Employee engagement and opex

Employee Engagement & Operational Excellence:

Two Sides of the Same Coin

SHRM Annual Conference & ExpositionJune 26, 2012

Karen Martin

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“I’ve become a better person, a better husband,

a better friend, from working at Gore.”

— Terry, a W.L. Gore Associate

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Energy Crisis: Widespread Disengagement

• World-class organizations – ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is 9.57:1.

• Average organizations – ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is 1.83:1.

― Gallup

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We Know It’s Important...

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What is

Engagement?

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“To be fully engaged, we must be

physically energized, emotionally

connected, mentally focused and

spiritually aligned with a purpose

beyond our self-interest.”

— Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement

How do we “get”our employees to

engage?8

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How do we

engageour employees?

Enabling Engagement: The Three C’s

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Connection

ControlCreativity

Under-Developed Areas

• Onboarding• Problem-Solving & Continuous

Improvement

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You had them at“You’re hired.”


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Connection

ControlCreativity

To what degree do new hires receive all of the tools and information they need to function

effectively on day one?

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

Always, Sometimes Rarely, Never

Before initial roundof improvementAfter initial round ofimprovement

14%

44%

63%

23%

© 2012 Karen Martin & Associates, LLC

Onboarding – Missing Pieces• Tools

– Physical (e.g. desk, etc.)– Technology (e.g. phones, computers, physical access,

access to applications needed, logins, etc.)– Identifiers (e.g. signage, business cards, etc.)

• General information– Company (e.g., customers, values, business goals, etc.)– Org charts– Phone directories

• Job-specific orientation– Documented procedures (standard work)– Apprenticeship approach: Observe, do with supervision, do– Clear understanding about what constitutes “success.”

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Metrics-Based Process Mapping

Problem: A gap between where youare and where you need to be.

Opportunity: A gap between whereyou are and where you’d like to be.

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Kaizen

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Kai = Change

Zen = Good

Continuous Improvement

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Develophypothesis

Conduct experiment

Measure results

RefineStandardize Stabilize


Enabling Engagement: A3 Management

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A3 Report

The vital role of the coach/mentor

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Kaizen Event – Definition

A two- to five-day focused improvement activity during which a sequestered, cross-functional team designs and

implements improvements to a defined process or work area, generating rapid

results and learned behavior.

Karen Martin & Mike OsterlingThe Kaizen Event Planner

Kaizen Events Offer Myriad Benefits


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Connection

ControlCreativity


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“I went home yesterday and told my

family that it was one of the best working days I’ve ever had.

I was able to fully use my capabilities for three days.”

— Fred Valenzano, Professional Engineer

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Problem solving is a high.

The Next Frontier…

26The Middle Manager


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Connection

ControlCreativity


Where to Start?• Improve your onboarding process.• Train a core group of middle managers and/or above

in problem solving and improvement coaching.• Transition your dedicated improvement

professionals from “do-ers” to “teachers.”• Hold a few kaizen events each year to instill new

behaviors & shift culture.• Make improvement part of everyone’s job. • Never, ever make process improvement without

deep involvement of the people who actually do the work.

• Advocate the truth that people aren’t the problem –systems are.

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Additional Resources

Signing in the SHRMStore

immediately after today’s session!

Also available in the SHRMStore

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Karen Martin, Principal7770 Regents Road #635

San Diego, CA 92122858.677.6799

[email protected]: @karenmartinopex

For Further Questions

Monthly newsletter: www.ksmartin.com/subscribe

Employee engagement and opex

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