The client

A country affiliate of a multi-national corporation in the medical equipment field wanted to understand the underlying issues that were fuelling low engagement scores.
 

Challenges

• Getting feedback from a geographically and functionally diverse group.

• Creating an environment of safety and trust, where employees could openly express their opinions.

• Mitigate any potential negative or positive halo created by a Hawthorne effect.*
   

Solution

• Facilitated employee feedback groups were conducted in all major centres across the country.

• Employees volunteered to be part of these groups. Individuals with mutual reporting relationships were not in the same group.

 

Results

• Employee engagement improved during the feedback process since people felt the organization was taking their concerns seriously.

• The results from the feedback groups were honest, clear and consistent.

• The corporate leadership team took immediate action, establishing working groups with sufficient accountability and authority to recommend and implement improvements.

 

* The Hawthorne effect is a form of reactivity whereby subjects improve or modify an aspect of their behaviour being experimentally measured simply in response to the fact that they are being studied, not in response to any particular experimental manipulation.

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