Employee engagement scores at a major electronics distribution company were dropping in Asia, along with revenue and profitability.

By giving front-line leaders new skills, tools and a consistent process, we helped the company turn around employee engagement scores and increase revenue by over 125% in the months following the initiative.

A $15 billion+ global electronics distributor conducted a survey that showed widespread disengagement among employees in its 14 countries across Asia. Running parallel to the downward engagement trend was a slide in regional revenues and profitability.

ZRG worked closely with the president of the region to define what a successful turnaround in engagement would look like, and how it could move the business.

We then collaborated with her to design a Shared Leadership program that blended important strategic work for the region with country-level communication of key corporate messages around vision, mission, and values.

With a mandate to get results quickly (within 60–90 days), we gathered 50 leaders from 14 countries for a workshop in Hong Kong, where they learned the skills that would help them align their organizations around quantifiable goals, identify opportunities for top and bottom-line improvements, and spearhead implementation.

Armed with “Leader Kits” (which were translated into four languages), the executives returned to their countries to lead local meetings and launch projects that would help address the challenges identified in the employee engagement survey.

After 60 days of project work, these change agents returned to Hong Kong to share solutions and implementation plans, program best practices, and key messages from the field.

Results

The percentage of “Disengaged” employees in the region decreased by 1000 basis points within a year—an “unprecedented” achievement, according to the firm that designed and administered the engagement survey.

• Notably, executive engagement improved the most during this time.
• And, revenues for the region increased by 125% in the six months following the program.

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