Learning from some of the best in Canada
By John Wright
In our last catalogue, we started the conversation with you on the topic of engagement. We wanted to know if your people were engaged and what you were doing to create a culture of engagement in your organization. The responses we received from our clients, organizations across Canada, and from the media over the last several months continues to point to Employee Engagement as a ‘hot topic’ and a conversation that Canadian organizations are ready and willing to have.
Based on your feedback, it would appear there are more commonalities than differences between all organizations and sectors. We all continue to work through the business challenge of ‘doing more with less’ while trying to understand how to keep employees engaged and enabled. While we are still navigating our way through an unpredictable economy, we know there continues to be pressure to improve productivity and efficiency, create new and innovative products and services, and exceed customer expectations — all while delivering sustainable, profitable results. In the midst of this drive for results and growth, what unites us as leaders and business professionals is the need to draw on the talents and strengths of our greatest resource— our people. We need our workforce engaged now more than ever. If we’re not focused on creating value for our employees, our competitors will. The feedback you shared with us indicates you appreciate the urgency of focusing on engagement now. And, that no matter what phase of the Employee Engagement journey your organization is at, you want to hear new ideas that could benefit your organization and employees.
In the Fall of 2011, we hosted our National Thought Leader Series. This series was developed to allow our clients to benefit from hearing the latest research, news and information on major issues affecting organizations today and the trends that are shaping our future workforce. We brought forward authors Tom Agnew and Mark Royal who provided insights from their recently published book, The Enemy of Engagement, (AMACOM, 2011). Our Fall Series stopped in eight cities across Canada, (Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax), and we welcomed over 1,000 attendees. In addition, we hosted a live webinar which attracted 1,500 professionals across the country from various industries and organizational levels.
The book, The Enemy of Engagement, introduces breakthrough thinking based on recent research from Hay Group as it relates to employee enablement and the reduction of workplace frustration. According to their study, between one-third and one-half of employees report work conditions that keep them from being as productive as they could be — triggering a lost opportunity for organizations and a significant impediment to achieving results. Agnew and Royal shared their perspective on the perceived barriers in the workplace, the impact this can have on engagement and retention, and offered practical strategies to help leaders identify and respond to these challenges.
Since the Fall series ended, we have received several follow-up requests from clients to work with CMC to explore the topic further and to diagnose some of the challenges in their specific organizations. One of the most common questions I hear from our clients is “What are other organizations doing, that is working?” This inspired our team to dedicate some attention and focus to celebrating the success of several Canadian organizations that were recently recognized as ‘employers of choice’ as a direct result of their successful employee engagement efforts.
The annual 50 Best Employers in Canada study is conducted by Aon Hewitt, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing business. Their study identifies those organizations with the highest measured employee engagement scores and provides additional and valuable insights into an organization’s current opportunities to improve. The 2012 list was released this past October and celebrates the top fifty organizations out of the two hundred and sixty-one Canadian employers who chose to participate. The average engagement score of these top employers is reported at 78%.
In this Spring catalogue, we are pleased to profile seven different organizations who were within the top fifty for 2012 including: ING DIRECT, The Co-operators, CIMA+, Farm Credit Canada, McDonald’s, LoyaltyOne, and EllisDon Construction who holds the coveted #1 spot this year. We also chose to profile Forensic Technology, an employer who ranked within the 50 Best Small-to-Medium Sized Employers in Canada, based on their focus on leadership transparency and communication.
As a talent development leader, Canadian Management Centre applauds companies who know how to leverage the strength and talent of their employees, and who understand the value of growing their business and achieving results through people. I extend my sincere congratulations to these leading organizations and also thank them for openly sharing their insights and best practices so that other organizations can benefit and grow from their experience. Ultimately this supports the community-minded notion that ‘… all of us are smarter than one of us’.
As you review these company profiles, you will see that each of these organizations is committed to creating work environments that inspire their people to make a meaningful contribution and they help their employees understand their value to the organization. Each organization brings strength in a different area as it relates to driving engagement, whether that is a focus on corporate culture, career planning, leadership development, or communication and collaboration across their organization. However, there was also a shared characteristic across these organizations too — their humility about their current success and their expressed realization that even though they may be in the upper echelon, their work isn’t done. Employee engagement is a virtuous cycle — there is really no end, but each of these organizations would tell you that it starts with the courage to initiate the conversation in your organization and the fortitude to listen to all of the resulting feedback and discussions.
I hope you will continue along this journey with us as well. In our next catalogue, I look forward to sharing the perspective of some of our employees and what we’re doing to inspire a culture of engagement at Canadian Management Centre.
In the meantime, if you have comments, ideas or questions, please share them with us at engagement@cmcoutperform.com
