Engaging employees in
the perfect storm
Richard Billingham
Head of Organisation Development
& Learning
• 60,000 employees
• 600+ locations in Birmingham
• Commitment and trust an issue
• Change not well managed
• New Chief Executive in 2006
• Embarking on business
transformation
• Pay and grading review
The change challenge - attitudes and behaviours
FROM:
• Avoiding responsibility
• Focusing on activities
• Letting bureaucracy slow
things down
• Waiting for instructions
from above
• Working in silos
• Looking inward
TO:
• Taking responsibility
• Focusing on outcomes
• Working at pace and
driving out waste
• Taking initiative and
feeling empowered
• Working collaboratively
across the Council
• Looking outward at
customers and
stakeholders
• Employee engagement programme
• Built around bringing to life
Birmingham’s values of
Belief Excellence Success Trust
• Change agents - BEST Leaders
• Bottom up & team based
• Multiple small local actions to lead
change
• Workshop (c 3 hours)
• Team based
• Run by a team member
• Values and behaviours tool
• Self-assessment and scoring
• Actions – team, customer,
partners
• Follow up
• Every team in the Council
• 2,500+ BEST leaders trained
• 25,000+ staff engaged in BEST
• 6,000+ committed actions
• Creativity, energy & innovation
• 1000 staff consulted in ‘Openspace’
• Monthly awards
• BEST Dragons’ Den
• Externally recognised as leading
the way in the UK public sector
And the BEST survey said…
• "I feel confident in the way that the senior management
team is leading my directorate" has increased from 29%
to 62%
• 60% believe that 'BEST has improved teamwork' with the
proportion of those satisfied with levels of teamwork
increasing from 62 to 87%
And the Kingston/CIPD survey said…
• 76% of BCC employees are strongly and frequently
engaged!!
• Living It Awards
• Chamberlains
• Excellence Focus Groups
• Generation BEST
• Twitter / Facebook / You Tube
• Research (2006) shows public sector workers have a more
negative experience of work
• Public sector workers less satisfied with opportunities to
use their abilities
• Transformation and reform is something done to staff
rather than with staff
• Public sector lags on awareness of strategic direction and
clear vision
• Many public sector workers aren’t convinced their
organisations live their values or are effective
Meaningful
work
Person-job fit
Supportive work
environment
Engagement
Senior
management
communication
and vision
Voice
- being heard
Line Managers
person–job fit
• Organisation design
• Round pegs in round holes
• Create options….especially
for square pegs
voice – being heard
• Create opportunities for
listening
• Power of 1:1 & 1:many
• Be seen to act on surveys
line managers
• People join organisations,
they leave managers
• Effective conversations:
• Communication, integrity, taking
an interest, seeing the bigger
picture, performance good and
bad, protect, support
meaningful work
• Purpose
• Passion
• Clear objectives
• Invite people to make the
connection
vision - leadership
• Communication does not
equal engagement!
• Being seen and being seen to
do
• Join up inside and outside
OD
Strategy
Tiered framework of core
behavioural competencies needed
to deliver the Council Plan
EPM
supportive work
• Teams are the unit of change
• Don’t underestimate the
social aspects of work
• Provide opportunities
• Simplicty
• Energy - connect
• Being on the dance floor and
the balcony
• Leadership
• Keep reinventing but don’t
lose the essence….