Is Asking Senior Staff to Share Personal Insights a Good Way to Boost Engagement?

Hi Folks,

I have recently joined an organization as Head of HR and am planning to circulate a note to all functional heads and senior personnel to write about:

Who am I? (at least 20 lines about themselves)
Their role in the organization and how much of their potential is being utilized by the company
What would they like the company to do to make their job/responsibility more interesting or fulfilling?

Is this a good idea? I welcome input on this.

Cheerio,
Rajat

Dear Rajat,

You will get different responses from different people. You will need to do the following:

First, meet all the key people face-to-face and discuss the substance to get a feel for their feelings. Tell them what your plans are and that you need their support.

Then, circulate your questionnaire. You will get a much more effective response to your request.

Regards,
Leo Lingham

Dear Rajat,

That's a fantastic idea. The response you get depends on the way you implement it. You need to show them how serious you are about this and what will be necessary for doing the same. If the number of employees is less in your new organization, then you can call them personally and give them about 15 minutes in a separate room so that they will concentrate better and also feel that it is important to you. Let me know how effective that was in implementing it in your organization.

Please let me know if you need any further assistance or clarification.

Hi Rajat,

I do not really appreciate you doing that when you are still fresh to the organization. As others have suggested, it would be even more advisable if you spend some time having one-to-one sessions with the senior people. I am sure there may not be more than 10-12 of them.

I take this opportunity to share my experience on this. When I joined the organization where I am presently the HR head, I made it a point to have 15-30 minute one-to-one sessions with all the important people in the organization. You will not believe it worked out wonders.

Of course, it may take some time for people to open up to a stranger, but again, it depends on you and how you make them feel confident and confide in you.

ALL THE BEST! Sabi

Hi Rajat,

Good initiative. You'll surely get to hear a lot from the employees, especially if they take it seriously. If they perceive it as some dumb questionnaire being collected by a project trainee or something, they might not be open enough to suit the purpose.

I agree with sabi77 to an extent that if you're new to the organization, it might not be appreciated a lot. But it's possible that your initiative is well accepted and appreciated as well. Most organizations look forward to innovative ideas to reach out to their people. Your technique surely gives ample scope for that.

Your question is open-ended, subjective, and qualitative in nature. You could learn a great deal of things through this exercise - people's personal interests, their ideas, values, perceptions, satisfaction levels, prejudices, concerns, problems, drawbacks, SWOT.... the list is endless.... it only depends on how much the person is willing to open up to you....

And that is perhaps where your tenure in the organization and your rapport with people will come into play.

In conclusion, I wish you good luck for this project. Do let us know how it was and share your findings if possible.

Cheers!

Lalita

Hi Rajat...

In continuation with what Sabi and Lalita have mentioned, I would like to add that people who will be responding to this question of yours should 'clearly' know your thought process behind the exercise.

First, you will have to pen down why you are doing this exercise. What do you want to achieve from this? Are you looking for inputs from people, or do you want them to feel that they are being heard?

If inputs are what you are looking for, identify them and jot them down. Asking an open-ended question is good, but the results can be radically different. They might respond to this question with regard to job, company, life, philosophy, etc.

Do think about giving them certain guidelines and pointers along with the question.

Also, through one-to-one interaction and, more importantly, through informal talk, you should first propagate the basic idea and purpose of such an exercise. Get informal feedback from your people. Make sure that they feel that the thought of such an exercise came up in those informal discussions and developed with their inputs. They should see how their answer will benefit them.

Honesty in their answers is of paramount importance if you want to achieve the objective of your exercise.

Well, I guess I have written a lot and started a different lot.

All the best!

ShoOOonya.

Hi Rajat,

I am impressed by the way you expressed it. If the staff do not take it seriously and shy away from giving their honest and authentic answers, the whole exercise and efforts put therein may go down the drain. Maybe you could consider Sabi's experience while going ahead with it. Well, you are a better judge as you are physically involved in the situation and none of us are out here.

You need to be very careful while doing this exercise. I wish you all the best and do keep us posted about the developments thereon.

Shradha

Hi Rajat,

Congratulations! I am sure you must have done the best job regarding extracting information from TMT. I had a very bad experience as a middle management person in my ex-organization. When the management changed and the new management performed a similar exercise, most of the senior people asked the lower-level employees to complete this task, prepared a high-tech presentation, and calmly presented it.

I would like to know about your experience if you can share it with us.

Dear Rajat,

Quite too often, we join organizations with very high spirits and eagerness to implement the things we think are best, coming from whatever experience we have had. I see nothing wrong about this per se, but much like a car to a new driver relationship, there has to be some good "feeling time" before a good cruise.

The HR person you took over your position from, whether they were liked or not, I believe, has had some defined direction and vision toward which they have led the company for a while. My two cents' worth of thought would be to see how I could perceive and understand the present state, get to know the people I would be working with in terms of functions, see what they have and how they want to be best supported (not exactly how I think I could best support them), and then go from there. A few moments of real personal talk might work better than a piece of survey material, which I believe may create an impression of "I am different" and a difficult start in creating a team.

All the best in your HR career, and have fun along the way! Good day, everyone!

Dear all,

Thanks - a sincere one to all of you for your inputs..

Would like to share my thoughts on this ..

It had a limited success in a sense that many of them came to know themselves a little better..which was appreciated by all..

Also we got the opportunity to interact with all vis-a-vis their job expectations & roles.

Am attaching my email sent to the staff.

Cheerio

Rajat

Dear all,

I take this opportunity to thank Mr ..... for inducting me into the organization.

This being my first stint – I wish to bring about the change and ensure that the better HR systems are in place to make this company truly vibrant & dynamic one.

To start with Training & Development

In this matter, its my pleasure to kick start the training programs by conducting the two day sessions on Business Creativity & Innovation in this month by me and followed by other programs. The schedule shall be mailed well in advance.

In my stint with your company, would endeavor to work closely with you all and be part your growth & development which is my key function/task in Strategic HR. Before that we invite your views

Who Am I ?

Who am I?

I request all of you to write in atleast 40 lines about yourselves) here divide this section in two parts – viz one part in general about yourself in terms of values & beliefs . This document should be handwritten & signed before forwarding to HR Department. The second part in more detail which would not be shared with anyone including me. This would be your own document – a personal paper which should be reviewed by you every year as Development and personal growth is a on going process.

What is your Role in this organization in terms of responsibilities & tasks. How much of your potential is being utilized by the company.

What would you like the company to do to make your job/responsibility more interesting or fulfilling?.

What are your expectations from HR Department.

Request you all to participate in the survey in a free & frank manner.

Look forward to meeting you all

Warm regards

Rajat

HR Department Efficiency Rating

Rate these questions from 1 to 5 , with 5 being the highest.

1. I know what is expected of me at work.*

2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.*

3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.*

4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for good work.

5. My supervisor or the person I report to seems to care about me as a person.*

6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.

7. In the last six months, someone at work has talked with me about my progress.*

8. At work, my opinions seem to count.

9. The mission/purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.

10. My associates (fellow employees) are committed to doing quality work.

11. I have a best friend at work.

12. The last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

Hi Rajat,

That was really useful. Even I had a plan of doing a similar kind of project but then I postponed it, considering that it may not work out in the initial stages. Since ours is a small company, I get to know personally every employee, including security personnel, within 3 months' time.

I don't know whether I have wasted time on that, but I felt I have learned many things.

Anyway, thanks for sharing! 😄

Regards

Dear Rajat,

Good idea. But I think you can implement this after some time. Please take a few days to observe them and get to know their behavior. You will gain an understanding, and by the time you implement your idea, you will know exactly how to align it with their behavior.

Best of luck.
Hema