As if COVID is not enough of a challenge for organizations to deal with, some organizations have been talking with us about a different challenge: keeping their highest performers during the pandemic. The issue being discovered by our clients and friends is that of motivating employees, not just by adding “fun” activities or a more energizing work environment. Employees want more.
Keeping and motivating employees is not as easy as it once was. It is not one-size-fits-all. One of the reasons may be that the demographics of the American workplace have changed drastically over the past decade. Many Baby Boomers have been lengthening their stay in the workplace after the downturn in 2008-2010, and some are continuing even in recent months and we have more generations than ever in the workplace; while at the same time, many organizations have Millennials as their greatest percentage of workers, with Gen Z also surging into the workforce.
How can we address this issue of attracting and keeping employees for the long run? I believe it’s time to go beyond trendy “culture” additions.
1. It’s time to look at your structure. Is your structure, of itself, aligned toward employee satisfaction and retention? Generally, optimal organizational structure for different organizations is very organization-specific. There is not one organizational structure that works for all, but if your organization is innovative you can rethink your structure. In doing so, these are some questions to ask:
• What is our current structure? Is it purposeful? Does it provide a distinct career progression–a CLEAR line of sight (including time frames) for how to get ahead and how an employee may typically move through the organization? Your organization would benefit if a high percentage of your employees knew the career path for them.
• Is it motivational, allowing employees opportunities for change on a regular basis? Younger generations will particularly see this as important. One organization has 85% Millennial employees, it has a traditional hierarchical structure (with traditional pay structures within that structure), and they are regularly losing their best employees.
The company is evaluating realigning to a more cross-functional structure that would allow employees to enter the organization in one cross-functional process, orient themselves to the organization, move up within months to a new level in that process; then within a few months move up to more of a manager or project manager role in that process. Within a year or two, the employee will move to a new cross-functional process. And so forth. This organization has been losing its best employees who felt that they were going nowhere, and they were not sure if that would ever change.
The major advantage of this kind of structure for this organization is that the incoming young employee has a direct line of site for his or her career progression, development, empowerment, promotion, etc. Employees can still be derailed by mediocre or poor performance, but they understand the progression, how to get ahead, and how the actual system will let them get ahead. Many employees, not just Millennials, seek clear career progression and development. Purposeful, planned changes in structure can create a foundation for recruiting, retaining, and motivating great employees. Even if you do not develop a new structure, your organization would benefit from improving process flows in both administrative and operational processes.
Another important point? Keep in mind leadership development. How can you use the progression through the organization to develop your future leaders? I believe that succession planning need not stand outside of your normal organizational structure.
2. It’s time to revamp job expectations to align with and support that structure. Once the new structure has been envisioned, job descriptions may need to be re-written to support whatever new structure is being created. Even if you don’t create a different structure, per se (perhaps instead you focus on improved process flow), job descriptions should align with that new structure or flow, in order to support whatever new structure is being created.
3. Rethink your People and Culture/HR processes and programs.
• Pay structures should support any new structure or cross-functional process transformation. How can you segue to better pay practices, including rates of pay, performance expectations, and how pay will progress through the structure? How can you better incentivize good performance? There are still many organizations out there with outmoded force-ranking of people whose jobs have little in common. Surprisingly, some organizations still give a typical across-the-board, annual two or three percent raise regardless of performance. This practice encourages poor performers to remain poor performers, and high performers are likely evaluating moving on to a new organization.
• It’s time to get creative about employee benefits. From insurance, time off, work from anywhere, 401Ks to HSAs and college loan support, many organizations are taking a serious look at benefits, and employee benefits should reinforce the structure or process changes you have created. For innovative benefits resources, please feel free to contact us for introductions to various options.
• It’s time to rethink your feedback and accountability systems. This is not as complicated as it sounds. Feedback and accountability systems should reinforce the desired behaviors of the structure. It is not unusual for organizations to provide feedback on activities that were part of an old structure or systems that no longer exist–undermining the new structure. For example, one organization was still force ranking employees against old performance standards, when the new structure and culture really needed them to be held accountable for a different set of behaviors.
• It’s time to evaluate your organizational climate activities as well. Because of COVID-19, pool tables, ping pong tables, open-concept close seating arrangements are not as workable as they may have seemed in the past. At any rate, many employees deem some of these past organizational climate changes as fluff, and many organizations’ leaders have found that these additions did not yield the expected ROI. Employees I talk with want a less frustrating, less hassle workplace. Before spending valuable dollars on organizational climate as a stand-alone concept, I recommend two key things:
a) Remove as much hassle from the process as possible by improving processes and systems, taking out red tape and inefficiency.
b) Conduct an assessment to determine the best culture and climate changes are needed. There are excellent culture and climate assessment tools available to help your organization develop a purposeful culture and climate aligned with your corporate strategy. Please contact us for more specific resources on this.
Making improvements in process efficiency and structure in our organizations can build a foundation that will allow us to recruit and retain their best employees and optimize processes. It’s not trendy, but it has lasting value. Your organizational structure is a lot more far-reaching than just organizational structure as we have traditionally thought of it.
For assistance in getting started in this process, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] or at https://www.linkedin.com/in/transformingorganizations/ .
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