Ep. 223: Sarah Rubenstein - Boosting Employee Engagement: Strategies for Success

Discover the secrets to unlocking employee engagement in this
eye-opening episode of the Count Me In Podcast. Join us as we
welcome Sarah Rubenstein, Chief Accounting Officer at Clearway
Energy, as she shares valuable insights into employee engagement,
strategies to transform disengaged employees, and the importance
of creating inclusive communities within the workplace. Don't
miss this chance to learn how to maximize productivity and
employee satisfaction in your organization!


Connect with Sarah:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rubenstein-a724632/


Full Episode Transcript:
Adam:           
Welcome back to Count Me In. In today's episode, we're thrilled
to have Sarah Rubenstein, Chief Accounting Officer at Clearway
Energy. With us to discuss the crucial role that employee
engagement plays in an organization's success. 


 


Sarah brings her extensive experience in cultivating positive
work environments to the table. Offering valuable advice on
identifying disengaged employees, implementing effective
strategies to boost engagement, and the benefits of fostering an
inclusive, collaborative workspace. Stay tuned as we uncover the
keys to unlocking a happy, productive, and thriving work
environment.


 


Adam:           
Well, Sarah, thank you so much for coming on the Count Me In
podcast, today. We're really excited to have you on, and today
we're going to be talking about employee engagement and all that
that encompasses. And maybe to start off, maybe, you can start by
defining what is employee engagement to you.


 


Sarah:           
Sure, to me, employee engagement is how positive people feel
about their work, and we measure that in a lot of different ways.
But, really, I'm lucky, the company that I work at, we survey our
employees every year, regarding employee engagement. And we ask
some really good questions that were developed by very smart
people at Harvard, and Yale, and Stanford, that tell us how
engaged people are. 


 


And, so, we're able to evaluate, and a lot of the questions
relate to things like management, leadership, integrity,
work-life balance, workload, allocation, autonomy, and things
like that. And all of those factors really tell us how engaged
our employees are.


 


Adam:           
That's interesting, and when you mention engaged, a lot of times
when you see discussions about employee engagement. You see
engaged employees versus disengaged employees. And, so, maybe we
can start by talking about that a little bit. Because you have
your engaged employees, and you can usually tell who those are.
But the disengaged maybe a little harder to see, or maybe not so
hard, depending on what they're not doing, I should say.


 


Sarah:           
Yes, sure, and the first indication we have, that some employees
are not engaged, is that they don't answer the surveys. So we
don't get 100% participation. So that tells us that some people
feel like maybe their voice won't be heard, even if they answer.
And those people, usually, just have a negative outlook, maybe,
on what type of work they're doing or their future within the
company. 


 


And, so, a lot of times, you lose the engagement when people feel
like there's no career development path for them, or the work
that they're doing isn't valuable, or they're not being told that
the work that they're doing is valuable.


 


Adam:           
And that can be very difficult for an employee, especially, when
you don't feel like you can't move up in an organization. How do
you take somebody who is disengaged and try to get them to be
engaged?


 


Sarah:           
That's a great question, and, especially, when you don't have a
development path for a person, it is really challenging. And, so,
what we try to do is we try to provide a lot of personal and
professional development opportunities. And we talk to our
employees about how those types of opportunities can help them
develop themselves. Whether for this particular company and role
or just in general for their career. So we try to offer them
opportunities to learn and also to, maybe, work in an area that
isn't related to their job. 


 


So we try to look for things we call stretch assignments. Where
there might be an opportunity in another group, where someone
needs help with a special project, and that might give that
individual the opportunity to learn new skills that they can put
on their resume, even if it doesn't give them direct path to
promotion. So we try to demonstrate what we can offer the
employee, even if it isn't upward mobility, and that maybe we
can't keep them forever, but we can keep them a little bit
longer, and that helps us overall.


 


Adam:           
Yes, because it shows that you care and that you're engaging with
them, even though they seem to be disengaged. And, so, it
encourages them, even if there is no upper mobility at that
moment.


 


Sarah:           
Right, because everyone is looking for some type of personal
development, even if they don't see a future for themselves at
that company. So we try to offer something for everyone. If you
don't see yourself as a leader at this company, that's okay,
we'll work with you on how you can make yourself a better
employee and a better person. So that, at least, we can keep you
around, and have you feel happy to be working at the company for
the time being.


 


Adam:           
Mh-hmm, that makes a lot of sense. So maybe we can focus a little
bit on what are some benefits, to organizations, to creating an
engaging environment?


 


Sarah:           
I haven't read all of the studies, but there are numerous studies
that show that engaged employees are better employees, they're
more productive. Of course, we know that hiring new employees,
and training them, and getting them up to speed is very expensive
and time-consuming. And, so, it benefits us to take the time to
develop programs to promote employee engagement. Because,
overall, we end up with better productivity and just a better
workforce.


 


Adam:            I
mean, that makes a lot of sense to want to have a better
workforce, especially, when they're engaged. And, so, maybe, we
can talk a little bit about what do you need to look for,
especially, when your team is not engaged. Are there certain
signs that you can look for? Obviously, you mentioned you can
tell people are not engaged when they're not taking a survey. But
then what are other signs that you can look for, within your
team, if you can talk a little bit about that?


 


Sarah:           
Yes, no problem, I think, there are  a couple of different
signs that I look for. Generally, I look for people who aren't
participating in the conversations, who don't speak up in
meetings. People who have been doing the same work for an
extended period of time. 


And, of course, you look for the signs of people who are not
responsive. They're taking a ...