BP is Cleaning Up with Charity-Centered Engagement Program

It turns out that BP, the giant energy company, has been investing significantly more than just billions of dollars in the United States. It has been doling out to help ease the financial and ecological pain suffered by Gulf states after the giant oil spill in 2010.

BP is also investing $20 million into American communities in another way, with a unique twist. The company is leveraging the specific donations with an employee-engagement program, The Fabric of America Fund.

The Fabric of America Fund was launched in 2007, and each full-time, U.S.-based employee can donate up to $300 a year to a charity of their choice -- without having to match any portion of the donation out of their own pocketbook. This seems like a good way to harness the tremendous power of employee engagement in a  way that benefits BP and the communities it serves -- and gives the company's staffers a no-strings-attached reason to appreciate their employer.

"Employee engagement is a cornerstone of BP's efforts to make a positive difference in the communities in which we work and live," said Crystal Ashby, executive vice president of government and public affairs for BP in the United States, in a press release. "Providing our employees with the means to connect directly to organizations of their choosing makes BP's Fabric of America Fund unique."

Whether or not a company does something like this is beside the point. BP's method effectively engages employees in decisions that benefit the not-for-profits organizations that they personally favor. This year alone, the fund has made contributions to organizations in more than 3,000 cities and towns totalling around $1.8 million.

BP says it has invested more in the U.S. over the last five years than any other oil and gas company. And it hasn't been just to clean up an unfortunate oil spill.

Talk Politics? Maybe Not. Football? You Bet!

Politics may be in the air, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be in the lunch room. Better to talk about football.

It’s natural for employees to want to talk politics as campaign season heats up and Election Day is less than three weeks away. And good company cultures don’t have a problem with that. In fact, “It’s not good management practice” for employers to monitor everything people discuss at the water cooler, Bryan Cave, an employment lawyer in Washington, D.C., noted in an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Employers may be better off encouraging office participation in a different contact sport: football.

Not the contact part, exactly. But a new column on BusinessInsider.com suggests that managers can use football fandom as a way to create a more engaged work environment.True. A recent study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the outplacement firm, estimated that employers lose $6.5 billion a year due to “employees’ procrastination and managing their fantasy football rosters.”

But Halley Bock, a leadership-development consultant, suggests that “instead, football can be an opportunity to build a more personal, engaging workplace.”

How?

She suggests that managers encourage discussion of the games, even debates about upcoming contests – and perhaps launch an internal fantasy football league. These and other football-centered activities, she maintains, can enable managers and executives to show personality and encourage fun. Besides organizing internal fantasy leagues, she suggest hosting off-site events that might be centered around football or other sports, and to talk about sports and other personal interests and activities.

Inward Strategic Consulting's Rick DeMarco talks about what employees really want!

Money: It’s Not All Employees Want 

8/6/2012  By Rebecca R. Hastings, SPHR  When employers act as though the 1959 song “Money (That’s What I Want)” represents employees’ top priorities in the workplace, they miss some of the most important drivers of satisfaction and engagement. “It is well known that money is a short-term motivator,” Jayne Mattson, senior vice president, Keystone Associates, told SHRM Online. Ultimately, employees look for an organization and position where their values are met, core skills are utilized and work tasks align with interests, she said. Pay does help attract and even retain employees, according to Towers Watson, a global professional services company, but “sustainable engagement” requires much more than money. According to Towers Watson, sustainable engagement is a combination of: Traditional engagement—employees’ willingness to expend discretionary effort. Enablement—the tools, resources and support employees need to do their jobs effectively. Energy—a work environment that supports employee well-being. The Towers Watson 2012 Global Workforce Study, released July 11, 2012, and reflecting the views of more than 32,000 employees around the world, found that although pay was the No. 1 way to attract and retain employees, the top five factors affecting sustainable engagement are: Leadership. Stress, balance and workload. Goals and objectives. Supervision. Image. “In every study that has ever been conducted, money is always fourth or fifth on the list of factors that drive employee loyalty and satisfaction,” Rick DeMarco, managing director of the West Coast Office of Inward Strategic Consulting told SHRM Online. “That’s not to say that a fair wage for the job is not important ... Employees expect to be fairly compensated … but that’s an expectation and not a driver of their long-term loyalty and commitment.” Making Engagement Sustainable “Sustainable engagement is an important evolution in the science of workforce behavior,” said Laura Sejen, global practice leader, rewards for Towers Watson, in a statement. “It recognizes that employees need support from their employer to continue to give discretionary effort on the job.” Unfortunately, employees are not getting the level of support they need, she noted. “Enablement and energy are critical factors in this equation,” added Julie Gebauer, managing director, talent and rewards, Towers Watson, in the same statement. “Engagement will only hold over time with these elements in place.” Towers Watson found that just 37 percent of U.S. workers are sustainably engaged—meaning they scored high on engagement, enablement and energy. About a quarter (27 percent) are classified as “unsupported,” meaning they display characteristics of traditional engagement, but lack the enablement and/or energy required to sustain it. Thirteen percent are described as “detached,” meaning they feel enabled and/or energized but are not willing to expend discretionary effort for their employer. And almost one-quarter (23 percent) are completely disengaged, with less favorable scores in all three areas. Understanding Engagement Gaps Towers Watson found that the most significant factors for the 27 percent of the workforce defined as “unsupported” are supervisor support, stress levels and their workloads. More specifically: 43 percent agreed their supervisors had adequately removed obstacles that could impact performance. 26 percent agreed that management involved employees in decisions affecting them. 48 percent felt the amount of work they had to do was reasonable. 40 percent felt they had enough employees in their work group to get the job done correctly. By comparison, those deemed “highly engaged” by Towers Watson responded favorably to those questions by a margin of a least 30 percentage points higher than unsupported workers. As for the 13 percent deemed “detached,” company leadership is the focal point: Just 25 percent said they had trust and confidence in the performance of their company’s senior team—a 52 percentage point disparity from the 77 percent of highly engaged workers who agreed with the statement. Similarly, just 26 percent felt that senior leadership had a sincere interest in employees’ well-being—45 percentage points lower than highly engaged respondents. “Everyone in an organization has a role to play in helping close gaps in employees’ feelings of enablement and energy—from executives, to supervisors, to human resources, to employees themselves,” Gebauer added in the statement. The survey targeted employees working in large and midsize organizations across a range of industries in 29 markets around the world. It was fielded online during February and March 2012. The U.S. sample included 3,600 employees. Money Matters Less Than Other Factors Other studies and experts agree that money matters, but not as much as other aspects of the job and work environment. In March 2012, PsychTests.com, an online personality, career and IQ assessment company, released research on the top motivators for employees. The data collected between August 2011 and February 2012 revealed that out of a list of 23 work motivators, “financial reward” was ranked 12th. For men, financial reward was eighth on the list; for women, 15th. Seventy percent of the 1,194 employees surveyed were from North America. Sixty-four percent of respondents were under the age of 30. The top five motivators reported were: Customer orientation—the desire to make customers happy. Achievement—the desire to work in a goal-oriented and challenging work environment. Inspiration—the desire to inspire others through one's work. Identity and Purpose—the desire to work in a company/field that is in line with one's values and ethics. Fun & Enjoyment—the desire to work in a position/corporate culture that is inherently entertaining. “When managers think of motivation and incentives, many of them automatically assume it has to be a bonus or some other financial reward,” said Ilona Jerabek, Ph.D., president of PsychTests, in a statement. “This is clearly not what employees need … at least, not money alone,” she added. That’s true even among those working in professions focused on financial rewards according to the nearly 2,800 financial advisors surveyed by J.D. Power and Associates for the 2012 U.S. Financial Advisor Satisfaction Study released in March 2012. Organizations that provide the right mix of technology and support to financial advisors, thus optimizing the time they spend with clients, generate more employee satisfaction than those focused on financial gain for employees. Companies that struggle to deliver the support employees need to be effective pay the highest retention and signing bonuses to compensate for a poorer work experience, according to David Lo, director of investment services at J.D. Power and Associates. What Employees Want DeMarco said employees want to: Be part of something bigger than themselves. Know what’s going on in the company and feel included in the company’s plans. Be recognized and rewarded for outstanding effort. “All of these drivers require a concerted effort by a company to educate, inform and inspire employees around a common vision and culture, to provide them the tools and resources to deliver effectively on the brand promise and business strategy and to reward and recognize them,” he added. “When employees’ values are met, using the skills they excel in the most and doing work they find interesting, they are career-satisfied and fully engaged,” Mattson said. “Money is an added bonus … However, it is not the driving factor for engagement.” Rebecca R. Hastings, SPHR, is an online editor/manager for SHRM.