SuperManager Podcast: Creating an Ideal Workplace With and For Your Employees
Christine: You’re listening to SuperManager, the podcast for people who manage people and business with ideas, trends and expert interviews to help you be a SuperManager.
Sam: All right, welcome to this week’s SuperManager podcast, today I’ve got my super friends with me and they are
Jon: Jon Floyd, my company is LeadValets and we open doors for you.
Steve: Steve Finkelstein, senior partner and Co-Founder of Experience on Demand. We’re a comprehensive management consulting firm focusing on small to mid-size businesses and nonprofits.
Rod: Rob McCann, McCann Consulting. I help people save money on their employee benefits, work on self-funded employee benefits for them.
Tara: Tara Gregor, founder of Breakwell, we are a workplace wellbeing resource and partner.
Sam: and Samantha Naes, CN Video Production, we produce corporate video… What we’re going to be talking about today is making an ideal workplace, that means different things to different people. I had a client that I did a video for a couple of years ago. They wanted to do kind of a scouting video, a company culture video, and so we did some B roll of what they’re doing in the office, what the company culture is like a little bit about mission, vision, values. And they wanted me to interview some of the employees about what they liked most about working for this company, but they didn’t want it to be planned. They didn’t warn the employees that this was going to happen because they didn’t want it to sound scripted. They wanted me to just ask off the cuff and we got a lot of different responses, some good, some bad, but what do you think was the most common response that we got? I would say more than half the people that I interviewed had the same response. Any guesses as to what that might’ve been?… Food. They liked the fact that there was food in the cafeteria, that there were candy dishes around, that there was always food to be eaten in the office. That was one of their favorite reasons for working there and it actually brings up a really good point. Tara, you were talking about finding out what your employees really value when it comes to making an ideal workplace.
Tara: Companies think that they know what the employees value, so they bring all these different things and they might bring a yoga class in, they might bring the food in and lunch, but then they wonder why the program was a little under utilized. We’re doing all this for our employees, but why don’t they like it?
Sam: Has anyone ever been involved in an employee survey?
Jon: Yes. What I found, when I was in corporate, was that it was never a company thing, it was a work group thing. So you couldn’t be up in the satellite looking down. You had to get to each individual work group and talk to them and find out what not only the individual work group was setting goals, the right goals and everything, but also the individual was in there because each person had a different-
Sam: Your IT people are going to want something different than your marketing people.
Jon: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And what motivates one person that’s a different, you know, we always handed out bonuses and perks, you know, for everybody. From the admins to the salespeople, to anybody that was involved.
Steve: So I was a partner at a large consulting firm and every year we’d have our employee get together for the holidays. And usually it was all older white men that had big memberships at country clubs. So every year these more wealthy white men had the parties at these big country clubs. So the next year, I was the one in charge of the party and I asked the employees, what do you want to do? Especially all the different diversity generations. And they said, why do we have to go to country clubs every year? It’s not what we want, it’s what you want. We don’t care about the country clubs, what we want to do is get to know each other, mingle. So that year, We had our annual party at the history museum. We had a jazz band, that played different kinds of music and we had a buffet so that you didn’t sit at a table, you know with the hierarchy of, well I’m the managing partner and you’re the senior partner. It was everyone mingled. There were no titles and it was great, so I think it’s really appropriate. Don’t guess what you think your employees want, just ask them. Especially now with the five different generations in the workplace.
Sam: Well it’s not always about the benefits and the positives as well. It’s about creating a good company culture where people are comfortable and again that is going to vary from department to department and between different individuals.
Tara: I think that’s really important because A: they want transparency and they want to feel like they’ve been heard so when they tell you what they want and then they see it implemented or they see that they’ve been listened to, that’s what creates the real value with the employees and tying them to your company.
Sam: Not only do you get the answer to your question, but you are providing a better company culture by showing that you listened to your employees. Exactly. Yeah. I like that. And Rod, you had kind of listed a few ideas or things that you’ve seen, I guess work in a positive way.
Rod: Yes, well access when you’re, when you go pull it into the workplace, what is your access for parking? Is it readily accessible? Are you in an area that you need to have guarded parking? Are you in an area that’s going to be open parking? Is it a parking garage due to weather? Uh, what is safe? Is it safe and is it well lit if you’re working at night, you know, some of those things that are, that are there. Plus in today’s society where we’ve got older buildings, newer buildings, is that a healthy building? Is it a building that’s had any water damage? Any mold, any mildew anything that is impacting the health and welfare of the employees? So then as there air, you know, being able to be run through. So keep it healthy. That and lunchroom access, technology access, it depends on what position you’re doing versus sales staff is going to want to have that conference room so that they can bring people in, show off the company and do all that. But it depends on what is your specific product that you’re selling or producing cause your sales staff, your customer service, other people are all gonna have different ideas as to what’s important to them. So to be able to blend all that, to work in a good environment.
Sam: You know, one of the things that I do when I’m interviewing people, we do internships in the summertime and every year I go through this interviewing frenzy for the internships and I always ask them or I’ve started asking them, what do you consider to be an ideal work environment? What are you looking for in a work environment? And one of the most common answers that I get is being able to get along with coworkers. Feeling like you’re part of the family seems to be really high on the priority list for a lot of employees. Just kind of feeling like you fit in with everybody.
Tara: One of the questions that I ask when I survey companies and I interview the employees is, do you have a best friend at work? Because again, having that one person at work that you feel a bond with actually again ties you to the company so when people don’t feel included or they don’t feel a part of something bigger, they usually feel that detached piece and that isolation.
Steve: And that’s actually one of the top 12 questions from Gallup on a high engagement workforce, is do you have a best friend at work?
Sam: How do you create an environment where people become best friends at work?
Rod: Well, you could assign when a new person comes in, assign a person to be a shadow with them, at least to get to know them and to be able to introduce them to the other employees, the other workers, so you’ve got someone there specifically doing that.
Steve: Actually a best practice is when you hire somebody, part of their onboarding process is to assign a buddy and that person really is their buddy and they’re there for any reason. It’s questions you may have that you don’t have to go to your boss to, or you think it’s a dumb question, but that person is to help you enculturate into the organization, become your best friend and that’s why they call them your buddy.
Sam: How do you know that it’s a match? I mean, what if your buddy and you don’t see eye to eye or don’t get along or don’t have anything in common? How do you pick a good buddy for an employee?
Steve: Well, typically you understand the person being interviewed. So if there’s common interests, common generations, whatever it may be, but it could work out just like in a relationship where it’s not a good match, but then it can change. So during the conversation, just like a mentor, hey, if this isn’t working out, please let me know because we can get you someone else and you can kind of sense that people are opening up or not opening up if they’re closed. If my buddy isn’t asking me questions, then there’s something not going on right.
Jon: One company I was with, they did a study and they picked their best employees, the ones that were the most positive, that performed the best, and then they did what you’d normally do for customers, is they did a look alike. They narrowed down what these traits that these employees have. Then through the interview process they tried to find those type people. It wasn’t like this person was a major it person or something like that, but it was more on a personality level.
Sam: Did that work out well?
Jon: It worked out pretty well. Yeah. You didn’t hit 100% but you got better than you were.
Tara: Another question that I also ask is, who’s the funniest person in your office or on your team? Because those are usually the people that other people like to be around. So again, if you don’t know where to start, it’s a good place to start.
Sam:You had talked about accessibility earlier on that you see on a lot of sitcoms, there’s always fighting over who gets the best parking spot and can I park closer to the building? Is that really a thing?
Rod: Well, I’ve seen in cultures that yes it is, uh, to have that,
Sam: When it’s snowing outside,
Rod: Not necessarily when it’s snowing outside, but the visibility within the other coworkers, it’s a hierarchy situation. Here’s your employee of the month, here’s your a star worker of the week or something… Nature that you’ll see that maybe it’s the president CEO or somebody parked right up front. There’s a,
Sam: So is that a good thing or a bad thing? If you have employee of the month and they get a good parking spot for a month, does that create a better culture or competition or animosity or disappointment when you lose the parking spot?
Rod: Well, it depends on what your criteria is. I think two, what is driving it and what is the product that you’re doing or what are you setting up to earn that spot? It can be good competition. It can be, you know, friendly amongst the employees as they drive towards that.
Tara: My last employer, so I had worked there for about 15 years and the executive team and the managers, we all had a park on the third level of the parking garage, and then the employee access was outside of the building on the first level, but then the hourly staff had to go down a floor clock in, and then it was a very, very large building. It was a large hotel and then they had to go to their departments, but the executive team and the leadership and the management got keys to a door on the third floor that we got to go in and not get rained on or snowed on or go through the dark. And it created major rift between hourly employees and executive team. They didn’t understand why there should be a difference.
Sam: Yeah. What a great way to undervalue someone by saying, well, we’re going to not walk in the rain and you, you’ve got to go out and whatever the weather conditions are.
Tara: Absolutely.
Jon: I remember one time, if you were talking about a horror story was I worked at a bank, I was a consultant there and one night I was there late was a couple of people and the janitor came in and handed us a letter that one of the executives had written and his writing was, you know, we need to turn the air conditioning up now. This was down south when it’s still eight 90 degrees at night. He said, when you turn the air condition up because we don’t want to keep the cockroaches and the janitors cool. And I thought that was,
Sam: Ooh,
Jon: Very… Very ouch. Just plain rude,
Sam: Well even if even if nobody ever found out about that comment, just the fact that that’s the way upper management feels, that’s got to be visible. It’s got a propagate. Yes. Steve brought up a good point about turning core values into behaviors. Uh, I had a conversation with the Olivia just the day where we were talking about, Olivia’s waving, we were talking about a topic and it had to do with fairness to all people and being open minded. And she said, I’m really glad to hear you say that because I was wondering what the culture was here. You know, could you be fired or frowned upon for feeling a certain way? And I found it very interesting how important it is for people to understand how you feel, what your core values are and how that affects your behavior. Steve, do you want to talk about that a little bit?
Steve: Yeah. So as we talk about what creates the ideal workplace, there are these things like parking and food and these type of tangible physical things, right? And those are short term. Am I looking at my own experience or clients that we work with? But the real challenge is what’s the environment and behaviors that people want to come to work every day to live? How do you treat people and how do you treat customers? So a lot of times people really don’t know what you expect. They do the best they can, but there is no consensus of what that looks like. So the best way to do it is, Tara, Rod and we were talking about earlier, ask them. So here’s a situation, we’re in a company and they want to create next level service. But no one knew what that meant. So we surveyed the employees and we asked the question, what does next level service mean? And they said, wow, it means we do these things. And then we said, what are your core values? And they said, well, excellence and customer service, um, collaboration and teamwork. And we said, what does that mean? So we said, what are the behaviors? So they actually define the behavior and for every core value, let’s take excellence in customer service. It was, we listened to our customers, we document and feedback to them what we think they went to confirm. We have ongoing communication with the culture of no surprises. We give them feedback, whether it’s both positive or negative. We bring up issues early before they become too big. So we don’t try to hide mistakes and now everyone knows what it is. And then you start measuring these because if you’re not keeping score, you’re only practicing. So now every three months we measure how well the organization is behaving against their behaviors and managers are getting compensated for that. They’re getting rewarded for that because it’s a behaviors. And then we’re actually measuring outcomes. So air rates are going down, rework is going down, right? First time is going up, customer satisfaction is going up because they created the right environment. It’s almost like if you said create the perfect world for you, and that’s what they did.
Sam: Well what’s interesting about that is, you’re talking about on one end finding out what’s important and company culture to your employees and then on the other end you’re talking about defining what the company culture is so that everybody understands how to behave and can feel more comfortable in their environment. I was thinking about a video that we did for the Saint Louis County Jail, inmate orientation video, and they talked about how important it was in keeping the peace and keeping a good, not a company culture, but you’re talking about in jail, keeping everything positive, getting along, keeping things running smoothly by just simply explaining and showing here’s what we expect when this happens. This is the behavior that is expected and just people being clear on what those behaviors are, made them more comfortable and made them more likely to fit in with the company culture.
Steve: Yeah. Cause people do what they think is right. People are good natured and they’re not going to do things to sabotage. But if they don’t know what you expect and your peers expect, then they do what they think they know based on their perspective on life. But it’s amazing when everyone starts working on the same sheet of paper. It’s pretty nice.
Sam: Yeah. And that can help with that whole buddy system that we were talking about.
Steve: Yeah, there’s a book out called five dysfunctions of a team and the core basis of any culture and behaviors trust.
Sam: Yep.
Steve: So the behaviors that trust really are the foundation and so it’s things like it’s okay to admit a mistake, it’s okay to ask for help. It’s okay to say, I don’t feel comfortable doing this, I need more support or training. And all of a sudden, rather than people trying to do things that they really weren’t good at or they didn’t feel comfortable with or they were trying, they made a mistake and try to be defensive, all of a sudden everyone’s now more open and they become more vulnerable and it’s like, wow,
Tara: Because they get to be human.
Steve: They get to be human, and just like a family and that’s what they create. So that’s great.
Tara: Yeah.
Jon: Getting away from transactional thought patterns to behavior thought patterns…
Steve: Right.
Rod: And those that may have the strength to do particular function will step up, not be afraid to speak up. And those that cannot be or may not be as good.
Jon: Exactly.
Rod: Will allow that person who has better knowledge, better handling of it.
Steve: Yeah, exactly.
Jon: Absolutely.
Steve: Do you need help, if you sense somebody that needs help, you don’t even have to wait for them to ask. So they don’t feel, of course I can do that. Right. You anticipate their needs. Right. But as long as you know you can be open and trust like that, those five or six things I just mentioned, if you can get them into the organization, all those other things like commitment, ownership, accountability will come. But you got to have that foundation of trust.
Sam: All right, does anybody have a horror story about, a not so ideal workplace that they’d like to share?
Steve: I have a kind of a funny story with generations. So we have interns in our office, they’re millennials or even younger. And we also have some baby boomers. So one of the baby boomers is technology challenged. So when he writes out engagement letters and reports, he uses cursive. So he gave this to the interns and said, would you please type it up? And they said, Mr. Smith, is this what you call cursive? So I was at the half price bookstore and bought a coffee mug that had all the letters of the alphabet written in cursive and gave it to them.
Christine: Thanks for listening to SuperManager by CN Video Production. Visit our website at cn-video.com for additional episodes and lots of SuperManager resources. Or give us a call at 314 VIDEO ME.