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A Critique of Tolerance (or When Will We Ever Learn?)
A pathological climate of tolerance is being constructed by compromising errors in judgment of too many American and international companies.
I have trouble getting through any day at the office without hearing about a huge wave of turnover that is about to hit organizations throughout the country. We are being told that we have to be prepared for the turnover and that there is nothing we can do about it.
It amazes me to understand the things that need to happen to initiate change. Personally and professionally, it seems that people tend to get comfortable and they inevitably resist or delay change. I cannot count the number of people that I’ve met that openly admit (to a stranger, even) that they are not in their ideal job or that their personal relationship isn’t all that they want it to be. I always think to myself, “If you’re telling a complete stranger that you know you are not where you should be, what’s forcing you to stay?” The real answer is nothing.
By Danny Nelms, Senior Vice President & Managing Director
I recently met with a prospective client who shared that their organization was going through a lot of significant changes and still recovering from the effects of several mass layoffs over the past two years. The subject of “low morale” came up and I immediately reflected on something that Price Pritchett wrote in one of his handbooks. Dr. Pritchett has been one of my favorite authors for years and I thought it was worthy of noting his take on morale in the workplace especially when going through times of change.
I hope that those of you who read our blogs on a regular basis will forgive me. I know that you have been reading a lot about our new book, The Why Factor: Winning with Workforce Intelligence, but I have not blogged about it yet, so today is my chance.
“It just goes to show you, looking at the data is one thing, but knowing what to do with it… well that’s a whole different ball game.”
As I am sure many of you did this past Easter weekend, I spent much of my time watching the Masters golf tournament. It never disappoints and this year was no exception. The General Lee driving, country boy from the University of Georgia, Bubba Watson captured his first green jacket while beating Louis Oosthuizen in a playoff.
As loyal readers of this blog will know, I wrote a piece a few weeks ago about how it is necessary to have a conversation with your workforce in order to truly understand what issues they may be dealing with. A fundamentally flexible interview strategy must obtain actionable data pertaining to the preferences, expectations, and intents of a particular workforce.
A recent article from Fast Company prompted me to reflect on the last few years at The Work Institute. I can’t say that I was intentionally looking to get my first “real” job at a small company, but after finding myself here, I know it was the right decision. I thrive in an environment that allows me to take on a seemingly unlimited amount of responsibility.
It baffles me every time I hear that a company is conducting an employee survey to help cure their organizational workforce issues. To me, the term survey means a set of questions with only a few select answer choices.
When employees have only a few options to answer questions on the culture at work, the research does not portray the true voice of the workforce. For example, a sample survey question is: “How would you rate your supervisor overall?” When the employee answers, “Poor,” you have no other information to use to actually understand and fix the problem.
Recently, the reporting of workforce intelligence has been the primary topic of discussion in the Human Resources community, which speaks to the fact that organizations are beginning to understand its importance. Workforce intelligence data is not useful if not reported in a way that meets the expectations and needs of an organization. The priorities are flexibility, drill-down capability, and effectiveness.