2017 Q4 Alignment Meeting: What is Employee Alignment?

Our 2017 quarter four alignment meeting took place on Thursday, January 4th, and proved to be another success in reorienting ourselves with the big picture! The alignment meeting is also a chance to recognize a few hard-working employees for the quarter.

The recipient of Employee of the Quarter is Web Developer, Joe Milbach!

The recipient of the Newbie Award is Jr. Project Manager, Nana Agyapong!

The recipients of the Team Award included (L-R) Content Creator, Emily Kingland; Art Director, Dustin Hart; Project Manager, Alex Slack; and Web Developer, Joe Milbach (not pictured) for their work on Main Street Dental Clinics (holding their Visa gift cards)!

You may be asking yourself, "What exactly is a quarterly alignment meeting?" Well, we'll tell you!

Firstly, an alignment meeting is an exceptional way to bridge everyday efforts to the company's overall brand. The Harvard Business Journal discovered in 2016 that 70 percent of employees are disengaged at work due to misalignment. If you ever find yourself wondering how writing this little, insignificant email is affecting your company's biggest goals, a quarterly alignment meeting may be the answer your company has been looking for!

Harvard adds that progress toward a common, meaningful goal is the most effective motivator for employees. Realigning team members with the overall goals helps everyone prioritize their tasks, and ultimately improves retention along with execution. Moreover, invested employees are more satisfied and motivated once a long-term goal is achieved, resulting in bigger outcomes.

Another element to the alignment meeting is recognizing and rewarding hard work. Like you saw above, all of our quarterly meetings consist of acknowledging employees who have earned a little recognition for their significant work during the quarter.

Thirdly, our alignment meetings are a major channel of transparency between Leadership and team members. This transparency reaches into everyday work, creating a culture of honesty and true employee engagement. 

When this transparency or communication is lost, employees will fill in the blank. This can happen when Leadership is making decisions behind closed doors, resulting in dangerous company rumors and speculation. Secrecy will also distort team members' ideas of their employer's expectations. So, by having a quarterly alignment meeting, transparency is prevalent and any false claims can be squashed or - better yet - cease to exist.

Lastly, team building activities allow for some fun and comradery to be mixed in with the serious stuff. This cotton ball game is a great example!

Employee alignment means personal goals match up with department goals, as well as with enterprise goals. Team members should be able to see their efforts, no matter how seemingly insignificant, working towards the bigger goal. Improving team member engagement will inevitably involve alignment, so, a quarterly alignment meeting may be the solution!

Want to learn more about engaging employees? Check out 5 Attitudes of a Dysfuntional Team.