CareerCurve™

In my last post, I suggested taking a step back and evaluating your employees’ duties before you worry about showing them they are valued to keep them engaged and motivated.  Many of my posts allude to a mentality that goes back to the basics, or simplifies what you are trying to accomplish.  I kept thinking about a post written by fellow blogger Cathy Miller who has an entire blog designed around the idea of keeping things simple.  In particular, my mind goes back to this segment of Cathy’s post and how you can implement this internally to make better communication with your workforce a business goal:

Orchestrating Communication

Developing a business communication strategy lays the groundwork for evaluation.

If you did not have one for this year, create a strategy for next year.

Here is a 10-step outline for creating your communication strategy.

1. Create your vision statement - where do you want to end up with your business?
2. Identify your customer – who will be the target for your communication?
3. Define your objectives – do you want to create leads? educate? announce a new product or service?
4. Establish your budget – this step is one many small businesses skip – it is essential for the next step.
5. Select your communication vehicles - what combination is the most effective for objectives and budget? e.g., social media, white papers, case studies, industry articles
6. Assign roles and responsibilities – who does the writing? who manages the process?
7. Develop your message strategy – what problem are you trying to solve for customers? how are you different? what is your call to action?
8. Develop a timeline – what is the frequency for communication? any new product/service rollout?
9. Establish benchmarks – what are the specific measurements for success? e.g., Leads, visibility/awareness of your business, sales, customer satisfaction
10. Create a contingency process - what happens if a communication strategy is not working? How do you troubleshoot?

Imagine you are using these steps to enhance communication with your workforce, your internal customers.    If you take these concepts and alter the ultimate goal slightly, this strategy could have a big impact on your role and organization.

This is the percentage of top performers who plan to leave their company in the next year, according to research.  60%!!!   Out of one million employees, 600,000 of them will quit.  And these are your high performers. 

How many of these employees will be yours?  It’s been hard to avoid the fact that rumor has it people are done with “I’m just happy to have a job” and are currently laying the groundwork to move on.  But hearing about it and seeing the numbers are two different things. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey reported in October that the number of employees voluntarily quitting their jobs has surpassed involuntary terminations through layoffs and discharges.  According to the research, this shift occurred in August.  Okay, we’ve been hearing that too, but let’s take a look at these numbers.  In August 2010, 1.998 million people quit their jobs, while 1.830 million employees were terminated or discharged.

Couple these numbers with the fact that disengagement is higher than it usually is during economic times like these and making engagement and retention important business initiatives for the new year better be at the top of your agenda.

I’ve posted about most of these individually, but here is a short list summarizing some of the important ones:

Don’t just throw money at it.  When ranking motivators, high performers DO NOT list salary first.  It’s not even in the top 3.

Listen.  If you let them, your best employees will tell you what they want.  And you might be surprised to find it won’t cost you much.

Define and implement career development programs.  High performers want to know that they can advance and grow and what specifically they need to do to accomplish that growth.

Re-evaluate your management.  Employees quit managers more often than they quit companies.

Organize business objectives and bonus potential frequently.  This forces communication between management and employees and communication drives engagement.

Be as transparent as possible.  Or at least appear to be.  Perception trumps reality when it comes to your employees.

I’ve posted previously about the culture of an organization and the various roles it plays in retention, trust, engagement level, and overall productivity of the company.  I’ve also said that culture is to an organization what character is to an individual.  But did you ever think about the connection between an ethical culture and effective compliance programs?

A strong ethical culture exists when doing the right thing takes precedence over getting the job done.  In short, HOW things are done matters most.  The Ethics Resource Council has published many fascinating studies on numerous topics related to ethics but one I found particularly interesting discusses the effectiveness of workplace compliance programs depending on the ethical culture.  This study also discusses the most important factor in establishing a strong ethical culture.

Compliance programs are meant to both reduce misconduct and increase reporting of misconduct.  If you have a strong ethical culture your employees feel less pressure to commit misconduct. Because they don’t feel pressured they are also far less likely to observe misconduct by others.  In strong cultures employees are much more likely to report misconduct and the retaliation rate drops considerably.  This means your compliance program is far more likely to be effective.   To me it seems as though a strong ethical culture is key to uniting the organization toward a common goal where those that want to break the rules are not welcome and should be reported.

So what is the most important component in creating a strong ethical culture in your organization?  The behavior and perceived behavior of top management and executives. 

Keep in mind that most of this is based on perception.  When considering ethics, perception is reality.  It doesn’t matter nearly as much WHAT is happening.  It’s all about what the employees THINK is happening.  The actions and perceived ethics of top management drive the culture and the culture has the largest impact on the critical components of compliance issues. 

To  implement effective compliance programs building and maintaining a strong ethical culture needs to be a business goal.   This has an impact on the risks and costs of misconduct (legal action, turnover, retaliation), as well as company reputation and employer brand.  Creating this culture has to start at the top and can be accomplished by transparency, communication, building trust, and walking the talk.

This is one situation where a top down business model is still the most effective.

Do you have effective compliance issues?  Do you have a strong ethical culture in your organization?

I recently had a conversation with someone who had completed a survey about benefits for his company. The employee’s mindset surprised me and got me wondering what led to this attitude and what a company needs to do to avoid it.

The attitude was that the survey was simply pacification – a way to make him feel as if his opinion matters, even though it doesn’t. He thinks HR is going to do whatever they want but they don’t want to come out and admit that. The survey provides justification for whatever decision they make because they can now say “Well, we asked everyone.”

This has got to be the polar opposite of what HR wanted to accomplish. Why would an employee feel this way and what can be done to change this attitude?

In some cases, it is a personal characteristic of the employee to be skeptical that their opinion will change anything. But there are things that can be done to discourage skepticism and prove the employee wrong. In many cases, this attitude is developed by mistakes the company made along the way.

Here are some things to keep in mind when surveying your employees.

Consider what matters to your employees, not only what matters to you.

Don’t send out a survey about diversity if you are hearing rumblings that your employees are having issues with teamwork. This will help the employees assume that you really don’t care about the same things they do. Or that you’re not listening.

Define the objectives prior to creating and dispersing the survey.

If you don’t know what kind of issue you hope to get feedback on, you can’t relay the changes you hope to make from the results.

Communicate clearly what you hope to accomplish.

Think in terms of it being impossible to over communicate. There must be a purpose (assuming it is NOT true that you are simply trying to pacify your employees), so share it. In a detailed, precise way.

Make sure the questions you ask match the overall goal.

If you relay the goal of the survey and then ask questions that are irrelevant, you breed skepticism.

Narrow the topic.

Make sure that your goals are clearly defined but not too broad. The point is to implement change and you can’t change everything at once. If the survey covers too many areas, your employees will quickly realize that change cannot happen in all of them. He/she may then assume that change will happen in none of those areas.

Remember different things matter to different employees.

This also supports narrowing the topic. If you make only one change as a result of a broad survey, those that didn’t care about that topic will become disengaged. They will not feel their opinions matter.

Make sure the survey makes sense.

The subject should reflect corporate goals and values and again, this should be communicated.

Share the results.

Let your employees know that their opinion mattered, and how each responded as compared to the whole. Then you can share the changes you are working on based on the majority opinion. A survey whose results are only known to the higher ups will make your employees think that nothing is being done with it, there is an agenda they are unaware of and the survey didn’t support it, or their opinions really are irrelevant.

Follow up and DO something.

If you don’t do a thing with the results, your employees won’t bother completing the next one and will assume surveys are pointless because nothing ever happens anyway.

Surveys can be great engagement tools if properly managed from start to finish. They should be used to create meaningful change with a positive impact. If they are not, they can actually hurt your organization and lower your employee engagement, and ultimately, productivity.

Your employees are struggling to have faith in anything anymore. Most people are experiencing a loss of trust with government, the banking system, the housing market, big business – I could go on and on.

As an organization, what can you do to restore trust and faith? Trust is the guiding force behind motivation, engagement, retention and ultimately, productivity. Trust is earned through communication.

Communicate effectively and earn trust. Earn trust and in return you will get motivated (or even inspired) employees. Motivated employees are engaged and stick around. The result for your company? Productivity.

Thinking about it in this format (an outline, of course – you know how I love outlines) means you need to master step one. If you focus on effective communication, everything else follows.

So, how do you achieve effective communication?

Transparency.

But how can a company be transparent. Well it can’t be.   But the culture can. And as I’ve said before, character is to an individual what culture is to an organization.

How do you create a transparent culture?

1. Be honest.
   You don’t have to tell everybody everything but what you do tell should be the truth.
2. Be forthcoming.
   Share as much information, unprompted, as possible. Your employees will feel like they are part of something bigger and not only will this encourage trust but they will feel valued. For most, this is one of the top three things employees want from their company.
3. Don’t pretend to know what you don’t.
   Admitting your own limitations gives you credibility. People more easily trust those that don’t act as if they know everything. A little humility goes along way.
4. Define corporate values.
   Figure out what the corporate values are and share them with the employees. Making these values a priority helps get everyone on the same page. At the very least, make them understood. Gray area creates trust issues.
5. Follow through.
   If you don’t know something, get the answer. Or at least get the employee in touch with a person or resource who can get the answer.
6. Be consistent.
   Regarding corporate values, once they are defined, demonstrate them every day. Values should not be a list that are a lofty goal, they should be action that is visible in the way you work at all times.
7. Have opinions.
   Don’t be afraid to take a stand. Your opinions should align with the corporate values and you should be definitive in stating them. Stand firm.
8. Be open to other opinions.
   Here is another area where a little humility goes a long way. Be firm in your opinions but, be open-minded to changing them if a persuasive and logical reason is presented. Taking a definitive stand on something just because it’s always been that way stifles innovation and reduces the amount of trust your employees have in their superiors.
9. Be responsive and genuine.
   If you haven’t reached a solution, seek them out and tell them that. If you have, let them know as soon as possible what the results are. Don’t make them come back to you.

Transparency is an essential part of communication and effective communication will create an aligned,  happy and productive workforce.

If you can look at your smartest employees and see that they are not performing as expected, it is time to ask some questions – of yourself and your organization.

Most smart employees who don’t perform do so because they don’t want to.  So why don’t they want to and what can you do about it?

Does your organization value their employees’ suggestions? 

Are new ideas or processes encouraged, supported and ultimately executed?  Is the company culture inspiring?  For smart employees this is very important.  If they don’t feel they work in an environment that genuinely values their input or if they don’t have the ability to demonstrate what they can bring to the table, why bother going above and beyond?  Maybe it’s time reassess the corporate values and reward employees accordingly.

Do your employees have good managers? 

I posted recently about how people quit managers, not companies.  Do the managers share the vision and values of the organization or are they worried about their own agenda (such as a fear of being overshadowed by their team?)  Do the managers take accountability for the performance of their teams?  Are the managers full of negative feedback, provide lower than expected performance reviews, and exclude their teams in decisions or processes?  All of these will play a role in how a smart employee performs.  Maybe it’s time to take a close look at your management team.

Do you count on the smart ones too much? 

Sometimes it is difficult to get away from but when you have a lot of faith in one employee, don’t you tend to go to them for everything?  How does this affect their ability to perform?  When does he/she just have too much work to do?  A huge workload can be very de-motivating if it becomes too difficult to manage.  Combine that with little feedback and no stated upward mobility path and you’ve got a deadly combination.  Be aware that there is a line between feeling valued and feeling taken advantage of.

Are they really underperforming? 

According to who?  Could it be that your expectations were too high because you recognize how smart they are and you subconsciously expect bigger things from them?  If so, you can focus on inspiring them and they will surpass even your expectations.

As always, the best thing to do is communicate.  Think these things through and before deciding you know what the problem is, make a point to sit down and ask.  It could be that none of the above is true and the employee is going through a rough time personally.  Maybe you can offer solutions that will help, like temporarily letting he/she work from home.  Investing time into the thought process and creating time to talk one on one will go a long way toward a better performance.  Maybe you can’t offer the solution, but exhibiting a concern toward trying can often be just as good.

The challenges facing HR executives today are huge.  You must be able to engage your employees, increase morale, gain trust in an untrustworthy economy, retain your top talent, optimize your workforce, and attract new talent in what is fast becoming a competitive job market.  And there’s more.

Another skill a successful manager requires is a way to create a sense of excitement with the employees so that deadlines are met and the team you are managing works together to accomplish the overall goals.  So how do you make them excited?

Going back to my mantra – COMMUNICATE!  If everyone is brought into the overall game plan of an organization you can then create excitement.  If you can lay out the long term goals of the company as a whole and generate excitement for the road the organization is on, you will see an increase in the excitement level of your employees.  This will help achieve all of the requirements I list in the first paragraph with an added bonus.  People who are excited are impatient.  Excitement creates a sense of urgency. 

Think about any situation where you really understand what you are trying to accomplish.  Let’s say you want to go on vacation.  When do you want to do that?  NOW!  As you backtrack through the process of what needs to take place to make that happen, how are you feeling?  Anxious to get started!  Well, I need the money so what am I going to do to get it?  Maybe I’ll clean out my house and have a garage sale, maybe I’ll sell a bunch of stuff on craigslist, maybe I’ll take side jobs, maybe I’ll redo my budget and cut some expenses so I can stash a few bucks a week.  I know though, that I will be excited to start, creative in thinking of ways to make it happen quicker, and highly motivated.

If you can relay to your team the passion and excitement of the future of the organization and they buy in, you will see all sorts of positive results.  Excitement is the key.  They will think outside the box to create solutions that will be more effective with quicker results.  They will be more motivated.  They will recognize their contribution and be anxious to display their value.  They will be engaged and will want to stick around to be there when the goals are met.  And they will want to do all this NOW!

All of these things lead to increased production and happier employees and this makes you a better manager.

Listening is definitely a skill and it is one that pays off.  The better a manager can listen, the more likely an employee will be productive. 

People want to be heard.  This is true in all relationships, whether they are personal or professional.  Think about arguments you’ve had with people who are important in your life.  If you’ve ever experienced a “successful” argument, you know what I’m talking about.  This is a situation where you may be angry and upset but it is discussed and resolved.  I’d bet one of the factors that made this happen was that you felt you were heard.  Being heard provides validity to your feelings as well as creating respect and appreciation for the person you are arguing with, no matter how angry you are at that moment.  Professional situations are no different. 

Let’s say an employee feels that there are unrealistic expectations as far as their work is concerned.  If you truly listen, you can then ascertain whether this is genuinely a problem that needs to be addressed or if it is simply a situation where your employee is feeling overwhelmed and needs some reasssurance.  Either way,  it won’t matter as much if the actual solution is effective right away.   They will feel better because you listened well enough to understand what it was they were trying to say.  It is easy to sit there with someone and hear the words they are saying but then miss the meaning.  Many times we are too busy forming our response and we don’t even hear a lot of the words.  Sometimes you may have too many other deadlines and concerns on your mind to pay attention or you may truly be pressed for time.  Other times you may not really respect the person enough to believe there is anything you could learn from the conversation.  These are dangerous mistakes to make because it is very difficult to fake listening.  Can’t you tell when someone isn’t really listening to you?  My kids can and they are barely school age. 

How can someone respect a person who won’t take a few minutes to really care ?  (Because that is what it feels like to not be listened to - they don’t care.)  Then that same uncaring person demands certain things from you.  How motivated will you really be to meet those goals?  Now you can see how productivity is affected.

Here are some suggestions that I find helpful.  I’m certainly no expert but I’ve seen these things make a difference for me in numerous relationships, both personally and professionally.

Care enough to make the effort. 

Nothing feels worse than talking to someone and having them be off in la la land.  Or worse yet, I interact with someone who will turn and join a different conversation while I am answering a question that he asked me!  Why did you ask?  Now I just stop talking in the middle of a sentence and most of the time it goes unnoticed.   I get that some people aren’t good listeners, but for crying out loud, at least pretend you care for 5 minutes or don’t converse with me at all.

Reiterate or summarize what they said to be sure you really understand what was meant. 

One of my favorite lines (annoying to a lot of people who know, me I’m sure) is “If I heard you correctly, you think…”  Then again, I think I overcommunicate, so maybe you should disregard this one.  It is very helpful though to find out as early as possible that you are not on the same page, especially if you are trying to work through an issue or solve a problem.

Be honest. 

If it is not a good time, just say so.  If you have too many things on your mind, admit it.  No one has ever offended me or made me feel they don’t care what I have to say if they are too busy at that moment.  Delivered properly, this can be a great message that proves exactly the opposite.  Something like, “I’d really like to dedicate my brain and my time to this conversation, but I have to get on a call in 5 minutes.  Do you want to try to talk now or can we sit down at 3 o’clock?”

Be humble. 

A little humility goes a long way.  When I was a bartender I was constantly amazed at the way I was viewed versus the person I am.  Shock and surprise often followed someone finding out I went to college.  Or after having an in depth conversation about anything.   To be fair, the same was true in reverse at times.  I loved surprising people who began a conversation thinking one thing and walked away thinking another.  And I loved being surprised.  If you really listen, you learn quickly that almost everyone has something of value to offer – you just have to be paying attention.  Do not assume because you know three things about someone that you know that person.  And do not assume that you have nothing to learn from the person you are interacting with.  We can all learn from others, all the time. 

Practicing some of these things will help them become second nature.  Once it is second nature to listen well, your employees will respect, appreciate, and produce for you.