In the know @ PHO - June 2015

Our People
Employee Engagement Profile:
MOLECULAR SERVICES AND VIROLOGY
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PROFILE:
GENERATING IDEAS TO
ADVANCE ENGAGEMENT
PRIORITIES
Earlier this year, the
100 plus staff and
managers in Molecular
Services and Virology at
the laboratory in Toronto,
met for the first in a
series of sessions to share
and discuss our team’s
employee engagement
survey results. The session
provided the opportunity
for head technologists,
operational leads,
laboratory technologists
and laboratory assistants
to hear about and digest
our results, ask questions,
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and to start thinking about
where we want to focus
our energies in terms of
priority areas of focus for
improvement.
With the support of Rhonda
Pollard, senior advisor,
Leadership Development
and Organizational
Improvement, who helped
facilitate our sessions,
we were able to produce
one-page flyers that
summarized our team
results. These were handed
out to laboratory staff at
our second session where
we broke up into teams to
talk in greater detail about
the results, what they mean
to staff, and what staff feels
are the priority areas of
focus for our team. Each
group’s ideas were captured
on flip charts which were
then posted to the walls for
everyone to see.
Using coloured dots, each
team member was invited
to place their three dots
next to the improvement
priorities that were most
important to them. They
had the option of placing
their dots next to one item
or spreading them out
across several.
The team’s input has since
been summarized into one
document. At our next
session on June 25th and
26th , we will talk about the
priorities staff identified,
what is within our ability
to address, and brainstorm
ideas that we can turn into
actions for improvement.
Dialoguing about the
team’s ideas for improving
employee engagement
has been a great teambuilding
exercise, and I
applaud the enthusiasm
and contributions that team
members have made to
this process. It has been a
fantastic experience!
BY MARJORIE ALLEN,
SENIOR MANAGER,
MOLECULAR SERVICES AND
VIROLOGY, LABORATORIES