“Living the non-negotiables”
In my previous newsletter I discussed establishing non-negotiables in creating an “organizational-engaged” culture. I described it as holistic system of performance and behavioral expectations for management, supervisors and employees.
My recommendation was to integrate these as benchmarks into everyday business practices and interactions such as hiring, managing, communicating and branding. What would this look like?
- Plan & Vision: communicate what you want to accomplish and how you will do it
- Get Involvement: start conversations with your team gathering their observations of the current culture, values and mission to define the non-negotiables and everyone’s input on what changes might be needed to be a more organizationally-engaged workplace.
- Manage Performance: along with job specific ratings, include non-negotiables and expectations as a work culture component of all employee performance reviews.
- Recruitment & Hiring: Use behavioral and situational interviewing to gauge the candidate’s skills and qualities that are consistent with your organizational-engagement expectations.
- Employment Branding: communicate “Why would you work here?” on your website, career page, social media, and during job application process to reinforce the employment experience value your workforce enjoys and to attract new employees.
- Manage Message: insure your organizational-engagement experience and practices are reflected at brand touchpoints including direct sales, retail floor, reception, interview process, job fairs and conference booths and signage.
“Establishing Non-Negotiables for an Organizationally-Engaged Culture”
In my newsletter “Ten Strategies to Foster an Employee-Engaged Culture”, I wrote about the global pandemic crises’ impact on the world of work: forcing change on how we manage, supervise and operate our businesses. I presented a blueprint to become a more employee-engaged culture to both attract job candidates and retain current employees resulting in meeting customer needs and improved outcomes.
It involved the organization’s commitment to an environment where employees, for example, can develop, work independently, or be encouraged to share their ideas and input.
It also entails the employee’s role; their accountability to their job responsibilities, co-workers, customers and organizational growth.
I describe it as a holistic culture of “organizational- engagement“: management, supervisors and employees.
Where do you begin? Attempt to reduce any ambiguity for what is expected. Consider establishing the non-negotiables that you are committed to in creating an organizational-engaged work culture by defining and clarifying behavioral and performance expectations for everyone in the organization. Then integrate these as benchmarks into everyday practices and interactions such as hiring, managing, communicating and branding. Non-negotiable examples include:
- Ownership of responsibilities, deadlines and outcomes
- Collaborative, sharing of information and expertise
- Proactive in improving the customer experience
- Employees are valued and treated with respect
- Strategy and goals are written, discussed and understood
- Difference opinion are expressed freely
“Rethinking How You Hire”
I enjoyed the opportunity to work with the Greater Raritan Workforce Development Board to create and deliver to business employers the webinar “Championing Your Employee Brand as a Recruitment Strategy”. This program was intended to assist employers with today’s recruiting and staffing challenges with solutions on how to answer the question “Why would someone work for your organization?”
Participants left the the session rethinking how they hire, with practical ideas and action steps to integrate the employee brand experience into the recruitment and selection process, including valuable takeaways for recruitment best practices for immediate application back on the job.
Don’t hesitate to call or email me for additional information on offering this program for your organization.
“The Garden State Employment & Training Association Conference”
I enjoyed the opportunity to be invited by The Garden State Employment & Training Association (www.GSETA.org) to present “Business Engagement and Sales Practices: Effectively Servicing the Employer” for their 2021 Fall Virtual Conferenc
I presented the notions that “most of us are in roles involving service, customer engagement and sales and that each customer contact by every employee is an opportunity to make a positive impression to gain new customers and to retain current customers.”
My key take-aways were to take a strategic approach and that competence in sales, service and business developmentare essential to maximize growth outcomes.
Participants left the session with increased confidence when presenting their scope of services: having new tools and a better understanding of the business and sales engagement process, including customer growth strategies, and establishing measures and standards to gauge effectiveness in servicing customers. They also benefited from exercises to reinforce learning and for ready application of new practices at work.
“Ten Strategies to Foster an Employee Engaged-Culture”
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The global pandemic crises resulted in virtual work arrangements that impacted how employees were managed and interacted with. It forced change and rattled some of us into operating in ways we weren’t comfortable with and didn’t fully adopt in the past. Virtual work reinforced that employees could work anywhere in the world with confidence under a more flexible relationship with their supervisors; they can grow and be productive in self-directed, collaborative, inclusive and communication-centric environments.
Virtual platforms like Zoom gave employees access to their supervisors that they may not have had before. Those square boxes provided everyone with the same amount of visibility and space at the meeting table.
Supervisors spent more time communicating with each other and their direct reports. All those virtual meetings among team members required them to talk to each other to accomplish tasks. Maybe work became more humanized as we virtually experienced each other’s home life seeing that they had a pet too, and kids vying for attention. Increased understanding of the other person perhaps facilitated consensus and actions.
“Some companies had winning cultures pre- and during pandemic, some didn’t. Which ones will continue to put people first and be ‘Great Places to Join, Work, Develop, and Stay’? Which ones have changed from old school to forward-thinking when it comes to employee engagement, culture, and policies? Which ones will not have learned much? It’s too early to tell the impacts on talent acquisition and retention; 2022 will really be the year to ‘watch’!”, says Jane Baczynski, Managing Director of Talent Acquisition Consulting at FokusPoint Digital.
Employees are saying that they want it to continue: that is, to be effectively engaged. Virtual or hybrid work arrangements will vary and may not remain for some of us depending on the job and business. But employees want to take the positives experienced and make them the “new normal” not the “same normal” prior to the pandemic: organizations need to address how to effectively engage their people to both attract candidates and retain employees.
Strategies to become a more inclusive, collaborative, and employee-engaged culture:
- Begin with believing in the best in people. Take a half-full, not half-empty management approach with employees. People will respond positively when treated with trust and a chance to create and contribute.
- Ask employees for their ideas, what they need and what they would do differently?Engage staff in the solutions process. The “Start, Stop, Continue” is a team building exercise for this purpose.
- Employ what I call the “Five A Lots”: walk around a lot, talk a lot, ask a lot, answer a lot, and listen a lot. Over communicate, repeat critical messages, and explain reasons around why so everyone understands. Be transparent and accessible to break down communication barriers.
- Be open to a change in mindset and approach with the courage and thick skin to listen. I do not suggest asking employees what they think unless you are really open-minded to what you may hear and are prepared to respond with action.
- Define the qualities of an engaged workforce culture and act and hire accordingly. Ensure your leadership team demonstrate these skills as they are role models for the rest of the organization.
- Integrate required skill-sets into the performance management process. Reward the required behaviors and develop them where the need is identified.
- Evaluate replacing the bullies. Both dictatorial leaders and employee bullies create a toxic and unhealthy workplace. People leave because of people.
- Utilize cross-functional project teams for new initiatives. This enables different areas to provide their input and share expertise. You can evaluate work group performance not only for meeting deliverables, but also on how individual members behaved as a team member.
- Provide tools and resources to do the job. This could include helping people open doors, removing barriers, and being their sounding board as needed.
- Give credit and constructive feedback. Tell people when they are good, and why it was good, and tell them when their work isn’t so good, then guide and coach them.
Aramini Management is a management and business consulting practice. Since 2005 we have assisted organizations in the corporate, educational and non-profit arenas execute management and operational improvements to attain their goals and better engage their customers and staff.