There is plenty of information out there on how to determine or
define your culture; obviously that is the first step. The hard part is
implementing and maintaining it, and it not just being a blurb on your website
or maybe on a nice shiny plaque in your reception area.
At Cenikor, the core principles of our
culture are so important to us that we created an anonymous survey by which we
score every manager and above (including our CEO) with the following questions:
Does this person consistently add value to
meet our mission of service for Cenikor clients?
Does this person demonstrate a consistent positive, respectful
attitude with staff and clients?
Does this person work effectively as an
active participant of your team?
Does this person consistently act with
integrity (i.e., honest communication, keeping commitments, openly addressing
issues)?
The scoring is:
5 points - Consistently demonstrates
(~85-100% of time - no one is perfect)
3 points - Somewhat consistent
(~65-84% of time)
1 point - Not consistently
MOST IMPORTANT POINT: Comments are
REQUIRED for each question and this is part of the instructions. Positive
feedback on what you would like the person to keep doing and the impact, or
constructive feedback on areas for improvement and how it impacts you as a team
member. The feedback is the "meat" of this survey; it is from
this information we learn the most.
It's conducted every 6 months, and completed by 8-12 participants for each person, a combination of direct
reports, peers and supervisor. It is anonymous in the fact that each
person being surveyed does not see individual surveys. HR combines scores and all comments into one report to maintain anonymity, unless someone self-identifies with a comment.
Here's where the money talks: the
scores are tied back to annual variable pay. The combined scores from the
2 surveys each year make up 20% of the annual variable pay potential.
There is a stair-step down from 100% of bonus to 0%, depending on your
combined scores. Scoring is setup to
pay out fairly generously. Again, the most critical component of this is to
get honest feedback for our managers on how they are consistently upholding our
culture, not to "ding" them on their bonus.
Most of our employees who did not have a
positive survey the first time around were open to coaching and training, and
their scores have improved, many drastically. Interestingly enough, a few
of those that did not show improvement after multiple surveys and had a lack of
response to follow up coaching have self-selected out of employment with
Cenikor (BS walks).
For those non-profits who do not have
funds for annual variable pay or perhaps your funding streams do not allow
staff bonuses, you can still implement a similar program just not tied
specifically to money. If you have multiple locations, perhaps the
location with the highest scores after each round of surveys gets to celebrate
with management bringing in lunch. You can get creative on how you
reward, but remember this should never be punitive or you may have team mates
manipulating scores/comments to help keep each other out of trouble.
It will not be without some bumps in the
road, we've had to do training with some of our newer managers on how to give
constructive feedback, instead of criticizing or labeling.
As a non-profit, we need to be focused on
our mission and hitting our goals, and just as focused on the culture we want to
uphold, and how we interact and serve each other as team mates. We spend
way too much time at work for it not to be enjoyable to work together.
I hope you have an opportunity to serve
and make a difference today!
Kellee Webb, SPHR
PurosefulHR@gmail.com
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