Engaging employees on a global scale at G4S
How do you go about surveying hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide, where the vast majority are hard to reach and have limited access to technology? That was the challenge facing Sue Pym, employee engagement and brand manager at G4S. She explains how she achieved it.
Created by the merger of two security giants, Group 4 Falck and Securicor in 2004, G4S's heritage dates back over a century and we are now the world's leading security solutions group as well as the largest employer on the London Stock Exchange (and one of the largest private sector employers in the world). We have around 625,000 employees in over 120 countries and offer a diverse range of security solutions.
From day one, employee engagement was positioned as a key business objective for the new board
G4S is very much a people business with around 90 percent of employees working on the frontline. Many of these employees do amazing jobs from clearing mines in Iraq and Pakistan to providing rehabilitation in young offender institutions or providing cash management services to banks and retailers.
Background to our engagement strategy
Prior to our merger, neither Group 4 nor Securicor had any form of cohesive engagement strategy or resource allocated to it. So the new team very quickly undertook a comprehensive review and risk assessment of labor relations and employee relations in every G4S business. From this we developed our strategy, which we backed up by the introduction of minimum standards, toolkits and key performance indicators to ensure consistency companywide.
From day one, employee engagement was positioned as a key business objective for the new board and their support was crucial in driving the engagement agenda and embedding it across the organization.
The key aims of our engagement strategy were to:
- Improve employee communication.
- Build on existing relationships with trade unions.
- Develop the employer brand / employee value proposition.
- Ensure that a health and safety culture is embedded in the business.
- Create an inclusive workplace where people can reach their full potential.
- Enhance the skills, knowledge and capability of frontline managers to engage others.
The very nature of our business means that both health and safety and good labor relations are vitally important to the lives of our frontline employees and have a huge impact on their levels of engagement. As does the ability and skill set of our frontline managers - often the key link our employees have with G4S.
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This article was originally published in Strategic Communication Management.
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