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Organizations Need to Expect Turnover

June 4, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 3 Comments

Organizations are focused on retention. And that’s a good thing. Obviously, turnover is expensive – both in terms of cost and knowledge loss.

However, it’s unrealistic to think that turnover won’t exist. So, organizations need to think about what amount of turnover is going to be acceptable. Employees are going to stay for a few years and then move on. Employees are going to retire. All of that is okay. All turnover isn’t bad turnover. But there are a few things that are important to remember about turnover:

Former employees are a reflection of your organization. People take their employee experience with them for the rest of their professional lives. Organizations have to decide if they are going to let a person take a good or not-so-good experience with them.

People are asked about their careers all the time. When they get asked, the response can be focused on the challenging work, the learning environment, and the collegiate teams OR it can be a curt “it was fine”. We both know what the latter means. The way a person views their employee experience has an impact on other things.

Former employees might want to come back – either in a full-time or freelancer capacity. Individuals might find that the grass isn’t always greener at another organization. They might also spend a few years acquiring skills that they couldn’t get inside the organization and be in a great position to boomerang back.

Organizations can also find themselves in the position of needing a niche skill that a former employee was tremendously good at. The former employee might be willing to do some work for the company on the side. Employees aren’t going to be receptive to returning – even in a freelancer role – if they had a poor employee experience.

Former employees can refer candidates and customers. If an individual has a poor employee experience, I believe they will hesitate to tell their friends to apply for work with the company. It’s similar to customer referrals. I don’t tell my friends to eat at restaurants where I’ve had a bad meal. Why would I tell one of my friends to apply someplace where I’ve been treated poorly?!

Surveys show that a poor customer experience has an impact on the business. It seems logical that a poor employee experience will do the same thing.

I don’t know that any of these concepts are new. Former employees have always had the ability to talk about their past employers and refer others. But I do believe the emphasis on the value of the relationship is changing. In the past, maybe organizations didn’t focus on it as much. But now, with unemployment being low and the challenges finding qualified candidates, it’s time to realize the relationship cannot be ignored. In fact, it’s quite the contrary.

Organizations need to realize that the employee/employer relationship lasts well beyond the time that the employee works for the company. They need to think about it and strategize about it in ways similar to the candidate experience. The employee experience is important and has an impact on the bottom-line. Not only when the employee is working for the company, but for years after.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby after speaking at the Learning and Development League 2016 Annual Conference in Delhi, India

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Nursing Professionals Want Engagement and Work Life Balance

May 30, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

(Editor’s Note: Today’s post is brought to you by our friends at Kronos, a leading provider of workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions. For the third consecutive year, Forbes has named Kronos one of America’s Top 15 Places to Work in technology. Congratulations to Kronos! Enjoy the post.)

While this blog tends to talk about employees in general, we have shared in the past some insights about specific industries such as restaurants and public service. Today we’re going to talk about health care. Specifically, nursing. Because nursing affects everyone.

Earlier this month was National Nurses Week, which we’ve written about before. Kronos recently conducted a survey of nursing professionals titled “Employee Engagement in Nursing” to find out how they handle the on-the-job stress. The results are interesting and noteworthy.

Nurses are Committed to Their Profession

The survey results indicated that 90 percent of nurses are satisfied with the work they do. That’s really good news. I think we all realize nursing is a difficult job. And keep in mind there are two types of nursing jobs. The first is the one we traditionally think of in hospitals and doctor’s offices. The other is in corporate settings and other non-hospital employers.

The downside of a nurse’s tremendous commitment to their work is stress and burnout. The survey shared a few of the reasons that nurses are fatigued on the job:

Increased shifts and workload (60%)
Skipping meals and breaks (42%)
Not being able to leave work on time (21%)

Add to those findings that 44 percent of nurses say their manager doesn’t know how tired they are and 43 percent hide how tired they are from their managers. Not good. Managers aren’t able to help alleviate stress and fatigue when they don’t know it exists.

This dynamic of managers not knowing that their employees are tired and stressed should make hospitals very concerned. More than eighty percent (80%) of registered nurses would consider jobs outside of a hospital because it offers better work-life balance.

Four Ways Organizations Can Engage Nurses

Organizations that employ nurses need to consider adding programs and policies that will reduce stress and fatigue in the workplace. Four suggestions that surfaced in the survey are:

Improved Scheduling. This includes shift swaps, self-scheduling, and flexible shift lengths between eight and 12 hours. More than half (55 percent) of nurses surveyed said that gaining more control over their schedules would be the top factor to reducing work fatigue.

More rest breaks. Organizations need to make sure that they are properly staffed so nurses can take breaks. In addition, managers need to make sure that employees actually take their breaks. It might not seem like a 10- or 15- minute break is much, but research has shown taking breaks makes employees happier and more productive.

Wellness programs. Employee wellness is a business issue. Today’s wellness programs include features like nap rooms, Uber/Lyft rides when employees work late, and counseling. And if you’re wondering about the return-on-investment, a Mercer study cites a correlation between wellness programs and bottom-line performance.

Better employee-manager relations. Managers touch each of the first three things – scheduling, breaks, and wellness. While we’re not implying that managers are to blame, organizations need to create an environment where managers are empowered to handle these issues without question.

It’s Time to Care for Caregivers

The good news is that nurses are satisfied and inspired by their career choice. Given today’s labor market, organizations understand the challenge in recruiting and retaining such dedication.

We need to care for our caregivers!Click To Tweet

Susan Reese, DNP, MBA, RN, CPHIMS, director of Kronos’ healthcare practice group, summed the survey findings up perfectly. “What this survey shows us is that it’s time to care for the caregivers. It also confirms what we instinctively know – nurses are compassionate, hardworking professionals who love what they do. This is the crux of employee engagement and it’s hard to achieve if employees are fatigued. Nurses today want more control over their schedules along with additional breaks, health and wellness programs, and better overtime management. These benefits will ultimately help nurses, patients, and hospitals.”

Hospitals and health systems need to invest more in nurturing and retaining nurses. It’s time to engage them by increasing their emotional commitment toward their employers’ goals. Because when nurses are engaged and healthy, everyone wins.

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Logic Is Not Always Linear – Friday Distraction

May 26, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

(Editor’s Note: Today’s post is brought to you by our friends at Kronos, a leading provider of workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions. The company was named of the 2017 Best Workplaces for Giving Back by Fortune Magazine. Congrats to the Kronos team! Enjoy the post.)

I like to think of myself as a logical person. One of the definitions of logical is “(of an action, development, decision, etc.) natural or sensible given the circumstances.” Notice it didn’t include linear. Something can be logical and not necessarily linear.

An example is PowerPoint versus Prezi. Both provide users with the ability to create digital presentations. PowerPoint does it in a linear fashion. Prezi in a non-linear one. But that doesn’t mean a presentation created on Prezi isn’t logical.

I was reminded of the importance of logic when I saw today’s Time Well Spent from our friends at Kronos. Going from Point A to Point B isn’t always linear.

When organizations are trying to connect the dots, they have several tools at their disposal.

People. Sometimes we need to step away from challenges to see the logic or the connection. Sometimes we need co-workers to help us see the pattern or a different way of thinking. Each of us must be willing to say, “I don’t see it.” Or “Help me see it.” It takes self-awareness and trusting relationships with the rest of the team.

Technology. This is one of those moments where technology can be our best friend. Technology is about logic. Organizations need to be willing to use technology to help them see trends and themes. However, I would add that technology needs people to recognize the need for tech and to use it effectively. Great technology used badly isn’t going to provide accuracy and efficiency.

Data. Speaking of accuracy and efficiency, for technology to play its role, it needs good data. We’ve all heard that old phrase “garbage in, garbage out”. It applies here too. People need to know good data when they see it. Otherwise, they could make decisions based on false assumptions. And that’s not logical.

Organizations should use their people, technology, and data to make sensible decisions. Logical decisions. Because logical decisions are easy to explain and understand. When everyone is on the same page, and working toward the same goal, the company is able to accomplish its strategy.

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How to Find Bottlenecks In Your Talent Acquisition Process

May 25, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 2 Comments

Being able to deal with constraints is an important part of business. Constraints are stages of a process that causes the entire process to slow down, be less effective, or stop completely. In the book “The Goal”, Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt outlines The Theory of Constraints as well as how to identify and manage them successfully. It’s a good read that HR pros should have in their library.

A logical first step in successfully dealing with constraints is identifying them. We know in problem-solving that, if you only deal with a symptom then you never really fix the problem. Same applies here. It’s about getting to the root cause of the constraint. Take talent acquisition as an example. When the talent acquisition process is broken, everybody knows it. And in my experience, everyone blames everything on recruiting being broken.

“We can’t finish the project on time because we don’t have enough employees.”

“We can’t deliver good customer service because we don’t have the right employees.”

“I really need to fire Leonard, but if I do I’ll never find his replacement.”

Problems (or constraints, bottlenecks etc.) in recruiting isn’t something to ignore because finding top talent is essential to the business. The question becomes, how do you identify the constraint?

Let’s continue using the recruitment example and focus specifically on resumes and applications. Since talent acquisition is a process that involves multiple people: human resources, hiring manager, payroll, and possibly other individuals, we can start with an analysis of how the process works. Does your organization who is responsible for each part? When it comes to resumes and applications:

Who should spend the most time reviewing resumes? Should it be the hiring manager? Or HR?
What does each person involved in the hiring process actually do with a candidate’s resume? More importantly, what should they be doing?
Does each person know their role and responsibility? Do they know what the other members of the recruiting team are responsible for?
Is each person capable of successfully completing their role in the process?

In order to identify the potential constraint with applications and resumes, these questions must be answered. Organizations need to know that the process they’ve designed on a white board is the process that actually happens. They need to know that each person involved in the process knows their role and is capable of doing it. And that each person knows their role in the context of the other people involved in the process.

To minimize constraints, organizations might want to consider making investments in developing high-performance recruiting teams. Many companies invest in team building for departments. Sometimes in team development for project teams. According to Dr. Eduardo Salas, companies that invest in team training can see as much as a 20 percent increase in team performance. Recruiting teams are the group tasked with identifying and selecting the individuals who will service customers, create the next company innovation, and become the future leadership. It only makes sense to create a development initiative for this team.

Find the bottlenecks in your talent acquisition processClick To Tweet

Which brings us back to constraints. Is it possible that, if a company asked themselves those four questions, they would find the source of their constraint? Once the constraint is identified, then it can be appropriately managed. Here are three action steps that could correct the bottleneck:

Role reinforcement. Make sure each person who has a role in the process knows their tasks and accepts responsibility for their completion.
Training. Any individual who needs skill development should be provided the opportunity to become proficient.
Process communication. To make sure that steps in the process are not being duplicated or accidently forgotten, the process can be communicated to all stakeholders.

If organizations want to hire the best talent, they have to create effective processes and troubleshoot those processes to keep them the best they can possibly be. It starts with the recruiting team.

Image of Sharlyn Lauby captured while speaking at the Flora Icelandic HR Management Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland

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INTERVIEW: Dave Ulrich on How To Win the War for Talent

May 21, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 2 Comments

The term “war for talent” was first used in 2001 in a Harvard Business Press book by the same name. It refers to a competitive landscape in recruiting and retention. Given the recent shift to a candidate-driven market and other indicators like low unemployment, the use of war for talent seems very appropriate.

Dave Ulrich and his colleagues have a new book out on the topic titled “Victory Through Organization: Why the War for Talent is Failing Your Company and What You Can Do About It”. I feel like he needs no introduction in the HR world. But that just wouldn’t be proper. Dr. Ulrich is the Rensis Likert Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and a partner at The RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organizations and leaders deliver value.

I had the chance to chat with him a few years ago about the future of the HR profession. And I’m delighted he agreed to talk with me about his new book and the war for talent.

Dr. Ulrich, the very first sentence in your new book says, “HR is not about HR. HR begins and ends with the business.” On one level, I get it. But isn’t that just another ‘seat at the table’ reference?

[Ulrich] The metaphor of ‘getting a seat at the table’ is about HR having access to and influence on business results. This aspiration becomes somewhat trite unless and until HR actually contributes to business results. In our research with 32,000 people in 1,400 businesses (with 22 global regional partners), we found that the competencies required to get to the table are different from the competencies required to deliver real business value.

Getting invited to business discussions (seat at the table metaphor) comes when HR professionals are credible activists. But, once invited, HR professionals have to deliver value to key stakeholders both inside (employees, line managers) and outside (customers, investors) the company. Stakeholder value to those outside the company increases when HR professionals are strategic positioners. Then, to deliver real business value, HR professionals need to be paradox navigators. Gaining the seat is not necessarily delivering once in the dialogue.

Who should own the war for talent and why?

[Ulrich] We are quite clear that line managers are the ‘owners’ of talent. They are ultimately responsible and accountable. Qualified HR professionals are architects who create the systems and anthropologists who recognize the context. (Editor’s note: I wholeheartedly agree that HR pros are the architects of work).

The book shares an HR competency model with three core drivers: credible activist, strategic positioner, and paradox navigator. Over the years, we’ve both seen all the articles about “this is what HR needs to do”, etc. How do HR professionals know the best advice to follow?

[Ulrich] In the HR field (like other fields), there are a lot of opinions, generally based on good intent and personal experience. While each person’s experience is unique and valuable, it is useful to rely on large data sets to see trends individuals might miss. HR pros recognize and accept data based decision making to ensure that their personal experiences culminate in real success. In addition, we are convinced that it is NOT just the HR competencies, but their impact on key outcomes of personal effectiveness, stakeholder value, and business results. HR pros should use their personal judgment as informed by rigorous theory and research.

Where do you see the role of technology in human resources?

[Ulrich] We have identified four stages of HR technology in delivering value. We have proposed an HR technology audit as each of these stages enables HR to use technology to increase value.

Stage 1 is efficiency and technology enables more cost efficiency delivery of HR services.
Stage 2 is innovation and HR technology allows for innovation in staffing, training, performance management, rewards, and communication. Much of the machine learning, automation, and robotics exists to create such innovation.
Stage 3 is information and technology helps organizations source and act on external data that informs choices.
Stage 4 is connection and technology connects people to each other inside and suppliers, customers, and investors outside and connects people to their organizations.

Dave Ulrich: how to win the war for talentClick To Tweet

IMHO, the challenges of finding and keeping talent aren’t going away anytime soon. If HR could only do one thing that would have the fastest impact, what would it be?

[Ulrich] Talent continues to be a real challenge for organizations. We have seen that many organizations have learned where and how to source talent, bring talent on board, reward and motivate talent, and retain the best talent.

We believe that many of the top employees have enormous choice over where they work, and leading organizations are working to help employees find meaning and purpose from work (see Why of Work). In addition, our research convincingly found that the quality of the organization (however labeled … the systems, teams, processes, or capabilities) has 4 times the impact on business results as talent! This means that HR professionals should be at least as concerned about the technical competencies of the individuals as the social and cultural fit in the organization. Talent matters, but organization matters more.

My thanks to Dr. Ulrich for giving us a sneak peek into his new book, “Victory Through Organization”. If you want to read more, download chapter one (FREE!)

It’s no surprise that attracting, engaging, and retaining talent is a key initiative for organizations. This challenge – the war for talent – places a lot of pressure on human resources. We need to be tech-savvy, process-driven coaches for the business. While it’s a tall order, it’s also a great opportunity for HR to bring business value to the organization.

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Human Resources Is the Architect of Work

May 18, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 1 Comment

Whenever people ask me what I do and I say “human resources”, their first response is … oh, you hire people. Which is true, HR often has responsibility for talent acquisition. But it’s certainly not the sum and substance of the role.

So, when I try to explain what HR does, it becomes this long list of things – benefits, compensation, safety, employee relations, etc. etc. Of course, people’s eyes begin to glaze over…human resources is a tough profession to define.

Today, when I describe what HR does, I like to say that HR is the architect of work.

Think about it. What does an architect do? They’re responsible for creating functional, safe, aesthetically pleasing, economical structures. They get their job done by not only designing but communicating their design to clients, builders, and others.

Human resources professionals are responsible for creating work that:

People will want to apply for
Pays a wage and benefits package companies can afford
Offers purpose to employees
Meets a business need within the organization

In addition, work can change, just like some buildings change over time. HR is responsible for taking a holistic approach to work and making sure any changes align with the goals of the organization.

The conversation about alignment reminds me of the funny story about someone I worked with years ago. He and his wife would go out to dinner every night. And one night they sketched out their dream home on a bar napkin. They took the bar napkin to an architect and said, “This is our dream home, draw us a blue print.” The architect looked at the napkin and asked, “Can I make one suggestion? Put a kitchen in it.” Years later, they built their dream home and, taking the architect’s suggestion, included a kitchen. They also put a sign at the kitchen entry that said, “This kitchen is for resale purposes only.” LOL!

Human Resources Is the Architect of WorkClick To Tweet

The role of human resources is to be the architect of work. To create worthwhile jobs that people want to fulfill the company’s goals and objectives.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby after speaking at the 2016 MBTI Users Conference in San Francisco, CA

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Employees Value Benefits Differently – Friday Distraction

May 12, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

Organizations work very hard to provide consistency. They want customers to have a consistent experience. And I believe they want employees to have a consistent experience as well. That’s one of the reason companies develop benefit packages. They want to offer employees consistency in their workplace.

There’s one challenge with that though…employees place a different value on things. Today’s Time Well Spent from our friends at Kronos reminds us that employees even value schedules differently.

I realize that organizations can’t give every employee their own unique benefits and perks package. And, I’d suggest that you really don’t want to. Years ago, I worked for an employer and, because the company was small, employees could negotiate their own deals. It was a nightmare for HR. Everyone had something unique about their benefits. It was impossible to remember all the details. So anytime an employee asked a question, it was a major researching exercise, because you had to look up the employee’s special deal.

But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t opportunities for organizations to do a little customization and give employees control over the things they value.

For example, I know lots of companies that give employees the ability to select their own gifts in recognition or wellness programs. It might not sound like a lot but I’ve heard comment from many employees like, “I did INSERT ACTIVITY HERE and earned enough points to buy INSERT ITEM HERE.” Employees conveyed pride in being able to earn and select their own reward.

Other benefits like telework and unlimited vacation give employees flexibility, which allows the individual to make some decisions about value. There are organizations that offer employees time off to volunteer in the community. Again, an opportunity for employees to make decisions about value.

Maybe it’s time for organizations to figure out how to give employees a consistent experience…by giving them choices. The company wins because they can consistently explain the benefit. Employees win because they get to choose the things they value most.

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