There’s an interesting article from the US Federal News Network on improving engagement in the Secret Service – the men and women that protect the president.
This highly motivated organisation suffered a dramatic drop in staff engagement and an increase in turnover due to serious budget restrictions. These led to longer shifts, unpaid overtime and their engagement rating falling from 62.3 points 2012 to a low of 32.8 points in 2016 – near the bottom of the ‘Best Places to Work’ rankings. Yet staff still identified as dedicated and passionate and said they loved working there.
Sound like any organisation you can think of closer to home? For me it brought the NHS to mind.
The staff satisfaction rate in the Secret Service is back up to 44 points – an increase of 11 points in one year. So that raises the question. Is anything they have done transferrable to other organisation?
Improved benefits are certainly part of the mix, but extending the organisational understanding of employee needs to include the effects on the families of staff is part of making their people feel valued and rewarded.
As one lead on culture change in an NHS trust remarked ‘we can’t demand our staff to treat their patients with respect and dignity until we treat our staff respect and dignity’