EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Communication Provides
Foundation for Being
a Best Place to Work
by Kathleen Skidmore-Williams
At the U.S. Army Audit
Agency, communication
is vital to success and
to reaching the next
level of organizational
performance and
employee satisfaction.
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These are tough times to be a federal employee. At nearly every turn, federal workers are facing pay freezes (no cost-of-living increase in three years and
counting), no awards, threats of government shutdowns, fiscal cliffs, hiring
freezes, and sequestration (and with that, furloughs). The federal workforce is
often denigrated as a key reason why there’s a bloated federal bureaucracy, but in
reality there are fewer federal workers doing more work today than ever before
and most take their charge to serve their country very seriously—and proudly.
This year’s average overall score of job satisfaction for participating federal organizations from the survey of federal workers by the Partnership for
Public Service was 60.8 percent—the lowest score since the partnership began
reporting these statistics in 2003 and a drop of 3.2 percent from last year.
Despite this downward trend across the federal government, the U.S.
Army Audit Agency had the highest score for job satisfaction (85.7 percent) of
all participating federal agencies—large, midsize, small, and subcomponent.
The agency also placed first among 292 subcomponent agencies in this year’s
rankings, making it one of the federal government’s best places to work.
So, in this challenging environment, what makes a federal agency a
great place to work and how does it get there? According to the Army Audit
Agency’s leader, Auditor General Randall L. Exley, there
are a number of important factors but none more important than communication. “An informed and happy
workforce is a productive one,” he says, “and happiness
depends, to a large degree, on trust, which is built by
effective and open communication.”
A Top Priority
also voiced that management practices weren’t consistent
within field offices or across the agency. Auditors had to
learn each supervisor’s way of doing business whenever
they changed teams.
Exley recognized that this disconnect was creating
missed opportunities to capture and expand the flow of
ideas that could make the agency an even more fulfilling place to work. Consequently, he tasked the agency’s
workforce management team to develop an effective and
affordable plan to train all agency managers, dedicating
time and resources to improving communications and
fostering open and transparent dialogue.
Exley has made improved communications a top priority for his agency. “Whether it’s between peers, between
supervisor and staff, or between auditor and client,
communication is vital to our continued success and to
reaching the next level of
organizational performance
This disconnect was creating missed opportunities to capture
and employee satisfaction,”
Exley says. “Improving our
and expand the flow of ideas that could make the agency an
already very good commueven more fulfilling place to work.
nication is of paramount
importance up, down, and
across the organization.”
The agency serves the
Army’s evolving needs by
Tailored Training Puts Work into Context
helping senior leaders assess and mitigate risk, and by proAfter extensively researching training programs and
viding solutions through independent auditing services for
products, the workforce management team recommended
the benefit of the American soldier. Though its authorized
an off-the-shelf program from a contractor that provides
level is 577, the agency has 550 staff divided into 20 funccommunications training programs. The team then develtional audit teams and a support staff directorate. About
oped a short, closed-ended, and anonymous survey for
80 employees work at the agency’s operations center at
agency employees to get their perception of current comFort Belvoir, Virginia; the rest work at 20 field offices (18
munication in the organization. Survey results helped
offices are spread across the United States; the other two
ensure that the training focused on areas with the lowest
offices are in Germany and the Republic of Korea). The
scores. In the end, the team incorporated the training
agency also deploys auditors to Kuwait and Afghanistan,
program into a tailored workshop full of practical exerwhere they serve alongside soldiers downrange.
cises that put the auditors’ work into context.
Fixing Staff-Management
Over six months, managers held 10 two-day sessions
Communication
of the workshop at various field office locations. Each
The auditor general and his executive team regularly visit
session was packed with valuable content and practical
field offices for town hall meetings and separate group
exercises. Students completed course evaluations, and the
meetings with staff members and with supervisors. It
team modified subsequent iterations of the workshop to
was during these group meetings over the past few years
make the training even more focused and effective.
that Exley heard a recurring concern voiced by staff of a
During each session, participants were introduced to
disconnect in staff-management communications—from
the principles of communication contained in the off-thetop-level leadership to first-line supervisors.
shelf training program. They then had opportunities to
Some staff felt excluded from the decision-making
apply these principles to critical conversations and situprocess for their audits. Others felt that their managers
ations that supervisors regularly encounter in the workdidn’t trust them to work independently even though
place, including
they were capable of doing so. Without an explanation
• building trust and creating collaboration
by management, staff were left frustrated. Some staff
• giving praise, criticism, and performance reviews
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Figure 1. Workforce Perception of Raters’ Communications Skills
Pre- and Post Workshop
Before (%)
After (%)
Effectively creates an environment of trust
72
80
Provides effective feedback on my performance efforts
71
80
Asks questions in a way that I can easily understand
86
90
Effectively communicates position/point of view without offending me
77
84
Communicates effectively when resolving work-related personal conflicts that I may have
74
81
• gathering information
• disagreeing effectively
• resolving conflict.
“When I originally announced the workshop, I
spoke about my desire to create a culture in which effective communication and candor are a natural part of how
we work together,” Exley explains. He and other agency
senior leaders were very deliberate in explaining why the
training was mandatory for all agency leaders—including
the auditor general. “I wanted each of our managers to
use the workshop as an opportunity to get a little better
each day at this important part of our craft, and to coach
their team members on the principles of good communication,” he says.
His executive team developed a strategic communications message that Exley forwarded to the entire workforce explaining that this effort was not to correct the
mistakes of a few, but to improve the agency as a whole
because everyone—no matter how good a communicator—had something to gain from the training.
An Overall Communications Strategy
The workshop has been just one part of a multifaceted
effort to improve communication at the Army Audit
Agency. Subsequent to the workshops, the auditor general has asked for feedback from agency leaders on how
they are applying the principles taught in the class.
At leadership meetings, program directors and audit
managers are regularly asked to share what they’ve done
or are doing to improve communication with their teams.
Communication has been added to performance standards for supervisors, and it’s become a key criterion for
agency awards.
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The agency’s second-in-command, Principal Deputy
Auditor General Joseph Mizzoni, says staff members are
asked three questions: What information do you need
to successfully accomplish your mission? What information do you need to feel like you’re an important part of
the organization? What is the best way to get you that
information?
The workforce management division also created a
handbook of best practices in communication, which was
disseminated to all staff. And the agency has dedicated
a full-time staff member to its newly formed Strategic
Communications Branch.
The auditor general continues to reinforce effective
communications throughout the year through blog posts
and email, and at town hall and agency leadership meetings. Exley has an image he likes to show at these town
hall meetings: a bottle of water next to a dead plant. No
matter how good the quality of the water, it cannot bring
a dead plant back to life. He extrapolates this to good
communication. “No matter how well-organized and
well-presented your message is,” he says, “communication
will not be effective if it’s about the wrong things.”
He recognizes that effective communications is
hard work. “It’s a balanced mixture of art and scientific
method. It’s more about receiving than sending, and it
requires more listening than presenting,” Exley says. He
continues: “It’s as much about how you communicate as it
is what you communicate. It’s as much about your knowledge of your receivers and your relationships with them as
it is about the subject of conversation.”
Heightening Empowerment
Exley notes that employees are seeing a difference in both
the frequency and nature of communications with their
Auditor General Randall Exley discusses his priorities and solicits feedback from staff at a town hall meeting at Fort Meade, Maryland.
leaders and feedback from staff shows that the course has
markedly improved communication (see Figure 1). Auditors feel like they have a voice and are listened to. One
commented, “Open communication has made relationships with peers and supervisors much better.”
Additionally, staff feels more empowered. “Generally
speaking, we’re given enough authority to talk to people,
gather data, analyze it, and make decisions (or at least
recommendations) to complete our work,” one staff member said.
Managers are creatively passing on the communication principles they have learned. Some have made “office
communication” the topic at team meetings or the focus
of a field office “lunch and learn.” One field office posts
photos and supportive messages; another has a “thank
you” whiteboard where anyone can write a note thanking
someone for something nice or helpful he or she has done.
Some offices have instituted employee advisory boards
to facilitate better communication between staff and
management. “As with any new initiative, it will take time
to achieve our goals,” Exley says, “but this progress in
such a short time is heartening and fills me with pride in
our management team.”
One staff member adds, “What makes our agency
great is that leadership listens and takes action. We identified that communication needed improvement and our
leaders stepped up and addressed the deficiency. The communications workshop, our human capital plan, the auditor general’s blogs…. all of these are examples of how our
agency listens to the concerns of its employees and then
takes meaningful steps to try to address the concerns.”
The emphasis on communication also has helped
staff members feel even more like they’re part of a team.
One auditor noted, “My management allows me to voice
my opinions openly and freely—they always listen and
they make you feel like what you’re saying matters. They
value your input and say thanks. They treat me more as
a peer than an employee—it’s about accomplishing the
mission as a team.”
According to Mizzoni, after listening, leaders must
act. “Without the next step (acting upon what the staff
says), the words are empty,” he says. “We want to listen
because we want to know what to address to make the
agency better.”
Another staff member commented, “With clear
goals and mission and message—and how we go about
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Staff from the St. Louis field office participate in one of the agency’s communications workshops.
accomplishing them successfully—staff are empowered
to excel and care about what they do.”
One of Exley’s guiding philosophies is to communicate broadly and deeply—and to lead transparently. He
regularly blogs to employees, sharing what he and his
executive team hear at top-level Pentagon and command
meetings so staff knows what’s happening almost as soon
as he does.
According to Mizzoni, “We need to share all the
information we can. When you don’t fully disclose all
information, people will fill in the blanks with either the
wrong or worst-case information.” Mizzoni discussed
the auditor general’s initiatives when he participated in
a recent panel discussion on effective communications
sponsored by the Partnership for Public Service with
leaders from several other highly successful organizations.
Exley says agency auditors are an integral part of the
Army team, seeking to improve the Army by providing
timely, value-added audit services. “We are the Army’s
internal auditors,” he explains. “We audit what matters
most to Army senior leaders and quickly deliver results in
support of soldiers, civilians, and families.”
Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh congratulated the agency on winning the Best Places to Work
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Communication has been added to
performance standards for supervisors
and it’s become a key criterion for
agency awards.
award. “Your accomplishments are great news for the
Army, and we are inspired by your sustained and exceptional performance,” he wrote in a letter. “You stand as a
stalwart example of success for our Army organizations
and the rest of the federal government. You have established a high standard of excellence and I am proud to
serve on the Army team with you.”
Kathleen Skidmore-Williams is chief of the Army Audit Agency’s
editorial branch. Her team edits more than 200 audit reports, attestations,
and follow-up audits each year. In her spare time, she enjoys arguing the
merits of the serial comma and sharpening red pencils. Contact her at
Kathleen.L.skidmore-williams.civ@mail.mil.
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