July 16, 2010 — One thing is certain in today's global economic and business climate — "change" is the new status quo. The new leadership factor is not only being comfortable with change, but also being able to leverage change to identify and satisfy new and emerging unmet needs. Don't agree? How many slow-to-change pre-millennial Fortune 500s slipped by the wayside in the past 10 years — the "Decade of Change" as I call it?
Today's success factor in human capital leadership may just be how understanding and adapting rewards to change sustains employee engagement. That's the core message of what I'm gleaning from the recent "Impact of Reward Programs on Employee Engagement" survey completed by WorldatWork, Loyola University of Chicago and The Hay Group. A key finding of the report was that employees have limited involvement in compensation program design. On one hand, that's not a big surprise. Compensation is both an art form and a science that is typically managed by certified professionals. How many employees or line managers truly understand how to design an effective compensation program?
But that's not my point and the survey just completed reveals another perspective. While employees and line managers may not have the same expertise as the Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) in compensation program design, they are each expert in knowing what drives their engagement at work. One of the foundational concepts for change management is, at the beginning of the process involve those most deeply affected by the change. It sounds simple but our survey found that a mere 11% of respondents frequently involved employees in the design of reward programs.
Are there any Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma black belts out there? Knowing that employee engagement is directly linked to business and mission achievement, imagine not asking your customer up front what it would take to satisfy and engage them? My advice to my HR colleagues in today's world of change and limited reward resources — practice Lean Six Sigma and be a change management leader. If you want programs to be funded, they must create a significant rate of return. If you want a high rate of return on engagement, involve your employees up front in your reward program planning.
Please share your Lean Six Sigma best practice in employee centric reward program design. I'd love to hear from you.
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