Posts Tagged ‘workplace culture’

Why Should The Best Work For You?

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

Top performers are the key to building customer loyalty, and customer loyalty is the driver of company profitability. Your people drive your profits. You need the best people – those who are good at what they do, passionate about doing and believe in your compelling and clear purpose. All company success starts with exceptional people.

And people talk. So, what is the word on the street about your business? Is it a great place to work? Do only the best work there? Are employees encouraged to be their best and do great things? Or, are you known as being difficult to work for, don’t value your employees and don’t move the world for your customers?

Your brand, your image, your impression – what do you create and why should anyone work for you?
“Once an organization earns a reputation for rewarding excellence and rejecting mediocrity, it can become a magnet for top performers.” This quote from Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek shares some critical wisdom – when you commit to excellence and greatness, you attract it. Build a great employee-focused workplace and the best people will come.

Check in on the follow areas of your business and determine if greatness is what guides your approach:
1. Do you have a clear and compelling vision that employees and customers can believe in and rally around?
2. Do you hire people based on their talents, passions and commitment to greatness?
3. Do you provide opportunities for your employees to constantly learn, develop and improve?
4. Do you stay in constant contact with your employees, dialoging about challenges, sharing successes and coaching performance?
5. Do you share performance expectations, so every employee knows what is expected, and that all employees are fully accountable for their value contribution?
6. Do you build a culture that employees feel important, supported, cared for, listened to and most of all, appreciated.

So, what does the world know of your business and culture? Do the exceptional employees find you, and once hired, stay because of what you do and how you do it?

You build your company’s workplace brand everyday. Commit to becoming the employer of choice and build a culture that supports it. This attracts the best employees, who inspire customer loyalty, which drives the bottom line. It starts with employees. And it is true, build it (a great workplace culture) and the best (employees) will come.

Please pass this on to someone who can benefit from it, and contact me to help you create a powerful employee-focused workplace culture that attracts and retains the best employees.

Light Their Fire

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Tough times impact the attitudes and emotions of your employees. There are greater demands for those who still have jobs in the workplace; there are significant changes in the home lives of many of your employees. The recession has touched us all.

We can complain about how difficult things are, or we can realize that complaining just reinforces negative feelings. Nothing good is accomplished that way – at work or at home. So imagine if work were a place where employees were fired up! – excited, passionate and interested in what they do. Imagine the change in performance and how energy created in the workplace could then work its way back home.

So if you never felt it was your responsibility to fire up! your employees, it is now. Your employees are still in front of your customers, creating your brand, making an impression and impacting your performance. Energized employees consistently out-perform all others. Energized employees bring their energy home.

Consider the following ways to fire up! your employees:
1. Catch your employees doing something great, and thank them. Don’t focus on the negative; focus on the positive.
2. Add one thing (your employees love to do) to their jobs; employees who are emotionally connected to their work perform better and are happier in the job.
3. Have one “Fired Up!” event each week. It may be coffee and donuts, a copy of a DVD the team can borrow each night, a daily power saying, a daily joke, a personal story from a team member, etc. Give this responsibility to one of the team who would find the role engaging and fun.
4. Share more information and solicit more feedback. Employees are more engaged when they feel included, trusted and respected.

How we feel at work affects home; how we feel at home affects work. For many, home lives are challenging. Make their work life engaging, high energy – fired up! Not only can this improve their work performance but it will likely flow over into their home life. Maybe this is the change they need – and it could all start with you.