Faced with the lowest engagement scores of any division in the country, CEMEX BSO sparked an employee-led positive culture change that has transformed their organization into a blueprint for success. Here’s how.
The Challenge
In 2008, I started talking to leaders around the world about the potential of positive psychology in the workplace. This emerging science showed a clear connection between happiness and optimal performance for individual employees and their organizations.My research and that of others in the field of positive psychology reveals a stunning array of benefits for happy organizations, including higher profitability and customer satisfaction ratings, increased productivity, lower turnover and absenteeism, and even reduced levels of stress. Overall, organizations that put into practice what I've dubbed the Happiness Advantage are proof positive that a happy, engaged employee is the greatest competitive advantage in our modern economy.
According to Gallup’s 2017 State of the Global Workplace Report, a whopping 85 percent of the global workforce is disengaged. However, Gallup also reveals tremendous value in the 15 percent of the workforce that is engaged—highly engaged business units are 17 percent more productive and 21 percent more profitable than disengaged business units. Furthermore, the American Psychological Association found that “psychologically healthy workplaces” have 21 percent lower turnover than the U.S. average, as well as 21 percent higher employee job satisfaction.
However, many organizations are still struggling to incorporate happiness as a business strategy. Below, I profile the business solutions organization (BSO) at multinational building materials company CEMEX, where its leadership and teams of like-minded employees are making happiness a top business priority.
A Desperate Situation
In 2016, the CEMEX BSO division, led by German Carmona and Donna Gearhart, was facing serious problems. “The BSO had the lowest engagement scores in the U.S., and 2016 continued that downward trend,” German and Donna said. “The BSO had been facing many challenges over the past four years that were working against employee engagement. We had organizational changes, sent jobs to Mexico, outsourced many of our positions, had layoffs of long-term employees, and increased workloads on retained staff. We needed to find a miracle to turn employee engagement around.”CEMEX managers were focused on the numbers, and they were not looking good. Engagement scores were down, and morale was low. Operating and financial metrics were below targets. Expectations were not being met. The “people problem” was an issue directly affecting business outcomes. Along with the challenges of low engagement, CEMEX was also facing potential problems with high attrition—something most executives aren’t eager to discuss.
To improve its low engagement scores and address lowering capacity and other negative consequences of attrition, CEMEX needed an “inside-out proposition” to come alive that valued their employees as whole, individual people. CEMEX needed to become a place where people believed what they do and what they think matters, and that they are more than replaceable parts of a large, global, and complex workforce.
They suspected that if the culture became more positive and empowering, the problems of engagement and attracting top talent would be solved.
The Happiness Advantage
CEMEX leaders knew they were on to something when they discovered the Happiness Advantage | Orange Frog Workshop (HA|OF).This unique experiential workshop and sustainability initiative teaches the science of sustainable peak performance through a parable called The Orange Frog. I wrote this parable to share the seven core principles of the Happiness Advantage, which are based on my research and the work of other scholars in the field.
In the parable, Spark was exactly like every other frog in his pond with one notable exception: a slight but noticeable orange spot. And this orange spot makes Spark feel uncomfortably different.
Spark begins to make a disconcerting observation; when he does things that make him feel better (and produce more positive results) the orange spots increase. Spark is left with a difficult decision: be normal, which makes him less conspicuous, or continue doing those things that make him happier, more productive, and more orange.
By the end of the story, readers see and feel pressures they recognize in their day-to-day life. They also witness the remarkable transformation when Spark finally chooses to embrace an orange way of life. Not only does his own personal satisfaction and productivity increase, these same results start to ripple out to other frogs in the pond.
BSO leaders German and Donna looked at HA|OF as an intrinsic engagement solution and trained most of their division in 2017, and are continuing to train new hires.
German attended the very first CEMEX HA|OF along with all his top managers. This sent a clear message: CEMEX leaders are taking this training seriously and are leading by example. The consensus around their office is that employees have experienced a truly dramatic change. “It has significantly transformed our environment, mindset, and culture. Our employees are fully engaged, enjoy coming to work, and are much more creative and productive,” German said.
I love seeing the Happiness Advantage improve “soft stuff,” but when hard, bottom-line results improve too, that shows me just how powerful positivity can be—and the BSO did not disappoint. According to IBM Kenexa Employee Voice, one of the world’s leading employee feedback and engagement tools, the BSO division’s employee engagement scores increased 20 percent, or 12 percentage points (the largest improvement in CEMEX across the United States). Incredibly, some individual teams within the BSO had engagement scores improve 19, 24, and even 31 points!
CEMEX BSO’s positive transformation has also been linked to several important bottom-line results:
- improved working capital position
- higher EBITDA
- improved consolidation processing time for key reporting and improvements in several continuous improvement efforts
- faster release of monthly results to top management.
Embedding Principles of the Happiness Advantage
The process CEMEX BSO followed to solidify their positive transformation began with the HA|OF workshop. Afterward, an internal BSO Orange Frog team was formed, followed by a Chartering Team vision/strategy session. Workshop graduates applied the Happiness Advantage principles they learned in the workshop, which secured the involvement of more BSO employees. This process is sustained by continuous positive changes to how work gets done, specifically through embedding positive practices into work routines (for example, starting meetings by having attendees share three things for which they are grateful) and changing social scripts—the unwritten rules for how people are supposed to think and behave at work (for example, changing “we are too busy to take lunch” to “taking lunch together will help us work better together”).CEMEX has stories of office overhauls, personal transformations, and bottom-line results to show that they have greatly benefited from investing in the happiness and engagement of their employees. The BSO expects that the ripple effect of positivity will continue to spread throughout the organization, leading to higher engagement and long-term success.
An inside-out proposition leading to organic employee-driven change, 20 percent or 12 percentage points higher engagement, supporting the success of HA|OF in driving business outcomes throughout CEMEX. Leaders focused on both hard results and the “soft stuff.” I call these results the perfect mix for Cementing Happiness at CEMEX.
How to Start Your Own Happiness Transformation
Organizations must equip their managers with the tools to lead positive change. It is not enough to have managers read a book or attend a seminar; managers need to be fully convinced of and be prepared to articulate the benefits of happiness. Our experience indicates the following requirements to ignite an era of mobilizing happy, engaged employees as a deliberate business strategy:- Visible action to address damaging social scripts at work—writing new scripts that advocate and promote the link between happiness and success at work, and visibly removing social scripts that do not.
- Patience for happiness to take root and support for organic, employee-driven growth within the organization.
- Embedding individual and organizational work routines with practices to create positive emotional experiences at work.
- A willingness to create space and structure for happiness to live, especially for new teams and necessary time commitments.
- Senior management visibly supporting and learning about the benefits of the Happiness Advantage. Walk the talk!
- Widespread, visible communications to convey that change is happening. Painting the walls is a simple and direct way to broadcast this message.
- Systems in place to spread the learning. In addition to formal training systems, consider implementing coaching, mentoring, or organized volunteer programs.
By capitalizing on the science of happiness, employees at all levels can help their organizations become more successful and enjoy the well-being that accompanies high engagement and job satisfaction. Senior leaders who choose happiness, and make the required commitment, stand to create organizations that learn how to optimize the benefits of positive emotions and have this learning spread throughout their organizations and outward to their customers. This marks an opportunity not just to make companies more profitable, but to make the world a happier place.
Want to learn more? Attend The Happiness Advantage: Bringing the Research to Life at Work on May 9, 1:30-2:30 p.m., Room 23C at ATD 2018 in San Diego. You also can get more information at www.OrangeFrogExperience.com. And be sure to watch Donna Gearhart tell the CEMEX BSO here.
