by Beth | Oct 19, 2022 | Company Culture
Currently, I am working with an organization to completely re-vamp two departments. They are the fastest growing business in the country in their industry according to Inc. magazine, and they have grown from just 15 employees to over 85 in roughly two years. I had a talk with the CEO/owner of the business, and I asked him what the turning point for his growth was.
“Bloody Thursday” he said, without missing a beat.
“That sounds ominous!” I exclaimed.
He explained it like this. One day, he woke up and realized that about half his staff were the wrong fit for their roles. He gathered his top performers, and he rallied the troops. He said that he was letting go of the people that weren’t pushing the company forward. Then, he developed the 5 company values: grit, live with grace, fear not, quality and excellence, and celebrate. He and his executive team don’t make any decisions without consulting those values first.
From an outside perspective, when I walk into this office, there is lots of laughter. There is intense debate. There is compromise and a drive forward, and it is a pleasure and an honor to have them as a client. Personally, I would call Bloody Thursday a success.
POWER THOUGHT: Sometimes the way forward depends on getting your knuckles bloody.
by Beth | Oct 5, 2022 | Good Management
As many of you know, this past April I became a proud graduate of the Mikki Williams Speaker School. I flew to Naples, Florida and attended three days’ worth of speaker tutelage. In addition, I met some of the most amazing people in my speaker class. I returned to work the following week with a new lease of life and my work and with brand new connections with incredible new people.
Why am I discussing this with you?
Because professional development of your people is one of the most impactful ways to keep your employees happy and working for you. Read this article for the 15 benefits of professional development:
15 Reasons Why Professional Development Is Important?
All of my clients are worried about keeping their good employees, especially in the era of The Great Resignation and professional development is a great way to ensure loyalty to you. In addition, you have employees with new and improved skills, like public speaking. With well- rounded, highly skilled employees on your team, you can accomplish any goal you choose. What could be better than that?
POWER THOUGHT: If you want to keep your people, teach them something new, like how to speak in public. Win/Win
by Beth | Sep 21, 2022 | Employee Hiring
For the past several months I have spoken to 11 groups of CEOs, and every group has asked the same question: “Where are all the people?” “What secret island has all of the employees on it?” AND the unemployment rate isn’t zero, so where are all of the candidates?
In February, The New York Times published an article https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/briefing/labor-shortage-part-time-workers-us.html that talks about part-time workers in this market, and many of those want full-time.
Bottom line: there seems to be a disconnect between workers wanting full-time employment and the employers who want full-time workers. What is that disconnect???
What if it is artificial intelligence? As a certified recruiter for Indeed.com, we have noticed that several of the job boards are sending resumes that are titled “Most Compatible” (even though most applications AREN’T), which means that you aren’t receiving the “less compatible” applications. In other words, some computer program somewhere is deciding for you whose application you get to see, and whose application you don’t get to see.
To be fair to Indeed.com and ZipRecruiter, most job boards have some sort of artificial intelligence to help employers sort resumes. They are trying to solve the problem that employers have been complaining about for years; they are overwhelmed with applicants. In order to pare down the candidate pools, artificial intelligence has been incorporated by most job boards to pre-sort.
From a recruiting standpoint, I am giving my clients these 5 tips:
1) Don’t just rely on job boards for recruiting
2) Utilize your website for applications
3) Utilize job fairs (there are a number of them going on!)
4) Use Craig’s List, because it doesn’t utilize artificial intelligence
5) Use physical job boards outside the office of your child’s school or grocery stores
And finally, keep the faith. This will sort itself out. It always does.
POWER THOUGHT: Maybe the labor shortage is a computer glitch.
by Beth | Sep 7, 2022 | Company Culture, Employee Retention
Last week in my Vistage meeting, one of my colleagues brought up that she is hearing about lots of employees who feel unappreciated, and she asked our group what we thought was going on.
Back when we had paper checks that we handed out to employees every Friday or every other Friday, the boss would go around the office and hand each employee their check. The boss would look the employee in the eye, shake their hand and say “thank you, employee for all the work you did this week! I so appreciate you!” or something along those lines. Right then, the employee mentally connected the paycheck that they received to their performance that pay period.
Now we have direct deposit.
The employee receives their pay in their account, which is convenient, but it eliminates that crucial appreciation conversation that they had with their manager. There is a big disconnect from their money to their performance.
One way to change this situation is to bring back the Friday thank you’s. Every time your employees get paid, make it a habit to go to their desk and say “today is payday, and I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you working for me. I couldn’t do it without you.”
Simple gratitude for them as employees should be associated with their paycheck. It isn’t hard, and it matters to your people.
POWER THOUGHT: Use payday as an opportunity to connect with your people and express your gratitude.
by Beth | Aug 24, 2022 | Company Culture, Firing Employees
This past week, I followed up with the client who fired the cultural terrorist, and I asked him how things were going.
He sighed. Then he said, “We have lots of issues. For example, now we have to complete all the projects that she sold. We are interacting with her clients and having to explain it without explaining it. Then we still have some of her supporters on staff, and the gossip is rampant. The clean-up work is so much. It is like a festering fart. The smell just lingers.”
He is so right. If you have ever experienced firing a really bad employee, you know exactly how he feels. I suggested to him to get his team together, and talk to them. Remember that after a situation like this, employees are asking themselves two questions:
1) What took you so long? Employees generally identify a cultural terrorist LONG before management does, because the terrorist will kiss up to leadership while crapping on those below and beside them.
2) Is my job at risk too? After someone is fired, it rattles every employee to the core, whether that person deserved to be fired or not.
Address these two questions like this: “It was time for us to part ways, and no one else is at risk of losing their job. I also need you all to help me get back on track for our year-end goals.” Put a stop to the gossip and re-focus your team to the objectives. Then, do something fun as a group during work hours for team building. And, if the terrorist’s supporters can’t get onboard, they may have to go also.
Finally, hang tight, and have faith. The smell will dissipate eventually.
POWER THOUGHT: Your office will smell after firing a cultural terrorist, but that festering fart will dissipate over time.
