Don't Just Listen to Learn. Listen to Lead.
Since 1957, Enterprise Mobility has achieved success by adhering to a simple philosophy: "Take care of customers and employees first, and everything else will follow." This mindset hinges on an activity that many organisations claim to do, but few do well: listening.
Enterprise Mobility recently ushered in change initiatives that affect the daily lives of team members and customers, adopting a new employee engagement approach and a strengths-based strategy. To promote a complete and organic adoption of these changes, the organisation prefaced its initiatives by listening carefully to the employee voice. As a result, the desired changes are now woven into Enterprise Mobility's organisational fabric.
If leaders learn anything from Enterprise Mobility's experience, it should be this:
Organisational change requires cycles of listening and responding to authentically bind the change to employees' performance and cultural expectations.
The Challenge
Create Change That Employees Enthusiastically Adopt
While they've focused on a people-first culture for decades, leaders at Enterprise Mobility recently decided to enhance their employee engagement efforts and adopt a strengths-based approach, which focuses on individuals' positive attributes.
"Caring for our team members isn't just what we do -- it's the foundation of our success. One of the most powerful ways we support each other is by listening." - Shelley Roither, CHRO at Enterprise Mobility
The Solution
Hear the Employee Voice and Respond in Tangible Ways
Enterprise Mobility sought to cascade strengths adoption from top leadership throughout the entire organisation and systematically embrace employee engagement as an essential internal metric. As part of this process, leaders took several key steps:
1. Listening to Managers
Because managers play a vital role in meeting the psychological needs of employees, Enterprise Mobility gathered feedback from managers to discover areas of opportunity related to engagement and strengths.
2. Understanding the Opportunities
Enterprise Mobility ran focus groups and administered surveys to uncover what managers needed to succeed with their teams. It discovered valuable insights, such as:
- Returning to full staff after the pandemic presented unique challenges and opportunities.
- Flexibility in the workplace took on new meaning for team members.
- Managers needed to expand their education on strengths and their day-to-day use.
3. Taking Action
Along with adopting a strengths-based, engagement-focused approach, Enterprise Mobility has taken numerous tactical steps to improve engagement and address the opportunities it has uncovered. To name a few, leaders:
- added "My Celebration. My Time." -- a new annual floating holiday for all part-time and full-time employees globally, giving team members the flexibility to observe a religious, personal or cultural holiday of their choosing
- created "My Purpose. My Time." -- a paid day off to volunteer with a cause or charity that is meaningful to each employee
- enhanced their relocation policy and relocated a record number of employees across the globe while also expanding relocation benefits
- updated their personal appearance policy to be more welcoming to all employees
4. Overcoming Skepticism About the Rollout
Leaders encountered some initial skepticism about the new strengths and engagement programs. Increasing organisational education about the new approach proved essential to assuaging skepticism.
Additionally, top-level executives set a powerful example by personally adopting and advocating for a strengths-based approach, generating enthusiasm that eventually spread to the rest of the organisation.
"Time and again, we've seen that great things happen when we listen to each other. Through this, we've embraced the power of strengths-based leadership and operations, transforming the way we work and grow together." - Shelley Roither, CHRO at Enterprise Mobility
The Results
Strengths and Engagement Are Now Enmeshed in Business Operations
Teams at Enterprise Mobility now have an implicit trust in their strengths and engagement models. For example, leaders and managers:
- learn employees' strengths to guide professional growth
- create open-ended dialogue on engagement needs, holding regular team huddles to set clear action plans and anticipate needs
- encourage knowledge sharing among team members to proliferate strengths-based, engagement-focused best practices
- drive consistent, organisation-wide messaging to promote continued alignment on key initiatives
The Leadership Takeaway
An Organisation's Relationship With Its Employees Can Always Be Stronger
Enterprise Mobility's efforts have strengthened its already robust relationship with its workforce. Even after decades of dedication to creating an exceptional employee experience, companies like Enterprise Mobility are still finding new ways to listen to, support and develop a committed workforce, which is a testament to its deep respect for the thriving employee as an essential element of business success.
This article “Listening Is the Linchpin to Organisational Change at Enterprise Mobility” was originally published on Gallup.
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