Employees Say the Darndest Things

One of the many overflowing fountains of entertainment in our office is a selection of highly amusing open-ended employee survey responses.  With a database of over 12 million individual responses, we’ve been able to accumulate quite an eclectic collection.  Heck, we’ve even dedicated an entire section on our company’s internal wiki to housing our favorites. Here is what we have heard some employees say, grouped into three categories: candor, passive aggression, and irreverence.

Candor

Some say honesty can be brutal—I agree, and I like to add that it can also be hilarious.  Here are some classic candid comments in response to the survey question, “What would you like to see changed at company?”

  • “I really wish that John would invest in hair plugs.”
  • “The group in charge of _______ is no better than a barn full of roosters.  At the end of the day all we have to show is a lot of noise, a bunch of sh*t, and no eggs.”
  • “The hard workers work till everything is done, picking up the slack that the lazy people don’t do. Why didn’t morning people do all of their job? Why didn’t night people do this either? Supervisors need to punch a time clock. Most of them don’t work a 40 hr. week. Get rid of negative people.”  (The irony in that one is almost painful.)

Passive Aggression

Let’s be honest—employee surveys are great tools for employees to vent pent-up frustrations to HR and company management, in the completely justifiable expectation that action will be taken.  A time comes when some comments are no longer constructive, though.

  • “Get rid of one employee that is causing most of our trouble and he needs to cut his hair.”
  • “Get rid of some employees who need to be gotten rid of.”
  • “Smoking. Move the freaking ‘smoker’s pole’ out where the designated smoking area is. Not next to the building and the entrance. Why go all the way out to the smoking area if you can stand next to the doors? I guess I’ll just start peeing in a bottle next to my desk and leave it there, since that would be easier. Sure, I could go to the bathroom, but if I have a bottle next to my desk, that’s easier. Please, please fix the smoking problem.”

Irreverence

Despite our best efforts, some employees may simply distrust the survey process (i.e. they may not be confident in its anonymity).  Still other employees simply don’t care, or they just want to have fun (or be done taking the survey).  Here’s what they have to say in response to, “What would you recommend to make company a great place to work?”

  •  “I love men.”
  • “Free Segways to get around the office.”
  • “Everything is all good in the hood.”

There you have it—some of my favorite employee survey comments.  Have you seen any similar responses to your surveys?  Nay—have you seen any better ones?  Share.
Related Webinar: The Power of Open-ended Comments from Your Employee Survey
Related Post: Why You Should Use Open-ended Questions on Employee Surveys
Related Post: How Many Comment Questions Should Your Employee Survey Have?
Related Webinar: Online Comment Reporting Tool

Hourly vs. Exempt Employees: Who is more valuable?

Turner worker working on drill bit in a workshop

Last week I had the good fortune to work with a very successful organization that has operated in the retail space for over 100 years.  The average tenure of the company’s executive team is 15 years, with its Vice President of Operations (let’s call him David) having been at the company during the extent of his 25-year career.
David told me a remarkable story of joining the company as a janitor (his official title in 1988), working as an hourly employee during the night shift.  I asked him about the factors that contributed to his advancement, to which he responded, “I have always had good bosses that believed in me.”  In his 25 years within the organization, David not only advanced but also held various positions that allowed him to see every side of the business.  Because of his experiences, David is able to quickly relate to both the hourly maintenance staff and the board of directors.  The point of this story is that hourly workers comprise a potential pool of talent that is too often overlooked and underdeveloped.
In a 2012 study of 2,743 employees within an international manufacturing company, my team and I found significant differences between the attitudes, beliefs, and values of hourly verses exempt employees.  For example, only 51 percent of hourly employees felt that they had a voice in the organization and could speak up without fear of retribution or negative consequences, compared to nearly 70 percent of exempt employees.
Relating to growth and development, the differences between hourly and exempt staff members are more pronounced: only 39 percent of hourly employees reported receiving counseling in their careers, compared to 54 percent of exempt employees. More interesting still, hourly employees perceived more career opportunities than their exempt counterparts.
The results of this study bring to light two fundamental realities:  (1) hourly employees, who often have the most insight into the day-to-day operations of an organization, think that their voices don’t matter; and (2) hourly employees have desires to progress in their companies, but they are not receiving the guidance needed to advance their careers.
Engaged and committed hourly employees can have a significant impact on an organization’s success.  Keep the following characteristics of hourly employees in mind:

  • Hourly employees often represent the majority of customer-facing roles;
  • They are directly involved in production-line;
  • They directly impact quality; and,
  • They are advocates and supporters of safety.

The reasons above suggest that engaging hourly employees is essential in gaining competitive advantage in markets where hourly workers are a significant demographic.  Organizations that provide the conditions for these hourly employees to thrive wll experience lower talent-acquisition costs, improved operational performance, and best-in-class customer experiences—they will be known as employers of choice that provide opportunities for people like David to advance.
Related Webinar: Employee Engagement and the Hourly Employee
Related White Paper: ENGAGEMENT MAGIC®: The Five Keys of Employee Engagement

How Managers Can Drive Employee Engagement

If you’re wondering why your employees aren’t engaged . . . look at your leaders.

In my work with groups and organizations striving to create an engaged and effective workforce, I have witnessed a common trend:  a team’s engagement rises and falls with the engagement of their leader—and for good reason.

Because leaders and managers are the direct drivers of change within an organization, their teams and direct reports naturally mirror the leaders’ levels of engagement. Managers are the conduits of information from the top of the organization; they set the tone for how information is received by their team.

More important still, leaders in any organization have to make a crucial choice: they can either be advocates for the company’s vision and goals, or be detractors from the company mission.  A leader’s choice here directly affects his or her direct reports, peers, and supervisors—essentially, a leader’s decisions affect the entire organization.

Of the many different powers that leaders inherently possess, influence power is perhaps the most potent.  While often this influence is productive, it can also be destructive. By leveraging this power to influence others inappropriately, leaders can create resentment, dissatisfaction and, ultimately, disengagement by what and how they communicate.

Recent DecisionWise research conducted with 252 managers and their direct reports in a multinational manufacturing organization provides striking support of the notion that a manager or leader’s own level of engagement has a direct connection with the engagement levels of his or her team.  Consider the following:

  • Fully engaged managers had the highest percentage (38%) of fully engaged employees in the organization
  • Fully disengaged managers had the highest percentage (22%) of fully disengaged individuals on their teams.

Further examination of leadership engagement within this organization shows that regardless of the engagement level of the manager, each team consisted of at least half of the employees fitting into the category of “key contributor.”  These individuals tend to possess basic levels of satisfaction with the job and working conditions, but are not in a state of mind making them either fully engaged or fully disengaged.  In other words, it takes a fully engaged leader to drive full engagement.

In our webinar How Managers Can Drive Employee Engagement I’ll further explore the connection between leader and subordinate engagement.  In addition to these interesting statistics, I’ll show you more evidence that a team’s level of engagement generally has direct correlation to the level of engagement of that team’s manager.  I’ll also answer other crucial questions about a leader’s effect on his or her team’s level of engagement.

What’s the Difference Between Trait, State, and Behavioral Employee Engagement?

The term “employee engagement” can mean a variety of different things depending on how it is used and in what context it is implied.  It can describe someone’s disposition (Trait Engagement), current feelings (State Engagement), or how they perform their job (Behavioral Engagement).  Looking at employee engagement in each context helps to have a more meaningful discussion about how individuals and organizations interact.
Trait State and Behavioral Engagement
Trait Engagement:  Some people have a more engaged predisposition when it comes to their work.  All things being equal, they are naturally more engaged than others.  The markings of individuals with high trait employee engagement include:

  • Positive views of life and work
  • Proactive personality
  • Autotelic personality
  • Positive Affect
  • Locus of control
  • Conscientiousness

State Engagement: Employees can feel more (or less) engaged in their work depending on the circumstances from day to day.  Here, the work and its conditions contribute to the feelings of engagement.  People describe these feelings as “being in the zone” or experiencing moments of “flow” as they work.  State engagement includes:

  • Feelings of energy, absorption
  • Satisfaction (affective)
  • Involvement
  • Commitment
  • Empowerment

Behavioral Engagement:  Trait and State Engagement lead to observable behaviors that can be described as engaged.  It is commonly defined as “putting forth discretionary effort” or “going the extra mile.”   Some other examples of behavioral engagement include:

  • Extra-role behavior
  • Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)
  • Proactive/Personal Initiative
  • Role Expansion
  • Engagement with others (team, leaders)

Can a leader cause someone to be engaged?  The reality is that organizations, and even individual leaders, have little influence on changing one’s trait engagement.  Actually, they don’t have full control over State or Behavioral Engagement, either.  So, what can leaders or organizations do?  Are they powerless in their quest for the engaged organization?  Not by a long shot.  They can (1) Hire people who can chose to be engaged; (2) Create that environment in which these employees choose to be engaged; and (3) Avoid causing them to be disengaged.  In other words, get out of their way!
5 Keys of Employee Engagement White Paper
Related Webinar: The Psychology of Employee Engagement.
Related Content: ENGAGEMENT MAGIC®
Related Blog Post: Employee Satisfaction vs. Motivation and Employee Engagement

Putting People First: The Key to CHG Healthcare's Success

Employees listen to their leader

Who is CHG Healthcare Services and how did they manage to rank #3 on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list, right behind Google and SAS?  This medical staffing company has about 1,400 employees and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.  They have made the list since 2010 (#26) and have been making steady changes since to improve their culture and attract and hire the best employees. That CHG also ranked #6 on Chief Executive Magazine’s list of Best Companies for Leaders, and #5 on Training Magazine’s Training Top 125 list is also worth mentioning.

What does CHG do that yields these amazing results?  Well, they simply put their employees first. By visiting CHG’s blog, we’re able to see a number of exciting—and affordable—things the company does to show that it values its employees.  To celebrate Valentine’s day, the CHG office inBoca Raton, Florida kicked off an entire week of love on Monday morning with a breakfast of waffles and continued the week by voting for the most “loveable” employee, passing out treats, wearing red to compete for a $25 gift card and enjoying a barbecue lunch.

Consider another example. Surgery Team Placing Manager, Chris Willett, shared that he likes that:

“CHG recognizes others’ successes. In a sales environment, it is nice to get the company-wide recognition for our efforts and successes. This helps us keep a positive attitude.”  When asked about his favorite part of his job, Chris responded that he likes “the intensity and the fact that there is never a dull moment.”

As we have conducted the employee engagement survey for CHG over the course of the past seven years, we have seen their scores rise as a result of their focus on employees.  This change didn’t happen overnight; it took a lot of hard work and focused leadership to gain the trust of employees and change the culture of the organization.

The CHG “About Us” webpage sums up their corporate philosophy:

“For us, success is achieved by Putting People First. Our culture of Putting People First is our competitive advantage in the marketplace and the reason we can provide high-quality service to the healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals with whom we work.”

Has it paid off?  Today, CHG is the second-largest healthcare staffing company when measured by revenue and is the most profitable company in the industry.  Turnover decreased by more than 10 percent in the first three years of their people-focused efforts, and continues to decline. This is especially significant in an industry that typically sees turnover rates higher than 50 percent. Turnover is now more than 60 percent lower than the healthcare staffing industry average.

Learn more about the work we’ve done with CHG by viewing our webinar, Creating a Culture of Feedback.

Improvement Trends in Employee Engagement

Who Cares About The Employee Experience

These trends suggest that there are a number of organizations that are still focused on retaining and engaging their workforce. Our trending research also shows that those organizations that use data from an employee engagement survey to capitalize on strengths while making changes see the greatest benefits from the process.

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