Sustainable Thinking For Future Proofing Company Health 

Keywords: Culture, sustainable organisations, engagement, health and wellbeing

Author: Dr Anna-Rosa le Roux

Updated: 27 October 2023, Worklife Digital

Valuing your people: Having a low eNPS (employee net promoter score) during acquisitions is not ok. You need the energy, enthusiasm and creativity of your employees to build the future.

The Symptoms

Everybody is busy, but only a few people are really working together. People are very pedantic about their job descriptions and refuse to do anything outside scope. You cannot get meetings with managers and they defer issues to people working for them, who often have no authority to make decisions. Quick pulse assessments indicate staff in shrinking markets are unhappy. Does their opinions of the business, profitability and how to run the business matter? Business decisions are made up high with no participation of the “lower” parts of the business.

These are some of the complaints that we often hear at the height of an acquisition. Business changes so fast during acquisitions that one is dependent on the healthy psychology of people to deal with these changes in a positive manner (and not become paranoid resulting in the aberrant behaviour listed above).

The argument

Employees naturally react to disruption and change in a cyclical way. On the one end of the cycle, they are denying the change and resist it in a destructive, traumatic way, because of fear, vulnerability or uncertainty. On the other end, they are exploring the change in a way that is positive and engaging. 

Two different strategies invariably lead to either of these outcomes.

• 1. Firstly EMERGENT: Do not act, and rely on past patterns of behaviour that might not be the best fit for the future

  2. Second ENGINEER IT LIKE YOU HAVE A CHOICE: Involve employees as a critical part of the change - manage from an inclusive, values based perspective, caring about their wellbeing 

The first strategy, pretty much leaves the business to its own devices, with a high probability of a  ‘us and them’ culture, ‘manipulation’, ‘anger’, ‘blame’, ‘holding on’ or ‘depression’. The resultant effect on the business is justified-non-communication, no accountability, non-retention of key skills, poor performance and a disengaged culture - all negatively impacting service delivery and ultimately costing money.

With the second strategy, it is most likely to transition the organisation, with the least amount of collateral damage. You have a chance to create an organisation where people take accountability to achieve outcomes (not effort), live the organisational values, co-create and transform the business to what your vision requires.

The fact finding

In a recent Gallup study half of US employees were found not to be engaged and only 32% of workers were engaged. More so, the employee engagement trend is heading in the wrong direction. We don't have to calculate the productivity loss of this huge disengagement state, which is even more accentuated during acquisitions.

If we are serious about i) creating company culture, ii) investing in people and  iii) wanting to build a sustainable business, proven methodologies to measure wellbeing and engagement are worth their value in gold. 

• • Employees will feel listened to, given voice and feel part of the change

  • A benchmark score will give an indication of how well the organisation is doing to manage wellbeing or engagement risk, the goal of the people's transition journey

  • Understand scientifically what the core (80/20) levers are for managing a sustainable business.

A scientific diagnostic measure marks the start of the journey. 

The initial results

The result of a quick pilot in one of the divisions of a company in the SaaS industry unravelled the following story.

First, the positives:

• • The business is efficient and focused on profitability

  • Some individuals will still go the extra mile to achieve business outcomes (but this variable coverage is inconsistent across the business)

  • We work well in our small teams, but there is limited integration of these teams with the business

  • We love the new-age model of our business

Then the negatives:

• • We dislike departments that we are dependent on, but who are always busy, not responsive and in general, not interested in solving the problem - we are busy, but not working together 

  • Our leaders are not supporting the business well - everybody finds a reason why they are not accountable, abdicating responsibility

  • Our leaders don't motivate, give feedback and acknowledge good performance

  • There is no practical way to give feedback to management in cases where we think their strategy is risky

  • We are not respected for our professional time - meetings are cancelled at short notice, some managers are 100% booked out (calendars allow for no meetings)

  • Our most valuable assets (talented people) are seemingly seen as expendable (messaging not consistent with actions)

  • We are in limbo and have reached a point of not caring what happens next

  • We operate with a lack of governance principles - what if senior management is wrong?

And then the actual impact: 

• • No Accountability: people are passing the buck

  • Commitment to go the extra mile, be an ambassador, or making the company a success is going backwards

  • Organisational belonging erodes, while disengagement is critically high

  • Trust is questionable as the real information is not forthcoming

  • Staff feel isolated from their leaders - they are not present

There is a blaming culture, passive aggression and self-protecting behaviours. Employees are apathetic and have a wait and see attitude.

Taking Action

Having listened to people’s needs, questions, concerns and feedback, one is now in a position to  respond and support employees, thus making everyone part of the change in a sustainable way.

“Employees should be engaged and all People and Culture activity should be towards measuring, motivating and fostering a healthy, happy and engaged workforce. All other people and culture activity is a waste”

In this specific case:

1. Leaders should be developed to be positive decision makers that value their staff and encourage feedback.

a. Invest in leadership coaching to improve their resilience.

b. Involve leaders in engagement and feedback sessions.

2. Strategic objectives cannot only be communicated from the top down. Departments today are highly interconnected and each depends on the strategic decisions of their neighbours. One needs vertical and diagonal feedback between silos in the business.

3. Teams need to be grown larger than just small cohesive functional departmental groups. 

a. Develop interdepartmental team building programs that encourage staff to develop respect and understanding for each other’s strong and weak points.

4. In flexible times, companies are only as strong as their values, manifested by their psychologically healthy employees.

a. Develop value statements that truly reflect the company position on profitability, investment, customer relations, diversity and sustainability.

In Summary

Not only are the business case of healthy cultures where people are engaged proven,  but damaged people collateral are arguably a key moral issue that lands in the lap of the CEO. Listening and managing all the business stakeholders (including your employees) is the sustainable way, especially if they are the core asset of your organisation. With a proven methodology to help to understand the wellbeing risks, know-how to navigate the integration and improve engagement, one has a road map for managing the high road during acquisitions.

WorkLife Digital is a global mental-wellbeing consultancy driven by the mission to improve the sustainability of businesses. Our psychological wellbeing tool, Worklife Quotient (WL-Q), is modelled on cutting-edge scientific research and provides organisation-wide measurement and intelligence on the mental wellbeing levels and psychological resilience of staff. WL-Q also assesses the impact of organisational practices (i.e. people and culture, leadership styles, organisational purpose and values, social impact) that have a direct influence on staff wellbeing and provides strategic recommendations on addressing risks and promoting strengths.

For more information, get in touch at lisa@worklife.digital

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