Doug Conant is the former CEO of Campbell’s Soup Company. When he assumed that position in 2001, he says the environment at Campbell’s was “toxic.” One third of his 20,000 employees were looking for jobs elsewhere. He and his team attacked the problem with a strategy of “employee engagement.” As a result, he was able to reduce the number of people heading for the doors from 1 in 3, to 1 in 18. Quite an accomplishment. To learn how he did it, please continue reading below.
“You cannot expect to perform at a high level unless people are personally engaged.” ~ Doug Conant, former CEO of Campbell’s Soup Company
Turnover, at Campbell’s Soup Company or anywhere else, is an expensive proposition. It takes a lot of time and money to recruit and train a new employee. Not only that, but turnover begets a productivity problem. In most cases, it’s going to take awhile for a new employee to get to the proficiency level of the employee he or she replaced. So it’s not surprising that, confronted with a turnover rate of 33%, Doug Conant and his team gave a high priority to solving that problem. However, they recognized that turnover was only a symptom, and that the real underlying problem was “employee engagement.”
There are many moving parts when you’re trying to get people from “not engaged” to “fully engaged,” but Conant focused on one area in particular. In his view, today’s managers are trained to fix what’s broken, so they endlessly look for inconsistencies, weak links, and flaws in performance. Not that they shouldn’t, but they need to offset that with celebrations of genuine accomplishment. Remember the old bestseller “The 60 Minute Manager” that encouraged us to “catch someone doing something right?” We’re too focused on catching someone doing something wrong while ignoring what they’re doing right. We need to change that.
Conant’s rules for “celebration” include:
- Be specific. You want people to know you’re paying attention, so tell them exactly what they (or their team) did to earn your applause.
- Make it personal. In Conant’s case, he sent handwritten notes to his star performers. If you (like me) are challenged when it come to legible penmanship, you will have to find your own way to “make it personal.” But however you do it, it’s important that the target of your celebration sees that you didn’t just have your secretary email a “Congratulations” form letter . . . he or she needs to see that you personally invested some time and energy in this activity.
- Walk the four corners. Get out of your office at least once a day and take a stroll around the place. Catch people doing something right. Celebrate on the spot, in person.
Bestselling author, Dan Pink, talks about Purpose (with a capital P) and purpose (with a small p). In his terminology, Purpose is corporate mission statement stuff . . . “save the whales” or some equally noble goal. But purpose (with a small p) is about the individual and it’s personal. Therefore, when we celebrate the accomplishments of an individual, we answer his or her always present questions:
- Do I have a purpose within this organization?
- Does my work have value? Does it matter?
- If I didn’t come into work tomorrow, would anyone notice or care?
As noted earlier, there are many aspects to “employee engagement,” and celebrating genuine accomplishment is only one of them, but a powerful one. Just look what it did for Campbell’s.
In your own organization, do you have problems with:
- Turnover (Retention)?
- Profitability?
- Productivity?
- Absenteeism?
- Quality?
- Safety?
- Customer service?
- Shrinkage/theft?
If so, these are all symptoms of an unengaged work force. While employee engagement may not be the entire answer, it’s certainly front and center. If you believe you have an employee engagement problem, but don’t know how to begin solving it, call me. I’d be glad to discuss it with you. It doesn’t cost you anything beyond the cost of the call, and I can promise that before you hang up, you’ll have some thoughts on how to begin assessing the size and source of your employee engagement problem.
