So, let’s get started and find out what they shared about employee engagement and retention:

Currently, our organisation is in the middle of a big initiative to build on our organisational culture, our communication systems, and raise the bar on our employee engagement. This is being driven right from the top by our CEO, down through his direct reports and down each level of the organisation right to our grassroots. Our CEO and all levels of management are sharing the vision for the company and articulating (and living) the values that will help us achieve our company’s business goals. Previously, there had been a lot of communication with our employees, but it tended to be very one way (more like ‘broadcasting’ as opposed to a two-way conversation) and sometimes our staff felt bombarded by all the emails and text messages. Now that we’re using a new and more two-way approach to our organisational communication, including any employee being able to respond to a message directly from the CEO for example, we’re seeing much higher response and engagement levels from employees to the communications and other initiatives than we’ve ever seen before. Across our organisation, we’re seeing lots of people getting very excited about being a part of the current Telesure culture and journey.

Absolutely, I think this is 100% pivatol to an organisation’s success and for an employee’s engagement within an organisation. Unless you can see the bigger picture and how the organisation is driving towards its goals, then you may not feel that you’re making a contribution and you may not feel valued within the organisation. Communicating the company’s goals and linking it to a particular employee’s work is one of the key levers for ensuring good employee engagement.

Most of the companies that I’ve worked for have very much been in a start-up phase, especially in their approach to HR. Often the questions at these companies have been about: How do we communicate effectively to our employees (and candidates)? At what point do we communicate with people? What does that look like and who do we get involved in it? From my persepctive, the answer is that this all starts even before you interview someone: it starts with the job description and with the job advert. Then, once the person is employed in your organisation, it’s about constantly continuing the conversation with the employee about what their work is, what their priorities and key outputs are – whether this is through formal written communciations, their manager, by making information available to them, or through a ‘buddy’ or mentor programme. This ongoing conversation with the employee needs to be about highlighting the effect that that they have on the organisation and how they fit into the bigger picture. It’s about recognising and celebrating the successes in their work. And even when there aren’t any successes, it’s about showing someone that whatever they do then this or that is the outcome – good or bad.

Our organisation currently is driving a range of interrelated communication initiatives across the business to all our staff. This includes roadshows across the country by the CEO, meeting with as many employees as possible, as well as having ‘Telesure’s Got Talent’ awards for exceptional performance and things like ‘Friends In Need’ functions and funds. The ‘Telesure’s Got Talent’ is an employee nomination programme, in which employees nominate colleagues from across the company for exceptional performance, including for when someone goes above and beyond the call of duty and lives the Telesure culture. The people who are in the top 10 for the company, via other employee nominations, win a financial prize as well as get ‘showcased’ in the organisation. Then from those top 10, employees vote for the winner who gets a larger financial prize. For our ‘Friends In Need’ initiative, staff nominate colleagues who need special help or assistance (like funds to contribute to their children’s education) which the company then provides. Things like this get noticed by employees and it really helps with the engagement and retention of staff! Also, we have a standard organisational email-address that anyone in the company can send feedback or a concern to, at any time. We have a ‘intranet’-like platform where staff can make suggestions about changing or improving things at the company – and if their suggestion is actioned by the company then they can ‘win’ a monetary reward. Over and above this, we do an annual employee engagement survey, which is very formal and all employees can complete it annonymously. We get a third party supplier to conduct these for us.

Communication, communication, communication! We’re in an age where people don’t have much time to spare and they’re receiving so much information and data from everywhere. So what’s really helpful for employees (and managers) are processes and systems that are very quick and in the moment, as well as easy to digest, understand and be actioned. Obviously, it’s important to have clarity about what the goals of the organisation actually are. Then there’s the need to asses what tools and systems you’ll need to communicate these goals across the entire organisation, which means communicating your message as wide as it is deep. This responsibility falls across many levels and individuals, within an organisation. Ultimately, an individual’s line manager needs to communicate the organisation’s goals to an employee and where their work fits into this, both through formal and informal conversations (such as in formal performance reviews and informal ad hoc feedback, for example). In terms of processes and systems where an employee can give feedback to the company, most organisations tend to have an annual employee engagement survey – these tend to be fairly traditional in corporates and include gathering employee feedback on the ‘big ticket’ items that need addressing at an organisation. My preference is for more regular feedback, which is more informal in approach, such as ‘pulse checks’. Instead of doing one big annual survey (or rather as well as a big annual survey), where the information is gathered at one point in time and becomes out of date once the survey is completed by the employee, many corporates now are moving towards more informal and more frequent systems of employee feedback. In this new approach, there are fewer questions which focus on more key areas. And you regularly ask employees to complete these and then involve their managers in a conversation with their direct reports. Conversations around these key questions and the employee’s feedback to them. This brings to light possible issues and concerns that employees may have on a more consistent basis, while allowing the manager and the organisation to move to action in order to address them. And this cycle is ongoing, continuously. I believe that this is a more natural, proactive and progressive way of listening to and understanding the employees (and then taking action). I think it works better for good employee engagement too.

We have a number of processes and channels for communication with our employees and for receiving feedback from them. Each of our operational division has its own Employee Forum and they  meet monthly. The Employee Forum is attended by the Head of the Division, as well as other management and employee representatives. In the forums, they do a 360 degree discussion and review of how things are going in the division with the employees at all levels. These forums are important for creating a conversation within the organisation and for ensuring that issues get to be raised, but –most importantly- we want to then see change happen off the back of these forums. We want our employees to see the change happen, as it’s only when action is taken that they actually feel listened to and valued. I believe that we’ve gotten this right in a lot of ways at our organisation. We also do regular pulse surveys, that act as ‘dipstick’ tests of what’s happening in terms of employee satisfaction and our organisation’s culture. We do regular performance reviews with all employees, as part of our performance management processes and systems. However, we try to keep the perception of performance reviews positive – in terms of the employee feeling it’s about their development and helping them to improve, while -ensuring managers don’t feel it’s too admin’ intensive. Another thing we have is a digital platform that allows anyone in the organisation to ‘shout out’ and acknowledge any colleague who has helped them or done something exceptional. People really like that and it creates a commaraderie between employees, which further makes them feel like they belong in the organisation and so want to stay.

We do have tools and processes for receiving employee feedback. Once we’ve aggregated the employees’ feedback into reports, we do a SWOT analysis on the various matters raised and see what needs addressing (and what doesn’t) and then we work out where the ‘quick wins’ lie versus the things that require a longer term approach. For the longer term matters, we make sure we have a plan for addressing these, as well as the proper resources. It’s important that employees see that the organisation does do something about the feedback that it has been given and the concerns that have been raised. But don’t think that you need to address or solve everything immediately.

There are definitely differences. For example, our annual employee engagement survey is set up in such a way that it allows us to really zoom-in on particular areas of the organisation where there may be problems or disconnects. Last year, it flagged a department in one of our regional teams that had some low scores in certain aspects of their answers in the employee engagement survey. This team is mostly made up of older men. Some of the company’s employee benefits weren’t necessarily what this demographic (namely, older men) saw as meaningful and valuable. Perhaps, these benefits were a bit too focussed on the Millennials in our organisation? This came out in the focus groups that we do in follow up to ‘red flags’ in our employee engagement survey. We then adjusted the benefits we provided to this demographic of our workforce, especially for this particular team, and we found that they were a lot happier afterwards (with their employee engagement survey score tripling the following year!). Sometimes it’s easy to forget about focussing on the different demographics in your workforce and forget that you need to customise the company’s benefits to speak to the different generational needs (or the other needs of different demographic segments / types amongst your employees).

Sometimes, as much as an organisation thinks it’s listening to the staff, actually, it’s not. So a company may ask for feedback from staff, but somehow they aren’t understanding the message that the staff then give them. In the past, we sometimes would ask staff for feedback and then take action to address the concerns they raised, but we failed to then check-in with the staff and ask them, “Is this action actually addressing the concern that you raised?” Now, we focus on regularly checking in with our employees to see if what we’re doing is heading in the right direction for them and we ask them to contribute to finding the right solution and then participating in project team that implements it. Now, instead of just asking staff “What’s wrong?” we also ask them “What can we do to fix it?” and “Will you help us fix it?” It makes the staff feel heard and it makes them feel really involved. It gives employees a sense of belonging. And I think it’s THAT that makes an organisation’s culture!

It’s directly related. Ultimately, without an engaged workforce your staff will be less loyal to the organisation and they are more likely to explore other opportunities at competitors. They’ll be less committed, put less effort into their work and they won’t advocate for the brand. Employee engagement makes it much easier to retain your employees. But not only that, it makes it easier to attract top talent in the first place!

You know, staff attrition is a funny thing. In our industry [the BPO & Contact-Centre sector], people will move companies quite quickly and sometimes for the smallest things. So to hold onto employees in our industry you really have to connect with their emotions. I think that if you don’t give employees a clear purpose within their role and at the organisation then it becomes far easier for them to leave for another company. Part of the reason that attrition is so high in our industry is because companies only manage their people around the metrics rather than getting real ‘buy in’ to the organisation’s goals and values. In other words, there’s too little real management focussed on the relationships between employees and in connecting with them. Sometimes, it’s too easy (though not inexpensive) to throw the coffee machines (as well as the ‘this and that’) at employees to try tackle staff attrition. These things are great, but by themselves they can be very superficial and have a short impact. Organisations that try to tackle employee retention a level down from these superficial initiatives will be a company that is very successful! (For example, by making meaningful connections with employees and showing them how they’re helping develop their career within the organisation.) For me, this is where an organisation’s employee engagement strategy is so important and it’s a strategy that has to be underpinned by your organisation’s values. Ultimately, good employee engagement and retention is about getting staff to feel connected to your organisation and its values. This is done by saying to them: “We’re going to have a conversation and a relationship with you. This conversation is about a lot more than just the performance metrics. And we’ll help you grow in your career here.” It’s about helping employees understand that what they do in their work is making a real difference to someone else’s life, whether it’s for a customer, client, or colleague.

I think we all know that culture is an important thing. If we look at well known brands, then people want to go work there because they perceive it as so cool to be working there. But what makes it cool to work there? A place being cool to work at includes things like: the the staff being well looked after or it having a really good working environment. So, as employees, we’re all after different things from our employers; but as a particular organisation you can’t necessarily do all these different things – especially like some of the famous brands do (think Google’s workplace perks, for example). A bad culture at an organisation will affect employee attrition because people will become frustrated if there’s a lack of change and improvement by the company, especially when employee surveys are done but then no action is taken off the back of these. In such circumstances, people will give up, throw their hands in the air and say “I’m out of here!” Obviously, organisations want to retain their top talent, so they need to put interventions in place that help this, like: leadership programmes, buddy and mentor programmes, and other things. There’s lot of things companies can put in place to help improve staff retention – some of which can take years to build and develop properly. These sorts of interventions are worth doing, but only if they support where your organisation is looking to get to in the long term.

Thanks for taking the time to share your advice and tips with us, Fahtima, Nikki, Dalila, & Ruth. We really appreciate it!

“Paychecks can’t buy passion!”
– Brad Federman

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