Keeping Employees Engaged in Spite of Repitition

[Michael Gibbs]

I feel like I am facing a lot of challenges regarding employee engagement and I would love to get some feedback from some of you regarding what I might be able to do. Here are some of the challenges that I am facing:

- My workforce is all most entirely student workers (part-time, minimum wage)
- We do a lot of repetitive tasks (fixing the same problems with customer machines over and over again...and fixing the same customer's machine over and over, too)
- This is not the permanent career choice of many of my workers. Some of them are in unrelated majors with unrelated plans for the future (Psych, Communications, etc.)
- My ability to offer them anything outside of their salaries is severely limited. My direct supervisors is always open to new ideas int his area, but securing budgeting or approval for new projects is usually a hassle with a lot of red tape.

As you can see, my staff has a lot of factors going against being engaged. All things considered, though, they remain surprisingly engaged, but I know that there is a lot of room for improvement from both them and myself. Any thoughts about how to correct (or at least address) some of these situations would be much appreciated!

[David Zinger]

Michael

There are a lot of challenges. From an appreciative inquiry approach I was pleased to see you see how many are engaged and what is working.

Dr. Jane Dutton suggested the single biggest contributor to organizational energy is high quality interactions. I encourage you to click here to read a short article on her ideas. The article is from the National Staff Development Council. I love her approach to energy and in my mind energy is the raw material of engagement.

David

[Michael Gibbs]

David,

Thanks for your reply. I really appreciate you taking your time to help me learn about important topics like this at the beginning of my (hopefully long and successful!) career in management.

The article that you posted contained a lot of good information. I found it to be simultaneously sobering and reassuring. It's good to see her mention things that give me hope when I think about my staff (the way that almost all of them get along very well) but at the same time, it contained items that I know I will need to address (such as the few staff members who do not get along well or the constant cynicism that reduces the effectiveness of the encounters that they have).

I also feel like this article is a challenge to me personally to model these energizing interactions with my staff, my peers, and my managers. While I see myself having a lot of interactions that are beneficial to the individuals in my department, I see a lot that are more hum-drum and reflect (as Dutton pointed out) the intangible opportunity cost of a bad encounter.

Thanks again for the article David! It was a great read and I look forward to sharing it with people at work...especially the ones who have the feeling that Dutton mentioned where they feel that they can not impact their workplace. Nothing could be farther from the truth!

[Samantha Grant]

Hi David, I just want to thank you for pointing to Dr. Jane Dutton's work on energising the workplace through high quality interactions. The interview you link to here is one of the most lucid and helpful articles I have read on employee engagement. Thanks also for your great work with The Employee Engagement Network. It's a fantastic resource.

[Courtney I]

Some thoughts:
Show sincere appreciation for their work. Appreciation is free, so unlike salary raises, there is no excuse not to use it! Celebrate small victories as well as large ones.
If you can, offer some type of friendly competition between workers, like most work tickets closed or quickly resolved cases. Even a small prize (dinner or movie gift certificate) will be appreciated by students, and if you accompany it with some type of recognition, even better!
Since you work with students, please make sure you work around their schedules. This is so important. My husband had to quit a job he had held for years because they (needlessly) didn't support him with a flexible schedule when he went back to school.
Create a happy work environment. You don't say how the work setup is, but if it is centralized, allow them to play or listen to music if they can do it while working, bring in donuts or bagels maybe once a month. Decorate a little.
Keep them informed as to what is going on with your business. They will care, especially if they are business majors or want to work for you after graduation. I've worked for companies that value your time doing menial work over allowing you to attend corporate presentations, and it is very disheartening.
If it is possible to have them switch roles every once in a while, do it! Let different people take on small projects if you have them, ESPECIALLY if it relates to their major.
Be aware of the stress of being a student. I don't think I was ever so stressed as when I was a student and working, and some may have kids or a wife on top of that. Accept that as a reality of the people you are hiring, and if you can, relieve the stress once in a while by allowing your folks to goof off (even just a 10-minute game of nerfball), using a paid "wellness day off" as a reward, maybe even bringing in a chair massage person for one afternoon as a surprise. It may seem like you'll lose working time with a game, but I've found people actually return to their desks renewed and ready to be more productive.
Hope that helps! Wasn't so long ago that I was a student.

[Michael Gibbs]

Courtney,

Wow! Thanks for all of the tips. Like I mentioned in my reply to David, you mentioned several things that I could pat my back for doing and several things that I can't say that for yet, but that I hope to one day add to the "pat myself on the back" list.

First off, let me say that the inflexibility of your husband's employer is baffling. I think that it is one of the shortest-sighted things that a business can do! Why wouldn't they want to support an employee who is voluntarily bettering himself and thereby becoming a better employee?! One of the few perks that I am in complete control of is flexibility since I am the sole scheduler for my workers. It is sad to see my workplace implementing more and more rules regarding this very issue (making it harder to take residential college classes) since I work at a university!

All of your other ideas sound great as well and I will definitely begin working on the ones that are within my power (anybody can bring in doughnuts!). Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas and thoughts.

[Judy McLeish]

Hi Michael -

I can completely understand your challenges. We have just finished a very large project for a bank - a component of which involved creating more engaged employees. Like you they faced similar challeges, especially on the frontline.

I would suggest a couple of things:

1) If you haven't read the book called The Dream Manager - than I would suggest you purchase it. It is a business parable about how companies can achieve remarkable results by helping their employees fulfill their dreams.
2) Create employee champions - to help build communicate, listen and act as a sounding board within the organization. This was a program that was remarkably successful and helped to foster trust throughout the organization.
3) Implement weekly Leader Briefing sessions. These weekly 15 minute sessions provide every Leader with relevant communications, an exercise to build engagement and information on what the company is doing to build and enhance employee engagement. The Leader then presents the information to his/her team. Again, it was amazing how such a short session created more passionate and dedicated employees.

Hope this helps,

Judy

[Michael Gibbs]

Judy,

Thanks for your input. I appreciate you taking the time to discuss this with me because I know that I will not have the chance very often to learn from someone like you who has done this professionally. In response to your points:

1) I have already put in an Inter Library Loan request to get my hands on a copy of The Dream Manager. I look forward to reading it just from what you have said so far because one of the things that I would really like to do would be to tie my student workers' future plans and career aspirations into their jobs today.
2) I like your concept of an employee champion, but I want to make sure that I understand it. You're basically saying that there needs to be a person within the organization that the frontline workers can talk to and share their concerns and frustrations with, but then it is up to the employee champion to take those concerns higher into the organization and try to make the change actually happen. Is that right? If it is, I actually believe that I am in a position to be one of those myself since I am the direct supervisor of the frontline employees.
3) I also would like some clarification regarding exactly who should be attending these Leader Briefings. Is this a meeting where I should be informing other leader's at my level what is going on in my area of responsibility or are you saying I should be spending this time with my team to inform them of what is going on in the organization?

Judy, thanks for your great input. I can tell that you have definitely been through this kind of thing before from the quality of your advice. If you could clarify those things that I mentioned, I would really appreciate it! Thanks again!

Mike

P.S. Thanks for considering me your friend!

[Judy McLeish]

Hi Mike -

Thanks for replying. Just to clarify -

In terms of the Employee Champions - they are not leaders of the company. They are typically frontline or "lower" level employees who truly exemplify the values of the company. They are trusted by their peers and have the potential to do more within the organization. The size of the organization typically would determine how many Champions you would need, for example, we had over 60 Champions in a 3,400 strong company. We selected these champions based on their interest, a questionnaire that captured what we were looking for and recommendations from both their peers and Managers. The success of these Champions in terms of building trust and engagement in the organization we worked in was overwhelming.

Yes, you are correct, it is the job of the Champions to listen, to feedback, the deliver key messages and to ensure that the organization is making progress in terms of engagement. I hope this helps?

In terms of the Leader Briefings - they were led by the direct Managers of the company. They gathered cross-functional teams to share ideas, and to talk about the values, the customer and the employee experience. Again, these 10-15 minute briefings became a very effective way of getting teams together and talking about challenges and opportunities within the organization.

Let me know whether I have answered your questions,

Judy

[Michael Gibbs]

Judy,

Thanks for your follow-up and clarification.

Regarding the Employee Champions, is it possible to use this position as a growth opportunity for an employee or is it necessary (or at least strongly encouraged) to pick slightly more experienced staff members? I can think of a couple newer members of my team who exemplify a lot of the traits that I am looking to grow and encourage. I also feel like this sort of position would be a great way to give someone an opportunity to step outside of their usual role, grow as an employee and a person, and get a taste of something a little different (as well as add a good bullet point to their resume!). Would that work?

I also really like your ideas regarding the leader briefings! I don't think that I'll be able to implement anything like that in the short term, but I will be using the principles from it to try to do some new things.

Thanks again!

Mike

[Judy McLeish]

Hi Mike -

Yes, you should absolutely make sure that some of the employee champions are chosen for their developmental opportunity. This is a wonderful way to demonstrate to the organization that you believe in growing and developing your staff and providing them with leadership opportunities. It was extremely powerful at the bank that we used it at.

Let me know what you do instead of the Leader Briefings and how it all works out - I would love to know.

Thanks, Judy

[Mike Hawkins]

Michael,

Welcome to the group!

Here are some thoughts:

1. The words "please" and "thank you" are HUGE tools for engagement. They seem to be lost in the craziness of our workdays. So use them. People appreciate kindness. (And the world needs all it can get!)

2. You don't have to know every detail about people's lives, but they appreciate your concern for them personally . Be genuine though, don't patronize. Nobody likes that. :-)

3. Remember the "Golden Rule"? Live by it.

4. Read this book: Practice What You Preach by David H. Maister. It will help you.

Best of luck. I'm sure you'll find TONS of help here on the network.

--mike

[Michael Gibbs]

Mike,

1. I definitely agree with you about the power of "please" and "thank you" and I do my best to use them liberally! I've read previously about how big of a subconscious difference you can make when assigning a task if you phrase it in a way that is less dictatorial and more friendly and I've seen the difference firsthand so I try to be on the lookout for other ways that the language that I use (or avoid using) can change the outcome of a conversation.

2. This is something that I'm really working towards. I have a lot of newer staff members, but whenever I get a chance to talk to them one on one I almost always try to get to the question of "what do you want to do when you graduate?" because I've found that it usually leads to some great information about their aspirations and dreams. I'm a real people person and love to learn more about people in general and my staff specifically. I couldn't agree with you more about how important that is to employees.

3. I've found the Golden Rule (or a slight variation on it) to be great. I would like to develop the habit of looking at a situation with my workers and asking myself "If I was one of them, how would I want my boss to handle this?" I hope that beginning to do this would give me the ability to sort of remove myself from the situation in the first-person and get a look at the bigger picture. Is this what you had in mind regarding the Golden Rule?

4. I will certainly look into reading this book in the near future. What does it say that you think would help me?

Thanks for your input Mike. I look forward to your response (and I apologize for taking so long to get you mine!)

Mike