Hannah Pandian, Communications Manager, Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition
“Shall we scrap the treasure hunt?” I asked the RHSC’s then newly arrived Director Martyn Smith in October last year. “It’s already a demanding workshop program and people may need time to rest — or at least retire to their rooms for a couple of hours?” A Secretariat-wide workshop was being planned and the agenda was under development.
Full disclosure: the mere thought of an enforced ‘fun activity’ with coworkers can strike fear into the stoutest of hearts, including on occasion, my own. Understandably, compulsory team-building exercises like paintballing and karaoke are often maligned as being hokey, awkward, and intrusive.
But Martyn was of a different opinion. “Let’s keep the treasure hunt,” he said. “Those who want to rest, can. But some people will choose to take part,” he said optimistically. He was right: typically sage, serious colleagues signed up, and behaved deplorably as they cheated and bribed their way through a rambunctious, noisy hunt for ridiculous clues and no final prize, except the ultimate satisfaction of trouncing all the other teams. Even those who didn’t take part in the hunt joined in the fighting talk at dinner afterwards.
I reluctantly admitted it had been a runaway success as far as team building exercises go.
This thing called Engagement
I thought about that treasure hunt again this month while studying for an e-Cornell University module on Engagement in the Workplace — a step toward certification in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Engagement is an interesting phenomenon. It is the measure of how much an employee is committed to helping their organization achieve its goals. It is a nuanced state based on passion and beliefs, and to be cultivated sensitively, not manufactured crudely, I learned.
Engagement isn’t satisfaction, my course notes stated. ‘Satisfaction refers to contentment with the current state: the work conditions … job security, employee benefits, promotion opportunities. These drivers may be what attracts people to the job but not what engages them once they are in the job.’
Engagement is a far more active state than satisfaction. We all know colleagues who are passionate about their work and who go the extra mile. They are loyal and emotionally committed to the organization and want to see it succeed. Engaged people thrive in roles where their talents are truly leveraged, and they often emerge as leaders.
Research has traditionally shown that higher engagement goes hand in hand with higher performance. Engaged employees are more productive than their less engaged counterparts and contribute to a better connected, more energized workplace. But in today’s changing workplace, building an engaged workforce poses unique challenges. RHSC team members, for example, work in seven physical locations around the world, come from 12 different countries, and speak more than 15 languages between us. How does one even begin to address engagement in this modern workplace model?
Can Engagement even be fostered?
Apparently it can, given the right conditions, and companies worldwide are on a perennial quest to clinch this holy grail of optimal employee engagement in their workforces. My eCornell course offered a checklist of ideal management practices that encourage inclusion. The assignment was to work through them and self-assess my place of work. My individual response, of course, was going to be subjective, and never identical to my coworkers’. But working through these recommendations, I recognized consistent efforts my workplace has made to include key practices such as:
- Close and constant attention to the way jobs are designed, building in meaningful opportunities for talents to be leveraged
- An atmosphere of trust enabling employees to invest their energy and commitment in their work
- Vigilance over people who are dealing with personal issues or working too hard
- Psychological safety reinforced by fair treatment
- Managers taking time to understand their employees, such as by having informal conversations at the beginning of meetings and approaching conversations like they are valuable, not a waste of time.
- Managers providing opportunities for people to interact informally.
Yes, that last bullet is where our treasure hunt comes in (I know you were wondering). As well as the weekly tea-time gatherings in our Washington, DC, office where team-members take it in turn to contribute home-baked cake. And where our Senegalese and Nigerian colleagues surprised us with a lovingly prepared West African feast when the Secretariat convened for an industrious and productive work-planning meeting earlier this year.
Engagement and Inclusion — what’s the link?
Engagement and the guiding principles of inclusion — that’s the “I” in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) — are inextricably and intricately bound together. The Society for Human Resource Management explains that inclusion is “the achievement of a work environment in which all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully, have equal access to opportunities and resources, and can contribute fully to the organization’s success.” And engagement, in turn, is a state of emotional wellbeing that is a result of inclusion in action at the workplace. Employees need to feel trusted, and to trust in their organization, before they feel connected as a whole.
The RHSC Secretariat serves more than 550 organizations from 80+ countries and is clear about its commitment to ‘nurturing, upholding, and celebrating the principles and practice of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in our Secretariat, our membership, and the partners we seek to work with’. It’s an ongoing journey for all of us at the RHSC, informed by an earnest desire to learn, and abundant goodwill and commitment. This is my 12th year, and counting, with my employer and I’m grateful to still be learning fresh lessons about serving our membership with the end goal of increasing reproductive health supply access to women and girls in LMICs.
On this journey, I’ve realized that treasure hunts and jollof rice play their own small but significant role in drawing people together and building vibrant, connected, and committed teams.