The Barrett Wave
Issue Winter 2002
Changing Worker Special
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In this issue Diversity vs Cult Mentality Professional Sales or Professioanl Visitors? Industry Spotlight - Job Network Finals Values and Motives Guest Article: Sky's The Limit!
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Ride The Wave
Inside The Wave
Table of contents
Corporate Anorexia and The New Worker - Making sense of the changing expectations between employers and workers.
Diversity vs Cult MentalityCorporate regeneration profoundly assisted by outsiders through external opinion and experiences
Professional Sales People or Professional Visitors?Why sales teams never reach their full potential
Job Network FinalsThe impact of the new tender round on government funded employment agencies
Values and Motives Motivation and values are critical to effective selection, development and retention of staff
Guest Article - Sky's The Limit!  Spectrum Personnel. Intelligent, adaptable people + cultural fit
Who is packing your parachute?
Jo Wintle joins team at Barrett Consulting Group.
 
The second edition of the quarterly Barrett Wave has come upon us quickly. So much so, that Christmas is only 10 weeks away! The new year looks very exciting for us. Coming off the back of a huge national project with one of Australia's leading financial institutions, we seem to be entering a period where job analysis and competency profiling is becoming an integral part of selection and development programs. It seems that more organisations are realising the benefits of laying "competency foundations" so as to be able to measure the performance of employees and effectiveness of programs . The new year will see Barrett Consulting Group well into a research project on the fear of self promotion amongst Australia's unemployed job seekers, in addition to assisting in the launch of a cutting edge Australian retention assessment tool. We will also be originating the "Barrett Splash" - a very short, topical and helpful email communication. So, from all of us at Barrett Consulting Group we wish you continued success for this year, a joyful Christmas and prosperous new year.

Mission - what we do
We strive to make sure no organisation or leader fails for want of effective selection, development and retention solutions. We apply our skills, knowledge and attitudes in two core areas:

  • Sales Performance & Productivity Solutions
  • Selection & Retention Solutions.

Vision - what we want
We will inspire and promote greater self awareness and understanding in people which is socially aware and responsible.

Values - how we act
We are professional, collaborative and courageous.

Who we are
We are an Australian based management consulting firm who provides a range of consulting, development, facilitation, public speaking, design, testing and technical services.

Article 1 Banner

Note: The term worker is used in this article to include employees, contractors,etc.

Article Perspective:
Workplace change raises employer responsibility to ensure workers make  sense of what is happening.

Employment relationships are distressed. Many organisations are suffering from the effects of corporate anorexia - thin but unhealthy! The continually changing workplace, the failure of many down sizing and restructuring programs to reach their stated goals, and other ad hoc or “band aid” approaches aimed at organisational survival, have all contributed to this distress. The consequences include:

  • erosion of worker’s trust, loyalty and organisational commitment;
  • worker disempowerment and/or adjustment difficulties;
  • unrealistic organisational and/or worker expectations and attitudes;
  • disagreement on what has, or should be, provided by organisations;
  • the failure of either party to deliver on emerging expectations and obligations; and
  • management confusion concerning the adoption of appropriate workforce relationship management strategies and HR policies
Quality relationships within organisations, and with many business partners, customers and suppliers cannot be sustained if the core relationships between employer and workers are distressed. Other consequences of this employment relationship distress are a reduced capacity for innovation, and the disengagement, or disenfranchising of some workers from their organisation. Whilst these workers may still be committed to their jobs (i.e. working hard and long) their job satisfaction and effectiveness may have declined, with higher levels of workplace stress being experienced. The benefits of their “citizenship behaviour” may not be captured, where workers care about and act on behalf of the organisation and are prepared to go the “extra mile”. Citizenship behaviour is the “glue” that binds the organisation together and enhances efficiency and effectiveness. The alternative is a workforce of loners whose loyalty is to themselves: hardly a basis for organisational sustainability! However, loyalty and commitment now need to be generated through different avenues, given that the ability of organisations to offer job security and promotional opportunities is declining.

Enter The New Worker
     
The world of work has become increasingly more turbulent over the past decade or so.  Just as organisations have been reinventing themselves in order to "survive and thrive", workers also need to undergo a similar process of reappraisal.  

Moving from the more paternalistic employment relationship of the past (i.e., where the organisation promised job security and took greater responsibility for workers’ career development), to a more independent or arm’s length employment status, requires a new way of thinking.  This "mind shift" originates from:
  • workers' understanding and adoption of new career models (including associated career expectations and attitudes); and
  • an ability to deal with the associated psychological pressures accompanying thesechanges.
However, old beliefs and patterns are deeply embedded, and can be difficult to shift, particularly at an emotional level! Workers have not generally been given the tools to adapt to these changes, particularly in the case of more mature aged workers.Their "deeper" development needs have not been adequately addressed.

Organisations have a responsibility to help their workers make sense of what is happening.  Implicit in this approach is an understanding of the drivers of recent workplace change, the dynamics of the contemporary workplace, and effective adaptation/coping strategies.  The development of "soft skills" needs to be reinforced, including:
  • self-responsibility;
  • pro activity;
  • perseverance;
  • relationship building;
  • resilience or hardiness;
  • flexibility and adaptability;
  • innovation;
  • continuous learning; and
  • self-marketing skills.  
There are significant organisational benefits in addressing the “deeper” development needs of workers, with:
  • the increased requirement for self-discipline and self-sufficiency with the delocalisation of work;
  • the need for self-regulation in the workplace given the prevalence of flatter structures without formal hierarchy; and
  • a required emotional display and self-management of feelings, particularly in customer service roles.
The demands of the contemporary workplace require a "new kind of worker": one who is better equipped to manage a complexity of career and workplace issues, and deal more effectively with psychological pressures (whether their origin is from inside or outside of the workplace).

However, development is a two-way responsibility.  Some workers may decline or be unable to take up the challenges of the contemporary workplace.  They risk being left riding in the "white water turbulence"!  

This article has been prepared by Colin Beames of the WRDI Institute. For further information about contemporary workplace issues, including workforce alignment and retention or to access the latest measurement tools, please contact Sue Barrett on (03) 95327677.

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Article Perspective:
Corporate regeneration and objectivity are profoundly assisted by external opinion and experiences.

Several years ago The Economist published an article on where new wealth comes from. They differentiated new wealth from old wealth by suggesting that old wealth merely traded dollars between the clever and not so clever but that new wealth generates value that was never there before! Their conclusion - new wealth was a result of innovation.

Invention: is the discovery of the new idea
Innovation: is the successful introduction of the new idea to the marketplace

Paradigm shifters provide new rules and open up new territories  so we can solve problems we found impossible to solve with the old paradigms or did not even know existed - this in turn generates NEW WEALTH.

Who are the Paradigm Shifters who create all this opportunity?

The answer is simple. It is usually an OUTSIDER, someone who does know or practice the prevailing paradigm.  This is the person who is likely to open up whole new territories for growth and wealth.

Paradigm Shifter -- the outsider -- is the very individual homogeneous societies are so afraid of.  Because they bring with them fundamental and profound change. It could be new employees, customer requirements or consultants entering your work place.

But remember, in that change, is the ability to solve problems that had been deemed unsolvable with the old paradigm.

A question of respect

The fear so many societies hold for the outsider ironically disconnects them from their own future.

We need to respect and listen to the outsider because, if we don’t, we cannot access news ways of seeing the world, of solving problems, of renewing ourselves. Without the outsider we run the risk of cultural entropy.

To master the 21st century we must master our fears of diversity.

Reconnection with wealth

It is those unlike ourselves who bring to us the source of new wealth and the gifts of problem solving and new territories for development. You can only access these people if you are open to diversity because, by definition, the outsider must be different to you and me.

If we wish to be absolutely pragmatic about our long term futures, then it is pragmatic to create societies where diversity flourishes, is celebrated, is embraced.

The search for similarity: the dilemma

There has been a resurgence of a special kind of hate and fear at the end of the 20th century and beginning of 21st century.

  • Ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Albania
  • Religious fundamentalists showing complete intolerance to all
  • Warfare in the middle east and around the world
  • Nations breaking down
  • The reappearance of Nazism
  • The terrorists attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon
  • Constants threats of war
57 years after fighting the largest war in human history, we still find ourselves caught up with a kind of seduction to homogeneity. The cry goes up:  “Everyone should be like us!” There still seems to be an enormous fear of those who are not like us springing up around the world. Rather than dismiss it as something that needs to be cured we should first try to understand it.

Whilst there are many sociological theories to explain behaviour, there are two which may help us understand the ‘rationality’ of the homogeneous argument as well as its strengths. The first theory come from George Land.  He has been writing about the changes for almost three decades and in particular, his first work, “Grow or Die“ clearly delineates the growth pattern of so many things.  He describes his three stages of development.

The Three Stages of Development

Stage 1:
Accretion
is when an organism, an individual, a community begins to grow by pulling all the necessary elements needed to survive to themselves. Accretion looks very selfish, but existence cannot begin without it.

Stage 2:
Replication
when an organism, an individual, a community can now survive and needs to have other entities support its existence is the sense of the acknowledgement Here the other looks like, acts like, the organism itself. Identity comes from likeness.

Stage 3:
Mutualism
when the organism, individual, community looks for something to combine and grow with that is different Mutuality is the search for new combinations based on heterogeneity.  

If we applied Land’s stages to the behaviour described earlier in this article, we would say that those who wish for everyone to be alike are stuck in Stage 2 - Replication.

We need to remind ourselves of the power of being with everyone who is like us ... It supports in a very powerful way the correctness of our decisions.  It also makes getting along with one another much easier because of the level of predictability.

Land noted that Replication in individual development is equivalent to the Teenager.

The paradigm effect as a second explanation of behaviour.

To understand these people, we look at how paradigms affect our perceptions.  It is clear that paradigms act as powerful perceptual filters through which people view the world.

When we look at the filters these people are using, it is not surprising that they believe what they believe. For example:
  • In America there are intelligent people who are sure there is a government conspiracy to take away their right to bear arms.
  • Many of these people are the same ones who claim Jewish bankers funded the Nazis.
  • That the bombing of Oklahoma City was done by federal agents to make the militias look bad.
  • That Elvis is still alive !
If you accept their assumptions, then you can, in fact, see how they interpret the data available to them.  And when confronted by someone who interprets the data in a fundamentally different way, they assume the person is lying to them as part of that conspiracy.

The power of paradigms is that they physiologically affect our ability to see the world.  Quite literally, what is obvious to one person may be totally invisible to another.

And if you are fearful already, then the paradigm effect only compounds the problem.

There is a second effect that comes from shared paradigms, one we are all familiar with, but necessary to point our here:

1. Homogeneous groups share the same paradigms which means they all see the world pretty much the same way.
2. That makes it remarkably easy to reach agreement. It reduces conflict and creates stronger and stronger bonds.
3. And, of course, at the same time, creates stronger and stronger barriers to communications with the rest of the world.
4. Someone has to be right and someone has to be wrong in this model.
5. Even attempting to venture outside the paradigm boundaries, because of the great differences that will be seen is very difficult.
6. There is a find of feedback loop that leads to fanaticism.
7. There may be short term advantages to fanaticism, but in the long term is a dead end to growth and development  of organisms, individuals and communities.
8. Being stuck in the second stage of development - Replication ... the seeking of self similarity is immature from a personal point of view and from a species point of view.

Organisations based on Purity ... Homogeneity ... Monoculture ... However you wish to call it ... Can only lead to stagnation and collapse.

Those forms are hypersensitive to change and can be quickly destroyed by single threats.  Not the stuff on which to plan a long term future.

The Need for Diversity in the 21st century

Taken from Ecological Theory; Chaos Theory; George Land’s work; Nobel Prize work of Prigogine & Stengers.

Diversity:
  • Gives us long term robustness and the ability to survive major system trauma
  • Creates a dramatically larger universe of options through the results of mutualism combinations - combinations of difference
  • Is the evolutionary result of simple systems iterating over time and the nature of the universe to move forward to greater complexity
  • Creates through growing complexity the need for new paradigms to understand and interact with that complexity
  • And, in a very neat loop, the source of the new paradigms, outsiders, are the result of diversity not similarity
Innovation and material wealth in the world

It will be and is today the challenge of the leaders of the world to show through their actions that we can help one another find better ways than we have now to make the world where all of us  can  be happy and healthy at the expense of no one else. This can start in the workplace.

A poem by Robert Frost:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
By taking the new path to diversity, we will find, “That which we fear the most Is Our Greatest Strength”.

Thoughts and ideas put together from research by Joel Barker, Futurist

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Article Perspective:
For Sales and Business Development Managers. Highlights a key reason as to why sales teams never reach their full potential.

To work smarter not harder is a well used catch phrase but how often is this achieved?  As the manager of sales and business development teams how often are you left with the feeling that your people are seeing clients but beyond the “hello” and general chat nothing of substance is happening?

In this day and age the bottom line is always in the spotlight - our sales efforts are driven by budgets, share prices and the board.  So it is increasingly important that the contact time with customers is productive.  Not only are we busy - customers are too and the last thing they want is an interruption to their day that does not yield results.

The question then becomes why is there this phenomenon of “professional visitation”? Often  the cause can be isolated to a sales person’s reticence to ask the “hard questions”. Preferring to operate at a more superficial level there is little chance the sales person will ever become involved in negotiating their way through customer demands, price issues etc.  


The Professional Visitor Profile:

  • Continual rounds of visits to clients its is comfortable to do business with
  • Lengthy amounts of time spent establishing “rapport”
  • Difficulty zeroing in on real customer problems rather than symptoms
  • Inability to effectively negotiate the way around the “price” question
  • Sticking  to the “safe” but irrelevant topics
  • Walking away with no advancement in the sales process
  • Selling the same old products/services, not adding new ones
  • Customers continually asking for more discount
  • The customer controlling the sales process not your representative
Have you ever felt “If only half the effort was put into representing the company’s interests as well as the customers!”  there wouldn’t be this constant battle to provide more discount, more often.  The professional visitor hesitates to get into the fray with customers as they are not comfortable being assertive.  The cost to you becomes more volume at the expense of profit, a failure to see opportunities with customers, longer than necessary decision cycles.

Are these costs you can continue to carry?

It is well documented that organisations who invest the most in workplace learning find higher net sales and gross profits per employee, and higher ratio in market to book values compared to those who invest less in training.

In our work with clients  by focusing on the person and how they engage in the dynamics of business and we have seen increases in sales performance and productivity anywhere from 30-300% in 6 months.   There is a definate return on investment!


What Makes a Top Performing Sales Person and Do You Have Any?

The top performer - like the world class athlete, tennis player, musician, there are only a few of them.  In sales what is that elusive thing that sets your top performing sales people apart form the rest of the bunch?

It is often said that top performers are those who close the most deals, have the best knowledge, the most sales experience.  However based on extensive research conducted across industries world wide the key thing separating top performers form others is their ability to make more contact with potential buyers of your products or services more often than their hesitant peers.

Call Sue Barrett at Barrett Consulting Group on (03) 95327677.

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Article Perspective:
Looks at the impact of Employment Services Contract and what that means to Job Network organisations, its employees and job seekers.

September/October 2002.  Finals. The month of the year where skill, leadership, courage and careful planning are fully tested.

March 2003. Job Network Finals.While the evolution of the Job Network may have created an uneven playing field for some Job Network organisations, the opportunity to test (through a re-tendering process) can only be good for job seekers and taxpayers alike. To put it bluntly, ESC3 is keeping everyone on their game and demands the same competitor qualities found in any elite competition.

With the advent of ESC3, some Job Network organisations are clearly leading larger, higher profile providers to the ball  because of two things:

(a) they relish the opportunity to revisit what they ask of themselves, their employees and their job seekers; and
(b) they know how to do it.
The structure and comfort of the old Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) delivery system opened the door for mediocrity. While not doubting the individual talents of quality people, within this government department, its sheer size and lack of accountability mean't that it was always reactive to the changing needs of government, employers and job seekers.

The new leaders of the Job Network are the opposite. They are working and planning towards higher levels of flexibility, responsiveness and accountability.

Employment Services Contract 3

Excerpts from a media release by Employment and Workplace Relations Minister, Tony Abbott, reiterated the Federal government's employment services reform agenda:-

"Changes to the Job Network from July 2003 will increase active job search and provide more personalised service for job seekers...

... Under the changes, every job seeker will be linked to a single Job Network member when they first become unemployed. The Job Network member will work on a continuing basis to help job seekers maintain active job search. People who are unemployed for 12 months will be guaranteed customised assistance from their Job Network member...

... Disadvantaged people and the longer-term unemployed will receive intensive support. This will include job search training, help with finding a Mutual Obligation activity if needed, customised assistance and referrals to other relevant employment and training programmes. Better links between these activities will mean more time looking for work. Disadvantaged job seekers will receive early access to customised assistance...

... Job Network members and Job Placement providers will also receive incentives for placing unemployed people into sustainable jobs. A new network of Job Placement providers, dedicated to servicing employers' recruitment needs, will mean more job vacancies on the Australian Job Search database. Australian Job Search will provide faster advice to job seekers about available jobs...

... A new Job Seeker Account, worth $420 million over four years, will enable Job Network members to purchase services that help the unemployed find and keep work. This will include assistance with fares, job-related training and the like...

In addition, all job seekers will receive a Service Guarantee detailing the services they will receive, such as regular personal meetings with their Job Network member. Funding to employment services will be based on them meeting or exceeding the Service Guarantee".
"The Government is committed to maximising real job outcomes for all Australians. Active job search is the key to this" Mr Abbott said.

What does this mean to:

(a) Job Network Organisations?

Leading Job Network organisations see the advent of ESC3 as an opportunity to consolidate their positions in this exclusive market place and to adopt Best Practice principles in employment services. They are doing this, in sync with the tender process, and in advance of tender results.

A recent DEWR study on Best Practice confirmed that people quality was the leading indicator of organisational performance.

Leading organisations are looking closely at their human capital structure and seeking independent, professional assistance to conduct Job Analysis. Job Analysis (which includes competency profiling and assessment) is the lynch pin to review recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, succession planning, remuneration and benefits and HR planning in general.

(b) Job Network Employees?

Leading Job Network organisations are ensuring that their employees are capable of applying Best Practice principles in employment services. Using Job Analysis and competency profiling as a foundation, leading Job Network providers will ensure that competencies are aligned to tasks and outcomes able to meet the organisations strategic objectives for ESC3.

The old adage, "if you can't measure, you can't manage" remains a powerful reminder of the need to be able to source valid, reliable and objective information on how well an employee is likely to or is performing and what development needs might be required for them to apply Best Practice principles.

Certainly, the proposed remuneration structure and new network of Job Placement providers has Job Network organisations thinking about the way in which they currently develop employer relationships and source vacancies. The new network could pose a threat to existing Job Network organisations if they are able to come off the "interchange bench" and, through performance, push for "senior selection" in the future. Leading Job Network organisations are looking closely at the competencies of their sales and marketing teams and the way in which these teams are integrated into the business.

(c) Job Seekers?

Active job search will be a key performance indicator for both job seekers and Job Network organisations. Job seekers will experience Best Practice principles in employment services by receiving guaranteed, customised assistance from Job Network employees, early access to intensive support, individual funding through a Job Seeker Account and a prescribed level of service. While leading Job Network providers already provide this type of customised environment (albeit self funded) it will now become an expectation of job seekers.

Leading Job Network organisations are looking to ways of providing an individual, customised level of service in the most effective way possible. Managing the emphasis on job seeker activity, with Best Practice principles in mind, should start with an assessment of job seeker capabilities to initiate contact. A valid and reliable assessment of energy, goal focus, competing ambitions and perseverance, together with identifying levels of call reluctance can lead to more targeted activity and development programs.

The competencies required of a job seeker are no different to that of a sales person. Extensive research in this area, by Barrett Consulting Group, consistently reveals that fear of self promotion (call reluctance) is the number one inhibitor of performance. All the sales training in the world counts for nothing if no contact is made. Job seekers (including the long term unemployed) are no different and any job search training needs to consider their behavioural capacity to make contact. This will then assist in developing an appropriate activity strategy that works towards their strengths rather than concentrates on their weaknesses (resulting in a much higher cost load).

Barrett Consulting Group are currently conducting a feasibility study to adapt one of their licenced psychometric assessments (measuring contact initiation) for the Job Network market. The benefit of such an approach for Job Network organisations will be that they can measure any job seeker against a similar job seeker normative group, the approach is activity rather than personality focused, program development time is reduced and a computer generated activity statement could be attached to the Preparing for Work Agreement. Similarly, a computer generated feedback report will also be available to the job seeker.

Further information, on any of the aspects raised in this article, can be provided by contacting Sue Barrett on (03) 95327677.

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Article Perspective:
The impact of values and motivation on the cultural and financial bottom lines.

Motivation and Values are critical to effective selection development and retention of staff and vital to your future success.

What is Motivation?

Motivation is a galvanizing buzzword and any self help guru worth his jargon uses it.  Commonly people believe that to motivate staff you provide pep talks, uplifting speeches or “quick fix” training programs but like “hot baths” the inspiration or ‘motivation’ does not last for long - it soon gets cold and wears off.

This is not motivation!

So what does motivation mean to you? How do you know when you are motivated and when you are not? How do you use your motivation? The original scientific definition of motivation is:  Raw Physical energy which is affected by diet, sleep, exercise, intake habits (smoking, drinking and drugs), emotional and physical traumas, etc.

We all have a finite amount of raw physical energy at any given time and it varies depending on our life experiences.   But is having raw physical energy enough?  Probably not!

Like electricity, which is a form of physical energy, Motivation has to be connected to something so it can be used and make things work. People need to connect their physical energy to a goal or purpose as this helps provide meaning to their efforts and gives them a reason to use their energy wisely and well.

This is where your values and their values come in.

You cannot give people their daily dose of raw physical energy (that comes from within) but you can create a compelling reason to work with you and your company. This is not just about what you do, its who you are and what you stand for

Values define what you stand for!

As you know, people bring a set of values to their work and are looking for linkages with their colleagues and the company itself.

  • Values are not so much an intellectual issue as a cultural issue. It is about building a positive dynamic within your company.
  • Identifying your core values is critical to underpinning the future success of your company
  • If you have your values established you can use them as a basis for all strategic planning and decision making.
  • This will them help you and your employees align personal values with company values. If these two do not relate you will then run into problems
Why are values so important?
  • Without values, it is difficult for a common direction to be established within your company.
  • Values driven from above create organisational practice.
  • Values, supported by training and reward systems emphasise the importance of people management.
  • Values lead to long term growth
  • By letting employees explore their own values and where they fit into the organisation fosters retention of staff.
Money is not the #1 motivator

Many people are recognising that money is not - or perhaps never was - the best motivator. According to McKinsey research “As long as people’s salary is in the general ball park for a particular role, 85-90% of employees will not consider it a deciding factor”

The very successful organisations are often the ones that don’t pay above award. Often the ones with the most reasonable cost structure and good business strategy and practices, supported by strong value base, are the ones that are more enjoyable places to work

Establishing your own company values

If you establish your own company values, you can use them to guide your strategy and business direction and create a compelling place to work, which in turn helps you select and retain the right people in your business.

Then when you identify the ‘right people’ they can bring their raw physical energy, values, thoughts, ideas, talents and competencies to your company and you can all enjoy the benefits of a highly motivated and productive workplace.

But this is just the beginning:

Most people have no logical process or plan when it comes to Selection Development and Retention of the “Right Employees.  They fly by the seat of their pants. Not only do you need to get your values and strategy established you also need to get your process for selecting, developing and retaining your people established as well.

The Bottom Line Implications Are...

Employee retention is a key driver of customer retention which in turn is a key driver of company growth and profits.

Does your company create
  • A compelling place to work?
  • A compelling place to buy?
  • A compelling place to invest.?
  • Why do people want to come to work with you?
  • What are your company values?
  • How well do your people understand the role they play in your company?
  • What are employees’ realistic expectations of your company?
  • Are these expectations being met?
  • What levels of trust exist between employees and your company?
  • Are employees being treated fairly?
  • How committed are employees to their jobs?
  • How attached, or what is the degree of “fit”, of employees to your company?
  • How satisfied are employees in their jobs?
  • Do employees intend to stay with your company in the medium term?
Key questions to consider if you want a healthy (motivated) work culture...
  • Respect
  • Independence
  • Training and recognition of enjoyment at work
  • Tolerance of errors - which are core to a culture of learning and development
  • Focus on learning
  • Shared sense of purpose and values
By contrast you don't want to be a Toxic work culture. Don’t...
  • Have low levels of mutual respect
  • Have lots of negative feedback
  • Have a highly punitive culture
  • Have a command and control management
  • Lack leadership
  • Remove people’s involvement in decision making
If you or your organisation have no thought, no purpose, no planning or no meaning to what you do you will find that there will be less motivated staff, higher turnover, more costs and less results. The most successful companies globally are all staffed by motivated people - motivated people are consistently core to high performance.

Understand people are important and know what they want...

  • The Kudos of working for a respected and successful organisation
  • Opportunities for personal development and growth
  • Enjoyment and meaning  in their work - feeling they can count for something
  • Commitment to quality
  • To know they make a difference - not just to the corporate bottom line but to the community in general
  • The knowledge that their opinion counts for something
  • A shared sense of purpose and belief in company values

This creates a satisfied workforce = a  motivated workforce

A motivated workforce = better employee retention, better client retention, more revenue and profits.

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Article 6 Banner

Article Perspective: 
Selection decision makers are now placing much more emphasis
on interpersonal skills and the cultural fit.

Choosing the right employee for your organisation can be very difficult.  Traditionally when employers are surveying potential employees, they will focus on the skills and experience of each candidate and interview a select few based on their perceived criteria match.  The interview will try and elicit responses to prove the candidate suitable/unsuitable for the organisation.  Many interviewers, despite candidates’ responses, will make their choice based on ‘gut feel’ and whether or not they like the person.  Whilst many employers would say these methods have generally served them well, the increasing speed, specialisation and structure changes occurring in modern day organisations has created the need for employees with not just the skills and experience, but with the talent, cultural fit and aligned goals, values and behaviours.

These days “good people and good searches cost more than ever and the criteria for determining who’s right for the job are now both more extensive and harder to assess.” (Stauffer, D. 1998)  One of the problems with the traditional method of candidate/employee selection is that you cut off many of your options from the very beginning when resume screening is performed.  Experience does not necessarily equal ‘potential’ – a candidate’s potential to be the most talented, focussed, motivated, productive and loyal employee your organisation may have seen.  

If, as an employer, your main recruitment focus is on experience and skills, and you pay little attention to values and motivators, you may successfully recruit a candidate who will ‘do their job’, but you are far less likely to elicit the sort of commitment, motivation and focus necessary to go the extra distance.  “Respected CEO’s and (recruitment) consultants alike are now placing much more emphasis on interpersonal skills and the fit between the candidate and the organisation’s culture.” (Stauffer, D. 1998)

So why is cultural fit so important?  Skills can be learned and experience is cumulative.  What can’t be learned or developed is an ingrained set of individual values and goals.  If those values and goals are in line with those of your organisation, you are going to have a motivated employee who is going to do what it takes to travel in the same direction and attain success.

Many organisations have set about achieving cultural alignment by setting a new company direction, vision and strategy and then asking existing employees to make a commitment to same at great financial expense.  Unfortunately this does not usually work because individuals values and goals generally outweigh those of an organisations and are not easily changed.  Therefore this process inevitably leads to very little change and a lot of wasted effort.

“The good-to-great leaders understood three simple truths.  First, if you begin with “who”, rather than “what,” you can more easily adapt to a changing world.  If people join the bus (organisation) primarily because of where it is going, what happens if you get ten miles down the road and you need to change direction?  You’ve got a problem.  But if people are on the bus because of who else is on the bus, then it’s much easier to change direction: “Hey, I got on this bus because of who else is on it; if we need to change direction to be more successful, fine with me.” Second, if you have the right people on the bus, the problem of how to motivate and manage people largely goes away.  The right people don’t need to be tightly managed or fired up; they will be self-motivated by the inner drive to produce the best results and to be part of creating something great.  Third, if you have the wrong people, it doesn’t matter whether you discover the right direction; you still won’t have a great company.  Great vision without great people is irrelevant.” (Collins, J. 2001, P. 41)

Spectrum Personnel is an organisation focussed on providing employee retention outcomes through ensuring the selection of the ‘right’ person for each role, whether temporary or permanent, by focusing on the cultural fit, emotional fit, skills and experience of all applicants.  The Spectrum Team recognises that continuing growth and development depends on a strong, talented, energetic team, clear on its purpose and values and commitment to a common vision for the future.

This article has been prepared by Rebecca Wilkinson of Spectrum Personnel. If you would like further information on appropriate selection strategies for your organisation to ensure that you get the right people ‘on the bus’, please use the online form


References:

Collins, J. 2001, Good to Great, Random House, Auckland
Stauffer, D. 1998, ‘Cultural Fit: Why Hiring Good People is No Longer Good Enough’, Harvard Management Update, No. U9803C

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Article 7 Banner

Article Perspective:
A current email doing the rounds that spells out the need to recognise those that support you at work and in life.

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.
"I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.
The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"
Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."
Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers.
I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor."

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?"

Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory-he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute.

He called on all these supports before reaching safety. Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachute. I am sending you this as my way of thanking you for your part in packing my parachute !!! And I hope you will send it on to those who have helped pack yours!

Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word, maybe this could explain: When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do - you forward jokes.

And to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for, guess what you get? --- A forwarded joke.

So my friend, next time if you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile.

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Hot News Banner

Josephine Wintle joins team.

Josephine is the newest member of the Barrett Consulting Group. She has had several years’ experience in the customer service industry with a focus on handling customer enquires, solving problems and supporting sales teams. In her role at a Radio station, Josephine was responsible for advertising scheduling and liaising with customers to ensure material was up to date and correct. Josephine is currently in the final stages of completing a Masters degree in Organisational Psychology at Monash University and is registered as a probationary psychologist.

Josephine’s main area of interest is in working with organisations to enhance the capabilities of their people, by providing support to clients utilizing a variety of psychometric assessment tools which aid recruitment and development process.

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