Priority No. 5:
Employee Engagement Trace McCuan, CEO
Over the last few months, I have been outlining my top five priorities for success here at Nueces Electric Cooperative. I discussed how keeping the safety of our members, our employees and the public are my top priority, followed closely by cost containment to keep our rates as low as possible, the reliability of our electric service and the importance of maintaining good customer service in the process. To close out the top five of my priorities here, I believe that NEC and our members will benefit from a focus on employee engagement. Optimizing safety culture and performance requires employees to actively engage in different parts of the Co-op. Engaged employees help provide an open door for Co‐op leaders to assess and increase understanding of organizational risks and situations that require planned improvement actions. Without employee engagement, the door to these developments tends to remain closed. It is also imperative that employees provide positive and corrective feedback to each other at every level on a continual basis to reinforce and promote the positive behaviors that minimize our risk and ensure top-notch service to our members. Our human nature is to take shortcuts and embrace the immediate positive benefits of things being faster or easier. However, having engaged and wellinformed employees is more likely to decrease the likelihood of these shortcuts. Engagement begins when cooperative leaders establish concern for the well‐being of their employees by modeling the behaviors we as leaders wish to instill in our organization. This means we treat workers with dignity and respect in a fair and unbiased manner. This builds a foundation of good relationships and fosters a strong culture of helping each other, and guides us to meet our mission. 18
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In this environment, employees tend to go above and beyond their job description to do the right thing for members, fellow employees and management. Conversely, when employees feel no sense of connection to the organization, we can expect resistance in our activities to move NEC toward our mission. Employee engagement should focus on three areas in order for the cooperative to realize value: First, the Co-op must to create an environment where workers can easily communicate concerns and the challenges they face. Employees must believe that management will listen and act on this information without fear of reprisal. If lack of clarity exists in this area, the employee has no compelling reason to provide constructive input. Second, employees must be involved in assessing their jobs in a systematic way. A robust engagement system has to include a broad focus on continual improvement on a daily basis. Third, employees must be involved in identifying solutions to problems/issues. They are involved in the day‐to‐ day operations in the workplace and are best positioned to find the solutions. Employee engagement is a strategy that requires a long term commitment by Co‐op leadership. However, when instituted correctly, it sets the stage for improving the overall performance of the cooperative. I intend to continue to embrace this in my leadership of NEC and work with the employees here on a regular basis to engage them in the importance of our mission. Together, as an engaged member-owned cooperative, we will help our members continually improve their quality of life by providing reliable and cost effective electric service. www.nueceselectric.org
5/6/2016 9:15:45 AM