DEFINING STEPS TO BUILDING COMMUNITY AND PURPOSE IN A HIGHLY DECENTRALIZED EMPLOYEE POPULATION

Susan Fleming

Purpose

Obtain Insights About Relationships and Culture

Identify Broad Approaches to
Building

Community Across Departments and Locations and Engaging Employees Toward a Common Purpose

Background

Multiple Acquisitions 20% of employee population is remote

Nature of business has changed

New vision, mission, values New brand identity

Details

Revenue $2 billion compared to $860 just two years ago Stock price $66 compared to $10 just two years ago Eight locations compared to two just two years ago 950 employees compared to 400 just two years ago

Methodology

Research Questions:

How effective are the interactions between employees and across multiple departments? What works against building a sense of community and common purpose? What does work? What are specific tactics that can be developed into deliverables that can be implemented and/or further tested?

Qualitative: Interviews

View of culture Effectiveness of communication Level of trust

Methodology

Purposive Sample
Cross section of departments, sample size dependent on redundancy Remote Dependent on multiple departments Multiple levels Seven initial interviews

Criteria to Evaluate
Member testing Triangulation across researcher

Literature

Mostly focused on change or culture after acquisition Difficulty finding research on similar kind of company combination of acquisition and decentralization Daily context is important Identify cultural attributes that are no longer useful for addressing current challenges Need a strong development climate Leadership + grass-roots

Emerging Themes

Silos are prevalent Its hard to get in or out Dysfunctional communication Employees generally dont know whats going on Employees dont know what other departments do Its not a GPTW

Why is This Research Important?

To take the company to the next level, employees must be on board with identity Expectations are high we have set the bar for ourselves Cultures must merge We need to figure out how to have some fun To build a team!

Possibilities

Revamped intranet
Employees

participate in design

Brand Ambassadors Transparency Training within and across departments Management coaching Silo-busting Everyday Heroes

Future Research

Six months post implementation, then annual thereafter For intranet, focus groups, survey, informal testing When it all works, interviews and surveys to find out what worked and what didnt