Starting the Transformation

Our company has started on a journey to create an environment characterized by candid feedback, employee engagement, and value creation. As promised in last week's blog, here's a review of how we are progressing with this transformation.

Step 1: Develop a process for regularly measuring employee engagement.

In May, we asked each employee to complete what we called a "Well-Being Survey". Then, in June, we set up an employee comment website, and we asked each employee to log in to the site and vote/comment on a variety of topics. One of the purposes for the survey and employee comment site was to measure our company's level of employee engagement. Our participation rate on both the survey and website was approximately 40%.

Moving forward, we plan on using employee surveys, comment websites, and other tools to check-in with all of you and see how engaged you feel.

Step 2: Implement a process to solidify and communicate the "objective distinctions" of our customer strategy. Involve managers, employees and customers in the process of constructing this process.

Over the past two months, our company has participated in a strategy planning project with a consulting company called PeerPlace. The first step in this process was for our company's management team to meet with PeerPlace and define the distinct elements of our customer strategy. PeerPlace called these elements our "Objective Distinctions". (In my next blog, I will elaborate more on the Objective Distinctions of our customer srategy.)

Step two of this process was to compare how we stacked up on these Objective Distinctions versus one of our major competitors. To visually represent this comparison, PeerPlace helped us create a visual display of our strategy and the competitor's strategy. We called this visual display our Strategy Map.

Step three was to launch a website where we could capture both employee and customer feedback on our strategy. On this website employees and customers were given an opportunity to vote/comment on how they felt we were performing on each of our "objective distinctions".

Step four was for the management team to gather and analyze the feedback from the website. Based on this feedback the management team made adjustments to the Strategy Map, and created a Future Strategy Map, which represented how we wanted our company to look in the future.

At our next management team meeting, the team plans on identifying and prioritizing the strategic initiatives that will allow the company to achieve its Future Strategy Map.

Step 3: Develop a system to objectively measure progress on each of the strategic initiatives. Post this for everyone to see the monthly progress.

Once the company's management team completes Step 2, the team plans on determining how it will measure and report the company's progress on each of the strategic initiatives. We want everyone on the R.E. Powell and General Transport teams to be able to track our progress, so let us know if you have any ideas on how we should report our progress to all of you.

Step 4: Implement structured meetings to provide management, team members, and customers with a forum to provide and receive candid feedback.

To ensure that we continue to receive valuable feedback, the company has institutionalized certain meetings in an effort to develop feedback loops between managers, employees, and customers. These meetings include:

Weekly 1:1 Meeting
Each manager is expected to meet at least once a week with each team member that reports directly to them. This meeting is used to do a quick check-in. It provides the manager with an opportunity to check the status of certain projects, initiatives, or tasks that the employee has been asked to accomplish. This meeting also provides the employee with an opportunity to gain clarification on any open issues, and provides a forum for the employee to share valuable feedback with his or her manager.

Weekly Department Meeting
Each department/team in the company should be holding weekly department meetings. These meetings should be no longer than 15-30 minutes. The first half of the meeting is reserved for team members to report on key metrics or projects that they are responsible for. The second half of the meeting is reserved for team members to discuss challenges, problems, or opportunities that they feel the team should be aware of.

Monthly Department Meeting
The monthly meeting should last 1 - 2 hours and should provide the team with an opportunity to review the past month's performance, and most importantly to do a review of the team's strategic initiatives. This meeting can also provide some time for some training and problem solving.

Quarterly Customer Review
In 2009, the sales team implemented the use of quarterly customer reviews. The information gathered during the customer quarterly reviews is compiled by the Territory Manager and sent to the Director of Sales as well as the respective Plant Manager/Department Manager. The feedback gathered from these meetings is shared with the rest of the company's management team during the weekly and monthly meetings.

Step 5: Twice annually, complete anonymous, web-based, 360 reviews for each manager.

The company is looking into an economical way to accomplish this step.

Our company has started on an exciting journey. Our end goal is to create a more dynamic company which is characterized by candid feedback, employee engagement, and value creation. Those team members that fully engage themselves in this journey will undoubtedly get much more out of the experience. So buckle your seat belt, and enjoy the ride. Or you could also say "To Infinity and Beyond".

PS: The first person to email me back with the character and movie that I got "To Inifinity and Beyond" from, will receive a Chevron Gift Card.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Tony@repowell.net

Tony Christensen

www.repowell.net