How does an organization become a great place to work? Many companies aspire to that, but few have clarity around all the work that needs to be done to make it a reality. For the last few years, my HR strategy has been a pretty simple one: create a place where people want to work. It is much easier said than done. It takes a lot of work and commitment to make the necessary changes, which can be painful.
In a previous article, I stressed the need to spend time mapping out the desired culture of the company as the key to being a great company to work for. These are the four key areas to focus on as part of your journey to creating a great place to work.
1. Culture
The first focus area is a clearly defined culture. You want your people to come to work because they want to, not because they have to. It is critical to identify and brand the mission, vision, values and behaviors of the company. This culture model shapes what is encouraged, discouraged, tolerated and rejected. The defining of a culture needs a lot of care and attention. Once defined, it needs to be part of the company DNA. As we started to take action on the behaviors we said we wouldn't tolerate, trust was formed, and the employees started to take personal accountability in making sure behavior issues were visible. A 2018 Harvard Business Review article identifies eight culture styles and is a good place to start your process.
2. Performance Engagement
Changing the ways you drive performance and build trust is critical to developing a high-performance workforce and engaging your employees. I have spent a great deal of time researching best practices in performance management, and one of the top resources I found is the NeuroLeadership Institute. Its research shows the best way to drive performance and engagement is to improve the quality of the conversations between manager and employee.
The move from the traditional annual rating process to regular check-ins is a great start to the shift toward what's called performance engagement. We simplified our processes, with fewer forms, no ratings and no intrusive oversight into the process. We focused our time on training our leadership on how to get the most out of these check-ins.
3. Candidate Experience
As part of the defined culture, a strategy for candidate experience needs to be a high priority. You can learn a lot about your candidate experience online. If your candidate experience is poor, it has a dramatic impact on your company’s overall brand. If you haven’t, take a few minutes to explore your company’s online reviews and ratings. An internal survey we performed at Panasonic found that more than 80% of candidates looked at Glassdoor.com before interviewing — so you'd better know what social media is saying about your organization.
If you are not happy with your rating, what should you do? Take action on what you learn from the online feedback. For example, we dramatically changed the way we communicated with candidates to ensure we stayed in touch with them throughout the entire interview process, and turned our interview processes into high-touch, VIP experiences. This doesn't mean you should turn to high-cost hotels and limousines, but rather lots of communication, follow-up and feedback. Ensured the candidates who are not selected for a position are treated just as well as those who are. Complete surveys during and after the process to ensure you know what additional gaps there are in your processes that need further attention.
4. Diversity And Inclusion
At Panasonic, we also believe that an inclusion and diversity initiative is key to becoming a place where people love going to work. It is with the many voices of individuals from unique backgrounds, mindsets and experiences that we can truly influence a company culture. As part of your diversity and inclusion strategy, invest the time to develop recruiting strategies, build internal community groups and a diversity leadership program to not only recruit for the gaps that you have, but also to retain the top, diverse talent once you hire them.
I am sure you noticed that I didn’t focus on things like free coffee, massage chairs, happy hour, fitness centers, great benefits, development/training or competitive pay. All of these things have their place, and employees enjoy these perks, but when we asked our employees what keeps them coming back to work each day, these things were not high on the list. What was high on the list was having a great culture, their personal experiences working with their bosses, how we engage them as a leadership team to improve their performance and the programs we have in place for diversity and inclusion.
Don't just aspire to become a great place to work — commit to the hard work and dedication that it takes to see it through. Focus on defining the desired culture of the company, and then start living it. Simplify the performance engagement process, and ensure it is focused on building relationships between the manager and employees so that rich and meaningful conversation are had. Take action on the negative feedback that might exist on your recruiting and interview process so you can improve your candidate experience and employer brand. Drive diversity and inclusion strategies that bring unique backgrounds, mindsets and experiences into your organization. Become a place where people return to work each day because they want to, not because they have to.
