Employee surveys unleash work force potential

MANAGEMENT

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

Managers, here's a hard, cruel fact: Your success isn't exactly in your own hands. As hard as you work, as many hours as you put in, as brilliant and creative as you might be, the only way your credit union will grow and succeed is through the efforts of your employees. Bottom line: The people who work for you will determine the extent of your professional success.

When summarized in those simple terms, you can see that your primary function as a manager and leader is to develop a motivated team of people all working toward the same "high-performance" goal.

Yes, it takes many people working together to operate a credit union. So you hire them. And in each case, you agree on certain terms: duties and responsibilities, salary and benefits, productivity and outcomes. That's what the employment process is all about.

But effectiveness requires something beyond mere employment. You're looking for commitment. Another term for it is buy-in. Rather than hiring people and then trying to get them to work harder and do their jobs better, your primary objective is to figure out how to "pull them in," how to involve them in helping you do your job better. The challenge, from the day you hire people forward, is to get them involved, invested, enthused, and dedicated to the credit union's prime objective.

You do that in three basic ways.

NO. 1: START WITH THEM

The rule for having a winning relationship with people is to be genuinely interested in them-to pay attention to them, value them, really care about them. And the best way to do this with employees is to find out what's important to them. Find out what they think.

The ideal method, of course, would be via oneon-one personal conversations. But unless your credit union is very small, it's impossible to cover the territory this way. So how do you do it with the entire work force? This is where employee surveys come into play. Employers have used surveys for years but mainly for "assessing morale." People filled them out and then never heard another word. Nothing ever came of them but distrust from employees, who couldn't help feeling manipulated.

Today these surveys, when used correctly, are simple, powerful communication platforms. They're a formal basis for the internal conversation between management and employees, which brings people together into a participative team context. We recommend you don't do a survey unless you absolutely plan to show employees what they collectively said, what problem areas they identified, and what solutions they offered.

The CEO's explanation should confirm it this way: "Our objective is to do absolutely the best possible job for members, and for that we depend on you. So we want to know what you and your fellow employees think can be done to make the credit union better-- for members and for you. When the survey results are in, well share them with you. Then well plan the appropriate follow-up actions, and you'll be part of that process."

The opening survey question should explore what's important to employees. Many people, especially those early into their adulthood, haven't asked themselves this question. So responses might not come easily, but that's all right. The genuineness of the intention behind it is what's important.

Are we getting too personal here? Not if we see that employment-the central activity people engage in for the better part of their days-plays a defining role in who we are. And employment outcomes-- knowledge, responsibility and maturity, personal advancement, status and position, broadening of experiences, social interactions, and compensation and benefits-collectively shape us into the people we become.

So as employers, we head down this questioning track with the intention of seeing that the employment situation we present to employees is positive, rewarding, and beneficial, for them as well as for the organization.

To sum up rule No. 1: The way to win employees' commitment to your credit union's issues and concerns is to be genuinely interested and committed to theirs.

NO. 2: HOLD TO A SINGLE-- FOCUS AGENDA

The next trick is getting others to understand and buy in to the credit union's objectives.

For the most part, people want to please. But what exactly does that require? What is success? What is the credit union really trying to do? Do employees know?

This one sounds easy, but that's far from reality. If you asked employees to write down the one objective that is paramount within the credit union, could they do so? And if they could, would they all agree on what it was?

When we ask managers and directors to do this in strategic planning sessions, the inevitable result is a wide array of responses. Seldom is there anything close to a consensus.

We know why. The business of running credit unions today in the highly competitive consumer banking arena involves many issues. But when there are too many objectives and all appear equally important, nothing stands out as the primary objective.

It's here that the distinction between management and leadership becomes clear. And it's why organizations can have multiple managers and supervisors but should have only one leader. And it's why, of course, the buck stops with that leader. The captain of the ship is singularly responsible for seeing that it reaches its destination.

Despite multiple priorities, what's the single most important objective within your credit union? There should be only one. Everyone should know, understand, and believe it. (Hint: It should focus on the extent members actually use the credit union vs. banking elsewhere.)

NO. 3: ASK FOR OPINIONS

Really good leadership is subtle leadership. It's when the right things happen not because people are told what to do and held fast to it, but because they want to achieve particular outcomes. And yes, we're back to commitment and buy-in again.

One of the most generous things a person can do is to ask for another's opinion. This validates people in their own eyes and in their associates' eyes.

It confirms that their ideas and opinions count. It acknowledges they're thinking, contributing, valuable human beings.

If you ask employees their opinion about a problem and they offer possible solutions, you can bet: 1) The problem has become, to some extent, their problem; and 2) they'll consciously or subconsciously follow up to prove their thoughts were on target.

People want to be listened to; they want to be heard. They want to be seen as having something to contribute.

For decades, we haven't managed people this way in employment situations. Rather, we've told them what we expected of them. We told them to work harder, and we told them when they weren't doing so well. Maybe we let them know, occasionally, when they "did good." But it was generally a passive, one-way conversation, all of it flowing downhill. And never did it help managers get the most from their employees.

Today we know enough to reach for a more participative management style. Those who actually do the work generally know best how to improve the processes and the productivity.

The concept is simple enough. Leaders set goals and give meaning and relevance to them (the word "inspiration" fits nicely here). Then they encourage the performers to actively figure out how to achieve the goals. And commitment-the direct product of this dynamic-drives it all.

So it's a simple three-part formula:

1. Win the commitment of employees by being genuinely interested in them and their personal success.

2. Present them with a clear, understandable objective to buy in to.

3. Win their buy-in by listening to and pursuing their suggestions for achieving the objective.

Does it work? Absolutely. It's a "can't-fail" solution, based on the factors that motivate us all as human beings. And all an organization needs to do to increase productivity is to formalize this collective process into a management style.

Again, this is the proper use of an employee survey. It's a vital tool that facilitates a meaningful two-way discussion that, in turn, generates stronger commitment from employees and stronger overall achievement of the organization.

By Tony Ward-Smith

Credit union consultant

TONY WARD-SMITH is a longtime performance consultant to credit unions.

Contact Tony Ward-- Smith at 206-623-3999 or at www.ward-smith.com.

Copyright Credit Union National Association, Inc. Feb 2003
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