Answer Guidelines
In preparing your submission, you may be looking for some guidance as to what you should be covering and what can be omitted. With a 250-word maximum per response, it is important that you are critically selecting the key points that will highlight your organization’s efforts in employee engagement and how those efforts are affecting your workforce.
- Stay on topic. Talk about your leaders and how they impact your company culture for the Leadership question. Don’t talk about your rewards & recognition program in the Culture question. The questions each cover a very specific slice of your overall company efforts, so make sure your responses are relevant to the question at hand.
- Stick to the word count. You have 250 words per question to describe your company’s efforts. If you have supplementary documentation that supports your response, feel free to upload an attachment in the appropriate field when you’re completing the online submission form.
- Don’t just tell us what, tell us why and how. Use hard facts, statistics and key metrics. What are your employees telling you in engagement surveys? Show the quantifiable impact of your engagement initiatives. It’s not enough to say you have a no-vacation vacation policy. Tell us how that impacts your employees and why they are more engaged because of it. Context and application will make your submission stand out and showcase the depth of your organization’s understanding of employee engagement and commitment to it.
- Stay anonymous. Please try your best to avoid using your company’s name within the content of your submission. The forms are meant to be judged with as much anonymity as possible.
To aid in your preparation, here are some examples of excellent responses to give you some direction.
Please note that any indication of plagiarism in your company’s submission will result in disqualification from the selection process.
Leadership
The Company X leadership team is a flat entity that keeps all areas of the company involved in its strategic direction and execution. They set the example by being a hard-working, cohesive and effective team that fosters a spirit of transparency. Direct dialogue with leaders and senior executives is encouraged with an open-door policy, and engagement scores in the area of employees’ clarity on company mission and objectives increased by 19% last year.
Employee engagement is considered one of the most important leadership responsibilities and each leader is held accountable for the engagement levels of their teams. Leaders constantly deliver messages on company direction, challenges and exciting news. They work to highlight and celebrate successes and maintaining optimism and enthusiasm for the future. This year’s annual employee survey showed that 77% of the company feels that leadership is effectively addressing current challenges and 68% agreed that senior leaders demonstrate company values through behavior and actions. Company X’s leaders are also the most active users of our online rewards and recognition platform, with 96% of top recognizers being managers or leaders.
A mandatory year-long leadership development program enhances leadership competencies, with content being continually reviewed and refined to ensure the best coaching and mentoring opportunities.
The main element of Company X’s leadership team that builds engagement is the trust our leaders put in our employees to make decisions and take action. Autonomy and empowerment gives our employees the understanding that they are a high priority to the organization.
Communication
The Company X team spans several offices which can make effective communication a challenge.
Twice a year, senior leadership hosts a company-wide meeting discussing company performance, highlights and disappointments, as well as future direction and goals. Similar monthly meetings are held in each office location. Departments hold weekly meetings to discuss achievements, as well as “cries for help” or obstacles. No topic is off-limits and employees are encouraged to ask questions and probe issues either anonymously via an online form prior to the meeting or in person. Finally, each individual employee has a weekly one-on-one with their leader. No question is ever left unanswered.
Employees are encouraged to utilize their social networks to follow and share Company X news as well as stay in touch with each other. We frequently hold social media challenges to maximize engagement.
Company X also uses an internal network where employees can find information and post questions, issues, or interesting news, allowing every single member of the team to communicate in real time with each other and with leadership. All news, events and wins (as well as losses) are summarized in a monthly e-mail newsletter and monitors around the offices display breaking news, key data and performance metrics. Survey results indicated that 84% of employees feel they have a better understanding of how they individually contribute to our success through communication and 93% said communicating our success to them has increased their personal sense of achievement – a huge factor in employee engagement.
Culture
Culture is not static – our culture is a dynamic, employee-driven lifestyle that every member of our team lives every day. It is always growing and evolving with our team and all employees are given the freedom to imagine and execute innovative ideas that will enhance their experience. Our hiring process ensures candidates are not only skilled, but that they believe in and fit the culture 100%.
Our unique work environment is the cornerstone to engagement. It is an open and collaborative space that encourages creativity and innovation, reflecting how much value we put in our employees.
Every employee is offered four weeks of vacation in their first year and five in every subsequent year. Onsite amenities like the gym, free breakfast & snack cafe, dry cleaning service, quiet work room and nap room free employees from daily stresses. This creates an immense level of productivity and passion.
Recognition is a key facet of our culture, rewarding hard work with company events where employees can build personal relationships, network, celebrate and have fun. Successes are recognized daily in departmental and company-wide huddle meetings.
We can see our employees‘ pride through their social networks, their love of branded apparel they can wear in their daily lives and the effort they exert creating opportunities to spend time with one another both at work and off the clock.
This culture that embraces work/life balance allows our employees to be truly engaged and passionate about what they do, knowing that their work has meaning.
Rewards & Recognition
Company X knows that to make sure our rewards & recognition programs are relevant to each employee, we must use a combination of formal and informal recognition to drive behaviours that are in line with our company values and contribute to overall success.
Our online rewards & recognition platform allows employees to be engaged through not only receiving points-based recognition leading to meaningful reward redemptions, but through recognizing their peers for a job well done. Anecdotal feedback has indicated that it feels almost as good to send recognition as it does to receive it. Employees also earn points through unique idea generation, driving revenue, saving money or improving quality. A campaign based on reducing human errors by awarding points led to a savings of $42.5M in one year! Managers are empowered with a toolkit of on-the-spot recognition cards to ensure that they can provide timely and relevant feedback to their employees and encourage repeated positive behaviours.
A company-wide online newsfeed highlights all recognitions sent and allows the entire company to share in celebrating excellent work. Employees are also able to share their recognitions with their own social networks, building their pride in their work and our employer brand simultaneously.
The key to the success of the program is continuous review, communication and education. Each employee sends an average of five recognitions per month, a 170% increase since program implementation! Employee response to “Company X adequately recognizes me to encourage good performance” has seen an improvement of 85% since 2008.
Professional & Personal Growth
Professionally, our employees develop their skills through a variety of channels. We hold a quarterly “Lunch and Learn” that focuses on anything from sales techniques to stress management. We offer and/or fund in-person and online training opportunities for any business-related skills. Training is conducted by an internal expert, sometimes with the assistance of a professional educator, but if we can’t teach it, we’ll find someone who can. We offer 100% tuition reimbursement for continuing education. Last year we awarded over $120,000 in reimbursements and delivered over 22,000 hours of training (an average of 30 hours per employee).
Mentoring tomorrow’s leaders is also of key importance. Our Leadership Development program requires managers to complete a year of training, including monthly coaching. 39% of our managers are actively involved in these programs. We also encourage participation in professional associations and industry committees to further industry knowledge.
Individual development plans are completed by every employee, mapping out strengths, weaknesses, goals and a roadmap to achieving them. These contain step by step timelines, priorities and action items, as well as support and resources. These are reviewed and discussed in monthly coaching sessions.
On a more personal level, we have a Personal Top 1 program that allows employees to set a goal for themselves that isn’t related to their job, and provide support and subsidies to help them accomplish it. These goals are visible to the entire company, making the employee more accountable to achieve it and casting a wide net for support.
Accountability & Performance
Company X relies on a leadership paradigm which states that managers who are accountable perform by being results-driven and holding their team accountable to deliver those results. Our employees are all involved in the annual business planning cycle, clearly articulating the organizational goals that are then translated into each individual’s objectives, with a clear line of sight as to how those objectives contribute to the company’s success. Roles and responsibilities are well defined, and progress on all key performance indicators and goals is transparently communicated to employees through weekly dashboard updates. This year, 89% of our employees answered “Strongly Agree” when asked “I know exactly how my work is contributing to the overall company goals.” At any time, everyone in the company knows how each individual, each team and the whole organization is performing in relation to past performance and current goals. This keeps everyone accountable, but also allows for the excitement of celebrating the successes of others and unifies the whole company.
Integral to this process is managerial courage to provide effective constructive feedback and delve deep into exploration of successes and failures. Managers conduct weekly one-on-one meetings to evaluate performance and gauge progress to ensure that all employees are on track.
These initiatives have resulted in a highly motivated and accountable workforce. We have eliminated “sick day” and “vacation” policies because our employees are responsible for their own productivity. As a result, over a five-year period, our average sick leave decreased from 3.4 to 0.69 days per year.
Vision & Values
Communicating our vision and values to all employees, new and old, is always a priority. Our mission is driven by teamwork, integrity and innovation and we are so passionate about it that it drives all decision making, activities, goals and relationships. Our core values are defined on our website, our internal network, in new employee training materials and all internal and external communications. These values are communicated through all e-mails, staff meetings, newsletters and group activities. Our leadership leads by example, always incorporating the values into all employee feedback or goal-setting. Our office reflects the values through the different themed areas and meeting rooms, ensuring that the values are always top of mind.
Living our values is an integral part of working for Company X, and we take great care to coach individuals who are struggling. Unfortunately, it sometimes means that the employee isn’t quite the right fit for the organization. Living the values is a critical element of any performance feedback.
Our leadership team also takes great strides to relate any activities back to our company vision, so that the path is always clear and every individual knows exactly how their role contributes to the overall growth and success of the company.
As a result of our focus on vision and values, the response to our 2010 employee engagement survey indicated that 88% of our employees feel they “have a part to play in achieving Company X’s vision” and 92% “fully support the values for which Company X stands.”
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives at Company X are entirely employee- driven. They choose the annual “Pillars” of support, or organizations in the community that resonate with them, and are supported to donate their time through paid volunteer days and fun, engaging initiatives within the office. For causes that garner more than five employees, Company X covers all necessary participation fees and provides branded clothing for the team. Last year, a record 49% (over 29,000 employees across 20 countries) of employees took advantage of this opportunity and volunteered their time.
Company X has been awarded the “Strong Leader” award from Charity A for their countless hours of employee volunteer time and financial donations over the last five years. Employee-raised funds for Charity A are matched dollar for dollar by Company X.
In the office, we have fun initiatives such as participating in Movember, with a company-wide poll at the end of the month to determine a winner and charitable donations in place of gift exchanges.
Environmental responsibility is also a key focus, with initiatives taken to reduce carbon footprint and eliminate waste. Company X has moved primarily to a paperless system, but provides recycling and composting systems and encourages carpooling, virtual meetings and subsidized public transit to reduce commutes and emissions. As a result, Company X has reduced its carbon footprint by nearly 35% since 2007.
This year, an astonishing 97% of employees indicated strong agreement with the statement “Company X is socially responsible in the community” on their engagement surveys.
