Do you have a leader in your company that is talented at engaging her employees? Does she have the top performing team in service or sales? Would it matter?  Has the company tried to have more leaders like her? Is it working?  Almost always the answer is , No.

Repeatable, this is the biggest struggle for companies when it comes to improving employee engagement. More companies each and every day are coming to the realization that their focus needs to be people before product or service. Even Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, faced with a Government proposal of a $500,000 salary cap on executives from receiving TARP monies stated concerns over “losing talent”. Because without top talent, the company struggles.  But how can it be consistently done?

When not consistent, companies fall into the focus of the month, the flavor of the day, the latest and greatest resistance dilemma. Once this occurs, everything is scrutinized due to the lack of integrity and trust the company created.  Why should we believe anything, is the mindset inconsistency creates.   

So how do you prevent the flavor of the month with your employee engagement programs. To make a shift requires to go beyond hollow words and intent. To become a living reality, and change your company culture, your employee engagement program needs to be systematized in a way that is repeatable and sustainable, is easy to use and has obvious benefits for all users. 

This employee engagemet system presupposes goodwill, a commitment to partnering at the executive level and communicating, listening, negotiating and problem solving. It also requires the company to value mutual respect and be prepared to invest time and money in using it. Implementing these Seven Keys has generated success for many companies:

• Focus on transforming from the inside out:  Changing the culture at micro levels (one-to-one) before you move across teams.
• Grow internal ownership: Don’t rely on external owners to run activities.
• Think incremental and developmental: Transformation takes time and effort, success builds momentum.
• Avoid the knowledge trap: Training does not translate into workable practices.
• Create a roadmap to critical mass: This will prevent shortcuts that have a boomerang effect.
• Use technology to support the workflow: Don’t rely on human memory to push things forward.
• Rinse and repeat: Commit to continuous improvement by replacing what doesn’t work and try again.

Just remember…What is Not Systematized is Not Sustainable.  This was the guiding principle for the Beyond Morale system.