Improving Engagement and Retention Through Deliberate Connection

Compliance typically rules the day in organizations where employees feel disconnected. Beyond evolving into “clock watchers” who do the bare minimum, these employees tend to mope and complain while avoiding social gatherings outside of the workplace. When the organizational environment is structured such that it reinforces “clock-watching” behavior, disconnection becomes a cultural norm as more and more employees become disengaged. There has been lots of talk about the importance of employee engagement as it relates to organizational success.   Given the number of organizations that fail to succeed, this is a concept that leaders and managers should be intimately familiar with. But was it, and how can you get more of it? 

Employee engagement can be thought of as the extent to which employees are committed to the goals and values of an organization as evidenced by discretionary effort, or the frequency with which they go above and beyond to achieve objectives (Daniels, 2004). Behaviorally speaking, it might simply be considered value-added behavior that is reinforced (Ludwig & Frazier, 2012). While job satisfaction is typically linked to factors such as pay, benefits, and job security, engagement is specific to persistence and enthusiasm as it relates to day-to-day behavior and outcomes.  When employees are engaged vertically and horizontally, accomplishments (Gilbert, 2007) or "work outputs" (Binder, 2011) are multiplied, and business results achieved. 

While employee engagement can be developed in a variety of ways, let’s take a look at one powerful strategy as led by Pierre Louis of DiNovi & Associates. Louis, Executive Director of Leadership and Training, stumbled across Behavior Analysis at Rutgers University 20 years ago. Initially trained and mentored under the likes of Dr. Sandra Harris and Dr. Mary Jane Weiss, much of his earliest experiences in field occurred during his seven years at the Douglass Developmental Disability Center. Louis, who never aspired to being a leader, notes that people just “pulled me in to it” as he reflects on his time at Douglass.  When asked about his current leadership position, Louis notes, “Brett [DiNovi] has kept at me. He pulled me out of my comfort zone. Now, I’m very comfortable. I’ve always seen myself as being the connector to those doing the direct work and the visionaries.”

One of Louis' tasks is to increase employee engagement within the company. According to Louis, “Connection is key. Folks connected to each other, connected to leadership, connected to the bigger picture, and connected to short, mid, and long term goals through work outputs.” Louis says that he and DiNovi are always seeking out talent within BDA, or looking for employees who feel their talents are not being utilized. “If there is a clinician right now in the company that is not being maximized in terms of their talent,” Louis surmises, “they might start thinking about looking elsewhere.” With satisfaction and productivity as his number one focus, he has created opportunities to learn more about and connect people with their strengths and passions through monthly internal networking events where peers learn and bond with one another over behavior science.  Louis notes, “While leaders are ultimately responsible, it comes down to peers. Keep them accountable to one another through these ‘niche’ groups and we can keep performance going in the right direction, increase the opportunity to network, and ultimately further engage people.”

The premise is simple: give people an opportunity to express themselves and you can find out what their reinforcers are. “I don’t have to ask them what their niche is, it’s obvious. I ask people about what they want to present on, and they say ‘setting events’. I ask them why, and they will tell me why it’s important to them.” Once Louis identifies an employee’s passion, he offers them the opportunity to present on it at the monthly meeting. This provides the employee with an occasion to further both their leadership and understanding of the concepts as they deepen their knowledge in preparation for the presentation. “If during the presentation we discover others may have a similar passion," Louis reflects, "we may start a learning group about it. And then my job is to follow up with them to ask how can I get you to do more about that in the company.”

When asked for an example, Louis states “We had a BCBA-D present on ACT [Acceptance Commitment Therapy]. As a result, there was such an interest that we created a BDA ACT group within the company. The group now has met almost a dozen times. Now people are being trained in ACT and can use it for themselves or with their clients. We are actually in the process of bringing ACT to schools now.”

By deliberately connecting clinicians in the company through the monthly networking meetings, Louis finds employees are less likely to leave, more likely to support one another, and more likely to keep in touch with good practice through the research presented. 

If you think this might be a good way to engage employees within your organization, here is a brief review of how the process works at BDA as laid out by Louis:

Brief Description: There are 3 meetings monthly across the state that are approximately 2 hours in length. During the meeting, company updates are provided to keep people informed, allow people them to meet and network, and to disseminate the science. Meetings are not mandatory, and participants receive 1 CE and tickets that allow access to a variety of reinforcers.

Process:

1. Meeting location and date established
2. Speakers are selected based on their performance and potential as emerging leaders. This provides the performer with the opportunity to put people in a leadership position and receive feedback. Sometimes it’s people who are well-versed in a topic. 
3. If the presentation is over 50 minutes, from a peer reviewed journal, and it is in a lecture format, it is considered for a CE 
4. Admin assistant is informed of whether the event will be a CE to log it in and keep track of CE events for future audits
5. Meetings invites sent out at the beginning of the month. Some people accept, some decline. It is not mandatory.
6. Sign in sheet completed with Name, Cert Number, time in/out, title of CE title, and title of presenter
7. Tickets are provided to each person for attendance that can be turned in for back up reinforcers
8. Meetings arranged in the following order:

•  Fun fact of the day (1 minute)
• Personal update ice breaker (9 minutes)
• Company update ( 30 minutes)
• Guest speaker (50-70 minutes)

9. PowerPoint review and share

• New presenters email to Pierre prior for review
• Regular presenters email after for dissemination

10. Wrap up - pull two names and spin the wheel to receive money for participating

Employee engagement is extremely important to the success an organization. One way to engage employees is to connect liked minded people through internal learning and networking processes as explained by Pierre Louis. If you’d like to find out a little more about Pierre and some of the good work being done at BDA through employee engagement, check out this video!

References

Daniels, A., & Daniels, D. (2004). In Performance management: Changing behavior that drives organizational effectiveness. GA: Performance Management Publications.

Ludwig, T and Frazier, C. (2012) Employee Engagement and Organizational Behavior Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 32:1, 75-82, DOI: 10.1080/01608061.2011.619439

Gilbert, T. F. (1978, 2007). Human competence: Engineering worthy performance. Publication of the International Society for Performance Improvement. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.