Introducing Best Companies People Manager s Conversation Guide

Introducing Best Companies People Manager s Conversation Guide

2 University of Salford Introducing Best Companies People Manager s Conversation Guide Welcome Introducing Best Companies Conversation Guide Wouldn t it be wonderful to work somewhere that s been recognised as a great place to work? Maybe you already feel you do. Great! Maybe you see there s some work to do before we can truly make that claim. Perhaps we aren t consistently great. Perhaps you hear other people grumbling and want to make it better for them. Colleague engagement is all about making sure the University of Salford is a great place to work and as you discovered in the workshop, you have a really important role to play in that. You ll be using this guide to introduce your team to Best Companies and the 8 Factors for Engagement. You ll remember that Best Companies collects data for The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies. We are using it to measure our levels of engagement and identify where we need to focus our work together. We have all recently completed the survey and the results will be communicated in February. As a starting point along this road, we would like you to gather your team together and introduce the 8 Factors, get a conversation started, capture the mood, then send an evaluation of your session to the OD team. Simple! This is your opportunity to demonstrate all that we talked about in the workshop. Use engaging manager and MC 3 methodology. Be engaging. Stimulate conversation and interest. Ensure your team goes away with a clear understanding of Best Companies and what the 8 Factors mean in practice. Over to you!

University of Salford Introducing Best Companies People Manager s Conversation Guide 3 Preparing for your conversation Read this Guide to the end to help you plan well for your conversation. You should allow 30 minutes for your conversation. Aim to meet all your team together. If it s tricky to get them all in one place at the same time, plan to have a number of smaller group conversations. Groups will give a much stronger response than 1 or 2 people looking at this on their own. Find a space where you will be able to work undisturbed. Phones off. Door shut. During your conversation Use the Best Companies Map that you ll find in this pack. The key thing to remember is that this should be a conversation, not a presentation. Your role is to facilitate, encourage debate and discussion around each Factor and to close the session, capturing feedback. It isn t about your opinion this time, this is about finding out theirs. Avoid leading your team. They ll have their own views to add to yours. Throughout this guide you ll find sections marked as follows: What to say: A suggestion on the words and language to use in explaining the different sections of the conversation. What to do: These describe an action for you to take or activity for you to do with your colleagues.

4 University of Salford Introducing Best Companies People Manager s Conversation Guide Part 1: Welcome What to do: Welcome everyone and thank them for coming. Keep it upbeat. Place the Best Companies map in the centre of the table and ask everyone to huddle round. Take the pack of Bronze, Silver and Gold award medals and have them ready by your side. What to say: This exciting project is all about making The University of Salford a great place to work by improving our colleague engagement. Colleague engagement has become increasingly important for successful organisations. It makes people feel valued, and instils a passion for work that leads to better performance, improved wellbeing and higher overall motivation. What to say: We re aspiring to be the best we can be. The Best Companies survey is nationally recognised as the pre-eminent survey for workplace engagement. This particular survey is used by major companies across all sectors to help them gain competitive advantage by measuring, recognising and improving colleague morale and motivation. The results and reports gleaned from the survey will give us a clear view of how we are performing in comparison to other organisations - as well as how we can match and exceed that of other Higher Education institutions. Thank you for completing the survey. Today we ll get to know Best Companies a little better by looking at their 8 Factors for engagement. Together, we ll discuss them and get your opinion on where you think we are now. The full survey results will be coming out in February so I ll be getting us all together again to discuss those once they are out.

University of Salford Introducing Best Companies People Manager s Conversation Guide 5 Part 2: The Medal Ceremony What to say: We re going to go through each Factor in turn, and award it a Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal in terms of how we feel we perform against this Factor now. What to do: Read a Factor out to your colleagues, encourage debate on whether they feel we are gold, silver or bronze for that Factor. After you reached consensus, place a Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal on to that Factor icon on the map. Capture comments and move on to the next Factor. Talk locally and at a University level as appropriate. You ll need to move quickly through the Factors. Spend about 2-3 minutes on each. Keep it punchy and high energy. What to say: Let s start with My Team. Where do we see ourselves now for this Factor? Are we Gold, Silver or Bronze? What to do: Pause. Some people will have an opinion right away. Some will need 10 seconds of quiet time to think. Get input from as many as you can. Encourage people to think out loud. It will help everyone reach a consensus. Your medal award doesn t have to be unanimous you can go with the majority. What to do: After you ve placed your award, write the medal you are awarding in the comments box on the map (nominate a scribe from the team). For each Factor write a comment in the box that captures evidence of something positive someone said and a comment that captures an area for improvement. For example: (+) Good to have a forward-thinking leadership team with vision, (-) Could leadership representatives come and talk to my department? Go through all the Factors one by one. You can choose the order.

6 University of Salford Introducing Best Companies People Manager s Conversation Guide Here are some things you can say about each Factor as you introduce each: Leadership How colleagues feel about the head of the organisation, senior management and the organisation s values and principles This Factor looks into how we feel about the head and senior management of the University, as well as its values and principles. It s a great way to gauge their impact on both current performance and future change. My Company The level of engagement colleagues feel with their job and organisation Taking pride in our place of work is a big driver for success and growth, so the survey also measures how engaged everyone who works at the University is both in terms of their own role and as part of the wider organisation. My Manager How colleagues feel about and communicate with their direct manager Great communication leads to positive behaviours, which is why we want to find out how our colleagues feel about those who lead the way at the University and how they interact with managers. Personal Growth How colleagues feel about training and their future prospects By helping our colleagues be the best they can be, we can do more to ensure the University as a whole reaches its potential. In the survey, all participants have the opportunity to share their feelings about training, and their prospects. My Team Colleagues feeling towards their immediate colleagues and how well they work together Getting on with colleagues not only makes life easier for us individually it also makes us more efficient as an organisation. In measuring this Factor the survey uncovers how people feel about those around them. Wellbeing How colleagues feel about stress, pressure at work and life balance The health and happiness of colleagues is paramount to overall motivation, and to bringing values to life. The survey therefore explores how we all feel about stress, pressure we face and our worklife balance. Fair Deal How happy colleagues are with pay and benefits When it comes to money matters, it s vital that we all feel valued because that s what inspires us to add value. This element of the survey allows us to find out how happy University colleagues are with their pay and benefits. Giving Something Back The extent to which colleagues feel their organisation has a positive impact on society By examining the extent to which we feel the University has a positive impact on society, we can understand where and how our assistance is most needed, and where it will prove most influential.

University of Salford Introducing Best Companies People Manager s Conversation Guide 7 Part 3: Close What to say: Thank you for your time and energy today. I hope that you found getting to know Best Companies interesting. I ll be getting us together in February so that we can share where we actually rated in the survey, both at a University level and at a local results level. What to do: Close the session. When everyone has gone, complete the evaluation comments sheet. Consider how the session went. What was the general consensus? What s useful for the OD Department to know about how this was received? The information you have gathered is so valuable. Please send it to the OD Department immediately after the session. Please scan your completed evaluation sheets and email these to colleague-engagement@salford.ac.uk If you have any questions or require more information please also email colleague-engagement@salford.ac.uk Thank you! End