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Lisa Legall-Belgrave - Editor The secretariat’s Reform Process has now reached a stage where the focus is shifting from assessing to proposing, discussing and implementing solutions. Employee Engagement is a part of the process that will change the way the Secretariat conducts its business dayto-day. Each department report includes the Secretariat’s overall results for 2016 and 2017. We will be looking for any significant changes – either negative or positive.
At the same time, the Results sessions allows employees to drill down on what they see as issues that require addressing through the Action Planning segment of the sessions. There has been a lot going on in the Communications Specialist over the past several months. The BPR has been taking up a lot of time, as well as recruiting new staff. I worked intimately on recruiting our new staff members, which you can read more about on Page 8 and 9.
In this issue of the Re[ph]orm newsletter we focus on the results of the 2017 Employee Engagement Survey. On Page 4, you can read what the results are for 2017. The Prep sessions with the department heads have already begun and the Results sessions will commence shortly. The Prep sessions are particularly significant as it gives managers the chance to discuss the results of the Survey and explore what the data is showing, what the trends are. During the Prep sessions, the Communications Specialist leads managers in assessing the results by looking at each contributing factor that drives engagement according to the Employee Connections Model.
Finally, you can read all about Tessa Chadderton-Shaw’s adventure across Guyana as she takes in all the sights and scenes, animals and waterways across this interesting and beautiful land. Her story is featured on Page 11.
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Talk back to me either via email lisa.legallbelgrave@caricom.org or comment on the posts I share via the Intranet. I promise you, it’s okay.
What does Culture
Say about an Organisation
Typically, it takes about six months to be recruited for a post with the CARICOM Secretariat. That’s a really long time! In many organisations, new recruits start a new position with a high level of enthusiasm and expectation. It’s no different at the Secretariat.
After only a few months or maybe even a year on the job, you may realise the new hire has left. What caused this to happen? Why did he/she leave so soon? Sometimes the stated professional skills do not match up to the reality. However, there are times when the professional skills are outstanding, and references are impeccable.
problem to solve, which is realistic and allows them to use their professional skills to solve the problem. It can include a written report, a presentation or an actual test, for example a driving test for drivers. This helps both the candidate and the organisation to see if the candidate can really do the job well.
According to Frank Rechsteiner, an expert on the topic of cultural fit, this happens if during the interview process the organisation’s culture is presented in a very desirable way – when it’s not exactly the reality.
Error #2: If the skills fit, the rest will fit as well
In some organisations, employees leave after only a short while on the job when they realise that the organisation’s values are not in line with their own, and that the expectations they had of the culture of the organisation are not met. There are a few errors to avoid during the recruitment process that will ensure an accurate picture of the organisational culture:
Today, finding a candidate who fits an organisation’s culture is equally as important as matching skills. Many organisations continue to focus solely on the professional qualifications of a candidate. However, they do not consider whether the candidate shares the values of the organisation and whether they will fit well within the team. To combat this, the Secretariat has introduced psychometric profiles for recruitment at senior levels, and have included values questions during interviews, which helps us to determine cultural fit.
Error #1: The most important thing is convincing the candidate to take the position.
Error #3: Corporate culture must be defined by the management
Finding the highly-qualified candidates is a competitive exercise, and as a result hiring managers may feel the need to go the extra mile to convince candidates that their organisation culture is fantastic. This is not sustainable, because as soon as the candidate begins working they will quickly realise the organisation is not as perfect as it has been portrayed. New hires leave or quickly become disillusioned. To address this, the Secretariat has introduced in-tray exercises. In-tray exercises give candidates a
Top management is often unclear on how corporate culture is implemented and practiced, says Rechsteiner. Executives may have defined the mission and the vision of the company at some point, but whether or not an employee identifies with it remains a mystery. Think about how you align with or help to drive the Secretariat’s culture. Consider what values are most important to you. What are your pet peeves? Also, think about how your values differ to your colleagues.
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THE RESULTS OF THE SECOND CONNECTIONS SURVEY ARE IN!
EMPLOYEE
A total of 210 employees took the opportunity offered to participate in the 2017 Employee Connections Survey and let their voices be heard. This represents a participation rate of 66%, a 9% increase when compared to the 2016 survey. In the inaugural year, 190 of you completed the survey, a 57% participation rate. The ultimate goal for improved employee engagement is an improved CARICOM Secretariat for everyone. A place where everyone enjoys coming to work each day and feels that they do meaningful work and that they get a chance to be their best self. The factors and sub-factors of engagement the survey measures are: Empowerment – Job Clarity, Support and Resources; Belonging – Respected, Competence and Team; Ownership – Mission & Direction, Commitment & Confidence, and Satisfied; Engagement Attitude. THE 2017 RESULTS 30% OF EMPLOYEES ARE ‘ENGAGED’ – High levels of empowerment, belonging, ownership and employee connections. This score remains on par with the 2016 engagement result. The Secretariat’s engagement is better than the worldwide average, and comparable with the US and Canadian average. However, in comparison, the top 100 highperforming organisations worldwide as measured by Gallup report, there is an average of 14 engaged employees for every one actively disengaged employee. So there is still good potential for improvement in the Secretariat.
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56% ARE ‘NOT ENGAGED’ – Moderate levels of Empowerment, Belonging, Ownership Employee Connections explains that employees who are “not engaged” tend to fluctuate in their performance. They frequently have duties, which they do in an “automated” fashion, which means they can easily miss errors and changes. On occasion, they are given duties, which cause them to “wake up” and pay strong attention, but this is not frequent enough. They are also more easily distracted and are frequently likely to multi-task, again making them less attentive to the work they are doing and thus more prone to errors and poor quality work. When it comes to change, employees who are ‘not engaged’ are more likely to take a wait and see approach. They do the minimum necessary to appear to be compliant, but they do not buy into the change. They wait to see if the change is going to take root before they commit to the new way of doing things. Gallup describes employees who are ‘not engaged’ as “employees [who] are not hostile or disruptive. They show up and kill time, doing the minimum required with little extra effort to go out of their way for customers. They are less vigilant, more likely to miss work and change jobs when new opportunities arise. They are thinking about lunch or their next break. Not engaged employees are either ‘checked out’ or attempting to get their job done with little or no management support.” 14% OF EMPLOYEES ARE ‘ACTIVELY DIS-ENGAGED’ – Low levels of empowerment, belonging, ownership and employee connections. Gallup argues that “actively disengaged” employees are not just unhappy at work; they are busy acting out their unhappiness. They monopolise managers’ time; have more on-the-job accidents; account for more quality defects; contribute to “shrinkage” i.e. when you take home that pen, paper towels or print personal documents at work; are sicker; miss more days; and quit at a higher rate than engaged employees do. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged co-workers accomplish. According to Gallup’s statistics worldwide, actively disengaged employees outnumber engaged employees 2:1.
C O V E R
S T O R Y
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CSS ENGAGEMENT 2017
C O V E R
S T O R Y
By comparison, within the Secretariat, engaged employees outnumber disengaged employees 3:1. This result places the Secretariat well above the worldwide average, but still considerably lower than the highest-performing organisations. Whilst this result is comparable with the USA and Canada, it is cause for concern and action is required urgently if the Secretariat is to become the customer-centric, resultsfocused organisation that it wants to be. 83% OF EXECUTIVES ARE ‘ENGAGED’ AND 73% OF SENIOR MANAGERS ARE ‘ENGAGED’ – This is significant because research shows that supervisors who work for engaged leaders are 39% more likely to be engaged, and employees who work for engaged managers are 59% more likely to be engaged. Executives’ participation has improved significantly as well over the 2016 survey and this could be as a result of a change in attitude towards the survey and accepting that their participation is important. 58% of Employees Report feeling Empowered The sub-factors of Empowerment are: Job Clarity – 85% of employees are clear about their jobs. Resources – 49% of employees believe that they have the resources that they need to do their job well, including systems, tools and equipment and, technical and professional knowledge. Support – 67% of employees believe they get the support and information that they need to get their job done well. 28% of Employees have a sense of Belonging Though considered a weak score, it represents a slight increase over last year’s 26% score.
29% of Employees report having a sense of Ownership Mission and Direction – 47% of employees believe they have a clear understanding of the Secretariat’s Mission and Direction. Commitment and Confidence – 22% are committed to the Secretariat and are confident it can meet Member States needs. Satisfied – 47% of employees are satisfied with their roles and work at the Secretariat. 56% of employees have the right Engagement Attitude. This speaks to the underlying attitude that supports engagement. The survey’s main goal is to give staff a voice and encourage employees to speak freely and openly about both the good and the bad. The feedback and action planning sessions enable employees and managers to work together to find solutions to address those areas that aren’t working well.
74% of employees believe there is a sense of team within the Secretariat, which is primarily due to having friends, or people that they get along well with. 44% of employees report feeling respected at work; issues stem from a lack of praise and recognition, and feeling that they are not being treated fairly and justly. Communication from their manager is also a concern. 18% of employees believe that the organisation does not afford them the opportunity to grow their competence within their jobs. In the Caribbean, this is seen as a reflection of the extent to which the organisation values the individual.
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CMO HAPPENINGS Prioritisation, reorganisation and restructuring is a major part of the Secretariat’s Reform Process.
STRATEGY Completing the Secretariat Strategic Business Plan (SSBP) is critical to CARICOM achieving its ultimate purpose of improving the livelihood and quality of life of the Peoples. However, in the pursuit of achieving these goals, events unfold and issues rise and fall in priority. The goal of a strategic plan is to anticipate what the issues will be at a specific point in time and prepare the organisation ahead of time so that they can meet and resolve issues as they materialise. With the corporate priorities completed, the focus shifted to the technical priorities. Starting in February 2018, the CMO articulated a five-step process to enable the completion of the SSBP, which led directly into the preparation of the Work Programme. The process was carefully designed to build the plan in such a way as to address some of the critical gaps, which the Business Process Review Working Group uncovered when the processes within SMU, RMTA, and HRM were reviewed. The five-step process includes: Problem Analysis; Solution & Opportunity finding; Prioritisation; Feasibility and Alignment of Work Programme. Built into that process is the criteria for prioritisation of the technical priorities: 1. Issues are prioritised if they are of the highest relevance to the Collective Community (they significantly impact economic stability, growth and development) 2. Solutions are chosen as a result they have the greatest impact on resolving the issues 3. Solutions are sequenced in the most logical order to achieve the best result
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In this way, resourcing is assigned because of prioritisation, rather than being used as a criterion. With the Secretariat desirous of becoming results-focused, it is imperative that resources must be allocated based on the priority of the Secretariat, rather than projects selected based on resources. During the SSBP workshops, the EMC and SMC members completed three of the four steps of the process – problem analysis, solution finding, and the prioritisation of the technical priorities. Both the executive and senior managers came together to explore, brainstorm and discuss the main issues affecting the Secretariat’s customer (the Collective Member States) and how the Secretariat can support its customer in achieving its goals. Now, that the priorities have been agreed, the Strategic Management Unit (SMU) has the task of helping Units to validate the priorities by articulating the feasibility of the Solutions having the desired impact. The SMU is now leading the work to complete the fourth and fifth step of that process – the feasibility and alignment to the Work Programme. The feasibility step is a very critical part of the process. It enables the Secretariat to move beyond assumptions to facts, to identify clear outcomes for each step of the
The sequencing of the priorities developed by the joint EMC and SMC workshop.
SSBP, which feeds into monitoring and reporting, to plan in more detail and more accurately, to accurately project the costs and timelines for completion and to articulate any assumptions or risks.
PROCESSES The Processes quadrant is one of the most important quadrants in the Secretariat’s Reform exercise. The Business Process Reengineering (BPR) will touch every department in the organisation; however, three critical units were identified at the start of the BPR exercise – Strategic Management Unit (SMU), Human Resource Management (HRM) and Resource Mobilisation and Technical Assistance (RMTA). These processes determine the quality and content of submissions, which the Secretariat makes to the Organs and Bodies. Whilst SMU and RMTA may be the lead process owners, all of the technical directorates also feed into the processes. BPR simplifies the process to bring clarity, ensures authority is sufficiently devolved and assigns clear responsibilities within the process.
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CMO
Guyana...
HAPPENINGS Continued
In May 2018, CIQ BPR Consultant Tom Berstene assisted the BPRWG with completing the work started in these three critical Units. The As-Is Maps for each Unit was completed and the To-Be process maps drafted new processes proposed for each Unit. Over the coming weeks the BPRWG will work directly with the department heads to review and finalise the processes.
RECRUITMENT Recently, CMO welcomed a Talent and Learning Specialist, a Governance Specialist and a BPR Officer to the team. The search continues for a BPR Specialist. The Talent and Learning Specialist will build a competency model; deliver in-house development programmes for managers and technical staff. The Governance Specialist will be responsible for researching, reviewing and updating the corporate and Community governance arrangements, which support the processes, structures and decisionmaking within the CARICOM Secretariat, the Organs and the Bodies.
Guyana was a word firmly etched in my childhood vocabulary, conjuring up images of the seawall, Pepperpot, Metagee, Casareep, the Demerara and Essequibo Rivers and Berbice . . . as my parents and grandparents recounted stories of times past when they lived, visited and fraternised with Guyanese whose friendliness and borderless love were unparalleled. September 12, 2001 was a defining and earth-shattering moment for the world, and for me, as it marked the day of my first visit to this vast land. The world was in chaos, yet I was desperately yearning to make sense of the vastness of this South American neighbour connected to my navel string. Rivers that I had revered in Jamaica now seemed like small tributaries when compared to the mighty Essequibo. I came to Guyana to live and to work in 2017 with an open mind and very determined to discover the beauty of the green lungs that lay before me as I had so often flown back & forth admiring the depth of the vistas, dense vegetation and striking rivers wending their way through the land. My visits during the past seven months to Kaiteur Falls,
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H O M E
D R U M S !
through Tessa’s Eyes by Tessa Chaderton-Shaw
Orinduik, Santa Mission, Santa Aratac, Lake Capoey, and to Pakuri on the Mahaica River have been nothing short of mesmerising. Each journey has shown me the rich history of a diverse people, the beauty of the river and riverine communities, the majesty of water as it cascades over the edge of a tectonic plate, and the little-known life and culture of the Amerindian people. As we boarded the aluminum boat on the Mahaica River in May, a distinct and calming dark sheet of green lay before us, enveloping us….at times with a glass-like appearance. The river – wide, strong, embracing, welcoming and beautiful – wove its way around the verdant shores of grasses and mangrove filled with Canje Pheasants and Howler monkeys. I felt embraced by the river’s arms as she wended her way to Pakuri and we disembarked in amazement at the simplicity and peacefulness of life on the river. Tranquility lay at our feet as community members took us into their bosom and shared their life stories with us. The Amerindian culture is to be celebrated, exposed and valued as the indigenous people of this land whose history
and teachings are worth unraveling. A history lesson by Toshao Lennox at Pakuri, also known as Saint Cuthberts, was enriching, transporting me back to academia. Georgetown, as interesting as it is with lily-lined waterways and canals, majestic wooden buildings, with its hustle and bustle seething from Sheriff Street to Regent Street to Bourda Market, does not define Guyana. It is imperative to get beyond the confines of this sea-walled capital city, to step out of one’s comfort zone to explore the mystery and mystique of the interior and allow oneself to be guided by the toshaos and those who live, eat and breathe the air from the “green lungs”. Each time I trek to the interior, the hungrier I become. My taste-buds are piqued to discover Mabaruma, Paramaketoi, Kurubukaru and Lethem. Guyana is worth discovering, worth exploring, worth greater promotion, worth celebrating. Its plethora of fruit and vegetables, flora and fauna, striking differences in landscape and diversity of its people is to be envied by its neighbours.
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