Employee Engagement, and other myths

Q: What's the difference between Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster and CVS's commitment to its employees' job satisfaction?
A: There's actually a chance that the first two exist.

I bring this up because it's that time of the year again, time for the CVS Employment Engagement Survey. You know, it's that list of about 20 questions that all employees are encouraged to anonymously answer so that CVS can take in what their employees have to say about the company and alter their policies and procedures accordingly.

OK, OK, I almost got through that entire description without actually laughing out loud. There are only three things that are wrong with the description of the Survey; 1) employees aren't so much encouraged as they are required to participate (more on that later); 2) it's only somewhat anonymous, and; 3) after 3 years of taking this ludicrous survey not one thing has improved.

I'll start with the last thing first, but first a little background on the EES. Let's start with the basic presentation of the EES to the employees. Store and field management is quick and persistent to drive home the point that the EES should only reflect how the employee feels about his or her store. You're not supposed to think about the district, the region, the area or the company as a whole. I remember the district manager actually sending an email to the store manager when they were trying to schedule a store meeting so they could discuss the results of the EES a few years ago. This nitwit actually wrote that if any of the employees started talking about issues outside of the store the store manager was to steer the conversation back to store level. Translation: the residents of the Ivory Tower don't give a fuck what you think about the job they do. I've said many times that I don't have any significant problems with store management, my frustration lies with the upper levels and their decision making and policies.

After all the money, time and energy the BIG changes are an occasional pizza party and "free soft drink and snack day." Evidently this is the big idea that they hit upon to help improve morale. At one time they were going to let us wear jeans one day a month, but then the regional manager saw it in one store and decided it didn't look professional so it got squashed after only a couple months. I guess only dress slacks are really worthy to be worn with those high end polo shirts, eh? Meanwhile there's absolutely no means for people at store level to communicate directly with those above. You have to "go through channels" and if your district manager is anything like mine then you're better off talking to a mop. So once again the frustrations with things like the warehouse, the store support center (a misnomer if ever there was one), IT issues, policy and procedure, etc. are ignored.

Then there's the issue of anonymity. While it may (or may not) be true that it's considered an anonymous survey the store management still knows if everyone in the store has completed it. They receive a report that tells how many employees haven't yet completed the survey, then they go around asking people if they've completed it because (wait for it...) the store managers get shit from the district manager if they have employees who don't complete the survey. This leads to the third point, that it's not REALLY voluntary.

Because the store managers are held responsible for their staff's participation they will absolutely harass any employee who is honest and admits that they haven't taken the survey. In my store we actually had the store manager tell an employee that she couldn't leave for the day until she took the survey! When I heard that my reaction was ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? You want to know how the employees feel about their jobs so you're going to hold them against their will until they participate. It's kind of like the poster I once saw that said, "THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES." I know the employee really can't be held after their shift is over but in this job market some folks may be hesitant to cross the manager, even when the manager is so blatantly wrong. I just hope the manager isn't surprised when their survey results show a high level of job dissatisfaction.

Bottom line is that once again it is CVS doing something because it gives the perception that they actually give a shit and that they are "proactive". Must be something that Wall Street likes, since the only thing the Ivory Tower team really cares about is the bottom line. If pretending that you actually view your employees as human beings helps drive up the stock price I guess they must consider it money well spent.