CEOtoCEO provides helpful advice from peer leaders

Jeanne Wintz of Gilmore Research Group is a regular at the CEOtoCEO BreakfastCEOtoCEO Breakfast in large part because of the valued input she gives and receives from other participating business leaders. 

A few months back Jeanne arrived at a  with a heavy heart and looking for advise and support from other business leaders. After a rigorous budgeting process evaluating the impact of the economic turndown, the decision was just made to layoff a number of employees throughout the organization. The decision had been made carefully and seemed to be the best move to make for the long-term viability of the company, but it wasn’t a comfortable choice for a company with a 60-year history and a strong reputation for loyalty to its workforce.

As with other business leaders she was concerned about how the layoffs were going to impact productivity and morale of the surviving staff. Sharing her situation with other leaders seated at her table she received great advice from these empathetic and experienced colleagues on how to go about implementing the layoffs and keeping remaining employees engaged. In a meeting with Jeanne last week she commented that the input she received at the breakfast enabled her to carry out the plan with confidence and be more effective while leading the organization through this difficult time.

To help solve your problems with solutions from other leadership peers plan to participate at one of our CEOtoCEO Breakfasts soon.

Improving Employee Engagement and Productivity Using Social Media

An old-timer once told me that there is only one way to kill a rumor….make it a fact. Easier said than done in this period of uncertainty and anxiety in today's workplace. As leaders we have all know that harmful rumors become "facts" if we do not communicate with employees on a regular basis to keep them engaged and productive.

At the March CEOtoCEO Breakfast speaker Richard Law, CEO of Allysis, shared the following examples of how he keeps employees informed and involved in whats going on in the company using social media tools.

“You Ask, We Answer” Forum Hosted on Intranet
• Anonymous Post Option
• 24 Hour Turn Around Commitment
• Ask Anything … Management Has to Answer
• Deeper Understanding of Company Direction
• Shared Decision Making
• Two Way Conversation

Kudos Program
• Clients & Employees Encouraged to Call Out Exceptional Performance
• All Kudos Posted Monthly; Top 3 Get Awards Quarterly.

Employee Blogs
• All Topics Allowed
• Encourage Sharing of Knowledge
• Quick Insight into Departments, Leadership, Employee Development Opportunities

Benefits of being a 'Best Company to Work For'

Eric Overton, President and CEO of Sparling Electrical Engineers, the largest specialty electrical engineering firm in the country headquartered in Seattle. I asked Eric what does Sparling do to be selected and recognized as being a 'Best Company to Work For', and what benefits does his organization realize from this effort? Read on for Eric's response.

Sparling being rated as a best company to work for is a recruiting edge as potential recruits want to work at companies that are progressive, have happy employees, opportunities and so on. I think it demonstrates that a company is progressive and cares about its people.

I believe my employees find Sparling a great workplace for many reasons. We offer a great environment that supports collaboration, team work, progressive office space design, the firm’s graphic image and brand is all over the offices, we utilize technology a lot as a part of our culture. We offer very competitive benefits and compensation, based on performance based incentives and we are delivering. We aspire to be a fun place to work, a very strong culture of open communications, risk taking is celebrating when the focus is on innovation or client satisfaction.

As CEO I preach honest, open and transparent communications. We publish our KPI's monthly in a dashboard environment so everyone can see firm performance, right down to each design studio and practice area of the firm, and we talk about it regularly. We do a lot of the same things other companies do, hold quarterly company update meetings and serve food and drinks, we engage in outside activities and encourage our staff to get involved. We have a very strong Corporate Social Responsibility program and actually pay every employee an extra day of leave when they go volunteer at a charity. We make our CSR program a big deal because I realize that people really desire to give back, not just monetarily but with their time. Our younger staff don't always have the money but they have the desire to contribute and have the time to give, the young Gen Y's want to change the world, money isn't as important in many ways.

In the end, we do what we say. We are a business centered practice and we return firm profits to our staff in the form of performance bonuses, leadership bonuses for our shareholders (when we do really well) pay a dividend to our shareholders and fund our 401K, annually. We have done this for 25+ years and I am committed to this as part of our commitment to our staff. We watch our business very closely.

Sometimes I think it isn't that difficult, but it is hard work. One of the very unique benefits of our culture and being a Best Company is that it attracts great talent, Sparling is considered one of the premier engineering and consulting firms to work for on the West Coast, and we attract talent from all across the US and even abroad. I guess it works.