitting alone in their office or workstation going through induction. This is sending all the wrong messages to the new hire. Include different people to interact, support and coach the new person. Do this even if you are inducting a number of people at once and use workshops to deliver induction training.
- Include some online learning and collaboration to deliver a ‘blended’ approach. You do not need to use costly learning content. You can use some home-grown videos, presentations and links to other resources.
- Add sense of achievement when a person completes their induction. You can have a small team social gathering over coffee, deliver a certificate of completion or another gift or token signifying the completion of the induction. Using a certificate or token item makes a great cultural ‘tradition’ and you can award them retro-actively if you want to.
- Include some interface between the inductee[s] and senior management. Choose the highest senior level leader you can but choose wisely. Do not make the mistake of choosing a senior leader who does not have the commitment to successful inductions and culture required or is not reliable to stick to appointments. This tactic can backfire if you choose a leader who considers this a nuisance and cancels appointments or lacks the EQ to conduct a meeting with new hires effectively.
- After the induction process is completed include a meeting schedule for a month or two after. I suggest a coffee or informal meeting of about 10 to 15 minutes duration and conducted by human resources or another manager; not their direct manager. The purpose of these meetings are to get some feedback, check for any barriers to work objectives and be alert for some innovation. It is surprising how a newly hired person will identify areas for business improvement and innovation. They are not yet fully immersed in the role and the ‘third party’ perspective is priceless.
A great induction process takes work and attention. The induction process needs to designed and documented. The process needs to be aligned with the organisation’s strategy and supported at all levels including specifically the CEO and other ‘c’ level executives.
If you are considering developing a new induction strategy or re-developing an existing one, we can have a discussion and share some ideas. You can keep your focus on your objectives and we can help you develop, implement and execute an effective on-boarding/induction strategy.
by Brian Clark | employee, engagement, recruitment, Uncategorized
Employee engagement has been at the forefront of business topics for a couple of years now at least. I have found a number of definitions and interpretations of employee engagement and I really like this article in Forbes by Kevin Kruse, [@Kruse]. Kevin Kruse uses this definition, “Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organisation and its goals.”
I believe employee engagement is the most critical competitive advantage a business of any size can achieve. It is the first point of focus when I am asked to lead a business, consult to a business or invest in a business.
I have five key tactics that contribute to building and sustaining employee engagement. My five tactics can be further broken down into methods, processes, tools and other contributing factors to ensuring the successful execution of each tactic. You can get in touch with me if you have some ideas, comments or questions.
Recruitment
Believe it or not this one is often the most neglected. Many companies hire for competencies, track record, experience and education. These are all fine but if you want to build engagement you need to consider personal behavioural and style and cultural fit.
I use an assessment tool that enables me to gain deep insight into a person’s behavioural profile. This information enables me to understand clearly how a candidate will behave when faced with certain environment situations. I have also developed assessments that include competencies to understand the interplay of the behavioural profile and the execution of a job role with mandatory and ideal competencies. I can also run reports that give me a ‘helicopter’ view of the entire organisation or a specific team to see where the candidate will fit in. Will the new person fill a gap or skew the team profile one way or other.
I hire slow. Back in the heated days of tech skill shortages and frenzied demand for IT skills, candidates were hired based on a CV only. I always resisted and am now benefitting from having a long tenured team of developers in one of my companies. Consider including some social interaction with short-listed candidates to see if you feel comfortable with them. If you feel uneasy in a social setting you are likely to feel the same way in the work environment. You should also include a meeting at the office or a social setting for your team to meet the candidates. This feedback is invaluable and ensures you are getting a good critical cross check to your impressions and possible biases.
Using the behavioural profiles, multiple interviews and meetings with other team-members is a win-win strategy for you and the candidates. In my experience doing this shortens the ramp-up time to having a fully contributing team member. It also contributes to a shared responsibility for helping a new team member to ramp up and enjoy the benefits of enculturation more quickly.
We have a range of off-shelf online courses to help build and sustain employee engagement. Get in touch and I will send you a full catalog and give you the chance to give some of these courses a ‘test drive.’
by Brian Clark | e-learning, e-learning modules, Uncategorized
Organizations spend enormous amounts of time and resources to hire a new employee. According to Bersin by Deliotte, 22% of new hires quit their jobs in the first 45 days of employment. Their research goes on to say a poor on-boarding process is the reason for new hires quit this quickly. The report suggests that top notch organizations focus on “enculturation and socialisation” in their on-boarding process.
DOTS Talent Solutions has the course modules to help your organization drive new hire enculturation, socialization and engagement.
Our Vado On-boarding course bundle contains 18 manager courses called Onboarding New Employees and 7 courses called Starting a New Job. Combined, these course bundles are designed to on-board, socialize and build the relationshipbetween the new hire, manager and team. Your organisation will achieve measurable benefit from the On-boarding courses with increased new hire engagement, shorter time to contribution and increased new hire retention.
The On-boarding course bundle covers these topic areas:
- Aligning Goals and Expectations
- Developing Skills and Capabilities
- Building a Network
- Getting to Know Others
- Understanding the Role
- Getting Feedback
If you are interested in learning more, check this out. Do you want to ‘test drive’ some Vado modules? Click here and we will send you a login.
