As part of realizing that goal, CCCC created employee engagement discussions so staff could discuss their well-being and development with their supervisor.¹ Our staff and their immediate supervisors have had great success in building open and honest conversations with each other. We believe their strong relationships are the basis for a healthy workplace environment, as evidenced in our Best Christian Workplaces survey results. In this post I will share the process we use and provide a list of the discussion questions. CCCC members can go to The Green to discuss this post and download the CCCC Employee Engagement Policy—which includes the detailed process—and all its related forms. The comments section below is open for all readers.

Towards Authenticity in the Workplace

When it comes to having conversations with staff members, the big question to address is: will employees honestly share what they really think? Don’t employees need the protection of anonymity to be honest? I’ve previously addressed this issue and given suggestions for how to increase authenticity and trust in the workplace. This post builds on the foundation of that post.

CCCC believes Christians should be able to share their honest thoughts with one another. We should not be afraid of retribution from those in authority over us. Some might say this is an unrealistic, idealistic fantasy! But why should we settle for less than God’s way in how we work together in Christian ministry? Aren’t we supposed to model for the world what kind of a society God wants us to have? Aren’t our workplaces like smaller versions of society? Shouldn’t we, of all people, be able to demonstrate a workplace in which every person is honoured and respected?

As the leader, it is your responsibility to set the tone for honest conversations. You might model disclosure by being transparent (as appropriate) about what you are thinking. And if a staff member does take a risk and open a dialogue with you, you must make it a good experience for the staff member. Thank them for taking the risk and raising the matter. All the supervisors in your organization should likewise be trained to be open to any and all feedback from their direct reports. We can only expect staff to honestly share if they are certain that their thoughts will be well and warmly received. This environment of trust will form during the back-and-forth process of open and honest discussion over time.

The Christian way of living in community is the way of authenticity, transparency, and vulnerability, choosing to be real with one another and learning to live and work together, seeking to understand and be Christ to one another.

Listening to Staff

So here’s one key thing we do at CCCC to facilitate open and honest dialogue with our staff. We schedule six employee engagement discussions per year for each staff member to have a one-on-one meeting with his or her supervisor.

Rules for Discussions

These meetings follow a few simple rules:

1. The meeting is about the staff member, not the supervisor. So, there is no discussion about the employee’s work, no assignments are handed out, and no performance feedback is given. Staff is encouraged to share whatever is on their mind.
2. The role of the supervisor is to ask a series of open-ended questions that have been provided to the employee before the meeting and then listen to the answer. The supervisor may ask follow-up questions for clarity or to dive deeper into what the employee has said. The supervisor may also answer any questions that are raised or provide explanations, but the meeting is about listening, not debating.
3. Both the supervisor and the staff member can make commitments based on their conversation.
4. All commitments are documented so both the employee and the supervisor are accountable for acting on their commitments.

Protection for Staff

To protect staff from our own failings as Christian leaders, CCCC has a Grievance Policy and a Whistleblower Policy. But before anyone has to take one of those two drastic steps, we’ve made it clear that no staff member will suffer retaliation for being honest in their relationship with their manager.

The Discussion Questions

Each of the six meetings is centred on three questions. These questions are asked only once per year, so over the year we ask eighteen questions. Each question came from researching employee engagement. Some were provided by researchers and some were developed by us based on research. At each meeting, one question relates to the employee, one to their supervisor, and the third to the organization as a whole.

In addition to the three questions that change with each meeting, there are three standard questions that are asked at every meeting:

1. What do you think I should know?
2. What else you are thinking but are reluctant to tell me? Please share it.
3. What can I do to support you over the next two months?

Here are all the questions arranged in a single list:

The Process

1. The meetings are scheduled for every other month starting with April (the first month of our fiscal year).
2. The cycle for each meeting starts by asking all supervisors if there is an additional question they’d like to include in the discussion. This allows for the possibility that there might be a particular concern about staff morale at any given time.
3. The meetings are set up and the questions are sent to the staff. Their written responses are sent directly to their supervisors before the meeting.
4. The first item on the meeting agenda is to review the commitments for action that were made at the previous meeting. The results are discussed and, if everyone is satisfied with the results, the commitment is closed. If it is still unresolved, it is added as a new action item and tracked again. Either party may escalate the matter to the supervisor’s manager.
5. The employee’s answers to this meeting’s questions are then discussed and new commitments are made.
6. The employee receives a copy of the action form, and the employee’s answers and the commitment form are sent to the Head of Human Resources, who will review them and prepare a report to leadership if there are any trends.
7. A seventh meeting is held in the month after the sixth and final employee engagement discussion of the year. These are conducted either by skip-a-level supervisors or the Head of Human Resources. The purpose of this meeting is to independently check with staff that they are satisfied their concerns and ideas have been heard and dealt with fairly.

The Benefits

Because of these meetings:

• New ideas are brought forward for consideration.
• Improvements to systems and workflows are made.
• Misunderstandings and misconceptions are cleared up.
• We get to know each other better and mutual trust is enhanced.
• Staff have a bigger picture of the ministry and how it works.
• We are all more engaged with the ministry.

May God bless you and your staff as you enjoy richer and more meaningful conversations!

The post Employee Engagement: Honest and Safe Conversations appeared first on CCCC Blogs.

• Do we trust one another enough to say what we really think about the workplace environment and culture without fear of retribution?
• Is anonymous feedback all we can get?
• Does anyone in management even ask what people think?

A caring leader will want all employees and volunteers to have a good experience and feel significant, valued, and fulfilled as they contribute to the ministry’s success. All of these good things should happen if staff and volunteers believe they can safely bring concerns and suggestions to management.

Christian Faith in the Workplace

If people are afraid to speak up, something is wrong. Isn’t our faith all about reconciled relationships, love, grace, forgiveness and forbearance? Aren’t we all one in Christ with no Greek or Jew, male or female, master or slave?

Yes, we have power differentials and hierarchy to assist with coordination and decision-making, but they must never be used to run roughshod over our co-labourers in mission and create a bad work environment. Our Christian faith levels all differences between people, including workmates.¹ Everyone in a ministry workplace is a peer; just peers with different responsibilities. Treat them well and care for them.

The Christian way of living and working together in community is the way of authenticity, transparency, and vulnerability. We are supposed to:

• be real with one another
• learn to understand each other
• be Christ to one another

Even in the workplace!

Let’s Get Real

What I’ve described is very idealistic, the way things should be and will be when we have all reached perfection in the image of Jesus Christ.² But unfortunately, we are all at various stages on the journey towards perfection. And that means that workplaces might be, or probably are, less than the ideal.

As a senior leader, I believe my leadership should be such that people feel completely safe sharing difficult things with me. It’s my job to create an environment in which people can safely say what they really think, even to me – the CEO. While I may hear some hard things from time to time, it is all for my good. I need to know rather than not know. In fact, the only way I can protect myself against CEO Disease is to make it safe for people to express a concern or complaint that they have, not just about the workplace, our strategy, or our decisions, but even things about me personally.

What about anonymous feedback?

People may be more willing to tell the truth if they can do so anonymously. Anonymous feedback has its pros and cons, and they differ depending on whether it is the only kind of feedback received or if it complements other forms of feedback.

Anonymous Feedback Only

Anonymous feedback is a way to start moving towards trust and authenticity if you haven’t already got it. Even though anonymous feedback on its own isn’t all that helpful, it is better than nothing at all. It can be quite a wake-up call if management hasn’t asked for feedback before, or if management is unknowingly contributing to a bad work environment. It is particularly helpful if leadership is simply blissfully unaware of what is happening outside its own ranks.

Boards should require anonymous feedback obtained through an independent third party as a prudent check on the kind of leadership being given by the senior leader.

I highly recommend the Best Christian Workplaces Institute survey as the instrument to use for anonymous feedback. CCCC brought it to Canada more than a decade ago to help Christian workplaces become truer to our faith and we still use it ourselves every few years.

The problem with anonymous feedback, particularly if it is the only feedback you get from staff and volunteers, is that it is really hard to interpret on its own. For example, if the survey asks only for numerical ratings, there is no context for the response. If staff report a distrust in leadership, why is that?

• Was there a miscommunication between parties?
• Did the staff member have an unrealistic expectation that wasn’t satisfied?
• Is management really not to be trusted?
• Is it management in general, or a particular manager?

You don’t know and cannot know.

You might take the anonymous information and dig deeper with another anonymous survey that asks for an explanation of the score. CCCC does this, and the responses have been quite helpful. But people may not want to be very specific for fear of identifying themselves. Remember, most Christian churches and ministries are quite small in terms of staff: two-thirds of the thousands of CCCC members have between one and ten employees. It probably wouldn’t be hard for them to guess who said what! By the same logic, you are even less likely to have anyone speak up in a focus group.

This reality leaves leadership uncertain about what the exact issue is, and with no clue as to who they should talk with to better understand the score.

Anonymous & Direct Feedback

If you are getting direct feedback, for example in meetings between managers and their direct reports, anonymous feedback is a good test of the quality of the direct feedback. The direct and anonymous feedback should be the same, if everyone is speaking up and voicing their honest opinions.

Anonymous feedback coupled with direct feedback provides good corroboration that people are giving direct feedback that accurately reflects what they really think. This gives leadership a lot of confidence in what people are telling them.

Authentic Face-to-Face Feedback

What we all should really want is a Christian work environment that doesn’t need anonymity in order to receive honest feedback. Anonymity, in my view, runs counter to everything Christianity stands for in terms of human relations. At CCCC, the leadership team is committed to leading in as Christlike a way as possible. We want everyone to feel safe to express their feelings to their manager, and to myself as the organizational leader.

Creating the Environment for Trust & Authenticity

Leadership Response

We leaders have to work at overcoming the imperfections in ourselves so we can receive all kinds of feedback and respond as the good stewards we have been called to be. If you ask employees and volunteers what they think, you’d better be ready to hear people challenge your strategy, the culture, your leadership, and so on. It isn’t always pretty!

Trust and authenticity cannot even begin to develop in the workplace if leaders at any level are not willing to accept it. Therefore, building a workplace where trust and authenticity reign begins with the leaders getting the right attitudes to support such a workplace.

Leaders should start by recognizing that they are neither perfect nor omniscient and can always benefit from other perspectives. Leaders, be humble and don’t be self-centred. You’ll do much better if your focus is on the ministry’s mission and the employee’s welfare rather than on your own personal success and interests.

In staff meetings and one-on-one meetings where people are expressing their opinions and observations, be aware of your body language, tone of voice, and choice of words. Even if you don’t like how it is being said, keep an open mind.

• If they are talking about your own personal leadership, ask yourself, “Is there some truth in it?” Even if you think the person is completely wrong, ask yourself, “If I wanted to be even a better leader in that area, what would I do differently?”
• If they are challenging a strategy or a practice that you think is the right one, ask yourself, “What objective evidence do I have that the strategy/practice is still viable today or will be tomorrow?” Research it. You may be surprised.

Close the loop on the conversation by getting back to the person. Thank them for raising their point and tell them what you did as a result and why. Encourage them to come to you any time they have a concern or suggestion.

Culture

Create a culture that invites critique and inquiry for the sake of the mission and organizational health. Be clear that critiques are not about assigning blame but about finding ways to do things better. Welcome the opportunity to delve deeper into organizational life and work.

Let team members know that their safety and welfare is a concern of top management.

Get in the habit of asking creative questions that invite many different perspectives to be aired. Some great questions appear in a fun post I wrote titled Imagination – the spark that ignites.

Policies

To protect staff from our own failings as Christian leaders, have a conflict resolution policy for dealing with employment-related matters, and an ethics/whistleblower policy dealing with ethical issues.

Have a clear position that no staff member will suffer for being honest in their relationship with their manager.

Trust & Authenticity

In the end, after you have prepared yourself to receive feedback in a positive way and have created the environment for safe expression of opinions, whether people will actually offer their thoughts is up to them. Some people are just too intimidated for one reason or another and will not say anything. The anonymous feedback is the only way you will hear from them. But at least you have done everything in your power to help them have a voice.

My prayer for you is that you will have a workforce of staff and volunteers who enjoy and get life from the work they do for your ministry, that they and you will be one happy, trusting team, and that there will be authentic bonds of Christian love between you as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Key Thought: Christians should be able to have safe relationships with each other, even in the workplace.

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