Page 116 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

Steering the Ship and Inspiring the Crew C103

Hold managers truly accountable for treating people right.
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Back up words with actions.
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Demonstrate integrity in all business dealings.
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Maintain visibility and personal contact with frontline employees.
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Build and reward teamwork at every level, including the executive team.
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Eliminate formal and informal “we-they” divisions between manage-
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ment and frontline workers.
Regularly communicate appreciation for specific employee contribu-
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tions—made by both individuals and teams.
Regularly solicit employee input and ideas, and really listen.
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Act in a timely fashion on workable employee ideas and suggestions,
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especially employee surveys; then let employees know what actions
you took.
Allow managers and employees to experiment and fail.
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Tolerate differences of opinion and healthy conflict.
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Provide benefits and services that promote sustainable life-work balance.
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Share information with employees whenever possible.
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Forgo some traditional executive perks and disproportionate pay.
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: FINAL THOUGHTS: WHAT’S IN YOUR LIVING ROOM?

We know of a large, multi-office firm that set a goal to become a
“great place to work” and established a task force to research em-
ployee engagement best practices. The firm’s goal was to signifi-
cantly move the needle upward on the employee engagement scale,
which, the firm felt, would give it an advantage in a highly competi-
tive industry. The plan was to use employee engagement to build the
“employment brand,” which, in turn, would help the firm attract
more employees.
The task force was well-intentioned. The members reached out to
learn from employers that had received “Best-Places” designations. The
task force conducted its own employee engagement survey, following
up that effort with employee focus groups to gain a clearer under-
standing of the root causes of issues it could begin to address.