Maureen Vandergeest's Discussions
What is engagement?
Replied Apr 3
Maureen Vandergeest's Page
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Lennart
I recently was given a book entitled "ENGAGED! How leaders build organizations where employees love to come to work" by Peter Barron Stark and Jane Flaherty. Good luck
As someone who focuses on engagement for 450+ employees, I think about it at a very personal, human level. With that perspective, engagement is liking what I do, liking who I do it for and having an optimistic (confident) outlook for my future.
We developed a recognition program in 2007 based on a quarterly monetary award. In 2008, we evolved the program to focus on the attributes, behaviors and contributions of our employees and removed the pure financial award. We now offer a peer nomina…
Profile Information
- Who are you?
- After spending 20+ years in the financial services business, I now handle employee engagement programs and promotion for a business unit of 550 employees here in the US and Ireland.
- What is your interest or involvement in employee engagement?
- Program development and support
- Website:
- http://www.seic.com
- Where are you located?
- Oaks, Pennsylvania
Comment Wall (3 comments)
- At 2:24pm on February 11, 2009,
David Zinger said…
- Maureen:
You asked if there was more to my comment below.
I think when we survey the survey itself needs to be engaging. I have seen too many organization where people are cynical of the surveys or I see the survey not being used as an action step in the engagement cycle. What I mean is I believe at the end of the survey there should be a question about: Given your current responses what are you going to do right now to boost or enhance your own engagement or the engagement of others?
Another thing I sometimes see is a long lag between a survey and results. I think in today's era we should be able to turn results around almost immediately. I would rather have many mini surveys with results back in 2 days than a huge long survey.
The other factor, and this is my pet peeve, is I hate anonymous surveys. We need to create safety through mutual purpose and mutual respect so that people can really own their comments and evaluations. Yes I know that may create concerns in certain areas yet we fully engage when we can say this is who I am and how I experiences things.
Okay, I'll jump off of my engagement soap box now! I feel strongly about some of these things.
David
- At 7:24am on February 11, 2009,
David Zinger said…
- Maureen,
Thank you for the update. I hope in your survey data you make the surveys engaging. Too many people only assess and don't use it as a tool foster engagement.
David
- At 10:29pm on February 6, 2009,
David Zinger said…
- Hi Maureen,
Welcome to the network. I trust you will find what you need from this network. Are you finding differences in engagement levels or approaches between US and Ireland? I wish you all the best on your own engagement and the engaged in your business unit.
David
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Latest Activity
Do you ever wonder how past leaders could have missed what seems so obvious in hindsight? Sadly, most leaders live in an environment that makes them vulnerable to managerial failure. The problem lies in a little-recognized reality of leadership: iso…
Dear Ray,
Your concern is well founded. Employees look forward to surveys like they do a visit to the dentist! The Horsepower Survey, however, is an employee-focused survey to measure how rewarded employees feel about their work. It consists of sev…
Mike,
I will make mention of this new group in the next newsletter. Thank you for starting this and I wish you well and all European members the best with this focus.
David
Jason:
Good points about trust and aligning the strategic engagement with employee engagement. We need results for all.
I am concerned you will lose readers due to lack of formatting on this post. I encourage you to ensure that you format your pos…
Thanks for sharing this information, Roy.
When I was Research Director at The Loyalty Institute, we found that the #1 driver of employee commitment was an organization's efforts to build a sense of spirit and pride. This was true in the US as well…
As a survey consultant I guess that I should like the idea of conducting monthly surveys, but I am concerned that employees may feel that they are being "over surveyed."
There are options, of course. An organization might randomly assign each emplo…
This is a great read, a great story. I smiled the whole time as I read this. If this conversation is possible in your organization, then I'd say your leadership is trusted and transparent. Thanks for this story.
I won't be wishing you "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" this December. These secular, generic salutations are popular in corporate America because they are not specific to any one religion or belief system. The business world, like America's…
Hello Paul:
"if you want to improve productivity and reduce costs, you need to
tap into human nature’s pleasure-fueled engine."
I could not agree more but if we wait until after we hire someone we have waited too long.
Bob
A Manager shall know one's team member more than his/her mother knows him/her.
Offered by Shweta Mohanty Posted by David Zinger
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