This presentation shares a case study of pioneering work completed with Northwestern Mutual, in which we identified and proved a series of leader behaviors that predicted productivity performance. I served as the program's agency lead and lead planner.

1. Fact-Based Leadership
Demonstrating a Quantifiable Link Between Employee
Engagement and Productivity

2. The Jack Felton Golden Ruler
Award recognizes excellence in public
relations research, measurement and
evaluation.
The award’s primary objective is to identify
superb examples of research used to support
public relations practice, and to publish these
as case studies.
You can find Fact-Based Leadership and more
on the Institute for Public Relations
website, www.InstituteforPR.org

3. What Excites Us About
This Work
• Links employee engagement to hard performance metrics
• Provides an innovative but practical approach to increase
the business utility of internal communications
• Moves beyond the corporate newsletter to influence
interactions on the frontline

4. About Us • 150+ year old mutual company
• Take a long-term view for clients
• Challenged by, but working from
a position of strength in today’s
economy
• Products & Services:
• Life, Long-Term Care, and
Disability Insurance
• Investment Products & Services
• Employee and Executive
Benefits
• Annuities, Trust Services, Estate
Planning
Supporting the Life-Long Financial
Security of Policy Owners
• FORTUNE’s ―Most Admired‖

5. Our Culture
• Built on foundation of risk
Cultural Bias
management business
• Leaders describe the
culture as ―left brained‖
• Intense focus on benefits
to clients
• Politeness pervades

6. The Challenge
• Build a business case for
employee engagement that
will secure budget
• It must stand up to
analytical scrutiny by
demonstrating measureable
impact on the business
• And, it must be compelling
enough to be chosen from
hundreds

7. The Approach
Define Conduct Connect Pilot Codify & Develop
Scope & Research to Bigger Engagemen Market 2010 Plan
Objectives Picture t Internally & Budget
Approach
Integrated Implementation

8. Research EXTERNAL LITERATURE
Overview REVIEW
Summary of relevant studies on
10X intrinsic motivation’s link to business
outcomes
LEADER INTAKE SESSIONS
Interviews with leaders to understand
100X priorities and potential areas of focus
for the pilot
LINKAGE ANALYSIS
Statistical analysis of current survey
400X tools and business metrics

9. External Literature Review
Highlights 10x
Proven Drivers of Engagement Job Features that Improve Engagement
• Leadership based on vision & mentoring • Allows the employee to make a contribution
• Empowerment and accountability • Provides a modicum of autonomy
• Fairness in promotions • Provides an opportunity to stick with tasks long
• Good communication & access to credible enough to develop a sense of mastery/
information competence
Proven Outcomes of Engagement Proven Interventions
• Productivity and increased efficiency • Restructured jobs
• Increased revenues • Changed ideas about accountability
• Better customer satisfaction • Leadership communications
• Improved information flow
©2009 Employee Motivation & Performance Assessment, Inc.

10. Leadership Intake
Highlights 100x
• Tie to metrics that are ―scale-able‖
• Improve leadership skills
• Conduct pilot in operational and professional service
groups

11. Linkage Analysis
Highlights 400x
PCT OF PAID HRS WORKED IN 2008
0.95
0.94
• Identified a proxy metric to focus 0.93
pilot efforts on productivity 0.92
0.91
• Isolated behaviors from the 0.90
employee survey — Fact-Based 0.89
Leadership 0.88
0.87
• Tested the link between Fact- .55 .60 .65 .70 .75 .80 .85 .90
FACT BASED LEADERSHIP 2008
Based Leadership and productivity
TEST 1 – ASSOCIATION
FBL and our productivity measure
rise and fall together simultaneously
Statistical Note: MODEL 01: Freq: Survey N; Covariates: HC 2008, RR 2008

12. Linkage Analysis
Highlights 400x
PCT OF PAID HRS WORKED IN 2008
PCT OF PAID HRS WORKED IN 2008
0.95 0.95
0.94 0.94
0.93
0.93
0.92
0.92
0.91
0.91
0.90
0.90 0.89
0.89 0.88
0.88 0.87
0.87 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9
.55 .60 .65 .70 .75 .80 .85 .90 .95 2008-50-OPEN COMMUNICATION
FACT BASED LEADERSHIP 2006 IN DEPT
TEST 2 - PREDICTION TEST 3 – EXCLUSION
The better the score for FBL in Drivers that have been linked to productivity
2006, the better the score for in other companies do not seem to be
productivity in 2008 driving productivity in the 2006-2008
Statistical Note: MODEL 01: Freq: Survey N; Covariates: HC 2008, RR 2008
dataset.

13. Linkage Analysis
Highlights 400x
0.95
PCT OF PAID HRS WORKED IN 2008
0.94
0.93
Test 4 – 0.92
Dose-Dependence 0.91
The greater the increase in FBL 0.90
0.89
during previous years, the better
0.88
the productivity this year
0.87
-0.05 .00 .05 .10 .15
CHANGE IN FACT BASED
LDRSHP 2008- 2006
Leverage, P<.0001
Statistical Note: MODEL 01: Freq: Survey N; Covariates: HC 2008, RR 2008

14. Research KEY FINDING
Outcome Fact-Based Leadership seems to
drive productivity at Northwestern
Mutual
HYPOTHESIS FOR PILOT
If we increase Fact-Based
leadership, emphasizing:
1. Intellectual challenge
2. Good information from leaders
3. Feedback that is
constructive, supportive and
helpful; and
4. Pragmatic metrics that are
useful
Then, we should enhance

15. Pilot Design
Conduct 4 pilots over a 13-week
period to test the hypothesis:
• Select departments against criteria
• Identify and collect KPI metrics
• Divide each pilot group into control and
experiment groups.
• Apply ―interventions‖ in experiment
groups
• Administer a pre- and post-test survey
with random assignment

16. Manager Training
Attendees: Managers, directors and
department HR Reps of experiment
groups
Content:
• Introduction to Fact-Based Leadership
• Overview of ―intervention‖ activity
• Self-evaluation of leadership approach
• Individual goals-setting for pilot period
Takeaways:
• Managers Toolkit
• Personal Planning Template
• Study Group Schedule

17. Manager Study Groups
& Coaching
• Building Trust & Credibility • Impact of Indirect
• Thoughtful Evaluation Communication &
• Comfort with Change Triangulation
• Prototyping & • Managing Conflict
Experimentation • Communication Styles
• Drivers of Motivation • Metrics That Matter
• Managing Conflict • Team-Based Metrics
• Giving & Receiving Feedback • Impact of Perceptions

18. Manager Resource Site

19. Pilot Results: Engagement
Increases in Experiment Groups
The Employment Motivation Index (EMI)
3.5 in the four control groups fell from Spring
CHANGE in EMI during 13 WEEKS
3.0 2009 to Autumn 2009 – perhaps due to
2.4 cyclical changes in workload, season, or
2.5
2.0 market pressures.
1.5
1.0 However, during the same period the
0.5 four treatment groups – which were
0.0 selected
-0.5 by random assignment and matched in
-1.0 size and type of work – saw their EMI
-1.5 scores rise just as we hypothesized.
-1.4
The difference of 3.8%, although small in
magnitude, is highly statistically
CONTROL EXPERIMENT significant (p < .0001) and quite
promising given the short duration of the
The analysis took each respondent and measured change
pilot study.
in EMI scores from pretest to posttest. The model was highly significant. R2 = .86; F = 84.9 p < .0001.
All covariates included in the model were statistically significant. Beta = -.003; p < .05. TREATMENT /CONTROL GROUP; USING EVIDENCE; INTERPERSONAL COMM & FEEDBACK;
INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGE & MOTIVATION, MEANINGFUL METRICS

20. Pilot Results: Productivity
Increases in Experiment Groups
OPERATIONS GROUP 1 OPERATIONS GROUP 2
Cases Closed per Employee per Final Actions per Employee per
Month Month
Operations Group 2 results represent an average of two Control and Experiment Groups combined.

21. Pilot Results: Productivity
Increases in Experiment Groups
0.75
Treatment Group A
CHANGE IN OBJECTIVE PRODUCTIVITY ZSCORES
Even before we control for the
effect of some important 0.5
confounding variables (such
as amount of PTO, the Control Group A Treatment Group B
employee’s number of years 0.25 Treatment Group C
on the job, etc.)
it is clear that on average, the Treatment Group D
Control Group B
control groups had a smaller 0
amount of change than the
experiment groups.
-0.25
Also, each experiment group Control Group C
experienced an increase in
Control Group D
their productivity.
-0.5
CONTROL GROUPS TREATMENT GROUPS

22. Systemic Results &
Program Expansion
CONTINUING THE INVESTMENT:
• Implementing Fact-Based Leadership Approach
• Updated annual employee survey to have greater
business utility
• Implementing an effort to increase dialogue
through managers
• Developing an Employee Value Proposition (EVP)
KEY INTEGRATION POINTS:
• Strategy Map Metrics Deconstruction effort
• Accountability and Metrics ―Line of Sight‖
Workshops
• Organizational Design and Span of Control initiative

23. Discussion
• How do you measure the
impact of internal
communications in your
companies?
• Where have you been
successful?
• What opportunities do you
see to build on that success?

24. Thank you!
Kevin Olp Morgan Marzec
(414) 665-2179 (312) 282-3321
kevinolp@northwesternmutual.com m.marzec@gagenmac.com
Dr. Palmer Morrel-Samuels
(734) 433-0344
palmer@umich.edu
Access the white paper on this case study on IPR’s website:
http://www.instituteforpr.org/research/awards/golden-ruler/winners/2010-golden-ruler