6 Capability Building Initiatives to Engage Employees

At ON THE MARK, we design capability building to increase the competence and confidence of staff, while achieving tangible business results. Our skill-building workshops, coaching, and mentoring are consistently rated by our customers as “one of the best” development opportunities.

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Capability building differs across industries and organizations, and even between departments within the same company. We asked members of the OTM team, as well as various HR leaders representing diverse industries, for their advice.

Here is what they had to say about building organizational capabilities that can successfully engage employees:

What is one highly effective capability building initiative that you have found successfully engages employees?

Install a Sense of Collective Ownership

“The most important capability building initiative is to install a sense of collective ownership of the whole organisation throughout. This is done not just through communication strategies, but also in the way that feedback is encouraged peer to peer, as well as top down and bottom up. All too often organisations don’t act as one, leading to blame games. Keeping a free flow of information and dialogue is key to achieving better outcomes for your customers through everyone in your organisation.”

– Stuart Wigham, Former Content Manager and Consultant at ON THE MARK

Give Opportunities for Involvement

“Building capability is a key engagement platform for both the company and an individual. I’ve seen great results when people are given the opportunity to be involved in projects that add real value to the company; where failure is seen as the partner to considered risk and a strong coaching culture. Easy to say, hard to achieve without constant focus and effort.”

– Cindy Penney, Global Human Resources Director at Arconic (Manufacturing company)

Collaborate Ahead of Any Final Decision

“We saw that by collaborating fully and effectively with the business leaders 6 months ahead of any final decision, using video conferencing, video blogs and podcasts and an iterative review approach – we were able to adjust the proposed design effectively. This meant at “go-live”, we had full commitment from leaders and made a fast start to the implementation.”

– Marina Kilcline, Transformation Programme Director at Avis Budget Group International (Car rental company)

Engagement Through Employee Betterment

“Reframing our language to capability liberation places leadership at the center of the discussion. Organizational capability building or development, by contrast, has a subtle way of implying the path to engagement runs through employee betterment. The former looks up the hierarchy, while the latter looks down. The most engaging action I’ve seen has leaders trusting employees as being capable of immense creativity and ownership, creating an empowering environment, and raising expectations.”

– Dan Schmitz, Consultant at ON THE MARK

Make Employees Partners in the Business

“Something I always recommend in my writing is to make employees partners in the business. Open-book management helps them understand your organization’s financial reports, and research on Glassdoor, Charity Navigator, Morningstar, and others helps them gain a better perspective of the organization’s market positioning, its competitors, and its opportunities and shortcomings. Nothing drives a healthier sense of competitiveness and curiosity than market awareness: it costs nothing, and it helps employees motivate themselves in light of the organization’s current challenges.”

– Paul Falcone, VP of Human Resources at Motion Picture and Television Fund (Charitable organization)

Implement Trust Building Programs

“Based on my experience, I like to explore the demands of the VUCA world and study its impact on individuals´ performance. New trends and terms have appeared lately, such as agility. Even if renewed terms is probably an expression for our search for solutions, I believe we, as human beings at work, have potentials and challenges to collaborate. I love exploring how adult developmental stages impact our perceptions, our collaboration, and especially how we build trust. Trust building programs with a proper assessment and methodology has been the most successful in my view.”

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– Simone Torres Costa, Associate at TCO International (Professional training and coaching company)

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OTM’s experience and passion for collaborative business transformation that’s supported by pragmatism, systems thinking, and a belief in people is unparalleled. OTM has been in business for 29 years and is a global leader in collaborative organization design.