Our Eastern European colleagues have recorded double digit improvements in terms of employee engagement. The secret of their success? A bottom-up approach driven by trusted, self-appointed champions whose motivation ensured action plan results were delivered as promised.
Tania Orglerova, our Regional HR Director for Eastern Europe, admits that when she saw her region’s 2021 employee experience survey results, she thought they were unbelievable.
“I thought, ‘This is incredible.’ We had an 89% response rate. Our engagement score was up by 14%. Our employee satisfaction was up by double digits across the board. And this was all at a time of uncertainty and COVID-19. I had to double check the figures to make sure they were correct,” she says.
The figures were correct. And they are ultimately a tribute to the hard work of the region’s engagement champions and their 850 colleagues working across Knauf Insulation sites in Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.
Why are engagement results important?
Good levels of engagement translate to happy colleagues who talk positively about their company, enjoy coming to work and want to stay. Bad levels of engagement can lead to increased absenteeism, and sick days as well as constant turnover.
Our For A Better World sustainability strategy makes a commitment to ensure that by 2025 our engagement survey results are significantly above industry average in every country we operate in.
What was revealed by the survey?
In 2018 an employee experience survey was carried out across all Knauf Insulation sites in Eastern Europe and repeated in 2021. An incredible 89% of employees completed the second survey with the region’s engagement score up 14% compared to 2018 (and 6% above the Eastern European Manufacturing average).
The number of people who described themselves as moderately engaged was up from 32% to 38%, those who described themselves as highly engaged was up by 8% to 19% and the number of actively disengaged was down by 10%.
Meanwhile, employees’ satisfaction, rated across areas such as pride in the brand, well-being, employee care, manager support, career development and performance management — was between 9% and 14% up on 2018.
How were these results achieved?
“The success is as a result of a bottom-up approach and the work of our engagement champions who volunteered time to make a difference,” says Tania. “From the first survey we knew where attention was needed and champions worked with colleagues and management to create action plans to tackle these areas.
“These became living documents publicly displayed and everyone could see the action being carried out and when. You cannot earn trust by saying, ‘Trust me.’ You must walk the talk and that is what our champions did. Their success is reflected in our 2021 results.”
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Enjoy our Annual Review 2021