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Employee Engagement Growth First Requires Self-Analysis
When employees in your organization raise concerns regarding management or leadership, do you have a system in place to engage with workers to understand what's going on? Not sure? Consider an objective measurement of your employee engagement and investment to maintain or improve your organization’s culture.
By Aaron R. Risden, CPA
In early 2018, Vision Benefits of America (VBA) was experiencing a leadership transition. Our CEO had retired and our board of directors appointed an interim CEO as part of the transition plan. In the middle of this management change, a few employees determined it was the opportune time to raise concerns. VBA had no formal employee engagement program or assessment tools in place, so it was difficult for management or the board to classify those concerns raised as individual issues or broad concerns shared among employees. This was the catalyst for VBA’s journey in 2018 to evaluate employee engagement and establish a framework to maintain it at a high level.
First, we formed a five-person committee of senior managers and board members. The committee was charged with finding a tool, and potentially a consultant, to better understand the state of our employee engagement. The committee was able to quickly research options, request proposals, and recommend a solution. The options we considered included traditional consultants offering employee surveys and modern applications that can be used to measure and improve engagement. I was surprised to find that the latest and greatest software tools were not the best fit for our particular circumstances. Working with an experienced consultant would allow us to bring in knowledge we did not possess internally. We also determined that an in-depth, professionally tailored survey was the best tool for us to assess the organization. This approach fit our organizational size, allowing us to combine management’s personal observations within our team of about 50 with the anonymous survey results.
After the committee recommended the solution, VBA’s board quickly approved it and appointed a team to execute it that included senior management and human resources representation. The consultant met with managers and a sample of employees to customize a survey that would both address possible concerns raised by employees as well as assess general engagement. The survey was distributed by a third party so employees could respond confidentially and honestly. VBA employees were incentivized as a group to achieve a high level of participation. Responses were aggregated, but also tagged by the third party so that some drill-down of results could be achieved within larger operational units.
After the surveys were completed, the consultant compared the results to general and industry-specific benchmarks provided by the third-party survey providers. We were pleased to learn that the concerns raised initially – during the leadership transition – were isolated, and all measures of engagement in the survey were at or above benchmark. After reviewing the results with management and identifying follow-up points, the consultant conducted voluntary focus groups with VBA employees to dive further into what the survey uncovered. From there, we created an intentionally short action plan that included formation of an employee engagement committee to organize events, an increase in routine internal meetings to communicate more thoroughly across the organization, and the production of more robust individual development goals within the performance management process.
While we were thrilled to learn that our employee engagement was above average, we understand that engagement evolves and must be maintained. The engagement committee has been a resounding success over the past several months: we have held numerous new events and continue to build and reinforce employee connections within a family-oriented environment. As we continue to grow at VBA, we plan to do routine checks on our overall engagement via surveys about every two years for the foreseeable future.
Perhaps a few employees in your organization have raised concerns, your organization is experiencing significant changes like leadership transition, or you recently had an influx of new employees as your organization grows. If so, I hope you will consider an objective measurement of your employee engagement and investment in a plan to maintain or improve your organization’s culture.
Aaron R. Risden, CPA, is CFO and treasurer for Vision Benefits of America in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at arisden@vbaplans.com. He is a member of PICPA’s Corporate Finance Cabinet and a past president of the Pittsburgh Chapter.
