Be Good to Your Employees and They Will be Good to You
The recession we have been experiencing over the past few years has created a strong upper hand for employers across many industries. Because getting a job has been very difficult, many employers have taken advantage of the climate and chosen to offer their employees less in the way of income and benefits.
In my experience, this strategy is a short-term solution and a short-sighted approach that will lead to reduced profits and poor company morale.
Companies show how much they care about their employees when they offer and pay for a part of every employee’s health, dental and vision coverage.
For example, we had an employee whose husband was going through cancer treatment at the time our company was searching for a new insurance policy. At the time, we employed over 550 people and could save tens of thousands of dollars on new healthcare. The only problem we had was that most insurance carriers wanted to exclude our employee’s husband from the new policy, thus leaving him with COBRA or no healthcare at all. This was unacceptable to us, so we kept the policy we had and paid the additional premium until the cancer treatment was complete.
This example is part selfless and part selfish. All of our employees knew why we had made the choice to stay with our healthcare provider, and that helped to improve our corporate culture and further showed how much we care about our employees.
[wcm_restrict]Another example occurred in March 2008 after our company had been acquired in July 2007. As part of the acquisition, almost every one of our employees was guaranteed a position at the new company that had acquired us. This was a HUGE issue for me because many of our employees had worked so hard and been so loyal to our company for so many years.
The credit crisis was in full bloom, and, because of that, many of our former employees who had gone to the acquiring company lost their jobs in the economic recession. This caused me a lot of stress and anxiety because I cared so much about these people. The result of my tremendous stress was my being diagnosed and treated for shingles and spinal meningitis during a weeklong hospital stay. Luckily, I had excellent healthcare, and paying for treatment was one worry I was lucky not to have.
Thus, as the owner of a company and the provider of health benefits, if and when one or more of my employees got sick, I wouldn’t want healthcare to be a worry or a concern of theirs. Their focus should be on getting healthy.
Beyond healthcare, employers can also show their employees how much they care with the following:
- Rewarding them for random acts of kindness and good work. The reward can be a small $10-20 gift certificate to a coffee house, restaurant or cinema
- Buying employees greeting cards on their birthdays and employment anniversaries
- Providing employees with face-to-face performance reviews twice each year
When employees are loyal to a company there are numerous benefits:
- Because turnover is less, recruiting and training costs go down. This savings goes directly to the bottom line profitability of the company
- Because turnover is less, vendors, clients, co-workers and influencers are speaking to and working with the same people month after month and year after year. This can lead to employees working harder for the company because the company has shown how much they care about the employee and how much they value their loyalty
- Because turnover is less, it is easier to recruit new people to a company with confidence that those new recruits will have a long and positive employment experience. It is a small world. It is possible and even likely that the recruit knows one or more current employees at the recruiting company. The more positive the reviews are to recruits from current employees, the more likely the company is to attract high-quality recruits and employees
Although there is a cost to providing the various employee benefits I have discussed above, I believe strongly that this cost is much lower than the cost to recruit and train new employees to replace those lost to attrition. In addition to the cost, morale and corporate culture is improved by superior benefits and signs that employers care, and often helps build loyalty among co-workers and clients alike.
The lesson is simple: take care of your employees today and they will take care of the company for many years to come. Fail to take care of your employees today and, when the economy improves and jobs are more prevalent, your valuable employees will be working for companies who value and appreciate them.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]
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About the Author
Daryl Wizelman is a leadership, corporate culture, emotional intelligence, life planning and work/life balance visionary. Daryl combines his inspiring story with some practical tools which can be implemented immediately to improve the lives, careers and companies that he touches. Daryl spends his time speaking, consulting and motivating companies, associations, professional athletes, sports teams and individuals all over the world. To read Daryl’s complete biography, click here.
New Tool Release – Cost of Employee Attrition
StrategyDriven contributors are pleased to announce the release of Diversity and Inclusion – Cost of Employee Attrition.
The cost of employee turnover is staggering and yet goes largely unrecognized. There is no financial statement line item, no general ledger entry, and no budget explicitly set aside for this expense that can cost an evenly modestly sized company well over a million dollars each year.
Using the StrategyDriven Cost of Employee Attrition nomographs and method outlined here, organization leaders can gain a better appreciation for the direct monetary cost associated with attrition and begin to value their retention focused initiatives.
StrategyDriven Premium Members can access the Cost of Employee Attrition by clicking here.
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Getting Beyond the Wall of Resistance
Did you ever wonder why so many changes in your organization failed? If so, you’re not alone. 70% of all major changes inside organizations fail. For instance, new strategies that result in reorganizations, merger integration, quality improvement efforts, and new software systems.
Of course failed changes are costly in dollars, but they also create missed opportunities, damaged reputations, and increased cynicism among staff. You may have heard people mutter, “Here we go again. It’s just another flavor of the month.”
[wcm_restrict]When the first studies about organizational change started coming out in the early 1990s, the failure rate was 70%. So how come nothing has changed? Since then, most executives and managers have attended change management training, entire consultancies were created to focus on the challenges of change, and many decent books made it onto the shelves of managers. Do an Amazon search on the phrase “change management” and you will get nearly 1400 hits.
How could so many people know what to do and then not do it?
I looked into failures and successes and found four major reasons why changes keep failing. And that prompted me to completely revise my 1996 book, Beyond the Wall of Resistance. I changed the sub-title to reflect the new emphasis: Why 70% of Changes Still Fail – and What You Can Do About It.
Reasons for Failure #1: Leaders Don’t Know What It Takes To Lead Change.
This is a minor reason for failure. Given the popularity of some fine books on change, many leaders do know what it takes. Nevertheless, organizations seem to believe that people still need more knowledge. So they schedule more training events, hire more motivational speakers with handy tips, and give everyone the book du jour. This is a waste of money.
I often create a hypothetical example of someone who leads change poorly. I ask my clients what impact that leader would have on the people he was trying to influence. My clients usually know exactly what problems this guy is creating. I ask, what should he have done? They know the answer to that as well. I then ask if there is anyway he can turn things around so that this change can get started on the right foot. Once again, these men and women come up with sound strategies that the leader could take.
In The Knowing-Doing Gap (2000), Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton argue that organizations have a lot of knowledge but little of that gets turned into action. I believe that is especially true when it comes to the challenge of leading change. May advice: stop wasting money on training and books unless you are certain that’s what people need.
Reason for Failure #2: Leaders Don’t Know How To Apply What They Know.
This is a big one. While organizations may do a great job of providing knowledge, they often do a poor job of helping people apply what they know. No musician would take the stage at Lincoln Center without having spent thousands of hours practicing under the supervision of a great teacher. Most baseball players come up through the minors where they develop their game. Each successive level in the minor league system adds new challenges. Star pitchers are suddenly humbled as they move to the next level. Basic plays that seemed so easy at one level take on new challenges at the next.
Case studies and role plays aren’t enough. Budding leaders need the opportunity to practice, get feedback, and go at it again in increasingly challenging situations. And they need the opportunity to apprentice under leaders who know how to turn resistance into support. Leaders who can read a room and address issues before they ever turn into problems. The very things that demand practice in real situations.
But, let’s say that leaders in your organization know what to do and how to do it and they still fail, then the following reasons for failure probably hold the key.
Reason for Failure #3: They Miss Their Own Competing Commitments.
In Immunity to Change, Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey suggest that hidden competing commitments that keep us from doing what we say we want to do. If this weren’t the case, there would be no market for yet another miracle diet. All of us who said we wanted to live in a healthy manner, would do just that.
Think of leaders who truly believe it is important to get lots of other stakeholders deeply engaged in planning and implementing change. And yet, they lead change as if they had studied under Attila.
These leaders would do well to confront their hidden commitments. On one hand they believe in employee engagement, but on the other hand, there is something getting in the way. With reflection and deep sober looks into the mirror, they realize they have some equally strong commitments working against employee involvement. Maybe they are committed to staying in control (or they are afraid of losing control). Or they are afraid that employee involvement will be seen as soft and touch-feely. Hidden commitments can stop best intentions in its tracks.
Reasons for Failure #4: They Ignore the Context They Are Working In.
Many change management plans are neat and orderly. They begin with Step 1 and end at Step 10. As valuable as a leadership road map can be, it cannot be used effectively without looking at the actual road you are traveling. I hope no one drives a car with head immersed into the map, and yet, lots of changes get led that way.
A few things that leaders often miss when their heads are buried in their maps. History of change in their organization: Do managers and employees think that past changes were led wisely or that the clowns were running this circus? Timing: Are people worn out? Is this the fifth top priority project in the past few months? Resources: Are there sufficient resources such as time, money, access to key players, and so forth, or are leaders starting this with the hope that those things will magically appear? Culture: Does your culture support your plan for change? For example, there are some highly effective “large systems change” approaches that can get hundred involved in planning. Sounds good on paper, but used in a culture that is afraid of input and involvement, an otherwise fine approach will fail.
If you are satisfied with the success rate of change in your organization – by all means, celebrate and then learn from your own successes so you can repeat them. If you are like most leaders, you probably believe that your organization should increase its success rate. If that’s the case, I encourage you to use the four points listed here to assess how well you are doing. Do we know what to do? How to do it? Are there competing commitments keep us from acting on what we say is important? Do we pay attention to the context and culture of our organization? This assessment could help you greatly improve your success rate. I wish you well.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]
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About the Author
Rick Maurer is a renowned change management expert, speaker, and bestselling author. He is an advisor to business leaders from a variety of organizations throughout the world, including major Fortune 500 companies, as well as private and nonprofit institutions in industries such as aerospace, healthcare, government, professional associations, telecommunications, and finance. Rick’s opinion has been sought by The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Investor’s Business Daily, Fortune, USA Today, and The Economist. To read Rick’s complete biography, click here.
Leadership Inspirations – Putting First Things First
“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
Steven R. Covey
Renown leadership author, most notably known for The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
7 Ways to Deal With a Negative Boss
If you are bursting with good ideas, but your boss always rejects suggestions out of hand, it’s very hard to stay positive and continue to think creatively. What can you do to keep your own creative spirit alive, and try to bring about positive changes in spite of the negative atmosphere?[wcm_restrict]
- Brainstorm strategies for making change. You and your coworkers have probably witnessed some improvements and changes. Even the most negative boss can’t stop all forward progress. So, ask yourself how those changes came about. What process is most acceptable to your boss? Who does he feel he has to listen to? Then recreate the successful strategies when you decide to propose something new.
- Avoid too much interaction with a negative boss. Try to keep the face-time to the minimum required, and to keep it civil and polite. Spend as much time as you can interacting with people who are more positive and have a healthy can-do attitude, so your own attitude doesn’t turn negative too.
- Innovate outside of work. Find ways to engage in creative, forward-thinking activities in volunteer work or a part-time extra job, internship or hobby, so you can stay fresh and get to strengthen your innovation muscles. A bad boss is no excuse to let your creativity atrophy!
- Make suggestions on paper, not in person or by email, to give your boss time to digest them. The longer you can delay her response to a suggestion, the more likely he’ll get over her initial knee-jerk resistance to change and actually look at the idea on its merit.
- Allow your boss to revise your idea and propose it as his own. I know, it’s so irritating when your boss rejects your suggestion, then proposes it himself a month later. But look at the bright side-at least this means there’s a way to make progress, even if it does involve accommodating an over-inflated ego.
- Build your own coalition for innovation. Sometimes it’s possible to reach out to others in power in a workplace and build a strong personal network, based on your bright ideas and enthusiasm for positive change. If you can do so, do so! You may be able to work with your coalition to bring about innovation. Let them pull your boss’s strings and force him to bring your unit in line with the new direction you helped create.
- Watch the bottom line and jump ship if your boss seems determined to run you up on the rocks. The biggest problem with change-resistant bosses is they don’t lead very well. Often, their department, division or business does poorly for lack of innovation. If that’s the story at your workplace, you probably should begin to look for another job with a better boss and more momentum. It’s hard to be a rising star when you’re working on a sinking ship.
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About the Author
Alex Hiam (www.alexhiam.com) is the author of more than 20 popular books on business, including Business Innovation For Dummies
