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Corporate Culture: Are employees a match or mismatch?
Corporate culture plays a more essential role in retaining talent that it is given credit for by organizational leadership. Employees decide to remain in their present jobs based upon an organization’s characteristics, such as:
· A positive, future-oriented work environment
· Shared values and goals
· A feeling of trust among colleagues, managers, and peers
· Team members work together effectively to complete assignments
· Employees are given fair and respectful treatment
· Management shared information – good news or bad news
The match or mismatch between individual talent members and the organization’s reference points is a critical element of a person’s decision-making process regarding their future with this employer. When cultural and value boundaries do not extensively overlap, a mismatch exists.
New hires need to become oriented to basic behavior assumptions regarding preferences in work styles, dress codes, office procedures, workplace norms, rituals, and traditions as well as accepted ethics and ethics. To quickly and effectively become productive, they need to:
· Learn their organization’s fundamental, unique qualities
· Compare and establish a level of ease with their own behavioral and belief systems
· Feel comfortable working within the organization’s cultural standards and expectations
· Become a stakeholder and adopt the organization’s way of doing business
· Be accepted by their colleagues and peers as full integrated members of the team
Boundaries for individuals and organizations are those priority items that must be taken into account when making hiring and acceptance decisions, and once aboard, retaining or remaining decisions. Individuals will assess their family/personal demands/activities as well as their career plans, and the possible impact of a workplace on them. On the other hand, organizations will review their mission, purpose, and marketplace and whether potential talent can fulfill their needs.
For an individual, the greater the match or overlap of organization’s cultural boundaries and personal reference points, the more the employer fits their image of their ideal workplace. For an organization, the greater the match or overlap, the more the individual fits their picture of someone who will contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the workplace.
An organization that establishes:
· A set of guiding principles that are in sync with employees’ basic beliefs and standards,
· Commits to meeting their employees’ needs and providing the means to integrating them into the workplace, and
· Creates an image of the future where employers can see their role and contribution to “making it happen”,
is an organization that will attract and retain talent that is a great match leading to successful outcomes.
Email comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist & Author anreitman@verizon.net
Friday, May 7, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
CREATE A WORKPLACE COMMUNITY WITH STORY
Much as been written about today’s multigenerational workforce with its diversified work styles, communication ways, language, values, and perspectives. Having three or four generations interacting in an organization is the beginning of creating a community where everyone can feel that they belong and have something to contribute.
When a workplace community exists, it provides ways for new employees to feel welcomed and enables them to integrate into the organization more quickly and effectively. A viable workplace community strengthens ties between people no matter position, status within the organization, allowing loyalty, respect, bonding, and trust to deepen. And, last, but certainly not least, a true organizational community gives the senior-level staff and executives a reason to remain motivated, engaged and involved.
How do you find and build on the common and compatible points that exist among the generations? Storytelling is a powerful tool that everyone can use and see its application in building a talent community. People love to tell a story, an anecdote, an incident that reflects who they are and experiences that have had an impact on them. Stories allow people to share, empathize, find their common ground, identify with, and learn outside a structured classroom and formalized training.
Stories can be told from either the individual or organization’s perspective. Junior-level employees can tell stories/anecdotes, for example, about their background, passions, career goals, work expectations, interests, images of organization – information that their peers can identify with and that management can begin to form ideas about potential leadership candidates. On the other hand, senior-level staff can share stories about the organization and their own work achievements, for example, regarding the organization’s brand, culture, vision, mission, and epic successes.
Stories can be exchanged, for example, during new employee orientation, introduction of a work team, initiation of a mentoring program, an organizational networking event, at a department/division meeting – with a facilitator for this activity. The role of story cannot be ignored when trying to create a community – its authenticity, purpose, and power leads to a sense of belonging, greater productivity, and identification. The end result is that a multigenerational workforce will feel, “we aren’t that all different after all, we can work together with understanding acceptance and respect!”
Email comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author
Email: anreitman@verizon.net
When a workplace community exists, it provides ways for new employees to feel welcomed and enables them to integrate into the organization more quickly and effectively. A viable workplace community strengthens ties between people no matter position, status within the organization, allowing loyalty, respect, bonding, and trust to deepen. And, last, but certainly not least, a true organizational community gives the senior-level staff and executives a reason to remain motivated, engaged and involved.
How do you find and build on the common and compatible points that exist among the generations? Storytelling is a powerful tool that everyone can use and see its application in building a talent community. People love to tell a story, an anecdote, an incident that reflects who they are and experiences that have had an impact on them. Stories allow people to share, empathize, find their common ground, identify with, and learn outside a structured classroom and formalized training.
Stories can be told from either the individual or organization’s perspective. Junior-level employees can tell stories/anecdotes, for example, about their background, passions, career goals, work expectations, interests, images of organization – information that their peers can identify with and that management can begin to form ideas about potential leadership candidates. On the other hand, senior-level staff can share stories about the organization and their own work achievements, for example, regarding the organization’s brand, culture, vision, mission, and epic successes.
Stories can be exchanged, for example, during new employee orientation, introduction of a work team, initiation of a mentoring program, an organizational networking event, at a department/division meeting – with a facilitator for this activity. The role of story cannot be ignored when trying to create a community – its authenticity, purpose, and power leads to a sense of belonging, greater productivity, and identification. The end result is that a multigenerational workforce will feel, “we aren’t that all different after all, we can work together with understanding acceptance and respect!”
Email comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author
Email: anreitman@verizon.net
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Communicating Your Professional Branding: What are the considerations?
Whether you are marketing your professional branding verbally, in print, or on the web, you need to take into account a number of considerations as you plan and initiating a branding campaign. That is, if you want to target the right audience with the right message and have a successful outcome. Make no mistake, it does not matter if you are looking for a job, want to move up your organization’s ladder, grow your clientele base, or have other career/professional marketing goals in mind, you are promoting a product – yourself!
Exactly what are you trying to do when developing a professional brand? The goal is to create an individualized professional niche; projecting your ideal image in a highly visible, powerful, and memorable way. Your established brand sets you aside from your competitors and showcases what you bring to the table.
How do you go about establishing a focused targeted brand? What are the considerations you need to think about to achieve your goal?
Communications begin from the moment someone comes into contact with your brand – either when they meet you in person or read a communiqué from you. First impressions are formed almost instantly and thus, are the essence of your professional branding. Once an image is established in a person’s mind, it is quite difficult to change it.
Purpose and audience determines what is highlighted in your profession brand message - which expertise, knowledge, accomplishments, personality characteristics, etc. Way of communicating influences language, style and style. Each communication method has a distinctive impact and span of attention. Be aware of how different generations and cultures react to various communication styles, format, and language.
Length of time you have with the person – 3 minutes (e.g. networking situation), 30 minutes (e.g. 1st round of job interviews), or 1 hour (e.g. marketing your services/products). Decide what is the priority info to present within the time frame allotted to project your ideal image.
Message you want your audience to take away and remember. Think about how someone would describe you and your professional brand and how strong would the recommendation be to develop a working relationship with you.
By taking into considerations the above listing, when creating the message relaying your professional brand, communications will be successful.
Email your comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author: anreitman@verizon.net
Exactly what are you trying to do when developing a professional brand? The goal is to create an individualized professional niche; projecting your ideal image in a highly visible, powerful, and memorable way. Your established brand sets you aside from your competitors and showcases what you bring to the table.
How do you go about establishing a focused targeted brand? What are the considerations you need to think about to achieve your goal?
Communications begin from the moment someone comes into contact with your brand – either when they meet you in person or read a communiqué from you. First impressions are formed almost instantly and thus, are the essence of your professional branding. Once an image is established in a person’s mind, it is quite difficult to change it.
Purpose and audience determines what is highlighted in your profession brand message - which expertise, knowledge, accomplishments, personality characteristics, etc. Way of communicating influences language, style and style. Each communication method has a distinctive impact and span of attention. Be aware of how different generations and cultures react to various communication styles, format, and language.
Length of time you have with the person – 3 minutes (e.g. networking situation), 30 minutes (e.g. 1st round of job interviews), or 1 hour (e.g. marketing your services/products). Decide what is the priority info to present within the time frame allotted to project your ideal image.
Message you want your audience to take away and remember. Think about how someone would describe you and your professional brand and how strong would the recommendation be to develop a working relationship with you.
By taking into considerations the above listing, when creating the message relaying your professional brand, communications will be successful.
Email your comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author: anreitman@verizon.net
TRUST: One key element in talent retention
For employees to commit to supporting and helping one another to grow their individual and collective talents benefiting the individual, work groups, and organization, trust becomes the necessary springboard for:
· Finding innovative ways to quickly build trust development among co-workers, supervisors, and leaders, especially when involved in short-term projects and/or virtual realty teams.
· Building loyalty to the company and commit to its culture and values.
· Promoting open collaborative communication among diverse work team members to develop and grow talent.
· Establishing credibility and reliability for talent’s “believability” in a promising future with the organization and identifying with its “brand”.
TRUST DIMENSIONS: What are the elements?
· A general definition: the reliance in a person or group’s honesty, dependability, strength or character is authentic.
· Confidence that an individual does posses the ability or knowledge claimed in a specific area or specialty.
· Belief in an individual or group commitment to being supportive and encouraging of each other’s efforts, work and success.
· Sincere and meaningful intentions and agendas of individuals and groups.
· All are in firm agreement about what are the project or team’s goals, methods, process, and roles.
· Active caring and respect of each other – that is – feel that they are a family.
· Alignment of an individual’s feelings (inside) with actual actions (outside}.
TRUST & THE WORKPLACE: A Survey
Regarding your relationships with people in your organization:
The following questions are from a trust survey that Charles Feltman conducted:
Please use a scale from 1-10 where:
1 = Can rarely or never be trusted 10 = Can always be trusted in all situations
QUESTIONS and RATINGS
How would you rate:
a. YOUR trustworthiness? ____
b. The average trustworthiness of the people
you work with as a group? ____
c. The trustworthiness of your immediate
supervisor? ____
d. The trustworthiness of your company’s
top management in general? ____
e. The trustworthiness of your peers? ____
f. The trustworthiness of your staff, if you have any
direct reports? ____
g. The trustworthiness of others below your level
of responsibility in your organization as a group? ____
(From The Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman, Bend, OR:2009, p.10.)
Are you satisfied with your assessment outcomes? Were you surprised by any overall general attitudes that emerged from this short survey? If you believe that the levels of trust can or should be improved,, what do you think you can do?
In summary, if trust is not happening on a one-to-one basis, it cannot happen on the organization level. If trust is not happening among and between employees, horizontally and vertically, then individuals will not trust the organization’s entity.
Email comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author: anreitman@verizon.net
· Finding innovative ways to quickly build trust development among co-workers, supervisors, and leaders, especially when involved in short-term projects and/or virtual realty teams.
· Building loyalty to the company and commit to its culture and values.
· Promoting open collaborative communication among diverse work team members to develop and grow talent.
· Establishing credibility and reliability for talent’s “believability” in a promising future with the organization and identifying with its “brand”.
TRUST DIMENSIONS: What are the elements?
· A general definition: the reliance in a person or group’s honesty, dependability, strength or character is authentic.
· Confidence that an individual does posses the ability or knowledge claimed in a specific area or specialty.
· Belief in an individual or group commitment to being supportive and encouraging of each other’s efforts, work and success.
· Sincere and meaningful intentions and agendas of individuals and groups.
· All are in firm agreement about what are the project or team’s goals, methods, process, and roles.
· Active caring and respect of each other – that is – feel that they are a family.
· Alignment of an individual’s feelings (inside) with actual actions (outside}.
TRUST & THE WORKPLACE: A Survey
Regarding your relationships with people in your organization:
The following questions are from a trust survey that Charles Feltman conducted:
Please use a scale from 1-10 where:
1 = Can rarely or never be trusted 10 = Can always be trusted in all situations
QUESTIONS and RATINGS
How would you rate:
a. YOUR trustworthiness? ____
b. The average trustworthiness of the people
you work with as a group? ____
c. The trustworthiness of your immediate
supervisor? ____
d. The trustworthiness of your company’s
top management in general? ____
e. The trustworthiness of your peers? ____
f. The trustworthiness of your staff, if you have any
direct reports? ____
g. The trustworthiness of others below your level
of responsibility in your organization as a group? ____
(From The Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman, Bend, OR:2009, p.10.)
Are you satisfied with your assessment outcomes? Were you surprised by any overall general attitudes that emerged from this short survey? If you believe that the levels of trust can or should be improved,, what do you think you can do?
In summary, if trust is not happening on a one-to-one basis, it cannot happen on the organization level. If trust is not happening among and between employees, horizontally and vertically, then individuals will not trust the organization’s entity.
Email comments to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author: anreitman@verizon.net
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Multigenerational Workplace: Strategies for Performance and Talent
Most people are aware that today’s workplace consists of a multi-generational staffing working side by side, managing each other or on the same team or work project. However, having grown-up in different times, experiencing different world events ways, and raised with different values and philosophies, it is expected that some clashes exist of perspectives, expectations, work habits, and, communication styles in the workplace. However, why must the focus be on the differences between the generations, rather than the commonalities?
Successful organizations develop strategies resulting in a multigenerational staff effectively working together, learning from one another, and having respect for each other. They are “talent smart” being adaptable, innovative, and creative. What are some strategies that can emphasize commonalities among the generations and build a more “we” organizational culture? How can we keep the best talent, no matter their age, engaged and productive? Effective strategies address multigenerations’ value and want they want to experience in the workplace and at the same time taking into account the differences of the methods, tools, and procedures used. Strategies can include:
Strategy: Work and Life Balance
When people are experiencing a good balance between their work and personal lives, they feel the organization is well functioning and supportive and want to remain. One element of work/life balance important to all generations is flexibility regarding how they carry out their responsibilities – how work is done. Nevertheless, flexibility is viewed differently by each generation, from the traditionalists who feel that “I’ve earned it to Boomers who state “I want it” to X’ers who feel they deserve it to the young Y’s who expect to be able to work anywhere, anytime.
Flexibility can be provided in various ways to meet the lifestyles of a multigenerational workforce, e.g. company blackberries, cell phones, and laptops, flextime, working from home, teleconferencing, and Skype.
Strategy: Two-Way Communications and Trust
One of the major differences between the generations is communication styles and how they interact with other people. Older generations tend not to question or challenge authority or the status quo, while the younger ones believe they are free to speak up and should not just accept what is being told to them.
All employees, regardless of age, want to work with people who are believable and trustworthy. They want to feel that everyone is “up front” regarding commitments and agreements. An open-communications system builds trust – a basis for encouraging and strengthening loyalty. This is especially important when involved in short-term projects or virtual teams. Two-way communications is a contributing factor towards senior-level employees to stay engaged and for the younger generations to commit to the organization’s culture and values and become its future leaders.
Strategy: Recognition and Respect
No matter the age, everyone wants to be appreciated for their accomplishments; an indication of acknowledgement. However, different age groups define this differently.
To meet these changing expectations, increasingly organizations are offering customized rewards programs. If rewards are not individually tailored, they will not act as a motivator as desired. Conduct a survey to learn what employees want as rewards and how they want to be recognized. In addition to financial compensation and time-off, requests can include: an award given in front of peers, a thank you note from supervisor, acknowledgement of employment anniversary date.
Summary
Valuing human capital as an asset is just a good business practice, which is creating a “talent point of view” mindset throughout the organization. From top leadership to front-line supervisors, the emphasis should be on building a work environment whereby all employees are supported and nurtured to remain passionate, resilient, and competitive.
The attention given to the mix of generations in the workplace should be on the common experiences and expectations shared. Different is neither right nor wrong, just different.
It is important that each individual’s unique talents and contribution are honored and celebrated – that is respected and valued.
Email comments & other strategies to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author anreitman@verizon.net
Successful organizations develop strategies resulting in a multigenerational staff effectively working together, learning from one another, and having respect for each other. They are “talent smart” being adaptable, innovative, and creative. What are some strategies that can emphasize commonalities among the generations and build a more “we” organizational culture? How can we keep the best talent, no matter their age, engaged and productive? Effective strategies address multigenerations’ value and want they want to experience in the workplace and at the same time taking into account the differences of the methods, tools, and procedures used. Strategies can include:
Strategy: Work and Life Balance
When people are experiencing a good balance between their work and personal lives, they feel the organization is well functioning and supportive and want to remain. One element of work/life balance important to all generations is flexibility regarding how they carry out their responsibilities – how work is done. Nevertheless, flexibility is viewed differently by each generation, from the traditionalists who feel that “I’ve earned it to Boomers who state “I want it” to X’ers who feel they deserve it to the young Y’s who expect to be able to work anywhere, anytime.
Flexibility can be provided in various ways to meet the lifestyles of a multigenerational workforce, e.g. company blackberries, cell phones, and laptops, flextime, working from home, teleconferencing, and Skype.
Strategy: Two-Way Communications and Trust
One of the major differences between the generations is communication styles and how they interact with other people. Older generations tend not to question or challenge authority or the status quo, while the younger ones believe they are free to speak up and should not just accept what is being told to them.
All employees, regardless of age, want to work with people who are believable and trustworthy. They want to feel that everyone is “up front” regarding commitments and agreements. An open-communications system builds trust – a basis for encouraging and strengthening loyalty. This is especially important when involved in short-term projects or virtual teams. Two-way communications is a contributing factor towards senior-level employees to stay engaged and for the younger generations to commit to the organization’s culture and values and become its future leaders.
Strategy: Recognition and Respect
No matter the age, everyone wants to be appreciated for their accomplishments; an indication of acknowledgement. However, different age groups define this differently.
To meet these changing expectations, increasingly organizations are offering customized rewards programs. If rewards are not individually tailored, they will not act as a motivator as desired. Conduct a survey to learn what employees want as rewards and how they want to be recognized. In addition to financial compensation and time-off, requests can include: an award given in front of peers, a thank you note from supervisor, acknowledgement of employment anniversary date.
Summary
Valuing human capital as an asset is just a good business practice, which is creating a “talent point of view” mindset throughout the organization. From top leadership to front-line supervisors, the emphasis should be on building a work environment whereby all employees are supported and nurtured to remain passionate, resilient, and competitive.
The attention given to the mix of generations in the workplace should be on the common experiences and expectations shared. Different is neither right nor wrong, just different.
It is important that each individual’s unique talents and contribution are honored and celebrated – that is respected and valued.
Email comments & other strategies to: Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D. Career Management Strategist, Author anreitman@verizon.net
Friday, May 30, 2008
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