Archive for the ‘Retention’ Category

I’ve been thinking lately about how you onboard a virtual team member or a team member in a results-only work environment (ROWE). Onboarding, for those of you not familiar with the term, is the process of bringing on new employees with the purpose of quickly and successfully integrating them into the organization. Most traditional organizations don’t onboard new hires very well, so when we add a virtual workforce into the equation, things are bound to get a bit dicey.

When done well, onboarding can be a strategic process that improves your bottom line—the more quickly you get a new hire up to speed, the more quickly they start producing. Onboarding also improves productivity, performance, retention, engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty. Research and experience show us it’s a good thing.

As a new employee, you have a lot to learn: job requirements and expectations, how your role fits into the team and the company, industry information, company information, who you’ll be working with, the ins and outs of the company culture, etc. So how do you do this effectively if you’re telecommuting, working on a virtual team, or joining a team that’s working a variety of hours from different locations?

This past spring over at the GirlScoutsGoneROWE.com blog, Daniel Malyszka, Director of Human Resources for the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council, talked about their challenge with ROWE and new employees. He worried that new employees may see ROWE as an opportunity to slack off and shared his thoughts on a potential solution: stricter rules during the initial training period.

I’m not sure I agree with “stricter rules,” but I do believe you absolutely must have a detailed, thought-through onboarding plan in place for new employees. And the “result” they are responsible for achieving the first few weeks working in a ROWE or on a virtual team, is to accomplish all of the onboarding activities listed in their training plan.

Additionally, each new hire’s manager and team need to have a shared responsibility for helping the new employee accomplish all of those tasks. In the past when I’ve worked with clients to create custom onboarding solutions, at least 5 people have been held accountable to produce specific results during the onboarding process: the new hire, the manager, HR, IT, and a peer mentor. It’s built into each person’s job—additional responsibilities for which they are held accountable to complete and are evaluated on when performance reviews come around.

The same stuff you cover when the employee is physically present in traditional onboarding needs to be covered when doing virtual onboarding. However, in a virtual team or a ROWE, some of those activities move online. For example,

• Utilize a private blog or wiki to share information with new hires.
• Schedule Skype video calls with the new employee, his or her team members, and other important people in the organization.
• Provide the new employee with everyone’s IM and Twitter name and provide training on those platforms if needed.
• Use screen capturing software to explain how to walk through a routine task and show the new hire where to find the information on the corporate website.

I read recently that we currently have about 34 million Americans that are working at least occasionally from home. By 2016 it’s estimated that 63 million people are going to be working from home; that’s 29 million more telecommuters entering the remote work force in the coming years and that number doesn’t even include all the people who work in some type of flexible work arrangement. I don’t have all the answers, but I do believe it’s important for us to start thinking and talking about how to onboard virtual team members quickly and effectively.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let me know what challenges you’ve faced onboarding a new team member in a virtual work environment or in a ROWE. What have you done or seen that’s been successful?

In organizational development and certain psychology and HR circles, they talk about job embeddedness. It’s an odd sounding term that simply refers to how attached an employee is to their job. The more embedded an employee is, the less likely they are to leave their job and the organization.

There are three main parts to job embeddedness:

• Fit – Job fit refers to whether or not an employee’s knowledge and skills match job demands and it also refers to the employee’s sense of belonging. Do they feel like they are a good fit for the job? A good fit for their team? And a good fit for the organization?
• Links – Links are strong positive connections with other employees. Has an employee developed positive ties with their team and other colleagues?
• Sacrifice – If an employee left the organization, would they be giving up things they value? These can be material or psychological costs. What would they sacrifice if they left? What’s the cost of leaving?

Job embeddedness is important because if you can increase an employee’s embeddedness, they are less likely to leave. Research has shown it increases retention as well as performance. Employees who feel they are a good fit have a sense of job security, feel like they belong, are more committed, and more motivated to do their job well.

Ways to Increase Embeddedness

There are several things you can do as a leader or manager to increase your employee’s sense of belonging and fit. The first starts with onboarding—the process you use to bring new employees into the company. Studies have consistently shown the first 90 days on the job to be critical in terms of whether or not an employee commits and makes the decision to stay for the long haul. Ensuring they have a positive first experience, receive adequate training, and get connected or embedded quickly makes a world of difference.

Another way to increase embeddedness it to take an active role in employee career planning. What training and development opportunities do employees on your team want and need? Spend time with them to work out a career plan within your organization and make it standard practice to promote from within.

Third, enhance work-life balance. This plays to the sacrifice component of job embeddedness. Provide employees with more control over how, when, and where they do their job. You may even want to consider implementing a results-only work environment (or ROWE) which will allow employees to more effectively manage their work and their life. With more control over their schedule, they can pursue interests outside of work as well. This raises the cost of leaving. They will be sacrificing a whole lot more than just a job if they leave. They’ll be giving up work-life balance, the freedom to pursue other interests, and control over their schedule. That’s a pretty significant sacrifice.

Finally, consider moving employees around within the organization if they don’t fit on their team. Perhaps you have an employee that hasn’t been able to form any positive links with their team; they don’t yet have a sense of belonging. If you shift them to another work group, they may feel a better fit and find colleagues with whom they have more similar and compatible personalities and skill sets. This can completely turn around a low performer and make them one of your star players.

If you’re interested in improving performance, productivity, and increasing retention, look at job embeddedness. Examining fit, links, and sacrifice can make a big difference in terms of whether an employee stays or goes.

Today over at the CubeRules.com blog, Scot Herrick shared his take on the 3 worst pundit methods to make your job layoff-resistant. 

His three nominations for worst job advice you could follow during this time of economic uncertainty and layoffs are right on. AND they are incredibly ROWE friendly. Be sure to read the full article, but here are the key takeaways if you want to keep (and excel) in your job:

1. Face time and long hours don’t (and shouldn’t) count for much. 
2. “Looking busy” is a waste of your time, the customer’s time, and your company’s time—plus it won’t help you find your next job (Interviewer: “So what did you do at your last job?” You: “Umm… I looked busy, really busy.”).
3. Work-life balance is irrelevant; control over your life, and thus your work, is what really counts.

What’s the only thing that really matters? Results. Focus on accomplishing those—and work to hire and retain people that do the same—and you’ll be in good shape.

NBC’s “The Office” provides us with a wonderful glimpse inside all that’s wrong with corporate America. If you aren’t a regular watcher of this great mockumentary, I suggest you check it out Thursday nights for a few laughs. 

There is always a lesson to be learned from watching Michael Scott, fearless leader of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin, even if it’s usually a lesson in what NOT to do as a leader. This episode is no exception.

What does Michael teach us today? Not to assume you know how your employees want to be rewarded. While there may be a few people who appreciate a nice butt slap, the majority of people will sue you for sexual harassment. And as Pam the receptionist puts it, you may create a team that’s “terrified of doing even an adequate job.” 

In all seriousness though, you don’t want your reward and recognition system to decrease performance, as it did in this episode. Not sure what your employees want? Have you asked them or are you assuming you know what’s best? 

Everyone is going to be a little different—there isn’t a one-size-fits-all reward that works for all employees. It may be public acknowledgement, financial compensation, time off, a promotion, gift certificates for dinner, or a day at the spa. The list goes on and on, but you won’t know until you ask.

Please, take this leadership lesson from Mr. Scott and find out what your people really want. And share some ideas by leaving a comment—what reward or type of recognition would be most meaningful to you?

I was driving in my car one day when an old, but great John Mayer song came on the radio. As I sang along with the lyrics of No Such Thing I saw it in a new light…

“They love to tell you
Stay inside the lines
But something’s better

On the other side…I just found out there’s no such thing as the real world
Just a lie you’ve got to rise above.”

I saw these few lyrical lines through the lens of work. And you know what? Work isn’t working. It doesn’t work for small business owners who can’t find or keep good workers. It doesn’t work for employers who have employees that are disengaged and unproductive. Work doesn’t work for commuters whose stress level and heart rate rise on the way to and from work each day. And work isn’t working for people who haven’t had a vacation in five years.

But what if there’s something better on the other side? Perhaps a better way to work…

One of my favorite authors, Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, says that reality IS negotiable, just as Mayer sings about there being no such thing as the real world. If this is true, and if the way we’re working is broken, what would happen if we started working “outside the lines?”

At WorkStyle Design that’s our goal. And we’d like you to join the conversation about redesigning work so it works for everyone. The real world is what we make it – and if it’s not working, or we don’t like the way it’s turning out – it’s our responsibility to change things. Join us here as we shake it up, rise above the lie of the real world, and start a revolution working outside the lines!