Page 138 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

The Real Job of Managers C125

began to decline. The difference between the home of-
fice and other locations was most strikingly evident on the
very critical item related to perceptions of open and hon-
est communication between employees and managers. The
percentage of positive responses was 17 points lower in
the remote offices on this item and 17 points higher on the
percentage of negative responses. In fact, only 4 of the 37
items on the survey were higher in the remote offices than
at the home office.
The verbatim urgings of one nonhome office employee
solidified the point:

Get out of the office and into the field. All the programs in
the world won’t help an organization if you are out of touch
with the most important resource a company has . . . people.

By contrast, here are comments of employees in compa-
nies with high scores on this item and on other items related
to manager alignment and engagement:

: “We are 20,000 strong and have very high engagement.
It is hardwired into operations through management ac-
countability and executive compensation targets.”
: “If you keep in mind communicating your growth strat-
egy and your ongoing projects to your coworkers, you
will not have a communication problem. People want to
know that you are TRYING to communicate as much as
they want actual communication.”

The lesson here is that commitment to clear and constant
communication at every level and site is the key to maintain-
ing alignment and engagement as an organization grows in
headcount and locations. Hardwiring manager accountability,
measuring results, and building appropriate rewards into daily
operations certainly all help to achieve the desired outcome.