Team Building: Charting a Common Course

Goal Setting and Rewards to Engage Your Workforce

In his best selling book, Good to Great, management thinker and educator Jim Collins writes, "The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good -- and that is their main problem." How do good companies make the shift to being great companies? A good way to start is by engaging your workforce.

To attract and retain talent, employee retention goes hand in hand with employee engagement. Turnover costs in the U.S. economy are an estimated $5 trillion annually, with employee engagement being tied to business financial performance and the cost of turnover directly impacting loyalty and company profits.

Furthermore, unscheduled absences and presenteeism are more common at organizations with low morale, and stress is more likely the reason cited for those absences according to the 16th annual Unscheduled Absence Survey from CCH Inc., a provider of HR and employment law information and services.

Rules of engagement
A strong performance management process is critical in helping employers better motivate and retain top performers, more closely align individuals' goals with those of the organization and create a more engaged workforce.

Managers are the critical component in keeping employees engaged. Communicating with employees what is expected and positively rewarding employees for tracking to goals will begin to create a culture of engagement.  According to Towers Perrin, "Employees who know their company initiatives are 38 percent more engaged, and those who understand how they can achieve these initiatives are 68 percent more engaged."

By far, the CEO and senior management set the tone for engagement in any organization. Melcrum's 2005 global survey, Employee Engagement: How to build a high-performance workforce, revealed the following top six important actions senior leaders need to take in order to build employee engagement:

• Communicate a clear vision of the future.

• Build trust in the organization.

• Involve employees in decision making that will affect them.

• Demonstrate commitment to the company's values.

• Respond to feedback.

• Demonstrate genuine commitment to employees' well-being.

The survey also found that one of the most critical factors in building a successful strategy of engagement is actually getting employees to participate in the process. Involvement might include skip-level meetings or focus groups, or may even extend to more formal structures such as permanent employee committees. The following survey results show programs that respondents used to increase employee involvement and communication within their organizations:

• Running random focus groups of employees on key business issues.

• Giving employees greater input into team strategy decisions.

• Giving employees greater control over how they do their jobs.

• Implementing programs to encourage employees to fix problems in the business.

• Creating a standing employee committee that is regularly consulted on key business issues.

• Implementing programs to allow employees to experience jobs in other areas of the business.

• Implementing programs allowing employees to "shadow" other members of the staff.

By getting employees to participate in the engagement process, they are more likely to be committed, driven and motivated when it comes to their work performance.

Perks that work
Of course, a pat on the back to recognize employees for a job well done goes a long way to strengthen effective employee engagement.

"A rewards and recognition program is not like peanut butter -- you don't spread it out evenly," said Jarsulic. "You need to recognize your superstars and reward them accordingly with awards that are meaningful to them."

Though an engraved plaque or commendatory letter is nice, there are a lot of creative ways to reward your top performers. Ideas for employee recognition include:

• A personal visit or handwritten note from the company president saying "thank you."

• Highlighting employee achievements via the company newsletter or intranet.

• Recognition at team meetings.

• Gift certificates for restaurants, CDs/books or movie tickets.

• Special parking space.

• Lunch with senior management.

• Time off with pay and/or alternative work schedules.

• On-the-spot praise.

Fortune's The 100 Best Companies to Work for 2006 list reports how some companies are telling their employees they are doing a great job. For example, at General Mills, employees get their cars washed, CDW gives free bagels and donuts twice a week and Yahoo recognizes employees by taking them to a movie on Fridays.

Organizations that invest in technologies that aim to align individual goals with corporate goals and measure progress against those goals regularly realize significant shareholder return. According to Watson Wyatt, "as much as 17 percent can be added to market value with an increase of one point in employee engagement."

Help your company achieve a new level of greatness with engaged employees who are more productive and motivated.

Extensis has years of experience providing the tools your businesses need to get the most out of your most vital asset. Finding, hiring and retaining the right people requires the experience and the breadth of services that Extensis delivers to it's clients. Additionally, Extensis provides access to the training and teambuilding skills that help you get the most out of your peole. HR is more than a health insurance rate chart, it requires experience and the flexibility that Extensis can provide your business.

For more information, go to www.extensisgroup.com, or call 888-473-6398.