When Bill Sandbrook took over as CEO of U.S. Concrete (NASDAQ CM: USCR) in 2011, he stepped into an organization that was hobbling out of bankruptcy and struggling to turn itself around. What he didn’t realize was just how precarious the situation really was.
A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Sandbrook got his start as a leader in the cavalry, serving 13 years before leaving the service in 1992 to take a job with a building materials company.
A global expansion can be a company’s greatest triumph or its most difficult period. Moving into new markets can mean increased reach and revenue. But if you focus too much on the big changes to your bottom line, you may end up with disgruntled employees working hard just to keep pace with this rapid growth.
For many rapidly-growing organizations, hiring the best talent available is priority number one. But when done poorly, a poor recruiting process can cost your company more than you might expect.
A recent Harvard Business School study found that avoiding a toxic worker was worth about $12,500 in turnover costs. And according to ERE Media, it can cost even more to replace them. Entry-level employees cost between 30-50 percent of their annual salary to replace. For mid-level employees, that number climbs to upwards of 150 percent of their annual salary.
Imagine your business perfecting a method of work that allows you to enhance your performance and execute exponentially faster than your competitors. One that helps keep your talent informed, engaged, and helps foster an open, collaborative culture that drives significant performance gains.
Guest Article by Benjamin Brandall
Highly motivated employees typically work at a higher level, and are willing to work harder at their craft, but at some point the ship has to drop anchor. Whether you (or your team) has just completed a massive outreach project, published its first eBook or has finally dealt with a particularly horrible problem your software’s back end, intense sprints of work can really take their toll.
It’s happened: Millennials (by most definitions, those born between 1980 and the late 1990s) are now the largest generation in the U.S. workforce. And they’re no longer the generation waiting in the wings to become leaders—they’re already increasingly entering senior and managerial positions.
Along with this influx of young managers comes a shift in the role of manager itself. Managers are no longer only focused on making sure work gets done, but also on how and why it gets done. They are expected to be detail-oriented and strategic, to build culture and ensure productivity. And their position is also pivotal for employee engagement: A recent Gallup poll found that managers accounted for 70% of variance in employee engagement.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that it’s going to take more than a beer keg and an in-house masseuse to drive sustained performance of your startup.
Beyond the perks and window dressing that business leaders adorn their exposed-brick workspaces with, what can be done to solidify certain ways of working that guide behavior to tangibly drive the results you’re looking for?
When the subject of onboarding comes up, I’m reminded of a friend’s recent experience starting fresh at a new company. Let’s call him Steve. On his first day, he attended an all hands meeting where staff were expressing concerns about heavy workloads across various initiatives to upper management.
Throughout the meeting, there was a recurring response: “Steve, the new guy will handle that.” It got to the point where someone asked, “How many Steve’s did we hire exactly?”
Humor aside, this type of situation isn’t uncommon. A hiring decision is made, but there isn’t much planning done in the interim before their start date. They show up on their first day to either be bombarded with tasks, or left without much to do.
Guest article written by Taylor Wallace
One of the most common things I hear when talking to companies about their culture is, “our culture is like a family” OR “I want our culture to feel like a family.” Clients often cite examples of supporting sick coworkers and open communication, but are there deeper elements of a healthy family structure to consider?
I decided to look at what really makes a successful family and apply those same principles to building a better company based on research from leading psychologists in the fields of marital stability, divorce prediction, and couples therapy.
Amazon is arguably the picture of ultimate success in the world of business. However, its cut-throat internal business practices – including long hours, decreased time spent with family, and a lack of adequate vacation time – have led to high burnout and attrition rates within the company.
Although cut-throat organizations like this may seem to always succeed, there are numerous hidden costs of such a culture, including health care expenditures and employee disengagement.
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