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Driving Employee Engagement Through Research

Driving Employee Engagement Through Research. Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Jackson Jackson and Wagner. Who is ASA?. Wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines Serves small and medium markets throughout the U.S. Nearly 6,000 employees in 42 domestic locations

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Driving Employee Engagement Through Research

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  1. Driving Employee Engagement Through Research Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Jackson Jackson and Wagner

  2. Who is ASA? • Wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines • Serves small and medium markets throughout the U.S. • Nearly 6,000 employees in 42 domestic locations • Rapid growth and influx of new employees • Double-digit growth every year since 2000 • Culture changing from “command and control” to open and participatory • Growing gap between old and new employees on culture, vision and values • Annual engagement survey showed improvement opportunities in future/vision category

  3. Communications Audit: Background • Senior leaders welcomed communication audit as opportunity to: • Gauge employee morale • Revise vision and guiding principles • Engage new employees, re-engage tenured team members • Improve communication • Create systems for an open, participatory culture

  4. Communications Audit:Research Objectives • Identify awareness and acceptance of vision and guiding principles • Identify gaps in communication and resources • Motivate desired behavior via rewards and recognition • Raise awareness & create ownership of guiding principles • Improve lateral communication

  5. Communications Audit:Research Design • CEO involvement established early • 170+ employees participated in research, including: • One-on-one interviews with 21 managers, directors and vice presidents • 25 focus groups with cross-divisional teams • Expert review of communications vehicles • Secondary research included ASA, peer history

  6. Communications Audit:Research Process • Project timing: • Three months from design to final presentation • Six months from presentation to rollout • Facilitated sessions with management team to establish priorities • Breakout sessions by division to discuss research, implementation of ideas • 12-person team to review and revise vision and guiding principles • Corporate Communications team developed action plan

  7. Communications Audit:Key Findings • Communications • Improving except in rapid growth areas • Communication breaks down at manager, supervisor level • Bottom-up communication is good; feedback inconsistent • Information overload – especially e-mail • Large gap in lateral communication across workgroups • Teams want information easier, earlier in decision-making process • Information is received, but not always understood • Grapevine still beats official announcements • Inconsistency communicating & enforcing policies and procedures

  8. Communications Audit:Key Findings • Culture: • Changing; more open, civil & participatory, but inconsistent • Internal agreement on ASA differentiators • Widely-shared pride and passion for company, work and teammates • Many ASA/Delta challenges to work out as one team • Management says guiding principles are being lived, employees see contradictions • Vision to “be the best” is understood and achievable, but meaning is unclear • Employees worry Delta’s future not as positive as ASA’s • Do more to motivate employees via rewards and recognition

  9. Communications Audit:Recommendations • Communications: • Multi-level feedback system with timely response • More two-way open forums • New vision, guiding principles with ongoing education • Policies: • Create long-term strategic plan for communications training & evaluation • Cross-training to improve lateral communication • Internal education campaign on policies & procedures • Multi-level reward and recognition program

  10. Vision Plan • Findings and recommendations presented to senior leaders • Developed vision team consisting of front-line, middle managers & senior leaders • Revised vision and guiding principles presented to officers • Core team reported back to focus group participants • Officers met with Corporate Communications to develop rollout plan

  11. Vision Implementation • Internal Rollout • New vision and guiding principles rolled out at leadership meeting • Task managers with local vision discussions • Vision video • Manager briefing book • Disposable camera • Vision brochure, lanyard cards • Customized vision materials distributed to participating locations • Identify “vision leaders” in key locations

  12. Communications Audit: One year later • Corporate initiatives implemented: • Monthly lunch series with ASA president • Unannounced leadership visits to largest hub • Cross-divisional shadow program • New reward & recognition programs based on vision and operational performance • Incorporate vision and guiding principles into communications vehicles • Vision Week: • Quarterly programming based on vision and guiding principles

  13. How did we do? • Vision measured in annual engagement survey

  14. How did we do? • New vision believable, communicated by managers

  15. Driving Employee Engagement Through Research Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Jackson Jackson and Wagner

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