Page 6 - Enterprise Engagement and ISO Standards eBook

Enterprise Engagement and ISO Standards

The working group in charge of ISO 9001 quality management standards that are followed
by about 1.3 million companies worldwide, as well as several coalitions of investors with
investment capital of $15.6 billion and the Enterprise Engagement Alliance, have provided
more specific answers. Through completely independent initiatives, and likely unaware of
each other’s activities, they prescribe a formal enterprise-wide approach to engagement to
achieve financial and other key goals on a sustainable basis through people.

If ISO, these investor communities, and the Enterprise Engagement Alliance are correct, it
turns out that what most organizations lack is a formal, strategic approach to enterprise
engagement based on aligning all constituencies around a common brand and purpose, and
by integrating and aligning the many engagement tactics often siloed in organizations and
working at cross purposes. The solution involves not employee engagement or the
employee experience, but an ongoing process to connect that engagement across the
organization to customers, distribution partners, vendors and other communities that
contribute to an organization’s success.

The standards and research suggest that organizations can achieve better results through
the design and integration of traditional engagement tactics, including leadership training,
assessment, communications, learning, innovation and collaboration, rewards and
recognition, recruitment, and analytics.

The reason employee and customer engagement refuses to budge is that most
organizations lack not only the commitment but the knowledge and implementation of a
formal, strategic process or structure to address the connection between engagement
across the organization. They simply do not know where to start because engagement
remains a little-known subject not taught in business schools or written about in the
mainstream business media.

The Investor Community Weighs In

Whether with knowledge of ISO standards or not, investors have embraced the importance
of engagement and the need for a formal process. CalPERS, the nation’s leading pension
fund, submitted a concept paper last year with the Securities & Exchange Commission
requesting that public companies be compelled to disclose their human capital investments
and information on the engagement of employees and customers, learning and
communication practices, incentives, and more. (See http://enterpriseengagement.org/Q-A-
with-CalPERs-on-its-Strong-Support-for-Human-Capital-Disclosures-by-Public-Companies/)

The Human Capital Management coalition of 26 U.S. pension funds, with combined assets of
$5.6 trillion, specifically asks public companies to disclose information on human capital
investments, employee and customer turnover, and much of the same information

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