I WAS fortunate to be a speaker at the Chamber’s recent employee engagement event and was delighted to be presenting alongside James Fox of RGU and Mairi Martin of Cornerstone.
Although we were coming from very different positions, we were all saying the same thing.
Employee engagement is not a single “one-time” initiative but it works best when it is part of an organisation-wide effort to create transformational change.
I reflected on some of the examples I have seen of organisations using Investors in People in real times of difficulty and adversity and powerfully engaging their employees as part of business turnaround.
One example is Glasgow Housing Association (GHA).
In the early 2000s, GHA was facing a real crisis with tenant and staff satisfaction low, poor housing stock maintenance, frustrated stakeholders and regulators who were about to step in.
They knew an engagement initiative wouldn’t work alone.
They brought in Martin Armstrong as CEO to effect change and he committed to making that happen in a four-year window.
So what did he do?
He visited all staff, all sites and all teams, watched and saw how the business worked.
He saw that the opportunity to change the business was in the mindset of customer-facing employees.
He felt that front line staff should be able to use their own professional judgement to give customers what they wanted.
He felt that turning around the organisation meant staff being empowered to seek solutions - Think Yes was born.
It takes a lot to change attitudes and behaviour.
Martin painted a picture of Better Homes, Better Lives, Better Glasgow and communicated this to all staff.
He listened to staff’s views and concerns and following discussion and piloting, GHA changed the role of managers from performance supervisors to coaches and facilitators to help employees come up with solutions.
They lost some staff but gained others who were solution seekers.
GHA brought in Investors in People to support the roll-out of change, to speak to staff and find out if the programme was working and achieving outcomes and to ensure change was consistent across the organisation.
Think Yes changed the tenants’ view of GHA.
It changed the staff’s behaviour, attitudes and satisfaction.
Rent arrears were arrested and job satisfaction leaped to over 80%.
Think Yes hasn’t been a quick initiative, but a long-term organisational transformation that 10 years on is still improving and developing.
So what are the features of such demonstrably powerful programmes?
- A clear, consistent and engaging narrative by which staff have the same picture of the goal
- Managers that cascade that narrative and make it real for employees and support them to achieve goals
- Listening to, hearing and responding to staff, valuing people’s ideas and suggestions
- Practising what you preach – in everyone’s values and behaviours.
The Investors in People framework involves the features above and more.
If you want to create real meaningful change, we want to work with you.
To find out more about how Investors in People can help, go to www.investorsinpeople.scot or call 0131 625 0155.
To learn more about GHA’s transformation, please follow this link.