The working dead and high cost of low employee engagement
World statistics report that over 70% of employees are disengaged at work. They are the ‘working dead’. Today’s workplace zombies provide poor customer service. Workplace zombies lower your profits. Workplace zombies scare away potential customers. They take more sick days. They are constantly looking around for new jobs. They increase your turnover rate. They infect the staff around them. They speak negatively about your business. They are costing you money in lost productivity. In our book review this month, I’ll give you a peep at the ideas presented by Reid Hoffman in his book The Alliance. and how we can use them to improve our engagement numbers.
Remember your first day of work at a new company? Your manager greets you with warm enthusiasm and welcomes you to the “family”. Meanwhile, you express diehard loyalty to your new employer. But then the manager hands you over to the HR department, where you learn that you are on a 90-day probation period. And after 90 days you will be an “at will” employee who can be fired at any time. You just experienced the 2nd fundamental disconnect of modern employment. The first, according to us is poor candidate hiring experience that ranges from the poor employer branding practices we apply, then bad assessment procedures where we keep candidates waiting for over 6 months and more for feedback, then the bad onboarding process where you discover you need another 2 weeks before your email is set up, computer programmed and a desk set up. One way to cure ‘dead companies’ is by using network intelligence programs. Another is by developing an alliance with your employees.
A smart company uses network intelligence to solve problems and since this is why ALL companies exist, this should be a crucial aspect of your company’s short & long-term plans. What does a SMART company do when they face challenges? They schedule a meeting with all the SMART people at their company who might have ideas. That’s a good first step. Talk to people! The most valuable information is often in other people’s heads; not Google, not blogs, not magazines can solve tough problems. People offer time-sensitive solutions, are tailored to your situations plus they often know things that are not yet public to Google. Great information and insight from the people you already know can be an abundant source of competitive advantage. It’s called NETWORK INTELLIGENCE.
When it comes to knowledge in a highly networked era, who you know is often more valuable than what you read. Now when you are facing a truly hard problem, you should also look outward. There are more smart people in the world who do not work at your company than the number of smart people who work at your company. CEOs tend to be big networkers. They talk to a lot of people in the industry at large. They forget that their employees can do so as well. When employees share what they learn from the people in their network (about opportunities, technologies, competition, talent), they help you solve key business challenges faster. It is also great for your employees’ careers. By helping them strengthen their external network, you are improving their long-term prospects. According to his book, Reid suggests 3 ways to do this:
1. Ask your employees ‘who are the 3 smartest people you know who don’t work at our company?’
2. Encourage your employees to network with these people on company time and company dime.
3. Encourage your employees to be active on social media.
An example of a SMART company that successfully executed this program is Hub spot’s Meals Learning program where employees expense meals with interesting people in the industry so long as the employees share what they have learned. Another instance is where they used an employee who had the strongest Twitter connection to a speaker they wanted to invite for a forum. The employee reached out and the speaker accepted. Hub Spot’s employees also have two times the average number of LinkedIn connections. They also share, comment, and like updates at 8 times the average rate. The result? Hubspot attracts two times the average number of candidates for the job opportunities it posts on LinkedIn. The next best application for this is referral recruitment, which we all know will be the future of hiring. This concept is also reinforced by Dave Ulrich in his book as ‘HR from the Outside in’- where the company opens up to outside information & networks. Think Glassdoor and the amount of information being provided to candidates, that would have otherwise been deemed ‘secret’. In other words, there’s only so much you can do on your own.
HR teams as well will also be able to provide greater input into the business by being aware of what’s happening outside their organization.
As described in the paper, The New HR Competencies: Business Partnering from the Outside-In: “High-performing HR professionals think and act from the outside-in. They are deeply knowledgeable of and able to translate external business trends into internal decisions and actions. They understand the general business conditions (e.g., social, technological, economic, political, environmental, and demographic trends) that affect their industry and geography. They target and serve key customers of their organization by identifying customer segments, knowing customer expectations, and aligning organizational actions to meet customer needs.”
Back to the alliance, companies expect employee loyalty without committing job security and professional development. Employees say they are loyal, but leave the moment a better opportunity comes along. The employer-employee relationship is based on a dishonest conversation. As a result of this dishonesty, employers continually lose valuable people. Employees fail to fully invest in their current jobs because they are skimming the marketplace for new opportunities. Managers meanwhile are caught in the middle. No one invests in the long-term relationship.
An online story was circulating last week on social media. So as the story goes, an HR manager dies and is met and greeted by St Peter at the gates of heaven. However, St Peter informs the lady that she will be taken to both heaven and hell for a glimpse then she can decide for herself where she would like to go. They first go to hell where contrary to her expectations, she sees her best friends. They are well-dressed, laughing, and remembering old times. They play golf and enjoy the good weather all day. On the 2nd day she is taken to heaven where it’s similarly not what she expected. They spend the day singing and listening to music. She misses the fun she had with her friends. Later the following day, St Peter asks her for her decision. “Well, I thought heaven would be great and all, but I have to admit hell was fun and I enjoyed golfing with my buddies. So I chose hell”. St Peter agrees and takes her to the channel to hell. Only this time it’s dark and gruesome and filled with screams. She gets there and her friends are dressed in tatters and are rummaging through garbage to find food. “I don’t understand,” stammered the HR manager. “Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland of garbage and all my friends look miserable.” The Devil looked at her and grinned: “That’s because yesterday we were recruiting you… but today you’re staff.” (http://www.sun-gazing.com/explains-recruitment-perfectly-true-hurts/)
So the solution to this disengagement is to stop thinking of employees as family. Start thinking of them as allies on a tour of duty. Employers and employees develop a relationship on how they can add value to each other. Employees invest in the company’s success and the company invests in employees’ market value. Everyone commits in smaller steps and the relationship deepens as each side proves itself. Now you may worry that this framework might permit your employees to leave. But permission is not yours to give or withhold. Employees don’t need your permission to switch or leave companies. And if you try to assert that you do, they will simply make the move behind your back.
Employee engagement is now the priority for many 21st-century companies who have realized these benefits as indicated by Deloitte 2017 Global Human Capital Trends Report. They explain,
“ Today, companies are looking at employee journeys, studying the needs of their workforce, and using net promoter scores to understand the employee experience. Workplace redesign, well-being, and work productivity systems are all becoming part of the mandate for HR.”
Let’s rewrite the rules of the game since with any relationship trust is essential and it is earned too. This starts from employer branding and the ‘catchy’ phrases we post on our pages and videos about how we are such a great company to work for. A SMART company knows that “Brand is no longer what we tell our customers about us, but what our customers tell each other it is.” Social media tools especially give you the chance to open up about real work experiences in your company and to interact in REAL time with REAL information with potential employees. Let’s improve the candidate hiring experience where we hide things from applicants like salary and phrases like ‘any other duties as required’. Put yourself in the applicant’s shoes and gauge for yourself the process. Another concept that is not yet used by employers is the ‘mystery shopper’. Have an outsider apply, inquire, and work for your company, internship or so, and afterward let them criticize your company. This is an upcoming trend being used by supermarkets to gauge customer shopping experience.
Your company is like a car. Culture is the engine and initiatives are the fuel. Some types of initiatives you can take include:
i. Philanthropy-Employee driven CSR e.g HP Program
ii. Performance-E.g employee of the year award
iii. Social- Community initiatives e.g Zappos
iv. Environment- Recycle, Reuse
v. Wellness- Gyms like Nike, Google
Prepare well for the employee by only requesting essential documents from them and minimizing the cv-to-hire period. Remember they are also applying for jobs elsewhere so faster is better for you. Another huge mistake I see employers make is telling the candidate what to do. Some Un-SMART companies even go ahead and dictate what to wear in tiny details e.g. color of makeup allowed, who to date and worse where you will live, and what type of car you will drive. All in the name of keeping the company image, where we forget this employee is not a fixed asset like your premises but a human being you are trying to build a MUTUALLY beneficial relationship with and their life does and SHOULDN’T revolve around work alone. As one great manager said, ‘hire the best people, give them what they need and then leave them alone!’ Steve Jobs stated “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” Work on building this relationship and see the fruits and how far your company will go.
For more info get a copy of the book or check out our other post on employee advocacy or Employee Engagement through the 5 love languages.
All the best.
