Silo working has become a common feature in many organisations, writes Nicola Stopps, who offers tips on increasing inter-departmental engagement
Any corporate social responsibility (CSR) or sustainability practitioner who has worked for a large company knows too well how detrimental ‘a silo mentality’ can be to what they are trying to accomplish.
The Oxford English Business Dictionary defines a silo mentality as a ‘mindset – present when certain departments or sectors do not wish to share information with others in the same company. This type of mentality will reduce efficiency in the overall operation, reduce morale, and may contribute to the demise of a productive company culture.’ The consequences of this isolation are confused communication and a lack of transparency. Teams across the business may become inward-looking and focused on the short term, and fail to recognise new CSR and sustainability initiatives as organisational priorities.
Breaking down silos to remove the issues that cause conflicting priorities can be straightforward.
At consultancy Simply Sustainable we developed a loose, ‘four-step model’ on how to try to change the way inter-departmental teams view and integrate CSR and sustainability.
1. Align values and objectives
The first step is to align values and objectives. Two years ago Gregory Unruh, professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, outlined in the MIT Sloan Management Review (bit.ly/24tprO2) how traditional managers often underestimate the worth of shared organisational values and objectives.
Much of management theory assumes that employees are inherently lazy and their superiors need to financially incentivise and monitor them. There may be an element of truth in this for some workers and in some workplaces. However, all great change is the result of a group of people driven not by financial reward but by a shared vision about the value of their collective endeavour. The sustainability team is integral to defining this vision.
A prerequisite of a successful sustainability team is to forge good relationships with senior managers, working closely with them to define company values that can be intrinsically linked to company objectives. This, in some instances, is the first step in opening up the organisation to working collaboratively across different business areas.
Before trying to align values and objectives consider:
- What are the core values of the business? How have they been defined and are they material to business and stakeholder expectations? Do they link to overall individual performance? These points may seem obvious but it is surprising how many businesses use old or outdated values that have no clear link to the business strategy, causing a disconnect with employees and shutting down debate.
- How do the core values connect to performance management? HR has an integral role in helping to demonstrate how seriously the business is about adhering to its values and objectives.
- Is the corporate responsibility or sustainability strategy clearly linked to the business strategy? And do employees know what they or the business achieve if they take action?
An employee who understands their role in the company objectives and values develops a sense of motivation and drive for a collective vision.
2. Employee engagement
Once the organisational goals and objectives have been defined, engage employees across the business with what the sustainability team is working towards. Unmotivated, cut-off teams will block what sustainability practitioners are trying to achieve, no matter how well presented the values and objectives are on the company intranet.
Nadine Exeter, of the Doughty Centre at Cranfield Business School, says that, although committed corporate leadership for sustainability is a necessary condition for success, it is not in itself enough.
She says the key to a successful programme which defines the business as responsible is the enthusiastic engagement of employees at all levels. Simultaneously, engaged employees are critical for a company that wants to improve its overall performance as a responsible but successful business.
Three factors that encourage an engaged workforce are:
- Recognition – employees need to recognise their role in delivering the company’s objectives and executing its values to be responsible. The company enables this in a way that builds and maintains a sense of inspiration among staff for being part of a sustainable organisation.
- Discussion – there is a constant two-way relationship and conversation between employees and employer to develop a shared understanding of responsibility and commitment to sustainability and business objectives.
- Empowerment – the organisation empowers employees to be actively committed to corporate responsibility and sustainability, with the business’s objectives and success in mind. This will be linked to performance management and remuneration.
3. Holistic measurement
CSR and sustainability practitioners have been measuring and reporting on cross-company key performance indicators (KPIs) for years. But, with companies’ activities increasingly subject to public scrutiny, there is an expectation that businesses must be more transparent and disclose what they are adding to society. Simply, every company makes a significant contribution to society. At the most basic level, businesses offer goods and services people want. In the process, they provide capital, jobs, skills, ideas and taxes, and much more.
Drilling down to how the business is growing responsibly is crucial to stakeholder expectations. This demand from stakeholders can help open silos further – a materiality review can be used to demonstrate to the organisation’s business leaders and teams what should be measured, reported and, most importantly, why.
Once this is completed, a system of integrated KPIs that evidence the true value of the organisation can be developed collaboratively and embedded throughout the business as stage three.
Companies with large economic footprints, such as Manchester Airports Group, successfully disclose their total economic impact as part of their social reporting, making the information relevant for investors and community stakeholders. This has proved not only to improve transparency but to engage different business teams with the sustainability agenda.
According to consultancy McKinsey & Company, firms that succeed in building a profitable relationship with the external world tend to think very differently: they define themselves through what they contribute holistically. This approach does not mean changing purpose; it means being explicit about how fulfilling that purpose benefits society. Nor does it mean abandoning a focus on shareholder value; it means recognising that you generate long-term value for shareholders only by delivering and demonstrating true value to society.
4. Art of communication
Ultimately, clear and consistent communication (see panel, left, for tips) is key to ensuring the previous three steps are successful in opening up silos. Apart from senior management, two of most important relationships sustainability teams need to nourish are those with internal communications and media relations. These are the people who have the tools to articulate effectively what sustainability practitioners are trying to achieve.
Sustainability teams need to communicate their ambitions and ‘story’ to employees. Why is it so important staff take time out of their busy days to help you? How will it benefit them? Information should flow up and down. Once employees are aware of what benefit it is to them, the information flow should begin to reciprocate, allowing the sustainability team to be as well informed about what other departments are trying to achieve – hence diminishing silos.
Tips for an internal communication strategy
- Identify your message – evaluate your current initiatives to determine which would be the best to communicate.
- Internal assessment – be open to working with a communications or consultancy to examine the current offering. CSR communications may be placed at the bottom of the pile internally so be willing to go elsewhere to express the right tone and messaging. However, do work to strengthen your relationships with in-house communications experts.
- Develop clear expectations – what do you imagine the results of your communications to be?
- One size does not fit all – no two communications strategies will be the same. Do not be afraid to be different.
- Be genuine in your efforts – communication is a powerful tool. If you are authentic in your sustainability efforts and in how you communicate them, your initiatives can become an internal and external competitive advantage.
Breaking down silos at Interserve
Colin Braidwood, head of sustainability at Interserve, explains how the business support and facilities management firm tackles the silo mentality.
To establish a shared understanding of what sustainability means across a business is a complex and challenging task. Many accept that it refers to more than just environmental issues, covering a much wider range of social and economic considerations. Whether employees understand their own role within this wider context and how sustainability affects and influences their day-to-day activities is another matter.
Although the broader strategies and commitments usually come from senior management, it often falls to environment and sustainability managers to drive them through the business – and the larger the company is, the bigger this challenge can be. The silo mentality that can afflict larger, more diverse businesses can prove a real blocker for those trying to embed sustainable principles and protocols. This is exacerbated by the fact that many sustainability teams are under-resourced and often unable to engage with each department or division of the company with any real influence.
For sustainability professionals looking for ways to drive corporate sustainability, taking a closer look at the facilities management (FM) industry can be useful. The nature of outsourced FM contracts – with employees regularly transferring between providers when a new account starts – means companies in this sector tend to experience rapid and significant expansions of their workforce, which can already be large – Interserve employs more than 80,000 people worldwide. We have embraced a collaborative approach to develop a universal understanding of sustainability across the business. By working with different teams at all levels, we have been able to bring sustainability to life and align everyone with the company’s vision and values.
Start at the top
This has to start at the top; sustainability cannot be the responsibility of any one team or individual. You need broad ownership that is supported by key individuals and groups who can influence and promote it at every possible opportunity. The senior board must regard sustainability as a business-critical issue, establishing an action plan that clearly sets out the organisation’s strategic goals and the key initiatives that will drive towards them. At Interserve, this came in the form of our 2013 SustainAbilities plan, which summarises the founding principles of our approach and sets detailed outcomes, goals and targets for the business up to 2020.
The next – and possibly more challenging – step comes in weaving this strategy through the rest of the organisation. Senior team members have an important role to play in driving support. Our group finance director and head of sustainability, Tim Haywood, is the lead architect for SustainAbilities and his leadership and ongoing support helps to inspire employees at all levels.
Perhaps the most important consideration for large businesses, however, is the need to bring operational managers into the fold when it comes to sustainability. Many Interserve employees work directly on customers’ sites so generic communication strategies are not always appropriate. When it comes to making sure that messaging reaches frontline employees, it is their direct line managers who have the greatest influence.
Those with a sustainability remit provide managers with the right tools to share best practice effectively within their teams. We hold regular meetings with representatives from across each of our different accounts. We simplify the language so it makes sense in a real world context and develop materials for managers to pass on information about our initiatives through their own existing forums, such as toolbox talks.
This works the other way too. It is through listening to teams on the ground that we have discovered some of our best innovations. For example, we are currently exploring the potential of a new non-chemical cleaning technology developed by one of our account teams, which has a lower environmental impact and also offers cost savings.
Room for growth
It may sound counter-intuitive for an organisation with an overarching sustainability plan, but allowing room for flexibility in how individuals and teams implement sustainability is crucial to success. Of course, you also need to make sure that initiatives meet the organisation’s wider sustainability objectives and do not stray from its core principles.
Social responsibility is central to Interserve’s sustainability strategy, with the aim of going ‘above and beyond in the communities’ where we live and work. However, there is no one right way to achieve this and we encourage employees to support the charity and community causes that matter to them. All employees can take two days, paid leave every year to volunteer for a good cause of their choice. Employees are empowered to take ownership in an area they feel strongly about, which helps break down the view that sustainability is a directive from senior management.
There are few business leaders who would now dispute that sustainability is a business-critical issue, but imbuing this commitment through all levels of an organisation and achieving a consistent approach is no easy feat. The most important thing Interserve has learned is that driving sustainability is not down to one person or one team. You need to work with colleagues across all levels of the business – it is by doing this that sustainability professionals can inspire all employees to take responsibility and enact real change.
