Want to know how to maintain high levels of engagement in a traditionally tough industry? You could do a lot worse than take a leaf out of London Overground Rail Operations Limited (LOROL)’s book. LOROL has consistently high levels of engagement, scoring an impressive 90.3% this year. HR magazine caught up with its HR director Carol Poole to discuss HR’s role in keeping staff motivated.
Focus on the frontline
If your engagement scores remain consistently high it could be easy to get lax – but Poole says it’s critical to never assume things will remain the same. “We have fantastic scores but we have to make sure we continue to focus,” she says. “It’s about taking survey results and focusing on what we need to do on the frontline. Some organisations would kill for a 90% score but it’s all about making it real for the frontline.”
At LOROL, where the nature of the organisation means employees are scattered across multiple sites, this means embracing deceptively simple communication methods like marker boards in stations. “It’s trying to engage people at the coalface,” says Poole.
As a more high-tech way of engaging people LOROL has also introduced a mobile app for frontline staff, which keeps them up to date with issues on the lines. In future Poole hopes the app will also make HR information more readily available to staff who don’t sit in front of a computer.
Make HR visible
Increasing HR presence “out in the business” is another engagement must-have. “Everyone in the HR team, not just HR business partners but HR administrators and people in payroll, has to go out into the business once a month,” Poole explains. “We need to make sure HR is adding value.”
A recent company-wide event had stands featuring information about HR and engagement. “That’s an opportunity for HR to show what it does positively. There’s still a bit of a view that HR is about pay, rations and disciplinaries. [Events like this] are really good opportunities to show what HR does.”
To spread the message about what HR offers further, LOROL partners with its unions to promote areas like L&D opportunities, by working with union reps to identify suitable topics.
Engage employees in engagement
If you want more engaged employees why not ask them what would make them so? LOROL asked teams to come up with ideas to further drive engagement. Employees asked for things like smaller events to bring together senior managers and frontline staff on a more regular basis.
LOROL is also running a competition around its vision and values, asking teams to create videos or photos that demonstrate how they relate to the organisational values. Communications champions ensure messages are spread around the business, and a thriving recognition scheme is also vital – LOROL’s ‘Shining Stars’ awards include an ‘Unsung Hero’ category.
“The more you do [around engagement], the more people’s expectations rise, so you constantly have to be creative,” says Poole. “But it is quite simple: ask how you’re doing, analyse feedback, see what needs changing and act on it.”
