Your CEO says employee engagement is critical to success. Your CEO asks you to put together a plan to drive engagement. Your CEO has read all the blogs (year, right) on engagement and knows recognition is key (it is but...) Your CEO gives you your marching orders, walks down the mahogany hallway, out the front door of the building to the assigned parking spots for “execs,” yells at the employees having a smoke in the parking lot before jumping in his BMW 760Li to race off to dinner and opera with the local politicos.
Now what?
Don’t do it! I’m warning you right now. Take my advice. Don’t do it.
No recognition program in the world will drive engagement if the employee population isn’t connected to the leadership of the organization.
Want proof?
Check out this article on the new employee recognition program for the state of Wisconsin. In theory the program is probably a good idea. In practice and application – not so much.
Why?
The spokesperson is the Guv himself. And, if you’ve followed any of the political news coming out of the great state of cheese, you know that Governor Walker isn’t the most loved guy right now. I think this sums up the response to the program announcement...
"On behalf of all of us here in the state of Wisconsin," says Walker, "I want to say thank you to the thousands of men and women who work each day as public servants here in the state of Wisconsin."
To which, one wag responds: "What a clueless moron!" And another: "What a bunch of fascist propaganda." At one point, the guv's video had garnered 10 "likes" and 285 "dislikes," although I'm guessing that if they had their druthers, a lot of those dislikers might have chosen a slightly stronger word.
A reader of this column suggested the governor has "chutzpah" for launching the initiative. "
The lesson here is that any recognition program worth its weight in logo-identified mugs has to connect to “people” in the company. Specifically people in positions of authority. A recognition program based on signs and posters has zero impact.
I take that back. A program based on signs and posters has NEGATIVE impact.
Uh... Thanks, but no Thanks...
I can only imagine what the employees of the state of Wisconsin are feeling right now. I’m guessing many are embarrassed. Some may be actively doing a poor job to avoid being nominated and rewarded to keep themselves from being identified with the program figurehead. This will not end well. At least not until the person who is the “face” of the program is respected, valued, liked and most importantly – lives the values of the program.
Your management, executive management and informal leaders are the face of the program. Either they’re on board – and living the program - or it is a waste of your time and theirs.
If your CEO is asking for an employee recognition program – and doesn’t give a rip about the employees and everyone knows it - just send all the employees a sawbuck and call it a day. It’ll be cheaper and faster.
Good point here. Unfortunately, in instances where the CEO is the key decision maker in implementing a program, most won't take a step back and say "Wow, I suck, we probably shouldn't do this." There lies the conundrum. I agree though, if the leadership isn't on board with the program, it's nothing more than a half hearted gesture.
Posted by: Drew Hawkins | May 10, 2011 at 11:17 AM
Paul --- I saw a presentation by John Maxwell the other day, where he talked about "positional leaders" -- those who hold the "leader" title only because they have the "manager" title. Then it struck me: employee engagement is a direct measure of leadership.
Most companies (one in particular which shall remain nameless -- and clueless) look at low engagement scores and think "We've got a problem with our employees," when they should be thinking "We've got a problem with our leadership."
Posted by: Scott Crandall | May 10, 2011 at 07:13 PM
Thank you for this post! You just saved me from making a big mistake. "Engagement" is the new hotness at our company. However, it starts from the top and trickles down. We're not there yet. Pushing it would be a disaster. So thank you.
Now I have to figure out how to convince our higher ups that we are not ready. If you have suggestions on that, I'd love to hear them! Holla back!
Posted by: Buzz Rooney | May 12, 2011 at 11:45 PM
Great point - and why a lot of initiatives fail. It's tough to tell the boss they are the problem. But... all is not lost. If you can bring in the supervisors and managers and get them to be a "firewall" of sorts - and begin to walk the walk then you have a shot. At some point - the overwhelming evidence that the real issue is one or two people will become obvious. But you need all the other management to be on board.
Posted by: Paul Hebert | May 13, 2011 at 06:33 AM
Always the case. Kinda like - the kids can't read - what's wrong with those kids!
Thanks as always Scott for being a contributor here.
Posted by: Paul Hebert | May 13, 2011 at 06:34 AM
Step one - education. You won't be successful if no one really gets it - and I mean gets it - that management is key and their desire to be better managers drives engagement is required.
Step two - find someone who can call out the Emperor and his clothes. Many times the real reason we get involved in a project is to be the bearer of bad news.
Three - there are survey mechanisms out there that can give you a read on the culture and the situation at your company. That can provide a wake up call to management they need to put effort into their behavior before working on "employee" engagement. Kinda like putting the oxygen mask on yourself before putting it on the kid. Sounds counterintuitive at first - but it makes sense if you want to be there to help the kid. Same goes for engagement. Work on managers first - employees second.
Posted by: Paul Hebert | May 13, 2011 at 06:38 AM