The Employee Engagement HandbookThe key to success in managing distributed teams

OcTOber 2015 BrougHT To you By Sococo

2sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

Author’s note ..............................................................3

Employee engagement today .................................4

Distributed team challenge .....................................5

The power of connection .........................................6

The five foundational pillars for employee engagement: .....................................7

• Purpose

• Performance

• People

• Productivity

• Platform

Introducing Sococo ...................................................9

Expected outcomes ................................................. 11

• Talent amplification

• Lean collaboration

• Rapid response

Sococo checklist .......................................................13

Contact us ..................................................................14

Contents

3sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

Companies create brands, but customers define them. The days when

brands were established based on a brand promise have long since gone.

Customers no longer blindly accept what the expensive advertising

campaigns are portraying; they are more fickle than that. They want to

know the truth behind all the media hype. For the customer, it is their

real-life experience with the brand that matters; it is substance over glitz

or put another way reputation over promise. Words are no longer enough;

it is how the brand actually acts that is now paramount.

Brands are only authentic when the customer experience they deliver

matches or exceeds the promises they make in their communications.

These experiences come from every single touch point that the customer

has with the brand. These experiences are not only influenced by the

front-line staff but by everything the company does. Every employee can

have an impact and it is often the misalignment and lack of connection

between employees that results in poor experiences being delivered. Every

touchpoint is an opportunity. A moment to destroy a brand’s reputation or

to create a customer advocate for life. A well connected organization can

make the difference between success and failure. We all know what we

would prefer.

Cliff Pollan CEO, Sococo

“ Someone asked me recently what is the most critical challenge facing business today. The answer was easy; employee engagement.”

Author’s note

4sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

The latest Gallup “State of the Global Workplace” study makes

stark reading.

The study also confirms that management is aware of this situation.

The research points out that 79% believe they have a significant retention

and engagement problem with 26% seeing this as urgent.

The study goes on to say; “Engaged workers are the lifeblood of their

organizations. Work units in the top 25% of Gallup’s Q12 Client Database

have significantly higher productivity, profitability, and customer ratings,

less turnover and absenteeism, and fewer safety incidents than those in

the bottom 25%.” So there is clear evidence that employee engagement

goes right to the bottom line.

This means that in order to “establish mutually beneficial relationships

with your customers – and to acquire market leadership – companies

must first win the hearts and minds of their employees.” If companies can

transform their level of employee engagement then the opportunity for

success and continued commercial prosperity will surely follow.

“ Authentic brands don’t emerge from marketing cubicles or advertising agencies. They emanate from everything the company does...”

– Howard Schultz, Starbucks

Employee engagement today

5sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

In almost every case, your team members are likely to be distributed in

some way and this lack of having everyone co-located together in one

office compounds the challenge of employee engagement.

The recent 2014 Trends in Global Virtual Teams survey, published by RW3

CultureWizard offered up some interesting findings.

They asked their respondents to identify what they felt were the most

severe challenges of being distributed compared to being co-located:

Distributed team challenge

These are significant issues; a low level of participation, slow and

cumbersome decision-making, lack of accountability, poor sharing of

information and unproductive processes. These are the types of challenges

that distributed teams face when compared to a team where everyone is

working in the same office.

80% colleagues

who did not participate

76%

the pace of decision-making

75%the process of

decision-making

71%the differing

role expectations held by team

members

In contrast the respondents identified that the following were the most

important characteristics when engaging as part of a distributed team:

20% willingness

to share information

18%

being collaborative

17%being

proactively engaged

15%being

organized

6sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

Connection is powerful. Neuroscientists have proved that human

connection enhances attention, helps build trust in others and reduces fear

and worry.

We all have deeply felt human needs to be recognized for our contribution,

to belong, to have some control over our work, and to do work that is

meaningful. When we work in an environment that supports these areas,

we thrive. This is when we put our hearts and souls into what we do.

Connection plays a critical role in improving individual performance.

People who are more connected with their colleagues perform better than

those that don’t.

In a well-connected environment people are more open, they share more

and they want to help their colleagues. This increased level of cooperation

promotes creativity, innovation and enhanced productivity.

“ Connection makes people more trusting, more cooperative, more empathetic, more enthusiastic, more optimistic, more creative and better problem solvers.”

– Michael Lee Stallard, Author, Fired Up or Burned Out

The power of connection

7sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

1. Purpose

People need to know and understand the core purpose of the organization

and to feel passionate about what the company is setting out to achieve.

This purpose needs to be brought to life and embedded in everyday

work life. This includes those core values that are often just words on a

noticeboard. People need to be connected on an ongoing basis and this

can be achieved by sharing progress through real-time dashboards. It is

about achieving integrity through transparency.

2. Performance

People need to be treated like adults and given responsibility for finding

the best way to deliver the results that the organization is looking for.

Devolve from the command and control management style by focusing

on desired outcomes, rather than limiting people to specific activities

and tasks. Give your colleagues respect and they will reward you with

innovation and creativity. Performance is potential less interruption so take

away the inhibitors and let the team thrive.

3. People

Get to know your people and help bring out the best in them by

understanding what they are passionate about and then deploying them

on projects that align with their interests, skills and development goals.

In addition, hire and encourage people who are team players who have

a strong desire to help others, even when things go wrong. It is guiding

your talent to find the greatest avenue for contribution that is key and

this requires knowing your colleagues and establishing a culture that

encourages mutual support.

The five foundational pillars ofemployee engagement

PUrPOSe

PerFOrmAnCe

PeOPle

PrOdUCTIvITy

PlATFOrm

8sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

4. Productivity

Time or lack of time is the enemy of every modern organization. It is

the one resource that you cannot make more of. Employee’s time can

be constantly drained by the constant demands of update meeting

and zillions of emails. Break the mold, move to a more agile, responsive

work environment that is characterized by spontaneous meetings,

group chats and rapid fire Q&As. In addition, send people home at 5pm,

it is not more hours you want but quality hours when people are best

able to produce their finest work. Ensure there is an acceptable work

life balance and your employees will repay you by reducing waste,

becoming more efficient and focusing on what really matters.

5. Platform

One of the biggest disruptors to employee connection is the fact that

in almost every case, everyone is not located in the same physical

office space. You will have remote workers, flexible workers, people

starting early, people finishing late and people out traveling to meet

customers and visit the market. It is important that you are able to

bring these people together in a way that connects and bonds them

together into a united team.

PUrPOSe

PerFOrmAnCe

PeOPle

PrOdUCTIvITy

PlATFOrm

9sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

It is at this point that we would like to introduce you to Sococo. We

truly believe that finding the right platform is a major contributor to

addressing employee engagement and transforming the creativity and

productivity of your team. Well we would say this but it is not just us.

Here’s what our customers are saying...

Introducing Sococo

“ One of the biggest benefits we realized almost at once was this sense of community Sococo brought to the company. Our distributed employees started to act and feel like a close knit team because we were all together all day in our virtual office.”

- Jeremy Park, Vice President of Operations, Core Geomatics

“ Our team’s productivity has gone up since we starting using Sococo.”

- Lori St Pierre, Employee Care Manager, Intuit

“ Something changed once we started using Sococo everyday. There was a noticeable and measurable improvement in our team’s morale.”

- Melissa Gordon, Chief Operations Officer, Katana Software

“ Sococo gave us a feeling that everyone was close by and in close proximity. We can just pop in on a colleague for an impromptu conversation. You don’t have to arrange a meeting.”

- Steve Trythall, Product Line Director, mentor Graphics

“ If we are troubleshooting something or just have a quick question, we jump into a room and talk instead of going back and forth, and back and forth in email.”

- Michael Connolly, Director of Engineering, Pearson

“ We talked, and after he left I realized that this is exactly the type of impromptu conversations that happens in a physical office, but now we can do this all virtually. Right then and there I was sold.”

- Steve Sliwa, CEO, Seeq

10sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

So what is Sococo?

It is the place where all team members go to work. It recreates the personal

proximity and functionality of a physical office in an online experience.

Whether employees are minutes apart, cities apart, or even countries apart,

Sococo elevates their ability to engage and connect with each other.

Sococo’s visual office map enables teams to ensure that the right people

get the right work done, at the right moment.

From a single web browser view, teams can see whether colleagues are

at their desk, taking a break or in a meeting, prompting spontaneous

engagement. They can knock on a colleague’s door and speak with them

individually, or set up a larger meeting in a conference room or breakout

room at a moment’s notice. Sococo achieves what is possible in a physical

office, encouraging individuals to get to know their colleagues and their

passions, skill sets and talents, creating a real sense of belonging in the

organization no matter where co-workers are located.

11sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

Talent amplification (right people)

This is all about getting the right people together at the right moment. You

need to identify the best people to contribute and then assemble the team

quickly. One could say it is about developing better outcomes for the same

level of effort.

• Increased collaboration leads to better knowledge of coworkers. This

leads to better utilization of their talents and enhanced knowledge flow

amongst team members.

• This also increases diversity of ideas resulting in improved innovation and

creativity and ultimately the delivery of better outcomes.

lean collaboration (right work)

This is all about doing the right work in a way that is efficient by only

focusing on the things that can add-value. One could say it is doing the

same for less time and effort.

• Accessibility and proximity of team members ensuring that the right

people work on the right things at the right moment.

• Reducing waste by negating the need for update meetings, burdensome

processes, over-communication and excessive reporting.

Expected outcomes

rIGHT PeOPle

rIGHT wOrK

rIGHT mOmenT

12sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

rapid response (right moment)

This is about responding in the moment, when it matters. If you need to

wait for responses or inputs, opportunities can be lost and sometimes not

addressed until the issue is bigger and more challenging. Knowing the

whereabouts and availability of team members in real-time enables more

spontaneous interactions.

• This increases responsiveness to both internal/external needs and

market forces.

• Latency (waiting for responses) is removed leading to faster decisions,

quicker execution and on-time delivery.

The right platform can help team members become more engaged;

better connected. It can help individuals better understand who their

colleagues are and enable closer relationships. It can help improve

information flow on corporate direction, activities and overall progress.

It can also help improve productivity when people do engage and to

ensure that there is a strong collaboration culture.

This all comes about as team members establish a real personal and

meaningful connection with both their colleagues as well as the

organization. This is the glue that creates a true sense of belonging

where each and every team member is emotionally invested in helping

the company succeed as part of a highly collaborative team.

13sococo. the employee engagement handbook.

Platform set-up

p Take time to design the right office space for your team

p Agree on desired outcomes

p Identify some metrics to track progress

p Capture current status and any challenges you may have

employee launch

p Set a date for a formal launch

p Launch with a bang!

employee induction

p Establish a formal employee induction program for all new joiners

momentum builders

p Introduce events that reinforce and motivate the right

“connection” behaviors

p Share as much information as possible

p Organize informal get-togethers

p Promote spontaneity by dropping into your colleagues’ offices

Continuous review

p Implement an employee survey

p Capture ideas on how to further improve team connectivity

validate learning’s

p Continuously introduce and test new ideas

Sococo checklist

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To learn more please visit

us online at sococo.com

or call +1 (650) 265-7013

“ I knew that if I could get the people in the company to want the company to succeed as badly as I did, there would not be a problem that we could not solve together.”

– James Lincoln, lincoln electric

© 2015, Sococo