“Is this the right environment for me to achieve the success I envision?”
As business owners and leaders, many of you most likely vacillate between lying awake at night, worried about what is to come, to moments of euphoria believing you have the recipe for success. Your employees, however, live in a relatively constant state. In my experience as the head of human resources for various organizations, employees most frequently share the concern of, “Is this the right environment for me to achieve the success I envision?” Therefore, you must set up a culture where they either don’t feel the need to ask themselves that question, or, when they do, their answer is “Yes!”
A culture where employees feel they are in an environment that fosters their success, enables your organization to become an employer of choice. As an employer of choice, you have control over who is on your team. You will rarely be in a position where, if someone leaves, your company suffers because you will have a difficult time replacing them. While the “Top Companies to Work For” have many attributes, here are a few simple actions you can take immediately to enhance your culture.
Share your vision of success clearly and often.
As a leader in your organization, it is your duty to paint the picture of the future for your people. Sharing your vision can be accomplished through quarterly town halls, company newsletters, or CEO/Leader roundtables, and most effectively by just Managing by Walking Around (MBWA). Face time with your employees allows for ad-hoc conversations. Every employee on your team has a PASSION. When your employees can share your vision, and understand their role in that progress, they are able to connect their passion with your goals and feel a sense of PURPOSE.
Know your employees.
I often would ask leaders, “How do you know you have the right people on your team?” They would look at me a bit puzzled and respond with answers such as, “They get the work done.” Or, “It is a gut feeling.” Or, “I don’t really know.” Many would not know how to respond, thinking I had the answer in my back pocket. The truth is, the only way you will know if you have the right people on your team is to spend time getting to know them. Know what is important to them. Get a thorough understanding of the skills they excel at and those that need to be developed. And most important, learn the skills that may be underutilized. It can be very frustrating to have a talent your manager does not use, or even know you have.
Invest in technology
We can start with the argument that the millennial population in our workforce is growing and most them don’t remember a time when the cell phone did not exist. However, Generation X’ers and Baby Boomers have been enlightened by and have become heavily reliant on the advance of technology, albeit perhaps a bit less tech savvy. We are all trying to do more with less. Regardless of the average age of your workforce, technology has a huge role in the culture of your company. Business technology provides your workforce with a multitude of benefits, such as increased collaboration and flexibility, more efficient recruitment and onboarding, quicker communication with less disruption to the recipient, the ability to reach large audiences quickly, as well as enhanced learning just to name a few. Do not underestimate what the impact of insufficient technology or outdated technology can have on your team and subsequently your culture. If employees are less productive because their devices are not running efficiently, or they lack the tools to communicate across multiple channels as an example, they begin to become less engaged. Besides, many of your knowledge-based workers already know of the newest technology wi thin their area of the business. Even if it may be cost-prohibitive or unrealistic to stay ahead of the technology curve, you should at least be aware of the technological advances and have constructive conversations with your employees about their needs and timelines for affordable solutions.
There are several no-cost tools available to help you gain a better perspective of the real culture that exists within your organization. Implementing these tools most often requires just a small investment of time and will allow you a better understanding of the areas that can be improved to create an environment of trust, transparency, and value.