Transcript Title Space
Action Planning Webinar
September 12
th
2013
Your speaker today
Matt Roddan
Director, Employee Research ORC International
Communicating with us
Outline for today’s session
• Action planning: key success factors • Developing an action planning approach • Identifying key focus areas • Developing action plans • Maintaining momentum • Next steps and support
Key success factors
• Gaining active buy-in and commitment from senior managers/leaders/survey champions • Ensuring survey results are made available to staff • Ensuring survey results are easy to interpret at all levels of the organisation • Involving staff and seeking input for workplace improvement initiatives • Linking any actions taken relating to workplace improvement to the Working for Queensland Employee Opinion Survey (where possible) • Ongoing communication through team meetings e.g. as a standing / regular agenda item and or other media or forums including newsletters
Developing an action planning approach
Developing your action focused strategy
Communicate initial outcomes Further investigation/ involvement Collection of feedback Measure and communicate progress Communicate final plan Defining final actions
A corporate and local approach
Success requires action both at the Agency and Local level:
Agency level Divisions/ branches Divisions/ branches Divisions/ branches
In order to be successful, priorities should be focused and consistent, with flexibility to address local issues
Developing your action focused strategy
Agency action plan Branch 1 action plan Branch 2 action plan Division 1 action plan Division 2 action plan Division 3 action plan Branch 3 action plan Branch 4 action plan
Developing your action focused strategy
Agency action plan Branch 1 action plan Branch 2 action plan Division 1 action plan Division 2 action plan Division 3 action plan Branch 3 action plan Branch 4 action plan
Identifying key focus areas
Getting the most from your data
Step 2: Understand the Underlying Issues Step 1: Put Results into Perspective
Once the key focus areas have been identified, we need to understand how to
improve or maintain
engagement
Creating key focus areas
Celebrate
Improve Investigate further
xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx
• Your results may show areas where you perform better than the agency average or where a large proportion of your team are positive. • Ensure you celebrate your strengths and learn from positive aspects of working in your team • How do we ensure we continue to build on success? • How can you record what you do well and possibly lead to share this with other parts of the business?
• Focus on a few issues and do them well rather than try to tackle everything of concern.
• Think about what the data is telling you and think about key questions to ask to explore the results further with your team.
• Begin to think up ideas and solutions to take action and share these with your team.
• You can also begin thinking about who the best champion might be to drive particular actions forward and to keep momentum.
• There might be some issues in the results which strike you as surprising or as ones that may or may not be a key area to improve • How can further discussions within your team help you understand these issues? • What other methods can you use to understand these issues? Employee forums and focus groups. Brainstorming?
• • • • •
Prioritising action areas: top tips
Focus on 2 to 3 things that you can do, and do them well
Avoid writing a long laundry list of action areas, you can’t solve everything!
Focus on the key drivers
These are the issues that will have the biggest impact on workplace outcomes (agency engagement, job engagement, intent to leave)
But allow some flexibility for local issues
The results are likely to highlight some agency, division or branch-specific issues to be addressed. Don’t ignore them, but see the first bullet above!
Think about longer term actions and quick wins
Ideally you want a mix of both – a few big impact actions and a number of quick wins to really make a difference
Be aware of effort vs. impact
Think about how much time, effort or resources an action might require vs. the return you are likely to get. Avoid actions that are a waste of time or a lost cause!
Developing action plans
So, these are my results – what’s next?
1. Share
the results with the team
2. Form an approach
within the workgroup i.e. focus group
3. Explore and understand
what the results are saying. Identify what actions you and the team will take to address the feedback
4. Develop a draft action plan 5. Check in
with the team, seek feedback on suggested actions
6. Take action
and make sustainable changes that are reflective of what our employees are saying. Be sure to keep the team involved and up to date on the progress of your action plan
Specific Measureable Achievable Relevant Time-bound
Be SMART when developing plans • • Clearly defined action that outlines exactly what we plan to do e.g. NOT “we plan to communicate more” Does it address the… Who, When, Why, What?
• • What’s the expected outcome for the action? Give your action a success measure… could be the next survey results but equally could be other targets/ measures • • • Is the action realistic and achievable?
What other constraints do we need to consider?
E.g. organizational change, time, resources, business location?
• • Does it address the issue? Will it have an impact for employees?
Or, are we developing a lost cause/ waste of time?
• • Actions need a deadline and an owner Even if we can’t set out the full action at this point, tell employees the timescales for action plan development and implementation
Action Planning Template
Maintaining momentum
You said… we did…?
•
Collate, review and track action
• Consider a method to
collate action plans centrally
Spreadsheets? Database? Existing processes/ structures? What works well for collating other types of information across the organisation ?
• • • • • • • • This will help you to: Keep a record of action being taken across the organisation Ensure plans are SMART Provide support where managers may be struggling ‘Buddy up’ managers who are working on the same area to share expertise Track progress Communicate successes and learn from failures Adjust plans over time Note: collating action plans can be an overwhelming task if not managed effectively.
The importance of a strong communications strategy
Effective action Effective communication Successful outcome from survey .
The communication of actions can often be where successful action planning can fall apart. It is important to have a plan in place to communicate your actions so that employees are aware of the work which is underway.
Next steps, resources and support
Next Steps
Task/ item
Highlights reports and online tool available Executive management team (EMT) briefings Staff briefings ACTION PLAN DEVELOPMENT Develop agency action plan strategy Prioritise areas for action Formulate action planning workgroups Further investigation (as required) Develop action plans (agency and sub-organisational level) Communicate actions Implement action plans Track and communicate actions
Timing
Now!
Sept – Oct 2013 ASAP after EMT briefings By Nov 2013 From Nov From Nov From Nov
Available Resources
Highlights reports
• Available in accesspoint • For the agency overall and by sub-groups
Online reporting tool
• Available via accesspoint • Further investigate results, export your own reports
Action planning materials
• Available for download in accesspoint • Tips on communicating results • Action plan templates • Ideas for action • Tips for managing action sessions
This webinar
• Slides available to download in accesspoint • Recording of the webinar
Need more help?
• • •
Contact the Working for Queensland team
Philippa Sutton: 07 3003 2876