Invesco Ltd. believes strongly in engaging with its employees and having them connect with one another.
In addition to conducting its own employee survey every 18 to 24 months to gauge, among other things, employee satisfaction, management also established a number of programs for employees to bond. They are under three umbrellas:
- Invesco Cares, a series of community development programs, ranging from Atlanta employees providing meals to the homeless to New York staffers sending care packages to soldiers overseas. Employees also help clean parks and playgrounds and raise money for sponsored charities.
- Invesco Plays, extracurricular events and activities to help employees get to know each other beyond their titles and job descriptions, including intramural softball competitions, annual office barbecues and tickets to baseball games for families.
- Invesco Together, programs that enable Invesco employees from different offices or different countries to network. One is the Invesco Women's Network, in which employee-led chapters of various women's organizations connect with colleagues all over the world.
“Most of this is not driven from the top,” noted Washington Dender, global head of human resources. “It's driven from people who like working with each other, so we provide avenues for them to connect with one another.”
“Team input is not only encouraged, but highly valued,” said one Invesco employee in responding to the survey.
Invesco also offers Invesco Principles at Work, which enables colleagues to nominate each other for going above and beyond in their work efforts.
“Invesco is very people oriented and genuinely care about its employees,” wrote another employee.
Also, based on employee comments, staffers seem to appreciate the company's “terrific” 401(k) plan, “flexible and convenient PTO program” and its “attractive compensations and benefits package.”
Ultimately, the executives at Invesco work hard to make their 6,000 employees in more than 20 countries feel connected not only to their colleagues, but also to the company's mission, which is helping people worldwide build their financial security. In other words, Invesco strives to make employees feel essential.
“People have to understand and believe in the strategy of Invesco. We spend a lot of time articulating what those change to "what that strategy is supposed to be' are supposed to be,” said Colin Meadows, senior managing director and chief administrative officer at Invesco. “Getting everyone together behind a common strategy and figuring out how each person fits into the whole is pretty important.”
“We're focused on growing our talent,” Mr. Meadows added. “So we look toward opportunities to help make people feel connected to the firm.”
Apparently it's working. Invesco, a two-time winner in Pensions & Investments' Best Places to Work in Money Management, moved to No. 1 in its size category this year from fifth last year.
