Page 336 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

Becoming a More Engaged Workplace C323

managers build conflict management skills, might also be
conducted within that same time period.
: Longer-term actions (culture). Some issues and their associated
actions require a much longer time period to fully implement.
The rule of thumb here is that these decisions will take at
least a year, or several years, of effort. These decisions are de-
signed to change the culture of the organization and usually
take more time to realize their full impact. They are typically
not as subject to changing conditions as climate issues are.
Although we presented training on conflict management as
a short-term action, it requires a longer-term commitment,
such as codifying new learning and manager practices into the
annual performance appraisal process and following through
to hold managers accountable for a few years to assure that
they truly embrace and use the new skills.

Initiatives designed to improve employee engagement usually re-
quire effort in each of the four quadrants. What follows is an example
of how the engagement matrix can be used to establish a comprehen-
sive plan:

Example A: Completed employee engagement
planning matrix

ISSUE: Feedback from our employee engagement survey
indicates we are at risk of losing talented employees because
they do not see career opportunities.

: Short-Term Actions Longer-Term Actions
(Climate)
(Culture)
Change performance
Change job posting
Enterprise-
Directed
appraisals for managers
guidelines.
Actions
Authorize funds for
employee development.
training of managers to increase emphasis on
and employees.