HR Unscripted with…Lyndsay Chambers

If you think employee engagement surveys aren’t for the Senior Leadership team, you’d better think again...   

In our next HR Unscripted, Kerry White, Director & Founder at RedGreen Partners chats to Vitaflo’s Chief HR Officer Lyndsay Chambers about utilising a different kind of employee engagement survey – an Organisational Climate Assessment.

Kerry and Lyndsay explore the rationale behind its use, the methodology applied, and Lyndsay shares her reflections on the findings and evaluation.

Lyndsay, for those who don’t know you, tell us a little about yourself?

I’ve been in HR for as long as I can remember.  Getting my ‘HR Induction’ right at the coal face of HR - working with the trade unions within the Department for Work and Pensions! I suppose you can say it gave me my HR backbone leading to a number of wonderful opportunities in varying sectors from IT, construction & life sciences. 

I’ve been in my current role as Chief Human Resources Officer at Vitaflo (Part of Nestlé Health Science) for over 10 years now and have been fortunate to lead on many exciting projects across the globe from large scale organisational design;  HRIS implementation and business acquisition to name but a few. 

My true passion though is developing talent.  Especially HR talent and preparing them to become the next generation of HR Directors.

Please can you tell us a bit about what an Organisational Climate Assessment (OCA) is?

So an Organisational Climate Assessment goes further than say a traditional  employee engagement survey.  It has a specific focus around the culture within an organisation providing Leaders with valuable insights on their employee’s view on the Climate of the organisation.

Why did Vitaflo decide to use this method of assessment and what did you want to get out of it?

Vitaflo is part of the Nestlé Health Science family, a subsidiary of Nestlé and it was something the wider organisation was doing.  Given our pace of change and rate of acquisitions, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take a  pulse on where our senior Leaders are in terms of  motivation and change fatigue to ensure we've got the right Climates moving forward and where we haven't; we can put in and address those measures. 

Did you have the expertise internally and how does the assessment work?

No, we used a US based consultancy firm called Door Two and used their model of Climate.  The way the model works is by looking at six dimensions of culture:  Conformity, Responsibility, Standards, Rewards, Clarity and Sense of Team. 

These dimensions can’t be looked at independently from each. They are dynamic and related.  The input to the assessment is very straight forward and completed  by way of an anonymous questionnaire.  The responder is asked to complete a series of questions based on their perception of the current organisational Climate.  They are then asked to repeat the same questionnaire, this time with what they see to be the desired future organisational Climate.

The output of the responses creates a model that shows which dimensions may require focus.  For example a low score on the dimension conformity may mean there are unnecessary constraints which inhibit people from doing their jobs.  However on the flip side an extremely high score (say on Sense of Team) could mean that whilst there is a high sense of belonging, this then could create an environment whereby challenge is not the norm as people don’t want to upset the apple cart. 

The ideal Climate model (as illustrated above by Door Two) shows an organisation that is achievement aroused.  The key being this particular Climate is; understanding what is working well to ensure behaviours are sustained; celebrating success so people know they are contributing to the Climate; maintaining a passion for clarity and being conscious to onboard new people properly to the goals, standards and expected responsibilities.

How was the assessment perceived within the business and was it something they were happy to complete or did you come up against pushback?

So we conducted the assessment with our Senior Leaders - the direct reports of the CEO.  We choose this as our starting point as primarily Climate is a critical focal point for Leaders and we believe they have the greatest leverage to impact their organisational performance.

Pushback is an interesting point.  Whilst the Leaders were happy to take part, there was a degree of scepticism about it being a ‘HR fad’ and so our CEO’s messaging needed to be on point! 

I think upfront and early engagement plus ‘warm up’ messaging were pivotal to getting both participation and tangible outputs.

OK, so next question. Were there any surprises?

To be honest having been in this business for such a long time and working with the same CEO over this period there wasn’t, for me, any real big jaw dropping surprises.  But saying that, there were some very useful insights gained for the Leaders in the post survey analysis and debrief sessions we held.  Which I believe we wouldn’t have uncovered with a different assessment or survey.

What have you done with the findings ?

The assessment came at the right time to help inform and enhance our people and culture agenda for this year.  I always like to use data to drive the HR agenda especially to demonstrate HR’s value.

One particular area of focus was on the dimension responsibility.  The perception amongst the senior Leaders was that this was at the highest possible level.  However the results of the desired Climate on responsibility was a number of percentiles lower. 

It feels odd to say that senior Leaders want less responsibility, but it was clear there were reasons behind this.  The discussion in the debrief  resulted in a gap being identified with the next level of Leaders so we were able to pivot and focus more heavily on our learning agenda this year. 

We launched initiatives focused on the next layer of people Leaders covering items such as leading through change, line manager fundamentals and other bite size topics.

We also identified a focus area in the dimension ‘sense of team’.  Not because the result indicated people feel isolated or not included, more the opposite.  We openly discussed how having a high sense of team could lead to complacency and lack of challenge and agreed that in future board meetings we should have a standing agenda item called ‘debate’ to generate the right thinking patterns.

We are still working through our action planning however it’s very obvious that even in the best organisation climate there is always work to do to sustain and improve.

Would you recommend organisations using OCA?

Definitely,  I've learnt a lot and gained some brilliant insights as both a participant and as the HR Lead.  For our CEO and any other Leaders it’s a great way to sense check where the team is at.  Specifically around any of the dimensions that fall short of the ideal Climate.  

It's anonymous, so people get to respond in a way that feels safe but also helps to inform the tone being set from the top.

Key to the OCA ,as with all feedback loops is, it’s great and insightful however  there must be tangible outputs and actions.  For us, as our Climate is very close to the ideal; the action planning post survey is short, but those actions have the ability to have a huge impact.  It presents an opportunity for the HR community to add real value and showcase our talents.

So who should use the tool?

It's probably good if you're an organisation that's had high growth whether this be organic or through acquisition.  Often growing quickly brings with it the need to change and adapt. 

For example have you kept pace with process and rules? Maybe you need to implement a little more rigour so people know ways of working.  Or indeed on the flip side maybe you’ve introduced too many processes and rules and now those rules inhibit an efficient way of working. 

Other areas I can see it being relevant are for new Leaders after a period of settling in, after all culture is set from the top!

Is the OCS something that you can repeat and if so, how often would you recommend?

Absolutely!!  It's always important to check in with your organisational Climate to know where you are. We're going to do this regularly, probably around the 12–18 month mark to see where we are and if the dial has changed.  It’s also a good way of informing your HR strategy and future plans.

Final question… If you could re-run it, would you change anything?

No, I don't think I would. Being a participant myself in the assessment I didn't want to influence people's perception and views.  If the shape of the team were to change then I would do more upfront engagement with the senior Leaders.  Likewise, a new CEO would definitely mean more conversations around the “why” aspects of running these types of assessments.