The International Best Practice Competition encourages organizations to share their best operational and managerial practices, processes, systems, and initiatives and learn from the experience of others. It provides an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of individuals and teams that have been responsible for creating and/or managing the introduction and deployment of best practices.

To submit your Best Practice please visit http://www.bestpracticecompetition.com/entry-form where you can download an entry form. The First Call for entries closes on 1^st of August 2018. Last year there were 45 entries with 26 qualifying to the Competition Event.

The 6th International Best Practice Competition will be held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, 10-12 December 2018 as part of the Global Organisational Excellence Congress courtesy of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

The Congress will also include:

24^th Asia Pacific Quality Organisation International Conference

• ACE Team Awards Competition 2018
• 18^th Global Performance Excellence Award

12^th International Benchmarking Conference

• 6^th Global Benchmarking Awards

6^th International Best Practice Competition

• 2^nd Organisation-wide Innovation Award

Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award’s Best Practice Sharing Conference

The other awards/competitions that will be held as part of the Congress are explained here https://www.globalorganisationalexcellencecongress.com/enter-a-competition

The winner of the International Best Practice Competition in 2017 was Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (Mumbai Refinery), India with a best practice titled ‘Employee Health Management System’. In 2015 the winners were Al Jazeera International Catering LLC, UAE with a best practice titled ‘Our Planet – Our Responsibility’. and Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services (DCAS), UAE, with a best practice titled ‘Cultural Sensitivity Gives Birth to a Maternity Care’. For the full list of winners and their presentation videos click here.

Diabetes describes a group of metabolic diseases which cause high blood sugar levels. In recent years, diabetes has become one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, around 1.6 million people worldwide died due to diabetes in 2015. In 2017, an estimated 8.8 percent of the adult population worldwide had diabetes.

Diabetes in the UAE is rising at one of the fastest rates in the world. Rapid economic growth, lifestyles and unhealthy diets have contributed to increasing the risk factors, also, an increasing population and a greater understanding of the condition have also contributed to the increase in patients diagnosed with diabetes. According to a 2017 survey, 15.2% of Dubai’s population are diabetic and 15.8% pre-diabetic (people at risk of becoming diabetic due to their high blood sugar levels) with the UAE as a whole having the 10th highest rates in the world.

Diabetes prevalence 2017

The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) is one of the government entities that participated in the 2nd cycle of Dubai We Learn initiative, a one year programme consisting of a range of knowledge sharing and organisational learning activities designed to fast-track organisational improvement and stimulate innovation. A key part of this initiative has been the mentoring of benchmarking projects by DGEP’s partner the Centre for Organisational Excellence Research, New Zealand. Project teams used the TRADE Best Practice Benchmarking Methodology – a rigorous 5-stage approach that involves searching for and implementing leading-edge practices.

Stages of TRADE Benchmarking Methodology

Terms of Reference Stage:
The Terms of Reference (TOR) is the first stage of the TRADE Benchmarking methodology. This is where the team developed a clear aim of what they wanted to achieve, specified the resources required, and what was expected in terms of financial and non-financial benefits.
The Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA) project aim:

To develop & start implementing a Dubai Diabetes prevention framework based on worldwide best practices within one-year (2017); to reduce the Pre-Diabetic population, (356,460.48) adults by at least 10% by 2021.

The target of reducing the pre-diabetic population by at least 10% by 2021 was ambitious considering the adverse trends in some of the risk factors such as obesity, unhealthy diet, smoking and lack of exercise.

Review Stage:
The main task of the Review stage is to study and understand the current status of the area of focus. The DHA team used several methods and techniques, such as literature review, community needs analysis questionnaire, brainstorming sessions, fishbone diagrams, and SWOT analysis. DHA recognised that it would not be able to have a significant impact on diabetes on its own and therefore needed to work closely with other stakeholders that could influence or play a role in reducing diabetes. For example, during the brainstorming sessions, DHA invited Dubai Municipality (to explore issues such as how public parks are used and the monitoring of the food offered by food outlets)) and the Dubai Sports Council (to understand how government sports clubs and initiatives can help to prevent diabetes).

A brainstorming session with the stakeholders

Some key findings from the Review stage:

1. The most important factors to prevent diabetes are weight loss through healthy eating, and at least 150 minutes per week of regular physical activity. This can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 58% in individuals at high risk.
2. An important gap to be bridged is the lack of coordination between the different parties responsible for activities that lead to the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.
3. A screening and early detection programme for people who are most susceptible to diabetes and determine pre-diabetic cases, will allow reducing complications of diabetes as well as the burden of the disease.

Acquire Stage:
After setting the plan for the whole project and studying the current state, it was time to start looking for solutions or best practices to bridge the gap between the current and the desired state. The team set criteria for selecting benchmarking partners which were: organisations who have developed similar strategic initiatives that serves Dubai vision 2021, who have used public health innovations in the area of prevention, who have implemented prevention programs, who have lifestyle modification initiatives, who have achieved high success rates in terms of implementation, and who have the best health outcomes related to non-communicable diseases. DHA identified 17 potential partners which were reduced to 9 partners for site visits and internet conferencing.

The benchmarking partners were from different fields, which enabled DHA to learn a wide variety of practices. This was besides an extensive desktop research conducted on: Health Promotion & Campaigns, Screening & Early Detection, Innovative Initiatives, Policy, Research, and Applications. In total, DHA were able to record more than 50 improvement ideas for potential implementation. For example, the best practice of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), the winner of the 5th International Best Practice Competition Award was considered for implementation. In BPCL, all employees undergo an annual health check and receive a Wellness Index Score (WIS). The WIS of all employees are then averaged to obtain a company WIS. Initiatives such as Yoga, meditation, counselling by dieticians and health talks are provided to address the most common health challenges faced by employees. As a result, the company’s WIS has improved each year and the number of staff at risk of diabetes has dramatically reduced.

Deploy Stage:
In the Deploy stage, the team translated the ideas and best practices found in the Acquire stage into actions. The team developed and refined the actions through holding a number of meetings and brainstorming sessions with its stakeholders.
By April 2018 the team was able to implement 30 improvement ideas, the three most important were:
1- Developing a Dubai diabetes prevention framework and gaining acceptance of this within DHA and the wider stakeholder group. Previously, there was no diabetes prevention program for Dubai; there were scattered efforts, which were not systematic or collaborative

Dubai diabetes prevention framework

For each sub-element of the Dubai diabetes prevention framework, an action plan outlines what needs to be done in co-operation with each stakeholder, it also assigns the responsibilities for each task and timeframe for implementation until 2021.

Dubai diabetes prevention action plan

2- Implementation of Diabetes Screening: The screening program was developed in primary health care for early detection of diabetes and the risk factors through adapting the National Periodic Assessment and Diabetes Risk Assessment tool (Finnish Diabetic Risk Assessment Score).

3- Developing and implementing a pilot Happiness Prescription Programme. This programme was adapted from the Social Prescribing Programme from NHS (UK). The pilot phase of the Happiness Prescribing Program involved a total of 43 participants. It consisted of a comprehensive health survey, nutrition and health education and support, and various fitness classes.

Evaluate Stage:
The main task of the Evaluate stage is to evaluate if the project aim has been achieved and to measure the financial and non-financial benefits. Although, the main aim of the DHA project was targeted for completion in 2021, there were other objectives to be achieved within the one-year time frame of Dubai We Learn. For example, developing the Dubai diabetes prevention framework and getting all the stakeholders to approve it and be part of it within one year was a huge achievement.

Other achievements included increasing awareness of diabetes. From 2017 till 2018, DHA held more than 460 awareness campaigns which covered more than 47,000 participants with a satisfaction rate of 98.1%. The campaigns were held in different locations such as public parks, government departments, and private sector companies. Also, to target a wider audience base, the DHA worked with the public media to conduct awareness campaigns using the social media, radio, TV, and newspapers. In total, DHA estimated they reached 560,000 people.

Another important achievement was the successful pilot phase of the “Happiness Prescribing programme”. The 43 participants achieved good rates of weight loss ranging from 7 to 11 kg in six months. In addition to 13% risk reduction from severe to intermediate risk and 7% risk reduction from intermediate to low risk in the women’s group. For the men’s group, there was 7% risk reduction from high to moderate risk.

DHA’s project achieves 7 stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Each project team of Dubai We Learn initiative gave a 15-minute presentation and submitted a benchmarking report which was assessed by an expert panel. The projects were evaluated based on the TRADE Benchmarking Certification Scheme. Three of the teams achieved 7 Stars, four teams 5-6 Stars, and four teams 3-4 Stars. These were exceptional results as even to achieve 3-4 Stars and reach TRADE Benchmarking Proficiency is challenging within a one-year timeframe. Dubai Health Authority project was evaluated as 7 Stars project, which means the project is considered as a role model in the approach and deployment of the TRADE Benchmarking methodology.

For more detailed reports about Dubai We Learn projects, join BPIR.com and get access to best practice case studies, report, clips, and much more.

Do you want to achieve outstanding results in your improvement projects, attend a TRADE Benchmarking workshop or email us at trade@coer.org.nz for more information about arranging an in-house workshop for your organisation. To receive the latest news sign-up to COER’s newsletter here.

One of the ambitious projects of Dubai We Learn initiative is Dubai Health Authority project “Prevention better than Cure”. The aim of the project is to develop & start implementing a Dubai Diabetes prevention framework based on worldwide best practices within one year; to reduce the Pre-Diabetic population from 356,460 adults in 2017 by at least 10% by 2021. The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) revealed the results of the trial phase for the Happiness Prescribing Program during its participation in the UAE Innovation Month 2018.

The Happiness Prescribing Program was launched by the authority with the aim of identifying and implementing prevention programs among pre-diabetics and persons with high risk factors by not only prescribing medication, but also prescribing nutritional and physical programs.

Dr Hanan Obaid, Consultant Family Physician and Head of Acute and Chronic Diseases said this program is a pioneering model of community health care for the prevention of diabetes in the Emirate of Dubai. She said that adopting a new approach that does not depend on prescriptions, but goes beyond that to be an integrated behavioral, social and psychological treatment in line with the vision of the UAE and the Dubai plan 2021 and the Dubai Health Authority strategy on Prevention & Healthy lifestyles, and participation in the Dubai Government Excellence Program “Dubai We Learn”.

The six-month trail phase, which was implemented at Al Barsha and Nad Alhamar Health Centers with the participation of Dubai Ladies Club, Bel Remaitha Club for Men and Sharjah University was conducted on 43 participants of women 25 and men 18.

Dr Obaid said the specialist doctor offered them a comprehensive health survey and conducted the necessary tests then followed by the nutrition and health education, in addition to the various sports classes and sessions, which were provided for the participants by Dubai Ladies Club, Bel Remaitha Club. Moreover, The University of Sharjah has reviewed and approved this new methodology for the prevention of diabetes.

“The results found that participants achieved good rates of weight loss ranging from 7 to 11 kg during the past six months, in addition to the risk reduction of diabetes during the next 10 year as follow: 13% risk reduction from severe to intermediate risk & 7% risk reduction from intermediate to low risk in women group. It also has 7% risk reduction from high to moderate risk in men group adding that participants expressed their happiness and satisfaction with this program as diabetes has a negative impact on individuals and society as well as the health sector due to the increase in expenditure for treatment of the disease and its complications,” she said.

The World International Diabetes Federation (IDF) found that the average expenditure on diabetics in the UAE is estimated at 9.8 billion dirhams annually, and the percentage of diabetic patients in UAE about 17.3% in 2017, which is considered a high percentage compared to other countries. In the Emirate of Dubai, the percentage of people with diabetes was about 15.2% and the percentage of people at risk was 15.8% according to the results of the 2017 Dubai Diabetes Household Survey.

“The goal of this program is to reduce the incidence of new cases of diabetes in the society of Dubai among the high risk groups who have risk factors such as: overweight and obesity, lack of physical activity, unhealthy food, and family history of diabetes, stress and smoking,” she said.

The happiness-prescribing program is now electronically connected with the DHA Hayati Application, which will include the evaluation of diabetes at risk and determine the possibility of exposure to diabetes during the next ten years. It will then link it to a new services called Lifestyle clinics, which will be an Innovative solution to prevent diabetes by having a network of a multidisciplinary team (including a doctor, dietitian, health education specialist, and sports clubs).

By H. James Harrington

Recently, I was searching for a specific quote from a past IBM president. In trying to find the quote, I pulled out The Quality/Profit Connection, a book I had written 30 years ago. It included a series of interviews with the CEOs and presidents of 3M, AT&T, Avon, Corning Glass, Ford, General Dynamics, General Motors, HP, IBM, Motorola, and North American Tool and Die. After reviewing these leaders’ comments, I summarized the traits of a successful company, which I called “The Sixteen Golden Traits.” Looking back on this list three decades later, it’s interesting how little has changed in the business world with regards to quality and performance improvement. It is important to remember: These conclusions describe the important trends which developed in companies that had been recognized as successfully implementing performance improvement approaches around the world in the 1980s.

The Sixteen Golden Traits

1. Close customer relationships.
Successful organizations maintain close personal contact with their customers to ensure a full understanding of the customers’ changing needs and expectations. When problems arise, they react quickly, pouring oil over troubled waters.

2. Concern for the individual employee.
These organizations respect the individual’s rights and dignity, realizing that the company succeeds only to the degree that the individual succeeds. They respect the individual’s thoughts and ideas, realizing that he or she has more to contribute to the company than just physical labor. They not only encourage the participation of the employee, they require it. They look at the individual as part of the solution to their problem, not as the problem.

3. Top management leadership of the quality process.
Members of the organization’s top management have accepted their role in leading the quality activities of the company. Support groups such as qualityassurance offer advice, research problems, and provide data. But the company president sets the direction and establishes the standards. These presidents realize that their company is an image of themselves, and they understand that they must set the personal quality example.

4. High standards.
These organizations set extremely high standards for their products, services, and people. They strive to set the standard for their industry and are dissatisfied if they are not No. 1.

5. Understanding the importance of the team.
Successful organizations use teams to unite the company, improve working relationships, and improve morale. They understand that only management can solve 85 percent of the problems and that the employee teams are needed to address the other 15 percent.

6. Effort to meet and exceed customer expectations.
They are not satisfied with state of the art, and are always trying to provide better products and services to their customers and at lower cost. They understand their customers’ needs and go beyond them, realizing that simply fulfilling the customers’ needs will not capture future sales. They want their output to be valued by their customers.

7. Belief that quality is the first priority.
When a compromise between quality, cost, or schedule must be made, quality is never compromised. Successful organizations realize that poor quality causes most of their cost and schedule problems, and if they focus their attention on the quality problems, their cost and schedule problems will take care of themselves. They also realize that the quality personality of the company is extremely fragile, particularly during the change period, and that even the smallest compromise in quality can set back progress many years.

8. View of business for the long term.
Top management realizes that the important objectives are directed at the long-term survival and prosperity of the company. They give priority to long-range plans that will build a product and customer base, paying secondary attention to quarterly and yearly reports. They measure their success by their company’s long-term growth, not by short-term fluctuations, over which they often have little or no control.

9. Sharing of prosperity with the employees.
Successful organizations view employees as partners and establish programs that directly relate the success of the company to the employees’ earnings and their contributions. Programs like gain sharing, suggestion, and pay for performance are key parts of the employee benefit package.

10. Management and employee education.
They realize that education is not expensive; it is ignorance that is costly. These organizations realize that everyone is responsible for quality and that everyone needs education related to the quality tools if they are to meet this responsibility. As a result, heavy focus on quality education has been directed at the management team and key professionals. At the employee level, education has been directed at problem-solving methods and job training.

11. Management leadership rather than supervision.
They know that management must be leaders of the employees, rather than dictators. It is much easier to pull a string in the desired direction than to push it. For management to assume the leadership role has not been easy, and many of the companies are still working on this change in their company personality. After all, for the past 40 years we have trained our managers to be attack dogs, and now we want them to be purring kittens.

12. Investment in the future.
Research and development means investing in the future of the company. It ensures a steady flow of products and ideas needed to meet the expectations of the future market. Along with the need for research, a parallel need is providing employees with equipment that pushes the state of the art and allows them to perform at their very best. Companies that realize this have prospered. Those that have not, have failed or will eventually fail.

13. Focus on the business system.
They realize that the only way to prevent errors from occurring is by correcting the business system that controls the company activities. Employees work in the business system, while managers must work on the system.

14. Recognition systems.
Successful organizations realize that recognition takes many forms: financial, personal, and public. They have established a recognition system with many options to ensure that it meets the total needs of employees and management. A pat on the back is good, but sometimes a pat on the wallet is more appropriate. On other occasions, a personal letter sent to the employee is the best action.

15. Employee involvement.
They go out of their way to make all the employees feel that they are part of the business and that their contributions are important. They take time to involve the employees in their long-term plans and report progress back to them periodically. They make them part of the company by providing such things as a stock-purchase plan or gain sharing. They provide the employees with opportunities to meet and understand customers, the ones who receive their output. Sometimes a customer is outside the company, but more often it is another company employee. It’s not easy to care about customers when you never see or hear from them, but if the customer is the person who sits behind you or in the next office, the concept of customer satisfaction becomes a much more personal issue.

16. Decreased bureaucracy.
Management continually works at making all decisions at the lowest level. Maximum authority is given to each level of management. Checks and balances are used, but only when absolutely necessary. Management realizes that bureaucracy tends to work its way into the business systems, and they are continuously vigilant to minimize its impact.

In summary
We talk a lot about how things have changed, but the basic things that make for a successful organization have not changed. Fundamental tenets, such as respect for the individual, doing our best all the time, understanding our customer, investing in our employees, being honest, and finding win-win solutions, are as important today as they were in the 1980s—and perhaps even more important today.

Yes, things may move faster. We may have more competition, but we also have more opportunities. We can’t let the rush of today set aside these very important basic values or we all will fail.

Extensive research indicates that improved perceived product quality and reliability are the most effective ways to increase profits and the most important factors in the long-term profitability of a company. We need to ask ourselves if approaches like total quality management, Six Sigma, lean, ISO 9000, benchmarking, and business process improvement are the ways to accomplish our objective when the basic problems have not changed in the last 30 years promoting them. I agree it is a long road to excellence but shouldn’t we have accomplished more in the last 30 years? It’s time for some new, innovative thinking to accomplish much more in the next 30 years than we have in the last 30 years.

In the early 1980s, IBM was rated as the most admired company in the world by Fortune magazine. Fortune’s February 2, 2018 issue listed the world’s most admired companies today. Apple took the top spot, directly followed by Amazon. IBM was rated 35 out of the top 50 companies. IBM was ranked 24 th last year—a drop of nine positions in just 12 months.

We need to ask ourselves: What are Apple and Amazon doing that IBM is not doing? Maybe we need to ask the question turned around: “What is IBM doing that Apple and Amazon are not doing?”

Creative, innovative systems will provide your company with the competitive edge to put it ahead of the pack. We cannot hope to succeed by taking the same old technology, renaming it, and thinking we are doing something new and innovative. Don’t be left at the starting gate. The only way we can do it is by working together and never being satisfied with how good we are. The race is not over yet. Remember, you can’t win today’s race with last week’s press clippings.

Originally posted on Floship

For any business to be successful, it must have three things: a robust overall strategy, exceptional leaders, and engaged employees. This society has moved from an economy driven by the agricultural and manufacturing industries to a service oriented, personally connected economy.

One hundred years ago, employees were tasked with manual labor and had no vested interest in the business that employed them.

In 2018, with high paying jobs hard to come by, it is essential for employers and leaders to engage their employees and make them feel as if they are an integral part of the business.

How can they do that? In this article, we’re going to lay out the what, why, and how of employee engagement.

Employee Engagement Most Recent Data

In 2017, Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report revealed that only 15% of employees worldwide are engaged in their jobs – meaning that they are emotionally invested in committing their time, talent, and energy to adding value to their team and advancing the organization’s initiatives.

This means that the majority of employees show low overall engagement. Workplace productivity was low and employees and organizations are not keeping up with workplace demands fast enough.

More Gallup research shows that employee disengagement costs the United States upwards of $550 billion a year in lost productivity. As employee engagement strategies become more commonplace, there is an amazing opportunity for companies that learn to master the art of engagement.

Jacob Shriar, in a piece on OfficeVibe, tells us that

• Disengaged employees cost organizations between $450 and $550 billion annually.
• Highly engaged business units result in 21% greater profitability.
• Highly engaged business units realize a 41% reduction in absenteeism and a 17% increase in productivity.
• Highly engaged business units achieve a 10% increase in customer ratings and a 20% increase in sales.
• Companies with engaged employees outperform those without by 202%.
• Customer retention rates are 18% higher on average when employees are highly engaged.

These statistics are just the beginning of why employee engagement is so important.

Why Is Employee Engagement So Important?

The term “engagement” has been used so often and in so many different situations that it’s become hard to define. Many people think it means happiness or satisfaction, but it’s much more than that.

According to Gallup, who has been collecting and measuring employee engagement data for nearly 20 years: “Though there have been some slight ebbs and flows, less than one-third of U.S. employees have been engaged in their jobs and workplaces.”

Imagine if every employee was passionate about seeing the company and its customers succeed. The only true way to ensure that your customers are well taken care of is by taking care of your employees. This is known as the service-profit chain, a concept first introduced by Harvard Business Review in 1998. It’s still as relevant today as it was then.

Profit and growth are stimulated primarily by customer loyalty. Loyalty is a direct result of customer satisfaction. Satisfaction is largely influenced by the value of services provided to customers. Value is created by satisfied, loyal, and productive employees. Employee satisfaction, in turn, results primarily from high-quality support services and policies that enable employees to deliver results to customers.

The service-profit chain is the flow from the culture you create to the profits you generate and every step in between. The key is to start internally. When you create an environment where employees are happy, productive, autonomous, and passionate about what they do, they’ll provide better service to your customers.

That amazing service will create many loyal customers, leading to sustainable growth and profits. That’s why it’s important for every leader in an organization to understand the service-profit chain and how each step impacts the other.

Key Employee Engagement Strategies

Organizations need to pay attention to specific priorities to engage employees. Employees are more likely to become truly engaged and involved in their work if your workplace provides these factors.

Employee engagement must be a business strategy that focuses on finding engaged employees, then keeping the employee engaged throughout the whole employment relationship. Employee engagement must focus on business results. Employees are most engaged when they are accountable, and can see and measure the outcomes of their performance.

Employee engagement occurs when the goals of the business are aligned with the employee’s goals and how the employee spends his or her time.

The glue that holds the strategic objectives of the employee and the business together is frequent, effective communication that reaches and informs the employee at the level and practice of his or her job.

Engaged employees have the information that they need to understand exactly and precisely how what they do at work every day affects the company’s business goals and priorities. (These goals and measurements relate to the Human Resources department, but every department should have a set of metrics.)

Employee engagement exists when organizations are committed to management and leadership development in performance development plans that are performance-driven and provide clear succession plans.

When businesses actively pursue employee engagement through these factors, employee engagement soars to a ratio of 9:1 employees from 2:1 employees with concurrent improvements in the business success.

Employee Engagement Examples

There are of course many ways to show your employees they are valued, and to keep them focused and engaged on company success. According to Forbes, there are certain items in the benefit package that will help in creating employee engagement:

• Health Insurance
• Company Parties (social engagement)
• Gifts (new babies, appreciation luncheons)

Employees go home to different roles–parent, caregiver to a loved one, a church or civic leader, spouse, bandmate, freelancer, artist, neighbor–and the people they are closest to impact their lives and perspectives about work in meaningful ways. Acknowledging those relationships and showing they are a priority will increase employee engagement.

How to Improve Employee Engagement

In a recent article in Forbes, Brent Gleeson, a former navy seal and successful businessman, gives solid advice on ways to improve employee engagement.

When managers are engaged, their team members can confidently state the following:

• I know what is expected of me and my work quality.
• I have the resources and training to thrive in my role.
• I have the opportunity to do what I do best – every day.
• I frequently receive recognition, praise and constructive criticism.
• I trust my manager and believe they have my best interests in mind.
• My voice is heard and valued.
• I clearly understand the mission and purpose and how I contribute to each.
• I have opportunities to learn and grow both personally and professionally.

The steps for improving engagement aren’t complex, they simply must be prioritized. This means engagement must be a core function of the manager’s role. The following steps can help the manager to accomplish this.

Step 1 – Put Everyone in the Right Role
Again, get the right people on the bus and make sure they are in the right roles. This means that all talent acquisition and retention strategies have to be aligned with meeting company goals.

Step 2 – Give them the Training
No manager or leader can expect to build a culture of trust and accountability — and much less improve engagement —without setting the team up for success. This means providing the proper training and development while removing obstacles.

Step 3 – Task Meaningful Work
Engaged employees are doing meaningful work and have a clear understanding of how they contribute to the company’s mission, purpose and strategic objectives. Again, this is why they first have to be placed in the right role. I’ve made the mistake of hiring great talent just to get them in the door – but didn’t have a clear career path or role for them. If you don’t sort those details out quickly, they will leave.

Step 4 – Check in Often
The days of simply relying on mid-year reviews for providing feedback are long gone. Today’s workforce craves regular feedback — which of course leads to faster course correction and reduces waste. Use both formal and informal check-in strategies — and use them every week.

Step 5 – Frequently Discuss Engagement
Successful managers are transparent in their approach to improving engagement — they talk about it with their teams all the time. They hold “state of engagement” meetings and “engage” everyone in the discussion — and solutions.

Again, these principles are not complex, but must be prioritized. Companies that get this right will drive greater financial returns, surpass their competitors, and easily climb to the top of “the best places to work” lists.

Are Your Employees Engaged?
Employee engagement is critical to the success of any business. When a business has engaged and invested employees, it is in their best interest to protect the productivity and profitability of the business, and the image the business has in the community. Engagement also results in employee retention, which saves the business money in turnover and training. There is no downside to getting your employees engaged and invested in your business.