In the Boardroom with NedAi

Episode 2: Revolutionizing Engagement: Leveraging AI and Human Collaboration in Interactive Dynamic vs Static Engagement

During the Financial Times Moral Money Conference in London, a breakout workshop "Integrating Employee Well-Being into ESG Strategy," was particularly insightful. The session underscored a $4-11 trillion opportunity in stakeholder/employee well-being and why it should be a cornerstone of corporate strategy. Beyond mitigating risk, there are gains in productivity, retention, and cybersecurity for companies that prioritize well-being as a driver of value creation.

As an independent board member and former executive leader, I see annual employee engagement surveys and wonder if they are more of a "check the box" exercise than a valuable reflection. Not as a reflection of what leaders want but limitations of the methodology. Recently, while taking a survey on an event I attended, I noted that if I selected "other" and provided a unique answer, it appeared as an option in the next question for me and for others to choose. This got me thinking—how can AI be leveraged to gain deeper insights into what truly motivates employees?

One of the most famous examples of a value statement is the Credo for Johnson & Johnson, written by founder Robert Wood Johnson in 1943 when the company was still privately owned. It's a remarkably "modern" document that clearly lays out the company's value priorities. https://www.jnj.com/our-credo Many executive leaders and board members spend significant time defining values that reflect how leaders view the purpose of the company. It is the view of leadership through their lens. Is the purpose of these expressions of value an exercise in communication or rather in engagement?

But how do these values translate across generations of workers? Do the principles and values resonate similarly across diverse global teams? Does it drive the hoped for behaviors? In real time, is it relevant to employee decision making? What is relevant to one group of employees in Singapore might be very different when the lens of different cultures are used for instance with employees in the United States or Saudi Arabia. How are cultural differences important in execution on business priorities? How sustainable are the values?

Imagine reworking your company's surveys to take advantage of AI. A new interactive and dynamic, culturally relevant employee engagement survey might engage employees in a substantially different way. How could an interactive and dynamic survey be focused? Here are a few ideas using a question methodology:

• Who is your customer? Does the company provide value to them? What is that value? How could we provide more value? What is your view of how you and your role provides value? Reflecting on how the company defines our customer, how does that definition compare to yours?
• As an employee are you treated with recognition of your diversity as a person? Do you feel included in conversations? Are your ideas "heard" by your leadership? What is your unique value proposition to the business?
• What is the company's footprint in your community? Are you involved as a volunteer? If you would like to do that, what impact and value would it bring to your work? What volunteer work would you do? How could the company play a larger role in the community you live in?
• Do you feel the company provides adequate stewardship for planetary resources in your country? Globally? What ideas do you have that might impact how the resources are better used?
• What is the role and responsibility of the company to its investors as compared to other stakeholder groups? Are you one of the investors? Do you hold stock in the company that you received through your work?
• Reflecting on the value of integrity as defined by the board of directors and executive officers of your company, how does that compare to your own definition? What could be done to make it more relevant to you? How does integrity relate to cybersecurity?

Interactive and dynamic questions on surveys could offer real-time insights, adapting based on employee responses, and providing a more accurate and nuanced understanding of the workforce's beliefs, values and ideas in real time. AI is ideally suited to collaborate and share the responses so that you get evolving employee engagement. Such an approach could reveal both risks and opportunities previously unconsidered. Regulatory and employment laws would need to be evaluated, but this should not deter modern HR teams from implementing such dynamic surveys within that context.

Conducting the surveys during specified periods, where employees are given specific times to respond, could also foster a sense of community and engagement among employees, making them look forward to this reflection exercise.

The Credo by Robert Wood Johnson is a modern reflection of the values he established for Johnson & Johnson, a timeless document reflecting core business values. Leveraging these principals in a interactive and dynamic, real-time reflection of how these values are executed by a global team with myriad cultural contexts would modernize it without losing its value.

As a non-executive or independent board director, it's crucial to ask questions that help the executive team evolve the current survey strategies. As simple as, "What methodology are we using to engage our workforce regarding the annual survey?" and "Is the survey providing the information needed to enhance workplace effectiveness and efficiency?" Is it reflecting cultural differences?

Engagement Question: How do you think AI can revolutionize your workforce engagement and management? As a board member what role could you play? How would a interactive dynamic employee engagement survey impact your business? Share your thoughts!

#economics #sustainability #motivation #futurism #innovation #HumanResources #technology #Leadership #AI #EmployeeEngagement #FutureOfWork #BusinessStrategy #NED #boardofdirectors