Company Culture | Seven Step Program

As much as it’s cool to have exposed brick, a foosball table, catered meals, and lattes at 3pm, those won’t ensure your company has engaged employees who will do passionate work. Culture is much deeper. It’s a feeling and an instinct that can’t be forced or faked. And it requires daily upkeep from everyone.

Here are seven considerations to make your company a great place to work;

Give – No matter the survey, compensation always makes it into one of the top reasons people stay or leave a company. But if money is the number one concern of employees, you have a serious issue. Pay people properly.

Define – What makes people want to bring their best every day and feel appreciated? If you can’t explain it in a sentence or two, dig deeper.

Value – What does your company stand for and what won’t it do? Two significant questions that seem easy enough to answer yet most struggle with them. We want to be a part of something that aligns with our values.

Open – Not all decisions can be made by committee. In fact most people want leadership to guide the way, but keep communication open enough for people to feel you genuinely want their input and ideas.

Stretch – Departments are created for a reason. Sales focuses on revenue while product design improves the offering. But don’t box people in so they can’t offer input to areas where they might not be subject matter experts.

Lead – From small companies with a handful of employees to the Fortune 50, the relationship people have with their direct report and the people closest to them in their day-to-day work experience, will be the single biggest reason they stay or leave. Model the behavior you want from others.

Together – Teamwork and collaboration are a core elements to great culture. We want to belong and contribute so afford everyone the chance to do both.

Like trust, respect is earned not mandated by an org chart. So if you want great company culture, create an atmosphere of authentic respect and trust.

Then watch what happens.
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HR | Letters and Keywords

The Human Resources' role can be a tricky one. You have an opening. The job description is created. The websites and channels are populated. And the flood of applicants come in. I've been on both sides of this cycle and it's not fun.

One trend that is almost universal is twofold; the long list of experience required and a minimum educational level. It seems more and more openings require a BA or MBA and the ability to work in a face-paced environment handing tight deadlines without sweating whilst smiling brightly. It appears the world is in search of a lot of jugglers.

Time for a new approach?

You worked hard, you earned the degree, well done! I don't have an MBA but I have consulted clients who require one to work full-time at their company. I'm not suggesting you lower any bar but keep in mind if you're a hiring agent that most aren't great at writing resumes and matching your keywords.

Perhaps if you're in HR, you've seen a candidate that would be perfect - if their resume even gets to you - yet they have to be eliminated. It's a shame. Perhaps you're looking for work, have plenty of experience, hired a resume writing expert, and are still having trouble knocking down the keyword software interface. My two cents, we are all missing out on some remarkable opportunities.

Technology is excellent but let's not forget the human in our resources.
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Deal with It

"We are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. We are human beings and our reach exceeds your grasp. Deal with it."
Cluetrain Manifesto (1999)

The moment you think you have the superior product, service, device, solution, might be the same moment your company foundation begins to crack. Sears Canada has filed for bankruptcy and asked the government for approval to close all of their stores and collapse the company. It has been a spectacular implosion of a company that was in business for over 130 years and now it's pennies on the dollars while the vultures pick the bones clean.

Nothing for Service

Long-term Sears' employees are getting nothing for their years of service and the whole story is tragic. But it's also a lesson that your customers, my customers, our customers, decide whether we stay in business. Without sales, we don't have much, and anyone involved in Sears is finding that out in a stark and painful way.

As an executive recruiter, I am often speaking with candidates who are gainfully employed, happy where they are, but willing to keep an open mind about new opportunities. You may wonder why they are open when they're happy but no one is immune, and we all have customers whose reach exceeds our grasp.
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