
Have You Ever Been Experienced?
Agnostic of industry, sector, function and size of an organization, we have all at one point been “onboarded” into a job. Some jobs have higher expectations of on the job training than others.
At one point in my career, I volunteered with a wild animal rescue center, and the onboarding consisted of a series of pictures differentiating various birds of prey, followed by a brief recommendation to procure welding gloves and a fishing net for my safety. I did get the gloves but would later regret not purchasing the net.
My experience was unique in circumstances, but even the limited onboarding defined my experience and the role I served for the larger cause of helping all animals. But even though this was an incredibly rewarding experience, it’s not necessary to corral angry raptors to understand that all employees want the same three things:
Eliminate the Haze
What is the job you are expecting the employee to do, and how is their success or failure measured? Ambiguous expectations from both the employer and employee can lead to larger issues in the future.
Quiet the Catfish Blues
Never promise that your organization is something that it isn’t. An employee that feels deceived is rarely one who is engaged. If you have the tools that help your employees do their jobs better, use them. If you don’t, buy and build around employee skill sets to streamline the process and create new opportunities for professional growth. Having the technology itself is not enough, and the training opportunities afforded by vendors are often underutilized as a mechanism to enhance the skillset across the organization.
It’s not a Room full of Mirrors
In a work/life balance, one will always affect the other. The physical environment, encompassing every aspect of their workspaces (this includes contract and remote employees), the trust and safety employees experience connects directly to how respected they feel by their leaders. According to the Quality of Life @ Work study, employees who felt that their leaders treated them with respect were 63% more satisfied with their jobs, 55% more engaged, 58% more focused, and 110% more likely to stay with their organization.
Creating an ideal employee experience is not Spanish Castle Magic.
The commonalities of job identity, the tools to succeed and an environment that sustains trust, safety and respect can be applied at any scale. Were you to open a carpentry business, one would expect that organization to provide the hammers and nails. The same expectation is true of any employee.
With the need for specialized talent in HR, Finance, Data Science, Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence, now is an ideal time to ask “if I didn’t work here, would I want to?” All of us are living and working on the third stone from the sun, we owe it to our employees to make the experience a pleasant one.
