Point 5.1.1h of ISO 9001:2015 asks us to encourage employees to make a real contribution to ensuring that quality management within the organization is truly effective in substance.
Every person whose work in some way affects the quality of the products or services provided by an organization to its customers contributes, in one way or another, to the improvement or deterioration of the effectiveness of quality management. It is up to top management to create the right working conditions so that all these people are motivated to participate in the continuous improvement of the effectiveness of quality management.
The level to which people are motivated to participate is defined as “commitment” or “engagement,” and can be identified with emotional attachment to work, colleagues, and the organization as a whole, which can deeply influence their willingness to learn and improve in their daily work. The engagement of individuals is a variable because, when it is not tied to the work environment or the awareness that every action taken has a consequence on the quality of the final output, it may simply be due to the individual's character.
The question to ask, therefore, is whether the person was hired with this predisposition (in which case the entire recruitment process should be reviewed) or if something happened that negatively changed the individual’s willingness to collaborate. Every organization can become the best in its field if it can count on the collaboration of all its employees and their active participation in the daily life of the company. It is completely impossible, in fact, to continuously improve a quality system made up of processes that are interdependent without improving the relationships between the people who work together on these processes.
If we try to take an even broader view, this discussion should also be extended to customers, members of the community in which the organization operates, suppliers, etc. Research conducted in this field by experts has shown that organizations in which employees have strong personal interests associated with the success of the company are the most productive. After all, attracting and retaining customers is a team effort, and top management does not have a monopoly on good ideas for improving the quality of outputs. It is therefore necessary to rely on the full involvement of everyone in order to fully exploit the potential of a real working group.
What managers do and how they behave towards employees determines how engaged people are in what they do. Managers should always operate with clarity and integrity and involve people in the decision-making process that will directly affect them. They should also be able to understand employees' personal interests and link them to organizational goals, in order to make them more engaged in what they do. On one hand, there are employees who work only because they need the economic security that job provides; on the other, there are people who see the job as an opportunity to be part of a winning team where there is a chance to grow professionally and learn new things. It is up to managers to help people move from one end of this broad spectrum to the other, because every truly motivated person will be an incredible asset to the organization that has managed to motivate them.
Regarding the quality management system, leaders should discuss and agree on the cultural traits related to quality that they would like to create, determine how to develop them among the workforce, commit personally to demonstrate alignment with what they say, observe the habits of their employees, strengthening those aligned with the goals they have set, and ultimately become a shining example of the cultural traits they want to see within the company.
The key to having engaged people is focusing on how things are done and how people work together, even though it is often easier (and wrong) to impose from the top what needs to be done. But what are the factors on which managers should focus to truly engage people? Here are a few:
- A system and structures that support people and are effective and efficient;
- A workplace that encourages and supports the staff;
- A two-way communication that is positive and effective, enabling people to have all the information they need to work well;
- A continuous sharing of knowledge and strengths;
- The ability to learn from mistakes, which should be seen as opportunities to learn;
- An environment full of positive energy with a strong team spirit;
- An environment that trains people and helps them grow professionally;
- An environment designed to encourage creativity and innovation;
- An environment in which managers treat employees with respect;
- An environment where efforts and quality are recognized and rewarded;
- A collaborative environment
To demonstrate that top management has used all the leadership they have developed and personally committed to engaging, guiding, and supporting people in contributing to the effectiveness of the quality system, the following can be done:
- Present evidence that top management adheres to the cultural traits they want to develop within the organization;
- Select a representative group of people capable of presenting evidence of their involvement in business processes;
- Provide evidence from employee surveys supporting the above statement.