12/30/12

Study Your Best

This is a frequent mantra from the folks at Gallup.  Not only do they understand that individuals are unique in how they use and apply their talents and strengths, they know that organizations are unique as well.  As a result, their consultants advise clients to look inward to find the "top performers" within our own organizations and study them.  What are they doing to get good results within our organization's unique culture, processes and systems?  Can others learn anything from these internal "top performers"?  Can what they're doing be duplicated in any way?

I think we should take our consultant's advice, and so have been studying the institution's results to Gallup's Employee Engagement survey from October 2012.  I've identified 4 managers at Kalamazoo Valley who, at this point in time, are leading the most highly engaged units. In fact, 3 are in Gallup's 75th Percentile (all organizations in their database), and 1 just missing that mark by .04 (average mean).  I will remind readers that the survey is not a rating system for managers.  Nor are managers solely responsible for employee engagement.  We all are - at every level (more on this later).

However, perhaps we should "study" these managers - what are their talents and strengths and how do they use them as managers?  What led their people to respond at such high levels to the questions?  What is going on in these units that is different from other units?  Is there anything we can learn and apply elsewhere?

Our first manager is Diane Finch of Career and Student Employment Services in the Student Success Center. Diane had 7 direct reports respond to the engagement survey and the unit scored a Grand Mean (average) of 4.60 (out of 5.0).  All but 1 of the Q12 items averaged a score of 4.57 or greater.

Terry Hutchins, Vice President for Information Technologies, had a unit of 5 direct reports with a Grand Mean of 4.51.  Questions Q1 and Q2 were given all "5's", and five of the remaining 10 questions received responses greater than 4.40: Q4, Q5, Q6, Q9, and Q12.

Lisa Cronkhite-Marks is an Education Professional in the Writing Center and had 6 direct reports complete the survey.  The unit's Grand Mean was 4.43, with all respondents rating the Q1 at the highest possible level of "5".  Seven other items were rated at 4.50 or greater: Q2, Q3, Q5, Q6, Q8, Q9, Q12. 

Also under the Student Success Center umbrella is Cathy Colella, Office Manager in the Student Success Center.  Cathy had 5 direct reports respond to the engagement survey, and they gave "high 5's" to both Q1 and Q5 and rated 4 other items at an average of 4.60 or greater  (Q2, Q6, Q9 and Q11).  The unit's overall Grand Mean was 4.32 - just a hair under Gallup's line for the 75th Percentile of 4.36 and above. 

As mentioned earlier, we are all responsible for engagement - as individuals, as managers, and the overall institution.  Since the institution is the "constant" in the current equation, it appears there is something worth studying about the individuals and the managers in these three units.  Stay tuned!