Like most organizations, British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) suddenly found themselves navigating a new normal in March, one that forced the majority of their employees to work remotely. But for them, this was a second blow. Earlier, casino closures throughout the province had their front-line team working on-site with shifting job functions. Employee engagement and the health and well-being of their workforce became paramount for BCLC leadership.
Taking the pulse on employee engagement
Thankfully, prior to the onset of COVID-19 in Canada, BCLC had already begun to build an employee engagement solution intended to measure their onboarding experience for new hires. So when they had to respond to the escalation and the work-from-home recommendations from the Canadian government, they were able to build on the momentum of their existing solution.
They implemented a dynamic employee survey to engage with employees immediately, but more importantly, to understand the sentiment behind what they were currently facing, and identify ways to improve BCLC’s overall engagement strategy.
Within a week and a half of the launch, an impressive 70% of the workforce had responded to the check-in survey.
They weighed in on essential issues BCLC leaders wanted to quickly uncover and address, such as:
- How employees were coping with the changes
- Their levels of satisfaction with the current communications effort
- Frustrations and delights with the support they had been receiving
- What they need to effectively work remotely
And on-site workers were able to report how they were feeling about the current situation, such as whether they were receiving the right amount of information around health and safety, and if they knew where to go for information.
Turning employee engagement insight into action
The findings from the survey were reported to BCLC’s executive leadership team, its COVID-19 response committee, and its board of directors. The insights helped validate the actions and communications the company had already undertaken, and have already shaped future efforts as stakeholders seek to continuously and better engage with the workforce.
BCLC continues to take action based on the sentiments gathered from the survey. Leadership is in the process of sending out a second check-in for the near future to once again ask their workforce how things are going, what could be done better, and learn how they can best support their entire team during such extraordinary times.
This post was co-written by Michelle Cochrane and Jacqueline Usher.
