Leading the Culture of Accomplishment

Any good thought or idea is only half done till it is worked upon to deliver results. It becomes important for

HR professionals to facilitate interventions, provide tools and most importantly entice early adopters to gain acceptance and propagate the ideology to others. For a certain ideology to become a prominent element of the organizational culture, behaviors and activities aligning to the ideology ought to be rewarded. Continuous and later periodic interventions need to be planned and executed for the same. This draws from the theory of conditioning.

HR leaders and practitioners can device a number of

-          Procedures

-          Tools

Here are a few I propose:

a)      Personalized Portal: Each organization I believe must have an accomplishment portal for its employees with features such as

a.       Activities to accomplish

b.      Professional/Personal?

c.       Timeline – Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly & Yearly

d.      Resources

e.       How?

f.       Make visible to other members?

g.       Seek help within the organization?

h.      Status – Red, Green & Yellow

The activities are made visible both to the individual as well his/her reporting manager. HR thereby has a database of all such activities the individual members wish to accomplish. These can help identify improvement areas, design developmental plans, succession planning, aid talent management, performance management, plan OD interventions and thereby retention.

b)      Accomplishment Boards: A bulletin board where the accomplishment stories get published. Accomplishments – irrespective of magnitude; individual, team or organization get published encouraging others to follow suit and motivate the accomplishers.

c)      Rewarding Group/Cross-team accomplishments: A culture of collective accomplishment goes a long way in building trust and collaboration within the organization. Rewarding group accomplishment also encourages thinking beyond and above self.

d)      My Champ: In one of the organizations, I worked, we launched this initiative where any individual in the organization could recognize fellow colleague who has in any manner helped accomplish a task/activity.

e)      Make it part of the performance management process: Organizational accomplishments need to drill down to management and then individual level making way through the goal setting process.

These action items can create the right climate for the organization to tread the path of accomplishment. 

Culture of Accomplishment - Deciding and Executing what Matters

This one stems from the several exit interviews, employee interactions and experiences of self and others. I have written this post more as a concept paper than an article.

The Problem:

High attrition, disengaged and disgruntled employees, low employee morale and thereby low productivity are issues that have plagued most of the organizations globally. The result is increased intrinsic and extrinsic cost for the organizations resulting in leaner bottom lines. Any action on cutting down costs results in a Catch 22 situation for the companies.

In a recent report released by SilkRoad, a HR software solutions provider, 86% of the employers struggle to create and maintain workforce engagement. In another article on ‘loyalty360.org’, ‘Measurement’ is termed as a weakness of employee engagement programs in terms of longevity and effectiveness. In the FORBES list of top 5 reasons for quitting jobs in 2013, stability, work-life balance and RESPECT have found mention. Two very important points can be deduced from all these articles, research papers and other literature on employee engagement and factors influencing employee longevity and effectiveness:

         1. The factors molding employee engagement are evolving.

         2. The premise on which employee engagement programs are based is flawed.

A Bigger Picture:

The only thing that is with the organization throughout its lifecycle and strongly influences its existence is its culture. Culture may get contaminated, invaded and normalized over the organization’s existence; however it exists. Culture is lasting; programs are not. Culture is what drives behavior, exchanges, morale and sets an unwritten agenda of how things are to be done and what is expected out of employees. It also strongly impacts the feelings, moods and emotional bursts that an employee may experience. Culture also channels the loyalty and longevity of the employees.

In my view which has crystallized with my experiences and those of others, culture has to be all encompassing and should stand for the values of the organization. A lot has been said and written about the culture of ‘Achievement’. However, there is very little mention of accomplishment in the organizational culture context. Elizabeth Curry, facilitator of the Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute makes mention of the following prominent cultures in her workshops:

1. Power Culture
2. Achievement Culture
3. Role Culture
4. Support Culture 

Curry states that one of above four cultures is prominent in the organizations while the rest though exist are not dominant. McClelland’s human needs motivation theory speaks of –

n(P) – Need for Power

n(A) – Need for Achievement

n(Af) – Need for Affiliation

My view of a culture emanating ‘accomplishment’ is the one in which all four – power, achievement, role, support are equally dominant and mutually interact with each other to collectively enhance the beauties of each culture thereby snowballing the overall positive impact on the organization.

Y Accomplishment:

“There’s nothing like seeing your own potential come to fruition and realizing your worth and intelligence as a human being”, quotes Mirella, a blogger in one of the blog posts. Besides, accomplishment caters to individualistic notions of accomplishment and thereby helps customize interventions to enhance individual accomplishments. A child’s sense of accomplishment may be very different from that of an adult. Even amongst children, the sense of accomplishment for a child playing soccer may be different from that of a studious kid. The beauty is even amongst soccer playing kids; sense of accomplishment for a goal keeper may be different from the one playing forward or center back. Same is the case with our employees in the organization and for that matter the employees in the same department or same team or subgroup. The other truly enticing quality of accomplishment is its inherent ability to sprout happiness within an individual.

The sense of accomplishment has longevity and also boosts your motivation to continue with your march – continuous accomplishment or path of new glory. Accomplishment can also be considered the pinnacle of an individual’s state of mind and heart.

In organizations, our employees may quit or may be disengaged or disgruntled citing reasons of insufficient compensation, opportunities, challenges, growth or even plain need for change or beat monotony. Understanding their sense of accomplishments helps the HR folks design, customize and drive interventions in the organizations. This also helps identify how individual strengths can be leveraged to deliver to the business strategy of the organization besides having happy employees at work. It is however important for HR folks to align individual accomplishments to the overall accomplishment of the organization. The organization’s sense of accomplishment may lie in earning revenues for its stakeholders, give back to the society, stand by environmental causes or just keeping all its primary and secondary stakeholders happy.

Culture of accomplishment goes a long way in helping us introspect on what example we wish to set for ourselves and others around. Also, deciding on what really matters and doing that.

 
I shall discuss on the tools and processes of enabling our employees in the next post. Till then, the point to ponder - Do we consider ourselves accomplished? 

Engaging the Engagers!

My discussions on this blog stem from the many observations and conversations that my profession as an HR enables me to have with wide diaspora of people. On a certain day, I was having an informal conversation with one of my colleagues. Then sprung a series of topics and activities related to HR. Suddenly he quipped, " We need to take care of the world's engagement (employee engagement he meant) but who takes care of our engagement?" His question provoked a lot of thoughts but no instant reaction or answer.

There is a lot of enshrouded truth in what my friend mentioned. I have come across a lot of HR professionals who are low on motivation. And if that is the case, how can a disengaged employee take the onus of keeping other employees engaged? While this thought presents a serious concern, extremely critical is the question - 

Whose baby is the 'Engagement of HR Folks'?

There is no contention to the fact that successful HR professionals are highly self motivated individuals and have internal locus of control.However, motivation is like a fuel which drives ability to achieve goals. And like any other fuel, this fuel is also not perpetual. Sometimes the sense of accomplishment in terms of thrusting business results drives motivation and at other times building employee capabilities crusades the will to keep going. But, coming back to the original concern - Who is necessarily responsible for HR's motivation? Deriving out of my experience so far, CEOs in any organization play an important role in motivating the HR team. It is CEOs vision of the organization which moulds HR as a function which then moulds the organization.Besides, reverse recognition (from employees) also acts as a latent engagement driver.

While keeping the HR team engaged is off the books in several organizations, it can have severe repercussions for the organizations in the times to come. HR acts as a central node for building the workforce capabilities and thereby synthesizing organization.Failure of this node can lead to organizational catastrophe. The idea is not to paint out an apprehensive picture but present a perspective that a veiled systemic concern is being ignored and needs to be acted upon.I, in my capacity ensure that relevant stakeholders are informed on the engagement levels of the members of our HR team and proactive measures are taken. I see this aspect finding mention as a KRA not only in manager's performance matrix but also of the CEOs.

Would love your inputs and insights on this topic and any programs commenced in your organizations to Engage HR Teams.

Role of HR in Tough Times - Talent Perspective

Paradigm Shift and Talent Management:

 

We are witnessing a paradigm shift in the role of and perception about HR. The real challenge for HR function lies when the days are no longer sunny. There are two aspects to this – ‘Proactive HR’ and managing the paradox of being ‘Employee Champion’ and ‘Strategic Business Partner’. Let’s discuss both these scenarios.

We have been saying that HR has to be proactive. But then what is that ‘proactive approach’ we are talking about. When it comes to global economic downturn, the first measure that most organizations take is ‘downsizing’. A proactive approach would result in ‘Right-sizing’. There would be no need to cut the extra flab when the organization is already in shape. For this again, effective manpower planning has to be carried out and several analytical techniques can be used to get the count right. Scenario analysis is one such technique which can help us visualize different scenarios by juggling with several parameters. The Talent pool has to be just right. This also involves taking a long term view of things and avoiding myopic and tunnel vision to attain short term stability. We need to also understand that any economic crisis is a transient phenomenon and so we should not sacrifice vision for immediate short term gains. One excuse or explanation that comes from many organizations during downturn is that the non-performers are being retrenched. But my point of contention is – Why to wait for economic downturn to chuck out the non-performers. Besides, what could be the quality and effectiveness of selection procedures in these organizations so as to induce non-performers into the system? What has the learning and development team been doing all this while? 

 Its important to understand that 'Employees' are important stakeholders contributing to business success even in tough times and post that. HR being a business partner has to aid the decision making of Leadership team by presenting concrete rationale and do what is right for the business not only in the present but also in the long run while preserving the interest of the internal customers. An analogy that strikes me is that of a 'mother' in the family. 'Mother' always has to balance the act of the 'father' (Leadership Team) and that of the 'children' (Employees) for the emergence of a happy and loving 'family' (Organization). An organization should stand by its employees in the tough times which will build a culture of trust and loyalty. Employees will reciprocate by higher productivity and higher commitment levels. This is a simple human phenomenon – a psychological contract. As someone has said, “If you exceed someone’s expectations by a little, they will make sure to exceed your expectations by a lot more”. HR has to strike a balance between the employees’ needs and the business demands. SAS is one organization which has never retrenched its employees and has consistently figured in the ‘Great Places to Work’. This has a positive impact on the employees as a whole resulting in high motivation levels and sense of belongingness for the organization. Besides, other stakeholders – shareholders, suppliers, and customers take note of such initiatives and are highly appreciative resulting in better relations and more business. As stated earlier, a long term and far sighted view has to be taken. 

HR has to understand these realities and pitch for the most rational option. It is HR’s responsibility to make the management cognizant of the holistic picture and present the pros and cons of any decision before them in the language they understand. HR has to take the Central Stage and make a mark.