By John Grom
What organization would not like to boast about a stable employee population who are well suited to their jobs and have a clear understanding of what is expected of them, are innovative, productive and committed, if not passionate about achieving the organizational goals.
I had the pleasure of working for such an organization. The CEO would hold a staff meeting at the end of each quarter. He would present the current quarter's results with a series of charts and talk about what went right and what needed work. After some conversation with and among the staff, everyone left the room with their goals and objectives for the next quarter. As far as the CEO was concerned, the next quarter's goals were already achieved and he could go about his job of working the investment community to support the stock price.
The result of this environment of trust and confidence was a company that doubled sales and stock price every five years, earned ten to fifteen percent profit on sales, developed a steady stream of new products, constantly improved brand recognition, all while carrying very little debt.
However, I am acquainted with work environments where this is not the case. Where mistrust and suspicion are the norm, where stress and conflict are common, where the strong people with options leave and only the people with few choices remain. These companies frequently lose money, go bankrupt or are sold off.
The tragedy is that in most cases these unfortunate companies could have been success stories. The culture of an organization is not a static thing, it is always on the move either toward or away from optimal. It is no mystery that a culture of trust, confidence, cooperation and enthusiasm will always produce better results.
It is also no mystery that the culture of any organization reflects the mindset of the leadership in some organizations. I have become familiar with leaders that have obvious contempt for employees. Their actions scream the message loud and clear that employees are regarded as a necessary evil, that they are not trusted, they all find work objectionable and will avoid it at all costs. In most cases that is exactly the kind of workforce they wind up with. People, after all, tend to live up to expectations, both negative and positive.
I realize that respect and appreciation for all employees is difficult to achieve but the payoff is worth it. It starts at the top with a firm commitment from official leadership to create a work environment that is stimulating for all employees.
The fact is, people respond to incentives, and you have to ask; what incentives are they responding to and how are they responding? If an employee is getting nothing more out of a job than a paycheck, they will respond by doing whatever in takes to get paid and nothing more. However if that same employee is stimulated by being seen as an important part of a team, knows that their contributions are recognized and appreciated, that others depend on them to make the joint effort work, they will add more value to the organization.
It is never a waste of time to invest in the development of people. while you can not always point directly to a dollar for dollar payback from any particular developmental action you can almost always see an upward swing in performance.
Taking a step backward to look at your organization and analyze its culture is always a step in the right direction.
Please visit my website, http://www.cjohngrom.com for access to my commentaries on employee selection and personal job search techniques developed over a thirty year career as an Executive Recruiter and Staffing Manager. My career included over ten years on the corporate staff Of Rubermaid Inc. as Manager of Executive Recruitment. During that time Rubbermaid Inc. quadrupled in size and was twice named by Fortune Magazine as the Most Admired US Corporation. My contribution was to personally recruit over one hundred executives, including seven Division Presidents and half of the Corporate Operating Committee.
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