SRA’s Mary Good: Three steps to solid employee engagement
A lot of companies have a great corporate mission. On paper, anyway. The challenge comes in translating that mission into practice. Especially when you have employees based around the world, working in a wide array of specialized fields.
For SRA’s Mary Good, it’s a challenge that’s being met head-on. Since becoming Senior Vice President of Human Resources in November 2007, Good has helped the technology and strategic services company absorb two acquisitions, grow its ranks to 7,000 employees worldwide, and continue to cultivate a strong culture that’s earned SRA industry accolades including AWE’s Workplace Excellence Award, ComputerWorld’s best place to work in IT, and a spot as Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For from 2000-2009.
Throughout, Good has kept her eye on the company’s core values — “of listening and respect for individuals,” as she puts it. Translating those values into action has come through building up a variety of “mechanisms” that help employees feel engaged and focused.
Employee engagement groups
Employee engagement groups are a big part of that approach. SRA has a number of voluntary groups, across the organization, in specific niche areas: retention, inclusion, volunteering, and environmental issues, among them. An employee recognition group was also recently launched, as was a group focused on early career development.
Each group has a “top down, bottom up” approach, says Good, and is led by senior leaders, on a rotational or special assignment basis. “It’s a way to help them [leaders] have a broader reach across the company and help mentor less experienced staff,” she says.
Other groups are in the works, including one focused on wounded warriors and veterans, another on wellness. “SRA has a whole practice area focused on global health … we thought we should take advantage of their expertise in helping our employees be healthier,” says Good.
Social media engagement
Social media is proving a natural, corresponding step to employee engagement groups. The company’s early career group, for example, has its own website, Penguin Connection (alluding to the company’s mascot). The website includes a blog, as well as a forum for younger employees to ask questions. Plus, it serves as a means to advertise networking events and brown bag lunches. Meanwhile, SRA Cares, a group focused on charitable giving, has a large array of volunteer activities listed on the company’s portal site.
Social media is playing a big role in breaking down “silos and barriers,” says SRA’s Mary Good, that can exist across a global organization. “We’re in the process of formalizing, and creating, online communities that engage employees at customer sites both here and abroad,” says Good.
Creating platforms based upon similar interests, beyond work, has been one key to that success. One example is “10,000 Steps,” a program launched a year ago that builds upon the company’s wellness initiatives. The blog allows employees from around the world to share tips and strategies for getting miles (and winning prizes).
“We had people blogging from the UK. We had our folks in San Diego competing. Everybody was competing,” says Good. “In the end,” she says, “we realized social media really helped energize a population of people who would have a difficult time connecting otherwise … it also gave us a great opportunity to help people better understand the totality of what the company does.”
Good’s team also recently launched “Something to rave about,” an online portal where employees can “rave” about colleagues, supervisors, and others throughout the company. “On a quarterly basis we do a drawing for the most interesting submission … that person gets a bonus and recognition,” says Good.
Employee engagement surveys play a role in social media activities as well. “It’s one of the best tools we have for really listening to our employees, and being accountable for always striving to have them experience a great work environment here,” says Good. Just as critically is acting upon the results of those surveys, she adds. “Any number of improvements that we’ve made in terms of our benefit programs and health advocacy, for example, really came from employee feedback.”
Dedicated HR partners
Sometimes, though, there’s no substitute for face-to-face communication. Especially when, as in SRA’s case, about 44 percent of employees work with customers onsite.
“Those employees are often less familiar with the web of resources available to them,” says Good, citing employee assistance programs among those resources.
HR partners help fill in the knowledge gaps. “They’re the feet on the street in terms of every employee feeling they have someone who can help them,” says Good.
Those representing the company’s wellness initiatives have been among the most successful. They do flu shots, check blood pressure, distribute CPR kits. But more than that, they change cultures — beyond the halls of SRA even. One employee took the kit he’d received to his local church, where interest soon spread. “We were able to get him a couple of additional kits … now all the members of his church are trained in CPR,” says Good.
“When we look at the community, we really think of it broadly as the employee’s family and personal network,” says Good. “The extent to which we care about employees as whole human beings — I think that’s a real differentiator for us in our industry.”
Going forward, the initiatives may vary, but one underlying element will remain the same: a focus on each individual employee. No matter where they’re located.
“We’re moving more and more toward an individualized, customized experience for every employee,” says Good.
“That,” adds Good, “is very much the embodiment of our core values.”
Posted by Lisa Singh
on Monday, July 26th, 2010. Filed under General.
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