Engagement
Engagement
We believe strongly in a high-performing, client-oriented culture of innovation, learning and engagement. Our employees’ commitment, passion and energy drive innovation, collaboration and client value, which drive our growth and financial success.
Highly engaged employees are crucial to our company’s success. Engaged employees have a strong focus on clients, radiate optimism and regularly achieve or exceed their objectives. They also have lower absenteeism, suffer fewer injuries and are less likely to change employers than others. Pitney Bowes seeks to engage, enable and energise employees through challenging work assignments, training and career development opportunities that promote personal and professional growth. We solicit feedback, encourage dialogue and measure engagement through formal and informal mechanisms.
One of our most important measuring tools is our annual multi-language, global employee survey. The survey explores sustainable engagement drivers such as client focus, diversity, growth and development, innovation, manager effectiveness, teamwork and communication.
In 2015, we received survey responses from 90% of our employees, our highest level of participation ever.
We also use other channels to promote dialogue and employee engagement. One of the most popular is our online forum and social network, Yammer. Launched in 2009, Yammer has grown into an important tool for global collaboration. Yammer empowers employees to collaborate more productively, make smarter decisions faster, reduce cycle times and improve relationships with clients and partners. To date, employees have posted more than 127,815 Yammer messages.
Development
We focus on hiring talented people, nurturing their growth and providing opportunities for them to make a real impact for themselves and for Pitney Bowes. We see employee development as a partnership between individual employees and their managers, aided by strong support from our Human Resources organisation.
Over the last two years we have developed and implemented a comprehensive offering of core leadership training programmes in keeping with our strategic transformation as a global company. The elements include:
Leadership Essentials for Managers. This core leadership programme was launched in May 2014 for leaders who are newly hired or newly promoted to frontline manager positions. The programme is also open to frontline managers who have not completed a leadership development programme since acquiring their position. In addition to being offered as a standalone programme, Leadership Essentials for Managers will serve as a prerequisite to role-specific leadership programmes for client-facing groups such as Sales, Client Operations and Global Service. This programme is offered on an ongoing basis as the company’s cornerstone programme for frontline managers.
Leading in a Global Environment. This director-level leadership programme debuted in March 2015 and is targeted for leaders who want to improve their skills in strategy formulation and execution, working across cultural, geographic and business units and developing shared agendas to support what is in the best interests of our clients and their business. We expect all Directors to complete the programme by the end of 2017.
Leading a High Performance Organisation. This Vice President-level programme launched in September 2015 focuses on strategy, culture, ethics and leading transformational change throughout the organisation. These leaders are expected to complete the programme by the end of the third quarter of 2017.
Talent Acquisition
We have also upgraded our global talent acquisition system not only to draw the best possible candidates, but also to make their experience of Pitney Bowes reflect the company’s strategic priorities and strong culture at every step of the recruiting and onboarding process. In 2014, we began formally tracking the quality of the candidate experience we provide against common industry criteria, and in 2015 our efforts placed us in the top quartile among Fortune 1000 companies.
Another important advance in 2015 was our launch of a new, responsive and visually striking career website that reinforces our brand positioning and provides a compelling expression of our employee value proposition along with a colourful, dynamic picture of what it’s like to work at Pitney Bowes.