During the humid summer months of 1954, twenty-two 11 and 12-year-old boys were randomly split into two groups and taken to a 200-acre Boy Scouts of America camp in Robbers Cave State Park, Oklahoma.
Over the next few weeks, they would unknowingly be the subjects of one of the most widely known psychological studies of our time. And the ways these groups bonded and interacted with each other draw some interesting parallels to our understanding of workplace culture.
Guest article by Brooke Cade
Today, social media and other digital platforms are allowing brands a unique opportunity to connect and communicate with their customers in a way to get their voices heard. Instead of simply talking at clients, businesses can now talk with them—which, as more millennials are becoming consumers, is the best way to connect and build authentic relationships with them. Because authentic relationships are becoming more important when interacting with your customers, social media helps to open the conversation and allows companies to actively engage and strengthen those professional relationships. This is why it is important to collect as much customer data as you can through cdp (customer data platforms) to that you can strengthen your professional relationship more with your customers.
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.
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.
The war for talent. The age-old battle waged by HR teams across the country, each vying to secure and retain the best people to help them achieve organizational success. The eternal effort to create systems, process, and benefits to help keep them once you’ve recruited them.
At the epicenter of the war for talent resides the tech industry, where many talented engineers and other highly-skilled workers have no problem jumping to another employer for a minor bump in pay or benefits. The result? Companies are forever trying to outshine each other with baubles, beer kegs and nap pods to try to entice this demographic to join them.
What this approach fails to do is inspire loyalty. Despite all the money that these companies pour into perks, at the end of the day, it’s just job hopping.
Kris Duggan is the CEO of Betterworks, a software company based in Redwood City, CA, that provides customers with an enterprise platform dedicated to goal setting.
With around 200 enterprise clients and about two and a half years of road behind them, the start of Duggan’s latest venture had its roots in his experience as the CEO of a former business. He, like many other executives, was searching for a better way to engage his entire team in the goal setting and goal management process.
Early in your career, it’s the next rung of the ladder as you climb your way to CEO.
With more experience, it’s likely remembered as a pivotal time in your development as a leader.
Middle management positions have undoubtedly been a tough career milestone for many throughout the decades. These rising leaders are tasked with supervising the execution of the organizational strategy on a day-to-day basis.
Having to translate this strategy into tactical reality is a true leadership challenge, and no one knows the struggles more than those middle managers who are in the hot seat. They are forced to live with one foot on each side of the organizational dynamic, serving as the liaison between the big picture and actually getting things done. Read More…
In 2013, CEB research found that 86% of organizations had recently made significant changes to their performance management system, or were planning to. In 2014, a Deloitte survey found that 58% percent of companies surveyed did not think performance management was an effective use of time, and many media outlets jumped on the opportunity to air their grievances.
The growing interest in employee benefits has hit a fevered pitch this year. Many large organizations like Netflix, Microsoft, and Facebook have all recently enhanced their benefits packages. Others, like Gravity Payments, made a splash in the headlines with news of higher wages across the board.
As a result, I’ve had plenty of fodder for recent articles on the topics of interesting employee benefits programs, as well as the potential dangers of companies attempting to “keep up with the Joneses” with sometimes outrageous offerings.
Don’t get me wrong; extending additional benefits to employees is a wonderful thing. The danger, in my opinion, has more to do with the why behind these efforts and the selection of which benefits to extend versus others.
The question that I often ask my clients is why are they looking at extending additional benefits to employees? Is it because the rest of the world seems to be doing it? Is it because you’re trying to keep up with your competitors?
Julia Gometz, author of the book, The Brandful Workforce: How Employees Can Make, Not Break Your Brand, suggests that a company’s benefits offerings define a brand. “If you focus on salaries then you will attract people who are motivated by that. People who apply to work at your organization make their decision based on what you are offering and if it aligns to what they are looking for. Not everyone is looking for the same type of offering and it’s the organization’s responsibility to seek out the types of people they want and figure out what motivates them,” Gometz says.
Rather than simply keeping up with your competitors, benefits should help attract and retain the right talent and help your employees succeed in their roles with your company.
Companies that clearly align their benefits package to the values of both their employees and the organization are better positioned to succeed in today’s competitive landscape.
I recently had an opportunity to spend some time with the leaders at Hilton Worldwide, an organization that is taking a thoughtful approach to employee benefits. I asked them about several benefits changes being implemented across their corporate offices and corporate-owned and operated properties.
Matt Schuyler, Chief Human Resources Officer at Hilton Worldwide says, “In the hospitality industry, we believe that it all starts with culture. Our team members join Hilton because they love to please others. It’s our job to ensure that we take care of our people so they are empowered to take care of our guests.”
The first major benefits changes instituted by Hilton is the January 2016 roll out of extended parental leave benefits to fathers and adoptive parents. In January, new fathers will be eligible for two full weeks per child. Additionally, the company’s existing maternity leave will be extended for an additional eight weeks (to a total of ten weeks of fully paid leave per child).
The second benefits expansion announced by Hilton was the roll out of a new GED assistance program to all full-time, US-based staff of corporately owned and operated properties. In a partnership with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) Hilton will provide one-on-one GED preparation and advisement services, as well as test preparation.
“It’s tough for many adults to go back to school and to commit to getting their GED”, says Mark Crowley, Director of Internal Communications. “For many of our hourly team members, the achievement of obtaining a GED can help them not only continue to develop themselves, but it can unlock additional professional opportunities for them both within the Hilton organization and beyond.”
In an effort to provide employees of corporately-owned properties increased ability to plan their lives, Hilton also instituted a ten-day schedule guarantee. This commitment meant that employees no longer had to plan their lives around very short notice work scheduling. Instead, they now see their schedule with enough advance time to effectively schedule the rest of their personal commitments and plans.
These benefits will positively impact thousands of Hilton Worldwide employees across the country by providing them with additional support in both their family lives and their personal development. But it’s important to understand how these benefits came about.
Rather than being the brainchild of an HR staffer in subbasement D, Hilton’s leaders took the time to understand the unique values and needs of their employee base in order to craft enhanced benefits that actually mean something to them.
Using both data analytics and personal interaction and insight, Hilton’s leaders were able to gain a clear understanding of employees’ needs and struggles. This allowed them to be intentional with their employee benefits, as opposed to chasing the latest fad or the latest perk that their competitors just announced.
In the hospitality industry, the experience is everything. If hospitality brands are able to create an internal culture that models their values and their desired customer experience, they are much better positioned to drive long-term customer satisfaction and loyalty. Hilton’s Schuyler describes his organization as desiring to attract and retain talented team members who love what they do. “If you love what you do, it shows.”
Culture is evidenced in your product. And in this transparent world, it shows. Julia Gometz explained that, “Brandful companies have figured out how to merge the culture with the organizational brand. They cannot be spoken about separately and those organizations who isolate the customer from the employee experience will fall behind.”
Schuyler adds, “There is a lot of copycatting going on in the benefits space. We’ve consciously rejected this approach. What works at Netflix won’t work for us.” Hilton’s efforts to gain a true understanding of the needs and values of their employees in order to provide meaningful benefits speaks to the power of being intentional and aligning benefits packages to support and reinforce the deeper values of the organization.
This article originally appeared on Forbes
The HR scene has been up in arms recently as several large firms; including Deloitte, Accenture and GE have made the decision to eliminate their traditional performance evaluation processes. But before you go storming the gates of your CEO’s office with torches and pitchforks demanding that your organization follow in their footsteps, you may want to step back and consider a few things.
The biggest media splash around the topic came from Accenture, who will be eliminating their annual performance review and ranking process this September. According to the announcement and the subsequent press coverage, they cited empirical research that suggests a lack of clear value, an overwhelming amount of time and energy that’s expended supporting the process each year, and the plain and simple realization that their annual performance review process was failing to drive the performance they are looking for as an organization.
But, Accenture did not say that they are getting rid of the process altogether. Accenture’s CEO Pierre Nanterme told the Washington Post in a recent interview that, “We’re going to get rid of probably 90 percent of what we did in the past”.
Rather than being a once-a-year process where people are force-ranked, the general sentiment seems to be moving away from structure and administrative burden to more frequent, real-time periodic feedback to let employees know where they stand on an ongoing basis.
And this, like GE’s new real-time performance development process, allows employees and their managers to clarify expectations, provide feedback, and set goals on an ongoing basis throughout the year.
I recently spoke with Philip Hendrickson, Chief Talent Strategist at Qwalify, about some of the more important considerations around employee evaluations. Collectively, we came up with the following three critical considerations every leader must know before eliminating performance evaluations in their organization:
1. Consider the importance of feedback. Your employees need feedback. They do. Performance evaluation processes are vital for a company. Done well, they reward certain behaviors and acknowledge business success. They also provide developmental guidance, ensuring that people feel they are growing and learning in their role.
Good programs make employees feel valued and retained. There is no better way to build a positive company culture than on a foundation of transparency and respectful acknowledgment of performance.
2. Know what will replace your current process. If your annual performance evaluation is tied to compensation and incentives, how will you make those decisions if you completely do away with your current process?
Professionals at all levels are used to a process that recognizes quality performance that rewards consistent behaviors. Whether you use formal performance evaluations or not, leaders must ensure that there is something else in place before eliminating their company’s current processes for rewards and recognition.
3. Make sure the new way is an improvement. Most companies view the annual performance process with cynicism. But most of the issues with typical performance processes are with the final ranking that individuals receive, not the evaluation itself. People feel that however hard they strived and pushed themselves during the year, they were still ranked as “meeting expectations.” It takes the wind out of them.
A lack of transparency is another cause of cynicism with many performance evaluations. It creates a feeling that there is some mysterious back room where the real decisions are made and some criteria not related to real performance that tips in favor of some people and not others.
Poor reviews, without clear communication of the process, literally chase employees out the door. Be very cautious how yours is structured and delivered.
Our small firm currently has an annual performance evaluation process and we’ll probably stick with it. Since our employees work with numerous supervisors on several project teams each year, it’s nice for folks to have a chance to get formal feedback from the Partners and Managing Directors at the end of the year. It’s not a very labor-intensive process and it ensures that people are getting feedback from everyone with whom they interact throughout the year.
That said, because people work on many different project teams over the course of a given year, we rely more heavily on the more frequent, specific feedback employees receive at the conclusion of each project. This feedback is delivered individually with the project lead as well as in a group during the after-action review process. Team members work together to identify the things that went well and those that didn’t go so well, in order to continually refine our processes.
While it may seem that there isn’t a single person walking the face of the earth who looks forward to annual performance evaluations, it doesn’t mean that performance feedback is not desired. Feedback is essential for driving behavior and success.
The talent marketplace has shifted and more employees have begun looking for other opportunities. When someone doesn’t feel their skills and experience are valued by their employer and they feel that they are not getting the level of feedback on their performance that they need to grow, they are much more likely to take a call from a recruiter.
So before you do away with your evaluation process for good, consider the needs of both your organization and your people. Be intentional about how you evolve your systems and processes to provide a winning formula for providing feedback on a more consistent basis.
This article originally appeared on Forbes.com
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