Getting Rid of Archaic, Outmoded Practices and Attitudes
The last 18 months have surely been disruptive to our lives, but this has also been a time of reinvention. The very idea of the workplace has been upended; we have all learned to adapt on the fly. The concept of work is constantly evolving. In this candidate market, it is critical to make your company a desirable place to work and position it as an employer of choice. (Think about the companies that fall into this category. They are overwhelmed by top candidates vying for their few open positions!) To achieve this level of reputation and recruit and retain top talent, you need to excise some of your company’s outdated, irrelevant policies and attitudes. Here are some examples that reflect an archaic mindset that needs to be consigned to the trash heap of corporate history:
Employees as cost centers. “Payroll is our biggest expense! It costs us so much money to employ people!” Yes. This is true. But that’s because your employees are your most valuable assets. They are the innovators, the profit-makers, the folks who make the machine that is your company run. Without the people who make up your organization, you would not be able to create, sell, or deliver anything. You would not be able to send an invoice, process a payment, or do ANYTHING. Treat your employees as the critical stakeholders that they are.
Company time. What is “company time” anyway? Many managers have thoughts and beliefs about what employees can and should do on “company time.” The inherent flaw in this type of thinking is that employees’ time does not belong to their employer. Salaried employees are not compensated for their time; they are paid for the results that they deliver. I had a client who solved an issue relating to an international shipment while he was waiting in line at Disney World. Company time? Personal time? No—results.
Stacked ranking. Everyone hates this. Everyone. Employees and managers both loathe this. The stacked ranking methodology, popularized in the 1980s by Jack Welch, ranks employees against each other, postulates that only a tiny percentage of employees can be top performers and that most employees are average. In the stacked ranking system, the category into which most people fall is usually called “meets expectations.” But we know what this means. Average. Grade C. It is demotivating to employees and frustrating to managers. Yes, it is entirely possible to have a team composed of people who exceed expectations and are top performers. Stop trying to make everyone fit into the curve rather than equitably evaluating employee performance.
Requiring optimism. Pessimists can save money. They love to find and solve problems. Requiring everyone to be optimistic is going to result in frustration and fatigue. And a lot of people will be faking it. A healthy dose of pessimism can be good for business.
Fixating on weaknesses. Focusing on your team’s weaknesses does nothing but make your team feel insufficient. Focusing on weaknesses is NEVER a good strategy when dealing with other people, and employees are no different. Companies that help people develop their strengths and areas of interest reap incredible results. No one is good at everything. We all have areas where we perform sub-optimally. Why not cultivate what people do best?
Workplace practices and norms that worked 15, 5, or even 1 year ago may not be appropriate anymore. Evaluate your belief systems and policies and ensure that both align with the current reality and the increasingly global nature of knowledge work.