Eugene Tiah, managing director of energy company, Phoenix Park Gas Processors Ltd (PPGPL), has told a gathering of business leaders that the success of his company over the past two decades has nothing to do with hefty paypackets, lofty perks or spectacular bonuses for company executives or their subordinates. The company celebrated 20 years of production last month. The focus, he said, was specific to a continuous re-alignment of its priorities by embracing a policy that fostered a culture of dialogue and respect between staff and the sector heads.
Tiah said while the lines connecting PPGPL's senior managerial, supervisory arm and workers were not blurred, the company ensured there was no fertile ground for the practice of segregation and discrimination. Monday meetings were now standard, where staff was apprised on the company's financial performance, summary presentations on the happenings in various departments, occupational, health and safety matters, as well as any and all new policies and procedures.
"At PPGPL, we not only espouse, but practice an open-door policy. We have an open-door policy, which is both a literal and figurative open door. If you walk along our corridors, you will see VPs' and managers' doors open. And, when we refer to open access, we mean that employees can speak with members of our management team directly and on short notice. "Sometimes, it is the small things that foster management and employee interactions which create the environment for employee engagement."
Creating a nurturing environment
"We are on a first name basis and there is no segregated parking privileges for management, and at company events and functions, management hang back on their own volition and allow employees to be served first. Creating and nurturing an environment, where successes are celebrated and recognition and rewards are generously dispensed, is critical to sustaining employee engagement."
Tiah was the feature speaker at the Employer's Consultative Association's (ECA) Employer of the Year Award Ceremony held at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad hotel, Port-of-Spain, recently. The theme of his presentation was, Excellence in Leadership, Management, and Employees Who Make up the Winning Team.
"In 2000, our people satisfaction index- a composite score from all categories-was 41 per cent. In 2010, our people satisfaction index was 72 per cent. And we were the overall benchmark company in the consortium of participating companies and the benchmark company in seven out of the ten categories measured. Our continuous participation in the employee benchmark survey is one avenue we use for getting feedback on how employees feel about our organisation. When our employees told us that we needed to work on leadership, we had to listen."
A leader on everyone:
Concerns raised by employees at PPGPL about the leadership gaps in the management structure at the company were not immediately dismissed by those in authority. They were addressed. "Our approach was steeped in the philosophy that everyone is a leader (and) leadership is not management. We wanted to consciously shape leaders in our organisation who could lead within their chosen field or take on leadership roles in situations, regardless of their titles. So we exposed executive management right down to the front line supervisors, in total, close to 33 per cent of our employee population, to tailored leadership training over a three-year period. This is in addition to the mandatory principle-centred leadership, which every employee is exposed to shortly after joining the company. "Through a series of sessions, workshops and coaching, employees acquired tools to achieve extraordinary results by causing something to happen that would not have ordinarily happened."
Investing in social projects
The company's investment in external social projects helped to change the complexion of the organisation, too. The company had a one-year-old project called the Community Enhancement Project, which was this year, being expanded. The initiative called for employees to submit community programmes for consideration. The winner received $15,000 to implement the project in his/her district.
Tiah said this concept would be developed further to encourage employees to give back to their communities in a meaningful way, which was all part of building a winning team with winning players who contribute to other teams, in this case the national community.
"We truly believe in continuous improvement. It helped us build leadership and close one of our gaps. It also helped us maintain our safety performance. Without continuous improvement, we could not have achieved 18 years without lost time incident nor receive the Gas Processors Association Award for Safety for 12 consecutive years. "We seek opportunities even with what may be considered a good safety record to maintain this and improve by reporting near misses, continuous training drills, table tops and eternal vigilance. "We know that one mistake; one slip up; one error in judgment, can result in an employer's worst nightmare-loss of life. Our safety goals of no recordable accidents do not allow for loss of any kind."