Quality 'Engagement' Effort

[Marlin60]

My Quality team is planning initiatives for 2022 and one of the ideas I floated was to focus on increasing our 'engagement' with our internal partners to help build a better quality culture. This would things like a target number of problem-solving coaching sessions per week, quality control training for operators, etc.

Where we are stuck is that my team is really having trouble with the word 'engagement'. This is a term I have used for decades to describe training effectiveness or general corporate employee engagement efforts, but to their ears it sounds a little too woo-woo and subjective. Hoping you can also help me find another term that conveys the same goal but maybe sounds a bit less hippy dippy to them.

Thanks in advance

 

[Jim Wynne]

My Quality team is planning initiatives for 2022 and one of the ideas I floated was to focus on increasing our 'engagement' with our internal partners to help build a better quality culture. This would things like a target number of problem-solving coaching sessions per week, quality control training for operators, etc.

Where we are stuck is that my team is really having trouble with the word 'engagement'. This is a term I have used for decades to describe training effectiveness or general corporate employee engagement efforts, but to their ears it sounds a little too woo-woo and subjective. Hoping you can also help me find another term that conveys the same goal but maybe sounds a bit less hippy dippy to them.

Thanks in advance

One thing I see that seems to support the idea that the term "engagement" is cloudy is that in the second paragraph you used the word to describe what you mean by it:

This is a term I have used for decades to describe training effectiveness or general corporate employee engagement efforts...

You might have your answer in the first paragraph:

... one of the ideas I floated was to focus on increasing our 'engagement' with our internal partners...

How about developing partnerships?

 

[Marlin60]

Jim,

I like that idea a lot. My team bristles at the word 'support' too, so I had already nixed 'Improve Quality support for internal partners' but 'develop partnerships with other departments' might resonate more.

 

[Steve Prevette]

I liken it to the OSHA/DOE Voluntary Protection Program. One of the 'tenets' is "Employee Involvement". That may be a better phrase.
VPP 101 (hanford.gov) . Many of these ideas can be used to define employee engagement (or involvement) in QA.

Employee Involvement
Employee Participation
Employees at all levels must be involved in the structure and operation of the
safety and health program and in decisions that affect employee health and safety.
Employee participation is in addition to the individual right to notify appropriate
managers of hazardous conditions and practices. Employee participation could
include things such as:
 Safety observations – observing and asking to be observed
 Using Time Outs any time there is a safety concern
 Serving on safety committees
 Participating in S&H training and seminars
 Attendance at S&H/VPP conferences and workshops
 Participating in Project-wide hazard analysis.
 Assist with accident investigations, development of lessons learned
and help in determining root causes of incidents.
 Participate and initiate S&H awareness campaigns and health fairs
 Leading safety meetings
 Submitting safety improvement suggestions
 Performing safety and housekeeping inspections
 Participating in Safety Fairs
 Participation on Safety Committees
 Performing procedure validation walkdowns

Employee Safety Committees
In non-construction activities, the requirement for employee participation may be
met in a variety of ways, as long as the employees have an active and meaningful
way to participate in health and safety problem identification and resolution.
Examples of acceptable means of providing for employee impact on decision
making include:
 safety committees
 safety observers
 ad hoc health and safety problem-solving groups
 health and safety training of other employees
 analysis of job hazards
 committees which plan and conduct health and safety awareness
programs.
Note: If the contractor utilizes safety and health committees as a major form of
employee involvement, committee meeting minutes, charter, membership
parameters, and goals and objectives clearly outlined and documented

 

[Jim Wynne]

Another word you might use, which is more to the point, is involvement. You should at all times avoid engaging in any sort of corporatespeak, a phenomenon that has given us such meaningless phrases as "best practice" and "value added." At a place where I worked, if there was a paycheck or insurance problem, no one ever said "Go talk to HR." It was "Reach out to HR and partner with them."

 

[Johnnymo62]

I always liked empowerment or empowering success.