Spending time with talent
But directors say time constraints are a challenge, with half of those surveyed citing “competing priorities for the board's attention/tight schedules and limited time” as the biggest barrier to the oversight practices they consider most effective, such as direct engagement with employees.
Dozier counters that boards simply need to commit to putting in all the time necessary to get talent management right. “If you're a director, you should make time for everything that's important,” he says. “So if that means you have to have an eight-hour meeting or two days, that's the answer. Take your time and don't skip over the important things.”
John Fluke, a director at PAC-CAR, a manufacturer of large trucks, agrees. Whenever he's on a business trip near one of his company's factories, Fluke stops by and arranges tours. “Obviously, there are limits to how much disruption I can do,” he says. “So when I'm hanging around a manufacturing site, I'm very thoughtful about the amount of time I can ask employees to stay and the extent to which I can disrupt their operations.”
“Direct engagement with employees can be particularly useful in identifying and assessing discrepancies between the messages boards receive from management and the actual employee experience,” Pederson adds. “EY research has revealed that employees and employers often have different views of how companies are performing in key talent areas such as wellness, flexibility, learning and skills – providing deeper insights for boards.”
These workplace visits include spending time in the employee cafeteria. “Sit at the tables and talk to people,” Fluke says. “And when you talk to them, anything you say should end with a question mark. You're not there to tell them something. You're there to ask them something. It's an opportunity to speak directly to employees…. If you do this consistently in every board meeting you attend, you'll finally get a feel for how things work.”
Diane Creel, founder and director of TimkenSteel, a steelmaker that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and changed its name to Metalus last February, also sees value in workplace visits. “My approach is always to invite people to tell me what's on their mind, rather than asking specific questions,” she says. “Rather than leading the conversation, let them lead the conversation.”
This informal, conversational approach, which Creel argues should be done one-on-one, rather than in front of several directors at once, helps employees let their guard down and feel more free to speak their minds. “How you communicate with them is key,” she says. “It's not like you come in, sit down and say, 'I'm here to hear your thoughts about what it's like to work at XYZ company,' but rather, 'I'm here as a director, trying to do a better job. Tell me about how long you've been with the company, why you chose this company over another, what you like, what you don't like, etc.'”
Creel uses these direct engagement opportunities to validate the data provided in employee surveys and reports. “I fill out the engagement surveys, I read them, I try to understand what employees are saying, and then I use that as context to listen to employees directly,” she says. “I think the information you get from an engagement survey is different than what you hear in person, because I think employees are a little more reluctant to answer a survey a certain way or write down what they would say in person.”
