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Greatness Magnified

Are You An Employer of Choice for Today’s Employee-Driven Market?

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Being aware of some of the workforce trends allows you to be responsive. Many clients of mine are from the healthcare industry, so let’s start there. Healthcare and the tech industry are the two areas with the greatest shortage of talent, and this will only exponentially grow in the years ahead.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that we don’t have gaps elsewhere. Many of my hospitality clients also experience large turnover in staff and retaining your best people is an incredible challenge. Sure, you can replace people, but do you replace them easily with the right people? To speak nothing of the high costs of orientation and training.

Remaining an employer of choice is an essential focus for you in 2019.   there to be a dramatic shift in the abundance of talent and that this shortage will remain across industries, so being a great place to work is still your best way to retain and attract talent away from the competition.  It’s similar to real estate – there’s buyers’ markets and sellers’ markets. Right now, it’s an employees’ market, not an employers’ market.

Some of my clients don’t like this so don’t address it. Like it or not, you’re already experiencing the pain from it.

When you do, the talent shortage can actually good news for you. You’re the organization who cares, who works at being a great place to work, who values and recognizes your people every day. It is okay for it to be an employees’ market because, actually, it means that people are savvier. They’re more selective. And you’re more likely to recruit them away from the competition who don’t love up and care about their people. Who are still caught up in old notions that “you’re lucky to have a job”. True, and they can get a job elsewhere; it’s time to accept this reality.

Where the Biggest Talent Gaps Exist

So how worried should you be? Well, there are some key positions that are on the rise and if you need them in your organization, workforce planning needs to be a priority. The top shortages in 2018  with the steadiest increases include:

1.Fulfillment Associates.

As we continue to see more online shopping, this is not going to go away anytime soon. I’d love to have a fulfillment associate for every time somebody buys something from my store. I get how valuable these people are.

2.Machine Learning Engineer.

These are people who know artificial intelligence. It’s only getting more sophisticated, and we’re seeing it everywhere now. If you’ve got kids, direct them into one of these areas.

3.Family Doctors.

If you speak with physicians, some will tell you that there is a surplus of doctors and that there’s no shortage. But family physicians specifically, and in some parts of the country, are in short supply, and our aging demographic will only heighten the gap. Add to this that more recent grads work of hours of previous generations, it’s also a work-life balance that doctors are craving like everyone else.

4.Manufacturing Technician.

Given how many products and services continually need to be serviced, we are creating products that stay in the marketplace longer, and so we need people to be able to fix and repair those products.

5.Technical Recruiter.

In this tech field, given that there is such a shortage, one of the most coveted roles that we have is somebody who can be a recruiter finding some of those amazing tech people.

Responding to Talent Shortages and an Employee-Driven Job Market

So what do you do to remain an employer of choice and retain great people? Here are five things that I know will help to keep and attract top talent.

1.Compensation Strategy.

Do you simply pay people what you can get by, or do you, in fact, have the intention of being one of the top payers in your sector?

This is particularly important when people make under $50,000 a year. A fulfillment associate, for example, would likely make the leap from another organization to you if you are paying in the top 25% of your sector. As soon as people make over $50,000 a year, the culture, their colleagues, and other variables rise. If you are in the bottom percentage, people will feel frustrated, resentful, and may not take a promotion if it doesn’t seem like it’s going to make a big difference in their paycheck.

2.Long-term Career Options.

I was speaking with somebody just the other day about how he continues to put forward more and more discretionary effort because he knows there’s growth potential in his company. Are there opportunities for people to move around and do interesting, meaningful work?

3.Sense of Ownership.

How much are people able to have a sense of ownership? And ownership can be conceptual, as well as literal. When we talk about ownership, this is people feeling like they have a sense of control and that they can impact the work. For example, a product has a defect, and they bring forward ideas about how to make that better and that’s valued and heard. If people see there’s a piece of garbage on the floor, they pick it up, and they will put it away because they feel a sense of ownership.  They treat their workplace like it is their own family, their own clients, their own living room. There’s a sense of ownership.

If you’re in the for-profit sector and there is actually an opportunity for employees to own a part of the company, that makes a tremendous difference in their commitment to the long-term success of it.

4.Recognition.

Be sure your people feel valued and appreciated for their unique greatness. Are they able to bring their talents, passions, and virtues, and when they do, are they appreciated? It all comes back to people doing meaningful work, that they’re valued, they’re appreciated, and that they have options.

Looking to create your own strategy to address the shortages you’re seeing your workplace? Happy to share a few additional ideas. Jump into my calendar here for a 15-minute culture consult. 

Employees with a Side Hustle: Embrace It So It Benefits You Both

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I recently had a business owner reach out to me concerned about a growing trend; many of his best employees, he had come to learn, have side hustles (i.e., they work for themselves part-time). He needed some advice to prepare for the “brain drain” when they all leave. And, how to hire “smarter” in the future so he doesn’t run into this again with new hires.

He was shocked by my answer. “You’re seeing this as a problem. But what if it isn’t? What if this is a huge opportunity?”

Dead silence on the other end of the phone.

Upon further discussion, he had no reason to believe they were about to leave en mass. He worked hard to build a strong company culture (which is why we work together), so he saw evidence they were still satisfied at work. And, there was no indication their productivity, customer experience or continuous improvement had waned.

Quite the contrary. He was seeing more innovation, engagement and collaboration.

Let’s face it. You’re at risk of losing your best people all the time: to the competition, to retirement, to an around-the-world bucket list trip, to work for themselves. If you run your business out of fear, that scarcity mentality will chip away at your relationship with employees.

You don’t want to find yourself giving opportunities to people that are “safe” because they show less industry and innovation. You don’t want to hold back information from your top performers. You don’t want to pass over people who show interest in one-day working for themselves. Not only are you going to push them down that path faster, but you also won’t get the best from them when they’re there.

Plus, the reality is, it’s the gig economy that continues to grow in Canada with about 50% of Canadians having a side hustle. It’s not new and has been steadily increasing. Seeing your best people as the competition or a problem is no way to run a company.

These folks are motivated. They’re hungry to grow and develop. They’ve got mortgages and responsibilities and reasons to stay so they are motivated to work for you right now. Embrace all the genius and passion they can bring to their career and channel it into compelling, challenging and interesting work rather than let it go to waste.

When we shift from that scarcity mentality to considering how to leverage our best from our side hustlers, keep these three things in mind:

1. Don’t Assume

Dump the assumption your intellectual property (IP), client list or productivity is at risk. Assume you have nothing to worry about. Let go of the emotional energy and mindset attached to negative views of industrious employees, and instead give them a reason to stay. Many people will never go into business for themselves full-time for various reason including they don’t want to! Don’t worry that your best people, your rising stars and your top talent become your competition and continue to nurture the relationship with health and vitality.

2. Don’t Give Them a Reason to Go

If there is no reason to go, because the pay, security, interesting work, flexibility, team collaboration and the overall great place to work is so compelling, they may always keep their gig as a side hustle and that’s how it will stay. I know lots of professionals who dream of starting their own business one day but worry they’ll miss their colleagues, paycheque, and customers too much. Some try going out on their own and them come back as it wasn’t as good as they had it working full-time for their employer. Keep making it a great place to work and value your best people so they see more reasons to stay than to go.

3. Don’t Undervalue Them

Your recognition efforts matter. When people feel valued and appreciated, whether it be by you, their colleagues, or your customers, they are more likely to stay. Entrepreneurship can be a very lonely business, and even if you’ve never worked for yourself, you can imagine it being so. You don’t get confirmation you’re on the right track, let alone recognition, nearly as much as you do at a great place to work. Continue recognizing your people and make sure that they know how meaningful their contributions are. Give them opportunities to grow, develop and do meaningful work. Ensure they know how their work makes a difference in the customer experience, bottom line, and vitality of the business. The more they see how they fit and how the organization would be lost without them, the more likely they are to stay. And if they do go, the more likely they’ll help to find a great replacement for their role through their connections. Unhappy people aren’t recruiters, but ambitious, innovative hustlers have a network of people ready to fill their big shoes.

Are you facing some of these challenges in your workplace with a high flight risk of great people? Is retention a challenge? Are you unsure how to take your organizational culture to the next level where it’s too compelling for folks to leave? Let’s have a virtual coffee and a chat, to further explore solutions and opportunities.

“Which Opportunity Should I Take?” 5 Ways to Make a Career Decision that Aligns to Your Greatness

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I received an interesting question through LinkedIn recently from a colleague who was struggling to make a decision about which career direction to take. See if you can relate:

“I have three opportunities and I don’t know which one to pick. I’ve really been paying attention to my greatness and honoring my greatness that you keep telling me to do. But now I’m stuck because I have three big choices, all of which are great, but now I find I can’t make this huge decision! Any advice?”

So you have the full context, here are the three options: (1) pursue his Ph.D., (2) accept a management promotion, or (3) take a headhunter’s offer to switch into a new industry with a growing start-up.

He was excited about all three of these options. All lead to very different but equally exciting future opportunities. When you have so much greatness, and you’re excited about all of them (but cannot do them all), how do you make such an important decision?

It’s a good problem to have, of course, but what he’s getting stuck in is what I see with lots of talented professionals: FOMO – fear of missing out. He’s concerned that if he doesn’t make the “right” choice (thinking there must be a right choice), then long term he may have regrets. He worries it’s all on his shoulders to figure out which option will ensure his career thrives. And, that he makes the choice that allows others important considerations – kids, spouse, lifestyle, location – are ideal too.

So how do you make career decisions when you have so many great options? Here are five tips:

1.Greatness Fit

What truly are your greatness – your talents, passions, and virtues? How does each option feel like a “natural” fit? How does each option uniquely position you for the next step that also fits with your greatness? Which option aligns best with what you’ve been building to in your life and you want to continue along that path? This is the Greatness Fit Test. Most often when I explore this with my clients, they find at least one option falls away as it’s what they “should” do or thought they wanted but really it was for ego, to please others, or they didn’t know themselves as well as they do now.

2.Solution Fit

What problem(s) can you solve in each role? What solutions could you contribute? What do you feel most passionately about addressing? If you didn’t help solve it, how does that sit with you? Are you okay with someone else solving it in their own way or it not getting solved, or are you uniquely called to address it? Again, when we consider how you can serve by fixing a problem with your own take on the solution to that role, company or industry, one of the options tends to be lower on the list.

3.Legacy Fit

If this position and the opportunities it leads to was the last career move you could make, what legacy would it leave? What level of impact and influence will you have? What difference will you make? Is it the type of difference and magnitude that you’re satisfied with? Picture yourself on your retirement day, giving a speech about this very turning point in your career, what would you say? What was most important to you about the legacy you felt compelled to leave, and how did this career change move you one step closer to that legacy? Not every role has the same legacy magnitude; no doubt one of your options will leave less of a legacy or not the type that is most important to you.

4.Articulation Fit

If you were to capture each of the options, which are easiest to articulate? And what generates the greatest energy for you? In other words, write about it – journal, write a blog, create a LinkedIn post, or write a list. If the spoken word is more your thing, record yourself talking, be a guest on a podcast or talk about it with a friend. If you get even more energized articulating the role, what problem you solve, how it’s important, then you know you’re onto something. If you find your energy wains quickly, well, that’s a sign it might not satisfy you as long as the other options.

Bonus Tip: The other benefit of this tip is that you start producing content on your expertise. Carve out a niche for yourself, even if you work for someone else, by positioning yourself as a thought leader. You may start articulating yourself to make your decision, but keep it going so you get more and more known.

5.Live Fit

Can you live by your choices for a day? Whether it’s job shadowing, visiting campus, or a realistic job preview, experience what life might be like in different roles. You may think you know – you’re taking the same position for a different company or you’ve been to grad school before – but there’s nothing like seeing and experience it for yourself at that moment in your life to awaken your whole brain to the experience. Decisions can be very cerebral until we are feeling the reality.

Know someone going through a career or educational decision-making process? Why not share this with them! You can also visit the Cool Stuff Page for some resources!

Still stuck? I invite you to jump into my calendar for a virtual cup of coffee and a chat!

“How do I keep my recognition program alive?” 4 Easy Tips

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I had a call from a client recently who had a really successful launch of a recognition program. One of the most successful corporate launches to date! However, just a year later, participation and engagement had drastically fallen. She was disheartened and wondered what she had done wrong.

She’s not alone.

So many of my clients work incredibly hard to bring a new recognition initiative to the workplace but are surprised to see how easy it is to lose momentum. But think about it. Most of us get excited about starting something, especially when it gets resources, attention, and support. But like many corporate initiatives, once the launch happens, attention and focus move elsewhere; there are just so many competing priorities. There are so many distractions in our work life and those the program is designed to support. So expecting this, and not judging yourself (or your culture) if the momentum wanes allows you to question: What has worked and what could be tweaked to revitalize our recognition efforts?

Like any corporate or team initiative, your program needs to stay fresh, consistent and meaningful. Here are some simple, easy tools and strategies to keep recognition momentum going in your workplace!

1.Going Beyond Passive Kudos Boards

You may have a board for people to write kudos cards to each other.

Some ways to keep it fresh and know it’s current is to have folks date them. Make them visible (for example, BestBuy has them in a public area). And mix it up (take a leaf out of Home Depot’s book) by having people turn the kudos card over with the person’s name on the back; it allows anyone to see if new kudos have been added lately and it also creates a buzz, “Hey Larry, on your way to break check out the board…someone left you a note!”

2.Putting Recognition Into Teams’ Hands

Another tradition some Home Depot stores do is to have a team-based award. At the weekly stand-up meeting, a department that was recognized the week before passes the team trophy to the next department. It allows your high performing teams to be looking for examples of great teamwork, collaboration, and service (anything you want to see more of) to choose which department is most deserving of recognition. It also motivates teams to earn recognition.

3.Pop-Up Recognition Campaigns

Some inspired leaders at North York General Hospital, after doing some training on recognition, realized that they had the perfect way to make Patient Safety Week real, not just for the staff and physicians at NYGH, but also for the patients and families they served. They posted a sign about it being Patient Safety Week and requested everyone write down someone or a team who practiced safe patient care. They provided little frog cut-outs and markers to write down these comments as well as tape to attach them to the windows in the front lobby. Not only were staff and physicians using that opportunity to celebrate their colleagues, but they were touched when they read, or someone told them to go read, about a comment posted about them. The windows were covered by the end of the week. People and teams were allowed to keep their frogs at the end of the week if they wanted to (how nice to look at it later) and it created a ripple effect of folks recognizing other things that were working in their teams and in others well after the week was over.

4.Fuel Positivity & Productivity in Meetings

Meetings usually make people roll their eyes and scour their brains for an excuse to not go. But what if it wasn’t something to dread? Whether it’s a daily huddle, monthly team meeting, annual planning event, or awards ceremony, imagine if the first thing was to ask people to reflect on what was working, who deserves acknowledgment and successes? It begins your meeting with positivity, but clients who have adopted this have also found there is a higher attendance rate, less complaining and more creative solution-finding. A perfect example is St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto. At a quarterly staff breakfast, everyone received cards with the organization’s core values. Individuals were asked to write a person or team that demonstrates it and specifically how. These were posted and then distributed to the recipient of the recognition. It brought energy and commitment to more recognition throughout the organization as well as helped people connect to how they live the values of the organization.

What strategy do you think you would like to try in your team or organization to freshen up recognition? And do you have some other ideas of what has worked? Will you share it with us in the comments below?

For more recognition ideas and tools for your workplace, why not check out this link on my website or tune in daily for a tip here.

This Employee Has to Go…Or do They? The Underlying Impact of an Unhealthy Employee Experience Culture

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When I worked full-time in organizational development, I supported over 100 teams get back on track in times of overwhelming change, interpersonal tension, and incivility. In every one of those teams, there was someone (or a number of people) who were pointed out as “the problem”: “If only they left everything would be fine!” Sometimes they did…but things didn’t change magically overnight. Often times they weren’t going anywhere, and yet we had success turning things around.

Not only is it rare that an individual, as disruptive as their behaviour may be, cause all the problems. That they alone are the root of the issue. Are things in life usually that simple? (And if it was, I think we’d only have a few books on our shelves versus the 100+!)

Sure, employees engaging in disruptive behaviour require feedback and expectation clarification. Sometimes they were surprised (never having received direct feedback), other times they were defensive, other times saddened. Regardless, change on their part, 9.9 times out of 10, didn’t lead to an overnight turnaround.

So what else is going on? What we found was that in every team we needed to do an intervention with, there was an underlying problem with the employee experience.

By pointing fingers, we don’t address what is going to most help. And frankly, what likely contributed to the unhealthy behaviour in the first place.

We are starting to move away from talking about the (often) top-down theories of employee engagement to understanding the employee experience, which is a more holistic, employee-centred way of understanding the way an individual experiences the organization from before they onboard to when they exit (here is a great article to dig in further.) Just like we’re moving away from talking about customer service to the customer experience, we’re realizing the same is true for staff and leaders.

Companies that shift away from looking at micro problems, finger pointing, and top-down culture creation, to that of understanding how talent truly is their competitive advantage, in turn, co-create the ideal employee experience that retains the best people, fuels healthy collaborative cultures, sparks innovation and continuous improvement and better self-manages standards of behaviour.

What are some of the signs of how well your company or team is doing in the employee experience department? Here are four visible signs:

1.Quit or commit

Take stock of your revolving door. Discover how many people are getting a “refund” on their employee experience by quitting. Check out the positive flip side, how many are committing? How many give discretionary effort, time and ideas voluntarily for the betterment of their team, customers, projects and the long-term future of the organization?

2.Play games or play by the rules

People who do not play by the rules are telling you, “You know what, I don’t buy into it around here.” Or, “I have given more than I have gotten back so now I’m taking something back for me.” There are also people who say, “I want to improve things around here.” When they feel and experience that their ideas matter, their voice is heard and they are valued, they naturally want to make things better.

3.Complaints versus Compliments

A complaint is merely a poorly worded request. So, if folks are complaining, what are they asking you for? What is your culture lacking? Sure, some folks lean on the negativity side regardless, but if the employee experience was truly positive, there would be little to complain about and certainly, they wouldn’t have a captive audience or co-conspirators! Other teams, you’ll notice compliments and recognition are aplenty; individuals notice healthy, positive, helpful behaviours and aren’t hesitant to acknowledge it when they see it.

4.Early retirement or Lifer

Sure, we talk a lot about how many times we switch jobs in our lifetime (anywhere between 7 and 15 depending on the study), and how unlikely it is we’re going to retire from the first organization we join. However, it’s not the end of career retirement we’re worried about here’s. It’s folks being, “on the job retired”; you know, those individuals come in and do only the bare minimum. In contrast to employee experience individuals who feel so much love for the company, they go above and beyond without being asked or expected to. When people feel valued, visible and their efforts appreciated, of course, they’re more likely to give their job more “life”. The kind of Lifer you want around doesn’t just put in the time but gives the best of him or herself.

BTW, want a cool infographic? Grab it free on my website here. What are the other signs the employee experience needs work? Post below!

Four Overlooked Practices to Onboard Top Talent (So You Don’t Lose Them)

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Outside our house, they are replacing the road. One of the interesting things I’ve noticed is that there was very little attention to the foundation of it. I have to say, I don’t have high hopes that this road is going to last, but metaphorically, it occurred to me that this is often what I see in organizations; that some of the most important practices, such as recruiting and onboarding top talent, lacks a strong foundation.

New employees and even existing employees that don’t have a sufficient foundation in which to be successful may feel lost, confused and frustrated. We have a hard time recognizing their greatness when they’re struggling. We are at risk of losing them before they’ve even changed their LinkedIn status if we don’t do a better job of onboarding top talent well.

We already know there is a talent shortage that shows no signs of easing until 2030 (Deloitte), and yet we continue to ignore the little things we can do to ensure we retain our best staff. It costs thousands of dollars to recruit, retrain, and mentor new staff (to the tune of up to three times their annual salary) not to mention the burden it places on those having to do the recruiting, training and mentoring! Let’s not also forget that other people need to pick up the workload when there’s a vacancy or people are not performing to optimal capacity and ability.

When you give people the right foundation you keep them longer. The quality of their work is better and they feel a greater sense of pride in both their work and the organization they work for. So, what can an organization do to make sure that people have the right foundation?

Here are four often overlooked practices to onboard new talent well:

1.Give Information

Rarely, from the thousands of people I speak for in organizations in any given year, do I hear of job candidates receiving sufficient information; what are the unique challenges of the job, team and project, what will be the biggest priority, what skill or expertise is most needed that is currently lacking? Now you may be thinking that this isn’t information you release until after you make a hire, but isn’t it important for the candidate to ensure she or he feels good a fit? Couldn’t it make it easier to converse on what she or he would do differently, to fill a gap, to expedite the learning curve?

Instead, we treat the recruitment process as requiring candidates to go on a big hunt, that they need to go searching for all of the latest trends and research and what is the company about and what’s the history. That somehow this will prove how much they want the job. What about assuming they want the job, and that good research skills are not more important than their critical thinking skills to share what specifically they would do if they are the successful candidate. How about if they came to an interview with a 90-day plan based on what they knew? Might you be able to gauge commitment that way, and he or she can hit the ground running on day one!

Here’s the suggestion: give them some information that is normally only shared with folks within, show them you trust them and want them to be successful even before they get the job, and see how they leverage that intel. If you don’t have somebody that you can trust at the very beginning, it sets up the recruitment process to be an “us and them”. Why not start off on the same side?

If you have decided you’re going to give your precious time to interview them, don’t potentially waste it by finding out they’re a bad fit when they’re sitting across from you. Give them homework. Ask them to figure out what they would do in scenario X. List the top three biggest challenges you see and reflect on what strengths and expertise they’d bring with them. If they decline the interview as they don’t know how to answer the issues or they don’t want to put in the time, you’ve just gifted yourself at least an hour of your workday!

2. Provide a realistic job preview

When you have those people that you shortlisted, maybe you’ve got one or two superstars. Before you make the final decision, offer the opportunity for them to learn more about you by coming on site to the work environment. They can meet their colleagues, peers and boss. They can get a sense if there’s going to be a good fit. Show them their workspace, let them sit in on non-classified meetings, have them join someone for lunch. All too often, we bring somebody into the organization and then we make introductions, give tours, etc. We assume that an artificial environment of a job interview(s) is sufficient to figure out a fit. Sometimes it’s sufficient but it has a huge cost when it doesn’t work out.

You may be with a progressive company where you have tools and assessments and other checks and balances (and hopefully you don’t lose a good person along the way because there have been so many checks and balances that take so long they get stolen away from you). Let’s assume that you get the right person at the end of the recruitment process. Who’s to say though that they’re still going to be the right fit from a human standpoint when they’re actually with their colleagues and clients on the job?

3. The orientation system

Do you have an orientation system? Not just everybody getting into a conference room and hearing one speaker after the next deliver a series of slide decks (some content that people should know already) but an actual personalized orientation approach?

We need to ensure that your new talent is being oriented to what is most important from the very beginning, and that will be unique to the role, person, team and work context. Are they being oriented so they can create a clear 90-day plan by the end of the week? Do they know what help and resources are available, and who they can ask for help and direction? Do they know their most important priorities?

And let’s not forget the importance of the human touch factor. Can their boss, boss’s boss or the owner of the company meet with them for a half hour in the first week? Do they have their phone, email and extension set up? Do they know how to use them? You would not believe how many people need to struggle through without even the basic systems to do their job well. It also sends a poor message about how important (or unimportant) they are.

4. Recognition the very first day

Recognition the very first day will really set you apart. Do you recognize people that very first day? One of my clients celebrates new people on their first day by putting a card or a mini sign on their keyboard that communicates, “Welcome to the organization. We’re celebrating you!” My speaker’s bureau projects a welcome sign at reception, expressing how excited they are to have a new team member joining! Some write a handwritten note that says, “The things that impressed me most in your job interview are …”

Do something that’s really fun or meaningful. Something that’s reflective of your culture, that shows that person that they are already known, valued and appreciated. You know what the alternative is, so do the foundation work and be informed about the greatness of the person who’s coming into the organization.

It’s such a missed opportunity to onboard and support new talent. We need to know those folks before they even hit the ground running with us.

The ripple effect of their comfort, them being able to be part of a solid foundation, means that the individuals they work with are going to be able to rely on them, are going to be able to see their greatness and be supported by them so much faster than if they were spending time trying to get oriented to that on their own. If you give people a policy manual and have them sit on their first day locked in a room, is not creating a great first impression. Let’s turn the 30% satisfied and 70% dissatisfied, numbers around. A great onboarding experience can help in this quest.

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