The Optimized People Development System

Tag: Workplace Culture

  • The Same Kind of Same as Me

    The Same Kind of Same as Me

    Ever see yourself in the reflection of another generation? This sometimes happens to me when I see a survey about the differences between the age groups. Recently I saw one by ResumeTemplates.com on Gen Z workers.

    I am not from Gen Z. Along with everyone else though, I have been placed within an age group, one that has progressed through life with all kinds of expectations. But I have chosen the ones that I value. Experiences and circumstances have shaped all parts of my life. And I have adapted to what life has presented. The generation that raised mine was motivated by a few different things, some of which I rejected. And I now understand that everyone from any generation can claim these statements as their very own.

    Actually, we’re not all that different

    I don’t see anything in this particular survey that I could point to as something my cohort didn’t do at some level. A few yelled at the boss. A few cried at work. Most of us complained about the boss, been unprofessional, etc., etc. Maybe the percentages were different.

    A quick search will proffer many surveys over the years comparing Boomers to Gen X, Gen X to Millennials, and Millennials to Zs. Seems like they all focus on the differences and try to explain the reasons for those differences, justify the changes in attitudes, or rationalize the shifts in behavior.

    Surveys help us take a pulse of how things are going and how people feel, but they also tend to feed a narrative that can make people believe that the generations before and after them are somehow unique. Often, they cater to confirmation bias, confirming that something is dreadfully wrong with that bunch!

    Been there, done that

    On occasion though, observations drawn from these studies do more to show the similarities between generations. “Gen Z doesn’t need to suppress who they are,” says Chief Career Strategist Julia Toothacre. “But learning to read the room and adjust accordingly is what builds long-term credibility.” Yep, we had to learn this lesson too. Every generation has. Perhaps we could help each other?

    It could be beneficial and constructive if we focus less on our differences and try harder to recognize similarities and learn from each other. Someone should do a survey that asks, “How many similarities are there between this generation and those others?” Surely, it’s been done before. If so, please share. I’d love to see them.

    An opportunity for the PDS

    Comparisons are a thing, as we’ve seen, and since this is a blog about workforce development, here are four ideas to optimize your people development system to help generations take advantage of their similarities and their shared values.

    1. Avoid highlighting differences! We would certainly benefit from identifying as one team with diverse gifts and levels of wisdom instead of saying things like, “We have four generations on our team and we’re all different!”

    2. Intentional team building. Activities that bring generations together in cross-generational, cross-functional teams connecting different perspectives in the spirit of solving problems and learning from each other.

    3. Bridge the divide with coaching. Train up some coaches on this specific topic and turn them loose within the team. Ideally, you’ll have coaches from all generations!

    4. Communicate. Ensure that everyone on the team understands that the goal is to identify and capitalize on commonalities and similarities across the whole team.

    The divide between generations is largely a self-inflicted malady. An optimized people development system can go a long way in providing a cure and building bridges to connect all ages represented on your team.

    PS…Props to the movie Same Kind of Different as Me. It’s about seeing the value and purpose in other people. Check it out.

    Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

  • Yes, AI Will Change This System Too

    Yes, AI Will Change This System Too

    How will artificial intelligence change the internal systems that companies use to find, train, and retain people, what we call their People Development System (PDS)? It will involve more than just the AI tools manufacturing workers use; it will fundamentally change the way the PDS will need to support a culture that embraces AI.

    “The NAM (National Association of Manufacturers) recently proposed a series of policy recommendations for policymakers to drive AI development and adoption in manufacturing, which includes a recommendation on developing the manufacturing workforce of the AI age by supporting training programs and career and technical education institutions.”

    New training and strong partnerships, yes. But what must also happen within the company, especially small to midsized makers, for these new changes to make a meaningful difference?

    An optimized PDS will need to be able to support AI by:

    • Promoting systems thinking for all team members.
    • Creating new job descriptions (and then appealing job postings…these are two different things!) that identify new AI and advanced manufacturing skills.
    • Rethinking training approaches utilizing AI tools for certain but also training team members on new ways to think about utilizing AI.  
    • Recognizing the need for new leadership approaches for AI empowered manufacturing teams.
    • Developing new mindsets that allow people to think about and utilize AI and other technologies on the factory floor.
    • Creating a strong culture of learning and experimentation.
    • And so much more.

    AI will change the way manufacturing systems operate. Including the one system that manages the people who operate within those systems.

  • That Thing AI Can’t do and What This Means for Your People Development System

    That Thing AI Can’t do and What This Means for Your People Development System

    There is considerable tension between these two truths – There are many things to love about the potential of artificial intelligence. There are many things to loath about the potential of artificial intelligence. AI seems to be invading all parts of life. But it is important to remember that that is the one thing it cannot do…life. And this is precisely why having an optimized people development system can help relieve some of the tension caused by arguably one of the most amazing inflection points in recent history.

    Stuff happens.

    Life is filled with complexity, nuances, and a wide variety of unexpectedness. It is where emotions, traditions, ambitions, and a plethora of other variables blend with tasks, necessities, and expectations, and they all must somehow be managed.

    At work, the systems we use to manage all of these include the people development system. Undoubtedly, AI will impact the PDS. In fact, it can improve all five functional areas – recruiting, onboarding, retention, performance management, and training. But for all its process, operations, and analytical capabilities, there are crucial functions it simply cannot do. Functions that require human finesse or just plain humanness. For example:  

    AI can’t capture and account for all the mental models of all system stakeholders, factoring them into decisions and plans. It can’t gauge the level of commitment by individuals to the PDS’s well-being. An AI entity can’t judge the exact time that stakeholders should perform certain system functions:

    • Recognizing an unexpected opportunity to have a retention conversation with an employee.
      • When and how to do opportunistic training that takes advantage of a teaching moment.
      • It can schedule performance management activities, but it can’t sense the effectiveness through behavioral observations.
      • It can help design a robust onboarding process. In the onboarding experience, it can’t communicate the level of excitement, pride, and commitment to quality that’s part of the organization’s DNA.
      • It can certainly improve recruiting and screening. It can’t sell the company or evaluate the insights gained from person-to-person interactions that come into these initial conversations.

    Can AI see the potential in someone as they go about their work? Can it observe the pep in their step, the tone in their voice, or their whistling while they work? Can it sense their attention to detail or the care they express for their team members in a shared moment at lunch? Can AI detect the level of influence of a person with a servant’s heart as they interact with the team? Can AI “read the room”- see the expressions on the faces of people in the moment and discern a next step? That is intuitive. That is still a human quality.

    In real time.

    The PDS is dynamic and influenced by perceptions, being both pro-active and reactive to different signals and situations. Many of its behaviors require in-the-moment recognition and decision making for the system to perform optimally. This means the humans involved with the system must learn to recognize these nuances by relying on their own humanness. In some cases, maybe many cases, this could require some retraining.

    They must learn to think about how the PDS is behaving alongside how individuals are behaving. Systems thinking leaders will be able to connect the dots between these two and use those connections to serve both. Being able to identify intangible forces like mood, tensions, and influential energies can help in managing these varying behaviors.

    The humans in the system will need to understand context. What is happening in the moment and why? What might be influencing how people are reacting? What is coming that will change things? What are the best decisions based on these contextual factors?

    Optimize for people!

    Will AI create more engagement? Maybe. Will it strengthen relationships? Perhaps. Will it recognize subtle changes in the system or among the people, or connect two seemingly disparate situations that are not so disparate? Probably not. However, as AI continues to advance, there is a need to look at how it will impact key systems within the organization beyond the obvious.

    Whether you love it or you loath it, artificial intelligence is here to stay. In the case of this people-centered system, within each of the five areas that comprise the PDS, AI can help. But it shouldn’t fundamentally change the focus of the system – it is for and about people. This presents an opportunity for stakeholders to emphasize their place as important constituents, forces for optimization, within the PDS. Those elements that understand how life works and that use this unique knowledge and skill set to make the system work better for all.  

    Image by amyelizabethquinn from Pixabay

  • Want Your Employees to Stay? Three Ways to Help Them Unpack

    Want Your Employees to Stay? Three Ways to Help Them Unpack

    You start trying to keep them even before you get them. This idea that efforts to retain employees should start in the recruitment process often surprises some stakeholders of an organization’s people development system. Retaining good employees is a long journey and like any journey, a time of reflection can add meaning to life and cement the impactful parts. In fact, reflection might well be one of the most powerful yet often overlooked ways to inspire people to stay.

    Many employee retention efforts, center on benefits and incentives for individuals and for the whole team. To keep people, we invest in their development, we provide great benefits packages, and we strive to help them see a version of their success that excites them. We give bonuses, we throw holiday parties, and company picnics. All good and all necessary. Although these can help promote engagement, their commonality limits their effectiveness.

    In an insightful article for MIT Sloan, Catherine Bailey and Adrian Madden shared the findings from their study on meaningful work, where meaning comes from, and the mistakes managers make that can rob employees of meaning. Interestingly, the authors, in this study, found that the meaningfulness of work was not related to interactions with employers or managers. The factors were more intrinsic.

    Based on their research and feedback from participants, they offered five qualities of meaningful work; one of which was reflection, unpacking what happened in the work, what was it about, who was it for, what was the big “why” of the work, etc. “Meaningfulness,” they write, “was rarely experienced in the moment, but rather in retrospect and on reflection when people were able to see their completed work and make connections between their achievements and a wider sense of life meaning.” Confirming a widely held notion that finding meaning in work comes from an inward place.

    Knowing this, how can we optimize our people development systems (and by extension our organizational cultures) so that reflection is not only possible, but intentionally built into the system’s structure? Here are three practical ideas to start the exploration.

    1 Create space and support for reflection.

    The number one tool for reflective learning is time. It’s also the most elusive, so put it on the schedule. Consistency is key. One approach might be to have a 15 to 30 minute reflection time scheduled for the day. Then a one-hour reflection time at the end of the week to consolidate and review each day’s reflections, and a one-hour reflection at month’s end with someone (a coach or a leader) to dig deeper into any themes, observations, or opportunities that are discovered.

    Consider providing notebooks or journals. The tactile nature of writing can sometimes help by slowing down the process and enhancing the act of remembering. Although, these could be held within a learning management system along with scheduling tools that help with reminders. Aim for a structured, but simple approach.

    A place for reflection that is free from distractions and that promotes a meditative atmosphere is helpful. A quiet place to contemplate and rewind the day. Going to this place to reflect can help in the habit building stages as the learning culture takes root. Having an encouraging partner also helps. Coaches that understand how reflective learning works and how they can encourage this type of growth and development helps individuals by posing questions and guiding the thought processes so that these exercises remain focused and productive.

    2 Build reflective learning into the PDS.

    One of the guiding principles of the Optimized People Development System framework is becoming a learning organization. In such an organization, everyone engages in learning (including the leadership team) and each person should understand how this plays out for them. The theme of learning is supported by each of the five functional areas of the PDS.

    Starting with the recruiting process, explain to potential employees how learning, reflective learning in particular, is part of the organization’s DNA. Set expectations and show them how this will happen. When onboarding, give them the tools for reflection and connect them to a coach. The training process can support how to become a reflective learner and then extends through to the performance management processes in the PDS. Retention efforts then incorporate these tools, times, and steps into conversations with leaders and coaches to ensure that the learner is tapping into those intrinsic forces that create meaning at work.

    3 Learning leaders.

    You’ve probably heard the well-worn research finding that 80% of the people who quit a job do so because of a boss or supervisor. Adding to this, Bailey and Madden found that the factors that contributed to feelings of meaninglessness were, in fact, driven by how people were treated by their leaders.

    Robust and ongoing leadership development is vital to creating a culture of learning. There are many growth opportunities as highlighted in Bailey and Madden’s “Seven Deadly Sins” – a list of management behaviors that can drain the meaning from work. Each of these seven are behavior based and are indicative of leaders with underdeveloped emotional intelligence, who fail to understand the value of relationships, and who struggle to connect their behavior to the team’s success, among other things. Most of the root causes of these leadership behaviors can be addressed through training and coaching support.

    One additional way to optimize leaders’ abilities in the context of the OPDS framework is to teach them how reflective learning can strengthen them and their teams. Encourage them to share their own reflective learning experiences with the team and to ensure that the tools and supports put in place for them are being used. Most importantly, guard the time for reflection selfishly. For themselves, and their team members.

    The OPDS framework allows teams of leaders to experience their PDS as a complete system, together. In this manner, leaders learn to help each other avoid those destructive “Seven Deadly Sins” and help each PDS stakeholder see how they influence the success of the PDS. Time for reflection as a leadership team can identify ways to continuously improve this important system.

    Reflection as a retention tool.

    Finding meaning in the work we do is a personal journey. Some days the meaning is hard to find. Other days it seems to overwhelm. Without the time to reflect and remember, the journey can slip by in the busyness of the workplace and meaningful connections are lost. For the employee, a lost opportunity to learn. For the employer, a lost opportunity to create stickiness and engagement.

    Image by Pexels from Pixabay

  • The Missing Part of an Optimized Workplace

    The Missing Part of an Optimized Workplace

    I have been unfair to the organizations I serve. As an advisor and advocate for workforce and workplace development, I have been telling employers for years that they must build great workplaces to attract and retain the talent they need. I have implored them to create people-centered workplaces. I have shown them study after study that insists that without efforts to create great cultures, to make their people feel appreciated, and to ensure that they are investing in the development of their teams, they could expect a lifetime of crippling instability in their workforce. But I failed to recognize an equally important part of the equation.

    Great workplaces are crucial, and most employers understand the need for supportive working environments. But what happens if you take great pains to build a robust environment and engaging culture and then you introduce people into that system with a poor understanding of work, who do not appreciate its value, and its far reaching benefits? That culture will struggle to survive – no matter how hard you work to sustain it.

    Wake-up Call

    “We cannot find people who want to work!” This was my wake-up call. I have been hearing it for years now after helping manufacturers work hard to improve their workplaces. And after this work, time and time again, I hear that people are not staying around long enough for these much-improved cultures to have any impact. It seems apparent that we need to broaden our approach.

    There has been a lot of emphasis on work life balance of late. This is an essential element of consideration, no doubt. However, attitudes about work are also important. Having a balanced understanding of the need for rest and rejuvenation weighed against the absolute need for impactful work, can change the dynamics of the labor market.

    Not a New Debate

    Work has always been a hotly debated topic. Plato thought it was beneath learned people. Martin Luther counted all work, religious and secular, as sacred. Many are fine with work as long as someone else is doing it. Current attitudes seem to lean more toward a grudging acceptance if it pays well. We’d really rather talk about retirement. Preferably before the age of forty.

    We need to work. Work is impactful in so many ways. Economically, when everyone that can work is at work, everyone benefits. Socially, when people work, society works. Spiritually, we were created to work and to serve one another. Individually, work can be a form of self expression. There are health benefits that come from work. Benefits that spill over into families and communities. And the list goes on.

    Balancing the Approach

    It is abundantly clear that we do actually need great workplaces; people-centered workplaces. But if we are going to engage more people in the workforce, we must appeal to something more. We must help people recover a healthy attitude about doing the work. About investing their efforts and time into something that is bigger than themselves.

    There are many complex challenges in our efforts to develop a stable and vibrant workforce, and they will not be solved with simple ideas and solutions. However, if we include in those solutions efforts to reenforce the value of work and begin to shift societal opinions and attitudes toward a better vision of work, we can fill those people-centered workplaces with people who appreciate them.

    Image by Richard Reid from Pixabay

  • The Wider Meaning of Technology Adoption

    The Wider Meaning of Technology Adoption

    Acceptance, embracing, agreement, endorsement…these are some of the synonyms of the word adoption. These words point toward a shift in thinking. However, when conversations about adopting technology happen in the manufacturing realm, the general meaning seems to always be related to application or implementation. The adoption of technology involves more than just getting a bunch of new machines though. Adopting tech has other important implications.

    Manufacturing has embraced the use of technology for years. Known widely as Industry 4.0, a lot of the emphasis has been on robots, sensors, and data analytics. Though now, AI is quickly making its presence felt in this important sector too.

    Typically, operations and production systems come to mind when considering how to apply technology in manufacturing. This is due in large part to the fact that engineers and tech pros tend to focus on the technology itself. The machines are cool. They do cool things.

    Last year McKinsey & Co. conducted a survey around the use of AI . They found that employees are taking the initiative and learning about it and using it at an ever-increasing speed. More so than many of the organizations that employ them. Apparently much more.

    This survey was aimed specifically at generative AI use across multiple industries. Obviously, in most industries, people will be impacted when technology solutions are deployed. The same is true for manufacturing. Maybe to a greater extent than in other industries.

    For this reason, it is important to look past the shiny robots and the slick AI generated solutions to ask some very important questions. What about your people? How will technology change the culture of an organization? How will the organization need to change to take advantage of technology? What does becoming a tech savvy team actually look like?

    McKinsey’s Relyea et al cautioned that, “Technology adoption for its own sake has never created value, which is also true with gen AI. Whether technology is itself the core strategy (for example, developing gen-AI-based products) or supports other business strategies, its deployment should link to value creation opportunities and measurable outcomes.” The people development strategy should certainly be included.

    The report clearly makes the connection between deploying technology and preparing/supporting the teams that use the technology. This is where a higher level of tech savviness is needed.

    In the future, being technologically savvy will mean more than just knowing how to create a prompt or program a robot. It will be more than just learning how the hardware and machinery works. It will also include thinking. How to think about technology. How to think with technology. Thinking about data and thinking about problem solving from a new angle.

    It is more than just training savvy people to do certain technical things with automation. It will be about learning to imagine where technology can be placed, uncovering the data that can help determine whether the change has been successful, learning how to tap into the strengths of generative AI when it is appropriate, and learning to properly evaluate the answers and suggestions given by an AI assistant.

    It will require tech savvy leaders learning how to coach their team to a higher level of tech savviness. Embracing new solutions influenced by technology as opposed to being rigidly connected to traditional ways of doing things.

    The implications will stretch across the organization’s people development system as people learn to harness the full potential of technology. The culture of the organization will need to adapt to these new realities. Developing leaders will include helping to instill this new thinking paradigm. Learning organizations will thrive in this new environment.

    Today employees are learning about and using AI on their own. They might be seriously trying to use it to make work easier and more efficient. Many may just be using it for entertainment. Recent studies have shown that they are also concerned about the impacts of automation, and they recognize that they must learn to work with these new tech tools. Technology has everyone’s attention.

    Workplaces that help people attain a holistic understanding of technology can create and promote a culture of acceptance and endorsement of these new methods and tools. These workplaces can help people embrace technology in the workplace and perhaps understand how to use it constructively beyond their workplace. These types of workplaces can bring team members to an agreement that becoming technology savvy requires that everyone involved must learn to think and apply these concepts together.

    Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

  • Finding the Starting Point

    Finding the Starting Point

    Finding the Starting Point

    The optimization process for the people development system is no different than any other system improvement journey. Start by thoroughly understanding the current system. Mapping the current state of the PDS with all the stakeholders can help uncover the “why” and “how” parts and allow for more precise improvement efforts.  

    Here’s an article that I wrote about one company’s mapping efforts.

    https://tmep.cis.tennessee.edu/wire-company-creates-map-improve-their-people-development-system

    Image by TheAndrasBarta from Pixabay

  • Avoiding Slow Surrender in the People Development System

    Avoiding Slow Surrender in the People Development System

    They are usually abandoned gradually, though unintentionally. They live on determination, but when discipline fades, these are among the first attributes to disappear. Ironically, growth and success often cause them to be compromised and quietly forgotten. They are the fundamentals, the essential, bedrock practices so vital for success.

    It’s been said that fundamentals win championships. Look up almost any famous athlete and they often point to their mastery of the fundamentals as the main driver of their success. The concept applies to organizational habits as well; especially when it comes to developing and keeping a strong workforce.

    “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a human being.”

    Football is a complex game. When coach Vince Lombardi embarked on a journey to build a championship team, he went all the way back to the most basic concept. He reintroduced his 1961 team to the football, not to a strategy, to some new rules, or to new ways to play the game, but to the ball itself. He refocused their attention on the most basic of the basics. A detail easily taken for granted. This article from James Clear discusses the impact of Lombardi’s simple idea.

    At its most basic level, an optimized people development system is about people. Its role is to serve people well, treat them well, and keep them well. To do this, the system must value relationships and foster effective communication. Appreciating the whole person and committing to their development and growth are basic principles for an effective PDS. But it’s easy to lose sight of the basics.

    Fast-paced workplaces busy trying to remain competitive and satisfy customers, can let important practices drift, and begin to assume that the basics are somehow happening. Surely everyone knows that the organization values people, right? A detail easily obscured by daily pressures.

    If your PDS seems to have lost something, has grown weak, or worse, has never been strong, perhaps there’s a need to revisit the fundamentals. Was there a time when the PDS was more focused on people? When the basics of valuing every individual were much more prevalent? Has the system crept away from this basic tenant?

    Of Great Consequence.

    Merriam Webster.com offers another nuanced meaning of fundamental, “It applies to something that is a foundation without which an entire system or complex whole would collapse.” The role of the PDS is fundamentally important.

    This system supports all other organizational systems. Practically every organizational system requires people (sounds basic, doesn’t it?). If those people who operate all the organization’s systems are unhappy, underdeveloped, or undervalued, there can be serious consequences. However, when systems are difficult to see (as the PDS is), it is easy to forget how important they really are.

    In practice, this means that leaders and stakeholders of the PDS must constantly assign high levels of importance to the PDS and be disciplined about maintaining this focus. Previous posts on this blog explore this idea in more detail.

    Avoid a Slow Surrender.

    Mahatma Gandhi once said, “All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take.”

    Abandoning the fundamentals that empower an organization’s people development system is a slow surrender. It starts when the stakeholders fail to value relationships. When they forget that treating people with dignity and respect is non-negotiable, when they fail to encourage their people to learn and grow, they give up future potential and miss the opportunity to deepen engagement. Communication weakens and powerful components of success slowly disappear.

    When the perceived importance of the PDS diminishes, training gets pushed off and staff development sees little or no investment. When leaders take the PDS for granted, they can inadvertently compromise the organization’s vision.

    Modern methods for finding, training, and retaining people are very complex. In the spirit of Vince Lombardi, leaders should ensure that the basic practices that support their people development system are not lost in the melee. In addition, they should strive to constantly highlight the importance of the system to the organization’s goals.

    To keep the fundamentals at the forefront of the organization’s collective mindset takes discipline and determination. Champions pay attention to the fundamentals. They commit themselves to them and practice them consistently. Building a championship-caliber people development system requires the same level of commitment.

  • Who’s in? – 4 Tips to Win a Competition You May Not Realize You’re in

    Who’s in? – 4 Tips to Win a Competition You May Not Realize You’re in

    An employer of choice makes better choices about who to bring on board because they have made good choices about their people development system and the culture they want to build.

    In this blog series, we’ve been exploring how all employers are competing to be an employer of choice, even if they don’t realize they are in the game. To improve their position in this race, the first tip is to learn about other competitor organizations they are up against. The second, is that the stakeholders of the organization’s people development system should realize that the potential employee they are after isn’t the only one making choices.

    In addition to hiring decisions, stakeholders of the company’s PDS make crucial choices about the way the system is administered and supported. Those decisions feed back into the employer of choice calculus.

    The third tip relates to the people who own the PDS.

    Let the whole team in on it.

    “That’s HR’s responsibility.” I often hear responses along these lines when I ask leaders about their internal workforce development efforts. It takes more than just the HR team to make the PDS work well.

    There are many stakeholders of an organization’s workforce development processes. These include frontline supervisors, line leads, department heads, and senior managers. Unfortunately, we sometimes forget to tell many of those stakeholders that we are aiming to be a preferred employer and that we need their help in doing it.

    They don’t know what they don’t know.

    Leaders at all levels influence the culture. A great example is their attitude toward training. If they are unwilling to give their team members time to attend training or if they complain about the process, their team will be negatively impacted. By extension, if they do not understand and appreciate the need for a learning culture, they will short circuit efforts to build such a culture.

    Stakeholders are important connectors across the five functional areas of the PDS – recruiting, onboarding, training, retention, and performance management. Do we let them know this? Do we train them to be good stewards of the PDS and the people that this system serves?

    Recruiting great potential talent is wasted when those new hires are passed on to team leaders who do not play their part well. Conversations that begin in the recruiting phase should continue through the onboarding and into the training and retention phase. The PDS should allow this communication to happen easily and consistently.

    If all stakeholders do not know the extent of their influence, and how to make that influence positive in nature, how can the company become an EoC?

    Help them see their part.

    Much of the leadership development that is offered to frontline and mid-level leaders is focused on the leader and their ability to engage people. Making good decisions, communicating well, and thinking strategically are all important learnings for leaders.

    It is just as important that all the leaders and stakeholders of the PDS see the system and understand their role in its performance. They also need the training and development to help them fulfill that part of their responsibilities.

    Building a healthy and vibrant company culture depends on the efforts of all the players. Get them involved in the competition for EoC by telling them who they are competing against and why winning (or at least moving up the rankings of employers) is so important to the company’s future and theirs.

    Once the stakeholders on board and collectively pushing to win the competition for EoC, the system must be able to sustain your new status. Which is the topic of our next post.

    Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

  • Who’s choosing? 4 Tips to Win a Competition You May Not Realize You’re in

    Who’s choosing? 4 Tips to Win a Competition You May Not Realize You’re in

    Every employer is a competitor in the race to be a preferred employer, that employer that draws people in and keeps them engaged for long stretches of their careers. There are some leaders who have a watchful eye toward the goal of being an employer of choice. However, there may be quite a few who aren’t watching the race at all. If there is a list of 50 or 500 employers in your neighborhood, your company ranks somewhere on the scale of great, good, or bad places to work.

    My last post advocated that a good first step toward improving your position is to understand the nature of the competition. Recognize your competitors, get to know them, learn from them, and develop a strategy to move up the rankings. The second tip has to do with choices.

    It’s not one-sided.

    Most literature promoting the idea of becoming an EoC is written with the employee as the one whose choice is of paramount importance. While it is true that they are the focus of this competition, they are not the only ones making choices. Employers must also make important choices, and these decisions inform the EoC rankings by communicating with current and potential employees about the company’s attitude toward people.

    Consequences of choice.

    Bad hiring decisions can harm any previous efforts taken to become an EoC. If, for example, a poor choice of candidates is made because the organization’s people development system is unclear on the team’s needs, the new hire will likely leave prematurely and perhaps with a not-so-good review of the experience.

    Some choices made by employers are made well before the hiring process. Long-term decisions to support or not support training delivery will have future impacts on the morale of the existing team and therefore the atmosphere within the organization. Culture is the key to becoming (and continuing as) an EoC. Having a great benefits package within a poor culture won’t move your company up the rankings in the minds of employees. The point is that, in addition to hiring decisions, leaders and stakeholders of the company’s people development system make other crucial choices about the way the system is administered and supported. Those decisions feedback into the employer of choice calculus.

    Positioned to choose.

    The company’s PDS is the primary system within the organization that nurtures culture. It is the system that facilitates communication with employees. Ultimately, the PDS is the system that decides if you are an employer of choice or not. This is why it is important to ensure that it operates effectively and efficiently.

    Do the choices being made regarding the PDS support the success of all the functional areas (recruiting, onboarding, training, retention, and performance management)? Does the system provide data that informs decision-making? Are choices made from long-term perspectives or near term? Is culture at the forefront when decisions are made about developing people? Does the PDS accurately inform the hiring process?

    It is more than simply having people choose your organization over others from a list of prospects. An employer of choice is one who makes good choices and one who has made good choices. The best way for that to occur is to have all stakeholders engaged in the development of people. And that will be the topic of our next post.

    Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay