Can engagement and cost control co-exist?

[Jennifer Schulte]

Like many of you, I'm in an organization where cost pressure is the current focus of the day. I see many leaders who avoid sharing information until they know the whole answer (which is generally bad news about projects, funding or even jobs). But I'd like to convince them that sharing the information they do know, when they know it, will build engagement and actually help people cope with whatever the answer becomes. We know that engaged employees cope with change and stress in a much better way than the disengaged, who don't trust their best interest is at the heart of business decisions. I think we are fostering disengagement by withholding not only the decisions we make in an effort to control costs, but also by not sharing the 'why' so people have a bigger view of their role. We are all adults after all!

Any other thoughts on the seemingly impossible task of increasing engagement while focusing on decreasing costs?

[David Zinger]

Jennifer:

I would never want to minimize this challenge but I do believe it is not an either or phenomenon.

I worked in a place that went from 220 employees to 78 over the course of a number of years. I saw that a lot of information was not shared by management and it had such a detrimental impact on employee engagement.

I still believe that connection to the person we report to is so vital in engagement and authentic connection with honesty, trust, and caring can make a difference in how engaged I am.

I think of William Bridges work on change: It begins with an end, has a neutral zone, and ends with a beginning. So if we are in major cost cutting we should expect disengagement in the short term and even during the neutral zone. I don't think we fight it. We see it, we express it, we even honor it as we talk about moving on. This is not the time for big inspiration talks this is the time to listen.

How do we engage others: we listen to them...we really listen to them.

How right you are Jennifer --- we are adults so don't treat us like children and expect us to behave any different than a child who is dragged through things that they don't feel a part of.

Maybe that is it: we need to help people be a part of not apart from the organization, once again - CONNECTION is key at least to me and WE!

[Jennifer Schulte]

Thank you David,
Thinking about the Bridges model is helpful ... and also helping leaders understand that when they are in control of making the decisions, they are in a different part of the change curve and need to recognize others' needs to start at the end and go through it at their pace.

I appreciate your comments!

[Ian Buckingham]

Although I've been working in the "soft skills" field for some time, my roots reach down into financial services where, as you know, the bottom line is everything. It's easy for zealots to make claims that engagement leads to increased sales - eventually, but that's really not enough for the average FD or his/her CEO tied to an 18 month performance contract. In my view, the onus is on everyone within the organisation to prove the business case for any engagement programme/intervention as do our external-facing peers in order to secure the funding in the first place.

It's easier said than done but the most useful insights I can offer include:
1. Making the holders of the engagement budgets accountable to internal customers and the budget review dependent upon customer staisfaction vs agreed deliverables
2. Wherever possible viewing staff as customers and , therefore, product uptake as a success measure
3. Ensuring that measurement is of the "little and frequent"/pulse take variety rather than cumbersome and expensive annual surveys
4. Focusing events on tangible outcomes.
A great example of this in action emerged recently when we were working with a major Insurance name. The enlightened CEO brought engagement to the foreground and asked the question "how can I prove that engaged employees are more effective at delivering against the three core elements of our Vision". We undertook a quick review of their brand. Deconstructed the brand values and partnered these with the HR values (why 2 sets?). We focused on 1 value which appeared to give them a usp vs their competitors and then devised an engagement programme around that value as a catalyst for action. It happened to be "innovation" and the engagement programme generated a return on investement in ideas and new ways of working many 1000s of times more than the original engagement budget.
All sound s complex but it all boiled down to some simple cost/benefit analysis OH - and an inspired and visionary, risk taking CEO who was willing to take an 18 month view re costs. I see more and more though Jenny who spend millions on advertising and external brand positioning and then try to force-feed engagement with a golden bullet podcast/video/event, or, as I've just had one telecomms company urge "we simply must transform this brand through employee engagement in the next 6 months - so we've started an internal ad campaign". Now that really is throwing money away........................
There's more about this case study in Brand Engagement - How Employees Make or Break Brands (Palgrave/Macmillan 07)
Ian

[Jennifer Schulte]

Thank you Ian .... very inspiring! I appreciate the focused approach aimed at the business success vs. aiming engagement as the end in an of itself with a promise to 'increase productivity / sales / efficiency / name your business result here.'

[Vijay Kumar Shrotryia]

Yes engagement and cost control can co-exist.....very much....
First the cost of engagement is an investment to cut costs in future which provides huge future economic benefit.
Second the subjective part of beings get inspired to work harder and contribute in the interest of the organization.
Third in an environment of positivity the more engaged the employees are the better they contribute through their performance and it leads to make an organization a Happy Org....
cheers

[Terrence Seamon]

Jennifer,

Brandon wrote, "I think a lot of us are in this predicament right now, so you're not alone." I would agree.

And Vijay wrote, "Yes engagement and cost control can co-exist.....very much...." Again, I agree.

Here's my two cents:

1. Share information about what the business is facing. You're right that withholding information is the wrong thing at a time like this.

2. Ask the employees for their ideas on how best to cope with the business challenges. Get them involved in coming up with solutions.

3. Do as David wrote: "How do we engage others: we listen to them...we really listen to them."

4. Give employees the go-ahead to take positive action steps.

5. Acknowledge employees for their efforts.

Jennifer, I think it is possible to increase engagement while focusing on decreasing costs.

Terry

[Vijay Kumar Shrotryia]

terrence
nicely summed up version....
Engagement happens when the environment is OPEN...We should try creating Open environment in the organizations it would certainly Engage People....
vijay

[Jennifer Schulte]

Thank you both Vijay and Terrence ... it seems so straightforward, and I know evidence where it's acutally been reality. Now I just need to convince a few others!

[Ian Buckingham]

"Short-termism", it's like the plague for we poor "soft skills" advocates - especially with all this talk of World recession etc. Guess the best we can all hope for is to use the language of the holders of the purse strings and talk about "cost of non-conformance" (i.e. the consequences of "not" engaging employees - loss of talent, creeping brand death through dissatisfaction etc)! Failing that - why not take a VC approach and suggest you're so confident there will be ROI on your investement that you'll gamble your bonus on the outcomes and will take a share of the returns instead..............(now that;s a "buttock clencher" LOL!). Ian

[Jennifer Floyd]

Jennifer,

Your comment about convincing execs to share information early and often is unfortunately all too familiar. I have a version of this conversation at least twice a week. It's always wise for me to come armed with data because I work in a financial services company... so I wanted to recommend a good read that might help you build your case: Communicating Big Change Using Small Communication by T.J. and Sandar Larkin. This report looks longer than it is -- good use of pull quotes and white space make it a breeze to get through. And the Larkins combine academic research with real business experience to explain why executives MUST "bring employees along" with communication when they are instituting big change. How can we expect them to hop on board the next big change train if we ran them over with the last one? If change is seen as "something they do to us," why should we be surprised that they aren't more enthusiastic? Communicating throughout the whole process can take away that "us versus them" feeling... which is a pretty big factor in engagement overall.

(I don't mean to sound like a shill. I saw T.J. Larkin speak at the IABC conference two years ago and was impressed by his arguments and sense of humor. Some of the publications on his site are quite old... but then again, good communication is good communication...)

[Zane Safrit]

Some great, passionate, comments here. I liked them all, in particular Brand Hull's and Ian Buckingham's.

I've yet to see any company decrease costs on a sustainable basis without successfully engaging those people impacted by or expected to deliver the cuts in costs. You can cut costs by mandate, in a drive-by style. Most of the commenters, myself included, have experienced that approach. And your engagement drives out the front-door, too.

As you write Jennifer, We're all adults, too. Acknowledging that within a company means acknowledging the brand is owned and delivered by everyone's participation. Cost-cutting only comes with everyone's participation. I'm preaching to the choir. It's just always been amazing why many corporate leaders forget that over time.

What's worked for me in the past:
1) Treat everyone as adults.
2) Regular, frequent, formal and informal, communication in an open, transparent manner. Ideas that have worked, ideas that didn't, what resulted, why.
3) Organize your presentation to answer three questions:
A) what's in it for them. Hopefully, there is something in it for them: jobs, bonuses if goals are met, better work-days, happier community, better allocation of resources, renewed focus.
B) why should they care. Here's the chance to share the bigger picture, the group's mission, that could be accomplished if certain goals are met. And what happens if goals aren't met.
C) why should they believe. This may require sharing extensive financial data, opening the books so-to-speak, a confession of management's need for help, an overview of the competitive landscape. It will all depend on what's needed, what's been done to date, in terms of treating everyone as adults.
4) Organize a celebration when that goal is reached. Acknowledge the group's success, celebrate it, make it milestone in the corporate history. Don't let it go unappreciated, acknowledged. Failure will be noted, regardless.

I hope that helps.

PS: I tried a little formatting just to see. Probably overdone. Live and learn.

[Jennifer Schulte]

Thanks for the replies, both to Jennifer and Zane (plus use of bold & italics ... it works!). I will definitely look into the book Jennifer recommended as I'm always looking for a new book with a few key insights to "steal" from.

I also like your point Zane about "ideas that didn't" in particular - I think all to often, we do not pause to admit or learn from mistakes of changes we've made in the past. I hear employees disengagingly comment regularly saying "yeah, this will just be like the (insert last big change initiative here) that didn't work either. If we wait, this too shall pass." I think the more we can describe why the business is making decisions - and make sure our employees can articulate those reasons - the 'belief' part might actually follow.

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts! This has been helpful.