Active Employee Engagement<\/a>, which can offer your team strategies and tactics to help drive higher engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Don\u2019t forget, you can also tune into Olivia\u2019s interview above, or download the episode by subscribing to our podcast, Outback Talks: The Employee Engagement Podcast, on iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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If you\u2019d prefer to read Olivia\u2019s interview, see below for the full transcription of the podcast episode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kara Sy (KS):<\/em><\/strong> Hi everyone, and welcome to \u201cOutback Team Building & Training Tips,\u201d a monthly audio resource for HR and business professionals. This podcast is produced by Outback Team Building & Training, a leading team building, training, and consulting provider for organizations across North America. I\u2019m your host, Kara Sy, and this month I\u2019m joined by special guest Olivia Jackson, HR Coordinator at Outback Team Building & Training. Thanks so much for joining me today, Olivia!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOlivia Jackson (OJ):<\/em><\/strong> Thanks so much for having me, it\u2019s great to be back!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Yeah! So, our topic this month is how Outback was able to drastically improve employee engagement, and Olivia will be sharing practical tips and advice to help you do the same. But before we begin, let\u2019s start out with our quick tip of the month. Each month, we begin the episode with our quick tip for our listeners. Olivia, what\u2019s the most effective thing Outback\u2019s done to help improve employee engagement?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Great question, Kara. You know, it\u2019s hard to pinpoint it at just one but, if I had to choose one, I\u2019d say it\u2019s really about gathering and soliciting regular feedback from the team and taking action where appropriate. I can get into that in a little bit more detail throughout the interview but, that would be my number quick tip I\u2019d say.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Yeah, so it\u2019s not just gathering feedback but actually doing something about it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Absolutely.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Great, so with that, let\u2019s get to our main interview.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Great!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Alright, Olivia, so what does employee engagement mean to you and Outback?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Here at Outback, employee engagement is really all about having a collective group of employees that are committed to Outback\u2019s goals and values. They\u2019re a group of people that show up each day, ready to put their best effort forward to achieve both their own personal goals and the organization\u2019s goals.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> And so, do you ever see it as being something that you do outside of work? Do you \u2013 does Outback want to encourage employee engagement in cultural aspects, so like, after work?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Yeah. So, absolutely, culture does play a big part in employee engagement. We are always, sort of, planning our next employee engagement initiative and activity to reward the team. So, for example, you know, in the summer we have regular lunch barbecues for the team, where we get the team out of their desks and out in the social area together where, you know, they are sort of given the opportunity to have lunch, but also engage with people not just from their department but from all departments in the organization. We\u2019re always looking for how we can reward our team, whether that might be a baseball game all together or maybe something like snowmobiling. Every year, we go white water rafting. Yeah, I mean, they vary year to year, but a big part of employee engagement also ties into the culture, and having a team that\u2019s excited to see their colleagues, not just on a work level, but also on a personal level.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Right, and so, how do you track that?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> So, we track employee engagement using employee Net Promoter Scores, so eNPS for short. So, these are polls that are sent out monthly through anonymous electronic surveys and we use a platform called Officevibe.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> And so, for people who might not know what Net Promoter Score means because, you hear \u201c10 out of 10\u201d or \u201ceight out of 10,\u201d but that\u2019s not how NPS works exactly, right? There\u2019s a bit more to it. Can you give me a bit of insight into how that works?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Yeah, so Net Promoter Scores are calculated by asking individuals the question on a scale of zero to 10, how likely are you recommend Outback as a place to work to family and friends. So, zero is the lowest possible score and 10 would be the highest. So, essentially those nine or 10 are considered promoters, meaning that they will go out of their way to tell those around them how great Outback is. Sevens and eights are considered neutral, meaning they likely aren\u2019t going to go out of their way to say positive or negative things about the company. And those six and less are considered demoters, meaning they may be likely to share negative feedback with family and friends about Outback. So, to calculate your Net Promoter Score, you simply subtract the percentage of demoters from the percentage of promoters. So, for example, let\u2019s say we polled 10 people and we ask them the question, \u201cHow likely are you to recommend Outback as a place to work to your family or friends on a scale of zero to 10?\u201d and let\u2019s say four of them answered a nine, one of them answered a 10, let\u2019s say two answered eight, one answered seven, and two answered six. So, that\u2019s a total of 10. So, five out of 10 promoters that answered had scores of nine or 10, we then have three neutrals, so three out of 10 neutrals being sevens or eights\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> And then, does that not play into the final score, being a neutral? Do they just get nullified?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Exactly! They do not play into the final score. And then we have two, let\u2019s say we have two out 10 demoters, so six or under. So, essentially we have 50 percent, five out of 10, promoters, and 30 percent who are neutral, again, not playing into the score, and two out of 10, 20 percent, who are demoters. So, like I said, we don\u2019t use the neutral in the calculation but instead, we simply subtract the 20 percent demoters from the 50 percent promoters for a score of 30.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> And I feel like that may be surprising to some people because you don\u2019t necessarily think of a six as being a bad score. In my opinion, I would think of a six as being more neutral \u2013 anything around a five \u2013 but, the way NPS is calculated, it\u2019s actually not a good thing. It takes away from, say those five people who did give you the promoter scores. And someone giving a seven or eight might think, \u201cOh yeah, that\u2019s a pretty good score,\u201d but it\u2019s actually not playing well into your overall NPS, which means that, even if you are a company with a great reputation or really high employee engagement level, you get those few detractors and it can have a huge impact on your final eNPS, correct?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Absolutely, or even just having neutrals. So, you could have zero demoters, and still have a score of 30 simply because you only had three out of 10 that were promoters and the rest that were neutral. You then have 30 percent promoters, you\u2019d have zero demoters, but 30 minus zero is still 30. So, even with seven out of 10 of your team answering sevens or eights, which to many are fairly decent scores, you could still end up with a Net Promoter Score of 30. So, you know, if you\u2019re in the Net Promoter Score range of about 70, it essentially means that you have mostly promoters in your organization, and maybe just a few neutrals and likely, no detractors, and if you do have a detractor, they\u2019re an odd one out.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Right, and so that actually is quite different than an average score out of 10, which, when you hear people saying, \u201cOh, I got 10 out of 10, you know, NPS or feedback,\u201d it\u2019s not as straightforward as just taking an average of those numbers. So, you mentioned Officevibes. Are there any other tools or resources that you\u2019d recommend to track this type of employee engagement, to track something like NPS?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Yeah, so we have found great success using Officevibe. Officevibe is a web-based employee engagement tool that is suited for organizations of all sizes and essentially conducts anonymous weekly employee engagement surveys. It\u2019s also a tool to receive feedback to measure employee satisfaction and engagement. The other great thing about it, is it allows for business input from employees. You can create custom questions, custom polls, and that way you can target specific issues or ideas that you might be looking to gain, to gather from employees. Each survey takes, you know, roughly two minutes, so, the team doesn\u2019t mind spending the time to complete the surveys.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Right, they don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s a waste of time.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Yeah, exactly! It\u2019s quick, you know, either five or 10 questions, and because of those surveys we were able to get some really great feedback from the team. And, you know, because Officevibes is anonymous, it also gives the team a platform to provide open and honest feedback if they don\u2019t feel comfortable addressing that with their manager or HR.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> For sure, so how important do you think it is that it\u2019s anonymous?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Well, employees have an option to select whether their feedback is coming through as anonymous or they can identify themselves if they want.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Do they ever identify themselves? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Once in a while. I\u2019d say the majority of the time they remain anonymous. We do have a very open and honest culture around here. But sometimes, you know, they don\u2019t want to identify themselves if they have constructive feedback that might be geared towards a process or system that seems the rest of the team has brought into, or they have specific constructive feedback in regards to, maybe, their leader. It also kind of allows two-way dialogue between HR without the employee having to identify themselves, which is important because sometimes they might have personal issues that, you know, they are not quite ready to discuss with their manager or HR. So, if they are looking for specific information or input, or an idea on how to deal with a situation, they can get that without having to put their hand up and say, \u201cHey, it\u2019s me.\u201d The fact that it\u2019s anonymous like this, I think, is important because employee engagement scores do fluctuate and, sometimes, it could be based on what\u2019s happening both inside and outside of the office. So, you know, it\u2019s important for us to know how people are feeling that month. One month, they might feel like they\u2019re a 10, and the next month they might be down to a seven or eight. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> And you still want to collect that feedback, even when they aren\u2019t feeling a 10. So, if it\u2019s anonymous, they\u2019re more likely to provide that feedback for you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Absolutely, and one of the great follow-up questions that we\u2019ve added onto this poll question is, \u201cIf your score is not a 10, what can we do to bring your score up to a 10?\u201d Now, we\u2019re getting the input of what employees are looking for from us as employers. We need to obviously make sure that we are getting what we need from employees, but we also need to make sure they are getting what they need from us as an employer.<\/em> We\u2019ve also been able to get some really great feedback from the team that way. People might give it a nine and they could say, \u201cI\u2019d be a 10 if I had an extra week vacation,\u201d or, \u201cI\u2019d be a 10 if I was allowed to work from home a couple extra days a week.\u201d Or, \u201cactually there\u2019s nothing you can do to become a 10 because my next career move is elsewhere,\u201d whatever that might that be. So, yeah, it\u2019s a great way to get that feedback without having to ask employees to essentially out themselves for whatever they are looking for, or feel like what they\u2019re asking for is out of reach.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Right, absolutely. And so, are there any other ways that you can keep a pulse on employee engagement other than a web-based anonymous service, such as Officevibe?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Yeah, so apart from the regular pulse checks that we have with Officevibe, we also have regular pulse checks with leaders. So, weekly meetings and monthly reviews to, sort of, engage the employees about what\u2019s going well, where they might be struggling, how we can help them, how can we help move their goals forward. On top of that, we also conduct regular Start-Stop-Keep meetings.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Can you explain those?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Yes, absolutely. So, the Start-Stop-Keeps are open dialogue meetings with each team, also with HR and the CEO, where we ask each member of the team to show up with three things that they\u2019d like to see their \u2013 either their department or the organization to start doing, three things that they\u2019d like to see their department or organization to stop doing, and three things that they\u2019d like to see their department or organization to keep doing. So, out of these meetings, we\u2019ve had really interesting ideas come out, and many that we have actually been able to implement as a result. You know, simple things. Sometimes people want more plants in the office, or they want to feel like, you know, there\u2019s a little more life around the office. We\u2019ve had people say they\u2019d like to have a better setup to work from home, or be able to work from home more often. So, you know, a lot of things that employees are looking for are actually quite easy to implement. And, as a result of these meetings, I think people also come to the table with ideas that maybe they think, \u201cOh, you know, that\u2019s kind of farfetched and I\u2019m not going to address that.\u201d But, when you give them an open platform to do so, a lot of the time, they surprise you with these sort of ideas that they come forward with, and also some good business strategy ideas have come out of this as well.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Right, so as you said, something simple \u2013 something as simple as bringing in plants to the office, which you know, you might not ever think of being in HR or being the CEO that that would be important to someone, but give them that open dialogue and that opportunity, I think that\u2019s really great. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Yeah, exactly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Is there anything else that you do?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Yes. You know, the Start-Stop-Keep meetings are done collectively with the team, apart from that, we also do what we call a \u201cStay Interview.\u201d These are done individually with HR and each member of the organization, so\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Is that like the opposite of an Exit Interview?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Exactly! So, essentially we\u2019re asking the team for feedback on, you know, what\u2019s going well, but also we\u2019d like to know what could essentially draw our top performers away. You know, we do have an amazing team here at Outback, and we want to do everything in our power to keep them and keep them happy in Outback so that, you know, they do want a lasting career here and they do want to continue coming to work here, and they remain engaged. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> So, asking those questions before it\u2019s too late.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Exactly! So, you know, sometimes \u2013 a lot of the time, managers steer away from doing these. They get a little nervous thinking that, you know, they\u2019re going to ask for a raise or something unattainable. But, a lot of time, people come to the table with \u2013 you know, money sometimes plays a small part in it. They may say, \u201cIf I was to be offered \u2018X\u2019 amount, I might consider leaving.\u201d But, a lot of the time, when we ask what they\u2019d like to see included in our perks and benefits package, what could lure them away, how we can counteract that to keep them here, it\u2019s actually quite simple what comes out of it. And, you know, when you give employees the platform to be heard, and then actually take action on that, it really helps to solidify the organization\u2019s commitment to the team. And it shows them that we\u2019re committed not just to achieving our strategy and our goals, but we\u2019re also committed to making this a great place to work.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Yeah, and keeping them engaged in the workplace.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Absolutely. And you know, that keeps the employee engagement scores because they see that we are engaged and committed to them, as much as they are committed to us.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nKS:<\/em><\/strong> Yeah, absolutely. And, so, with the Officevibe, I know you mentioned that you are sending those out on a weekly basis. With something, obviously, that takes a bit more time and requires possibly the entire department or CEO to be available, how often are you doing these Stay Interviews and Start-Stop-Keep sessions?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOJ:<\/em><\/strong> Yeah, so the Stay Interviews are fairly new to us, but twice a year, and then the Start-Stop-Keep meetings also twice a year. So, essentially one quarter you\u2019d have a Start-Stop-Keep meeting with the team, the next quarter you\u2019d have an individual Stay Interview, the next quarter you have, again, a Start-Stop-Keep meeting with the team, and then the next quarter you\u2019d have a Stay Interview individually. So, essentially each quarter you\u2019re given sort of that opportunity to have an open dialogue discussion with HR and\/or the CEO. You know, and the Stay interview takes 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the individual and what you are talking about, but the Start-Stop-Keep meetings take sort of anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. So, it\u2019s not a huge time commitment that we are asking for, but what comes out of these meetings is actually pretty exciting.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWe\u2019re always looking for how we can reward our team, whether that might be a baseball game all together or maybe something like snowmobiling\u2026a big part of employee engagement also ties into the culture, and having a team that\u2019s excited to see their colleagues, not just on a work level, but also on a personal level.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n