August 2, 2007 – 10:10 pm
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John P. Kotter is currently touring Australia talking about leadership and how to successfully manage change. I was lucky enough to attend his seminar this week in Canberra. His seminar was different to others that I have attended, in that he actually engaged the audience in his discussions rather than delivering a lecture. He did this by showing short video clips of leaders in organisations in different situations and then asked the audience for their input.
John Kotter has studied many organisations and the people who run them, particularly with respect to change management initiatives. He says that the organisations he has found that are successful in managing change initiatives have used the following eight steps:
- Establishing a sense of urgency
- Forming a powerful guiding coalition
- Creating a vision
- Communicating vision
- Empowering others to act
- Planning for and creating short term wins
- Consolidating improvements and producing still more change
- Institutionalizing new approaches
While at this seminar I bought a couple of books - Our Iceberg is Melting and The Heart of Change Field Guide.
Our Iceberg is Melting is a fable about a penguin colony in Antarctica. A group penguins have lived on an iceberg for many years. Then one day one of the penguins discovers their home is threatened and almost no one listens to him. It goes into resistance to change and the type of leadership required to encourage change; particularly behavioural change. This book is full of colourful pictures of penguins (I like it already) and is easy and simple to read (it takes less than an hour) but carries a very strong message on change and what is required to ensure change occurs. You can find out more about this book at its website.
The Heart of Change Field Guide is a guide to assist people in developing questions, diagnostics and frameworks to planning change initiatives. It has a particular focus on using the eight steps listed above. You can find more about this book at the Heart of Change website.
I not only took away these books, but walked away convinced that for any change to happen successfully in an organisation you need the hearts of your employees. If you don't then you are doomed from the beginning and no great change management planning system is going to help you.
In the papers a few days ago there was the announcement that a government department sacked 11 staff for looking at pornography on their work computers and another 14 had resigned for abusing the department's internet use policy. The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) also noted that all staff were now banned from storing non-work-related photos and videos on their work computers. This department has just over 4000 employees and because less than half a per cent were stupid (and rightly deserved to be sacked) the remaining employees now also have to suffer.
If SMH are correct in the finding that all non-work related photos and videos on computers are banned, then I find this approach paternalistic. I wonder what impact this is having on those remaining employees who have been doing the right thing? In the places I have worked, some of my colleagues have screen savers which were pictures of their family, pets, favourite car, etc. This creates a personalised space for them in their work environment.
All Government Departments have acceptable use policies in place, as they should - use of these things at work should have appropriate limits. All Australian Public Service employees are bound by the APS Code of Conduct and the APS Values so they are aware of what they can and cannot do. I agree on the sacking and I think that is enough to send a message that the behaviour of abusing the department's resources is not acceptable; particularly in the case of pornography.
However I think the message to the rest of the honest remaining employees should have been one of thanking them for not abusing the system and that the organisation still trusts them. By banning the use of all non-work related photos, etc. it sends a message of mistrust. DDI has a whitepaper on Trust in the Workplace and how trust or lack of it can impact on business results.
If this happened in your organisation what do you think would occur?
I have got this book on order from Amazon and cannot wait to read it - The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't by Bob Sutton. This book was published in February this year. It is about creating an environment where no assholes should be allowed in the workplace or allowed to flourish in the workplace and provides some tips for victims of workplace assholes. If you go to Bob Sutton's blog there is also an Asshole Rating Self Exam (ARSE).
Bob has also blogged about interviewing Adam Penenberg who is writing a story for the American Association of Retired Persons. Adam is looking for stories from people who have faced workplace bullying, how this has affected the person and their family and how they fought back. He also wants to take this a further step and if possible have people name names; that is the name of the person who bullied and the organisation where it happened.
In his recent post Michael Specht writes about the results of a survey conducted by SmartCompany regarding what employers think of Gen Y. Almost 70% of employers said:
poor spelling and grammar and a failure to understand what constitutes appropriate corporate behaviour are the biggest bugbears... communication skills of Gen Y staff disappointed 48% of SME owners, while 37% complain Gen Ys lack acceptable technical skills...
Almost 90% of employers said that Gen Ys are more demanding than other workers especially when it comes to advancing their careers, and 79% say Gen Ys are more likely to ask for a pay rise. They are also much more likely to demand better office amenities and more time off to study, as well as more training opportunities and mentoring.
There are positives. Gen Ys are tech savvy and companies can rely on them to help keep up with the latest technology trends.
Smart Company also provided some tips on managing Gen Y:
- Retention starts with recruitment
- Be flexible
- Provide the 'why'
- Provide regular constructive feedback
- Set clear career paths and determine goals
- Coaching and mentoring
- Salary
- Develop an organisational culture that is inclusive of everyone
- Watch your words
- Practice what you preach
For me this makes sense, not just for Gen Y, but for any employee. To really engage employees so that they are productive, managers need to understand what each one's needs are. There is no use saying that one single approach will suit everybody. I'm Gen X and I know the list above appeals to me, just not in that order.
A Manpower white paper titled Engaging the Total Workforce lists 12 engagement drivers which motivate employees, these are
- Being treated with respect
- Having a clear understanding of what is expected
- Having a sense of belonging
- Being treated equally
- Access to tools, resources and information to perform
- Receiving the training that is needed to perform in the role
- Open and honest two-way feedback
- Strong teamwork
- Receiving recognition
- Opportunities to learn, develop and progress
- Understanding how the role contributes to the success of the business
- Security
I find point 12 very interesting given that there is a trend to move from organisation to organisation or even into different careers.
So what can you do? If your organisation does not have employee surveys to find out what motivates employees, work with your line manager to help them understand what motivates their staff. Then assist the line managers in putting some of those strategies in place.
The Olivier Internet Job Index June 2007 has been released. The Olivier IJI provides information to employers, recruiters and job seekers on what is happening in the Australian labour market by analysing Internet job ads. They break this information further into different employment sectors and for each State and Territory. There were 330,438 job ads counted in June on the three major job boards. The Australian Bureau of Statistics May 2007 labour force figures indicate that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 4.2%.
So, with the trend of jobs ads increasing and the unemployment rate moving lower, my question to you is what are you doing as a HR professional to work with your organisation on:
- workforce planning
- identifying the knowledge and skills required for current work as well as any future work
- knowing the critical roles in your organisation, what capabilities are required for these roles and whether the people in these roles are looking to retire or move on
- having succession plans in place to ensure there is somebody ready to step into the critical roles with the right capabilities
- designing attraction and retention strategies so people stay with you just that little bit longer
- knowing the demographic of your workforce
If people in your organisation have not thought about this or are not interested then show them some statistics. Provide them with information from the ABS and the Olivier Job Index, give them figures on how much attrition and recruitment plus onboarding costs the organisation.
In such an employees' market can you afford not to?
