Monthly Archives: March 2012

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10 Pitfalls To Running A Christian Business

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Have you prayed about how you are to run your business?  Have you sought God with intensity on the question of running your business for Him?  If not, I would suggest you not read any further until you do. The pitfalls I describe below will not help you with your decision until you have prayed about this.

pitfallsI know I am probably breaking several “Rules for a Successful Blog” when I tell you not to read further, but I cannot help it.  If you think you can get enough information on which to make a solid decision in this area without first seeking God in prayer, then you are mistaken.  In fact, if you simply look at the facts through your own eyes, you will almost certainly decide against running your business this way.

Praying and Thinking

If you are still reading, then I assume you have prayed (and continue to do so) about this decision.  You may have read my posts on the 5 Reasons to Run Your Business According to Your Christian Faith.  It makes sense to you, but you are still not sure whether you should proceed or not.  Good.  I am glad you are thinking about it.  I want you to think about it.

As with any major decision, I believe we are to go to God’s Word.  What does the Bible have to say about making a major decision like this?

For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to make fun of him, saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.
– Luke 14:28-30

Count the Costs

I will tell you, from my personal experience, that this decision is bigger than it even looks.  There are pitfalls, and benefits, that you have not even thought of.  It is just not what it appears.  Therefore, as Jesus taught in this Scripture, we must count the costs.

I realize that your experience in making this decision, and then implementing it, will not necessarily mirror my own experience.  At the same time, because I have already been through this process, I can share about my journey.  My hope is that I can help you avoid, or at least be prepared for, the following pitfalls (as well as those not listed!).

I will give you the list of pitfalls like Solomon might have done it in Proverbs.  Here are ten pitfalls of running a Christian business, eleven hazards you will face when basing your business on your Christian faith…

The Pitfalls

First of all, this is not an exhaustive list.  Secondly, I believe the benefits outweigh these pitfalls!

Now, some of these are self explanatory and some require further clarification.  While I will not do a continuous series of eleven posts on these pitfalls, I will take each of these topics and expand on them in the coming weeks and months.  I hope you will follow along and participate in the discussion as we go.

Do you disagree with any of the above?

Are you truly praying for God’s will in your business?

Are you willing to give it to Him despite the apparent costs?

This post originally published on 9/9/11.

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What Do Cancer, Children, Car Shows, and Chaplains Have In Common?

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Just before Christmas this past year, one of our long-term employees took her 14 yr. old son to the doctor to have a knee injury checked out. What they thought was simply swelling turned out to be a mother’s nightmare – a rare form of bone cancer. Obviously, this is a life-changing event. It poses the question: What ministry responsibilities does a Christian company have in responding to this kind of situation?

ministry

Ministry Through Business

Now, I will be the first to tell you that we are not the perfect Christian business. Not even close. There are so many ways we fall short of where we want to be. I am sure we miss ministry opportunities every day.

On the other hand, we give it a lot of effort and I am proud of what God has accomplished in our company over the past eight years. In fact, this blog is an attempt to share some of what He has done to change this company’s focus. So, when a situation comes along that exemplifies this kind of ministry, I feel compelled to share.

Flexible Schedule

First and foremost, we wanted to make sure that this mother had full freedom to be with her son at every possible moment through the medical maze of full diagnosis, planning, and treatment. Though she is in a critical role within our company’s accounting department, we gave her the freedom to effectively set her own schedule.

She worked when she could (occupying her mind) and she was with him whenever she needed to be. In this case, we took Andy Stanley’s advice and did for one what we wish we could do for everyone. While our employee handbook does not exactly deal with this situation, we made sure we gave her every freedom we could. We cannot allow everyone this freedom all the time, but we can bend the rules when we have to.

Employees Engaged

Next, we had several employees step up in various ways from providing gas for her multiple trips to Atlanta (60+ miles each way) to chipping in with her work responsibilities and even helping her set up an account at the local bank for donations toward medical expenses. Everyone did their best to show their support through encouragement and prayers. She has never been in doubt that we were supporting her and her family.

One of the sales departments had the idea of hosting a car show, with the profits going to help out with medical expenses. This idea gained support and that department really put hours of effort into pulling it off. The event drew 60 cars, raised close to $1,500 for their medical expenses, and even served as the capstone to her son’s birthday party!

Chaplain

Finally, and likely most importantly, our company chaplain has been able to give her and her family the spiritual support they need. In addition to his normal support through weekly visits, he has been able to provide focused support for her and her family throughout the process so far.

Yesterday, the chaplain was able to sit with the family as the son went into surgery to remove the tumor from his leg. He was able to pray with them before and after the surgery and to wait with them until the doctor came back with the results. In fact, he was there to hear the doctor report that the surgery went better than expected! It appears that all of the cancer has been removed and that the leg is going to look great and operate normally!

This situation is not completely over for this family. We will need to maintain the support and continue to look for ministry opportunities. Our prayer is that our actions will help to get them through to the other side of this situation with their family intact. We also hope that their faith is strengthened as a result. The main goal is that God gets the credit for all that is done.

Eternal Impact

As far as can tell, there is not a book that specifically addresses how a Christian company is supposed to respond to an employee crisis like this one. I believe we are simply to seek to honor God and love our neighbors as ourselves. Regardless of the crisis, this behavior will have eternal impact!

How has your company responded to similar situations?

Do your employees have the opportunity to engage?

What more could you do next time?

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Tortoise and the Hare

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A Friend’s Transformation

A very good friend of mine recently started working on his own blog. Well, let me put it this way…he is finding out how much he has to learn about the technical aspects of building a blog, website, and the like! He is in the middle of the process and realizes he drastically underestimated the learning curve.

tortoise

At the same time, I know he will come out on the other end of this process with a successful blog. I know this because I have watched him do the same thing in other areas of his life. Before I tell you more about his story, let me tell you what has been on my mind as of late.

Dave Ramsey’s Recommendation

Dave Ramsey, in his recent book EntreLeadership, talked about a great business book someone had recommended he read. Ramsey, like me, loves to read great business books and then apply the truths learned in his own business.

In this case, the recommendation came from a billionaire (that’s a “B”) in business. When someone with this track record recommends a book, you should listen. So, what was the title of the book?

Tortoise [title color=”red-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”georgia” style=”oblique” size=”scmgc-1em”]The Tortoise and the Hare![/title]

That’s right! Aesop’s fable The Tortoise and the Hare is at the top of a billionaire’s business reading list. In fact, he told Ramsey that he reads it to his top people every year! Evidently, he sees some value in the book, right? As for me, that is enough reason to take time to study it.

Learning From The Tortoise

So, study it I have. And while the moral of the story is simple – Slow and steady wins the race, it is not necessarily common. In fact, I would go as far as to say it flies in the face of the majority of what I see around me today.

In my business, and likely yours as well, the common focus is on 30-day or quarterly results. If you cannot produce results in the immediate future, then you likely won’t have a job for long. Most people just don’t work and wait for long-term results anymore.

Spiritual Hares?

This is not only true in business, but in virtually all facets of life. Take our spiritual lives. How many times have you gone to a conference (like Promise Keepers) or a revival and come away feeling like you are on the mountaintop? We all have! And we have all wished we could stay there.

Even Peter felt this way in Matthew 17:4. We all have a natural desire to rush to the top of the mountain and stay there. We want quick and easy and our society shows it. We are certainly paying the price for this mindset.

Solution: Tortoise Game Plan

So what is the solution? The game plan of the tortoise! Spiritually, it is a daily quiet time and consistent prayer and Bible study that, over time, gets the best results. In business, it is Biblical principles applied on a consistent basis with hard work and persistence.

My Friend’s Decision

Back to my friend with the upcoming blog. The reason I know he will be successful is that I have watched him change his entire being over the past 14 months. You see, at the end of 2010, he weighed 300 lbs. and was drinking heavily on a daily basis. He was a believer, but there was no real evidence of his faith.

And yet, one day he just decided he wanted to be someone different. Actually, he realized he was someone different and wanted to go back to who he really was – to who God created him to be. So he changed everything.

Tortoise Transformation

He did not buy a lottery ticket. He did not go to the internet and research the best pill for weight loss. He did not order the Hawaii chair.

Instead, he stopped drinking. Cold. He stopped eating junk and began eating healthy. He started exercising. Regularly.

Now this sounds too easy. It sounds a little too perfect. Maybe, but it is true. I watched him do it. His solution was not an instant one. Nor was it an easy one. It took him a lot of sweat and tears…literally. But he made it. He made it with tortoise-like persistence.

Now, 14 months later, he has lost 115 lbs. and has not had a drop of alcohol since that day. He has participated in multiple triathlons and has a 5 year plan to do the Ironman. He is also spiritually awake and growing each day.

Same Solution

For his blog, the solution is the same. He needs to keep hammering away at the process of learning this new skill. He will most likely not see overnight success in his blog. But if he stays the course and progresses a little each day, he will come out with something he can be proud of.

For now, I am proud of his progress. We can all draw inspiration from his example. When his blog is ready to go live, I will have him guest post and let you get a taste of what makes him tick!

Where are you trying to be the Hare?

Have you seen success with the Tortoise game plan?

Where do you need to be like the tortoise?

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Why Do Business From An Eternal Perspective?

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Healthy Debate

I had a great meeting this past week at C12. We discussed challenges that we are all facing in regards to trying to run our businesses according to our Christian faith. The funny thing is that even within a group like this, opinions can differ. While there is a part of all of us that wants everyone to agree with us, I know that is not possible – or healthy. Engaging in healthy debate, even about things like eternal perspective, is a great way to grow.

eternal perspective

As I attempted to explain my beliefs regarding how we should run our businesses from an eternal perspective, I realized I have never formally prepared a well-thought-out, Scripture-supported basis for my position. I have certainly studied verses and passages that have led me to believe, and therefore act, the way I do. What I have not done is to lay out my beliefs in an organized argument so that I can respond appropriately when asked about my “Why?”

My Project

So, I am going to work on this. I will give you a few of my thoughts in this post, but I promise to come back later with the results of my work. I cannot promise a bullet-proof thesis, but I will present my prayed-over thoughts in a way that you can understand and validate through Scripture.

I do not expect everyone to stop, applaud, and agree with me on every point. As I said before, that is not reasonable. However, I do hope to spur you on to do some of your own thinking. I hope to encourage you to think about the Scriptural basis for what you do. For now, I just want to pique your interest a little and hopefully get some feedback and/or suggestions.

Applying Scripture

First, I realize that it is not necessarily wise (with some possible exceptions) to take one verse, or even passage, and base all of your beliefs on it. An understanding of the whole of Scripture is most often needed before trying to apply single verses or passages to your life. It is for this reason that I have several verses that come to my mind when I start thinking about why I run my business from an eternal perspective.

Basis For Eternal Perspective

Having said that, if there is one central Scripture to my beliefs in the area of doing business from an eternal perspective, it is the following passage from the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire. 

1 Corinthians 3:11-15

I did an earlier post on this passage, and I talked about those temporal things so many of us pursue to one degree or another. All of these will burn in the fire mentioned by Paul above. I, for one, do not want to spend my life working for anything that will only last for a short time. I would much rather be focused on producing fruit that will not rot – that will last for eternity.

What Will Survive The Fire?

See, the way I look at this passage, the only things that we can build while we are here on earth that will last beyond our lives here are not things we can touch. Anything I can physically touch will be burned up in the fire. I cannot think of a single item that will not burn up in the fire.

On the other hand, those relationships we build will last. The memories we have will last. The souls we pointed toward a personal relationship with Jesus Christ will survive the fire. While the businesses we operated will burn, the impact that we had through our businesses will last.

Methods Vary

Obviously, the way we choose to impact others will depend on the way God designed us and the choices we make. Some may impact others through teaching, others may choose serving. There will be those who give and those who comfort. God wired each of us differently.

However, while the method can vary, the fire will not. It will be the same test for all of us. No one is exempt from the testing fire. If that is truly the case, then I think it makes the most sense for us to focus our energies on maximizing our efforts in areas that will produce fire-proof, eternal fruit.

My Application

For me, that means I make every effort to run my business in a way that produces the eternal fruit, not the kind that will rot or burn.

As I said before, stay tuned for a more detailed and organized argument for doing business from an eternal perspective. If you have any feedback either way, please submit it! I would love to have perspectives from other people. When possible, tell me the Scripture on which you are basing your belief.

Have you thought through why you do business the way you do?

Is your motivation based on Scripture or something else?

What do you think will last through the fire?

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2 Simple Ideas For Employee Recognition

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Recently, I included the following brief message in our monthly employee newsletter. Read the message and then I want to explain how this fits into employee engagement through employee recognition.

employee recognition

From Our Newsletter

    The following is an excerpt from Seth Godin’s blog:

    No organization cares about you. Organizations aren’t capable of this. Your bank, certainly, doesn’t care. Neither does your HMO or even your car dealer. It’s amazing to me that people are surprised to discover this fact.

    What are your thoughts at this point? Do you agree with what he says? Aren’t we part of a dealership “family” that cares about each other and our customers?

    The truth is we are not!

    The truth is (and Seth goes on to say this later in the blog) that only people care. Organizations, companies, and teams are incapable of caring, but the people that make up these groups are the ones that care.

    Here is the difference…if you think and act like the groups are capable of caring, then you are actually attempting to relieve yourself of the responsibility for caring. If everyone else does the same thing, then no one cares.

    If, on the other hand, every individual in the organization takes personal responsibility for caring, then it ends up looking like the entire organization cares.

    It is in this kind of organization that we all prefer to work. It is this kind of organization that draws customers. It is this kind of organization of which we can be proud.

    What about you? Do you care?

Encourage Thinking Outside of Job

This message is one of many that I send in an effort to get our employees thinking outside of just doing their job and going home everyday. I want them seeing the world around them and getting involved…engaged.

Mission and Vision

Our company’s mission is to honor God by impacting the lives of our employees, customers, and community. Our vision statement is “Moving people.” This plays on the transportation theme in our business, but carries a deeper meaning as well.

As people movers, we want to take other employees, customers, as we as those in the community, and “move” them from their current position or circumstances to a better one – whatever that looks like.

Employee Recognition

I also want them to feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Not only does this reduce the likelihood that they will leave to go to work somewhere else, but it also gives them fulfillment that we all so desperately need. A good way to do this is with employee recognition.

In addition to consistent communication through the employee newsletter and other methods, we created a couple of awards to reinforce this idea.

RPM Award

The first is called an RPM (Recognizing People Movers) award. This award recognizes anyone that has shown care for someone else by doing their job exceptionally well and going the extra mile. They are nominated by the other employees. We typically give out four to six of these awards in an average month. All of the award winners each month are put into a random drawing. We give the winner of the drawing a gift card for $100.

One example of a winner of an RPM award was a salesperson that responded quickly to a crisis with a customer. Something went wrong with a scheduled after-hours delivery of a new vehicle to the customer’s home and it did not happen. The problem was that the customer was an elderly lady that had to drive herself to the doctor the next morning. That new car was her only way to get there.

With little time to respond, this salesperson piled her family into the car and delivered the new car to the customer herself. This delivery was over two hours away and happened at 10pm…on her day off!

Lightning Strike

The second award is called a Lightning Strike. This award goes to someone that has shown extraordinary care for someone else. They have done this outside of the normal course of the job…often not even related to their job or our company at all. Each winner of this award gets a $100 gift card.

A notable Lightning Strike winner was a young member of our detail department. My brother received a call from a well-to-do older lady from his church. She asked about this employee by name. She wanted to know if he indeed worked for us. Sensing trouble, my brother answered that he did and then waited for the complaint.

Instead of complaining, she explained that she had been at McDonald’s earlier that morning, had placed her order, and went to pay. That was when she realized she had forgotten her wallet. As she stood there wondering what she was going to do, this employee stepped up and told her he would pay for her breakfast.

The kicker is that this position is an entry level position that is responsible for washing cars and therefore does not earn much money. Also, when the older lady asked the McDonald’s cashier if she knew our employee, she said she did not, but she did know that he had done that same thing on multiple occasions before!

On Track

These two forms of recognition are not all we do, but they do play a role in helping us to get our employees engaged in our mission and vision. As long as I keep hearing stories like these, I will feel we are on track!

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Are You Willing To Ask For This Employee Feedback?

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While focused on the issue of Employee Engagement, I ran across some very appropriate advice on the topic from Andy Stanley, Founder and Senior Pastor of North Point Ministries in Alpharetta, GA. In one of his podcasts on leadership, Stanley shared the way his organization values employee feedback. The difference in Stanley’s case is that he targets new hires for their unique perspective.

employee feedback

Automatic Systems

Stanley emphasized that the larger the organization is, the greater the need to build in automatic systems to help the leader stay connected to every employee. Since there is no realistic way for him to get around to every employee on a regular basis for feedback, he has put systems in place that assist him in maintaining high employee engagement in his organization.

Step Four: New Hire Feedback Process

The overall goal of this step is to get new hire employee feedback on the organization while they still have fresh eyes and can clearly see issues others may overlook.

New Hire Employee Feedback Process

One of the systems that Stanley has put in place is the three-month and one-year organization evaluation email to new hires. After three months on the job, and again at their one-year anniversary, every new hire gets an email from Stanley’s office. This email goes out automatically and does not require Stanley to initiate it.

This email gives the employee the opportunity to evaluate the North Point Ministry organization. It is not an employee review and is completely unrelated to the employee’s performance. Instead, it asks the employee to rate the organization and whether it meets, exceeds, or falls short of their expectations.

Every new employee is told about this email during orientation when they first start their job. They are told that they are in a unique position as they have fresh eyes for the organization. They will see things and experience frustrations that more tenured employees no longer see.

Fresh Eyes

I can certainly identify with this point. I have been in our organization for almost 20 years now. Quite simply, I miss a lot because it is too familiar to me. A new hire does not have that handicap. They are able to see things for what they are. They are more likely to be able to point out misaligned processes or unnecessary frustrations that others have simply accepted as the norm.

As new employees at North Point Ministries, they are told that the leadership wants to create an organization that is great for them to work in. If there are processes or policies that make their jobs unnecessarily difficult or keep them from enjoying their job, then the leadership wants to know about it. Only then can the necessary changes be made.

Evaluation Email Questions

Here are some of the key questions in the evaluation emails:

    1. Do you see anything we are doing that is off-mission or off-purpose?

    2. Do you see anything that frustrates you?

    3. Do you have a best friend at work?

    4. Do you have all the tools you need to do your job?

    5. Are you doing what we hired you to do?

These actual email templates are available for free download on my Resources page.

Immediate Implementation

I like this idea so much, I am going to implement it in our organization as quickly as I can. Of course, just like the focus groups, if I get the employee feedback and do not act on it then I am wasting my time and the employee’s time. I am also destroying my credibility with them. I am determined not to let this happen!

While the results from implementing this process may not be immediate, I can truly see how it will bear fruit in the future. I am excited to see it work!

What do you think about this process?

Does your organization get similar employee feedback?

If not, when do you start?

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Should You Use Employee Surveys?

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I have been focused on Employee Engagement recently. I have done a lot of research on the subject and I am finding some really good ideas. I fully expect to see some significant improvement in this area in our organization over the next several months. The problem is that I like to measure progress when I am investing this much time, energy, and resources into anything. How exactly am I supposed to measure Employee Engagement? I think one answer lies in employee surveys.

employee surveys

Employee Engagement Series

This is the fourth post in a series I am doing on Employee Engagement. In the first two posts, I described my plan for this series and I told you how I set the stage for my action plan with my employees. In my last post, I laid out my plans for hosting employee focus groups. In this post, I am going to tell you about the next step in my action plan for Employee Engagement – employee surveys.

Step Three: Employee Surveys

The overall goal of this step is to get employee feedback on a wide variety of workplace issues. The results should provide actionable information for improvement.

Jim Reese on Employee Surveys

During a conversation I had recently with Jim Reese, CEO of Atlanta Mission, he brought up the topic of employee surveys. I am familiar with typical employee surveys as one of our franchise manufacturers requires them once a year. However, Reese referred to employee surveys that were focused on employee engagement. This approach is different than I have seen.

Reese told me how he made it one of his first initiatives to survey his employees and volunteers at Atlanta Mission shortly after he arrived on the job. It was his desire to assess the current culture of the organization, find the problem areas that needed to be addressed first, and to establish a baseline for measurement of future progress.

Once his employees were surveyed for the first time, Reese determined what had to be done and which problem areas were most critical. He told us how the results from this first survey allowed him to prioritize his plans. He acted quickly on the major issues and saw clear improvement.

He emphasized that we should act quickly, but not to expect overnight success in all areas. He saw some immediate successes, but he also said he is still working to improve some of the issues revealed on that first survey. It is several years later and Atlanta Mission is still using this employee survey process.

Goals For Employee Surveys

Taking Reese’s goals, and adding one of my own to fit my own plans, I came up with the following goals for this step:

  • Assess the current culture of the organization
  • Find the problem areas that needed to be addressed first
  • Establish a baseline for measurement of future progress
  • Validate feedback gathered during focus groups

Experts with Employee Surveys

Reese put me in touch with another gentleman named Al Lopus. He is CEO of an organization called Best Christian Workplaces Institute (BCWI) which conducts the surveys for Atlanta Mission. When I talked to Lopus, I found that he had decades of experience in creating employee surveys and he seemed to know exactly what I was looking for. I realized I was hearing about the answer to my measurement problem.

Unlike most employee surveys I have seen, the BCWI survey is created with the Christian organization in mind. There is even flexibility to custom-tailor their survey to your specific organization. This is especially helpful since I do not feel our company fits the normal mold in our industry!

There are plenty of options out there for executing employee surveys. You can find turn-key programs and do-it-yourself products, as well as anything in between. I will be using the BCWI product and I will let you know how it goes.

Have you ever done employee surveys in your organization?

What were your successes? What pitfalls did you experience?

Do you see a value in this step of the process?

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8 Steps to Great Employee Focus Groups

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Are your employees fully engaged? Are you interested in getting to the point where you can answer “Yes!” to that question without hesitating? If so, you need to follow along with me in this series on employee engagement. Today, we will look at steps to hosting great employee focus groups.

employee focus groups

Employee Engagement

As I said in my last couple of posts, I have seen a lot of material on employee engagement lately. The more I have seen on this topic, the more I have realized how much our organization needs to improve. I assume many of you have the same needs.

I have taken the various sources of the material I have seen or heard and I have condensed into a fairly simple action plan that I am going to follow over the next several months. I am going to explain my action plan in this series and then I am going to implement it, keeping you informed of my progress as I go.

You will hear about the wins and losses, the good, the bad, and the ugly! Hopefully, this process will help you implement similar employee engagement efforts in your own business.

Step Two: Employee Focus Groups

The goal of this step is to sit face-to-face with every employee and get their honest feedback on how you might work to improve the workplace. Make sure to consider all of the factors described below in making this step successful.

Great Material

The ideas for this step came from a conversation with Michael Hyatt and several other commenters on his blog. You can read the two posts (and the comments on each) Here and Here.

Keep in mind, as I described earlier, I have not yet executed the following steps in my employee engagement plan. I am telling you about them before I implement them, but they have been used successfully by others I trust and respect. I will follow up with the results in a future post.

Hosting Employee Focus Groups

Here are the eight steps:

1. Make the setting an informal one. Make sure you have food and hold the gathering in a comfortable environment. If possible, meet somewhere other than where other meetings take place. If that is not possible, find other ways to soften the environment.

2. Make the employees feel safe. Managers should not be present. Depending on your structure, you may want to add a meeting or two of only managers. Regardless, the employees in each meeting need to feel safe, free from repercussions from their comments. They need to know they will not be shot for telling the truth.

3. Keep it simple. Don’t go in with pages of questions! Michael Hyatt recommended using the four questions below.

  • What does your ideal Saturday (day off) look like?
  • What do you like about our company that you hope never changes?
  • Where could we improve?
  • If you were the CEO for a day, what is one of the first things you would change?

4. Take notes. Everyone knows you cannot possibly remember all of their suggestions. Take pen and paper and show them you are sincere about getting every last suggestion or idea down on paper. Ask clarifying questions as you do so.

5. Review your notes with them. At the end of the meeting, hit the highlights of what you have written down. Show them that you have truly been listening. Make sure you correctly interpreted their comments. Add any necessary clarifications at this time.

6. Quickly implement as many ideas as you can. There is nothing you can say that will prove your sincerity better than implementing ideas you were given in this meeting. Show them that you are genuinely interested in their needs and you will earn their hearts!

7. Communicate the implemented ideas across the company. Even if you don’t implement something from everyone, when someone in another department hears about something you implemented from another department, they will still feel like they were heard.

8. Make this an ongoing process, not a one-time thing! Everyone needs to know this is not just a one-time idea you had. They need to know this is part of how you do business from now on. Don’t allow these meetings to get stale over time. Freshen them up by mixing up how you execute it each time, but just make sure you continue to get in front of them and listen!

Have you had any experience with employee focus groups?

Do you see how this process could help with employee engagement in your company?

What are you going to do next?

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Setting The Stage For Employee Engagement

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As I said in my last post, I have been running across a lot of material on employee engagement lately. The best definition I can find for employment engagement is this:

An “engaged employee” is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization’s interests (Wikipedia)

The more I have seen on this topic, the more I have realized how much our organization needs to improve. That means there are likely others of you thinking the same thing.

employee engagement

Must Start At The Top

Obviously, that improvement has to start at the top if it is going to be successful. This is not because I am the best person for the project, but because if my support is not behind it, then it will not last.

Follow Along With My Action Plan

As a result of this realization, I have taken the various sources of the material I have seen or heard and I have condensed into a fairly simple action plan that I am going to follow over the next several months.

Rather than waiting until I go through the whole process before I report to you, I am instead going to tell you about my action plan ahead of time. This way, you can hear about the progress as it happens.

You will hear about the wins and losses, the good, the bad, and the ugly! Hopefully, this process will help you implement similar employee engagement efforts in your own business.

Step One: Setting the Stage

In this step, the goal is to educate the employees about the need for good, honest communication between them and the ownership of the company. Without this preparation, any efforts to improve the workplace will most likely be misdirected and ineffective.

Setting the Stage

This past Friday, I went ahead and took the first step in my plan. In this step, I set the stage for the upcoming focus I will be putting on employee engagement in our organization. As I normally do every month, I went to each of our eleven departments over the course of a couple of days to give a devotional.

Simple Story For Illustration

I started with a simple story about a church that wanted to help a missionary in India. After, collecting hundreds of bedsheets, the church congregation spent hours and hours tearing the bedsheets into thin strips to be used as bandages. They then shipped the bandages to the missionary to give out.

When the missionary in India presented the bandages to his people in India, one of the ladies held up a strip and exclaimed, “If we sow these strips together, we can have some really nice bedsheets!”

Inviting Participation

I asked the group, “Who was at fault?” Without hesitation, everyone agreed the pastor should have asked for specific needs rather than assuming a need for bandages.

We talked about when we make an effort to help others, we cannot just assume we know what they need. We must ask them what they need. We also have to make it easy (and safe) for them to tell us.

Adding A Twist

Next, I added one fact to the story that I had intentionally left out the first time I told it. I went on to tell them that the church pastor had in fact asked the missionary how his church could specifically help his people in India. Instead of offering suggestions, the missionary simply told the pastor that anything he and his church decided to give would be fine with those in India. He said he was just thankful for the help.

I asked, “Now, who is at fault?” Of course they all agreed that the missionary was now the one at fault. We discussed how it was unfair for the missionary to give so little information about the specific needs of his people when asked. We all agreed that if he had simply asked for bedsheets, he would have saved a lot of time and frustration on both sides.

Parallels to Employee Engagement

From there, I went on to draw the parallels to our organization. I explained that I would be coming around to their departments over the next several weeks to solicit some feedback from them on improving their workplace environment.

I explained how critical it will be for them to give me straight and honest feedback. I pointed back to the wasted time spent tearing and then sowing the bedsheets. If they were truly interested in an improved workplace, then it would be essential that they give thoughtful suggestions and ideas. I emphasized how their willingness to participate would determine the success of our efforts.

In my next post, I will outline my plan for the face-to-face meetings throughout the organization. Stay tuned!

Have you seen the benefits of employee engagement?

What have you done to improve it?

What more could you do?

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How To Create Employee Engagement

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I have heard it said that the opposite of love is not hate, but apathy. I would tend to agree with this statement. Jesus even said He would rather us be hot or cold, rather than lukewarm. If that is the case, I think there is similar application to the workplace regarding employee engagement.

employee engagement

Employee Engagement vs. Apathy

An “engaged employee” is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization’s interests (Wikipedia). An extremely negative, disengaged employee likely will not make it very long in their job, but an apathetic employee usually stays around longer and therefore is a drag on productivity, morale, and profitability. As a result, apathetic (disengaged) employees serve to more severely reduce the impact we strive for as a Christian business.

How Do You Get Them Engaged?

If we can all agree that the best employee is an engaged employee, then the next logical step is to figure out how to get all of them engaged. If we could solve the puzzle of employee engagement, then I think we could go far in creating exponential growth in our impact on eternity.

Recent Influences

Recently, this topic has been in the front of my mind for several reasons. I have had several different sources influence me toward a focus on employee engagement. First, as I mentioned in my latest series, I had a great conversation with Jim Reese, CEO of Atlanta Mission. In addition to the advice I shared in that series of posts, Mr. Reese also brought up employee engagement as a critical component of success.

Next, I read a recent post by Michael Hyatt in which he talked about changing organizational culture. Through a series of comments on that post, I learned a couple of tips about achieving employee engagement that I will share with you.

After that, I was listening to an older podcast by Andy Stanley on the way to the airport last week. In this podcast, Andy talked about how his church maintains such an engaged staff. I will share some of his methods as well.

My Focus On Employee Engagement

As a result of all of these inputs, it is obvious to me that I need to be concentrating on employee engagement in our organization, right? So this is what I am going to do. I am NOT going to wait to post about all of this until I have implemented all of these tips and methods, measured the results, and declared victory.

My Plan

Instead, I am going to give it all to you up front over the next several posts. I am also going to start implementing these ideas in our business, keeping you aware of the progress as I go. These progress reports will include the successes and failures, the pretty and the ugly! I will do my best to relay information to you that I believe will best help you do it better than we do.

Then, after all of it is implemented, I will also give you regular status reports as to the measured progress in our actual employee engagement scores going forward. I am not yet sure what this will look like, but we will find out together!

How engaged do you think your employees are right now?

What do you do to keep them engaged?

What opportunities do you have to improve?