Atlanta Team Managers Focus On Building Employee Engagement

Recently, a middle-sized company in Atlanta hired Venture Up for a corporate training program for 125 managers seeking to foster employee engagement. The good news is that the managers were a diverse group, knew each other well, and got along, so the team building portion of the training was easy.

The tough part was how the managers differed in style and approach when we discussed how to engage the employees they lead, who were not present at the event. Some mentioned weekly pizza parties, another suggested getting them involved with the company’s social media, others suggested a team building event. 

 

These are fine ideas, although not specific. What information do they have about how their employees think and feel? What do they really know about each individual on the team? What are their core needs? They knew what we were getting at. They needed to come up with a survey – the kind people are actually willing to take.

Discussing their differences and the pros and cons of certain approaches, the managers agreed with a series of questions to be considered for a survey to give the employees. It may sound obvious, but it is critically important that managers understand that how an employee acts does not show what he or she is feeling inside.

That is why, to this day, Venture Up encourages the use of the old-fashioned suggestion box, where hard copy anonymous surveys or comments about life at work can be submitted without the fear of being tracked. While this method may not be favored by larger techie firms who avoid pens, mid-range and small businesses can benefit from this personalized method for feedback.

We also prodded the managers so they would include an area for comments. One of the main reasons people fail to fill our surveys or do so half-heartedly is because they feel like a number; that their opinion doesn’t matter. By eliciting written comments management shows employees that the individual message matters and will be taken into consideration.

The managers came up with the following list, which may help other managers design their own surveys to stimulate employee engagement.

1. Are you enthusiastic about your job?
2. Are your manager’s instructions clear?
3. Is your work interesting?
4. What motivates you?
5. Do you feel you are productive?
6. What could management do to make you work more productively?
7. Are you given due credit for your work?
8. Do you prefer working solo?
9. Would you rather work as a team?
10. Do you feel your role supports the department and the company’s mission? Please explain why or why not.
11. Do you feel you are recognized and rewarded for your work?
12. Do you feel you can meet your career goals with the company?
13. Do you believe the company has a strong corporate culture?
14. What would you do to improve the corporate culture?
15. Do you believe your team needs more training? 

16. Would you support a mentoring program if initiated in the company?

17. Would you support cross-training or job sharing?

18. Would you recommend this company as a good place to work?

Reading surveys, especially the written comments, can be an eye-opener. The next step is to type up the individual comments, with management’s response.

Comments give the core message vs. a simple yes or no answer. That is where the passion and emotion lie that can motivate employee engagement in the long run.

Once the process is complete, the team managers can design a meeting involving all who took the survey and discuss the results. Managers must also have an action plan, which, if successful, will foster employee engagement.