WORKFORCE TRENDS IN 2024

TREND #1:

Pay transparency is becoming the new normal – With the passing of pay transparency regulations in many states, there is increasing pressure to ensure that companies have considered their overall design and management of executive and employee pay. Currently, where required, regulations enforce the addition of pay ranges in job postings when looking for prospective candidates. Ultimately, pay transparency can affect an employer’s brand, reputation, and ability to attract and retain talent while ensuring some level of pay equity.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Accurately represent pay ranges – When publishing job postings, it is important to look at the compensation strategy that currently exists within the organization. If none exists, now is the time to start the process. Start with well-written job descriptions. A job description is the driver for determining the worth of a particular role. Work in tandem with managers to update responsibilities, competencies, education, and job experience needed to perform the role. Using updated job descriptions, conduct a market study for each role. Compare your organization with others in your industry of similar size. Leveraging industry-leading compensation databases ensures the delivery of salary benchmarking, grades, and market pricing data that is directly relevant to your organization’s strategic compensation plan. Analyze current internal salaries against the market price for each role to determine how the current compensation for each individual employee compares and formulate a plan to address this. Determine the best way to communicate externally, for job posting purposes, but also internally for the benefit of employees.

Generally, the goal is to take steps to ensure a compensation strategy that meets the needs of the organization while being mindful of the regulations. Use this as an opportunity to build strong relationships, loyalty, and trust with your employees and future employees.

TREND #2

Hybrid workplace remains the mainstay – A couple of years post-pandemic, many organizations are still struggling to normalize the workplace. Recognizing what employees value from their employer is evolving and things like workplace flexibility, and remote working, remain a strong pressure. Many companies continue to struggle with the future of the physical workspace. There have been some big headlines recently on companies who have mandated their employees return to the office, but most companies have settled into a hybrid model.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Offer development and team-building opportunities – Even though we have had a lot of practice working in a remote environment, collaboration, communication, and building relationships remain an obstacle for many. By offering development and team-building opportunities, individuals and teams are likely to work together more effectively.

TREND #3

Economic uncertainty and challenges attracting and retaining talent remain – “Changing Conditions Ahead” would be an appropriate caution sign for the talent market in 2024. The road ahead is shrouded in fog as traditional measures of economic health and the labor market have become more difficult to discern and have not been as responsive to levers pulled by governing agencies. The 2023 recession that was widely expected never materialized. The labor market demonstrated remarkable resilience throughout 2023, despite the Federal Reserve’s moves to increase interest rates and tap the breaks on growth; however, the inflationary pressures impacting business materialized. Employers were to be in the driver’s seat again, however, making changes to popular hybrid and remote working arrangements forged during the pandemic have resulted in employee discord and damage to the company’s reputation. Prognostications for 2023 did not play out as anticipated. Couple economic uncertainty with the ongoing challenge of attracting and retaining skilled talent, major demographic headwinds, and an election year on the horizon; uncertainty is the norm. It is tough out there for human resources professionals.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Be prepared and mindful of changes to the labor market – The message to business leaders and HR professionals is to stay alert to shifts in the business and talent landscape and be prepared to act to mitigate risk to your organization. As the year has drawn to a close, there has been an uptick in layoff activity across a variety of industries, and unemployment data indicates that it is taking longer for displaced individuals to land their next position. If your business circumstances indicate a reduction in force may be necessary, a reorganization or merger has resulted in redundancies, or a single individual is being separated from the organization; being mindful of how your employees are treated in the offboarding process will make a significant difference in the preservation of your brand and your ability to attract talent in the future.
An important part of being prepared for changing business conditions is to proactively establish a relationship with a reputable Career Transition service provider before an emergent need occurs. Ensuring your departing employees are personally assisted in preparing for their next career opportunity will have an impact on their future success and perception of the organization. Harsh reviews on social media are a red flag to talent considering joining your team. Transparency, empathy, and direct support through Career Transition programs help minimize reputational risk to your business. It also allows remaining employees to stay engaged and productive by knowing their peers are supported in the exit process. In the ever-changing business world, the employees released today may be those you will need to return when the market shifts again.

TREND #4

Concern grows with effective hybrid leadership and the influence of AI technology – In 2024, the business landscape will undoubtedly continue to gain complexity. Given the increasing number of recent lay-offs and uncertainty in the market caused by geopolitical controversy and a precarious election, leaders will likely find themselves navigating the challenging terrain of the heightened anxiety and burnout of key members of their teams while also striving to maintain effective leadership in a hybrid model. In addition, leaders must keep their finger on the pulse of AI-influenced technological advances that they need to leverage to remain current and competitive.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Leverage Executive Coaching services – In this environment, Executive Coaches will prove to be invaluable allies on the leadership journey, offering a unique blend of professional guidance and personalized support to leaders on the brink. This level of complexity can impede decision-making and compromise the overall well-being of leaders. Executive coaches specialize in helping these leaders regain balance by identifying stress triggers, clarifying priorities, and fostering a resilient mindset.

Executive coaches are the strategic partners that give leaders the edge they need to enhance their effectiveness and remain successful. From facilitating effective communication across dispersed teams to promoting inclusive leadership, executive coaches play a crucial role in helping leaders hone these capabilities. By offering a safe space for reflection and equipping leaders with tools to foster team cohesion, these coaches contribute significantly to the success of leaders in today’s dynamic work environment.

TREND #5

Top talent is reluctant to take on a new opportunity – Candidates, particularly passive ones, are becoming increasingly selective amid changing market environments. At the executive level, the quality of the opportunity from the standpoint of compensation, benefits packages, growth potential, company, and challenges are critical, as the costs associated with changing jobs are higher in today’s volatile market. Many companies are having difficulty “closing the deal” on their own. Even organizations with robust, experienced internal recruiting teams are facing a great deal of unexpected occurrences and surprises coming up during (and after) the offer process (e.g., extensive negotiations, counteroffers, etc.).

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Partner with a trusted executive recruiter – The intense competition for executive talent in today’s market has exploited another facet of the executive hiring process – the treacherous time between the offer and the start date. While losing a candidate to a last-minute competing offer was not previously unheard of, the frequency and aggressiveness of incidents happening in today’s market require CEOs, Boards, and hiring teams to respond strategically to compete.
To best mitigate risk, CEOs and hiring teams must change their mindset. Know the fight is still looming, understand how risks may manifest themselves within the hiring process, and deploy thoughtful, proactive tactics to meet the demands of today’s talent market. This is where a trusted executive recruiter can add a lot of value, shaping the perception of candidates and aligning a company’s value proposition with a candidate’s goals and requirements. A well-seasoned executive recruiter knows how to truly partner with organizations and candidates to ensure the best possible outcome for both, marrying together their mutual long-term success.

TREND #6

Defining your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) Statement – According to the Mercer 2024 Global Talent Trends© Survey, when asked “What are the top priorities for HR in 2024”, 61% of respondents said EVP. An EVP is a statement of the benefits, perks, and opportunities that an organization offers to its employees. The goal of an EVP is to attract, retain, and engage employees, and to help build your employer brand.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Human Resources plays a huge role in defining an organization’s EVP. HR can take these three immediate steps to understand and drive your organization’s EVP. These include:

• Collect employee feedback. When employees feel like their voices are heard, they’re more likely to be engaged and invested in their work. Collect data through an engagement survey or focus groups to understand what is most important to your employees.
• Offer internal career development. It is estimated that 40% of employees in the US have changed jobs or roles since 2020. An internal mobility strategy will help your organization become more agile and efficient in moving and developing existing employees so that you can grow your business’s best asset: Your People!
• Offer development options. In addition to the search for better work-life balance, pay, and benefits, a big reason employee are quitting their jobs is a perceived lack of professional development and career growth opportunities. In a 2021 report by Monster, 45% of surveyed employees said they would be more likely to stay at their current jobs if they were offered more training. Employees respond with better performance and higher commitment when they know you care about their development.

The post Trends and Predictions HR Leaders Need to Know for 2024 appeared first on CCI Consulting.

HR and business leaders can expect this wage pressure to continue in 2023.  But the issue goes beyond simply the amount of pay an employee may receive.  Research by the Bersin Institute finds that workers are six times more impacted by pay equity than they are by level of pay.  It is crucial to take a systemic approach to revisiting compensation practices to ensure that disparities in pay equity are addressed; just giving all employees a raise, without addressing underlying pay equity issues, does little but exacerbate the inequities between groups of employees.

While there is no single solution for pay, research from the Bersin Institute shows that companies tend to evolve through four levels of maturity when it comes to pay.  First, there is a focus on basic transactional pay, often evident in smaller or newly established companies.  As the business matures, companies focus next on total rewards, then move on to performance-based pay.  Ultimately, however, high-performing companies see pay as an organization-wide strategy and evolve to a systemic pay and rewards system. So, then, what to do?  Savvy organizations will consider the following guidelines as they address pay practices in the coming months:

1. Alignment with Business Goals – An effective compensation strategy should be aligned with the overall business strategy and goals of the organization and support the mission and vision of the firm. While competitive benchmarking is important, every company’s pay program must be uniquely situated to reward performance that aligns with the company’s needs.

2. Competitive and Fair Pay – The compensation strategy should ensure that pay is competitive, fair, and equitable within the industry and all relevant job markets in which the company competes for talent. But that’s only the external view – the pay strategy must also be fair and equitable within the company itself, taking into account the value of each position, the skills and experience required, and the level of responsibility and performance for each role.

3. Flexibility and Customization – While adhering to an overarching pay philosophy, allowing for flexibility and the ability to customize to meet the individual needs and preferences of employees is important. This may include, for example, variable pay, such as bonuses and incentives, or different options for benefits packages to address specific employee needs.  With customization comes the risk that changes in pay practices for one group of employees may create inequities with other employee groups, and HR and Compensation leaders will need to guard against this.

4. Performance-based Incentives – Incentivizing and rewarding employees for their performance and contributions can be a win-win for employees and the company. The company benefits at a broad level from the overall contributions of all employees, while the incentives serve to motivate and enhance retention for individual employees.

5. Communication and Transparency – The pay strategy needs to be communicated clearly and transparently to all employees, so they understand the value of their compensation, how it is derived, and how it aligns with the organization’s goals. These are key tenets of a pay system that will improve employee morale, engagement, and retention.

6. Ongoing Evaluation and Adjustment – An effective compensation strategy should be regularly evaluated and adjusted to ensure it continues to meet the changing needs and objectives of the company Conducting competitive market analyses, soliciting feedback from employees, implementing routine and recurring salary and total rewards reviews, and completing pay equity audits are just a few examples of the fundamentals of effective pay system management that all firms should practice.

7. Compliance with Laws and Regulations – Certainly complying with all applicable laws and regulations related to compensation – such as minimum wage laws, equal pay requirements, FLSA standards, etc. – is a necessity, as failure to comply with these regulations can result in legal and financial liabilities for the company. However, businesses today are operating in an environment in which pay transparency is increasingly being demanded by employees and regulatory authorities, which only highlights the importance of this often-under-valued activity.

While all the above steps are key to an effective pay strategy, a reminder to HR and business leaders about the importance of communication and transparency.  Today, as employees worry about inflation, they want to know what the organization’s pay strategies are to adapt to an inflationary environment that hasn’t been witnessed for 40+ years.  If companies keep them in the dark, employees may fill the information void with gossip or grapevine feedback, they may think more about leaving for another organization, or they may discuss pay with a union representative.  Companies will be well-served to create and maintain open channels of dialogue with staff to ensure your employees are receiving timely, factual, and relevant information about their pay.

When you think about it, people are the only appreciating asset on a company’s balance sheet.  Pay is an investment in this appreciating asset.  HR and business leaders are advised to act accordingly.

Rob Croner
Senior Consulting Advisor
CCI Consulting

The post 7 Keys to an Effective Compensation Strategy appeared first on CCI Consulting.

Why Respect Matters in the Workplace

Feeling respected by superiors was ranked as the most important leadership behavior in a Georgetown University survey of 20,000 employees worldwide. However, employees continue to report disrespectful and uncivil behavior each year. In fact, research shows 98 percent of employees experience uncivil behavior at work.

Respect for employees by management—as well as mutual respect among employees—plays a major role in the health of a company’s culture—and its bottom line. When employees feel respected and confident that they matter, they are more satisfied, happy, engaged, and motivated. However, when employees experience rude or disrespectful behavior at work, they report lower engagement, suffer more mental and physical health problems and are more likely to burn out and quit.

The most important process for eliminating harassment in the workplace is being able to identify it. Since harassment comes in many different forms (and sometimes is not so overt or easily detected), it is vital that employers educate themselves so they can identify when it is happening.

What Disrespect in the Workplace Looks Like

Disrespectful behavior in the workplace is any behavior that is unprofessional, inappropriate, rude, unpleasant, disturbing, or offensive. This type of behavior can come in many shapes and sizes; it can be obvious such as bullying or discrimination, or subtle, taking the form of rumors or passive aggressive remarks.

Disrespectful behavior can fall into several categories, including the following:

Bullying

Bullying is something that almost all people experience starting from a young age. Efforts are implemented in schools to prevent bullying in all aspects, but often, this does not end the cycle, thus, leading to employers having to execute similar programs into their places of work. Picking fun at, isolating others, spreading rumors, and hostility all transfer from the playground to the conference room seamlessly.

A study conducted by Workplace Bullying shows that 30 percent of Americans are bullied in the workplace, with 61.3 percent of that bullying being same-gender bullying. This can range anywhere from:

• Isolation
• Implementing impossible expectations
• Excessive micromanaging
• Spreading rumors
• Aggression

These behaviors may not seem to be as impactful as what many believe to be harassment, but often, such bullying can lead to a loss in production and morale. In fact, bullying results in companies losing more than $250 million every year, or about $14,000 per employee.

Cyberbullying

Since the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies have opted for a hybrid work schedule in hopes of curbing the virus in their workplace. However, the same cannot be said for workplace harassment.

The idea that “no one is watching” plays a large role in the continuity of harassment even in a remote setting. According to Jennifer Brown “…employees have felt as if online environments are the Wild West, where traditional rules don’t apply.”

Fifty-two percent of women have reported experiences of harassment within the past year. Remarks pertaining to children and unavailability due to household responsibilities still make their way around the office, even if it is a remote setting. The correlation between working women and discrimination dates back hundreds of years. Although the glass ceiling has shattered, there are still people eager to glue the pieces back together.

Harassment  

Depending on who you speak to, harassment can be defined in a multitude of ways. Harassment is defined as unwelcome conduct based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information.  Often, the most common form of harassment that comes to mind is sexual harassment.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment in the workplace can stem from what one believes to be a friendly touch on the shoulder to a supervisor insinuating a quid pro-quo-based incentive.

Between 2018 and 2021, women filed 78.2 percent of all sexual harassment charges and 62.2 percent of all harassment charges according to the EEOC. Although women make up most sexual harassment victims, it is not exclusive to them.

In the past decade, 16-18 percent of men have filed sexual harassment complaints to the EEOC as stated in an article published by Porzio, Bromberg & Newman. Men are less likely to report sexual harassment overall, fearful of stereotyping and retaliation.         

Discrimination

Discrimination is, unfortunately, an aspect of social climate that is difficult to eliminate. Whether it be on basis of race, disability, religion, or sexual orientation, no one is excluded from the harms of it because discrimination knows no discrimination.

Disability

People with disabilities make up the largest minority group in the United States and encounter discrimination on a daily basis.

Take the case of EEOC vs. Walmart Stores East for example. In 2014, Walmart incorporated computerized scheduling for employees. This may sound easy or convenient to some, but not to someone with a disability. A veteran employee with Down Syndrome faced the challenges of this new computer system when it changed the hours she was working. Given her condition, she is required to maintain a specific daily routine, one that had been implemented in the entirety of her employment. When concern was raised about the schedule change, nothing was done to accommodate it. Due to the lack of consideration on Walmart’s behalf, this resulted in the employee having attendance issues, leading to her termination in 2015.

What could Walmart have done to prevent this? What trainings could have been implemented for supervisors to make accommodations for disabled employees? The lack of respect for the work of a long-term disabled employee goes to show the lack of respect and lack of value Walmart held for this employee; surely, she has not been the only one who has been a victim to such discrimination.

Race

The line between discrimination and race is a fine one. Even with the Civil Rights Movement in the sixties, race discrimination is still a very real problem for people of color in their everyday lives. Race discrimination in the workplace can range from unequal pay to hostile work environments, leaving people of color with not only physical safety concerns, but also job security concerns.

In 2019, Glow Networks had to pay $70 million in favor of 10 employees for the following race-discrimination practices:

• Promotion denials
• Unequal pay
• Hostile work environments
• Firings and lay offs

Ensuring that all employees feel safe and respected in the workplace should be a top priority for all people in all work settings regardless of their race. Implementing safe spaces where issues can be addressed discreetly is one way of reassuring employees of color that they are safe and respected. It can also lead to less litigation and more resolution.

LGBTQIA+

With recent laws pertaining to protections of sexual orientation, more and more people have made it known they are a part of the LGBTQIA+ community in their place of work. However, as with race, just because there are protective laws does not mean there is not a fine line between discriminatory practices.

For those in the community who feel safe enough to come out in the workplace, it is the job of the employer to maintain that safety at all costs to ensure that all employees, regardless of sexual orientation, are treated equally. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. According to UCLA School of Law, in 2021, LGBTQ employees felt like they are twice as likely to feel they are treated worse than non-LGBTQ persons. On top of this, 45 percent of employees report the use of anti-LGBTQ remarks in the workplace—roughly ¼ of employees report unfair treatment.

3 Ways to Promote Respect in the Workplace

Communication – Having an effective communication process where employees can voice their concerns also plays a role in eliminating harassment. Having anonymous complaint boxes, an open-door policy, or regular one-on-one meetings with employees are just a few ways employers can implement anti-harassment culture in the workplace. This will allow employees to feel safe, seen, and heard when it comes to concerns.

Surveys & Feedback – Conduct employee engagement surveys and feedback to know if disrespectful behavior is occurring at your workplace. In 2019, a study by NCBI found that black employees face 60 percent more discrimination than white people in workplaces. Such incidents lead to stress and job dissatisfaction. By obtaining insights from engagement surveys and employee feedback, disrespectful behavior can be prevented or addressed, which will help keep the workplace culture healthy and under control.

Training & Policies – Anti-harassment trainings and policies set the tone and expectations for your organization, leading to fewer issues and happier employees. Whether your organization is remote, hybrid, or in the office, these trainings and policies will benefit everyone.

I recently had the pleasure of assisting with a client presentation about harassment in the workplace. Tailored to the employees, it set focus on the many types of harassment in the workplace and how something that may seem harmless can be perceived. The presentation covered race, disability, and gender discrimination, among the other protected classes. The presentation also covered the laws set forth by the government when it comes to harassment. Not only did this information provide insight but it also sparked conversation amongst employees, many of whom shared their own experiences.

Respect is one of the key drivers of a positive employee experience and influences engagement, intent to stay, inclusion, well-being, and motivation. It’s important for all organizations to continually monitor and improve respect in their workplace by engaging in ongoing training, collecting feedback from employees, and effectively responding to and addressing employees’ concerns or conflicts when they arise.

Hannah Selheimer
Human Resources Consultant
CCI Consulting

Looking to build and support a more positive and productive workplace climate?

Fill out the form below to download our Respectful Workplace brochure and learn more about our offerings and how CCI Consulting can help foster a culture of respect in your organization.

The post The Importance of Respect in the Workplace and How to Foster It appeared first on CCI Consulting.

There are rule breakers like Amelia Earhart defying the odds, taking risks, accepting consequences, and empowering women to defy gender stereotypes.  “Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done.”

There are tenacious pioneers like Rosa Parks, taking her rightful and proverbial seat, paving the way not just for racial freedom but also for equality despite repression. “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.” “Each person must live their life as a model for others.”

There are brave young women like Malala Yousafzai, Anne Frank, and Greta Thunberg giving voice to social issues: education, authoritarianism, and sustainability, proving that each of us is never too demure to make a difference.  “If people were silent, nothing would change.” (Malala Yousafzai)

There are the strong and persistent like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, accepting the challenge to live her reality while pursuing a lifelong quest to define and legislate gender justice.  “I am a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.”

There are the unmuffled voices, like Maya Angelo and Sojourner Truth, resounding their horrific experiences through words, thoughts, and truths.  Sojourner Truth’s speech “Ain’t I a Woman” pragmatically challenged the constraints she lived.

On your journey as a leader, use the lessons from the past to push you forward.  If I can glean 5 pearls of wisdom from these great women in history, I offer the following:

Innovation

Don’t be afraid to break the rules, that is where innovation and progress come from.  Experiment and use your creativity.  We need more leaders who are innovative and expect innovation. Don’t put your employees’ ideas in a “box”, make innovation and improvement a goal that is rewarded.  The women I talk to want significant work that is rewarding and challenging.  Consider that without curiosity we might not have WiFi (Hedy Lamarr, “The Mother of WiFi”).

Courage of Convictions

It is easy to back down, at least in the moment, and regret it later. Be confident and let that confidence come from knowledge and intuition.  Take a stance on those issues you deem as important but back them up with the right facts as facts influence agreement.  Be a role model for change.  This is particularly important for those emerging women leaders who often lack the belief or confidence that they can perform the job.  We all need someone who emulates courage like those before us.

Find Your Voice

We all have a different voice—some loud, some modest.  The strength of the voice is in the sincerity of the message.  The more honest and authentic our message is as a leader, the more we will be heard.   The more we are heard, the more change we can enact. Speak up… the only risk is to be wrong and that is a risk worth taking.

Listen and Learn

Perhaps the holy grail of leadership abilities: listening is the most powerful skill you can develop and deploy.  Listening achieves a few important results of communication: understanding, engagement, and progress. Listen to understand me and I feel valued, consider my input and perhaps we will both learn.   Listening inspires trust.  Leaders who are trusted inspire others to find their greatness.

Challenge the Status Quo

Change is an inevitable key to progress.  We need to challenge our reality because there is no reason things should not be better or different. Today’s leaders are being challenged to contest the inequities that still permeate corporate culture.  The change to the status quo is on-going and strong leaders must continue the pursuit.  If you never read, “Ain’t’ I a Women”, please do.  It is a lesson in just calling it like it is…so simple, so powerful.

As we celebrate women’s history month, remember the big and the small contributors to our legacy as women: our mothers, mentors, antagonists, and protagonists.  We learn from everyone.   As an organization, attention should be paid to the premise that women are integral to the workplace, and like the pioneers that paved the way for contemporary women in the workplace, they want to contribute meaningfully, lead with integrity, make a difference, and champion change.  As we recognize women in history and currently making history, it is time to break the barriers and recognize good leaders, gender neutral!

“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” (Maya Angelou)

My “She-Roe” and What She Has Taught Me

An infant to a single mother and Irish immigrant, my grandmother was put in an orphanage as her mother worked as an indentured servant. Her birth certificate listed the father as illegitimate.  Sometime during her childhood, she suffered horrendous burns that left her with disfiguring scars. At 16, she was forced into an arranged marriage and mothered two children…their father left.  So as not to displace her children as her mother had done, she found a day boarding school and worked in a box factory to keep her children.

It was truly a sweat factory, and she could barely survive yet her courage, resilience, and maybe a bit of pride propelled her forward.  She was one of the first working women to raise children on her own.  The concept of work-life balance only to be discovered decades later.

Her story of struggle is long and harsh.  Yet, she persisted and endured the challenges presented. She was brave.  She worked in that box factory, educated her children, and eventually worked her way through nursing school.  She wanted to help others in a meaningful way.  She eventually retired from nursing after a few bouts with cancer and heart issues. She then worked in a senior center, caring for the elderly until the age of 83!  She never complained.

Her seemingly cruel life did not hinder her from becoming a leader at work, in her community, and a formidable matriarch to an appreciative family.  She taught me the value of courage and conviction and the power of loyalty, hard work, and success.  She was a role model.  When I am told, “You are just like your grandmother”, I am grateful.

She had courage, a voice, conviction, and challenged every status quo she could…she is my “she-roe”.

Sharon Imperiale

CEO and Owner

CCI Consulting

The post Recognizing the SHEroes of Women’s History – Their Journey is Our Gift appeared first on CCI Consulting.

5 Leadership Skills Every Organization Needs to Focus On:

1. Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, manage and effectively express emotions. Emotional intelligence helps leaders to connect with their team, understand their emotions and make decisions that are in the best interest of their team and organization.
2. Interpersonal Skills: Skills like effective communication, empathy, and collaboration are becoming increasingly important for leaders. Companies are investing in training in these areas to help leaders to connect with their team and improve team dynamics.
3. Individualized Development: Leaders are looking for personalized development programs that cater to their specific needs, goals, and preferences. These programs help leaders to focus on the areas where they need the most improvement and provide them with targeted support and resources.
4. Focus on Well-Being: Mindfulness and well-being have become important aspects of leadership development. Leaders are being encouraged to prioritize their mental and physical health, which in turn helps them to make better decisions and lead their teams more effectively.
5. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Organizations are placing a greater emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion in their leadership development programs. Leaders are being developed to understand the importance of creating inclusive environments and mindsets.

By focusing on emotional intelligence, soft skills, individualized development, well-being, and DE&I, leaders can continue to develop and improve their abilities. While today’s technology made the transition easier, the shift has brought about new challenges and opportunities for leadership in a hybrid workplace, making it even more critical for organizations to invest in the development of their leaders.

The Importance of Hybrid Leadership Training

Being an effective communicator, collaborating, leading change, and ensuring accountability are essential leadership competencies. However, the way leaders execute these things can look very different than when they don’t have the same degree of facetime with their teams. In a hybrid workplace, leaders are tasked with managing remote and in-person employees, each of whom may have different needs and challenges. They must also be able to perform effectively with teams that may be spread across different time zones and locations.

There are several approaches to hybrid leadership training and development that organizations can use to equip their leaders with the skills they need to succeed in a hybrid workplace. Some of the most effective approaches include:

• Formal training programs: Formal training programs, such as leadership workshops, webinars, and online courses, can provide leaders with the skills and knowledge they need to effectively lead their teams in a hybrid workplace. These programs can cover a wide range of topics, including communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, and time management.
• Coaching and mentorship: Coaching and mentorship programs can provide leaders with the support and guidance they need to succeed in their roles. These programs can help leaders identify their strengths and weaknesses, develop their skills, and get feedback on their performance. They can also provide leaders with a network of peers and mentors who can offer advice and support.
• On-the-job learning opportunities: On-the-job learning opportunities, such as shadowing, job rotation, stretch assignments, and cross-functional projects, can provide leaders with real-world experience and exposure to new skills and perspectives. These opportunities can help leaders develop their leadership muscles in a practical and relevant way.
• 360-degree feedback: 360-degree feedback is a technique that allows leaders to receive feedback from their colleagues, subordinates, and superiors. This feedback can help them identify key areas needed for development and potential blind spots.

Moreover, leaders in a hybrid workplace must also be able to adapt to new technology and processes, as well as be able to effectively balance the needs of both remote and in-person employees. Additionally, they must be able to foster a positive workplace culture and create a sense of unity and belonging among their team members. All these challenges require leaders to have a set of skills that are different from what they may have been accustomed to in a traditional office environment.

5 Ways to Develop Leaders in a Hybrid Workplace

• Provide formal training: Formal training programs can help leaders develop the skills and competencies they need to succeed in a hybrid workplace. This can include workshops, webinars, or online courses that cover topics such as remote management, collaboration, team development, and relationship building.
• Offer coaching and mentoring: Coaching and mentoring can be an effective way for leaders to receive individualized support and guidance as they navigate the challenges of a hybrid workplace. This can include one-on-one sessions with a mentor or coach, or peer-to-peer mentoring programs.
• Encourage collaboration and communication: Encouraging collaboration and communication among team members, regardless of location, is key to success in a hybrid workplace. This can include using virtual collaboration tools, hosting virtual team-building activities, and encouraging open communication channels among team members.
• Foster a positive workplace culture: Fostering a positive workplace culture is critical to keeping remote and in-person employees engaged and motivated. This can include regularly communicating company values and goals, recognizing and rewarding employees for their contributions, and providing opportunities for personal and professional growth.
• Emphasize adaptability and flexibility: Leaders in a hybrid workplace must be able to adapt to changing circumstances and embrace new technology and processes. Encouraging leaders to embrace new tools and techniques, and providing opportunities for continuous learning, can help them stay up-to-date and prepared for today’s challenges.

Leaders will determine the success or failure of a hybrid workplace, and successful companies are taking action to ensure their leaders have the skills and mindset to effectively manage a hybrid team. In working with such companies, we’ve found their leaders have a positive impact on employee engagement and performance and give their organization a huge competitive advantage.

Mark Saddic

Vice President, Consulting

CCI Consulting

The post How to Develop Leaders in a Hybrid Workplace appeared first on CCI Consulting.

1. Coaching is Not a Substitute for Performance Management
2. The Coachee has the Right to Confidentiality
3. Stakeholder Involvement is a Key Factor for Success

1. Coaching is Not a Substitute for Performance Management

When a leader is recommended for coaching, they may experience a mix of emotions. Initially, they may be excited that the organization is investing in their development. Simultaneously, they may question what is wrong with them that they “need” coaching.  This emotional cocktail is challenging on its own and may cause resistance to the process, but it is exacerbated when coaching is the way the company has decided to deliver tough messages to a difficult employee.

While the coach can help facilitate a growth process, the leader who is being recommended for coaching should be made aware of development opportunities before working with a coach.  No one likes the feeling that negative conversations are happening about them behind the scenes but when a coach is hired to come in and be the sole bearer of bad news, the leader may be left feeling like no one internally had the courage or respected them enough to tell them about an issue before getting others involved. These conversations can be difficult to have, but it is the responsibility of the manager to clarify performance expectations regarding both what should be delivered and how to do so in a way that is aligned with organizational values.   (For more information on how to engage in difficult conversations, check out this article here.)

When entering into a coaching engagement, it is important for the leader to fully understand why they are being recommended for this form of development before entering into a conversation with the coach.  If there is a need to address specific challenges that a leader may have, coaching works best when this feedback has been previously shared and when the leader has had the time and opportunity to process these perspectives before being asked to adjust their behavior.  This provides a strong foundation for the coaching relationship to be built upon, especially since after meeting the leader for the first time, the coach must create trust and rapport quickly if they are to help facilitate change.

2. The Coachee Has the Right to Confidentiality

Before investing in a coaching program, sponsors should be aware that coaching is confidential.  In other words, what gets discussed in a coaching session, stays in the coaching session.  For the coachee to be vulnerable and open to the process of having their current behavior and leadership style challenged for the purpose of growth, the coach must provide a psychologically safe environment. (Psychological safety is the belief that one won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.)

In a coaching session, a leader must feel comfortable sharing personal or sensitive information, for example, exposing a mistake that they may not know how to share with their manager.  This leader can leverage their time with a coach to discuss the best ways to approach that conversation.  Coaching should not replace the conversation with the manager, but in this example, will help the leader to enhance the level of professionalism with which they handle the situation and manage up.  If the leader fears that what is shared in coaching will be circled back to sponsors, they may not be so willing to offer real-life scenarios up for examination or to try new ways of working until they find what works best.

In addition, coaches are bound to a code of ethics that states that all information acquired by the coach, be it through assessments, interviews, or coaching conversations, will be kept strictly confidential. This information belongs to the client and cannot be shared with the organization without express permission from the coachee.  While coaches certainly want to aid the organization in reaching its goals, they must do so while also respecting the right of the coachee to confidentiality.  If an organization needs to gather data to make important personnel decisions, a coaching program or 360-assessment may not be the best tool to do so.

3. Stakeholder Involvement is a Major Success Factor

While coaching conversations and assessments are confidential, the engagement should not take place in a vacuum.  Key organizational leaders (which often include the manager and HR business partner) have an important role to play.  In an engagement, the leader is not handed off to the coach only to come back a few months later fully transformed. Rather, managers, mentors, HR partners, internal customers, and even family (where appropriate) can check in regularly with the employee being coached to gauge progress, share noticeable changes or differences they observe, and offer support.

Support can come in many forms, including, but not limited to, an additional accountability partner, access to networks or higher-level colleagues, offering additional development resources like books or classes, frequent performance feedback, internal forms of rewards and recognition, etc.  This provides positive reinforcement for what is happening within the coaching program or guidance when adjustments need to be made.

Stakeholder involvement during the engagement also sets the stage for sustaining new behaviors once coaching comes to a close.  Even with long-term programs, the time will come for a coach to disengage, but when that happens, the leader should still have a robust team of people to rely on.  If those individuals are aware of their role even before the coaching process begins, the coachee is more likely to be clear about the company’s positive intentions for the program, is less likely to become dependent on the coach, and will be more confident in their post-coaching journey towards success.

Conclusion

Having this knowledge can help you determine whether coaching is the right solution for your organization’s development needs and will help you ready your leaders for the process.  When you do make the investment, you’ll be set up for successful outcomes and the incredible benefits that coaching can provide.

If you’d like more tips on bringing coaching successfully into your organization, we are here to support you. View our blogs:

• Maximizing the ROI of Coaching for Leaders
• Who Needs a Coach?
• The Three Elements of a Successful Coaching Engagement

If you have questions or would like to discuss your organization’s readiness for coaching in more detail, get in touch by sending an email to info@cciconsulting.com.

Adrianna Gabriel

Director of Coaching & Development

CCI Consulting

The post Is Your Organization Ready for a Coaching Program? 3 Things to Know Before Investing appeared first on CCI Consulting.

Many companies have put a huge effort (not to mention cost and time) into their HR departments to enable them to develop a better “employee experience” to differentiate themselves in the workplace and attract and retain more employees. And in a time of talent shortages, it’s usually money and effort well-spent if it leads to a substantially stronger job candidate pool and a higher employee retention rate.
Enhancing the “employee experience” can run the gamut from an array of programs for mental, financial, and physical health to ongoing education and training to things that are meant just to make work a little more fun and feel a little less like “work”. Measuring the effectiveness of these programs isn’t always easy and requires making a leap of faith that if an employee gets their life needs better met at your company vs. another, they will come to – and stay with – your firm. And while that conclusion would seem logical, an important question to consider today is “but, is it enough?”

Enter The New Focus on Sustainability

For some companies, the emergence of the importance of both human rights and environmental consciousness has led them to combine their “employee experience” programs into a new concept referred to as “people sustainability”. This catch-all encompasses traditional programs like those highlighted above along with ones that ensure fairness in all aspects of the workplace along with standards that reflect the company’s responsibility to be a positive citizen of the world at large.

Several companies spurred by new European Union regulations have taken the lead in this emerging trend by issuing their “human rights standards” that reflect not only their concern and focus on their employees’ well-being but on the well-being of those outside the company. This sense of global citizenship is impressive as it shows how the corporate world can flex its muscles not just to gain market share or increase their employees’ job satisfaction, but also to help improve the lives of others who may or may not ever touch their products or use their services.

Generally, these standards include a stance on safety, health, non-discrimination, paid time off from work, general respect for others and personal differences, and equitable pay, but may also include positions on broader global issues like access to clean water, child welfare, and other basic human rights.

Of course, these efforts beg a few key questions:

1. For employees, do they really value when their company takes a strong position on something broader? Does it yield greater loyalty?
2. For other interested parties, do these types of programs make a real difference in improving lives around the world or is it just to try to steer outside perception?
3. For the company, do these types of programs help in more tangible ways like financial performance? That is, either by helping generate revenue or by saving cost?

To the first question, it’s probably true that these programs engender greater employee allegiance, but that is one that is easy enough to gauge by use of some type of employee engagement survey. To the second question, it’s probably a bit too early to say for certain, but missing an opportunity to use a company’s influence power to make a positive impact in the world would seem like too large of an opportunity to miss. And, if it helps improve the company’s image at the same time then even better. To the third question, the likelihood is that it’s to a company’s moderate financial advantage. The likely gain is all of the things that come with greater engagement and increased sustainability: reduced employee turnover, enhanced talent attraction, and a positive public perception. Of course, those could be offset (albeit, just slightly) by some type of counter sentiment or other external factors beyond the company’s control, so it would be wise to step cautiously.

All that being said, few could effectively argue that it isn’t well past time for companies to step up to help face the larger societal problems that plague us all. With their financial muscle and powers of influence, corporations can help ensure that the world becomes safer, healthier, and an overall better place for the current and future generations to live. Even if the outcome is just having greater sustainability of life, that alone has clear economic benefit to most companies as it means more products and services will be needed by more people for a longer period of time. And certainly, there are financial benefits in that!

Some Practical Recommendations & Considerations

Establishing a basic human rights approach for your company doesn’t require an extreme amount of internal resources but does necessitate that a clear position be articulated and that there are strong assurances that minimize – if not completely eliminate – the chance of internal hypocrisy. So, while the infrastructure to support this can be rather light, there should be clear identification as to who “owns” the policy.

Even in smaller organizations, the position of “Chief Ethics Officer” is not an unusual title for someone who already holds another full-time role internally to assume. Issues as local as the right to form a union and command fair pay and good working conditions to much larger global topics like climate change and child labor can be covered depending on what topics the organization’s leadership feels most strongly about and most wants the world to know how they feel. And while this role should work closely with the Head of Human Resources, it need not be an HR expert who assumes it. What matters most is that the individual has a degree of personal passion about the issues and has the access to senior leadership to quickly identify and rectify any conflicts to the policy that emerge.

Companies with operations in multiple countries need to consider a view on human rights and sustainability that carries both local credibility and global significance. And while it may not seem like a huge risk to stand up for something so basic, it can be hard to navigate through the multiple layers of interpretation your stance might be viewed from. The old adage that “no good deed goes unpunished” could prove to be true once again, not to mention the increased level of scrutiny that the company would have to always live up to the moral principles they themselves established. And, of course, these new standards could also extend to others including suppliers.

So, is it worth it? Well, when has taking a stand for dignity, freedom, fairness, and sustainability not been worth it? Certainly, it’s popular to jump on trend these days and there’s little doubt the current generation comes to the workplace with a different set of expectations from their employers than their parents had. So, in the near term, it could serve companies well in both the marketplace and in the race for talent, but convincing your current employees and interested outsiders on the sincerity of your efforts to support the greater human condition can be one of the biggest hurdles.

Of course, a more “basic” challenge that may hit your company even sooner is simply finding the right kind of talent in the first place. While most companies take the usual strategy of first looking internally to find the right person to fill a role and if unsuccessful, then trying to look externally – perhaps even using a professional search agency if the need is great and/or urgent – talent gaps are most often the biggest roadblocks to profitable growth.

Much like diners look to Yelp! or Google to help guide their restaurant and entertainment choices, your current (and prospective) talent will often draw conclusions about organizations from the judgments of others who have weighed in online, which gets us back to the importance of reputation that the company holds – often drawn in part (or wholly) – from the reviewers.

Not many companies are fortunate enough to have such a sterling reputation that employees of all skill levels are knocking down their doors for interviews. Even those perceived to be in the upper echelon of employers have gotten tarnished a bit over the years. So, while it starts with having a reputation as positive as possible, it also still depends greatly on your HR department to find, “sell,” and nurture the right kind of talent you need.

It’s been said that the ability to identify talent is a rarer talent than pure talent itself, but this capacity doesn’t happen by chance. Rather it comes through a talent acquisition team that understands the needs as well as or better than the hiring manager, that has the best tools to efficiently determine organizational fit, and that has the flexibility to court the candidate and present a compelling offer that hits on the candidate’s key decision points.

This means investing in your talent acquisition function is another imperative. Some companies have been known to use behavioral assessment games to show the personality traits and soft skills of candidates. This showcases elements of a candidate’s emotional intelligence and provide insights that are close to impossible to gain in a typical structured interview. Other companies have even tried to use artificial intelligence (AI) to help them make key decisions on talent, but like the use (and arguably overuse) of analytics in sports to drive decisions on the field, nothing will ever fully replace the face-to-face interview.

In the end, it comes down to this – today’s employees want more and expect more. The best ones have always been able to command it from companies. And while it perhaps used to be that there was a time when they just wanted “more” for themselves, now they want “more” for the causes they believe in and are bigger than themselves. Companies have always had the choice to either meet that demand and therefore hire and keep the best talent or not. That hasn’t changed. But, if meeting the demands of today’s generation means using their power to help make the world a more inclusive, and more sustainable place, what could be the argument against this trend?

Chris Giangrasso
Senior Consulting Advisor
CCI Consulting

The post How to Meet the Changing Expectations of Employees (Both Current and Prospective) appeared first on CCI Consulting.

Internal talent mobility (also referred to as internal career mobility or internal career management) means that employees can advance their careers and continue professional growth and development within the same organization.  Employees are encouraged to explore opportunities beyond their current role, including moves into adjacent departments or into entirely different career fields. This type of mobility includes upward mobility, such as promotion into a management role or lateral mobility; transitioning into a completely different department within the company at the same level.

Lack of career advancement (63%) was equal to poor pay (63%) as the top reason employees leave a company as reported in the Pew Research Center’s 2022 American Trends Panel. What’s more, the latest workforce survey from The Conference Board found that 58% of professional/office workers surveyed say they are likely to leave their company without professional development—or continuing education and career training to help develop new skills, stay up to date on current trends, and drive career advancement.

It’s clear that people don’t just join and stay at a company for the money; they want an experience that helps them grow personally and professionally. Gen Z and Millennials, in particular, are committed to their personal learning and development and this remains their first-choice benefit from employers according to research by PwC.

Five Benefits of Internal Talent Mobility Programs

Internal talent mobility provides a multitude of benefits that positively impact company performance, culture, and brand perception.  These include:

Minimizes risk to the organization’s growth – By recruiting internal talent, the organization reduces the expenses and inefficiencies associated with hiring only outside talent and boosts retention and engagement by ensuring a worker’s position grows with them and the organization. It also helps retain institutional knowledge.

Boosts productivity – Internal hires tend to perform better than external hires as they get up to speed more quickly because they already know the culture, processes, and expectations within the workplace. In addition, as employees migrate to different areas in the organization, they bring knowledge of the previous department, providing a more holistic view of the company’s operations, interdependencies and opportunities for enhanced collaboration and efficiency.

Enhances your employer brand – Your company brand is visible through Glassdoor, LinkedIn and other social media sites. Building a strong internal talent development program can boost your organization’s ability to hire external talent. When candidates see the company’s commitment to the growth and development of its employees, they are more likely to apply to that organization.

Increases employee retention rates – Employees at companies with high internal mobility stay at their company nearly twice as long as organizations with low internal mobility. Additionally, these employees report a heightened level of engagement and commitment to the organization.

Increased Engagement – Research shows that providing development and career enrichment opportunities is a key driver of engagement. For example, in one study, 80 percent of surveyed employees said that development opportunities would help them feel more engaged at work.

How HR and Upper Management Can Approach Internal Talent Mobility

The new year presents a good time for HR and senior leadership to revisit and revise internal career mobility programs, advancement opportunities, and skills development to help their employees build a long-term career path within the organization and prevent them from pursuing new opportunities elsewhere. Below are a few approaches to internal talent mobility that organizations of all sizes can consider and implement:

Train employees and managers to have career-focused discussions – Many people feel uncomfortable having career discussions with their manager, especially if the goal is to move to another area of the company. Remove the stigma associated with these conversations by making them a normal and regular occurrence.

Encourage internal networking – When an employee reaches out to another department head, it is a signal that they want to stay and grow within the organization. Make it easier to network internally or they will seek those opportunities externally.

Post jobs internally – Transparency matters. It’s surprising how many organizations overlook this simple, no-cost solution to recruitment and retention. According to iCIMS’ 2023 Workforce Report, 70% of workers do not know how to progress in their careers, and more than half think it’s difficult to find and apply to open jobs internally. Communicating internal job openings to employees shows that the organization values and sees potential in its employees and helps direct employees to roles where they have skills and interests.

Take a skills inventory – Tools like career assessments and 360-degree feedback can help you learn where individuals (and the organization as a whole) have strong skills and where more training is needed. This insight can help managers identify internal candidates for current openings or determine the most promising internal career paths for individual employees, then facilitate career path conversations with those employees and build in the learning and experiences required for the employee to take the next step.

Mentorship program – Creating a mentorship program allows employees to establish a relationship with an experienced team member to broaden their understanding of the organization, priorities and contributions of other roles or functional areas.  Mentees benefit from a coworker’s professional experience by learning how to more effectively navigate the culture of the company. Plus, those who mentor gain skills and experience to prepare them for leadership roles within the company.

Cross-training – Internal talent mobility isn’t just about workers moving from one position to another within the company. It also includes the ability of workers to temporarily switch to another employee’s job tasks without leaving their current position. Offering cross-functional projects, cross-training opportunities, and stretch assignments are great ways for employees to grow and develop while staying in their current role. Providing the opportunity to cover for another employee while they are assigned to another project or on leave is a great way to gain exposure to a variety of company activities.

Coaching – A coach can help employees discover what they want to do, assess job-fit, take ownership of their career path, and accelerate the timeline in which they move into the right role. Your organization can hire an external coach or train managers on how to be effective coaches. Both approaches will lead employees to take ownership of their career paths and identify their career development goals.

Professional Development Reimbursement Policy – One of the easiest things an organization can do to promote internal talent mobility is to offer reimbursement for educational courses or certifications that increase an employee’s skills and provide the flexibility and agility they need to move to different roles within the organization.

Start Unlocking Your Organization’s Potential

Building a strong and agile talent pipeline is crucial for businesses today. By investing in internal talent mobility, your organization provides more growth opportunities for employees, develops a pipeline of future leaders, closes skills gaps in your organization—all of which enables your workforce to remain agile and ready for future disruptions. How you invest in and develop your employees today will ultimately determine whether your organization thrives tomorrow.

Kimberlee Beck
Director of Marketing
CCI Consulting

The post Turbocharge Your Talent Strategy with Internal Mobility appeared first on CCI Consulting.

To meet their talent challenges, many organizations follow a basic strategy: Ask people what they want and try to give it to them.  This straightforward approach is at the core of many employee engagement and retention initiatives.  Tempting as this may be, doing so can be a trap, as it tends to focus discussions and actions on the material aspects of jobs that are uppermost in employees’ minds at that moment.  In the past, a top issue was often pay, but the more recent trend has been flexibility, notably in remote or hybrid work.  And while material offerings are the easiest levers to pull and are immediately appreciated, they are also easier for competitors to imitate, and their impact on employee retention is the least enduring – in fact, an over-reliance on material offerings can result in a race to the bottom, as companies strive to outbid one another for talent.

So, what to do?  A more impactful approach is to design and implement a framework – commonly referred to as the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) – that shifts the focus of leaders and employees (and job candidates) from what they want at the moment to what they need to build a thriving future for themselves and the organization.  Sound too complicated?  It’s really not – it’s simply refining the “ask people what they want” strategy by incorporating four interrelated factors:

1. Material Offerings, which include salary & benefits, physical office space, work location, schedule flexibility, computer equipment, etc.
2. Opportunities to Develop and Grow, which comprise all the ways a company helps employees acquire new skills and become more valuable in the labor market. Common examples include training activities, job rotations, and career pathways.
3. Connection and Community represent the benefits that come from being part of a larger group. Examples include being appreciated and valued for who you are, social relationships, and mutual accountability, all of which serve as the foundation for an energizing culture.
4. Meaning and Purpose which are the organization’s aspirational reasons for existing and answer the core question of why employees do the work they do.

It’s important to note that these factors vary with respect to how – and when – an employee experiences them.  HR leaders will want to think about short- vs. longer-term impact, as well as individual vs. collective impact.  For example, Material Offerings and Connection & Community are typically experienced in the short-term, while Growth & Development and Meaning & Purpose are longer-term plays.  Paying a bonus will have a nice immediate, positive impact but the effect wears off quickly.  However, coupling a bonus payment (immediate impact) with investments in an employee’s career growth (longer-term impact) creates both near-term satisfaction and longer-term “stickiness.”  Similarly, Material Offerings and Growth & Development are experienced by an employee individually, while Connection & Community and Meaning & Purpose are experienced on a collective level.

At many companies, different organizational areas – HR leaders, Operational leaders, C-Suite leaders – are involved in how the four factors are managed, and the result is too often a lack of integration or synergy between the factors.   HR typically handles salary and benefits, while Operational leaders handle scheduling and work flexibility, and senior leaders focus on culture and purpose.  This approach ignores how changes in one factor can affect others.  An enduring Employee Value Proposition framework requires treating the four factors as interdependent parts of an integrated system.  A systematic approach to re-thinking your company’s EVP entails several steps:

• Assess what your company has and what your employees need (i.e., “ask people what they want”). Collect information on what your organization is currently providing with respect to each of the four factors, how employees experience them, and what employees want.  This information is often readily available from employee engagement survey data; if your company hasn’t surveyed employees, consider doing so.
• Identify “priority” actions for each factor. An analysis of the employee engagement data will likely reveal key gaps in each of the four factors, areas in which your organization is not offering the right programs for employees, or perhaps you will see evidence of how activities in one factor are actually undermining programs in another area.   With this data, identify the key priorities highlighting which programs you will start, stop, or change.
• Change the conversation – A crucial element is to ensure HR and Operational leaders are talking about the EVP in an integrated way. As new initiatives are started or changes are made to existing programs, all leaders should be prepared to explain the rationale (short-term vs. longer-term impact, and individual vs. collective dynamic).  This is particularly important in recruiting and onboarding activities, performance management, and decisions regarding employee development opportunities.
• Finally, remember that employees’ needs are dynamic and should be reassessed on a regular basis. Ongoing assessment is vital to evaluating how relationships among the four factors may need to shift in response to changes in the organization or external environment.

Approaching employee attraction, retention, and engagement as an integrated system helps avoid a race to the bottom and allows your company to move from reacting to the demands of the moment – whether for signing bonuses, more time off, or remote work – to creating an environment that enables people to reach their full potential.  And who doesn’t want to work in a company that helps them reach their full potential?  A true win-win.

Rob Croner
Senior Consulting Advisor
CCI Consulting

The post Worried About Employee Engagement? Then Re-think Your Employee Value Proposition appeared first on CCI Consulting.

Performance management is a critical business process that focuses on and aligns individual efforts and performance expectations with what is required to achieve organizational goals. Unfortunately, according to Gallup, only 23% of employees strongly agree that their manager provides meaningful feedback. Unclear expectations and lack of meaningful feedback hurt both performance and engagement.

For many organizations, performance management is anchored in an annual review process that crams a year’s worth of feedback into one annual meeting. Limiting your performance management process to an annual review leads to recency bias and holds people accountable for past behavior at the expense of improving current performance. It is an inefficient and frustrating model dreaded by all involved.

Progressive organizations know the importance of frequent feedback, so they prioritize it and implement processes to support good two-way communication about performance. They ensure that every employee understands the performance expectations and how they perform relative to those expectations. These organizations also recognize the power of clear, consistent communication in retaining motivated employees who understand their roles and the roles of others in contributing to the organization’s overall success. As a result, these firms are either supplementing or replacing traditional performance management processes with continuous performance management.

The core concept of continuous performance management is frequent, ongoing feedback throughout the year as opposed to those waiting to provide feedback at a traditional annual or semi-annual appraisal. The idea is to use regularly scheduled 1:1’s to provide continuous feedback, alignment of goal setting, and assistance. These frequent and focused meetings help the employee feel valued and supported and allow the manager to celebrate successes, identify any areas of concern, and support ongoing development.

Regular touchpoints and conversations reduce stress by normalizing the experience of talking about performance. It also shifts the manager’s role from evaluator to coach, working with their people to help them be their best instead of reserving judgment to be shared once or twice a year. Providing effective performance feedback can motivate employees, enhance their performance, and increase their level of engagement.

Five steps to implementing a continuous performance management process:

1. The first step is ensuring employees have clear expectations and understand how success will be measured. The OKR methodology is a simple goal-setting process based on defining a measurable objective and a set of critical results that contribute to that objective.

2. The second step toward implementing continuous performance management is establishing a regular cadence for 1:1 meetings between the manager and their direct reports. Ideally, this should be every week, but if that’s not sustainable, start with monthly check-ins.

3. The third step is to standardize the structure of these meetings. Here are a few tips:

• • These meetings have the most impact when the employee owns the agenda. The employee should do most of the talking with the manager asking questions and actively listening.
  • These scheduled meetings should be viewed as firm commitments. Therefore, if a meeting must be postponed, it should be rescheduled as soon as possible rather than canceled.
  • Agreed-upon actions should be confirmed at the end of the meeting. A status update on these agreed-upon actions should be added to the agenda of the next meeting.

4. The fourth step is having the meeting. In advance of each session, the employee and the manager must reflect on and document points for discussion. An example of the reflection questions that can frame the meeting:

• • How is the person feeling (level of energy, excitement, stress level, etc.)
  • Progress on the action items from the last meeting
  • How are they tracking toward their big goals?
  • What went well?
  • What didn’t go so well, or where is support needed?
  • What else do they need to achieve the results?

5. The fifth step is the most challenging and the most important. It is the commitment to consistently maintaining the cadence meetings defined in step two and the discipline to follow the process outlined in steps three and four. The power of continuous performance management is that it provides a forum for continual ongoing performance feedback. Having your leaders engage with each employee frequently to have them reflect, document, and discuss their performance (feeling safe doing so) will drive sustained focus that will generate improved results and greater engagement. The benefits are significant but only realized when the process is followed continuously.

As previously noted, it is essential to document what was discussed and the commitments made. Meeting notes provide documentation of successes, areas needing attention, and agreed-upon action steps. These can be tracked and stored in a performance management system, saved in an employee file, or memorialized in a follow-up email.

Recognizing and rewarding good performance is more important than penalizing bad performance.

Rather than punishing bad performance, use these sessions as an opportunity to provide coaching to remediate and address gaps. If gaps persist, they can be addressed with a performance improvement plan (PIP) that is managed by setting clear expectations and providing objective and frequent feedback.  A PIP is more directive and prescriptive than a regular ongoing performance conversation, and the documentation of agreed actions is more formal. The outcome of continued non-performance or non-compliance is spelled out in disciplinary terms.

If you have not already embraced continuous performance management, take the first step by being more disciplined around providing real-time feedback on current performance. Doing so will likely drive immediate increases in performance and engagement. However, to avoid the Hawthorne effect and sustain this impact, leaders need to commit to delivering on the “continuous” aspect of continuous performance management. Those organizations and leaders that do will outperform those that don’t, just as the sports coach that provides timely feedback and coaching throughout the season will outperform those coaches who withhold feedback and coaching until the end of the season.

Brian Clapp

President

CCI Consulting

The post Embracing Continuous Performance Management: 5 Steps for Success appeared first on CCI Consulting.