Competing in an Employee’s Market

Posted on October 26, 2018 by Jonathan Mills

This is an Employee’s Market

As of September ‘18 the national unemployment rate is less than 4% (the lowest in almost twenty years). Job candidates are more likely than ever to have their pick of opportunities, which means that employers have less power over the negotiation process and it is harder than ever to recruit and retain employees. Newer generations are also less likely to accept traditional employment requirements or even stay with an employer for more than three years: the average employee moves after about 4½ years, and employees between 25 and 34 years old move after less than 3). This is an Employee’s Market, but you don’t need to be a Google or Zappos to compete. Instead, consider Michael Burry. He defied norms and chose to contradict conventional wisdom – something we need to be willing to do if we want to compete.

Between 2007 and 2010, the US economy was hit by a destructive financial crisis – something very few people were able to anticipate. One person in particular, a doctor turned money manager named Michael Burry, understood the market in a way that other investors and analysts couldn’t. He saw that our housing market was a bubble, a stark contradiction to the financial industry’s position, and chose to bet AGAINST the market. Burry’s keen eye paid off, and when the market crashed, he earned himself $100 million and his clients $700 million.

BLS Data on Unemployment | BLS Data on Tenure | Summary of the 2008 Financial Crisis | Bio on Michael Burry

What Burry shows us is that norms and conventional wisdom can be dead wrong, and if we pay attention then we can catch it. But what “norms and conventional wisdom” are pertinent to recruitment and retention; and how will course correcting pay off? Consider three misconceptions that we often take at face-value.

Misconception #1 Recruitment is our first impression.

Conventional wisdom describes first impressions as something unavoidable and irreplaceable. On those notes society is absolutely correct, which has helped recruiting teams prioritize first contact and HR organize the onboarding process. However, we have misunderstood when and how first impressions occur.

The employee market is more driven by open access to information than ever before. Networks like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Glassdoor are repositories for opinions about your company; and they facilitate conversations between candidates and current/past employees. By the time your recruitment team contacts these candidates, they have already researched your employment brand. In effect, your employees supersede the recruitment team.

“Employment Brand” is a way of describing how attractive you are as an employer. It also describes what type of employees you attract.

It would be tempting to artificially improve employee reviews or create policies to control social output; but candidates can sniff that out and you could do long-term damage to your employment brand. The key to managing first impressions is to take strategic action to influence the employee experience, because current employees generate the employment brand. Start thinking in terms of corporate culture and make work-life a priority. Happy employees say great things about their company.

Misconception #2 Employees are ok with compromise.

Conventional wisdom champions the idea that employees understand when compromises need to be made. If they are asked to work late hours or push an incomplete product to approval then they understand that it is necessary – they’re ok with it. On the surface employees will agree with this assumption, but it isn’t an exchange that aligns with reality. The truth behind these compromises is that employees are subject to a strong desire for processes to be quality. Regardless of the outcome (promotion, profit, or accolades), compromise leads to a negative outlook and low morale.

Employees are subject to categorically irrational needs, one of which is called procedural justice. They tend to give a disproportionate weight to the process regardless of the outcome. Their experience affects whether an outcome like pay, promotion, power, or recognition leads to greater performance and loyalty. In fact, even a drop in salary, if part of a quality and sincere process, can generate trust and loyalty. Creating a culture of quality processes can be so powerful that an employee would choose to stay rather than leave for a higher paying competitor.

Consider a survey that researchers conducted with hundreds of convicted felons in Baltimore, Detroit, and Phoenix. What they discovered was that despite the sentence issued (a fine, probation, or prison time), what affected their outlook on the process the most was how much time their lawyer spent with them. In other words, did they feel like the process was fair and that their voice was heard? Was it quality? Those who experienced a high quality process believed the outcome to be more fair (Procedural Justice in Felony Cases, Law and Society Review)

Misconception #3 Money is the best way to motivate.

The shortlist for creating loyalty includes a lot of externally motivating programs (e.g. pay-for-performance, spot bonuses, and public accolades). These methods tend to create a temporary motivation, but are ineffective for creating high levels of performance. In fact, pay and benefits only need to supply a healthy lifestyle. Anything beyond that basic need has a diminishing return. The key to reaching higher levels of performance is to foster intrinsic motivation. It is the type of motivation that drives self-efficacy, innovation, and sincerity. But how? By creating a genuine shift in culture toward three ideals: purpose, autonomy, and mastery.

• Purpose: Draw a line from the employee’s task/role to a substantive purpose.
  • Example) “I may be hamming data into a spreadsheet, but this info is going to help us serve the community.”
• Autonomy: Allow employees to govern themselves as much as possible. Minimize management.
  • Example) “My manager just asked how they could support me. I expected to be ‘monitored’, but I can tell they trust me now.”
• Mastery: Create or facilitate opportunities for employees to learn and practice.
  • Example) “HR just sent me a list of free workshops from around the city. They said I could use core hours to attend a few!”

Summary: Culture Attracts, Retains, and Creates Talent

Correcting for these misconceptions will help your organization thrive, but doing so needs to be part of a larger corporate culture strategy. As part of your strategic portfolio, culture becomes a competitive advantage. It sets you apart in the market as a serious, high-quality employer, boosting your employment brand above your competitors. You will attract, retain, and create top talent at accelerated rates. Let me help you unlock that potential.

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Comic Con Culture, an Illustration for the Workplace

Posted on July 20, 2018 by Chad Alexander

This week, San Diego Comic Con (or SDCC) is being flooded with cosplayers, booths full of goodies, and anyone lucky enough to see the panels full of celebrities after standing in line for hours. Attendees dress in elegant costumes, and various halls are electric with energy as news sites live stream constantly.

The average workplace, on the other hand, lacks even a modicum of the enthusiasm and excitement of this convention. Sure, it’s work. Work is meant to be difficult. That’s why it’s called “work”. However, it doesn’t need to be a burden.

Let’s take another look at the SDCC. There are so many vendors, so many companies represented, and so many comics! Trailers of the biggest blockbusters are showcased. Marvel and DC. Star Wars and Star Trek. Transformers and Voltron. Yet all of the participants, sponsors, and guests have one thing in common—they are there for the culture.

So why can’t we have that in the workplace? What can we do to ensure that employees are excited to be a part of something bigger than themselves and are actually willing and ready to come to work? Can we make this happen? We can, but we need to ask some difficult questions of our business.

Are the right people on your team?

“Are the right people on our team?” is a simple, yet deep question. Are the right people in your organization? We can determine this in a number of ways, including the GWC method, which is an acronym for: Get it, Want it, and Capacity to do it:

• Do they Get it? In other words, does the employee understand what they are doing?
• Do they Want it? Passion can provide a huge edge in business. It’s what caused talents like Walt Disney, Elvis, and Led Zeppelin to never give up.
• Do they have the Capacity to do it? Are they struggling to meet deadlines because they wear multiple hats? If they are, what can we do to give them the best and only hat for their needs (and ours)? We may also want to consider if family life is negatively impacting work and how it can be combated.

So, why are we focused on the team here? Culture can thrive when the right people are on the team. Just like Comic Con, you wouldn’t expect people who hate comic books to attend; and like any good comic book, you need to have a good writer, penciller, inker, colorist, and letterer.

Those steering the culture need to weed out those who negatively impact or willingly sabotage it. If someone is there only for the money, do they really want the job and are they an asset to your organization or a liability?

Employees are human beings.

Some of the best, larger than life comic book characters are very human. They struggle with the same things that we struggle with. They have families and work to balance while saving the world. Employees are your superheroes. From the janitor to the top executive, they all help drive your organization, and your culture needs to reflect their less than super-human needs. They need:

• Empowerment to make work-life balance decisions
• Autonomy to get the job done
• Opportunities for continual learning
• Chances for creative problem solving
• Be able to argue or contradict superiors without fear of retribution or dismissal

To paraphrase Richard Branson, employees should feel like they are more than just a cog. Employees should be the spark that sets the tinder aflame.

Culture also needs to protect employees when a client is angry (this happens all too often in any sector). This culture should be our guiding light when employees are make mistakes. It’s that focus and values-driven decision making that will help grow and keep your business.

Get your values straight. Seriously.

Write your values down, commit to them, and express them as policy and practice. Your organization should breathe these values like air and then act on them. They don’t necessarily have to be in moralistic terms like, “Treat everyone with respect”, but they should be expressed in real terms. These are real life examples I have seen executed very well:

• A willingness to lose a client to defend an employee
• Making a no payment up front unless you are completely satisfied with the job commitment
• Granting vacation time to those who have worked overtime for a client in the form of PTO

Values should dictate the customs of your organization (what you do and how well you do it). They inform the basis and evolution of your culture.

Define the Game.

We have our team, filled with human beings, who are focused on the values of their organization. Now what? There’s a wonderful book out there called The Game of Work. It postulates that businesses thrive when they are like a game, driven by rules or at least a framework. Like basketball, comic book conventions, or fishing, rules help define good outcomes and bad outcomes. These definitions are dependent on what industry we are in. At comic book conventions, people are looking to grab back-issues of their favorite comics, get to see the latest Marvel panel, or team up with their fellow cosplayers. They have created a framework of success and they execute it. Organizations that fail to define a framework of what success is are less likely to stay afloat.

Next Steps.

These new insights will help you design a work experience and environment that activates inspired employees, improving your employment brand, productivity, and ROI. For a partner in this effort, reach out to Corporate Culture Specialist. We are a firm dedicated to helping organizations realize their full potential through inspired corporate culture.

You can contact us here, or find additional insights on our blog page.