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Why Is Great Leadership Like a Fine Watch?

August 8, 2023/Company Culture, Employee Performance, Leadership, Organizational Planning /by Mark Huber

A fine mechanical watch is exquisite in its own right. But if you look closer, you’ll see more than just a special timepiece. It is also useful as a framework for leaders who want to improve the quality of their organization’s performance. What does that leadership framework look like? Here’s my perspective…

I’m continually amazed at how unrelated things in life tend to line up with almost perfect timing. Nearly a year ago, I decided I wanted to own a “real watch,” so I began researching popular brands. Around the same time, I was recruited to run Birkman International. Birkman is a 72-year-old company that provides businesses with a roadmap that helps teams work better together and drive operational performance.

These two unrelated events have allowed me to witness the elegance and intricacies that both watches and companies need to run well.

What Do Watches Teach Us About Great Leadership?

Imagine opening the case back of a mechanical watch. Inside you’ll find what seems like a highly complicated collection of gears and wheels. Most of us only open our watch when there’s a problem with its function. The same holds true for businesses — we never seem to look inside until we detect an issue.

In a properly functioning company, each individual, department, and team knows its role. They work at the right pace to accomplish their respective tasks. It is all about coming together at the right time to achieve success. Just like clockwork.

Look Inside

When you open the back of the case and look carefully, you’ll see that it is powered by a mainspring. Without it, the entire mechanism won’t work. The same is true with any company.

The mainspring of the business is the CEO who provides the power needed to drive the business forward. As the mainspring, a CEO is responsible for keeping the organization under a kind of tension that creates motivation, movement, and results over time. However, to ensure consistently high performance, this tension must be released in a regulated way.

This is where the Chief Operating Officer (COO) steps in to serve a critical function. The COO is an organization’s balance wheel. This leader is responsible for distributing the power generated by the CEO, releasing it to the rest of the organization at a steady, reliable pace, like the hands of a watch.

However, unexpected things happen sometimes. For example, what if you accidentally drop your watch? The balance wheel absorbs the shock and ensures that the movement keeps spinning at the right rate. Similarly, unexpected things will happen at work. Regardless, the COO ensures that daily business operations continue to run smoothly and reliably.

A Fine Watch at Work

Once a watch’s power is being created and released at the correct pace, it’s up to the gears and wheels to do their job. But first, these components must be positioned in all the right places. Likewise, employees must be placed in the right position before they can move your organization forward effectively.

For any watch (or any company) to perform well, the real trick is to make sure every “right wheel” works with all the other “right wheels.” This is when the elegance of a great organization reveals itself. It is also when underperforming teams require careful attention. Leaders may need to open the “case back” of their organization and diagnose issues by investigating two questions:

What is stopping us from achieving the desired results?
How do we get things running the way they should?

The good news is that, often, new parts aren’t required to fix a broken watch. The same is true in business. Throughout more than 30 years as an executive, I’ve found that organizational problems aren’t rooted in individual employees, but in the friction between all the moving parts. This is why great leadership can make a significant difference.

Making Everything Run Like Clockwork

If you take a watch apart, clean the pieces, reassemble it, and oil it, you end up with a wrist piece that runs properly. Likewise, if we take sufficient time and care to work with our people, we’re likely to find an effective solution to any problem.

In business, “oil” is the understanding of ourselves and others’ needs. This helps us communicate well with people so they can overcome the friction that arises from misunderstanding and mistrust. This gives us the ability to move forward in unison.

To maximize business results, leaders must take time to break down what their organizations are doing at their core. When we define our company’s purpose, bring it into focus with laser-sharp clarity, and provide a psychologically safe environment for team members to communicate, we build a foundation for truly remarkable results.

When we add oil to watch components, the mechanisms come to life. The same holds true for businesses. The latest technologies may increase efficiency, but they cannot reduce human friction within a team. Similarly, a modern smartwatch may be a reliable way to keep track of time, but it does not compare to the craftsmanship of a fine watch.

Effective Leadership Endures

The tagline of luxury watchmaker Patek Phillipe is, “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.” In other words, if you properly care for one of their watches, it will last hundreds of years.

This aligns with my approach to leadership. I believe executives are merely caretakers for their successors. As the leader of a business now entering its third generation, I take heart in knowing that if we do the work to improve ourselves and better our organization, our impact on the world will be an enduring legacy.

I hope leaders everywhere share the same vision. The future of business depends on it — as does the future of work.

Does Your HR Strategy Leverage Organizational Competencies?

June 23, 2023/Company Culture, Employee Retention, HR Strategy, Leadership, Skills Development, Talent Management /by Erik Smetana

In today’s ever-shifting talent landscape, companies large and small are searching for more effective ways to attract, recognize, and retain their workforce. These opportunities come in various forms — new or improved systems, strategies, platforms, and processes. But one smart move is to double down on organizational competencies. In other words, it’s worthwhile for companies to identify, prioritize, develop, and more fully leverage their unique strengths.

What Are Core Competencies and Why Should We Care?

Organizational competencies are a combination of the essential capabilities, knowledge, and skills that create value and fuel a company’s success. They define “how” an organization accomplishes its goals.

Although core competencies are deeply rooted in an organization’s DNA, they don’t materialize on their own. Instead, they’re established and reinforced through years of business experience and cumulative institutional knowledge, along with ongoing training and development. And although competencies are fundamental, they aren’t necessarily rigid and fixed. Just as any business grows and evolves, core competencies can shift over time.

Examples of organizational competencies include:

Customer focus
Innovation
Integrity
Partnering
Quality
Resilience
Resourcefulness/problem-solving
Teamwork/collaboration

By investing in their core competencies, businesses can improve performance in ways that create and sustain a competitive advantage. In fact, recent McKinsey research concluded, “Companies that focus on their unique strengths and leverage them across the organization are more likely to outperform their peers.”

Linking Organizational Competencies With HR

The concept of leveraging core strengths is not new. However, it’s gaining renewed attention, as employers struggle to address the challenge of attracting and retaining talent in today’s post-pandemic world. In this increasingly complex, fluid global business environment, employers must find ways to differentiate themselves.

One approach is to recognize and support the symbiotic relationship between business strengths and HR. In other words, it pays to ensure that organizational competencies are an integral dimension of HR strategies and operations. For instance, a company could emphasize the importance of improving HR’s ability to:

Build and expand the workforce by attracting and retaining exceptional talent
Identify and address workforce challenges and opportunities
Empower leaders to measure, communicate, and proactively improve staff performance
Better understand, measure, and coach people based on their functional role, team mission, and broader organizational needs

By strengthening these competencies, employers can expect to see improvement in workforce performance as well as overall business outcomes. Why? Here’s what experts say…

4 Ways Organizational Competencies Elevate HR Results

1. Recruitment and Talent Attraction

One way organizations can improve HR outcomes by leading with strengths is through recruitment. Employers that clearly articulate their core competencies and differentiate themselves from competitors are better positioned to attract top talent.

According to LinkedIn CEO, Jeff Weiner, “When companies focus on their unique strengths, they are able to attract talent that is aligned with their values and culture.” In fact, research indicates alignment with culture is one of the most powerful ways to drive retention.

2. Employee Learning

Training and development is another area where organizational competencies can help HR make a significant business impact. Companies that create a culture of continuous learning and improvement are directly shaping organizational competencies.

This kind of investment not only addresses an organization’s existing knowledge and skills gaps, but also demonstrates a long-term commitment that resonates with staff. As John Doerr, author of Measure What Matters, says, “Companies that invest in employee development are more likely to retain top talent and see a positive impact on their bottom line.”

3. Performance Management

Organizational competencies can also play an integral role in performance management. By clearly defining strengths and expectations, employers can provide people with a roadmap for success.

This also helps managers provide targeted feedback and coaching to support employees as they strive to define and achieve their goals. According to Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor, “When managers are able to clearly define expectations and provide feedback that is both kind and direct, they can help employees develop their competencies and reach their full potential.”

4. Performance Support and Coaching

Finally, organizational competencies can help HR teams more effectively identify and support high performers, while also coaching up people who are not performing at their best. By relying on clearly defined competencies, HR practitioners can more confidently create a framework to evaluate performance and identify areas for improvement.

This can also help managers provide targeted coaching and support to help employees develop additional competencies and reach their full potential. As Marcus Buckingham notes in his book, First, Break All the Rules, “Companies that focus on developing employees’ strengths are more likely to see improvements in performance and engagement.”

Final Notes on Core Competencies and HR

In today’s challenging business environment, sources of competitive advantage are hard to find. This is why more employers are leveraging organizational competencies to inform and improve their strategic HR efforts. By linking their unique strengths to talent acquisition and retention, employee learning, performance management, and coaching capabilities, they’re seeing improved workforce metrics. What’s more, they’re seeing better business results, as well.

Employee Satisfaction is an Inside Job: 3 Points of View

June 12, 2023/Career Development, Company Culture, Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Happiness, Employee Retention, Leadership, Talent Retention /by Drew McLellan

If you lead a business of any kind, it’s essential to understand the factors that influence employee satisfaction in your organization. This kind of insight starts with awareness of needs, wants and desires of people across your workforce. Especially now, when employers are struggling to find strong talent, knowing what motivates your staff can play a central role in attracting and retaining top performers.

That’s what prompted the Agency Management Institute to take a closer look at employee satisfaction issues in the marketing and advertising realm. Although this research focuses on professional services firms, it can be useful for leaders in other industries to consider, as well.

For example, with 72% of agency leaders saying they want to empower their staff, there’s no more powerful place to start than by learning what interests, inspires, and energizes team members. By leveraging these insights, you can improve internal communication, build individually tailored development opportunities, improve overall team performance, and more.

3 Key Profiles Behind Employee Satisfaction

When employees feel connected, engaged and satisfied with their work, their organizational culture is likely to be built on knowledge of who they are as individuals. When looking at various attitudes and characteristics associated with employee satisfaction, three types of personality profiles emerge:

Enthusiastic 27%
Self-reliant 45%
At-risk 29%

In other words, an employee’s primary profile is highly likely to indicate their level of commitment, work performance and overall workplace satisfaction.

Employee Satisfaction Types Up Close

Each employee segment brings unique characteristics to the table. But responding effectively to these diverse needs requires keen leadership and a strong work culture. So, what makes each group tick? These snapshot descriptions offer helpful guidance:

1. “Enthusiastic” Segment

Only 27% of survey respondents are considered “enthusiastic.” These people tend to give their employers high marks for professional development, career opportunities, work culture, and even compensation. More importantly, they feel that a long tenure with their company is the best way to build a career. They’re loyal, excited, and engaged. In short, any company would consider these individuals dream employees.

Historically, the enthusiastic group is the smallest segment. Naturally, employers want to know if and how they can attract and develop more of these valued employees. The answer lies in recognizing issues that matter to employees in the other two categories.

2. “Self-Reliant” Segment

Representing 45% of respondents, “self-reliant” employees are by far the largest group. Although these employees tend to think of themselves as responsible for achieving their own success, this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Generally, self-reliant employees believe leaders don’t acknowledge or appreciate their struggles or contributions. In fact, many in this group feel “invisible.” And their discontent extends beyond a lack of recognition. They’re also skeptical about whether employers know how to develop their skills, provide opportunities for advancement, or improve their financial position over time.

Interestingly, 63% of these employees are millennials who tend to work for larger organizations. It’s also worth noting that women are heavily represented in this segment, and they tend to feel their opinions and ideas are heard less often than their male peers.

Although these issues are more of a concern for at-risk employees, high stress, difficult clients, and unrealistic expectations about working outside of conventional hours contribute to employee dissatisfaction in this segment. The same can be said for scope creep, job insecurity, and turnover. For all of these reasons, 22% of “self-reliant” employees have thought about leaving their job for greener pastures.

3. “At Risk” Segment

29% of employees are classified as “at risk.” They tend to work for smaller organizations and rely on their employers to engage with them and support them. They’re also much more likely to be women. In fact, 66% of at-risk workers are women.

It should seem obvious, but “at risk” employees are most likely to resign. In fact, research indicates that 50% of people in this segment have thought about seeking other employment. These individuals are looking for more, whether it’s with their current employer or elsewhere.

What’s driving this restlessness? Typically, at-risk workers are looking for a better (or different) workplace culture. Perhaps their current workplace doesn’t suit them, or company policies don’t align with their principles. These people want their employer to care about their wellbeing, align with their values, and provide more opportunities for collaboration and growth.

“At-risk” employees also crave more collaboration. They care deeply about their work. They’re often at the center of an organization’s activities, because they desire opportunities to collaborate with peers in meaningful ways. However, they’re less satisfied with their career trajectory, compensation, and path for advancement than others.

But these people aren’t operating in the shadows. In fact, they’re often spearheading key roles, including strategy, leadership, project management, and account management. Because these employees are central to an organization’s success, losing them could cause major setbacks and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

3 Steps to Strengthen Employee Satisfaction

With all the responsibilities that come with running a business, it’s easy to forget that employment is a two-way street. Here are a few considerations to help you improve engagement and satisfaction among your team members:

1. Encourage people to invest in their own development

Professional development must be a shared responsibility between company leadership and staff. Individuals can’t develop themselves entirely on their own. They need your active guidance, support, and resources to develop themselves. Giving people an active role in mapping their growth plans and decisions about where to invest their time and energy can make a measurable impact on their commitment and satisfaction.

2. Take time to craft a personalized development plan

Because you’re working with individuals, it’s important to recognize that professional development isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Every employee deserves a growth plan that’s personalized for their unique goals, interests, and aspirations. Without a plan they can “own,” no amount of time or money will improve their engagement, performance, satisfaction, or retention. What’s more, employees who don’t see any promise of growth won’t be employees for very long. Your commitment to their future success can make all the difference.

3. Find ways to push autonomous workers to new heights

Don’t forget to give “self-reliant” employees their share of attention. While they may not speak up often with complaints, “self-reliant” employees can be a tricky bunch to manage and develop. These folks often need a side hustle to feel engaged, creatively. If they’re asked to do additional work or contribute to a new project, they may engage less with their primary work. To better support these employees, consider pairing them with mentors. This way, they always have access to someone who can help them stick to their agenda while moving forward on their career path.

A Final Note

Building workplace satisfaction is as much about striking a balance as it is about understanding what makes people tick. Investing in your workforce’s professional growth and creating a supportive environment are both key. In fact, if you read between the lines of this survey, it’s clear that employees often believe these actions are worth more than money.

How Agile Leadership Can Fundamentally Change Work Culture

June 6, 2023/Company Culture, Employee Experience, Learning /by Brad Swanson

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This quote is perhaps one of the most familiar business phrases of all time. Yet, while most leaders agree on the importance of culture, surprisingly few actually devote serious attention to shaping workplace culture. Why is this the case? What role should culture play in business success? And how does agile leadership help shape successful organizations? In this article, we’ll explore these questions in detail…

Why Smart Leaders Value Culture

Just how deeply should leaders focus on culture? Edgar Schein is widely considered the father of organizational culture. In his book, Organizational Culture and Leadership, he describes leadership and culture as two sides of the same coin.

In other words, leaders invariably shape culture for better or worse, whether they intend to or not. It starts when they establish organizational policies and practices. Then, through their daily actions, leaders demonstrate their commitment to these standards. Ultimately, they become role models for expected behaviors.

This aligns with Andrea Tomasini’s definition of culture as “the set of behaviors that are accepted and expected.”

Culture Change: A Case In Point

One example of a leadership-driven culture shift comes from a large telecom equipment provider. The company’s culture was highly hierarchical and control oriented. Employees were even forbidden from posting anything on their office walls or windows.

Although the company was a recognized market leader, it was losing market share to smaller competitors. This was when executives recognized the need to build a more innovative, collaborative culture.

Leaders visited directly with teams to ask what they needed to work in more collaborative, innovative, agile ways. They documented the various responses on sticky notes, and then posted these comments on a highly-visible wall in the building’s atrium. But the process didn’t end there.

In essence, this wall of sticky notes became a Kanban board that helped drive organizational change. Leaders started taking action on each request. They began meeting weekly at the board, where everyone would see them moving sticky notes from “To Do” to “In Progress” and eventually to the “Done” section when each action was completed.

Within months, teams began creating their own Kanban boards and collaborating daily. Sticky notes on the walls became a new cultural norm. The leadership team’s visible actions changed employee understanding of behaviors that are accepted and expected.

How Does Agile Leadership Help?

In their book Leadership Agility, Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs offer a well-researched, practical model for leadership development. Think of leadership skills as a series of vertical stages of increasing effectiveness. As leaders develop capabilities, they move from Expert to Achiever to Catalyst.

These stages are like gears in a car’s transmission, letting leaders “shift” into different speeds as needed. In fact, research shows that the most effective leaders have the agility to shift fluidly between leadership modes – as well as the awareness to know which leadership mode is most appropriate in a given situation.

Most leaders start at the “Expert” stage. Experts are focused on hands-on work that leverages their functional expertise. They tend to focus on tactics and solving immediate problems. However, they tend to lack awareness of their leadership style and have low emotional and social intelligence.

At the “Achiever” stage, leaders begin to rely more on others. They are focused on results and outcomes, and are willing to delegate the “how” to others. They become more invested in influencing others to accomplish their goals. They’re also more aware that they need buy-in to achieve the best results.

When leaders reach the “Catalyst” stage, they develop a broader, more systemic perspective, long-term orientation, strong self-awareness, social awareness, and situational awareness. They realize that goal-setting, alone, isn’t enough to motivate people. Vision and purpose are also essential. And they genuinely believe people are assets — not just “resources.”

How Agile Leadership Affects Workplace Culture

Agile leaders demonstrate multiple capabilities that are vital for shaping organizational culture:

1. Situational Awareness and Balance

Agile leaders are able to shift their approach between expert, achiever, and catalyst modes, as needed. They can operate effectively at a tactical, strategic or visionary level. This means agile leaders are adept at tackling a wide range of problems. By tapping into this broad set of skills, they serve as role models to others in the organization, creating a culture that values leadership growth and development.

2. Long-Term Visionary Orientation

“Catalyst” leaders devote more of their energy to a long-term vision for their organization. They realize the key role culture plays in achieving this vision. And they realize there is no silver-bullet shortcut that creates a positive culture. This is why they move deliberately and persistently to build a better culture. As role models, they help other leaders in their orbit develop a similar visionary perspective.

3. People-Centered Leadership

Catalyst leaders have strong social intelligence and genuine empathy for people on their team. They are willing to invest time in coaching and mentoring people for personal growth. This goes beyond merely setting goals, measuring performance, or demanding results. This leadership style serves as a role model for all in an environment where people feel genuinely valued.

4. Ability to Navigate a VUCA World

Today’s fast-paced global economy is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). In this environment, agile leadership is essential. It frees leaders to let go of the illusion of control and gives them the confidence to help others do the same. Agile leaders frame complex challenges as learning opportunities rather than neatly defined execution tasks. Instead of punishing small failures, they reward learning. This kind of support encourages people to take initiative and tackle complex problems.

5. Concern for Psychological Safety

By combining two agile leadership capabilities we’ve mentioned – social intelligence and willingness to reward learning – leaders can establish a sense of psychological safety. When people feel it’s safe to participate, learn, contribute, and even challenge the status quo – innovation can flourish. By actively promoting an atmosphere of psychological safety, leaders can help their organization evolve and succeed over time.

Modeling and Shaping Culture

For leaders who want to proactively shape workplace culture, a cultural assessment model can be particularly helpful. At Agile Leadership Journey, we rely on the Competing Value Framework (CVF) by Kim S. Cameron and colleagues. This CVF model focuses on four cultural archetypes: Collaborate, Create, Compete, and Control:

CVF research indicates that no singular “best” culture exists. Instead, the most successful organizations try to balance the four archetypes. CVF provides a model for assessing an organization’s culture “shape” – the relative strength of each value system and culture archetype. With this tangible assessment, leaders can make deliberate choices about actions that can shift the culture in a desired direction.

Because culture is so complex, leaders should treat these activities as experiments — assuming the outcome is uncertain, and side effects will be difficult to predict.

Our experience with CVF and culture shaping reveals that these techniques can lead to a measurable shift in culture. However, significant changes often take years to manifest fully. This means organizations need to rely on the strength of “Catalyst” leaders with the agility, wisdom and skills to persist through a complex cultural transformation.

What Helps Women Leaders Move Up, Not Out?

November 4, 2022/Career Development, Company Culture, DEI Diversity Equity Inclusion, Leadership, Podcast, Podcast Recap, Podcast Recaps, Talent Retention /by Meghan M. Biro

Currently, women account for nearly 48% of the global workforce. This seems like progress for gender equality and inclusion, right? But the picture isn’t as rosy as you might think—especially for women leaders.

In fact, recent research reveals that as women move up the management ranks, they’re actually less likely to be promoted to each successive rung on the corporate ladder. No wonder women executives are quitting their jobs at a record pace!

What will it take to remove these obstacles so more women can reach top management positions?

With stellar talent in short supply these days, this topic has never been more important for employers to address. So I invite you to dig deeper with me on this #WorkTrends podcast episode.

Meet Our Guest: Todd Mitchem

Today, I’m speaking with author, consultant, and leadership development expert, Todd Mitchem, EVP at AMP Learning and Development. Todd is a future-of-work visionary who helps individuals understand and embrace the process of professional disruption and reinvention. And today we’re tapping into his expertise on key trends involving women leaders.

Work, Women, and Power

Welcome, Todd! Tell us, how can women leaders step into their power?

I teach presentation, communication, and executive presence skills for employees, often at large companies like Microsoft. And I would say about 98% of the participants are women.

Often, when I tell these women to step into their own their power, they’ll ask, “Well, how do I do that? I don’t want to seem too aggressive, or too bossy, or…”

My response is, “When you are in a room presenting, you’re there because someone believed you deserved to be there. You just need to own that. You need to step into that power.”

And the next piece is to lean on what you know, lean on what you’re good at, and step into that strength.

Executive Presence is a Skill

How are women leaders applying these lessons to engage their power?

Well, executive presence is a skill. People aren’t born an executive leader. It’s a skill.

So, if you teach them this skill, it’s amazing to watch what emerges from the process. Because it frees them to bring out all the things they’ve worked so hard to achieve.

It’s powerful. But it’s skill-based. Once you learn the skill, your intelligence, your wisdom, your knowledge all emerge, almost naturally.

Women Can Lead With Their Strengths

You say women leaders need to realize they deserve to be in the position they’re in and should claim it. But what do you really mean by this?

I think society tends to make women think they’re supposed to act like their male counterparts who are successful but may be aggressive or overly dominating.

But in truth, if women just lead with their knowledge, instead of trying to outmatch the egos of their male colleagues, they’ll find they’re in a better place. That’s because they have much more confidence.

How Men Can Help

Todd, you’ve helped thousands of women claim their power and step into their roles more fully. As a man, how can you do this?

It’s not as if the corporate world is now magically wonderful for women. It isn’t. That’s an illusion. But women are evolving at an incredible pace, and men need to help step that up.

As women step into their power, men need to step up and check our egos at the door.

Resistance, or fear, or an unconscious belief structure will destroy you. The ego’s fight to win is about wanting to be right, instead of getting it right.

But the best thing to do for the future of work is to embrace the power we have as a unified group—men and women working together.

For more great advice from Todd, listen to this full episode. Also, be sure to subscribe to the #WorkTrends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. And to continue this conversation on social media, follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Business Needs vs. Employee Needs: Finding the Happy Medium

January 12, 2022/Employee Experience, Employee Well-Being, HR Strategy, Leadership, Pandemic and Post-Pandemic /by Dawn Mitchell

It’s been a hard year and a half, and as the pandemic continues to fluctuate, illness and lockdowns have taken their toll. The effects extend into the workplace, too, as companies struggle to find a happy medium between employee needs and business needs.

During this time, employees reevaluated what a workplace means to them and how job satisfaction plays into their overall happiness. Many employees found that they’re happier when they don’t have to commute, dress up, or stick to prescribed business hours. Others are ready to get back to the workplace where there are fewer distractions and more in-person collaboration.

Many businesses, on the other hand, are eager to get back to an in-office model without Zoom meetings. Managers want to communicate quickly with employees at their desks, instead of via chat. It’s understandable but short-sighted for employers to try to get back to a pre-pandemic way of operating. As the health implications of COVID-19 can’t be undone, neither can the effects it’s having on the workplace, which is why the need to find a happy medium is important.

These changes create a need for HR teams to adapt to the realities of these changes. Therefore, it’s time for businesses to adapt their return-to-office plans to ensure that they are employee-centered. Now more than ever, balancing employee needs against the needs of the business is imperative.

Listening to Employees

Work-from-home employees are not shy about their preferences and pain points around remote work. Coworkers commonly talk amongst themselves about how much they like not having to dress in full business attire or commute. They also expressed frustrations around digital communications and how, since they’re online, the workday can stretch beyond regular hours.

Before putting forth a return-to-office plan, businesses must listen to what employees truly want. To avoid turnover, some employers plan to skip a return-to-office life altogether, especially since a lack of remote work options is a deal-breaker for many employees and may send them searching for a job elsewhere. Many employees have already made that step, citing lack of remote work options as the main reason for seeking other opportunities. Notably, according to a survey by ResumeBuilder, 15% of workers are planning to leave their jobs before December.

What is the best way to find out what employees need to be happy in their current positions? Ask them. Hold a company-wide meeting to discuss what they like about working remotely, what can be improved, their thoughts on returning to full-time office work, and any questions they may have.

HR teams should leverage anonymous channels like digital surveys to make sure every voice is heard. These tools are perfect for individuals who are not comfortable speaking up in a large group, or for those who worry that their opinions will reflect poorly on them.

Company leaders should also trust employees. They know how they work best, as well as the ways working from home affects their work-life balance. HR teams know happy employees are more engaged, produce better work, and stay in their positions longer, creating positive business outcomes.

Balancing Employee Needs With Business Needs

While keeping employee needs top of mind is essential, HR professionals must also evaluate how best to serve the company. If remote work begins to negatively impact employee and company performance, that can’t be ignored. Conversely, if an organization consistently meets KPIs, is growing, and employees are engaged, there’s no need to return to the office five days a week.

Instead of assuming performances and company operations will improve in an office setting, HR teams should strive to find balance. There’s no need for extremes. Companies don’t need to decide to keep operations fully remote or shift them entirely back to the office.

Over the course of the pandemic, it’s become clear what job functions need to be performed in person versus remote. Some team members can complete all of their job functions from home, while others have duties that require in-person work.

Companies should try to strike a balance and meet their employees in the middle. Offer a schedule that accommodates working from home alongside in-person work. For example, some organizations can easily let employees work from home three days a week, while requesting in-person attendance for meetings.

Companies can also strike a balance by easing the dress code to make going into the office feel more comfortable. Additionally, they can find cost savings by allowing employees to work from home. Businesses should evaluate whether they can stagger when different staff members come in. By doing so, they can use a smaller office space, saving on rental costs and utilities, among other expenses. At the same time, employees will appreciate the flexibility of being able to choose to work from home on a regular basis.

Looking to the Future

Before implementing a return-to-office plan, HR teams must equally weigh the needs of the business against those of their employees. Therefore, it may be tempting to develop this kind of plan quickly. However, HR teams must take time to listen to employees and measure their needs alongside business goals. This will create a happier and more effective workplace for everyone.

Image by Wave Break Media

How to Foster Corporate Altruism: Focus on Leaders First

February 8, 2021/Company Culture, Leadership /by Amanda Bell

How do leaders create a culture that features contagious corporate altruism?

Historically, shareholder capital return has been the holy grail of business success. Significant returns signal investors that the company believes in their future so much they can afford to buy back stocks and pay higher dividends, directly providing a return on investment. However, the rise of the social enterprise means changing expectations for what companies do with their profits.

In today’s business world, shouldn’t stakeholders (i.e., managers, employees) also reap what they sow?

Corporate Altruism: Demanded by the Market

Luckily, shareholder return and stakeholder return are no longer a zero-sum game. Institutional activism has made it impossible for big companies to hide from the social and environmental impacts of their business decisions, demanding transparency – at a minimum. Strategic companies are taking this a step further.

Companies that are keen to step up to rising expectations are actively looking for opportunities to take responsibility. And rightfully so: altruistic investments in their employer value, social justice movements, and environmental impact moves market price and boosts employee productivity. For example, the “Triple Bottom Line” equally prioritizes people, planet, and profit from an accounting perspective.

The case is clear: both the market and investors reward activities that improve the lives of employees, customers, and citizens. Why? Because it signals adaptable leaders who are responsive to the demands of the workforce. It is also a sign that our cultural values are also shifting.

Is it possible that the “good guys” don’t finish last?

Changing Expectations of Leaders

While this change is both rapid and significant, it is also true that we have grown accustomed to powerful leaders often being some of the least altruistic individuals we know. For example, historically, Machiavellian personality traits (e.g., manipulation) often still predict leadership effectiveness. Plus, according to the Paradox of Power, the skills that help us achieve positions of power and influence (i.e., humility and compassion) are the very skills that deteriorate once we get there – even if they’re the skills leaders need to leverage now more than ever.

Why does this matter?

Well, leaders are the “linking pins” of the employees to their perceptions of the organization. If you want to build altruism into your organization, it starts with leaders. They also happen to be one of the most significant predictors of employees’ turnover intentions and trust in the company. As the saying goes: “People don’t quit bad jobs; they quit bad bosses.” Correct: this isn’t the universal driver behind every departure. But if you have leaders with the “old guard” mentality who depend on dominance and coercion? It’s safe to say your employer brand – and consequentially market value – are at risk.

Contagious Altruism: Foster Trust and Purpose

If a company was not built from the ground up with their employer brand in mind, investing in their stakeholders can feel check-the-box-ish. The worst-case scenario (and we have all seen it before) is when an organization launches a new set of values and are caught in contradiction when their leaders are not living proof. Indeed, the individuals who receive the most scrutiny (leaders and managers) also have the carrots and sticks to incentivize and reinforce change.

While there are many ways to continue building altruism into a shareholder-centric strategy, focusing on your leaders is one of the most worthwhile routes to change. Want to see results in both stakeholder buy-in and the bottom line?

Prioritize these four leadership behaviors:

Defining How the Business Has a Greater Purpose

One of the biggest predictors of employee satisfaction and engagement is the sense that their work is creating a positive impact. Leaders should have a strong elevator pitch about how the business emerges above and beyond the work itself. They must demonstrate how the company impacts the world in a responsible and meaningful way.

Empowering Team Members

According to Deloitte’s 2021 Human Capital Trends report, a decentralized workforce spreads ownership and engages employees in creativity and mastery of their craft. Leaders now more than ever must continue to focus on the division of labor and delegation. What can each of your team members do better than anyone else on the team? How can you leverage those strengths to improve employee empowerment?

Creating Choice in What and How Employees Contribute

The very same task can indeed be more effortful or more motivating, based on who is doing it. As you set the tone for corporate altruism, ask your team members what they enjoy doing and why. Then allocate responsibilities and opportunities accordingly.

Create a Superordinate Group Identity – A Sub-Culture

It can be challenging to unite your teams when distinctive subgroup identities exist and are conflicting (especially with the divisive political climate at play). So leaders must be explicit when defining a group identity that rises above individual differences.

There are many models for what it takes to be someone’s best boss. The overarching goal?

Ensure your organization sets the expectation that they become a social enterprise. Because two historically competing priorities – upholding employer brand and market value – are now the joint cost of admission to a future driven by contagious corporate altruism.

#WorkTrends Recap: The Mood Elevator

January 19, 2018/Podcast, Podcast Recaps /by Meghan M. Biro

What does a good mood (or worse — a bad one) have to do with company culture?

A lot, according to Larry Senn, author of “The Mood Elevator: Take Charge of Your Feelings, Be a Better You” and the undisputed “Father of Corporate Culture.” Many years ago, his doctoral dissertation was the world’s first study of corporate culture. During a recent #WorkTrends event, our guest host Shawn Murphy asked Larry why mood matters, and how leaders can really lead major cultural change.

Leaders’ Moods Matter

The central finding of Larry’s research was that organizations tend to become shadows of their leaders. “Anybody who is a parent or a leader has a great obligation for how they show up each day.”
In other words, if the boss comes into the room in a bad mood, she can sink the meeting — fast.

Living at the Top of the Mood Elevator

Larry explains that we all ride “the mood elevator” every day. At the top are positive traits such as gratitude, resourcefulness, curiosity and purpose. At the bottom is depression. In between are the various moods that strike us all day.

Source: themoodelevator.com

His work has focused on helping people spend more of their time being at their best, at the top of the mood elevator, and limiting the damage they do when they’re feeling down.

“Have you ever said something to a loved one you wish you could take back? Have you ever written an email you shouldn’t have written? Well, I guarantee you were in the lower levels, below the midpoint, on the mood elevator,” he says.

When we learn to spend more time on the upper levels, and do less damage to ourselves and others while on the lower levels, we can have a better life, better relationships, a better marriage — the list goes on.

In other words: “Take control of your emotions and be a better you,” he says.

Real-Word Examples: How Organizations Use the Mood Elevator to Shape Culture

Larry co-founded the culture-shaping firm Senn Delaney, which uses concepts like the mood elevator to improve corporate culture. He points to several examples of organizations that are at the top of their game because of these simple concepts.

“We have one hospital that has the highest patient satisfaction and highest engagement scores in America. They have a 6-foot wall with the mood elevator on it in the nursing station. The nurses put their tongue depressors on where they are when they come in,” he says.

Another example he shares: “Victoria’s Secret is the most renowned retailer in the world. You go in the back room of a Victoria’s Secret store and they’ve got a mood elevator on their wall. It’s a very practical thing. It’s one of the many things at Senn Delaney we teach, but it is a powerful notion and tool in life.”

Aim for Curiosity, Not Judgment

If you’re looking for an easy way to reframe your mood, try this quick tweak that has major results: Aim for curiosity, not judgment.

“Let’s say someone you know does something that you don’t like or doesn’t make sense to you,” Larry says. “You’ve got a choice: You can go to judgment, you can go to anger, or you can go to curiosity and say, ‘Huh? I wonder how they see this?’”

“We make things up and we create these stories in our head, and what we great teams are able to do is they assume positive intention. They assume that everybody on the team really does want to get a good outcome. They may have different ways of doing, they may not agree with them, but don’t assume that they have negative motives. Start from the assumption of positive intention and be curious to figure out why they see it that way.”

Another way to think of curiosity versus judgment: Work toward a “growth mindset.” Larry points to Carol Dwick, who offers some fascinating work in the area of growth mindset in her book “Mindset.” She says that people tend to either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.

“Today, more than any other time in history, we need to have a growth mindset in organizations to have agility and innovation,” he says. “The essence of a growth mindset is living in curiosity — being okay not knowing, asking questions, not being the expert, but just to wonder about things.”

“If you can just live life more in curiosity than judgment, you’ll have a totally different life,” Larry says.

Stay tuned for more inspiration on the #WorkTrends podcast, every Wednesday: http://bit.ly/2DjCkja.

Can Ethical Corporate Culture and Compliance Co-Exist in Today’s Digital Workplace?

October 5, 2017/Archives /by Babette Ten Haken

True story here. A few years ago, I sat with the Sales VP of a major corporation I worked for. We were good friends and decided to meet over lunch. I was relocating. He was recruiting me to become part of the new regional team.

“I appreciate your offer,” I responded. “But working for Company X morally, ethically and spiritually compromises me.” He leaned back in his chair, looked me in the eyes, and sighed. He had absolutely no response to my statement.

What percentage of your workforce holds that same perspective, but unstated?

The pace and cadence of digitally-connected organizations challenges the concept of ethical corporate culture.

How large are the gaps between employee handbook content, corporate mission and vision statements? How consistently and successfully are these ideas embraced, enacted and reinforced in the workplace, each day?

Can abstract values reinforce a digitally-underpinned, ethical corporate culture?

The concept of the values-based organizational culture originates from Edgar Schein, Emeritus Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management. His seminal work, Organizational Culture and Leadership (originally published in the 1980’s), defines three distinct levels of organizational culture. (Yes, I’ve read the book).

Cultural artifacts are observable elements such as dress code and office lingo. Then, espoused values define the organization’s value system, including behavioral rules and how employees represent the corporate behavioral norm to each other and to outsiders. Finally, shared assumptions include deeply embedded behaviors which may not be documented, but certainly are inferred. Shared assumptions anticipate how employees react to situations.

However, the dynamics of the digital workplace offer a fresh set of value challenges. First, the post-industrial concept of remaining an employee “for life” is no longer the workplace norm. Many employees have expiration dates contingent on career strategy, performance or organizational shortcomings, or merger and acquisition. Then, leadership may be hired to flip the organization rather lead it into perpetuity. Also, a growing segment of the workforce are migratory and transient: gig-employees or remote digital workers.

As a result, creating and transferring a value continuum across the corporation is easier said than done. Ultimately, the survival of ethical corporate culture relies on employee integrity.

The challenge becomes how to quantify the abstract, qualitative notion of ethical corporate culture.

Levels of employee engagement, external factors impacting security, and often departmentally-specific churn, exert selective pressure on the viability and evolution of ethical corporate culture.

Perhaps the best compass ensuring continued cultural quality becomes hiring for integrity. Integrity should, by its nature, defy shape-shifting trends and fads. The 2015 Deloitte report on building world-class ethics and compliance programs targets a positive culture of integrity as the program’s ground zero.

Integrity is defined as being honest, having strong moral principles, being whole and undivided. Integrity differs from loyalty in that loyal individuals pledge support or allegiance, regardless of being motivated by strong moral principles.

Within an ethical corporate ecosystem, the goal becomes attaining high levels of agreement based on shared assumptions (remember those?) about what is positively valued by an organization. In addition, shared agreement is reached about what is negative and devalued. In addition, these shared assumptions infer an equally high level of intensity, passion and engagement around showcasing those agreed-upon values.

Will rules-based compliance programs guarantee values-based employee and leadership integrity?

However, digital transformation of the workplace brings with it new selective pressures for survival of the fittest corporate culture. Enter federally-mandated safety, security and regulatory requirements. As a result, organizations become busy with their tangible artifacts: various compliance To-Do lists.

Consequently, corporate values and ethics become synonymous with assessing, measuring and auditing compliance to rules and regulations. Furthermore, preserving organizational “culture” dissolves into producing audited, assessed, measured and analyzed compliance reports. After all, these quantifiable, documented results demonstrate to stakeholders, stockholders and regulators that an organization, and its employees, follow stated rules.

However, this trajectory evolves human resource professionals into compliance police. What is lost in translation is their potential role in co-creating human capital strategy leveraging an ethical corporate culture.

What happens when rules and regulations shape-shift in response to external pressures? When leadership and compliance personnel lack integrity, the organizational value system disintegrates. As a result, executing compliance and risk management strategy may not ensure the preservation of core ethical values and behaviors

At best, ethical human capital hiring strategy leverages critical thinking skills and workplace responsibility.

Perhaps a better strategy for curating ethical corporate culture leverages a human capital strategy emphasizing employee ownership of and responsibility to commitments and agreements. When this model is adopted, the target is hiring for critical thinking skills as well as functional skill sets. These core skills include the ability not only to discern right from wrong, but also involve providing cultural avenues to take action.

After all, creating an enduring, ethical corporate culture curates a set of commonly espoused, shared positive values and behavioral norms. These norms and values enhance employees’ own value sets. Otherwise, employees become disenchanted, unproductive and unengaged because they lose belief in organizational ethics. When that happens, you potentially create a sandbox for moral, ethical and possibly even spiritual compromise.

Photo Credit: dominicatorumstudiorum Flickr via Compfight cc

How to Recruit Like the World’s Best Companies

July 17, 2017/Archives /by Sheza Gary

The world’s best companies are mission-driven, and they make more money than their competitors. Mission-driven companies have 30% more innovation and 40% higher levels of employee retention

These companies know that to achieve their mission, they need the kind of staff that will get them there; the kind of people who are highly engaged. But in 2015, this was only true for 32% of employees.

What determines high engagement levels, is corporate culture. It’s safe to assume that not many companies are paying too much attention to culture, but the ones that are, boast higher revenue.

What Does Employee Engagement Mean & Why Does It Matter?

When employees are highly engaged with the companies they work for, it means they are emotionally invested in the company’s vision and mission, and enthusiastically take ownership of their work to produce high levels of productivity. As you can imagine, the spinoff of that results in higher profits.

When staff are disengaged, they are only interested in their paycheck. These people hang around in the coffee area, watch the clock for home time, work only as much as they need to, come in late, doodle during meetings without making any valuable contributions…you know the type.

Undoubtedly, that kind of disinterest hurts the company. In fact, Hubworks reports that the cost of low employee engagement accounts for a $450 to $550 billion loss each year.

Considering that, it’s understandable why the world’s best companies boast the highest engagement levels.

Corporate Culture Determines Engagement Levels

Now, every company has its own culture. As you can see from the previous statistics, this is mostly by default; when culture “happens” to a company, rather than coming about by strategic design.

To implement a desired corporate culture, the following questions need to be answered:

What is our company’s mission?
How do we break down the overall mission into annual business goals?
How do we break business goals down into departmental goals?
What kind of staff do we need to achieve our goals?

The kind of workers you’ll need to achieve your goals will determine what business culture will attract them.

Let’s talk about Apple for a moment: Apple is considered one of the best companies to work for. It boasts a 70% employee engagement rate, even though most staff work under a tremendous amount of pressure. Apple offers its staff many perks, one of them full education reimbursement.

About this, Gallup Business Journal says:

“Apple had created an attraction strategy that differentiated the company from its competitors — and that appealed directly to the type of employee it wanted to hire. Apple’s brilliantly defined employment brand not only speaks to people with a strong desire to learn and grow, but also says a lot about the company’s culture and what it values.”

The first step to recruit like the world’s best companies is developing a strategy to attract and retain the kind of people you need to achieve your company’s goals.

How to Emulate the Recruitment Process of The World’s Best Companies

Like attracts like. To attract the kind of workers you want, you’re going to have to create a workplace that draws the people you are after.

Interestingly, motivation levels don’t increase according to salary, so slapping a 10% increase on everyone’s pay won’t cut it. Instead, you first need to create a culture that is attractive to the people you want to attract. When that’s in place, follow a similar recruitment process of the world’s best companies, which fits your own culture and values.

Once the company has implemented their desired culture, the recruitment process begins with ad design and copy, moving on to interviewing and tests, and ending with effective induction programs.

Ad design and copy

Step number one to attract the right people is the ad. Ideally, the ad design and copywriting should be done by the marketing department, not recruitment, because the ad is branded marketing material, and needs to include:

An attractive design that appeals to the people you are looking for (which is why you need to understand precisely what drives your ideal candidate).
A title that stands out from the rest of the boring ads, and which appeals to your target audience.
A first line that appeals to the candidate’s top internal motivator.
An emphasis on what the candidate will do, learn and aim towards.
Where possible, avoid specifying skills and education, especially when attitude is an important factor. Focus on attracting the right people instead of weeding out the bad apples.

Interviewing

LinkedIn listed a “Top Attractors” list in 2016. The top five best companies to work for include, in this order:

Google
Salesforce
Facebook
Apple
Amazon

Let’s look at how they handle interviews:

But for Apple, all of the top 5 companies kickoff the interviewing process virtually, and then go on to rigorous face to face interviews. For instance, Google candidates who pass the virtual interview proceed to the next phase where Google conducts on-site interviews with four employees (not managers, but future peers) for up to 45 minutes each.

Facebook conducts 4 – 5 interviews before making an offer.

Emulating the methods of these top companies – affordable even for smaller companies – would require software like ClickMeeting which could be used not only for conducting interviews one-on-one, or with up to 25 people, but you could also use webinars to train new employees, especially if you work with remote teams.

What’s most important in the interview phase, is the information you need to find out, based on what’s important to your company.

Psychological tests are the norm for the world’s best companies because they understand that although you can teach a skill, you can’t instill the right attitude or motivation. For example, if the candidate is to be groomed for leadership, the company needs to know if the person has leadership abilities and what their leadership style is so that it fits the culture of the company.

The entire recruitment process is detailed and heavily invested in because it’s designed to attract the best and retain employees for as long as possible.

With that in mind, and following the examples of the world’s best companies, you’d aim to:

Allow candidates to showcase their skills, thinking style, leadership ability and whether they fit the company culture or not.
Ask questions around behavioral, hypothetical and case-based scenarios.
Provide role-specific initiatives where necessary, like role-playing a mock sales call. To determine teamwork ability, Apple places candidates into small groups for collaboration exercises.
Identify abilities with personality assessments and tests. Salesforce presents odd questions like “What’s your kryptonite?” so that they can see how fast candidates think on their feet.
Ascertain specific ability with challenges and practical exercises or tasks.
In interviews, find out different perspectives from the presence of a few staff members or managers.

As this article is about recruitment, it won’t go into onboarding, but the induction phase of recruitment is vital, as it sets the tone for how candidates view your company, which impacts their future commitment and engagement levels.

The world’s best companies pay a lot of attention to making the onboarding experience streamlined, professional and fun.

Being the Best at Recruiting

The motivation for modeling your company’s recruitment process after the world’s best companies is higher revenue and decreased cost.

With the end goal in mind and the realization that the top companies have the highest employee engagement rates, you’d begin identifying the ideal culture for your company, and the one that will attract and retain quality employees who will work to achieve the company’s goals.

The recruiting process starts with the ad design and copy and then moves on to interviewing.

The best companies have recruitment processes that are strategic and consist of clever ways of identifying information about candidates that can’t easily be manipulated.

Instituting recruitment processes like the world’s best companies is time consuming, but the results are well worth it, as the statistics well prove.

Photo Credit: joybenetton Flickr via Compfight cc

HR: Itâ€™s Time to â€œLevel Upâ€ with Gamification

May 19, 2016/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

Gamification â€“ using game-play elements in a nongame activity â€“ is trending across a range of industries. For a while, HR professionals were excited about its potential to improve employee engagement and training, but adoption rates have been slow. Isnâ€™t it time for HR to â€œlevel upâ€ with gamification?

Consider this.

In January 2016, U.S. employment engagement rates remained sluggish at 32.5 percent, and 67.5 percent of employees were not engaged or were actively disengaged from their work. And the numbers on engagement have largely remained the same since 2012. Gamification might just hold the key to improving corporate culture, commitment, and drive.Â

Use Gamification to Change Information Acquisition

Educators are using gamification to make learning fun, and marketers use gamification to encourage prospective customers to interact with a brand. Small and large companies are using it to increase workplace efficiency, offer training, solve problems, and retain top talent.

Gamification works because it changes the way people look at information.

At a very basic level, you can think about â€œLeapfrog,â€ the childrenâ€™s learning game. Sitting at a table working through equations isnâ€™t always fun or motivating, but trying to get your favorite character from one stage to another is exciting to kids. If a child has to do a little math along the way, so be it. The same principles apply to adult consumers and employees. Gamification changes the framework so that individuals engage with a problem, data set, or situationâ€”in a different and often entertaining way.

Connect Gamification and HR

In HR, gamification has implications for recruitment, benefits administration, health and wellness initiatives, and employee engagement. While the applications feel deceptively simple and fun, the organization benefits from tangible return on engagement. Gamification occurs most often at the digital level. Every interaction creates data sets for adoption and performance that employers can use to modify the environment or better support employees.

Itâ€™s a win-win situation.

Large companies such as Accenture, Deloitte, GE, Ford, Google, and Microsoft are using gamification principles to change the way they work. I believe adoption rates will start to increase as companies demonstrate real employee engagement levels that directly correspond to gamification principles. Still not convinced? Here are a few of the ways major companies have successfully integrated gamification into HR functions:

Google Code Jam â€“ This competition, focused on software writing, helps the company recognize new recruits. With prizes up to $50,000, the approach attracts talented engineers and developers who are interested in testing their skills within a crowd.

co.uk â€“ The British equivalent of the National Security Agency uses this website to attract qualified candidates. Individuals applying for certain positions must crack the code to move through the recruiting process.

Badgeville â€“ Deloitteâ€™s executive training program uses gamification to improve learning pathways, real-world simulations, and offer feedback. The program has resulted in a 50 percent increase in course completion and 36 percent higher weekly retention rates.

REVEAL â€“ Lâ€™Oreal uses a gaming platform, complete with avatars and rewards, to test candidate knowledge and skill sets. The game offers much more than a vetting system, however. It also teaches individuals about the business, the organizational structure, and team members who work on new products.

Avoid Barriers to Gamification Adoption

Somehow, despite promising success stories, many companies have not embraced gamification as a meaningful solution to industry challenges. Some of the most common barriers to adoption include:

A belief that gamification is too expensive. However, companies do not necessarily need to develop a full-fledged game or gaming software to take advantage of gamification. Leadership can apply the basic principles to existing processes to improve engagement rates.

Older executives do not buy into the strategy. Whether your company operates under board management or a chief executive officer, some old-school managers may not understand or approve of gamification in the workplace. Check with the Millennials in the company and get their help in making the case for gamification to the older folks.

Lack of understanding about gamification. What is gamification and why is it a good idea? Many businesses today still donâ€™t understand how it works or the range of benefits that accrue to incorporating game-like incentives into workplace activities. However more and more companies are using it and talking about the benefitsâ€”so it is becoming easier to explain gamification and to demonstrate its value to those who still donâ€™t get it.

Gamification is not one-size-fits-all. Every company must design a strategy that addresses individual business challenges. The technical programming and game concepts must align with company goals. An organization needs to understand rules of the game, and tie those to the goals, player motivators and fit, to achieve real-world results.

Itâ€™s Time to â€œLevel Upâ€ With Gamification and the Future of HR

Gamers like to talk about leveling up, meaning moving up to the next level. HR? Are you listening? Gamification is more than a passing trend, and it has the potential to revolutionize the way human resources professionals conduct business on a daily basis.

The benefits of incorporating gamification into HR activities are becoming increasingly clear. And, as more companies gain an understanding of its uses and benefits and see examples showcasing ROI, adoption rates will start to rise. It’s time to see where you can apply gamification to make valuable changes for your company.

This post was first published on Converge.xyz on 4/20/2016.

Photo Credit: lizsmith_info via Compfight cc

HR: It’s Time to “Level Up” with Gamification

May 19, 2016/1 Comment/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

Gamification – using game-play elements in a nongame activity – is trending across a range of industries. For a while, HR professionals were excited about its potential to improve employee engagement and training, but adoption rates have been slow. Isn’t it time for HR to “level up” with gamification?

Consider this.

Use Gamification to Change Information Acquisition

Gamification works because it changes the way people look at information.

At a very basic level, you can think about “Leapfrog,” the children’s learning game. Sitting at a table working through equations isn’t always fun or motivating, but trying to get your favorite character from one stage to another is exciting to kids. If a child has to do a little math along the way, so be it. The same principles apply to adult consumers and employees. Gamification changes the framework so that individuals engage with a problem, data set, or situation—in a different and often entertaining way.

Connect Gamification and HR

It’s a win-win situation.

Google Code Jam – This competition, focused on software writing, helps the company recognize new recruits. With prizes up to $50,000, the approach attracts talented engineers and developers who are interested in testing their skills within a crowd.

co.uk – The British equivalent of the National Security Agency uses this website to attract qualified candidates. Individuals applying for certain positions must crack the code to move through the recruiting process.

Badgeville – Deloitte’s executive training program uses gamification to improve learning pathways, real-world simulations, and offer feedback. The program has resulted in a 50 percent increase in course completion and 36 percent higher weekly retention rates.

REVEAL – L’Oreal uses a gaming platform, complete with avatars and rewards, to test candidate knowledge and skill sets. The game offers much more than a vetting system, however. It also teaches individuals about the business, the organizational structure, and team members who work on new products.

Avoid Barriers to Gamification Adoption

Somehow, despite promising success stories, many companies have not embraced gamification as a meaningful solution to industry challenges. Some of the most common barriers to adoption include:

A belief that gamification is too expensive. However, companies do not necessarily need to develop a full-fledged game or gaming software to take advantage of gamification. Leadership can apply the basic principles to existing processes to improve engagement rates.

Older executives do not buy into the strategy. Whether your company operates under board management or a chief executive officer, some old-school managers may not understand or approve of gamification in the workplace. Check with the Millennials in the company and get their help in making the case for gamification to the older folks.

Lack of understanding about gamification. What is gamification and why is it a good idea? Many businesses today still don’t understand how it works or the range of benefits that accrue to incorporating game-like incentives into workplace activities. However more and more companies are using it and talking about the benefits—so it is becoming easier to explain gamification and to demonstrate its value to those who still don’t get it.

It’s Time to “Level Up” With Gamification and the Future of HR

This post was first published on Converge.xyz on 4/20/2016.

Photo Credit: lizsmith_info via Compfight cc

Let’s Redefine Employee Engagement in 2016

April 29, 2016/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

Disclosure: This post contains a quote and link to one of my clients, TinyPulse.

If you feel like you’re in a rut at work, you aren’t alone. A recent Gallup poll found that 67 percent of workers aren’t engaged—or worse, they’re actively disengaged—a number that’s been pretty stagnant for the past 16 years.

Somehow, despite the best of intentions, corporate culture has taken a misstep. That’s why it’s time to ditch those well-used annual engagement surveys and redefine how you view and measure employee engagement.

Where The Traditional Approach to Employee Engagement Goes Wrong

When a company gets employee engagement right, you see improvements in productivity, satisfaction, and commitment. When it misses the mark, the energy in the room isn’t the only thing that might trend downward.

Employee engagement efforts typically follow a cycle: The annual survey goes out, people (hopefully) complete it, results are compiled, a report comes out, and new initiatives are tested until the next survey rolls around. This rarely produces long-term results—and here’s why.

Companies focus too much on feelings. Of course employee attitudes have a significant impact in the workplace, but they’re shaped by a mix of personal and professional factors—and measuring them is highly subjective. Companies need to look at the link between attitude and behavior, but also need to bear in mind that the two aren’t always related.

Executives often want to be the problem solvers. But, they need to learn to share the love. Having a handful of engagement “champions” on your leadership team may seem to make sense, but you risk overwhelming them and making them lynchpins in your program. Instead, get employees involved; they need to have a stake in any changes if you’re going to create a meaningful and lasting shift.

Data isn’t timely. By the time the results of an annual survey come out, the information can be months old—and it can take many more months to update your engagement strategy and move forward with it. Management may make a strong effort to change company culture, but using dated information—with no immediate feedback—often yields very little in the way of change.

Attitudes, internal champions, and data are critical factors for engagement—but they can also be distracting if they aren’t used appropriately. You need to foster a continuous feedback loop, one that measures meaningful results and provides information that can be acted on immediately.

A Modern Approach to Measuring Employee Engagement

To change the levels of engagement at your company, start by redefining what you want to measure, then use frequent surveys as progress reports to help get an understanding of employees’ immediate needs.

Simple acts that make people feel valued and respected can go a long way toward helping people feel engaged. As TinyPulse, a company that offers real-time engagement reports, aptly describes: “Listening to your employees is a great way to build trust.”

Engagement Should Be Driven by Values

For a modern employee engagement initiative to succeed, companies need to change how they encourage it. Trying to force happiness or job satisfactionin the workplace can backfire, as TinyPulse disclosed in a study published in 2015.

So mix it up a bit.

IBM is one corporate giant who has led the way with triple-benefit programs for some time now. Their Corporate Service Corps, for example, sends groups of employees to an emerging market for a period of time. While there, they develop and use leadership and problem-solving skills to create real-world solutions for local communities. They come back to their day jobs with stronger individual skills, closer ties to colleagues and the company, and an unforgettable experience.

Another IBM program, the Smarter Cities Challenge, challenges staffers to solve meaningful urban issues, like health, sanitation, and transportation.

These programs give employees a new way to see the brand they represent; they’ve significantly improved employee participation, satisfaction, and retention rates.

But employee engagement isn’t about grand gestures; it’s about the underlying values. These can include:

Empowering individuals. Employers who get staff involved in the engagement process empower their employees to have frank conversations with managers, which lets leaders act and enact change more effectively.

Increasing transparency. When people don’t have the information or the community they need to get things done, they tend to leave. Help your teams collaborate by adding technology to bridge gaps—but don’t introduce new tools as solutions on their own, use them as part of a multifaceted strategy.

Prioritizing wellness. Individual health, financial security, and mental well-being are among the personal factors that can affect professional engagement. Focus on initiatives that help people fulfill individual as well as business

Use 2016 as a time to review your regular engagement metrics, listen to employees, and see what a focus on engagement can do for you. After all, your human capital is one of your company’s most valuable assets.

Disclosure: TinyPulse.com is a client of TalentCulture but the views expressed in this post are my own. Click here for access to a free white paper, “The Secret Sauce of Employee Retention.”

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The Secret Formula for Exemplary Leadership

April 28, 2016/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

As the landscape of business continues to evolve, we not only see changes outside the organization, we see changes inside the organization as well. That means different communication styles, different individual work style preferences, different motivators and incentives, different corporate cultures—and as a result, leadership styles must also evolve. In today’s corporate world, leaders who take a more relational approach to management find success. Why? Because the traditional world of work that existed in the past—largely dictatorial and autocratic, is no longer an option if your goal is on not only creating a great corporate culture, but also inspiring optimal productivity from your workforce.

Today’s #WorkTrends guest, author and former New England Patriots linebacker, Dr. Jason Carthen, discussed exemplary leadership and its positive impact on the workplace. He explored the keys to this leadership style, or the “secret formula,” and why a relational leadership style is better than leadership styles of the past. Some of the keys Dr. Carthen mentioned include:

Leaders need to get their employees’ hearts involved if they want people completely invested
Intention is the difference – leaders need to be intentional in all they do

The #WorkTrends conversation that ensued and Dr. Carthen’s thoughts on the topic was informative—especially for senior leaders working to hire, motivate, inspire, and retain top talent. Carthen’s new book 52 Ways to Tackle Leadership for Your Success, is coming out soon and now available for preorder.

You can listen to the #WorkTrends podcast on our BlogTalk Radio channel here.

You’re always invited to check out the highlights of the conversation from our Storify here:

View the story “#WorkTrends Storify: The Keys to Exemplary Leadership” on Storify

Haven’t yet tuned into a #WorkTrends show? Well, it’s never too late. You can tune in and participate in the chat with us every Wednesday from 1-2pm ET (10-11am PT). Next Wednesday, May 4, we will be joined by Scott Levy, author of “Tweet Naked” to discuss how businesses or individuals can use social media to grow their business or brand.

The TalentCulture #WorkTrends conversation continues daily across social media. Stay up-to-date by following the #WorkTrends Twitter stream; make it a regular habit to pop into our LinkedIn group; or check out our Google+ community. Engage with us any time on our social networks, or stay current with trending World of Work topics on our website or through our weekly email newsletter.

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#WorkTrends Recap: Corporate Culture & Understanding Your Workplace Genome

April 21, 2016/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

Understanding your corporate culture is critical to the success of any organization. Culture is not one size fits all. It differs based on who the employees are, what they value, what inspires them, what motivates them, what it is about the company that attracted them, what makes them proud to be part of the team and, of course, why they stay. All of these pieces make up your workplace genome.

On today’s WorkTrends show, guest Charlie Judy explored what it means to honestly understand and embrace your workplace culture. He talked about why it’s important to stop trying to become the organization everyone else says you are or should be, and how to make the most of the organization you already are.

It was an invigorating discussion that you can listen to on our BlogTalk Radio channel, which you can find here.

You can also check out the highlights of the conversation here:

View the story “#WorkTrends Storify: Corporate Culture & Understanding Your Workplace Genome” on Storify

We have built an awesome #WorkTrends community and would love to have you join us. You can tune in and participate with us every Wednesday from 1-2pm ET (10-11am PT). Next Wednesday, April 27, we have an exciting show where we’ll explore the keys to exemplary leadership with guest Dr. Jason Carthen, author and former New England Patriots linebacker.

The TalentCulture #WorkTrends conversation continues daily across social media. Stay up to date by following the #WorkTrends Twitter stream, in our LinkedIn group and on our Google+ community. Engage with us any time on our social networks or stay current with trending World of Work topics on our website or through our weekly email newsletter.

photo credit: DNA via photopin (license)

#WorkTrends Preview: Corporate Culture and Understanding Your Workplace Genome

April 15, 2016/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

When undertaking any transformation within the workplace, leaders should focus on a deep understanding of the corporate culture. That means knowing who their employees are, what they value, what inspires them, what motivates them, what it is about the company that attracted them, what makes them proud to be part of your team and, of course, why they stay. These things? They are your “workplace genome.”

You’ll want to join us for the next #WorkTrends show as our guest Charlie Judy will help us explore that workplace genome. We will talk about why it’s important to stop trying to become the organization everyone else says you are or should be, and truly embracing the organization you already are. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it?

In this episode of the #WorkTrends show, Charlie will walk us through the basics of:

Understanding your corporate culture
Aligning culture with true success
How to OWN everything about what you are – the good, bad and the ugly
Discovering and understanding culture at an intimate and authentic level

This conversation will help businesses and their HR teams laser focus in on corporate culture, maximizing the true essence of your business, and attracting and retaining top talent in the process. This show is sure to be as interesting to employees as it is to HR pros and senior managers, as they will no doubt share insights on what matters to them from a corporate culture standpoint, what attracts them to an employer or a job, and what the key to retaining them is. It is sure to be a don’t miss episode and we’d love to have you there!

#WorkTrends Event: Corporate Culture and Understanding Your Workplace Genome

Tune in to our LIVE online podcast Wednesday, April 20 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #WorkTrends Host Meghan M. Biro joined by Charlie Judy as they discuss corporate culture and understanding your workplace genome.

#WorkTrends on Twitter — Wednesday, April 20 — 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 am PT

Immediately following the radio show, the team will move to the #WorkTrends Twitter stream to continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. We invite everyone with a Twitter account to participate as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What are different ways workplace culture manifests itself? #WorkTrends (Tweet the question)

Q2: How can an organization truly own its culture? #WorkTrends (Tweet the question)

Q3: How can an organization authentically improve its culture? #WorkTrends (Tweet the question)

Until then, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #WorkTrends Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and in our TalentCulture G+ community. Feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!

Subscribe to our podcast on BlogTalkRadio, Stitcher or iTunes:

Join Our Social Community & Stay Up-to-Date!

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#WorkTrends Recap: Simple Ways to Measure Employee Engagement

April 14, 2016/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

Employee engagement is something that HR pros and their colleagues in the C-suite are laser-focused on, and measuring engagement is often at the top of the list. Why the interest? When employees are engaged, they likely adopt the vision, values, and purpose of the organization where they work—and it shows. Engaged employees are passionate contributors, innovative problem solvers, and the very best colleagues. Equally as important, high-performing, engaged employees want to work in places that foster and cultivate engagement as an integral part of the corporate culture. Smart HR pros and senior leaders want to cultivate that kind of environment.

On today’s #WorkTrends show, our guest Leila Zayed from Best Companies Group addressed the importance of employee engagement and shared some practical ways to measure this valuable component of overall culture. As always, it was a discussion filled with information sure to be beneficial for everyone – from employees to HR pros to managers and the C-Suite.

Have you checked out a #WorkTrends show? You can listen at any time on our BlogTalk Radio channel, which you can find here or you can check out the highlights of the conversation as it played out on Storify:

View the story “#WorkTrends Storify: Simple Ways to Measure Employee Engagement” on Storify

We have built a vibrant community around the TalentCulture #WorkTrends show and would love to have you join us. You can find us every Wednesday from 1-2pm ET (10-11am PT). We have an exciting show planned on Wednesday, April 20, where we’ll explore understanding your workplace genome with our guest, Charlie Judy, founding partner of Work XO, a company dedicated to improving how we work.

Join our social communities and stay up-to-date! The TalentCulture conversation continues daily. See what’s happening right now on the #WorkTrends Twitter stream, in our LinkedIn group and on our Google+ community. Engage with us any time on our social networks or stay current with trending World of Work topics on our website or through our weekly email newsletter.

photo credit: Made to measure via photopin (license)

Company Culture : The Magic Ingredient You’ve Been Missing

January 20, 2016/Archives /by Samantha Stauf

Company culture. Dozens of business articles highlight the importance of culture, how to diagnose the current company culture, and how to guide culture. Business owners and managers are encouraged to choose characteristics that will lead to a profitable company and encourage all employees to arrive at work with those principles in mind (see Creating A Company Culture Where Ideas Are Encouraged).

I work at a start-up. The managers spent months ironing out the principles that the company would incorporate into our workflow which would become the culture. They even devised a fun poem to remind us how we should be developing a culture of learning and pride.

Months passed. That culture didn’t develop. Not a surprise. Workers can’t be ordered to take pride in their work. And the overwhelming collection of low performers weren’t being encouraged to improve. Worse, no one was really doing anything to counteract those issues.

Many companies that decide to develop a culture stumble into this very issue. They determine what culture they want, they unveil their vision, they develop half-hearted measures, and then months later they wonder “what happened?”

Dr. Mark Allen, an MBA professor with Pepperdine University, presented a webinar on culture driven companies that reveals that fatal flaw of many culture initiatives: the failure to determine “who is responsible for culture in your organization.”

At the start-up I work with, the answer would probably vary. Some would attribute responsibility to managers, others to marketing, and some to everyone within the organization. That ambiguity is a problem. If everyone thinks someone else is responsible, then no one will actively work on cultivating culture.

As you contemplate who should be responsible, you might also want to consider Dr. Allen’s second question: “who is accountable for culture?” Many organizations might be able to provide an answer to the question who is responsible, but very few will also be able to adequately supply an answer to the question who is accountable.

The question of accountability shatters any illusion that the company I work for is really trying to shape the culture. We might claim everyone is responsible, but no one is accountable. No one is asked in their bi-yearly reviews, how much they have done to shape the culture or why the attempts to wrangle the culture has failed. No one is reprimanded or held accountable for that failure.

And that lack of accountability is a problem. Allen reminds us that “it’s very hard to accomplish anything in business without accountability.” Without accountability, developing culture becomes a fun, annoying, or complicated side project. Side projects get pushed to (well) the side when everyone, HR, marketing, or managers are given more vital tasks that will affect their standing within the company.

Accountability ensures that everyone put in charge of the task will bring their “A” game. Due to the very real potential to be reprimanded in some way over failure to instill a good culture, employees who are responsible for culture are more motivated to:

Make thorough game plans.
Enthusiastically tackle the plans.
Periodically evaluate how the culture has been incorporated within the company.
Learn from those failures.
Switch tracts if the current game plans aren’t working.

Responsibility and accountability are vital to successfully guiding a company’s culture in the right direction. As business owners, managers, and employees contemplate how to best incorporate a culture, they should start the process off right be determining who among them will be responsible for the culture and how they will be held accountable for their ability to implement that culture.

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Want Great Corporate Culture: Focus on Nurturing Relationships

December 2, 2015/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

The holy grail of companies large and small is a great corporate culture. And what’s the secret sauce, the master ingredient when it comes to creating a great work culture? It’s all about the relationships your team creates with one another. As a manager, you can play a big role in fostering great corporate culture by nurturing and guiding your team when it comes to building those relationships. Let’s explore.

A Deloitte University Press study earlier this year cited employee engagement and work culture as the number one challenge facing organizations today. There are a number of reasons HR professionals are focused on work culture, not the least of which is the increasingly competitive job market that impacts recruiters’ ability to find and retain top talent. Add the fact that the more engaged and happier the workplace, the more productive and profitable it will be; it becomes increasingly clear why fostering relationships and focusing on good culture are key parts of the equation.

Why Workplace Relationships are Important

Research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that employed Americans aged 25–54 spend more time working than doing anything else—a statistic that shouldn’t’t surprise anyone familiar with the American work ethic. This underscores why workplace relationships are so important; if you spend the major part of your day—your life, even—with the same people, the connections you have with them play a big role in overall job satisfaction.

However, it is important to remember that these relationships won’t always just build themselves. Sometimes it takes an engaged manager, with goals of nurturing and teambuilding, to get the ball rolling. When people really understand each other, they have a much easier time working together smoothly. In addition, closer, more connected relationships lead to better teamwork, higher morale, and increased productivity.

How Employers Can Nurture Connected Work Relationships

So, we know that well-connected teams and strong relationships are important, but how can employers (and managers within organizations) foster opportunities for relationship building and nurture them along the way? Here are some ideas to get you started:

Get out of the office. Holding off-site teambuilding events may feel a bit cliché, but they happen all the time, especially with sales teams. Why? Because they work. Taking activities off site where people can relax and show more of their true selves accelerates feelings of connection. Whether you host monthly happy hours, dinners, or celebrations to recognize team achievements, simply stepping off campus can go a long way toward developing employee trust and team cohesion. Being together out of the office allows people to get to know each other as complete, well-rounded human beings.

Build trust between your company and employees. Your employees are a reflection of the work culture you create, and the perception of your brand is founded by the way you treat them. If the environment you build is approachable, recognizes achievements, and offers support, your employees will adopt those same attitudes and it will be reflected in the way they treat and engage with one another and external audiences, including customers and potential employees.

Use technology to help build work culture. Technology is readily available to help you recognize teamwork as well as individual performance, and encouraging your employees to be comfortable with and embrace technology is smart business. In an article for The Huffington Post, I covered various technologies that directly impact and encourage employee engagement. These include Jive, Slacker, and Yammer, for starters. Do not take for granted just how powerful technology can be in connecting and strengthening employee relationships.

Empower senior leaders and managers. When it comes to creating great work environments and good corporate culture, it takes a village. Make sure to empower your senior leaders and managers, teach them how to foster good relationships, and encourage them to nurture and guide their team members. This isn’t something that’s instinctive to everyone, so regular and ongoing training on this issue is a worthwhile investment.

Invite feedback and use it. An inclusive culture leads to employees feeling valued and appreciated. Ask for feedback about what will create and maintain a great corporate culture and build strong relationships among co-workers. It’s one thing to apply principles from a book, but employee feedback will be reflective of what may really work in your particular organization. Don’t stop with asking for their feedback; whenever possible, use it!

Be genuine and sincere. You can’t fake culture. If you’re going down this path, make sure your motives are pure and that you’re genuine and sincere with your team. People are incredibly savvy and if you talk the talk but don’t walk the walk, they’ll know it.

Recognize often. People at all levels love — and need — recognition for their efforts and successes. Make sure to create many opportunities for recognition and celebration—for small accomplishments along with the big ones. Your team will love you all the more for it.

Great corporate culture, connected employees, strong teams, happy work environments — all of these are part of what make a great organization. And whether your business is large or small, the formula for success remains the same. Be clear with employees about your overall goals related to culture and internal relationships, enlist their help, invite their ideas and implement them where possible, be sincere and transparent and endeavor to be a great communicator. Empower senior leaders and managers to nurture relationship-building within their own teams, and recognize their efforts when they do so. All these things will set you on the path to that holy grail: amazing culture, employees who support and inspire one another and, invariably, happier clients as a result.

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5 Essentials of Strategic Renewal

October 1, 2015/Archives /by Roy Osing

Every organizational strategy needs regular updating regardless of how successful you’ve been. It’s simply not good enough to develop your strategy and put it on the shelf, expecting that it will work indefinitely.

Always be looking for and recording the factors that have changed since you crafted the last version of your plan. The business environmental involves dynamics that are relentless and unpredictable and it’s better to be prepared for them by proactively renewing your strategy every year.

Here are 5 basics of the renewal process:

1. Revisit Your Strategy. If you don’t have a strategic game plan for your organization, create one. Ensure that your growth objective, target customer groups and competitive claim are all still valid given your current circumstances. Markets and competitors change rapidly and it is vital that what you claim to be your uniqueness is still relevant and true.

2. FOCUS. FOCUS. FOCUS.
Concentrate on as few objectives and action plans as you can. Avoid the pitfall of many organizations that think this is a brainstorming exercise where the more objectives you can define the better off you will be.

The reality is that if you have too many things to do, you won’t achieve any one of them particularly well.

Define the minimum number of objectives that will allow you to achieve 80% of your strategy. Apply your scarce resource only to the issues that will yield renewal success so figure out a handful of things to do and get on with it. Attack the critical few not the possible many.

3. Modify Your Business Processes.
Renewal requires that you analyze your business processes and modify them to be compatible with your revised direction.

Don’t assume your existing processes will work; they were created to execute your old plan not the renewed version.

And if you decide that cost reductions are required, do the process change FIRST; cutting costs without changing the WAY you do business could impair how you serve your customers.

4. CUT The CRAP.
Strategy is just as much about NOT doing things as it is about choosing a new direction. Once you have determined your renewal path, eliminate the projects and activities that are no longer a priority but simply drain the organization of time and energy.

Most organizations have difficulty doing this; they relentlessly hang on to the comfortable activities of the past and wonder why they can’t make headway on their new course.

The fact is, you don’t have the bandwidth to continue with the past and adopt a new set of priorities for the future. Assign a CUT the CRAP Champion for your team and charge them with the task of cleansing your internal environment of things that are not consistent with your renewal plan.

5. Plan On The Run.
Don’t get fooled into believing that your renewal strategy will go as planned. It won’t. There are always unforeseen events that happen and execution elements that fall short of expectations and you will have to make adjustments to your plan “on the run”.

Avoid sticking to your original course when the evidence proves its a lost cause. Develop a handful of key performance metrics and examine your progress at least monthly (in times of turbulent change, weekly monitoring may be in order).

Learn from your ongoing results and adjust your plan accordingly. The plan on the run formula: plan – execute – learn – adjust – execute – learn – adjust…

Build constant strategic renewal into your culture.

BE DIFFERENT than the herd.

Make the renewal competency your competitive advantage.

Tips For Increasing Productivity In The Workplace

July 27, 2015/Archives /by Ben Wilson

We’ve all been there. It’s Monday, your weekend was much too short, and you’re getting paid to just sit at a desk, doing little to no real work.

With the birth of the Next Great Distraction seeming to crop up on the Internet every other day, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to be the productive employee you and your boss expect you to be.

Being more productive at work is not only good for your career, it will make you feel accomplished and fulfilled on your commute home.

Use these 7 productivity tips when you’re feeling slow at work to make you happier, healthier, and, in the end, more successful.

1: Exercise

The two best ways to increase your energy are through physical exercise and the proper diet. Everyone knows this, but until you’ve ingrained healthy habits, it’s much easier to continue being a sedentary junk food eater – especially while at work. The most popular alternative to 8 hours of sitting is, of course, the standing desk.

The good news is you don’t have to break the bank or take up much space to implement this work-friendly tool thanks to such manufacturers as Techni Mobili. Even bike desks can come in small, inexpensive packages. By engaging with these simple technologies, you give yourself the gifts of increased mental and physical energy.

2: Healthy Snacking

To further boost your stamina, keep only brain-power foods on hand and snack on them throughout the day, thereby stabilizing your blood glucose levels. Walnuts have been shown to increase inferential reasoning, blueberries improve short term memory, and the turmeric in curry helps to create new brain cells.

In order to increase your productivity on the job, you can intentionally set yourself up for success by instituting limits on idleness and food and, of course, by rewarding yourself for making good choices.

3: Acknowledge Employees & Coworkers

There is a simple reason for taking time out of your day to acknowledge the good work of the people you work with: putting energy into being negative drains you and those around you; positive energy generates more positive energy.

By generating an optimism epidemic, you create happy, efficient employees who are motivated to create output that prolongs the reward loop. Be realistic with your expectations, communicate them to your workforce, and reap the benefits of a happy workplace.

4: Harness the Power of Collaborative Office Spaces

Whether in a traditional office or a coworking space, people who form into teams give themselves a boost by generating a larger opportunity set and accomplishing more as a group than anyone can individually.

Creating a collaborative environment through the use of open office space not only solidifies an employee’s sense of being an integral part of the team, but research has shown that a moderate level of ambient noise can keep you alert as well. Plus, chatter and information-sharing is necessary for the generation of innovative ideas that will keep your business at the forefront of your industry.

5: Organized Fun

Friendly competition can play a large role in collaboration and productivity. Here’s how: the release of endorphins is essential to stress relief; at its heart, play is a team-building activity; a stimulated mind is more creative and poised for improved memory.

What is most important is that a playful environment comes from the top-down; the best leaders recognize that they set the tone for the work environment and it just so happens that games provide relief from mundanity.

6. Form Good Work Habits

If you haven’t done so yet, Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit, is a great read for anyone who wants to understand how to make good habits last and bad habits die off.

It all begins with the neurologically-driven habit loop: a cue triggers a routine and, if the brain likes the ensuing reward, the same cue will trigger the same routine time and time again. If you want to become addicted to habit building, there’s an app based on Duhigg’s principles – and if you play with the app too much, you can always hire someone to slap you out of that routine.

7. Take a Nap

We have all experienced the post-lunch lull – when a full stomach brings on the burning desire to trade in your desk for a nice, warm bed. Whether your belly is satiated or you just didn’t get enough sleep last night, it’s time for a 30-minute nap. Sleeping for 10 to 30 minutes during the day is just enough time to enter the peacefulness of Stage 2 sleep without delving into grogginess-inducing Stage 3 REM sleep.

Stage 2 sleep is where memory consolidation happens so, when you wake up from your nap, you not only have increased productivity, creativity, and cognitive function, but improved memory, as well. One caveat, though: taking a nap too late in the day will throw off your circadian rhythm, so it’s best to snooze in the late morning or early afternoon.

Image: bigstock

Rewarding Diversity Instead Of Productivity

July 23, 2015/Archives /by Charlie Wilson

According to a study by Forbes, workplace diversity is a key driver of innovation and a critical component to success. But, what does diversity in the workplace mean? Employees can be diverse because of their race or gender, but they can also differ in what characteristics they bring to your team. Celebrate those differences and you’ll avoid groupthink catastrophes, and your workplace will thrive.

All businesses are made up of diverse personalities that constitute a larger, corporate identity. In order to create and maintain a healthy workplace atmosphere, employees should be recognized for their positive influence on your company’s culture. Yes, even the weird guy showing you pictures of his Persian cat is bringing something to the table.

Here are some team member archetypes who might be shaping your company’s culture:

Top Communicators

Find the people who are known for clarity, consistency, and thoroughness. Maybe they send the most in-depth and thoughtful responses to emails. Maybe they’re the people who are always called upon to be team spokesperson. Whatever the metric, let these employees know their value.

Top Listeners

Equally as important as communication, every company needs people who actively listen. These are the collaborators we rely on to show genuine interest in new ideas, to absorb workplace tension and to remember what was last said in a meeting.

Problem Solvers

No system is one-size-fits-all. People who drive the company forward are those who see an opportunity for improvement and run with it. Whether editing a co-worker’s report or overhauling information systems, these employees are up for the challenge.

Early Adopters

Early adopters champion progress and their enthusiasm makes others want to get in on the ground floor. Early adopters know the latest tool that can help your team succeed, or the next social network your company should be marketing on. They are essential to widespread forward momentum. Their passion for all that’s new quickly snowballs throughout your organization so that everyone wants to be on board.

Mentors

These employees are the patron saints of workplace wisdom. Not only do they have explanatory superpowers, they are your most patient and knowledgeable assets. They are sought out by employees on their first day of the job, those on their thousandth day, and those who just need a moment’s guidance.

Creative Thinkers

If you want to drive innovation, inspiration, and entertainment, these are the people to seek out. Your creative thinkers, more than anyone, need affirmation from superiors to let them know that their awesome ideas aren’t just awesome in their own heads. Keep in mind that, aside from recognition, these people require a certain level of freedom to do what they do best. You made the box, now let them think outside of it.

Every employee wants affirmation. Hot dog vendors, janitors, python programmers, content strategists — all want to be heard, understood, and reassured of their actions while at work. In business, we tend to recognize employees and co-workers for what they do, but the best companies recognize employees for who they are. Managers who are savvy make it personal with a handwritten note. Hell, even give the creepy cat guy a custom paperweight etched with your favorite thing about him. (Hint…. it’s not his cat.)

Set time aside every week to acknowledge your key players. A workplace is like an ecosystem in that each employee contributes differently to the office — recognizing their diverse personalities will help reinforce a positive balance and facilitate employee happiness.

Image: bigstock

The Evidence Of The Whole Makes The Employer Brand

July 20, 2015/Archives /by Kevin W. Grossman

“You can twist perceptions
Reality won’t budge
You can raise objections
I will be the judge
And the jury…”

—Neil Peart (Rush, “Show Don’t Tell”)

He held his right hand out toward prosecutor, defense attorney and the defendant first.

“They are evidence.”

Then he put his hand on his chest.

“I represent the law.”

And then he held his hand out toward the jury box where 18 prospective jurors sat.

“And you ultimately will be the verdict.”

The judge articulated the jury selection process clearly and methodically. For me, it was the first time I had gone through one where I actually had to report to the courtroom and witness the jury questioning, waiting in the wings in case my name was called to the jury box.

In the end I was released, the jury selected before the court assistant called my name. As jurors were dismissed and new jurors called up for questioning, the judge emphasized over and over again how the jury must only evaluate the evidence presented and decide on a verdict in accordance with the law. Period. Everything else including beliefs, biases and backgrounds needed to be left at the door if at all possible.

Easier said than done of course, but this is how the U.S. criminal justice system works and it moved me to hear how objectively passionate the judge felt about the jury process and the trial itself. He also had a sense of humor about the selection process.

“I understand you good people sitting out there are really pulling for thirteen of these eighteen up here to get selected for this trial so you can be released. That’s very supportive of you. Thank you for your service.”

It struck me that this is how we deal with the world of work and our brands, but in a much more skewed way. We being leadership – the law as judge and jury – and we want business decisions made via a very filtered data set, one that includes our personal beliefs, biases and backgrounds but not the entire workforce’s, not the whole workforce.

And we keep holding court through those filters, especially when we’re an established company trying desperately, or not so, to rethink culture and rebrand the business. In doing so, are we bleeding out the good folk that work and make cultures that rock?

It’s tough to resolve the brand debt, those rehashed value propositions that haven’t meant much to the greater workforce since the company was an entrepreneurial gleam in the founder’s eye. We aren’t willing or unaware how to look at more data than how others perceive the business and the brand. All too often within our workplace we’re making important people decisions based on assumptions of the leaders, instead of the employees, which includes:

What we think the culture is
What was valuable to us at a previous age or stage in our careers
What matters to us in a workplace

This according to TalentCulture #TChat Show guest Susan LaMotte, SPHR, founder of exaqueo, a workforce consultancy. Susan emphasizes how important it is not to assume, and not just because of the colloquial reason and of what it makes us all when we do ass-u-me.

We should gather new data regularly from our employees through surveys, interviews, focus groups and ethnographic studies and not base business brand and culture decisions based on data from years ago or what we think it should be. Not only that we should let someone else gather the data, an objective third party if possible, so we can set our beliefs, biases and backgrounds aside while gleaning the whole of everyone else.

Because whether our business was a terrible place to work for or not, how do we tell the story now? How do we get rid of our brand debt and tell the realistic story now? Because you can bet the majority of your employees and candidates are already telling it, good or bad, and the Talent Board Candidate Experience Awards data verifies this.

A recent PeopleFluent Millennial Survey shows revealed that over one-third of the respondents value culture as the biggest factor when recommending their place of work to a friend. And over 40 percent value culture as the most important factor when choosing a job.

Asking our current employees about what our company does and doesn’t do well as an employer helps us to tell that realistic story now, and HR can and should drive this initiative. Then we can build a real employer brand foundation to better extend that brand in the market.

The jury has spoken and the verdict is in. It’s the evidence of the whole that makes the employer brand.

#TChat Preview: How To Build And Market Your Employer Brand

July 10, 2015/Archives /by TalentCulture Team + Guests

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, July 15, 2015, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT).

Last week we talked about how to create a culture that rocks, and this week we’re going to talk about how to build and market your employer brand.

No matter how you slice it, it’s really a lesson on research and positioning and how you end up marketing your company as the place to work.

However, you can’t be everything to everyone and too many companies are trying to be just that. No matter how “great” you think your company is, the “greatness” message won’t weed out the people who aren’t a great fit for your company.

So first you should ask your current employees about what your company does well as an employer, and all of the things that it doesn’t do well. Then build a real employer brand foundation so you can better extend that brand in the market.

Sneak Peek:

#TChat Events: How To Build And Market Your Employer Brand

#TChat Radio — Wed, July 15 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #TChat Show co-founders and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as they talk about how to build and market your employer brand with this week’s guest: Susan LaMotte, SPHR, founder of exaqueo, a workforce consultancy.

Tune in LIVE online Wednesday, July 15th

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, July 15 — 1:30 pm ET /10:30 am PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin, and Jim will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What common misconceptions do companies have about an employer brand? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: What steps can be taken to build and market an employer brand? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How can organizations easily maintain their employer brand? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Until then, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and in our TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!!

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Image Credit: Big Stock Images

#TChat Preview: How To Create A Culture That Rocks

July 3, 2015/Archives /by Kevin W. Grossman

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, July 8th, 2015, at 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT).

Last week, live from #SHRM15, we discussed the brilliant HR profession of today and tomorrow. This week we’re going to talk about how to create a company culture that rocks.

Because for those company cultures about to rock, we’ll not only salute you, we’ll work for you and evangelize for you. Of course that’s a reference to a classic rock song, but it’s a mantra that continues to ring true when it comes to workplace culture today.

Great “bands” and brands focus on culture first and foremost so it will drive engagement, business outcomes and ultimately success.

As our guest this week puts it — company culture is only as strong or weak as the employees that collectively make up the heart and soul of the organization.

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guests and the TalentCulture Community.

Thank you to all our TalentCulture sponsors and partners: Dice, Jibe, TalentWise, Hootsuite, IBM, RecruitiFi, CareerBuilder, PeopleFluent, and HRmarketer Insight. Plus, we’re big CandE supporters!

Sneak Peek:

#TChat Events: How To Create A Culture That Rocks

#TChat Radio — Wed, July 8 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #TChat Show co-founders and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we talk about the art of candidate engagement with this week’s guest: Jim Knight, a leading training and development expert who worked with Hard Rock International for 20 years where he led the renowned School Of Hard Rocks.

Tune in LIVE online Wednesday, July 8th

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, July 8 — 1:30 pm ET /10:30 am PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin, and Jim will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What does a rocking culture look like? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: What steps can organizations take to build a rocking culture? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How do organizations sustain rocking cultures? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Subscribe to our podcast on BlogTalkRadio, Stitcher or iTunes:

Join Our Social Community & Stay Up-to-Date!

The TalentCulture conversation continues daily on Twitter, in our LinkedIn group, and on our Google+ community. Engage with us anytime on our social networks or stay current with trending World of Work topics through our weekly email newsletter. Signing up is just a click away!

Image Credit: Big Stock Images

Posts

What Do Watches Teach Us About Great Leadership?

Look Inside

A Fine Watch at Work

Making Everything Run Like Clockwork

Effective Leadership Endures

What Are Core Competencies and Why Should We Care?

Linking Organizational Competencies With HR

4 Ways Organizational Competencies Elevate HR Results

1. Recruitment and Talent Attraction

2. Employee Learning

3. Performance Management

4. Performance Support and Coaching

Final Notes on Core Competencies and HR

3 Key Profiles Behind Employee Satisfaction

Employee Satisfaction Types Up Close

1. “Enthusiastic” Segment

2. “Self-Reliant” Segment

3. “At Risk” Segment

3 Steps to Strengthen Employee Satisfaction

1. Encourage people to invest in their own development

2. Take time to craft a personalized development plan

3. Find ways to push autonomous workers to new heights

A Final Note

Why Smart Leaders Value Culture

Culture Change: A Case In Point

How Does Agile Leadership Help?

How Agile Leadership Affects Workplace Culture

1. Situational Awareness and Balance

2. Long-Term Visionary Orientation

3. People-Centered Leadership

4. Ability to Navigate a VUCA World

5. Concern for Psychological Safety

Modeling and Shaping Culture

Meet Our Guest: Todd Mitchem

Work, Women, and Power

Executive Presence is a Skill

Women Can Lead With Their Strengths

How Men Can Help

Listening to Employees

Balancing Employee Needs With Business Needs

Looking to the Future

Corporate Altruism: Demanded by the Market

Changing Expectations of Leaders

Contagious Altruism: Foster Trust and Purpose

Defining How the Business Has a Greater Purpose

Empowering Team Members

Creating Choice in What and How Employees Contribute

Create a Superordinate Group Identity – A Sub-Culture

Leaders’ Moods Matter

Living at the Top of the Mood Elevator

Real-Word Examples: How Organizations Use the Mood Elevator to Shape Culture

Aim for Curiosity, Not Judgment

What Does Employee Engagement Mean & Why Does It Matter?

Corporate Culture Determines Engagement Levels

How to Emulate the Recruitment Process of The World’s Best Companies

Ad design and copy

Interviewing

Being the Best at Recruiting

Top Communicators

Top Listeners

Problem Solvers

Early Adopters

Mentors

Creative Thinkers

Sneak Peek:

#TChat Events: How To Build And Market Your Employer Brand

Sneak Peek:

#TChat Events: How To Create A Culture That Rocks

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