Groom Your Employees To Leave

Your goal every.single.day should be to give your employees the tools they need to leave your company and score their dream job somewhere else.

I know it sounds backwards but think about it.

1 – In order to give them the tools they need to score their dream job it means you know what their dream job is. It means you’ve had coaching conversations with them where they’ve opened up about what they’re passionate about, what their professional aspirations are, and what they really really love doing. Knowledge is power.

2 – If your goal is to prepare them to leave your company to go after their dream job then every day you’ll be focused on giving them tasks that line up with that path. If you’re giving them projects that line up with their passion then they’ll be so busy busting their asses to get that stuff done – because they love doing it – that they won’t have the desire to look elsewhere. Why look elsewhere if they’re getting projects they’re excited about where they currently are?

Employees leave organizations when the work they’re doing doesn’t line up with their long term goals. By knowing your employees long term goals and doing everything in your power to get them there you’re less likely to lose those employees.

Do you agree or am I off the mark with this one?

Editors Note: When it comes to her professional life, Marisa Keegan is passionate about three things; employee engagement, leadership development, and corporate culture. She has helped lead the culture and engagement initiatives at two nationally recognized great places to work; Rackspace as Culture Maven and Modea as Talent Manger. Today Marisa consults and leads seminars for organizations looking to increase productivity by focusing on management training and employee engagement.

 

Don’t Let “The Situation” Get Out of Hand!

It happens all over Hollywood, producers’ top stars are on top of their game one minute and the next thing you know, they find themselves in the midst of a breakdown or are checking themselves into rehab.  You can’t help but wonder how Chuck Lorre of CBS’s Two and Half Men didn’t notice the changes in his money maker, Charlie Sheen.  Could the slow death of one of TV’s best shows have been avoided?  Did MTV turn a blind eye on Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino until his behavior landed him in rehab?  What would happen if producers focused on taking care of their top performers instead of waiting until it was too late to recover?

This is a common theme that often occurs in the workplace.  Managers spend the majority of their time focusing on the bottom 10% of performers instead of where their focus should be, on the top performers.  Naturally the top performers are the ones who work hard and put in long hours just to get the job done.  They don’t typically complain until it’s very difficult or even too late to save them.  Before you know it, they are walking out the door for another opportunity.  It’s a slap in the face and you are left to wonder, how did that happen?

One of the most common reasons employees leave an organization is because they don’t feel that growth opportunities exist for them.  At The Beryl Companies, we have a formal program in place to monitor the pulse of our top performers.  Each month the senior leadership team reviews our list of top performers and how we are investing in their growth, development and morale.  We make them a priority over daily tasks.  Each senior team member is assigned to a top performer (outside of their department) as a mentor.  They meet with their mentee at least once a month to coach and guide them through their career.   Not only do highly valued employees now have an additional venue where they can share concerns or thoughts long before morale is negatively impacted, but they feel honored that a senior leader makes time for them.  As leaders we now have a stronger tie to the pulse of the organization, our super stars feel valued and to us we are all “winning”!

Editors Note: For the past 12 years Lara Morrow has been The Queen of Fun & Laughter at The Beryl Companies, a title accidentally appointed due to her wacky personality.  She spearheads their internal communication, recognition, employee relations, leadership training and culture strategy. Her efforts have led to Beryl being recognized nine different times as a best place to work including being voted the #2 Best Medium Sized Company to work for in America. She is a co-author of Smile Guide, Employee Perspectives on Culture, Loyalty and Profit. After hours, Lara “releases steam” through her passion for cooking, blogging and reviewing local restaurants.

Don’t Ignore “Fit Flags”

“Fit Flags” are the flags that start waving when you’re interviewing a candidate who has all of the technical credentials you need for a position but lacks personality/attitude traits you’re looking for.

Yes, I’m aware of the fact that by bringing up hiring based on personality I’ve just royally pissed off a good portion of the HR/legal world but that’s nothing new. Years ago I got into a heated debate with our corporate lawyers because I was leading an interview training session where I was teaching hiring managers to hire for fit. To them, “fit” implies discrimination but that’s not what I’m talking about.

Fit is about finding people who have both the technical expertise needed to get the job done and the same passion, drive, motivation, values, and vision that your company has. Fit is about finding people who drink your corporate kool-aid and who believe in the mission, core values, and purpose of your organization. People who don’t “fit” are going to be disengaged, distracted, and unhappy in the long run.

We’ve all run into those employees. It’s not that they’re bad people. It’s just that they weren’t the right fit for that particular organization and the big problem is that getting rid of them once they’re in a seat can be really challenging.

We’re most likely to ignore the Fit Flags when we’re looking to hire someone for a position that’s particularly difficult to fill. It’s at those times that we’re more willing to settle because we feel like the person in front of us might be the best option we have. But I’m urging you to take a step back and think about how much better it would be if you held out for someone who not only has the technical skills but also the fit you’re looking for.

Editors Note: When it comes to her professional life, Marisa Keegan is passionate about three things; employee engagement, leadership development, and corporate culture. She has helped lead the culture and engagement initiatives at two nationally recognized great places to work; Rackspace as Culture Maven and Modea as Talent Manger. Today Marisa consults and leads seminars for organizations looking to increase productivity by focusing on management training and employee engagement.

The Resignation Heard ‘Round the World

By now, you’ve probably read or at least heard about the flaming public exit of Greg Smith from Goldman Sachs last week. On the off chance you haven’t, this former VP used a NY Times Op-Ed piece to tenure his resignation from the investment firm while railing on the lack of integrity and the decline in morality and corporate culture during his 12 years there.

As I read the article, I was struck by a couple of things. This hasn’t been the first negative piece written about the culture and focus of Goldman in recent months, so the powers that be who are in charge of corporate culture (if there’s anyone there who focuses on that) had to be aware that there were people who felt this way, right? But, on the other hand, I didn’t see anywhere in Smith’s piece where he mentioned avenues that he took to facilitate change. If he’d been there for so long, and had been so happy to work there that he was one of only 10 employees to appear in a recruiting video for them, did he take any steps to mend what he saw as broken?

While I’m all for leaving a company because you don’t fundamentally agree with their culture, I don’t agree with his approach.  If you’re as invested in an organization as he seemed to be, why wouldn’t you at least try to fix it? I’m sure that’s a daunting task in a company the size of Goldman, but then you could leave with a clear conscious instead of going out with guns blazing. While he wasn’t saying anything that hadn’t been said before, I question his method of talking instead of possibly acting.

What do you think? Should he have done more to change it from the inside, or was he justified in his more incendiary departure?

Editors Note: Candace Nicolls is the Principal Recruiter for Product, Engineering, and Marketing at Snagajob. When she’s not sourcing and interviewing, she’s baking for her coworkers or spreading the word about Snag through networking and community partnerships. Snagajob was awarded Entrepreneur Magazine’s Best Small Company to Work for in America in 2011.

Big Pimpin’

I wrote a post over at Fistful of Talent a few weeks ago called Pimp My Office where I was making the point that most companies think having a cool office space would be great but they quickly give up when they realize all the roadblocks to making it happen.

Then last week on my way through Richmond, Virginia I met up with some of my contacts at Snagajob and they gave me a tour of their new office space. Love it! I get really excited when companies I’m working with do things for their culture that continues to set them apart. And because of their new space they’re getting even more recognition as being a great place to work.

Like I said in my FOT blog,

“It’s hard work creating an office space this crazy but the companies that pull it off understand that being over-the-top sends a very clear message to their current and future employees. By saying nothing at all, the sheer magnitude of the office space screams “Look at how much I’m willing to invest in creating an awesome work environment. If you think this is over-the-top imagine how much time and money I’m willing to invest in you.”

Do you work for a company that has pimped out their office space? I’d love to see pictures!

Editors Note: When it comes to her professional life, Marisa Keegan is passionate about three things; employee engagement, leadership development, and corporate culture. She has helped lead the culture and engagement initiatives at two nationally recognized great places to work; Rackspace as Culture Maven and Modea as Talent Manger. Today Marisa consults and leads seminars for organizations looking to increase productivity by focusing on management training and employee engagement.

Hackapalooza!

Ok, imagine this. Your company is a Software as a Service provider in a highly competitive field. Your engineering team is the backbone of these products- they build them, they debug them, they make them go live. You count on them and the work they do to meet your bottom line.

So why on earth would you encourage them to all stop what they’re working on? At once. For a WEEK.

It’s not a crazy vacation timeshare plot, or some reverse psychology trick to make them all work harder. It’s a way to spawn innovation while giving your employees some say in what they think could improve your company.

Here, we called it Hackapalooza. Some companies call it a hackathon, or a hack day. Our Engineering team broke up into groups and worked on projects that were important to them- one group worked on a new intranet, one wanted to clean up our inventory system, and one wanted to explore some different programming languages. The passion and drive shown were off the charts, and not only was that team totally energized at the end of the week, we got a ton of new ideas and projects that ended up benefiting the entire company.

Why was this successful? Our culture encourages this kind of collaboration and creativity- everyone was excited about the chance to work on something new, even for a week, and they were even more excited to see the projects go live later. Our kick-ass intranet was launched as a result of this week, and gives the entire company a way to share stories and successes.

Even if you don’t have an engineering department like ours, think about how a hackathon could be helpful for your teams. Are there internal projects that always get the backseat? Are there processes that need to be revamped? What do you think- how could something like this work in your company?

Editors Note: Candace Nicolls is the Principal Recruiter for Product, Engineering, and Marketing at Snagajob. When she’s not sourcing and interviewing, she’s baking for her coworkers or spreading the word about Snag through networking and community partnerships. Snagajob was awarded Entrepreneur Magazine’s Best Small Company to Work for in America in 2011.

Chanting…In The Office?

A friend called me last night and the first words out of his mouth were, “If I have to do another freaking chant at work I’m going to walk to the nearest wall and bang my head against it.”

Obviously I was intrigued.

Turns out that in order to create a sense of comradery at their office the leadership team decided they should have a chant they sing at the end of all major meetings.

Now I’ve worked in offices where people break into spontaneous song, or sign up for American Idol types of competitions, or do sing-off’s randomly. But those were companies where the culture was spontaneous and goofy. And employees dictated when and where these outbursts were going to happen. But this chanting company is a pretty buttoned-up place where people are quiet and wear suits and ties…chanting just seems strange.

And the results is complete awkwardness. The moral of the story: Don’t force culture. It’s fake and uncomfortable.

And please, don’t ask your employees to chant.

Editors Note: When it comes to her professional life, Marisa Keegan is passionate about three things; employee engagement, leadership development, and corporate culture. She has helped lead the culture and engagement initiatives at two nationally recognized great places to work; Rackspace as Culture Maven and Modea as Talent Manger. Today Marisa consults and leads seminars for organizations looking to increase productivity by focusing on management training and employee engagement.