Creating employee engagement and sustainable business performance

The Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation storyOctober 2012

Lomkhosi Magagula, Group HR ManagerRod Warner, Building Resilience

Agenda1. Open Space Technology 2. Teambuilding contracting3. Contracting between processes4. Building personal resilience5. IR teambuilding contracting

PurposeCase Study

“Achieving sustainable business performance through employee engagement”

Share processes, interventions, experience which you can use for your organisation

Our aim: To enable you to follow a similar process

Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC)

RSSC Profile Largest employer in Swaziland, after Government Listed : Swaziland Stock Exchange Shareholders : diverse & international Cane Growing Operations : 20,000 Ha irrigated

directly managed & 10,000 Ha outgrowers 2 sugar Mills, Sugar Refinery, and Ethanol Distillery Part-own a packaging plant

Economic Contribution

Production: 66% of Swaziland’s sugar & 30M litres Ethanol

• Indirect employment : contractors and suppliers• Services open to general public : Clinics, VCT etc• Assist police, customs, schools• Education contribution : Allowances (E3.7m) &

Bursaries (E1.2m)

Business Challenges

Rooted in Swaziland (E) & operates in an international environment (€ : R : P : N$ : )

Business environment constantly changing placing pressure on profitability & sustainability Embarking on an ambitious business strategy Restructuring business for competitiveness

Increasing input costs (electricity, fuel, molasses) Increased focus on productivity & profitability

1. Open Space Technology

Open Space meeting at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

What is it? Harrison Owen “Organisation Transformation” Approach of engaging 5 - 2,100 people On a specific & complex topic or theme Begins without an agenda Room arranged in circle Bulletin board Marketplace Action plans

Empty Agenda Wall

Setting the Agenda

Topics of Interest

A Section of the Market Place

Case Study : Manufacturing Causal analysis : plethora of causes but

engagement was one of them Interventions

Quarterly reviews focused on 5 performance indicators (LTA, overall recovery of sucrose, DIFR, budget utilisation & through put)

Translation of performance indices for individuals Securing skills Open Space Technology Resilience Workshops

2. Teambuilding

• First teambuilding: – Trust and interdependency teambuilding exercises– Factory personal and team behavioural

commitments– New targets for each process to meet factory

overall goal– Actions to meet the targets and create excellence

in process

Team Effectiveness ModelCompetence:PerformanceKnowledge and skills

Co-operation: Relationships Communication

Commitment:Hearts and minds issuesResilience

Client

The Six Personal Commitments:1. Achieving “Less than 10 in 2011”2. Providing leadership that is accountable for factory

targets via my decisions and actions for the success of the organisation

3. Using our skills and innovation to achieve individual and factory targets

4. Communicate daily meeting outcomes every day to my staff, keep colleagues informed of all relevant issues which affect them and listen to feedback from staff

5. Timekeeping for myself and my team6. Creating a high-performance culture by holding each

other accountable and engaging in crucial conversations when necessary

The Team Work Commitments

1. Taking team work back to the factory and sustaining it2. Incorporate our teambuilding outcomes into Toolbox Talks, including

and using the Team Effectiveness Model3. Explain the value chain and each individual’s role in achieving it4. Communicate the six personal commitments to the rest of the staff

and get buy-in. Posters to assist in awareness creation5. Walk the talk and be a role model of team work using the six

personal commitments6. Review, discuss and finalise the functional team commitments that

have been made, taking into consideration requests from the other teams, and then communicate them

Measuring and Tracking of Team and Personal Commitments

Measure and track via daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly performance discussions/reviews/action plans

Use electronic display boards, online, for information dissemination

Restructure morning meetings (Toolbox Talks) agenda to include production targets and performance

Ensure up-to-date PJO and KPA for every individual Encourage "raising the red flag" when a blaming culture

develops Encouraging sharing of resources , especially with

breakdowns, no matter where they occur Celebrate achievements

RSSC Factory Staff Negative Reinforcing CycleBoard becomes concerned about manufacturing productivity and puts pressure on GM-Manufacturing

GM-Manufacturing puts pressure on Factory Managers, who put pressure on their senior staff

Factory staff become disengaged, and less proactive in addressing problems. Senior staff become frustrated.

Factory staff don't identify with the values of the organisation; don't see a direct link between their jobs, productivity improvement and the prosperity of the organisation; some are not resilient and some not pro-active

Factory productivity increases after interventions, but over time falls back to previous levels

Senior staff sometimes intervene directly to address problems, and sometimes use disciplinary process rather than performance management process to deal with mistakes. Pressure is increased on all.

3. Teambuilding Process Contracting

• Second teambuilding:– Trust and cooperation teambuilding exercises – Review personal and team behavioural commitments– Shoes exercise for each processes:

• What we think it must feel like to work in that team• How we think they feel about us

– Ask and offer exercise for each process (incl. targets and actions)• What we ask of that team• What we offer that team

Teambuilding Process Contracting (cont)

• Third teambuilding:– Interdependency teambuilding exercises (brief)– Review personal and team behavioural

commitments; shoes exercise and ask and offer exercise

– Feedback to each process: carry on, stop and start– New ask and offer for each process (incl. targets

and actions)• What we ask of that team• What we offer that team

4. Building Personal Resilience

Purpose: build people’s individual capacity to deal with change, stress and adversity

What is meant by “resilience”? Task focused and productive whilst experiencing tough times

“Bouncing back”

Emerging stronger and more resourceful

Resilience Workshop Content Resilience Principles to deal with the “daily grind”

as well as the “darkest night”. Change and resilience Reconnecting with personal meaning in life. Identifying and using unique personal strengths. Building “grit” and mental toughness. Reframing adversity. Practical methods of increasing realistic

optimism. Identifying personal strategies for dealing with

change and tough times.

Resilience Workshop Outcomes Understand how to remain task focused at work

during periods of prolonged change and stress. Increased adaptability and confidence when

experiencing tough times. Ability to reduce the negative impact of stress on

work outputs, colleagues and family. Experience more hope, optimism and positivity

and so better cope with job demands.

Leve

l of r

esili

ence

Usual conditions

Adversity encountered

ErodingNavigating

Reconciling

Thriving

Phase 1: Eroding - encountering and assigning meaning to the adversity

Phase 2: Reconciling - coming to terms with the impact and implications

Phase 3: Navigating - moving forward and dealing with the issues

Phase 4: Thriving - experiencing enhanced resourcefulness and strength

Experiencing adversity with resilience:

Time© Copyright Performax Consulting 2006 No part of this material may be copied, stored in a retrieval system, displayed or distributed without written permission

Experiencing adversity with poor resilienceLe

vel o

f res

ilien

ce

Usual conditions

Adversity encountered

Eroding

Succumb: dysfunctional coping

Disabled: survival coping or “stuck”

Reconciling

Time

Phase 1: Eroding - encountering and assigning meaning to the adversity Phase 2: Reconciling - coming to terms with the impact and implications Phase 3: Succumb - overwhelmed; dysfunctional copingPhase 4: Disabled - resistance; survival coping or “stuck”

© Copyright Performax Consulting 2006 No part of this material may be copied, stored in a retrieval system, displayed or distributed without written permission

•Deal with “bad hair” days•Cope with the “darkest night”•Develop and flourish on the journey towards self actualisation

Resilience is thus needed to:

We define resilience as the life force to overcome adversity, heal and strive towards fulfilling your

potential

Resilience building blocks domains

1. Connect to your meaning in life

2. Use your unique strengths

3. Maintain perspective

4. Generate positive feelings

5. Be realistically optimistic

6. Persevere by being open minded and flexible

7. Reach out to others

Building Resilience Principles

Building Resilience impact

Enabled staff to cope better with the increasingly demanding work environment

Better handling of stress and also identification of people needed assistance

Teambuilding effect of getting to know colleagues as people

Common language of hope

5. Industrial Relations: Negotiating parties teambuilding and contracting

RSSC: union, staff association and management teams• First annual teambuilding:

– Trust and interdependency teambuilding exercises– Negotiating parties behavioural commitments

• Second annual teambuilding:– Trust and cooperation teambuilding exercises – Review personal and team behavioural commitments– Shoes exercise for each party:

• What we think it must feel like to work in that team• How we think they feel about us

– Ask and offer exercise for each party (incl. targets and actions)• What we ask of that team• What we offer that team

• Third annual teambuilding:– Interdependency teambuilding exercises (brief)– Review personal and team behavioural commitments; shoes exercise and ask and offer exercise– Feedback to each party: carry on, stop and start– New ask and offer for each party (incl. targets and actions)

• What we ask of that team• What we offer that team

Industrial Relations: Negotiating parties teambuilding and contracting

Historically adversarial approach Interventions implemented to facilitate a

collaborative approach Off site negotiations Presentations of negotiation positions Business context and economic context

Step change achieved - settlement in record 3 days

Challenge : changes in committee members

Results : Step Change in Manufacturing

Distillery

Factory

Design Production rate 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13

136 KL/day 80 110 120 136

Industry LTA standard

2009/10 2010/11 2011/12

5% 19% 19% 10.6%

What would we do differently?

More involvement of senior management More integration of interventions and

reporting structures Identify and capacitate resilience champions Communicate corporate-wide Measure impact of specific interventions