creating employee engagement and sustainable business iperformance
DESCRIPTION
The story of how Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation created employee engagement and sustainable business performance. Open space technology, contracting between processes, and building personal resilience were key elements that resulted in proven business improvements. For a free "how to" application to apply these steps to your company, email me: [email protected]TRANSCRIPT
Creating employee engagement and sustainable business performance
The Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation storyOctober 2012
Lomkhosi Magagula, Group HR ManagerRod Warner, Building Resilience
Agenda1. Open Space Technology 2. Teambuilding contracting3. Contracting between processes4. Building personal resilience5. IR teambuilding contracting
PurposeCase Study
“Achieving sustainable business performance through employee engagement”
Share processes, interventions, experience which you can use for your organisation
Our aim: To enable you to follow a similar process
Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC)
RSSC Profile Largest employer in Swaziland, after Government Listed : Swaziland Stock Exchange Shareholders : diverse & international Cane Growing Operations : 20,000 Ha irrigated
directly managed & 10,000 Ha outgrowers 2 sugar Mills, Sugar Refinery, and Ethanol Distillery Part-own a packaging plant
Economic Contribution
Production: 66% of Swaziland’s sugar & 30M litres Ethanol
• Indirect employment : contractors and suppliers• Services open to general public : Clinics, VCT etc• Assist police, customs, schools• Education contribution : Allowances (E3.7m) &
Bursaries (E1.2m)
Business Challenges
Rooted in Swaziland (E) & operates in an international environment (€ : R : P : N$ : )
Business environment constantly changing placing pressure on profitability & sustainability Embarking on an ambitious business strategy Restructuring business for competitiveness
Increasing input costs (electricity, fuel, molasses) Increased focus on productivity & profitability
1. Open Space Technology
Open Space meeting at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
What is it? Harrison Owen “Organisation Transformation” Approach of engaging 5 - 2,100 people On a specific & complex topic or theme Begins without an agenda Room arranged in circle Bulletin board Marketplace Action plans
Empty Agenda Wall
Setting the Agenda
Topics of Interest
A Section of the Market Place
Case Study : Manufacturing Causal analysis : plethora of causes but
engagement was one of them Interventions
Quarterly reviews focused on 5 performance indicators (LTA, overall recovery of sucrose, DIFR, budget utilisation & through put)
Translation of performance indices for individuals Securing skills Open Space Technology Resilience Workshops
2. Teambuilding
• First teambuilding: – Trust and interdependency teambuilding exercises– Factory personal and team behavioural
commitments– New targets for each process to meet factory
overall goal– Actions to meet the targets and create excellence
in process
Team Effectiveness ModelCompetence:PerformanceKnowledge and skills
Co-operation: Relationships Communication
Commitment:Hearts and minds issuesResilience
Client
The Six Personal Commitments:1. Achieving “Less than 10 in 2011”2. Providing leadership that is accountable for factory
targets via my decisions and actions for the success of the organisation
3. Using our skills and innovation to achieve individual and factory targets
4. Communicate daily meeting outcomes every day to my staff, keep colleagues informed of all relevant issues which affect them and listen to feedback from staff
5. Timekeeping for myself and my team6. Creating a high-performance culture by holding each
other accountable and engaging in crucial conversations when necessary
The Team Work Commitments
1. Taking team work back to the factory and sustaining it2. Incorporate our teambuilding outcomes into Toolbox Talks, including
and using the Team Effectiveness Model3. Explain the value chain and each individual’s role in achieving it4. Communicate the six personal commitments to the rest of the staff
and get buy-in. Posters to assist in awareness creation5. Walk the talk and be a role model of team work using the six
personal commitments6. Review, discuss and finalise the functional team commitments that
have been made, taking into consideration requests from the other teams, and then communicate them
Measuring and Tracking of Team and Personal Commitments
Measure and track via daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly performance discussions/reviews/action plans
Use electronic display boards, online, for information dissemination
Restructure morning meetings (Toolbox Talks) agenda to include production targets and performance
Ensure up-to-date PJO and KPA for every individual Encourage "raising the red flag" when a blaming culture
develops Encouraging sharing of resources , especially with
breakdowns, no matter where they occur Celebrate achievements
RSSC Factory Staff Negative Reinforcing CycleBoard becomes concerned about manufacturing productivity and puts pressure on GM-Manufacturing
GM-Manufacturing puts pressure on Factory Managers, who put pressure on their senior staff
Factory staff become disengaged, and less proactive in addressing problems. Senior staff become frustrated.
Factory staff don't identify with the values of the organisation; don't see a direct link between their jobs, productivity improvement and the prosperity of the organisation; some are not resilient and some not pro-active
Factory productivity increases after interventions, but over time falls back to previous levels
Senior staff sometimes intervene directly to address problems, and sometimes use disciplinary process rather than performance management process to deal with mistakes. Pressure is increased on all.
3. Teambuilding Process Contracting
• Second teambuilding:– Trust and cooperation teambuilding exercises – Review personal and team behavioural commitments– Shoes exercise for each processes:
• What we think it must feel like to work in that team• How we think they feel about us
– Ask and offer exercise for each process (incl. targets and actions)• What we ask of that team• What we offer that team
Teambuilding Process Contracting (cont)
• Third teambuilding:– Interdependency teambuilding exercises (brief)– Review personal and team behavioural
commitments; shoes exercise and ask and offer exercise
– Feedback to each process: carry on, stop and start– New ask and offer for each process (incl. targets
and actions)• What we ask of that team• What we offer that team
4. Building Personal Resilience
Purpose: build people’s individual capacity to deal with change, stress and adversity
What is meant by “resilience”? Task focused and productive whilst experiencing tough times
“Bouncing back”
Emerging stronger and more resourceful
Resilience Workshop Content Resilience Principles to deal with the “daily grind”
as well as the “darkest night”. Change and resilience Reconnecting with personal meaning in life. Identifying and using unique personal strengths. Building “grit” and mental toughness. Reframing adversity. Practical methods of increasing realistic
optimism. Identifying personal strategies for dealing with
change and tough times.
Resilience Workshop Outcomes Understand how to remain task focused at work
during periods of prolonged change and stress. Increased adaptability and confidence when
experiencing tough times. Ability to reduce the negative impact of stress on
work outputs, colleagues and family. Experience more hope, optimism and positivity
and so better cope with job demands.
Leve
l of r
esili
ence
Usual conditions
Adversity encountered
ErodingNavigating
Reconciling
Thriving
Phase 1: Eroding - encountering and assigning meaning to the adversity
Phase 2: Reconciling - coming to terms with the impact and implications
Phase 3: Navigating - moving forward and dealing with the issues
Phase 4: Thriving - experiencing enhanced resourcefulness and strength
Experiencing adversity with resilience:
Time© Copyright Performax Consulting 2006 No part of this material may be copied, stored in a retrieval system, displayed or distributed without written permission
Experiencing adversity with poor resilienceLe
vel o
f res
ilien
ce
Usual conditions
Adversity encountered
Eroding
Succumb: dysfunctional coping
Disabled: survival coping or “stuck”
Reconciling
Time
Phase 1: Eroding - encountering and assigning meaning to the adversity Phase 2: Reconciling - coming to terms with the impact and implications Phase 3: Succumb - overwhelmed; dysfunctional copingPhase 4: Disabled - resistance; survival coping or “stuck”
© Copyright Performax Consulting 2006 No part of this material may be copied, stored in a retrieval system, displayed or distributed without written permission
•Deal with “bad hair” days•Cope with the “darkest night”•Develop and flourish on the journey towards self actualisation
Resilience is thus needed to:
We define resilience as the life force to overcome adversity, heal and strive towards fulfilling your
potential
Resilience building blocks domains
1. Connect to your meaning in life
2. Use your unique strengths
3. Maintain perspective
4. Generate positive feelings
5. Be realistically optimistic
6. Persevere by being open minded and flexible
7. Reach out to others
Building Resilience Principles
Building Resilience impact
Enabled staff to cope better with the increasingly demanding work environment
Better handling of stress and also identification of people needed assistance
Teambuilding effect of getting to know colleagues as people
Common language of hope
5. Industrial Relations: Negotiating parties teambuilding and contracting
RSSC: union, staff association and management teams• First annual teambuilding:
– Trust and interdependency teambuilding exercises– Negotiating parties behavioural commitments
• Second annual teambuilding:– Trust and cooperation teambuilding exercises – Review personal and team behavioural commitments– Shoes exercise for each party:
• What we think it must feel like to work in that team• How we think they feel about us
– Ask and offer exercise for each party (incl. targets and actions)• What we ask of that team• What we offer that team
• Third annual teambuilding:– Interdependency teambuilding exercises (brief)– Review personal and team behavioural commitments; shoes exercise and ask and offer exercise– Feedback to each party: carry on, stop and start– New ask and offer for each party (incl. targets and actions)
• What we ask of that team• What we offer that team
Industrial Relations: Negotiating parties teambuilding and contracting
Historically adversarial approach Interventions implemented to facilitate a
collaborative approach Off site negotiations Presentations of negotiation positions Business context and economic context
Step change achieved - settlement in record 3 days
Challenge : changes in committee members
Results : Step Change in Manufacturing
Distillery
Factory
Design Production rate 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13
136 KL/day 80 110 120 136
Industry LTA standard
2009/10 2010/11 2011/12
5% 19% 19% 10.6%
What would we do differently?
More involvement of senior management More integration of interventions and
reporting structures Identify and capacitate resilience champions Communicate corporate-wide Measure impact of specific interventions