Tag Archives: organizational values

Employee Life Cycle: opportunities to transmit culture

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Pre-service (attachment)

 

  • Vacancy: New job is added; employee resigns or employee is dismissed
  • Job Analysis: job design/review, establishing qualifications, selecting source
  • Recruitment: Sourcing and advertising
  • Selection: Application, screening, interview, offer, acceptance
  • On-boarding: Policies, HR paperwork, receive corporate culture materials
  • Employee orientation: culture orientation, job shadowing, practice

Early service (engagement)

 

  • Benefits: Employee signs up for benefits and begins receiving EBT, perquisites
  • Contribution: Employee begins contributing in the real job
  • Coworker relations: Ongoing interactions with co-workers at all levels
  • Employee guidance: supervision, evaluation, engagement,

2-year mark is the greatest threat of turnover (retention)

Medium service (seasoning)

  • Experience building: training and development, re-licensing, credentialing, re-qualifying
  • Giving back: helping to train less seasoned coworkers

Long service (adaptation and flexibility)

  • Employee re-contributing: retraining, lateral transfers, promotions
  • Cutting back and giving back: part time and flexible assignments as employees “semi” retire but continue contributing and mentoring less seasoned coworkers

(c) Copyright BCSPublishing 2012

Ten Things Employees Want from Work

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What do employees want most?

Employee satisfaction is something most companies say they want.  Few actually set a specific goal to measure or increase satisfaction.  The ironic thing is that the more satisfied your employee group is the better they will perform.  Good performance means goals are met, productivity is higher and employees are happier. All good things.

If you want your workplace to appeal to quality employees and perhaps be less hospitable to those with destructive tendencies, pay attention to this list. Studies over time have identified some variation of the following 10 employee satisfaction themes which appeal most to good performers.

1.  Interesting work content

This means interesting to employees, not what you think is interesting.  Companies must pay attention to job design and assemble jobs in a meaningful way. It’s obvious that  repetitive, boring tasks are less interesting though they might lead technically, to high productivity. Modern job design principles can strike a balance between employee needs and productivity. Finally, negotiating interesting projects and goals each year adds variety to the normal job duties. Recruitment plays an important role in job interest. Not everyone loves what they do. It’s certainly lucky when you fit the perfect candidate to every job. A good fit is when the skills and approach of the candidate matches the skills and approach required by the position.  The better the fit, the more likely the employee will find value and interest in the assignment.

2.  Advancement opportunities

This is pretty straightforward. Promotions needn’t be a huge leap to the next level of management.  It can be advancing to the position of trainer –  perhaps someone who orients new department staff. There are many ways to carve out additional or more complicated duties for those who show capacity. But when opportunity presents itself, those with the qualifications should be considered for supervisory posts or movement to the next management level. The better you can outline what employees have to do to advance, the happier they will be.

3.  Fair compensation

Compensation fairness in the eyes of employees is primarily external competitiveness – what employees think or know other companies are paying. During tough economic times, however, a living wage at the lower levels is also needed for employees to feel their wages are fair. Appropriate salary levels are driven by balancing four factors: the market, what the company can afford to pay, job duties and internal equity.  Finally, reasonable employees want to see that the best performers get opportunities for additional pay and that folks doing the same work get relatively similar pay.  Just fair, not perfect.

4.  Opportunities for enriched assignments

Enriched assignments involve a seat on a company-wide committee, planning a company outing or working on a project that exposes employees to people and processes in other departments. Good performers enjoy making a broader contribution and being a part of a new venture or project.  They also enjoy meeting new people and learning about things outside their own department. While employees enjoy this, it also develops them and makes them more valuable employees.

5.  Strong leadership

This is where owners and senior leadership staff often fail.  Employees appreciate when management decisions are clear, decisive and based upon a set of principles like:company goals, ethics, fairness and respect. When one employee intimidates management into giving them something they don’t deserve, coworkers will take notice. I’ve listened to employees explain that even though something didn’t go their way they can respect a decision based upon a worthy goal of program sustainability or long-term company survival. In addition, they trust that management won’t get drawn into unfair decisions that serve the unreasonable requests of one particular employee.  They see that management has courage and clear thinking that will sustain the organization over time. When leaders adhere to principles and apply them consistently the best employees will be satisfied. Selfish or egocentric employees will fail attempts to skew decisions toward their personal needs.

6.  To be heard by management

High performers want to feel that their ideas and concerns are taken seriously. They have good ideas and observations.  They’ve performed well for the company so the company should take a minute to hear them out.  It’s okay if you can’t resolve a problem for business reasons.  They’ll understand that.  Employees want to know that you understand and value what they’ve said. This includes less stellar performers as well. No matter how annoying a particular employee may be, it really pays to listen respectfully to their concerns, investigate issues and change things when warranted. Every employee, including poor performers have thoughts and perspectives that can be valuable and deserve to feel heard. Human respect has no exceptions.

When you treat someone disrespectfully, even someone other employees find annoying, employees will notice. You are running the business and they expect you to have more patience.Two common mistakes vex both managers and employees. One is that management listens, makes a decision and then the complaining employee refuses to move on.  They then bug the heck out of everyone by staying stuck on the issue. One good hearing is enough and then they should be told respectfully and firmly that the matter is closed. Management needs to prevent these folks from harassing coworkers about their ongoing issue.  The other mistake is from the opposite angle – writing difficult employees off and failing to listen to anything they have to say.  They can go on and on about irrelevant information and then, there it is, a disclosure of significant wrong-doing or a brilliant idea for saving money.  As a consultant brought in to deal with difficult employees I am often amazed at how an employee has been completely marginalized within a company.   You’d be surprised how often these employees are treated disrespectfully but yet they are still at work.  It is more cruel to leave these employees on the job while all around them see them has having no credibility, than it is to respectfully help them find another assignment.

7.  High, consistent work standards

Studies have shown that quality employees prefer to work in an organization that lays out performance and conduct standards and consistently reinforces them – through performance evaluations, coaching, supervision and structure. Employees think it’s fair when those whose work approach is successful and helpful to others get promoted and those who repeatedly demonstrate poor work approach are encouraged to move on.  Leaders afraid to apply discipline end up creating significant damage to an otherwise productive workplace – as one employee’s approach disrupts others without consequence.  Some owners have no idea how destructive this is and how much respect for them is lost when they apply performance consequences equitably.

8.  An employer with integrity/character

Studies have repeatedly shown that employees working for companies with a code of integrity and a sense of social responsibility to the community, employees and vulnerable populations are more satisfied and higher performing. Emphasizing lawfulness, ethics and fairness is very appealing to the most talented employees.  When a company puts secular/profit goals ahead of ethics you’ll fill jobs but these candidates will be individuals comfortable with that sort of atmosphere. Think: News of the World.  The most capable and high character employees will move on.

10.  Freedom to make decisions that will help reach company goals

This is a very successful and important strategy.  When done well, employees become more satisfied overnight. Decision-making begins at the top (owner) and trickles down.  Every position, including clerical staff have a body of problems and issues they can decide when and how to resolve. Organizations with a decentralized decision-making style promote more meaningful decisions at lower levels. Companies with centralized control have a more difficult time defining meaningful decisions for those at the lower levels.  In any event, it pays to clarify and point out what decisions each position can make and which ones you wish for them to analyze and recommend to the next level up. Employees care more about knowing what issues you want them to exercise discretion over as much or more than they want to make big decisions.  Uncertainty is one of the greatest sources of employee stress.

No one company or organization does all ten things perfectly.  Pick out which of these areas you can easily fix and prioritize the others for improvement over time.

(c) 2012 BCSPublishing all rights reserved

Top Ten Things Employees Want from a Job

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A few years ago I researched what employees really want.  It was preparation for a workplace branding article.  If you don’t have the time or resources to survey your own employees you can use general list to guide company employee relations activities.  If  you are considering a culture improvement project you will want to survey employees for their specific values and thoughts. 

Top Ten Things Employees Want

While not every employee working today wants the following things, the list describes what fairly engaged employees are looking for at work.  What poor-performing employees want would be a different list.  Owners should pay attention to what top performers want as this is the group for which you want your workplace to be the most hospitable.

Employees are looking for the following, general characteristics in a workplace:

1. Interesting work content

Employees should know their own job responsibilities but you can also add annual goals that will change a bit each year.  Consider adding an “annual goals” accountability to all job descriptions.

2. Advancement opportunities

Advancement doesn’t have to be jumping up to the next level of management.  It can be a “lead” position responsible for helping to orient new staff or might have one or two new trainees reporting to them.  It could also mean learning a new area through cross-training. Finally, It’s important to pay attention to guiding current employees who have the skills and capacity for the next level of management so that they are ready when opportunities arise. 

3. Fair compensation

This means fair, not lavish and not a pittance. Employees in large companies are likely to understand how the company sets their employee compensation standard (market average, above average, etc.).  But for small and medium-size companies employees just want to know that they are paid a fair wage.  If employees are working without a salary increase for two years but senior management gets raises or are wasting company money, employees will quickly take notice.

4. Opportunities for enriched assignments

This can seem difficult in lean staffing times but cross-training and company-wide improvement projects can offer employees opportunities to learn new things, meet new co-workers and overall feel like they are growing.  Good employees want the company to succeed and will pitch in when needed.  Just make sure you are watching the duration of additional assignments and that individual workloads don’t stay too high for too long.

5. Strong leadership

If you are a leader who worries whether unpopular decisions make the company less appealing to strong performing employees, the answer is no.  Employees understand that if you try to please individual employees the quality of poor decisions is limited only by the stupid things their co-workers ask for.  Smart employees understand that their wants and wishes must be limited in favor of long-term company survival. Employees actually like it better when your articulate a set of quality and decision-making principles and then stick to them.  The best thing to counter an unpopular decision is to explain the process and factors that went into the decision and how it supports sustained company success.

6. Opportunities to be heard by management

Employees want occasional access to upper management and attention to their concerns.  This doesn’t mean the owner has to go to lunch with employees every day.  It means that when an employee offers a great suggestion the owner should stop by, make eye contact and say how much their contribution was both important and appreciated. There are 1000 different ideas of how to do this.  If you want ideas - Google “employee recognition and reward.”

7. High, consistent work standards

The better the employee (attitude and performance) the more they appreciate high performance standards.  Every employee should have a copy of his/her current job description that lists the jobs accountability and end results expected for that position. In addition, supervisors should discuss progress throughout the year not just at annual performance reviews.

8. An employer with integrity/character

When a negative story is made public or if a company’s practices are generally thought of poorly in the community, employees take notice.  In general, employees want to work for an employer who places emphasis on honesty and integrity.  But it’s not enough to have written values or standards, the company has to use these values in all activities; encouraging employees who personify the values and counseling those who do not.

9. An employer known for quality service/products

Here we are talking about quality again.  This time, the issue is product and service quality and customer/client satisfaction. Good employees take great pride in working for a company that pays attention to the quality of what they offer or produce. Engaged customers fit nicely with engaged employees. Have front-line employees participate in setting quality standards and make sure they understand exactly how quality is defined. Quality doesn’t have to be perfect but you should be measuring it and working to get the trend going in the right direction — up!

10. Freedom to make decisions affecting their work unit

Employees like to have a small piece of the company’s activities as their own, where they can make decisions and affect positive results.  This doesn’t mean you have to push company decision-making to the lowest point possible but it does mean to be mindful of this in job design.  If you articulate company goals and provide information about how company values should guide decision-making then let employees make decisions and take sensible risks.  When they foul up, don’t shame and blame but explain where their process went wrong and send them out to try again, encouraged by your great supervisory intervention!

What is 360 Degree Workplace Culture?

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The purpose of my work is to use human resource and business operations expertise to create positive and quality workplace cultures.  In these ideal cultures, not only are company business goals more likely to be achieved but employees are happier and treated respectfully in all interactions.

3600 Workplace culture excellence

A 3600 Workplace Culture is when:

  1. The culture and organizational values are purposeful, promoted throughout the organization and truly inform employee behavior across all programs and departments;
  2. The culture and organizational values support employees operating at their highest level of functioning toward the achievement of company business goals;
  3. Talent management structures and policies reflect the “on purpose” culture and values at all points along the employment life-cycle: at recruitment; at new employee orientation; through the performance management program; in promotion decisions and very importantly; when it’s time to go, an employee must be moved out of the organization if they cannot or will not follow the rules of respect and integrity. The desired culture and values apply as much to employee relations as to customer relations.
  4. Work values include and promote honesty, integrity and lawfulness in all company activities.

Example of unrealized workplace culture opportunity

Poor or disorganized workplace culture results when an organization has articulated values but does not follow them.  I’ve worked with many companies who have a wonderful list of values and might even ask employees to sign a code of conduct.  Meanwhile there is a long service toxic employee talking about people behind their back and targeting employees that don’t agree with them. Another example would be a company with no stated set of values.  In this case, employees’ personal values will be quite varied, will not help focus employee efforts on company goals and at worse, lead employees to work against the company’s and co-worker best interests.

Years ago, I worked for a wonderful nonprofit that serves mentally ill clients.  Client needs were at the center of service development. Company policies and program standards were very high.  The problem was that one employee in a key, one-of-a-kind position, used her power to move fellow employees around like chess pieces on a board.  I once caught her red-handed starting a false rumor about a new employee and yet couldn’t get the CEO to conduct performance counseling with any real consequence.  She’s probably still there. The same would apply in a company that says client/customer needs are important but where the company fails to redirect the behavior of employees who mistreat clients.

Sorry to bring up poor ENRON, but this was a company with two separate cultural groups.  In high level leaders, the culture was success and ambitious goal achievement regardless of their consistency with legal and accounting standards. In addition, this group feared the financial collapse but kept it secret from others. The second culture included rank and file employees and a few leaders who did not know or understand the conspiracy to keep the secret of impending financial disaster.  Clearly, honesty, integrity and lawfulness were not even articulated in this company.

News of the World appears to have suffered from a similar lack of intentionally positive work culture and values.  In the absence of a positive culture standard and with the context of very aggressive reporting goals, it appears that some employees did not balance their activities with that which is allowed by law or what most would consider basic morals.

 The ideal cultural quality and excellence

In the ideal company, leadership will have spent time crafting a statement of desired culture and values.  These values describe the organization’s concept of sustainability; how the company sees success and quality; how the company sees the importance and value of client/customer relationships; and finally, how the company sees employee relations. Everyone working in the company would know, understand and agree with this desired standard.

The closest ideal company I’ve personally experienced was my family’s clothing business, A. H. Benoit and Company. Though the company folded in the 1980s as a result of shifting retail centers (away from down towns), leadership changes and economic conditions, but in it’s day, the historical culture and standards were excellent. I didn’t realize it at the time (I was barely in high school), but my years there would represent one of my best workplace experiences. A couple of years ago, we uncovered a company employee handbook from the early 1900s that articulated the connection between happy employees and happy customers! They were known for very high quality men’s clothing, excellent customer service and being a place that employees loved to work.  Many employees worked their entire career in this business. Thirty years later people still ask me if I am related to this business and then tell me of some fond memory about either working or shopping there.

Zappos is a modern example of cultural excellence we know about because CEO, Tony Hsieh has spoken publicly about the intentional culture he built there. He has implemented his 360 degree culture in a way that has facilitated tremendous, sustained success despite tough economic times. One example as I understand it is that Zappos monitors employee performance in the first few months and moves employees out of the organization with a generous severance package if it becomes clear that their values are not consistent with stated corporate values. They are wished well and treated with respect but not everyone fits with a given culture/values.

360 degree culture means determining what you want the workplace atmosphere be, how it can help you achieve your business goals and then implementing it in a comprehensive way so it becomes a part of the institutional personality.