Trailblaze Partners People & Culture Blog

Why Hiring a Fractional HR Leader Makes Sense in 2023

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 20:34:09 GMT

Should You Hire a Fractional Head of HR in 2023?

Hiring a Fractional HR Leader Makes Financial Sense & Human Sense (Not sure that's a thing)

If you've been keeping your ear to the ground in the business world, you might've heard of a nifty concept: fractional HR. Yep, "fractional" – it sounds like a piece of a pie, and in a way, it is. Today, we're diving into why opting for fractional human resources is not just a trendy move, but a smart financial one. Ready to take a bite? Let's go!

1. What exactly is Fractional HR?

Before we get into the juicy bits, let's clear the fog around the term. Fractional HR essentially means hiring a Human Resources professional for a fraction of the time, rather than a full-time commitment. Imagine having a top-tier HR expert working with you for just the days or hours you need them!

2. Significant Cost Savings

Now, to the heart of the matter. One of the biggest benefits of fractional HR? The cost savings. A 2019 HBR (Harvard Business Review) article highlighted the increasing overheads of full-time employees, from salaries to benefits and beyond. With fractional human resources, you’re only paying for the expertise when you need it. No overheads, no exorbitant salaries.

3. Flexibility is the Name of the Game

Your business isn’t static, so why should your HR be? According to Forbes, businesses nowadays require agility. Fractional HR offers you the flexibility to ramp up or scale down based on your company’s current needs. It's a tailored fit, every time.

4. Access to Top Talent

Think about it: the most sought-after HR professionals might not be available for a full-time role, but they could be open to a fractional position. This means you can tap into a pool of talent that's usually reserved for major corporations, without the full-time price tag.

5. Optimized Processes and Systems

A fractional HR leader, with their wide array of experiences across industries, brings a fresh perspective. They're well-versed in best practices and can implement systems that are efficient, up-to-date, and tried-and-tested.

6. Adaptability in a Changing Landscape

The world of work is changing rapidly. From remote working shifts to evolving labor laws, it's a lot to keep up with. A fractional HR professional stays updated, allowing your business to remain compliant and ahead of the curve.

7. The ROI is Real

Lastly, while the initial costs of hiring a fractional HR leader might seem like an investment, the long-term returns are tangible. With streamlined processes, top-notch talent acquisition, and reduced overheads, the benefits far outweigh the costs.

As the business landscape continues to evolve, fractional HR solutions seem to be the beacon guiding the way. Cost-effective, flexible, and optimized for success, it's no wonder many are jumping on this bandwagon. So, if you're looking to give your business the HR boost it needs without breaking the bank, it might be time to explore the world of fractional human resources.

Till next time, keep innovating and thinking fractionally!

Understanding Fractional HR: The Complete Guide

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 20:27:30 GMT

Is Fractional HR Right For Your Business?

Understanding Fractional HR: The Complete Guide

In recent years, a new trend has emerged in the human resources domain, known as "fractional HR". This model has redefined the way businesses approach HR, especially in an era where flexibility, scalability, and efficiency are paramount. If you've been hearing this term tossed around but aren't quite sure what it entails, you're in the right place. Welcome to the complete guide to understanding fractional HR.

What is Fractional HR?

At its core, fractional HR refers to the engagement of a part-time HR leader or professional who isn't committed full-time to a single organization. Instead, these HR experts provide their skills and knowledge on a "fractional" basis, offering services that range from strategic planning to daily HR operations, depending on a company's needs. They often come with the advantage of access to a network of other HR experts behind them if you’re engaging through an HR People & Culture consulting firm.

Why the Buzz Around Fractional HR?

The appeal of fractional HR lies in its flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Let's break it down:

1. Cost Savings: Hiring a full-time HR executive can be a significant expense, especially for startups or SMEs. With fractional HR, businesses can access top-tier HR talent without the full-time salary and benefits package.

2. Expertise on Demand: A fractional HR professional often comes with a wealth of experience across various industries and business stages. This means companies can tap into specialized knowledge without long-term commitments.

3. Scalability: As businesses grow and evolve, so do their HR needs. A fractional HR leader can adapt to these changing requirements, providing resources just when they're needed.

The Impact on Business Growth and Culture

You might be wondering, "How can a part-time HR leader drive growth?" The answer lies in strategic alignment. Here's how:

Strategic Planning: Fractional HR leaders are often well-versed in aligning human resources with business goals, ensuring that teams are structured effectively and roles are filled with the right talent to drive growth.

Cultural Development: Even on a part-time basis, a fractional HR professional can help establish or refine a company's culture, ensuring it's a place where employees thrive and are aligned with the company's vision.

Efficiency: With their wide-ranging experience, fractional HR experts can often introduce best practices and streamlined processes, making HR operations more efficient and effective.

Is Fractional HR Right for Your Business?

While fractional HR offers numerous benefits, it's essential to determine if it's the right fit for your organization. Businesses in rapid growth phases, those undergoing a transitional period, or even established enterprises looking for specialized HR expertise without the long-term commitment can significantly benefit from this model.

The world of HR is constantly evolving, and fractional HR is a testament to that change. As businesses seek more agile and cost-effective solutions, the demand for fractional HR leaders is set to grow. By leveraging these part-time professionals, companies can ensure they're well-equipped to navigate the challenges of today's business landscape, driving growth, efficiency, and fostering a positive workplace culture.

Remember, just as with any business decision, it's essential to do your research and consider if fractional HR aligns with your organization's goals and needs.

Five Key Differences between Fractional and Traditional HR roles

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 19:25:11 GMT

"Scaling organizations get access to the expertise and skilled hands as and when they need them with Fractional HR Leadership"

In the bustling world of HR, we've witnessed an intriguing shift from traditional HR roles to the modern and adaptive concept of "fractional HR." But what exactly sets these two apart?

1. Time Commitment:

Unlike the 9-to-5 schedules synonymous with traditional HR roles, **fractional HR** offers businesses the flexibility of part-time commitment. This means having the expertise of seasoned HR professionals without the constraints of a full-time commitment.

2. Diverse Expertise:

According to this HBR article , today's HR professionals need to have a varied skill set. Things like Data Skills and Business analysis are now requirements of an HR Leader. Fractional HR leaders often have this advantage. With experience spanning multiple industries and businesses, they bring a wealth of knowledge that's often broader than their full-time counterparts.

3. Cost Implications:

Financial adaptability is crucial for today's companies. Opting for a fractional human resources leader can be a budget-friendly choice. Businesses can harness the skills of top-tier HR professionals without the overheads tied to a full-time position.

4. Scalability:

As reported by Forbes , scalability remains a prime concern for businesses, especially startups. With fractional HR, companies can scale HR services in tandem with their growth. This means ramping up HR support when needed and dialing it down during quieter periods.

5. Customized Solutions:

One size rarely fits all. Traditional HR roles can sometimes be limited by company policies and procedures. In contrast, fractional HR leaders, being external and having diverse experiences, can tailor their services to the unique needs of each business, ensuring a custom-fit approach every time.

The emergence of fractional HR and fractional human resources leadership is more than just a trend. It's a reflection of the changing business landscape, where flexibility, expertise, and cost-effectiveness take center stage. As businesses navigate their growth journeys, it's worth considering how fractional HR can fit into their evolving narrative.

Selecting a Company Culture Consulting Company

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 22:14:54 GMT

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12 Leadership Practices that Boost Productivity

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 19:24:21 GMT

1. Make faster decisions

Waiting is 1 of the 8 types of waste. If you’re unfamiliar, these are like the 7 (or 8 I guess) deadly sins of efficiency.

There is seldom a Team Operations workshop that goes by without 80%+ leaders attending identifying waiting on decisions in their top 3 types of team waste.

The quicker we can make decisions the less down time a team member who has a small breadth of tasks to work on and nothing to switch to, will have.

For those team members who can switch tasks there is still a cost. Some studies have cited up to 40% productivity loss due to task switching.

So if we can make fast decisions and help keep your team focused in the moment there is huge productivity upside.

2. Create and guard meeting free time

Shopify recently made headlines for cutting close to 400k of hours out of their business by reducing meetings. You don’t have to save that many hours to have a meaningful impact on your team's productivity. You also don’t need the entire company to cut out meetings to have an impact.

Even having a rule that’s specific only to your team like, Wednesday mornings between 9 & Noon we don’t accept meetings, can have a huge impact. On a team of 10 in a large organization stringing together 30 hours a week or productive time will change the game.

But don’t just take my word for it. ‘Meetings and More’ published in 2014 in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that by reducing meeting load, teams were able to reduce the associated exhaustion and increase overall productivity significantly.

3. Find individual time of day productivity

There’s a great book on this very topic by Dan Pink, which I’d highly recommend.

In case you don’t have time for reading books. Which, let’s face it, you don’t. Here is most of what you need to know.

There is a theory that we all have times of day at which we are most likely to peak our productivity. I know I personally have a golden window (which is what I called it before I knew it was an actual thing, researched by science types) between 7am and 11am when I am at my most productive with the least amount of effort.

The productivity gains can be huge in helping people find their own peak productivity timing. There’s even a free online survey they can take to help them figure it out more easily. Although my experience has been that once you talk about this concept most people are like “ahhhhh that makes so much sense, I think mine is x”.

4. Teach them about habits

I used to smoke… I know gross. And two things helped me stop.

I noticed that people who drove nice cars didn’t smoke and I wanted a nice car
I learned about habits and how to manage them.

Now I don’t know if point 1 is true, or just something my brain did to help me. If it’s the latter, thanks brain. But I do know point 2 has a mountain of evidence to support its efficacy (including my own personal experience) in increasing productivity and helping teams of people hit their goals.

Again there are some great books on this. But the basics of what you need to know are in the image of the habit loop (from The Power of Habit).

Additionally my experience in talking to team members about habit change says there are two places you’ll need to guide them most.

Habits are better shifted not removed. If you’ve got a habit that’s not serving you. You’re better off trying to replace it than stop it.
Remove Barriers. We’re all pretty lazy by nature. So if we really want to set a new habit we need to remove the things that make it harder to do. Kind of like that episode of the Simpsons when they lose Homer but Marge knows he will be at the bottom of the hill. Because he will always choose the easiest way. We’ve gotta make the better habit the easier habit.

5. Help them see their habits

Tasha Eurich talks about self awareness. Her stats highlight just how self aware we think we are. And just how self aware we actually aren’t.

To that end, through active observation and feedback we can help our teams improve their productivity by showing them the habits that aren’t serving them, that they probably can’t see.

Habits are funny like that. Because we do them automatically and they’re often triggered by something other than our intent, we don’t see them. Then we wonder why we can’t hit our goals.

If you’ve got a sales person whose first action upon arriving at the office is to grab a coffee and chat with someone for 20 minutes, they’re probably not trying to get out of making their dials. They’re probably just set in a habit that’s not serving them. Show them that a better habit would be to sit at their desk right away, get their dials done and then reward themselves with a coffee at the end to reinforce the loop.

6. Get rid of non-essential tasks

Have you ever had a team member leave and been surprised by some of the stuff they were working on?

We all have, don’t worry.

I call it Task Debt. But I’m sure someone, somewhere has researched it and has a better name for it. And we all have it.

It’s so common, particularly for long tenured and diligent team members to just collect tasks and keep doing them without really thinking about whether they still need to get done.

It’s worthwhile doing a periodic task audit. Make sure you’re very clear at the beginning, that no one is getting fired (unless they might be in which case don’t lie about it).

Then have all your team members keep a task log for a week or two (whatever time frame makes sense for the timelines tasks typically recur on, on your team). Go through them all as a group and include any stakeholders you’re team is delivering stuff to.

Rate them on impact and effort. Get rid of all the low impact items.

Comment Gimme and I’ll DM you the task log we use @trailblaze Partners.

Repeat every 6 months or so.

7. Be clear about what good looks like

Kinda the same reason as point 6, but on the non-recurring end of the spectrum. You ask a team member if they think the team needs to hire a new team member.

3 weeks later you’ve forgotten you asked for their opinion and they show you the deck they’ve prepared that makes the business case for the new hire, a list of potential candidates and it’s all presented with beautiful graphics and a wonderfully curated soundtrack.

Should have been more clear you were just looking for a quick gut check.

Again we’ve all been here. On both ends.

The best way to avoid this is to be really clear about what you’re asking for and what good looks like. In this case, good was just “hey what’s your immediate reaction to this thing”, not I need a deck I can take to the board so we can hire this person ASAP.

8. Make Resources Easier to Find

“Oh yeah, we’ve got that somewhere. Just ask Jimmy I’m sure he’ll know where it is”

Your team member then goes on to spend the next hour looking for the JD template, when they could have probably just written a completely new one in that time.

I’m terrible for this one. Jerry is great. Our shared folders in Google Drive are so well organized. Now I can never figure out the organization system. But that’s a lot less to do with its quality and a lot more to do with my memory for those types of things.

All that’s to say, things like folder systems, document naming conventions etc can save hours every day. Particularly if you have a team that needs to reference a lot of different documents really regularly.

It also guards against losing Jimmy’s knowledge when he leaves.

9. Remove Steps from tasks

Short cuts get a bad rap. And similarly to habits, when we’ve been doing something a certain way for a long time it gets really difficult to see it for what it is.

My wife gives me shit about this all the time. I drive the slowest way home from picking our girls up from school so often. Mostly because I’m just not concentrating and taking the route I have always taken.

She is always hunting for the fastest way, finding new roads with more lanes or better turning lights.

Process is the same. For the most repetitive and time consuming tasks. Sit down with your team members and go through them together step by step. Ask yourselves the question, why do we need this steep? What does it add for the rest of the process? Could we deliver the same value without it?

The answers to these questions will help you decide what you can get rid of and what has to stay.

10. Give them more breaks/insist they take breaks - Recharge policy

In 2016 there was a study published proving what most of us already know. Taking breaks helps us get more done. It was called Give Me a Better Break.

The irony here is that I have now been writing for about 3 hours straight. But it’s ok, I’m in my Golden Window.

So how can you help your team members? If they’ve got a schedule where some specific type of work needs to be covered at a certain time strictly e.g. retail or call centre. Just schedule more breaks for them and give them more meaningful stuff to do on the break e.g. go outside for a walk.

If not, then it’ll likely be up to your team members to decide when they take breaks. It can be as simple as sitting down in their next 1:1 and going back through their calendar for last week to see how many breaks they took. Or just asking from time to time, “when was the last time you took a proper break?”

Not only is it good for productivity, but it’s great for the humans you’re working with!

11. Support Mental Fitness

I’d be remiss not to talk about Mental Fitness here, but given that this is post 11 of a 12 post series I’m not going to be able to get too deep into it. Suffice to say, things like exercising and meditation have evidence to support their positive impact on productivity (Conner & Puetz 2018, Serhan & Sedak 2019) and make up just some of the many tools in the Mental Fitness tool belt.

12. Matching Work Types to Intrinsic Motivation

This last one is a little less tactical, but no less impact-i-ful (see what I did there?)

When we get to know our team members, what they love to do, when they’re working but feel like they’re at play, we can begin to help them find more of those tasks.

This is what’s known as intrinsic motivation. The stuff we do just because we like to, because it feels good, because it taps into our higher order needs. Things like the need for Autonomy, Purpose and Mastery.

But this is why I saved it for last. It’s probably the most difficult to do well.

It requires a very open and honest relationship with your team members and a role that’s exceptionally well suited to what they’re good at/like to do..

There’s way more to it than I could fit in a single short form post like this. But it’s worth a mention, and will hopefully get you going down that lane to learn more about it yourself.

What is a Corporate Culture Consulting Company?

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 20:44:36 GMT

Corporate culture is a critical aspect of any organization. In fact companies with highly rated cultures and values outperformed their peers on EBITDA and Revenue growth over a four year period at a factor of 4:1. We believe this performance is driven by the significant role culture plays in shaping employee behavior, attitude, and performance.

However, creating a high performance and engaging corporate culture is not an easy task. It requires careful planning, execution, and continuous improvement. This is where corporate culture consulting companies come in (Like us at Trailblaze Partners, or the competition over at Korn Ferry or BCG).

Corporate culture consulting companies specialize in this type of work. Well most of them. Some of them are more generalists with a practice area, but they’re pretty good too. They work closely with businesses to identify their unique culture needs, develop strategies to improve their culture, and implement changes that align with their overall business goals.

Some of the key services that corporate culture consulting companies offer:

Culture assessment: Before any changes can be made, corporate culture consulting companies will conduct a thorough assessment of the organization's current culture. This includes conducting surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gain a better understanding of the organization's strengths and weaknesses. Look carefully for companies who are able to give you some kind validated way to measure your values too. It’s rarer than you think and infinitely valuable. Check out our Culture Canvas for more about the strategic elements of corporate cultures.

Culture strategy development: Based on the findings from the assessment, corporate culture consulting companies will develop a tailored strategy to improve the organization's culture. This includes identifying key areas for improvement, setting goals, and developing an action plan. We often talk about it as helping companies decide, where are they going and how do they get there? We use the Culture Canvas to help us show the future state and then we use our Culture Formula to plan out the building blocks. Lots of other companies will do something similar like Korn Ferry with their Culture 360 approach or Bain with their ‘Integrated Approach’ image below.

Culture change management: Implementing changes to an organization's culture can be challenging, but corporate culture consulting companies can help manage this process. They will work closely with leadership and employees to ensure that changes are communicated effectively and implemented smoothly. This is the part that requires patience and effort. Something we could all use a little more of. Keeping the team aligned over the long haul can be a real challenge and culture shift usually requires a significant lift from the team. That’s where an implementation consulting team or a program manager can help. Again most consulting companies will have these available including Bain, Korn Ferry and Trailblaze Partners (although we’re not as big).

Training and development: Corporate culture consulting companies can provide training and development programs to help employees understand and embrace the new culture. This includes workshops, seminars, and coaching sessions. Typically these sessions are focused on leadership and leadership behaviors. Leaders have a profound impact on culture and can build it as easily as they can destroy it. A good culture change program will always start with the leaders.

Continuous improvement: The most important part & often the most overlooked. Culture is not something that can be improved overnight, and corporate culture consulting companies recognize this. They will work with organizations to continuously monitor and improve their culture over time. The very best companies engage consultants to do an annual culture audit, very similar to their initial assessment outlined above. This helps them stay the course over the many years it takes to reach their desired cultures.

Corporate culture consulting companies can provide invaluable support to organizations looking to improve their culture. By conducting assessments, engagement surveys, developing strategies, managing change, providing training and development, and continuously improving, these companies can help organizations create a positive and engaging culture that aligns with their overall business goals.

If you're interested in learning more about corporate culture consulting companies, be sure to do your research and find a company that aligns with your organization's needs and values. But most importantly your values. As with employees, a values mismatch with your consultants can crush culture. When you engage a culture consulting company to get its hands all over your culture, the values match is even more important. If you’d like to learn more about our values check them out here .

With the right partner, you can create a culture that attracts top talent, improves employee engagement, and drives business success.

Culture Builder Spotlight: Culture & Communications

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 23:41:00 GMT

MELODIE YONG - REGIONAL MANAGER, CULTURE & COMMUNICATIONS @ PROVIDENCE HEALTH CARE

Melodie never had that 5 year or even 10 year plan when she was figuring out what she wanted to do when she grew up and maybe that was a good thing. Working in culture and communications has been an opportunity to bring together so many of Melodie’s passions. Starting in health care with Providence Health as a Registered Dietitian and moving into health care leadership as an operations leader and then into change and communications work on a multi health authority project has all led her to her role of developing people, communications and building a healthy culture in Health Information Management (HIM). HIM is a leader in the collection, storage, and distribution of patient information within British Columbia. Our dedicated team of professionals are some of the first points of contact at health organizations sites.

Working within a consolidated department, HIM (www.himconnect.ca) is part of a health organization where employees physically work in one of the four lower mainland health organizations (Fraser Health, Providence Health Care, Provincial Health Services Authority and Vancouver Coastal Health) and are employed by Providence Health Care. This role evolved when it became clear that with 1400 employees geographically spread over 40 locations across the province, it was crucial for HIM to create and build their own identity and sense of belonging within teams and as a larger department as well as to be able to share with those outside of HIM the essential role they have in the health care system.

Creativity, curiosity and connection have all been essential elements that have guided Melodie through this journey, sprinkled with endless gratitude.

" Culture work is never ending. You're never finished and there's always opportunities to do better. Culture building is about staying humble, being curious and listening to your people, always ." - Melodie Yong

Interview Summary

1. What has your org achieved that you’re most proud of?

Increasing face-time between our senior leaders and our people to have more meaningful connections more frequently. For example, we've done some really fun things with our regular Town Hall meetings to humanize senior leaders such as showcasing their "acting abilities". For our upcoming Town Hall, our senior leaders will be recreating a scene from Love Actually. We've also launched our lunch-time learning series and hosted dynamic and creative Leader Days to focus on leadership development. With the learnings from the pandemic we have taken a closer look at how we interact with each other and the quality of those interactions – how can we elevate our face to face connections?

2. Describe your culture in 4 words?
Collaborative. Patient-centered. Learning. Fun. Being "patient-centered" is the glue of our culture. It's the common purpose that holds our people together. Even though we're behind the scenes, every patient has a health record so we truly touch every patient.

3. What single practice or tactic do you feel has the biggest impact on your culture?
Creating a coaching culture. Culture is built through relationships and relationships are built with conversations. We encourage conversations that build relationships - coaching conversations. It only takes a single question to show someone you are truly curious about them and that you care. And those kinds of conversations are memorable. We remember how someone makes us feel, and we all have the power to help someone feel great with every interaction.

4. What's a particularly successful way you've recognized team members?

That's a tricky question. I find that initiatives around recognition don't always stick. They usually start out strong and then fade away, but you have to keep trying because recognition has such a positive impact on your people. Some examples of what we do at Health Information Management at Providence Health Care are our Attitude of Gratitude column in our newsletter where anyone can get a shout out from their peers. There is also a recognition item on our Leadership team meeting standing agenda which asks "Who are we sending a personalized thank you card to?" - signed by each of the senior leaders.

5. What's 1 thing you would like to share about your views or lessons on culture building in today's workplaces?
I love my job, it's a dream job for me, but culture work is never ending. You're never finished and there's always opportunities to do better or change. An important part of this equation is to have the head of your organization believe in the importance of culture building and the value of cultivating relationships. Without that, it may feel like you are swimming against the current. Culture building is about staying humble, being curious and listening to your people, always. I always ask how are you listening to your people and who are you listening to? Making sure it's not just the culture fans but also those critics too. As a culture builder, I believe I'm here to serve our people and I need to constantly be connected to better serve our people and the organization.

Culture Builder Spotlight: Nathan Neels of Harmonic Machine Inc.

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 23:55:54 GMT

NATHAN NEELS - CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER @ HARMONIC MACHINE INC.

Nathan Neels is the CEO of Harmonic Machine Inc, one of North America's fastest-growing advanced CNC machining companies.

Starting from the ground up, Nathan began his career at Harmonic as a CNC Machinist learning hands-on all the critical technical aspects of machine manufacturing. After excelling at that role, Nathan was promoted into General Manager, where he built the company from 4 to 30 employees.

With massive growth as General Manager, Nathan purchased Harmonic and become the CEO in 2015. Under Nathan’s management, Harmonic grew exponentially with key deliverables of 30% growth per year in sales, keeping gross margin over 30%. Nathan’s success as a leader has been his focus, building an award-winning, recognized positive corporate culture.

For all his success as a leader, Nathan and Harmonic have been recognized by many leading publications and organizations, including being named Americas' Fastest Growing Companies, Canada’s Top Growing Companies, one of the best places to work in Canada and many others.

Interview Summary

1. What has your org achieved that you’re most proud of?

We have grown fast over the past few years and we’ve been able to keep what makes our culture special. It’s meant a lot of tough conversations. But it’s been worth it. We have really high expectations of each other and we're in an industry that's not really known for businesses with supportive cultures. That we've been able to buck that trend feels really good.

2. Describe your culture in 4 words?
Supportive, Respectful, Positive, Contagious (everyone who joins us, seems to catch our culture!)

3. What single practice or tactic do you feel has the biggest impact on your culture?
This is a tough one. I think culture happens through a series of small actions. It's about modelling behaviors and having lots of conversations to help others understand what's expected of them here. If I had to choose just one it's 1:1 or small group interactions where I get the chance to get to know someone. Develop a genuine caring relationship. Hear about the problems they’re facing at home and at work and sometimes help them solve them.

4. What’s your favorite way to recognize a team member?

A genuine compliment. As soon as possible. Just one on one e.g. “Hey I noticed you doing had this great idea. Thanks a lot, it was really helpful”. I've tried all sorts of stuff: BBQ's, Handwritten cards, Small Personal Gifts, you name it. But I believe there is no replacement for a genuine, heartfelt compliment.

5. If someone wants to work on shifting their culture. Where should they start?
Start at the top. It has to. The leader has to believe in it and model it. They have to be the first to model the behaviors. Then expecting these same things from all the leaders through the organization.

Culture Builder Spotlight: Jen Bennet Snr P&C Consultant Trailblaze Partners

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 17:14:16 GMT

JENNIFER BENNET - SENIOR PEOPLE & CULTURE CONSULTANT @ TRAILBLAZE PARTNERS

This month we thought we'd turn the spotlight inwards, on our very own Jen.

Side note, she's available for interim and fractional opportunities starting at the end of September.

She's been a people and culture leader for a long time and has learned a thing or two along the way.

Jen started her career in the retail industry 25 years ago as an HR Manager for then startup Lush Cosmetics. Over the next 13 years, she led the People & Retail Operations teams driving the rapid shop expansion across the Canadian and US markets.

Since then, Jen has worked with various startups and big box companies across a multitude of industries in tech, construction, franchising, and retail. She is focused on delivering the people strategy and framework needed to succeed while developing leaders and shaping organizational cultures that support and inspire people to do their best work every day.

Interview

1. What's your favorite thing about leading the people & culture function?
Seeing the power of engaged people working together to make great things happen! It's powerful stuff when teams are firing on all cylinders and working towards a common goal. That’s the sweet spot - the magic - and it’s not easy to achieve or maintain.

For me, leading P&C is about getting the right people in the right role and focusing on the right things at the right time that drives companies forward, and embedded in a culture that inspires and engages people to be their best selves and do their best work, whatever that role may be.

2. The most challenging, but rewarding project you've ever worked on?
I’d say the most challenging project was leading the P&C team at the Vancouver startup Kit and Ace.

The goal was to build a billion dollar retail brand in 5 years across multiple continents. By the beginning of the 2 year mark we were in 6 countries across 4 continents - Canada, USA, Australia, UK and Japan with some manufacturing operations in Hong Kong. By the end of the 3 year mark we had significantly scaled down operations several times and eventually the business was sold.

Building out the people & culture foundations and scaling up that significantly and quickly across 4 continents with various employment rules and regulations was challenging and yet was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. I learned many valuable lessons along the way of what to do AND what not to do, how to lead AND how not to lead. What I found most amazing was the way these incredibly talented people rose to the challenges in front of them and together solved some really complex problems. It took guts and grit and teamwork.

3. Career Achievement you're most proud of?
I find it hard to look at your accomplishments objectively…so tough question I guess.

I’m proud of how I was able to build out the foundations and support the growth of some pretty amazing companies. It feels like I’ve left my footprint - whether it’s in the teams you’ve led or influenced, people you’ve positively impacted, or programs you’ve built - knowing that these foundations are still holding up over time feels great.

I’m also very proud of the young people I’ve recruited and mentored along the way who have found their career success whether it be in a leadership role or recognized as an expert in their field, or starting their own business, or choosing a new career field. I love to see people grow into their best selves.

4. Who has most influenced your leadership style?

Andrew Gerrie - one of the Lush UK co-founders I had the opportunity to work with on projects during my 13 years at Lush. He first introduced me to the concept of ‘Servant Leadership’ where leaders support and care for their people first who then take care of the business. This was in the early 2000’s and was unlike anything I had experienced before. I also took note of how he would listen to people across all sections of the business, listen to the issues at hand and ask insightful questions that made you think / look at it differently, and then left you to figure it out!

Chip Wilson - I had the opportunity to work with Chip at Kit and Ace and learned from him the power of getting leadership teams fully present, clear and aligned with your goals and the Why behind them. I also learned the power of Accountability - always own your shit & clean up your mess.

5. Favourite motivational quote?
I’m torn between Red Hot chili Peppers “This life is more than just a read through” and Tragically Hip “No dress rehearsal - this is our life“. Same concept really in that you have this one life so make the most of it. Every day you have a choice in how you show up to yourself and to others - so make the most of it. Which is sometimes easier said than done when your pre teenage kids are involved!

Culture Builder Spotlight: Improving Employee Wellbeing and Recognition

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 15:20:36 GMT

BREANNA WALKER HEALTH & WELLNESS CONSULTANT @ CITY OF VANCOUVER

Breanna started her career in the clinical realm because she has always been passionate about the health and well-being of people and communities. However, after many years working as a Kinesiologist at InspireHealth Supportive Cancer Care, Breanna made the intentional decision to enter the field of workplace well-being; during her time supporting people in their return-to-work following treatment for cancer, Breanna became fascinated by what was happening within a workplace that caused it to either support or hinder someone’s recovery. And even more so, Breanna started to wonder what it was about some work cultures that made people eager to return to their roles or to describe their work as an essential aspect of their well-being.

Now, as the City of Vancouver’s Health and Wellness Consultant, Breanna has the honor of spending every day exploring these questions and supporting the health and well-being of the individuals who work so hard to make Vancouver the amazing city that it is. In her role, Breanna develops and promotes employee well-being resources for City staff; her current priorities include enhancing on-site mental health support for teams, connecting employees to culturally competent mental health resources, and co-leading the implementation of the National Standard for Psychological Health & Safety in the Workplace.

Interview

1. What is the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace and why is it important for culture builders to know about?
Supporting employee well-being has become a top priority for many organizations but what this means, and our understanding of best-practice approaches, is evolving. The last two years have shown many employers that providing well-being resources and employee health programs is not enough to support people’s mental health in an ever-changing work environment. Organizations that have successfully offered employees the support, care and flexibility they need to remain well at work are those that understand employee well-being isn’t just about resources and programming, in involves creating a workplace culture that prioritizes well-being and weaves it into every decision, policy and practice.

No matter where an organization is in this process of this culture-shift, the Canadian National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace offers guidelines, tools and resources that any culture builder can use to support their organization in making this transition. The Standard pinpoints 13 Factors that contribute to creating a psychologically healthy and safe workplace, such as Clear Leadership and Expectations, Workload Management, and Civility and Respect. Most organizations will likely be addressing many of these factors already, but considering them each within the framework of psychological safety helps employers understand how and why these factors influence employee well-being. And, perhaps most importantly, by framing these efforts through the lens of psychological safety it becomes apparent that these factors are essential components of ensuring employees’ overall safety, something that is long-since understood to be the responsibility of the employer.

2. Describe a psychologically healthy and safe work culture in 4 words?
Respectful. Supportive. Transparent. Flexible.

3. What single practice do you feel has the biggest positive impact on an organization’s culture?
Empowering individuals to build connections between their personal values and their work. This does not mean encouraging employees to adopt the values of a company; this means allowing an individual’s unique lived experiences to shape their role and how they do their work.

This practice can, and should, happen at various scales and in many different ways. A ‘large scale’ example of this might be supporting a father to shift his working hours so he can take his children to and from school. A ‘medium scale’ example of this might be including a question about values on annual performance plans, such as “Which one of your personal values do you want to focus on this year and how can you cultivate this value while at work?” A ‘small scale’ example of this might be a manager saying to an individual after a meeting “I really appreciate that you ________, because I know that is important to you.”

More often than not, an individual will be drawn to working for an organization because they already share at least one foundational value, so this might not be as big an undertaking as it initially sounds. However, I appreciate that this practice might seem far-off for some organizations. So, if that’s the case, an impactful next step might be staring conversations at work about the importance of knowing one’s values and how these values influence our personal and working lives.

4. What's your favourite way to recognize team members?

To be quite honest, my favourite way to recognize someone is in a way that they like to be recognized. It is easy to fall into the habit of using one approach to recognize everyone, or recognizing others the way we like to be recognized, but these approaches can inadvertently cause discomfort or harm to the recipient. Because the concept and practice of recognition can vary widely across cultures, and preferences can be drastically different within a team of individuals, the best way to find out how someone likes to be recognized is to ask them directly. I love that you’ve asked this question. Recognition is one of the 13 Factors within the National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace; incorporating meaningful recognition practices is one of the simplest, most affordable, and deeply impactful things an organization can do to support employee well-being.

5. What is one thing you’d like to share about your views on culture building in today’s workplaces?
Don’t underestimate the impact of leading by example. I appreciate that “lead by example” is a rudimentary and over-used statement but the simplest actions are often the most powerful and there is a reason that it this phrase is re-purposed so often. People are programmed to look to the behaviors of others to determine how to safely interact with their environment; this biological survival strategy often trumps conscious thought. If employees are told about one set of cultural norms, but observe another set, they will perpetuate the ones they see modelled by others. The power of leading by example has been reflected back to me so many times that I’ve stopped questioning it, and have begun to default to it, especially when I’m not yet sure what concrete action to take next.

Culture Builder Spotlight: Lessons from Later

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 16:18:26 GMT

FARHAN VIRJI | VICE PRESIDENT OPERATIONS (AND CUSTOMER HAPPINESS) @ LATER

Farhan started his career in the tech industry over 20 years ago as a software developer, moving into different roles and various startups in Vancouver. He's currently the VP, of Operations where he spends his time on ensuring Later has the strategy, processes, and frameworks to succeed, as well as leading the team that provides the best experience to our customers - the Customer Happiness team. He also spends a lot of time partnering with the People & Places leaders to provide his feedback into the employee experience.

Throughout his career, Farhan's passion has always been to learn and improve things, whether it was the product he was working on, the processes the organization works within, the customer experience, or the employee experience. Having young kids made him obsessed with understanding human behavior, from topics around, how and why people make decisions, the role of communication in relationships, and what's going on inside of our brains.

Interview

1. What's something your organization has achieved that you are most proud of?
I joined Later almost 2 years ago, during the early days of the pandemic. The team I was leading were already a remote-first team, but our entire organization was able to shift to remote-first and was able to maintain our culture through this transformation. Not only that, we have maintained the level of connectedness and friendship that’s been a part of our culture as we’ve grown - almost 3x since I joined - not an easy feat to maintain that culture with rapid growth.

I'm also very proud of the level of transparency within our organization. As part of the senior leadership team, we strive to share with our teams the discussion and debate at the senior leadership level. Sometimes organizations communicate with an optimistic lens, often leaving out the raw details of the current realities and leave employees with unanswered questions or a picture that doesn't always match the current reality. At Later, we strive to provide the details, good or bad, and trust our leaders and teams to rally around this level of transparency.

2. Describe your culture in 4 words? Why those words?
Work hard, play hard.

A high-growth SaaS organization means that we need everyone to be pitching in, but we also make sure we have fun, whether it's through virtual socials, in person meet-ups, lunch & learns, or our annual retreat. We have a great group of individuals.

3. What single practice/tactic do you feel has the biggest positive impact on your culture?
I have to share two things, as I believe these go hand in hand.

1) Talk to our people. Don’t just send surveys, have real conversations with your people. You lose a lot of context with surveys and lose the ability to really understand what needs to change.

2) Leaders need to be the culture ambassadors. I've seen too many organizations where there is a lot talked about as it relates to culture, new initiatives, changes, etc; yet the leaders are not the ones walking the walk.

4. What's your favourite way to recognize team members?

I try to approach recognition through the lens of the individual that I am recognizing, as people have personal likes/dislikes of how they want to be recognized. Some like public recognition, like a company wide slack message, others want it in private. So I don't have a favorite way, other than to try and understand how each person likes to receive it, and then I do that method. That being said, my favorite way to recognize people is to help them along their career path, and the best form of recognition is when you get to promote them or help them with an internal move that they have been aspiring to reach.

5. What's 1 thing you would like to share about your views or lessons on culture building in today's workplaces?
Many organizations talk about being "customer-centric" or "customer-obsessed", which is the idea that your organization is there to solve the problems for the customer, whether that's through your product, service, or both. To be customer-obsessed is to have the right processes in place in order to learn from your customers, and have those learnings show up in the way departments make decisions. The same concept needs to be applied to culture to ensure it's evolving based on the needs of your people. Culture isn't something that leaders should develop on their own. The leaders must be "people-obsessed", and follow the same type of rigor that requires you to be customer-obessed.

Culture Builder Spotlight: RSL's Restructuring & Recognition

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Wed, 18 May 2022 16:41:48 GMT

AMAN MALHI | DIRECTOR, PEOPLE & CULTURE @ REFRIGERATIVE SUPPLY LTD.

Aman lives a purpose-driven life, and that purpose has always been to be of service. Service to people at work, people around her, the community she lives in, her family, friends, and everyone. She brings this purpose to work with her every day, and this purpose fuels her passion for people and culture. She is passionate about making a difference by ensuring everyone gets to do their best work and live their best life every day.

Raised by immigrant parents, so things like diversity, inclusion, hard work, integrity, authenticity, loyalty and humility are essential to her. Aman has been in the People and Culture space for fourteen years. She has had the pleasure to work with many different leaders, environments, cultures, and challenges. Regardless of where she has been, the most important thing has always been people.

Interview

1. What has your organization achieved that you are most proud of so far?

RSL went through a significant restructuring of the total compensation strategy, including base pay, variable pay, and employee benefits, while achieving approximately forty percent growth in 2021. This growth was five times what was forecasted for the year. I have never seen such a demonstration of resilience, dedication, and grit before in the face of extreme uncertainty.

2. Describe your culture in 4 words

Entrepreneurial, autonomous, committed to customer experience and nurturing.

3. What single practice/tactic do you feel has the biggest positive influence on your culture?

RSL’s mantra - inspire excellence and trust. Everyone at RSL is committed to making the customer a priority regardless of their role. The mantra guides the behaviours and actions every day. For example, every meeting, every call, and initiative starts with the question - how does this impact the customer?

4. What's your favourite way to recognize high performers?

This is a difficult one for me to answer as I am about to undertake the journey to build and implement an employee recognition program. However, my favourite way is the one that makes every individual feel valued. This piece is critical because the way you choose to recognize people will shape the culture. As such, effective recognition cannot be achieved through a one size fits all approach. The recognition needs to be unique to the individual. My goal is to understand individual recognition preferences across the board and implement a program that allows for diverse solutions. The two tools to help me implement this program that I am strongly considering are Achievers and Culture Amp.

5. What's 1 thing you would like to share about your views or lessons learned on culture building?

The best culture is the one that never stops evolving. It’s on you to advocate for the change that you believe in and help your audience realize its benefits, so be courageous, don't underestimate people's ability to adapt, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of good and leverage data.

Culture Builder Spotlight: Developing Herschel's Unique Culture

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Tue, 17 May 2022 16:19:28 GMT

SUSAN VANN | SENIOR VP OF PEOPLE & TALENT @ HERSCHEL SUPPLY COMPANY

Susan is an innovative and forward-thinking leader, designing intentional, purposeful solutions that solve problems and create memorable experiences across organizations. She has a passion for excellence, high performance and driving meaningful change. Her experience advising successful teams and organizations has clearly established Susan’s proven track record of revenue and profit growth in dynamic, fast-paced, international and entrepreneurial organizations.

At Herschel Supply Company, she is responsible for ensuring that evolving strategies, ideas and initiatives, on both a small and large scale, are aligned with the Company's overall culture vision and business goals.

When away from work Susan spends time hiking, playing tennis, boating, skiing and enjoying the outdoors with her Husband Richard and 2 amazing sons.

Interview

I noticed you have your professional engineering designation, so I'm guessing people in culture wasn't really your initial career plan. What attracted you to it?

I started my career in engineering in Montreal and I studied at the McGill University. I started engineering and really was passionate about the process, and how things worked. I started my career in the food manufacturing side, understanding how to set up businesses; and there was an interaction between how things work and then how do people get involved in making sure it can work effectively and optimizing those business processes? So it was almost a natural career progression for myself, going from operations to the people side of business. I'm really passionate about people development.

What has your org achieved that you are most proud of so far?

We are a 10 year young organization, and like other companies the last 2 years have been challenging. I am most proud of our employees and how they have grown over these last 2 years. The energy, thoughtfulness and commitment that everyone brings is truly inspirational. Our purpose, "Open to Every Journey" will continue to drive our brand, employees and young creatives on their journey through life.

Describe your culture in 4 words.

4 words - that is tough!! Our culture is driven by our values, so I am going to describe our culture in 4 phrases:

In it together
Act with intent
Design every moment
Future forward

What single tactic do you feel has the biggest positive influence on your culture?

By truly living our core values while ensuring alignment and transparency throughout the organization we have been able to have a huge impact on our culture. At Herschel, we recognize that we do our best work together and have fun when everyone feels empowered to share their individual voices and experiences.

You've implemented a very clearly defined OKR process where everyone knows what the objectives and key results are. What are some of the challenges you encountered and how did you manage those?

One of the challenges we had was a lot of employees who were asking, "Do I really have an impact on the organization?"

We had to do a lot of training, in terms of everyone understanding that we are not all working on different projects. We're not working in silos - we're working together.

In our first review of everyone's inputs and their OKRs, we realized we're working on a thousand different projects / priorities. In our first quarter we had 33% of our objectives and key results accomplished.

So we really had to tone that down and make sure that the entire organization is working on the critical elements. We asked everyone what are the top three to five things that need to be accomplished in that quarter and how are we going to support each other?

It's a process that we're getting better at. We still have lots of learning to do, but we are a learning and growth organization. We're not going for perfection. We're about learning and growth and getting better.

Is there anything that you've carried with you from your time in Operations that maybe helps you see People and Culture a little bit differently to most?

I think everyone brings a different approach to P&C, but I think my engineering and operational background brings that analytical approach to the people and culture function.

When I started on a new team, I insist everyone has an understanding of how to read financial statements, understand the balance sheet, understand the P&L and cashflow. We are here to support the business, so we need to understand the business and the financials. I'll bring in finance team to do training, to ensure that the people and culture team have that business approach and can support the business as business specialists.

What's the one thing that you wish you knew at the start about people on culture?

Great question. We are not all the same and along my journey, I have made that mistake. When I first started out, I thought that by being fair in an organization you treat everyone the same; but we don't, we are all unique. We have different strengths. It's important to understand everyone's strengths and understanding at certain points in time in people's careers, they might be struggling, and that's okay. They can contribute other areas of the business. So understanding that we are not all the same, we all bring different aspects to the business and different strengths, and focusing on our strengths is really important.

Culture Builder Spotlight: How Sport Psychology Relates to Leading Employees

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 20:05:21 GMT

KATY PLAYER | SENIOR VP PEOPLE @ CANFOR

Katy was appointed Senior Vice President, People in February 2021 and focuses on Canfor's global people strategy, initiatives and programs. She continues to demonstrate strong leadership and leads the People team to make Canfor an employer of choice for current and future employees.

Katy has been with Canfor since 2015 and most recently served as Vice President, People & Communications. Prior to that, she held the position of Director, People & Culture, and Director, Learning and Leadership.

Interview

What attracted you to People & Culture as a career?
Sports were a big part of my background. I was always fascinated by sports psychology and pursued my Masters in sports management. I completed a number of years in university athletics and recreation, and I loved that time. As I was going through my career in primarily operations and program management, I realized I was always most interested in what makes teams click. The most successful sports teams I've ever been on were ones where the coaches had these superpowers to motivate and inspire and really get the best out of you.

I really feel strongly that a lot of sports analogies translate well to the corporate world and what makes a strong team. So as I became more and more fascinated around what makes teams work, I found there's a whole field of work around leadership development, team performance, and dynamics.

In my first role at BC Hydro, I got to do several different roles, which was a testament to how they managed talents and grow their people. One of the roles was a strategic business advisor to the CHRO. I learned HR is pretty fascinating. Yes, there's this leader development piece, but it's also about how the business works and how to put the right people in the right place at the right time. I started to see myself in the HR space with a lot to offer and a real passion for it.

Describe your culture in 4 words.

Humble. Focused. Dedicated. Respectful

How do you balance being progressive versus conservative in your industry?

It’s a constant balance, but it all comes down to practicality. What's practical and probably a bit more incremental than maybe some of our peers in technology or startup industries who are willing to take a lot more risks. We're an 84-year-old company. We believe that the formula we have is working and it means constant renewal and continued progress.

I think the pandemic was a good instigator to try new things, learning that we could work from home. It's a deliberate, thoughtful process around change and culture adjustment.

What does 2022 look like for you?
I'd love to see COVID behind us, and then I think it's dealing with the new world beyond that - getting out and reconnecting.

A lot of our plans for this year are centered around getting people back together through leadership summits and training in classrooms together.

We have the frontline focus coming up, which is a broad initiative really dialing in on how we can do better with respect to engaging and retaining our frontline workforce. We're going to go hard on talent development activities and building pipelines for the future, both internal and external.

Culture Builder Spotlight: Why Happy Companies Make More Money

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 16:43:06 GMT

ALEXANDER KJERULF | CHIEF HAPPINESS OFFICER @ WOOHOO INC.

Alexander is the founder and Chief Happiness Officer of Woohoo inc and one of the world's leading experts on happiness at work. He is an author and speaker, presenting and conducting workshops on happiness at work at businesses and conferences in almost 50 countries. His clients include companies like Hilton, Microsoft, IKEA, Shell, HP and IBM.

Alex has a masters degree in computer science from The University of Southern Denmark, and was a co-founder of the Danish IT company Enterprise Systems.

Alex is the author of 5 books including the international bestseller Happy Hour is 9 to 5: How to Love Your Job, Love Your Life and Kick Butt at Work. The book has been extremely well received all over the world and is available in 11 languages including English, Spanish, Dutch, Czech and Chinese. His latest book is Leading With Happiness: How the Best Leaders Put Happiness First to Create Phenomenal Business Results and a Better World.

His work has been featured in CNN, New York Times, Times of India, The Times, BBC, Financial Times and many others.

And in case your wondering, his last name (Kjerulf) is pronounced a little like care-oolf.

Interview

You talk about healthy cultures. Why do we want happy culture?

Firstly, it's really good for the bottom line. Happy companies make more money. That is a well-established fact from the research - we know that happy employees are more productive. They're more creative and innovative. They communicate better together. They have fewer conflicts. They care about their jobs, they like their jobs, they care about the company and the company's success. Happy employees are self-motivated and get sick less often. They stay with the company longer, so you have high retention and lower employee turnover.

A lot of companies don't get this right - they think happiness at work is a luxury, but it absolutely isn't. Especially now, with record low unemployment and the great resignation; which I personally find amazing. If people hate their jobs, they should get out of there.

Every single person should care if they like their job. We know from the research that hating your job is really bad for you, and liking your jobs really good for you. Hating your job has a huge health risk, and people who are unhappy at work are much more likely to burnout, become stressed and have high risk of heart disease and strokes.

A lot of people think I'll get a job, I'll get a career. I'll work really hard. I'll become successful. And success will make me happy. T urns out to work the other way around that - if you like your job, you do a better job and you will probably be more successful.

You've worked with some huge companies. What are some of the results you're proudest of?

There are the measurable results where we've helped a company to focus on happiness at work and not only seen increased employee happiness, but also increased customer satisfaction. But my proudest moments are when we get them to shift their mindset to believing that happiness at work matters and is hugely important. And the other thing that I'm really proud of is when we get them to DO the right things. A lot of companies understand that they need to be good for their staff, but then they do it all the wrong.

What is happiness for us?

Really good question, and there is no one definition. There are many different definitions, and the important thing is that you know which definition definition you're using. Many people look at life's happiness and ask themselves how satisfied they are. This is a valid measure, but to me happiness is about how you feel and your emotional state.

There's a school of thought that pursuing happiness actually makes it less attainable. What are your views on that?

I think everyone wants to be happy, but you can absolutely pursue happiness in the wrong way. Research proves that if you want to be happy, you should probably go make someone else happy. When you do nice things for others, it feels amazing.

What four words would you use to define a happy culture?

I can do it in two: results and relationships.

The feeling that I do a good job, and I am making a difference for someone who needs it. Having relationships in the workplace makes you feel like you belong - you're not just a work, but a human being who people care about.

What's one thing that our readers could take back to their organization?

Appoint a Chief Happiness Officer! Money matters, so we have a CFO. Technology matters, so we have a CTO. Happiness matters too!

This doesn't have to be your HR Manager - it just needs to be someone who is super passionate about creating a happy workplace.

Company Culture Trends We Expect to Continue in 2022

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 21:24:00 GMT

2022 will see employers and employees working hard to get along better.

Culture is the heart of every organization and it is all encompassing. It extends through to every decision that is made, including a company's product offerings, which individuals are hired and how customers are treated. It is no surprise that today's leading businesses have taken advantage of new developments, such as flexibility around work and an increased focus on improving their employee experience to stay competitive in a tight labour market.

Although the last few years have introduced unprecedented challenges and rapidly changing expectations of employees and their organizations, we are big believers in the more human-focused shift in business culture. Inevitably every business needs to decide whether they can continue with the cultural norms that created their previous success, or if it’s time to do the work to shift their culture to ensure continued success in the future.

As the expectations of workplace culture continue to evolve and the competition to attract new hires remains strong, what will 2022 bring? Here are the top 5 trends we expect to see in 2022.

Trends:

1. Rising Competition In The Talent Shortage

A recent published report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the number of job openings in the US was a historic 10.9 million, while hiring remained stagnant. With the economy ramping up again demand is high and almost every business is struggling to fill their open roles. In Canada the situation is even tighter with Q2 GDP up well above pre covid levels.

So, how can businesses find the right people to keep growing? Organizations should consider all the tools they have available to them for building and strengthening relationships with their applicants. One way you can get ahead of the competition is reviewing your compensation packages (especially for frontline positions) to ensure you are matching the new market expectations. Secondly, invest in improving the candidate experience, starting by reviewing and updating your EVP and the first touch points you have with a candidate.

2. Employee Wellbeing Takes The Spotlight

Although employee wellbeing was important well before COVID, it is now front and center. Burnout and mental health challenges are becoming more common as the line between the office and home is increasingly blurred. People now want more human understanding and support from the organizations they work for. This means having wellbeing programs and a safe support network they can trust.

Organizations that are leading the way in employee wellbeing embed it in all aspects of their people strategy. Research shows that this has a positive impact on retention, absenteeism levels, productivity, and overall satisfaction. Technology has played a big role in this arena, as many different tools (ie - Calm, Headspace and Elevate) have really helped organizations move the needle

3. Flexibility Is The New Norm

In 2022, increased flexibility will be the expectation among people in many aspects of their work lives. Whether you have a hybrid work model, a return to office mandate, or 100% remote arrangement, the reality is that organizations must offer new levels of flexibility in the workplace. This goes beyond when and how employees work. It also includes allowing the individual to work with their manager to determine the best work arrangement for themselves. Countless surveys in 2021 showed that people will ultimately change jobs to get more flexibility.

Employee satisfaction and performance are improved when employees have flexibility in how they work. According to Stats Canada, “79% of employees with a flexible work schedule reported that they were satisfied or very satisfied with their work,” meaning those who have some control over their work hours are more likely to be happier in their job.

4. More Personalized Recognition

Personalized recognition helps employees feel more inspired to do their best work. Each employee has different needs and is motivated in different ways. Therefore it is important that you understand the people that you work with on a deeper level. For example, we use the Predictive Index to better assess the ways our people like to be recognized. Ultimately this allows leaders to shape their language and messaging to better connect with their people. Bucketlist is a fantastic tool leveraging an integrated program to help you create a positive culture with increased recognition and rewards.

5. Creating a Sense of Belonging is Critical

Belonging is at the top of this year’s Global Human Capital Trends survey as one of the most important human capital issues. 79% of survey respondents said that “fostering a sense of belonging in the workforce was important to their organization’s success in the next 12–18 months”, and “93 percent agreed that a sense of belonging drives organizational performance” —one of the highest rates of consensus on importance we have seen in a decade of Global Human Capital Trends reports.

Belonging is a fundamental need for humans and we are increasingly looking to our employees to help facilitate it in our organizations.

Conclusion

With all of the changes happening in the world, it has caused a ripple effect in how businesses operate. It is no surprise that in order to survive in business, you have to pivot embracing new perspectives and tactics at all times. Culture continues to be a hot topic in the business realm, as it should. It is the most critical piece.

‘Good Jobs’ That Attract Good People Share These 4 Traits

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 21:00:00 GMT

To attract good people you need 'good jobs'. All good jobs share these 4 traits.

It’s tough out there. If you’re struggling to fill frontline and hourly jobs right now, chances are you really feel this.

Finding good people for these jobs has never been more difficult—or more important. There’s a perfect storm right now. But is this a new problem? No. For years, companies have been missing on delivering for our hourly and frontline employees. Now that the job market is hot, potential employees are telling us in no uncertain terms that we need to do better.

Luckily (not really luck, our model represents years of experience and research) we’ve identified four areas that will help you create what we affectionately call a “Good Job”. Because if you don’t have a good job, you’ve got no chance at attracting good people.

Good Job Trait #1: Purpose

What does Nike sticking by Colin Kaepernick after he took a knee at the super bowl have to do with the server job you can’t fill? Along with a number of other instances over the last few years, they both represent a trend we’re experiencing across our economy.

Now, employees expect more from companies than they did in the past. It’s not enough to just maximize shareholder wealth. They want their employers to do the right thing. They want the companies they work for to have a reason for existing that isn’t just about making as much money as possible.

Employees want the same thing from employers as we all want from companies like Nike: Be good citizens, have a purpose we can understand and connect with, show us how we can contribute to that purpose, help us uncover our personal purpose, and give us an opportunity to live this through our work. It sounds like a lot, and it is. But isn’t it a privilege that we get to live in an age where we get to work on this rather than just exchanging paychecks for time spent?

Good Job Trait #2: Culture

Take a look at the 5-star Google reviews of your biggest competitor for frontline employees. (Go ahead, do it now.) Now look at all the 2- and 1-star reviews. Notice that both likely reference culture 8 times out of 10? Culture is “how we do things here….” and it matters to everyone, not just the CEO who has seen the Peter Drucker quote on a slide deck somewhere.

Companies who want to attract and retain great frontline employees need to manage their culture, lest they end up on the wrong end of a Glassdoor review. If you need any more convincing, we recently reviewed a study showing that companies with a rating of 4 or higher on Glassdoor outperformed those below 4 on revenue growth over a four year period (>4 = 15.68% avg year over year growth, <4 = 6.2%).

So what can you do to improve the culture in your workplace? There are two parts to this: 1. Your Culture Strategy, and 2. Your Culture Implementation. (We have a couple of pieces of IP you might want to check out here: Culture Canvas & Culture Competency Matrix)

Your Culture Strategy: Using the culture strategy design canvas, you will need to think through your foundational elements first. which These includes purpose, vision, core values, guiding principles etc. Then you’ll need to work through your supporting items, language, artifacts and stories. If you’d like more detail on this process download our Culture Canvas PDF .

Your Culture Implementation: Next, it’s about developing your company's muscle in the right areas. Bake in elements from your culture canvas to ensure your culture permeates everything you do. For more detail on the 12 competencies used to do this, download our Culture Competency Scorecard . You can even run through a self assessment on it.

Good Job Trait #3: Employee Experience

Compensation and benefits are the places most employers go first to improve employee experience. Are we paying enough? Do we give enough vacation? Sure, this is part of it, but good jobs go further. They consider the profiles of their frontline employees in detail. Where do they live? What do they do with their downtime? Do they have families? Etc.

Then, they build a job that makes their employee’s lives better. How do they do that? They find the areas of friction. Is your office in a place that doesn’t have any bus routes? Might want to reconsider that. For a workforce that’s passionate about health, an onsite gym might be worth considering. Young parents make fantastic employees, if they can get adequate child care. An onsite childcare provider could be a complete game changer for attracting talent.

Good Job Trait #4: Leadership

High on the list of reasons people leave their jobs is that they find leadership lacking (studies report that up to 50% of people leave jobs because of a bad manager). More and more it’s not just about their direct manager, either. Recent surveys have shown that people are increasingly leaving organizations when they don’t believe in their executive leadership—even if their direct manager is great.

The In-vogue Leadership Theory is a combination of what’s known as empowerment-based leadership theories (or post-heroic leadership theories in academic circles). These include servant, cultural, moral, and visionary. The one thing they all have in common is that they’re based on the idea that people are at their best when their leaders are empowering them rather than commanding them.

So, what’s to be done? We think a great place to start is by establishing a leadership philosophy (what we like to call a Leadership Way). This sets a clear expectation across the organization as to what good leadership looks like. It gives leaders a standard to live up to, and hopefully exceed. It also tells team members what they can expect from their leaders. The next step is to decide how much support you will offer to your leaders. The best companies are offering comprehensive leadership development programs that support the core competencies suggested by their leadership philosophy.

We’re at a time when the gap between people and their employers seems to be getting larger every day. A focus on these four traits provides the antidote; a way to help companies reconnect their people with purpose, deliver for their higher order needs, and give them a place to belong and do good work. In short, we can provide people with good jobs. When this happens, we begin to close the gap between people and employers and fill vacant positions with great talent.

5 Employee Engagement Strategies For 2021

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 16:55:00 GMT

Given that nine months have passed in 2021 we wanted to write an article to help you and your people finish the year strong. This year has posed a diverse set of challenges for all of us and the long-term implications of COVID have become increasingly clear, notably in regards to where and how we work in a new hybrid workplace.

The concept of work-life balance has forever changed with the rise of remote work making the distinction between work and home harder to maintain than ever. Work and life are now inextricably linked. Our mobile devices and the rise of remote work have eroded the physical barriers between work and life, as well as the psychological barriers. We can no longer separate what's going on outside of work from what's going on inside of work, including our emotions and wellbeing. It’s no surprise that countless studies have shown that people are working more hours from home than they did in the office pre-COVID.

With all of these changes, employees are struggling and average engagement scores are the lowest we have ever seen, decreasing 16 % since the pandemic started. It is clear that the health crisis of COVID has created considerable uncertainty among workers compromising their engagement and wellbeing. Many organizations are scrambling to turn things around by addressing this trend head-on before they lose their employees to the “Great Resignation”.

If your organization is dealing with lower or decreasing employee engagement, here are five proven engagement strategies that are particularly relevant to help solve the new challenges of work in 2021 and beyond:

1. Implement a 101 life goals program .

Bucketlist is a fantastic life goals platform that provides a measurable boost to employee morale and engagement. By sharing personal and professional goals publicly in your organization you can create community and connection amongst your people. This program provides countless opportunities for people to engage and celebrate their growth together.

2. Give your people more time off to recharge .

It’s harder than ever to disconnect from work and get the real downtime we need to recharge. Therefore, organizations are re-assessing their PTO policies and implementing some dramatic changes to ensure their people are able to recover in the way that they need. We’re strong believers in the value of downtime and encourage you to check out our Recharge Policy to see how we allow our employees to get some well-deserved R&R.

3. Help employees connect more with their peers.

Intentionally helping people connect more virtually and in person can reduce the increasing isolation they are experiencing. Our organizations have become our new communities, and we increasingly look to them to provide us with social connection and belonging. Apps like Donut , make it easy to connect teammates for social and learning opportunities, no matter where they are in the world through automated slack check-ins.

4. Identify and share your Company's purpose and vision.

The feeling that we are doing personally meaningful work is the greatest contributor to employee experience. Meaning is a person's interpretation of how the company's purpose is relevant to their individual life and goals. If you haven’t already, craft a compelling purpose and vision statement and get your employee’s invested in making it a reality by connecting it to their individual purpose.

5. Map your employee experience from start to finish.

Consider it in the same way you would look at your customer experience journey and ask the questions: Where are we adding friction to our team member's life? How can we reduce the friction and make their employment experience more enjoyable? How well are we communicating with them?

Maintaining a competitive edge in the market with engaged and productive employees is critical in retaining your people. Companies continue to adapt based on current market trends because becoming stagnant is a serious risk to their success. If you start to implement one of the strategies outlined above, you will certainly see a lift in engagement. We’d also love to hear what you’re doing to increase engagement in your new hybrid work environment.

5 Steps to Help Your Employees Re-engage | A Remedy for Burnout

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 17:36:00 GMT

Times are tough out there and our employees are feeling it. Here are 5 things you can do today to re-engage your teams if they’re nearing burnout (or already there). But first, why is this happening in greater numbers than ever before?

The number of employees reporting feelings of loneliness, disatisfaction, and burnout are at an all-time high as we come out of the isolation of COVID and emerge into a rapidly changing work environment. As a result, 40% of workers are planning to quit in the next 6 months. People are calling it the “Great Resignation”. The outcomes of unhappiness and demotivation are driven by feelings of being disconnected and undervalued. These are clear warning signs of poor performance and turnover.

The last year has been a difficult time for everyone but the biggest difference we’ve noticed is in how employers have responded to these challenges. The good ones stepped up and doubled down on supporting their teams in new and meaningful ways to maintain employee engagement. On the other hand, many organizations failed to address their employees' struggles appropriately leading to lost productivity and higher turnover. We predict that this rising employee engagement gap will have profound impacts on the success of companies in 2021 and beyond. The winners will be the culture-first organizations that value and support their employees as they are able to attract and retain the best talent in a highly competitive recruiting landscape.

More than ever before, employers are recognizing that their employees' well-being and mental health are not topics to ignore and leave to the individual to manage alone. That’s because mental health and well-being are intimately connected to productivity, performance, and retention. In our opinion, providing a culture where employees flourish and love their work is the ultimate aspiration of business and it benefits everyone - your employees, your organization, and your customers.

Here are 5 ways to re-engage your employees:

1. Make Time to Listen and Understand

It all starts with understanding and acknowledging what they are experiencing right now. This is best done in a 1 to 1 conversation where you are focused on listening to what’s going on for them. Don’t jump to problem solving right away, simply ask questions and leave space for them to share and process. This conversation will be more focused on their emotions than their work. Once they feel comfortable you can offer the following options to support them in finding solutions.

2. Remind Them it’s Just a Job

I know this sounds counterintuitive. Don’t you want your employees to take their job really seriously? Surprisingly the answer is no. The research actually shows that we’re at our best when we’re at play and have space to enjoy our work. A great question to ask here is, “ What can I do to help you get more enjoyment from your daily responsibilities? ” Answering that will enable you to help engage your employees by giving them perspective and opportunities to laugh, play and have more fun at work.

3. Provide Them With Resources

Our well-being depends on the combination of our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. When one or more of these areas are suffering, we are not at our best. Luckily, there are a mountain of great mental health resources out there that are free or low-cost ways to support your employees in these areas. We love “ Moodfit ” for improving mental health, “ Balance ” for approachable meditation, “ Noom ” for encouraging a healthier diet, and “ Nike Run ” for exercise and guided runs, to name a few.

On top of that, there is an increasing focus on the importance of mental fitness, which is the ability to keep your brain and emotional health in top shape through intentional practice. There are some great resources out there to help individuals and teams improve their mental fitness, including Headversity and MindFlow .

4. Help Them Find Time To Recharge

It can be especially challenging to see how an employee’s workload is impacting them in a remote work environment. Often feelings of disengagement and burnout are brought on by stress and overwhelm from their work or life but they may not be able to express those feelings effectively. Therefore, the solution may be to make space for more downtime so the person can recover and recharge. Walk through their current task list or priorities and help by identifying a few that can be delayed, delegated, or deleted. This shows them that their well-being is a priority. Remember, employees are humans not robots!

5. Connect Them With the Team & Loved Ones

When employees feel disconnected you can help them and your team connect more outside of the structured and fast-paced remote work environment. Schedule intentional team building activities so that people can socialize like they used to in an office setting. Some easy, fun activities include: Host a zoom cooking class, play trivia together, share your personal goals and photos, complete a 30 day challenge to learn a new skill, etc.

Still not sure what to do? Ask your employees for suggestions!

We fundamentally believe that companies that prioritize their employee satisfaction and well-being will grow more sustainably and profitably than their competition. By implementing these simple but effective practices you will be helping your employees increase their engagement, happiness and performance. It’s a win-win for everyone.

How to Reduce Employee Turn Over at a Call Center

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 13:40:00 GMT

5 Tactics You Can Execute Immediately to Reduce Employee Turnover

Call center leaders experience some of the highest employee turnover rates. The average annual voluntary employee turnover rate for full-time call center employees in the US was between 30% and 50% (Poddar and Madupalli). Most times, job satisfaction is at the forefront to blame as to why people leave within the first six months of being hired. So it is important for leaders to understand how to reduce this number as companies seek increased call center support for their customer service and sales requests.

We have created some easy to implement steps so that you can ensure that you retain more call center employees. The steps can be small but can cause a ripple effect of change, improving job satisfaction and productivity.

Share Information and See Team Members Rise to The Occasion

Leadership should focus on supporting employees to continuously improve their current approach and processes on the job. For example, learning from other colleagues in the call center is a great way to build relationships while leveraging best practices.

A “Best Practice” roundtable forum with the call center employees in groups would be a great way to achieve this. This gives them a break from the phones and allows them to voice any feedback they have, positive or negative. Have representatives from other departments join in weekly. The front lines often hold incredibly valuable insights from conversations with customers that can be widely utilized by other departments.

2. Be Transparent About The Role and Day to Day

Upon hiring new employees, ensure that you hire people who understand the full gambit of the job and the repetitiveness. Also, provide detailed information on the difference between sales and customer service. These require a very different set of skills.

Throughout the individual's time working with you make sure you clearly communicate the performance indicators used to measure success within the role. Most importantly, to ensure they are not contradictory. An example of this might look like emphasizing detailed and thorough customer contact while spending as little time as possible on the phone. This can cause a lot of pressure and stress for the employee, reducing job satisfaction. A realistic, good balance should be achieved.

3. Provide Them With Simple Easy to Use Tools

In order for call center agents to excel, they have to have simple and effective tools to do the job. Calls are often quick and agents get “Information Overload”. An agent cant relay the service details while providing a strong value proposition if the tools they have are difficult to use. Agents should be using tools that lessen the barrier to entry.

One way to achieve this would be to acquire or even develop technology using insights from frontline employees. Study the sales process and how this flows so you can replicate this in your CRM. The tool should be thoroughly detailed while maintaining a positive user experience.

A good example of removing barriers in this type of environment is to implement a solid process around call transfers (to be timely) and remove obstacles for both the sales person as well as the customer. Additionally, having a call be stress free and easy leaves a good impression on the customer. Removing unwanted stress to the salesperson allows them to move onto the next call while maintaining a positive attitude.

4. Provide Job Diversity and Progression

Because of the repetitive element of the job, it can take a lot of fortitude in spending eight hours a day saying the same script. There needs to be another element so they can have a bit of job diversity.

An example of this might be blocking off an hour or two for them to work on customer service emails versus being on the phone. Or, create a sales type competition where the prize could be shadowing on the job in a different part of the organization.

5. Exemplify Strong Leadership Skills

Leaders play such an important piece in call center environments because they bridge the gap between the front line and the leadership team. Despite having sales targets to hit each month, one of the most important pieces is the ability to empower your agents. Here are a few ways you can demonstrate this:

Increase responsibility - This might look like having some of the agents take on a few more administrative tasks to break up their day on the phones.

Expand their knowledge base -Provide weekly best practices that are fun and engaging. Perhaps have some of the agents work on what this looks like.

Provide a roadmap for growth -Ensure you are having 1:1s with agents on a weekly basis with a focus around the agent's personal development. Spend time understanding what they like and who they are as people.

Empowered workers are more engaged and proactive in driving forward and achieving success. Even, HBR thinks so!

As the world continues to change, one thing is certain. Call centers will continue to thrive. Although AI will continue to develop and replace certain simple requests, it is shown to be more productive when paired with a human.

We understand that hiring, training and retaining great call center employees is challenging and costly enough. Making sure that they are fulfilled and happy in the role isn't easy, but these simple steps can really help move the needle.

5 Strategies to Improve Your Employee On-boarding Experience

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 21:21:00 GMT

There's more to a good employee onboarding than a handbook and branded swag.

Creating a positive first impression is such a key piece in ensuring your new hire is happy with their decision. Just because they have signed a contract does not mean that loyalty follows. People often make decisions on how long they plan to stay early on based on the experiences felt during their onboarding process. Positive first impressions make them feel encouraged and valued, resulting in higher engagement. So it is important that you document your onboarding process so that it is easily repeatable and tailored to the individual.
Here are five simple ways you can improve your onboarding practices:

1. Document it. Make it consistent, Do all the things, every time.
Onboarding plans differ company to company and often have their own set of unique processes. The key is to create a repeatable onboarding plan. Doing this avoids inconsistencies in experiences. You want to avoid having some new hires having a positive experience, while others are left questioning their decision. To ensure that the process remains consistent make sure you document each step. Automating the process leads to a better experience for your new hire and increased productivity for your team. When you are creating this onboarding plan, make sure you set your team up for success. You don't have to start with a 90 day plan including all the tours, rewards and certificates. It can be minimal but effective. The key is that it is consistent and adjustable.

2. Make sure your onboarding program has a “long tail”.
Don't assume your plan starts and ends on day one. If you have a new hire who has an incredible first day, don't throw them into the deep end right after. The process shouldn't feel transactional, instead it should feel engaging. In order to find a healthy balance for your employee, make sure you spread out the onboarding process over a timeline that works for you. Ideally, you have a 90 day program built out as it generally takes three months for people to really understand the nuances in an organization and their role and responsibilities. Don't blow all of your process and good intentions on day one.

3. Involve the hiring managers. It's not just an HR thing.
The onboarding program isn't just in the hands of HR / People & Culture, it should be collaborative. New hires don't want a singular view point. People want to meet their fellow coworkers and further understand what is expected of them. It is important to avoid unsuccessful techniques like siloing your new employee to one specific department, refraining them from having a universal understanding of the company and the culture. Or isolating new hires in training for a week and then putting them to work immediately following. Instead, have them engage in training, socialize with their team but also assign them a few tasks so they feel useful. Although HR will oversee and administer the onboarding plan, it is critical that hiring managers also be involved.

4. Consider how you want people to feel, not just what they need to know.
A great question I like to pose is, what do you want this new hire to know, understand and feel? This should be a question that lingers as you map out the entire onboarding experience - from feeling welcomed, to cared for, to feeling useful and belonging. An example that illustrates this point is ensuring a well received first day on the job. You want to make sure when they arrive, employees provide a warm welcome. They should know who they are upon arrival versus being surprised. Every step of the way they should feel that you value the skills they are bringing to the table evoking a sense of belonging. A big mistake is creating your onboarding plan purely based on things people should know IE- (where things are located), versus how they should feel.

5. Include something new, surprising and different to WOW your new employees and remind them what a great decision they made.
Although the first day has a big impact on how people feel towards the company, make sure to weave in something that will WOW them. Think of something new and different that this individual may not have experienced in the past. You want to elicit the “How did you do that?” type of response to make it long lasting and memorable. For instance, asking them what their favourite chocolate bar is during the recruitment process so you could have it placed on their desk upon arrival. Or, have a welcome card signed by as many people as possible in the office on their desk. Just make sure that this is tailored to the individual and outside the box.

A strong onboarding plan should be focused on what your new hire needs to succeed in their role and how they feel throughout the experience. Focusing on improving your onboarding process can help retain the great talent you have just invested time and money into attracting. The experience should be personalized to that individual while the onboarding plan should remain repeatable and consistent. I believe that integrating these 5 simple steps can greatly improve your current process. The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

Leadership Training - Build a Program to Fit Your Culture

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 17:45:00 GMT

Learn how to develop a leadership development program that helps your leaders support your culture.

Developing current and future leaders is a top priority among organizations. In order to progress through today's ambiguous, complex and uncertain environment, leaders need an even more robust set of skills. With this realization the number of public workshops offered to broaden leaders' skill sets have soared. The issue here is that, although public workshops can provide knowledge of hard and soft skills, they're not tailored to an individual organization. In addition, leaders may have conflicting methodologies - coming from different backgrounds and skill sets. For this reason, investing in leadership development in-house may be a better course of action. Here's how to do it:

1. Understanding your Current State:

In order to create a leadership development plan, you have to complete a current state of analysis. This knowledge provides important information and context on how the company views the skills and effectiveness of its leaders. Starting here allows you and your team to reflect and understand where you are today from other perspectives. A great way to attain this information would be to look at data from engagement surveys, leadership skill assessments and by observing leaders in action. From here you can understand how well the company is performing and what competencies will most likely need to be highlighted in the leadership development plan.

2. Gaining Alignment and Defining the Vision:

What is great leadership will be different to people, particularly across each level within an organization. In order to build buy-in and ensure alignment for a new leadership development program you have to gain interest and gather input from all tiers. A great starting point is to have your senior leadership members align on areas such as what traits or behaviours they want leaders to exhibit, for example:

- What leaders and leadership qualities do they admire?

- How do they want leaders to communicate?

- How do we want people to view our leaders?

- What type of collaboration they want to foster?

Once you have gained alignment among your senior leadership team, you are then able to replicate this exercise with other department leadership and team members. The answers to these questions may differ among each department or location, for instance, remote workers, so it is important to get a broad perspective. Asking questions like these can open a helpful dialogue in which you can then start planning your future state or “vision”. This is a key piece in your leadership development plan, as this identifies the “gap”, or actions you must take to get to the future state. The output of this work will be the key guiding principles of leadership at your organization. For instance, what kind of leaders you aspire to be, how people in your organization want to be led and what kind of culture you want your leaders to nurture.

3. Designing the Program

Armed with your guiding principles, current state and gap analysis, the next step is to determine what leadership competencies need to be developed in order to demonstrate the leadership described by your principles. For example, what does it take to foster collaboration among a team? Or, healthy competition? What leadership skills are most important to master at your organization? Each competency or group of competencies is a topic area in your program. Now, design your program from the competencies up to the guiding principles.

As you design the remainder of your program it is important to consider the desired duration of your program and delivery method, whether that is online, in person or both. Lastly, define what kind of learning experience you would like to create. The most effective programs foster a culture of continuous learning through cohorts, accountability buddies, mentors and lots of time for ongoing practice and reflection.

4. Defining How we Get There:

When executing your leadership development plan, you have to consider how you want to develop leaders in the organization effectively in order to maximize your results. Here are some important considerations to keep in mind:

1. Establish Clear Goals

2. Organize your Participants into cohorts

3. Keep Content Relevant

4. Pick a Strong Facilitator

5. Ensure the program is Sustainable

In summary, developing an in-house leadership development program might not be possible for every organization. However, by following these straightforward steps, and soliciting a little help along the way, a program designed to fit your culture could become a reality.

How do you build a sustainable culture of continuous improvement?

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 22:50:00 GMT

Well executed continuous improvement initiatives are proven to deliver sustainable competitive advantage. How do you make sure they stick?

Process improvement methods such as Lean, Kaizen, Six Sigma and Agile are methods that are proven to result in increased efficiency and costs. However, applying these methods and having them result in continuous improvement is often rare. Out of a study of 204 improvement projects completed, about half of them had regressed. After two years, it reduces to one in three. Why is that the case? I don't think the answer is simple, but I do believe that there are crucial aspects that need to be considered and maintained long term for the change to stick which include:

1. Employee Involvement:

This is an essential aspect. Frontline workers are the closest to the work and often have the most fruitful insights into how details can be improved that senior level employees normally wouldn't see. Capturing these details is incredibly important in maintaining a positive customer journey.

For example, let's imagine a call center agent was having difficulty inputting key details into a CRM platform pertinent to an order. This might impact other workers dealing with the client resulting in disorganized delivery of the service or order, poor customer experience and potential loss in revenue long term. The small details matter.

2. Maintaining Senior Leadership Support and Buy In:

At times, process improvement is seen as finite. Meaning, momentum and enthusiasm dissipates when leadership focus is shifted to other projects. Although a new process change may be regarded as a project with an initial start and end date, it doesn't mean that we regard it as finished when implemented.

Process Improvement should be considered as a “habit” and having senior leadership dedicate time and support ignites fellow employees to maintain ongoing support. One way to help build a culture of improvement is having senior leaders regularly immersed into the project. For instance, holding “accountability” meetings. What this might look like is the partnership of both senior leaders and others presenting wins, failures, challenges with supporting data. Oftentimes, this results in people opening up and having an honest dialogue about where they stand on the project, which inevitably ignites accountability and buy in.

3. Transparency and Knowledge Sharing:

Departments across large scale companies can often work in silos. They may have their own set of internal processes on their team that works for them. But, it is crucial that teams understand the challenges and initiatives that their fellow departments are working on. Perhaps one team has knowledge of a critical piece that would vastly improve a new project or process change.

One way to improve cross departmental transparency is to make your project goals and intentions public. Tailor the content to all individuals including project justification and data. One example of how I have effectively managed to involve other departments is by communicating my strategy, holding a “kick off” meeting and explaining what is in it for each department. “Continuous Improvement” is a universal term, however ensuring that all departments included understand how this impacts their role and internal processes is essential.

4. Standardize the work:

Perhaps one of the most under utilized “Lean” tactics is standardization. In order for the process improvements to last, they must be standardized and repeatable. This will ultimately create a baseline for improvement. The benefits of standardized work include documentation of the current state, future state, easier training for new hires and reduction in variability. What I enjoy about standardizing work is the ability to problem solve with my fellow co-workers.

An example of standardization that has worked for me is ensuring I have clearly documented best practices. These best practices can then be utilized by frontline workers, senior leadership members and for training new hires. Once you have these best practices, you can iterate on them and re assess if they are still relevant and need to change.

5. Focus on Negative Neutral and Positive Cases:

When you're trying to understand where to apply “Continuous Improvement” I find it helpful to examine not only negative processes within your business but also neutral and positive cases.

1. Neutral

Neutral cases are processes that don't seem to be causing obvious negative results but are processes that have remained the same for long periods of time. Perhaps you haven't focused on them because it is hard to pinpoint obvious improvements. It is easier to let these remain the same, but honing in on these often results in powerful brainstorming.

2. Positive

Positive cases can be helpful in understanding what you did right and how to replicate that among other processes. Can you take certain best practices from other departments and replicate that in your own? Can we iterate on this and take it to the next level? Is there someone in the office that has fostered positive process change that we can learn from?

As you can see completing a project related to process improvement is often the easiest aspect, however maintaining continuous improvement is both rare and complex. It takes inventiveness, fortitude, dedication and support. It is often easier to let our current processes remain the same without question then it is to change, re-asses and re-invent. The outcome of utilizing the tactics I have outlined in this blog often result in knowledge sharing, best practice creation while fostering a culture of Continuous Improvement.

How to Find an Interim COO (Chief Operating Officer)

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 18:30:00 GMT

Five Places to Look | Finding an Interim COO (Chief Operating Officer)

Your COO (Chief Operating Officer) is a key member of your team. They have built a value chain that delivers 1000's of happy customers, a highly engaged team and the business is running like a well oiled machine. But then they decide to leave. Chances are they've given you a lot of notice, but we all know the transition is going to be rough anyway. It's difficult to find someone this senior, this core to your team that wants to commit to the business for the long term. So you begin the hunt for an interim solution, which in some ways can be equally difficult. So where can you look to find a great interim COO quickly? Here are five great places to start.

1. Your Network

Great people know great people and there's a pretty good chance someone you know will know someone looking for the type of opportunity you have to offer. Where we see most leaders fall down in going to their network is in how they ask. They'll generally list at least 4 or 5 criteria including an interest in this type of role. Asking that of your network is a lot, so we like to keep it simple. Go out with an ask like the following "Hi Jimmy, We're looking for an interim COO to help us through our transitional period. Do you know anyone in your network who has senior operations experience?".

Note that you're not asking them to qualify interest level, industry or anything else. Just senior operations experience. Chances are your network will have someone like that. While you won't jump straight to the perfect fit, we think good recruiting is like mining. You follow a process and eventually you'll find what you're looking for.

2. LinkedIn

Career oriented people are generally very active on LinkedIn. While operations tend to attract people who are a little more introverted (so you likely won't see them posting a bunch) they're definitely watching and interacting with others through direct messages. Post something on your LinkedIn, have your team members do the same and use the search function to open your funnel to some people you're not currently connected with.

You can even post through LinkedIn's job postings. Note you'll end up with a lot of the same candidates as your permanent posting. But it can never hurt to cast a wide net. Paying for a LinkedIn recruiter can help you with more search options and a broadened network as well, so consider spending a little bit to open up your active search options.

3. Independent Consultants

The life of an independent consultant can be a bit of a feast and famine hustle. If your timing is right they may be happy to have a few months of predictable revenue. You likely won't be able to engage them for a full 40 hours a week as that will put their future revenue at risk. However they will likely be experienced and adept at getting up to speed with a new company quickly.

What you'll likely lose in industry experience you'll gain in process and a breadth of experience from consulting for multiple companies. Not every independent consultant will be up for this type of engagement though, so expect a few "no thank you's" along the way.

4. Management Consulting Firms

Boutiques will be your best bet at grabbing a very senior person with experience for an interim contract. The senior project managers and partners in these smaller firms are still very hands-on and so you'll have a shot at one of them coming on for a secondment style engagement. They'll likely see this as a great opportunity to build a lasting relationship with your organization and be willing to offer additional support over and above just that of a single person in the role by calling on the rest of the resources of their firm.

Apologies for the plug here, however this is something that we do here at Trailblaze Partners quite often. We generally fill either a seat as either an interim Chief Operating Officer or a Fractional Chief Operating Officer. When we do we bring the full strength of Trailblaze Partners to bear on the engagement which allows us to get up and running very quickly and provide value immediately.

5. Interim Chief Seat Companies

There are companies who specialize in filling interim chief seats. Admittedly there are many more of these who are focused on CFO roles. However there are a few out there who more generally help companies fill interim chief seats. These companies generally have a roster of vetted people that they place when the time comes. The risk here is that they're really more like a recruiting company or temp staffing agency than a partner in your transition.

There is a lot of upside to using this type of solution as they will help you find someone fast and it's' their core business so they tend to be pretty good at it.

Hiring for an Interim Chief Operating Officer is ultimately like hiring for any other role in your company. Experience will matter a lot less than culture fit and buy in from the team so make sure you have a solid interview process to make sure they're the right fit for your organization. Experience will not always lead to success (although it's very important).

What is Operational Excellence in 2020?

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Sat, 06 Jun 2020 22:52:00 GMT

Operational Excellence in 2020 (A Post Covid World)

Operational Excellence has traditionally been defined in terms of delivering value to the customer in alignment with strategy so well that it delivers competitive advantage.

To date "better" than the competition has been really difficult. Particularly if your a new entrant to the market. You might be more innovative with better idea's but to actually execute better than companies who have been dong what they do for many years is a real challenge. In 2020 everything changed. We've been calling it 'The Great Reset' because 2020 reset the clock on how businesses operate in almost every industry. Especially so in the service industry. What it means to provide a great experience for your customers and a safe experience has changed. The goal posts have moved and in a lot of cases they won't be going back.

We see this as the biggest opportunity to achieve an operational excellence advantage over your competitors than any other change in recent history (save the internet). With the transmission of disease now a consideration for every part of a business that humans come in contact with needing to be re-engineered. Starting almost from scratch on the continuous improvement ladder.

So what is Operational Excellence in 2020? As a frame work it has stayed the same. However there are implications for how this frame work is applied across the board.

Strategic Decision Making - 2019 set the stage for this, however 2020 has driven it home. Companies can't optimize exclusively for shareholder value anymore. They must consider the community, environment, employees, customers and shareholders and deliver considerable value to all of these stakeholders. This makes decision making substantially more complex with a far higher impact. Organizations will need to do a better job supporting their leaders and middle managers in developing their decision making skills. Luckily there is a fantastic body of work on decision making, one of my favorite books is ' The Decision Book '. It has 50 different decision making models, fully illustrated that will help make decisions about everything from how much to spend on a gift to complex strategic decisions.

Culture - Check out our '12 Culture Building Blocks' and it will become abundantly clear how culture has been impacted by the events of 2020. Diversity isn't a nice to have or competitive advantage anymore. It's table-stakes. The physical environment is completely different as remote work became a thing for everyone and the list goes on. We recently hosted a virtual round table with senior HR leaders from Aritizia, Smart Sweets and O2E Brands (1-800-Got-Junk?). They are all focused on answering questions like " how will we collaborate now?" & "How do we roll out change when we can't meet our people in person?".

Process Excellence - There are so many examples of actual process changes that 2020 has already driven. I think the biggest change will be a wider spread demand for process engineering skills for leaders outside the operations and strategy functions. As leaders grapple with eliminating racial bias from their recruitment processes & leadership programs as well as implementing new disease control safe guards the ability to map, re-engineer and document process will need to permeate every part of the organization.

Measurement - Not only will we begin to see the introduction of new KPI's to help measure our transmission risk reduction activities but new benchmarks will need to be established almost across the board, most notably for productivity. I was speaking with a local barber shop who have 7 locations. they said their capacity has been cut by 40% due to the process changes they've had to make as a result of new Covid related regulatory requirements and they certainly aren't alone. Productivity will be a challenge for almost every service offering in market as they attempt to implement labor intensive cleaning protocols.

Product/Service Innovation - In the cleaning business? You might find yourself quickly in the disinfecting business and that's just one example of many. Opportunity abounds and we'll see the innovation knock on effects take place for the next few years. Some of the innovation will result in brand new service offerings however the majority of the pressure will be applied to teams trying to deliver the same service levels they did before 2020. These organizations are going to need to find new ways to deliver the same value their customers have come to expect from them.

Quality Management - Observation has always been a core tenant of a great quality programs. Social distancing blew that up and we've seen the impact really fast. Not just this but there's a new element to quality to manage. As we attempt to measure the effectiveness of our transmission risk reduction activities adherence to brand new processes organizations whose quality programs already have an effective calibration process will keep pace with this change just fine. Those more mature businesses with a static definition of quality will struggle to adapt.

Employee Engagement - According to Falcon & Skillen who survey 1,350 front-line employees right in the middle of the Covid-19 shutdown 38.1% of employees would notify authorities if their employer wasn't following new regulations and only 60.1% of employees wanted to go back to work. This represents an immense challenge for employers as employees return to workplaces they've realized they don't want to be at. The best employers are getting ahead of this by actively involving their people in the process changes required to deal with the new work environment and helping them transition back in effectively with optional retraining programs.

Customer Experience Management - Right now customers are still patient and understanding of what 3 months ago would have been considered intolerably bad experiences. Just last week I went to the bank to deposit a check (the kind you can't do online) after a 45 minute wait in line I was served from behind a perspex guard by a bank employee wearing a mask. We know what people want in an experience: Convenience, speed, low effort, friendly connections & it won't be long before their patience for sub par experience runs out.

Operations leaders have a significant challenge ahead of them. Luckily challenges and solving problems is what attracted most of us to the world of operational excellence. Now more than ever we have an opportunity to contribute to putting our organization ahead of the competition.

How to Keep Your People Engaged During a Downturn

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 16:26:00 GMT

Your company is going through a rough patch and tensions are high. There are big changes on the horizon and your employees are feeling the strain. So how do you retain your best assets and keep an engaged workforce?

Here are 3 actions to keep your employees motivated and in a positive headspace during a crisis.

Communication

Rumors can spread fast around the office, so it’s important to keep an open dialogue with your staff. Give updates on the changes to come (good and bad), but be real. It’s important to share the steps being taken to combat the issues. Instill confidence and empower your employees by letting them know they are part of the solution. This will keep them motivated to be involved in the upturn and crush any false rumors going around.

Provide frequent updates on how the company is doing. Err on the side of over-communication—your team will be talking about it anyway!

Leadership

Stay unified. This starts from the top. Let them know you are in it together, you are there for support, and you won’t be jumping ship. Share motivational stories of other companies that have gone through hardships and how they turned it around.

Having an open door policy will be beneficial to both you and your employees. It gives the chance for employees to be listened to individually. This will give you a deeper insight into issues you may not be aware of and what concerns are being felt. You can then address them with everyone else, as chances are, if one person is feeling it, then others are too.

Visible leadership is key at times like this. Spend time in the office and work shoulder to shoulder with your team. This will help to create a more aligned team, one that aspires to achieve the same goals and has the same vision. It is important that each individual knows their role, takes ownership of it, and understands how it is integral to helping drive the company forward.

Engagement

“Without high engagement, employees often flee during a crisis, or even worse, they ‘quit and stay’ —they decide this place is not for them anymore, they disengage, but they stay and coast until something better comes along.” - Jerry Gratton, Trailblaze Partners.

Teams that are highly engaged will band together during a crisis. Your employees will want to help and be of value. They will want to be part of a collective where they have a say in their own future.

Give them a platform to contribute ideas and be part of the solution. Most importantly, be willing to implement some of these ideas. If you hold a bunch of problem solving sessions but don’t act on them, employees will notice and start to lose trust. Obviously you won’t be able to implement all ideas, and if you can’t be transparent about it. Say why something may not work for the company so your team can better understand how they can contribute to the organization.

Bottom line: communicate more than you think you should. Being transparent with your team will garner trust, loyalty, and confidence in the company’s leadership.

How to Turn Your Employees Into Raving Fans (Just Like Your Customers)

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 20:35:00 GMT

In recent years (and rightfully so), companies have shifted towards a customer centric approach in the hopes of turning their customers into raving fans. One of the most common tools being used is customer journey mapping. This technique is a powerful one, and I believe we are under utilizing the journey mapping mindset by not pointing it inward at our teams. What about employee journey mapping? If you, like me, are convinced your customer experience will never exceed your employee experience, then you see why organizations need to make Employee Journey Mapping a priority.

Here’s the best part, People & Culture leaders. You don’t have to go begging for budget and be forced to deprioritize your HRIS upgrade to do it. You can make use of the same tools and many of the processes your marketing team has already invested in. By simply leveraging these tools and processes, we can map out the employee experience and then identify the misalignment and friction points that cause disengagement, increased turnover, and underperforming teams.

Here is a quick overview of how you can get started on your Employee Experience Journey Mapping.

1. Segment your employee groups.
Much like with customer journey mapping, you need to start with who. Think customer segments and customer personas. For employee experience mapping, think of your employee segments based on employee drivers and desires and/or the type of employee experience they are expecting. For example, you may have an employee segment of entry level contact center rep’s. This will be very different from an employee segment of experienced web developers and marketers.

2. Identify the key stages.

Think of the employee journey from first awareness of the organization all the way through to employee exit. I even like to take it a step further and consider post exit “alumni” as a stage in the employee journey.

If your marketing team already has a journey mapping tool, repurpose the stages based on your decisions in the step. above. If you don’t have access to a tool, create a simple spreadsheet with the columns labeled as your key stages and the rows presenting the different criteria you want to examine to complete the picture of what the experience is like for each persona.Typically this includes touchpoints, expectations, feelings, processes and goals.

Your journey map will consider how you want people to feel and what you want them to know at various stages of the journey from awareness, recruitment, contract/hire, onboarding, integration, performance management, development, advancement, corrective action, milestone anniversaries, and exit (and sometimes even as alumni).

4. Do the research and fill it in.
The good news here is you don’t have to run expensive focus groups and surveys. Your best sources are already right in front of you: the data in your ATS, HRIS, your most recent engagement survey results and, of course, your employees. Your people can’t wait to talk to you and tell you about their experiences, you just have to ask.

5. Find the friction points.
You might be able to see this in the data alone, but your people will definitely tell you about these. There will most likely be more than you can tackle at once, so address the ones that have the greatest impact to employees and those that will deliver most value to the organization, e.g. the application process through your website. I’d bet the house yours isn’t as good as it could be.

Finally, you can now address the issues and seize the opportunities—now there’s a step People & Culture leaders are well versed in. If you take the step forward into employee experience mapping, rest assured you’ll be more focused on fixing the things that really matter to your employees, and those that will have the most impact on what matters to the organization.

Sounds like a recipe for success, doesn’t it?

Working with Remote Work: 3 Signs it’s Right for Your Business

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 19:16:00 GMT

Remote work is quickly moving from the exception to the norm in today’s workforce. Although it’s not a new thing (IBM started doing this back in the 60’s), the reduced cost of technology, fast internet connections, and tech fluency of the average person, without a doubt, sped things up and created a working world vastly different from the one our parents knew.

Recently, the country’s all-time low unemployment rates have added fuel to the fire. With the war for talent becoming increasingly difficult to win, many companies of every shape and size are turning to remote work to solve their skills shortage problems. But, is it right for you and your company?

If you’ve never had remote workers in your business before, here are three questions to ask yourself before you make the change.

Having remote workers on your team will stretch and test even the most experienced leader. Jerry tells a great story about how he ended up working around the clock when he had his first globally distributed team. Adding some remote team members is guaranteed to expose the cracks in your company’s workflow. Take a long hard look in the mirror before you take the leap: are there any soft spots in your culture? For a more methodical approach, we have a 12-point culture checklist you can use to score yourself in each area.

Remote work takes a lot of time and effort to make it work. Unless you’re solving the right problem, you should probably avoid it. Some of the right problems to solve include:

If you’re just doing it because you think you should, or because a good candidate suddenly came through the pipe, then you need to look a little deeper before enforcing a remote work policy.

3. How will this impact your current team?

Remote work is often seen as a perk, particularly when it’s at the discretion of your team members. Ask yourself: are you making exceptions for remote working only for specific teams or team members? How will they feel if you suddenly hire someone who lives in a great place and gets to work from home? Are you measuring performance for remote workers as equally as you are for your local team members? Are your remote workers feeling engaged in the culture as immersively as possible? If things are misaligned, uneven, or unfair, in the worst case scenario, some team members might become completely disengaged from your workplace—or they’ll leave the company altogether. However, with good change management and the right policies surrounding remote work, you can deal with this risk, and, even turn it into a positive for your current team members. In short, make sure you have a plan for everyone before you make an exception for someone new.

Introducing remote work to your company, big or small, can have many of the same impacts as a full scale reorganization or an office move, both good and bad. Approach it with caution and make sure you’re doing it for strategic reasons—not just because everyone else is doing it. Remote work is a lot more difficult to reverse than that foosball table is, but it can be far more rewarding in the long run.

How To Improve Your Company Culture in 6 Steps

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 22:13:00 GMT

Your company doesn't feel like the place that you set out to build. Your people don’t seem to care about the business and aren’t working as hard as you want them to. As your business has grown, it feels as if your new recruits just don’t get what you’re doing.

Your organizational culture isn’t where you want it to be.

Here’s how to identify the root of the problem and build a plan to get where you want to be:

Organizational Culture: The Sneak Attack

So often, people come to me and say, “we’ve been working on the business for a few years and now we want to work on culture. ”

Entrepreneurs setting out to grow a business are focused on the bottom line. Afterall, there won’t be a culture to work on if the company goes under; we’ve got to keep our priorities in line!

The thing is , you’re always creating culture, you just might not realize it. That lacking recognition can have a pretty devastating effect on morale, execution, and growth.

At the very early stages of a company, the leader themselves is the culture of the organization. When there are just a few employees, it’s easy to keep a pulse on ideologies, practices, and attitudes. It may seem like you don’t need to pay much attention to the way these collective norms develop, so long as you’re leading by example.

But if things go as planned, your business will grow. Your reports will have a team and there will be multiple degrees of separation between your people and you. And just like the people you hire, the culture will evolve over time. Will it change in a way that you’re happy with?

You may find yourself at the head of an organization that you don’t recognize. One that you might not be entirely proud of, with a culture that’s not aligned with your vision or your values.

Turns out, you’ve been creating this culture all along.

What is Organizational Culture?

Organizational culture, simply put, is “how things get done here.” More technically, culture is the norms and practices of a company’s operations and its peoples’ interactions.

Formal rules and policies aren’t culture in themselves, but help shape the culture for better or worse. But rather, norms are the unwritten agreements between everyone in the group, which can only be understood by seeing them play out firsthand.

For example, many companies have a policy which says normal work hours are between 8am and 5pm. Walking through the office at 5:15pm will tell you a lot about the unspoken, but collectively understood reality of cultural expectations. Maybe your office clears out at 5:01, maybe people hang out chatting until 5:35, or maybe your people are heads-down-email-up until 7pm.

Same policy. Very different agreement.

Where Do Leaders Go Wrong in Creating Culture?

One cultural agreement is not inherently better or worse than another. A place where people work until 7pm is not doomed to a toxic culture anymore than a company whose people take off at five.

What’s important to note is simply that the practices, traditions, and artifacts of a work culture contribute to the picture of “how we do things.” These things differentiate us from them and define our collective identity.

Long-standing conventions, company programs, and the stories we tell are the framework of culture. In strong cultures, the framework is so well-established, it’s clear to all when you’re off-culture.

These artifacts will be established. It’s only a question of who will create them. Leaders go wrong when they fail to be intentional about the components of their culture framework.

When that entrepreneur focuses on operations and finance, putting people and culture on autopilot while they work toward revenue goals, they are not the ones in control of the culture.

Chances are, they won’t be happy with the one they end up with.

Building Culture Intentionally

Every organization--no matter how new/old, large/small, localized or dispersed--has culture. It’s never too late (or too early) to start building that culture intentionally.

Now, that doesn’t mean simply adding a line item in the budget for ping pong tables, First-Round Fridays, or company parties. These have their place, but they’re not synonymous with a “good culture”.

Strong culture isn’t based on trends or gimmicks, it’s founded in something entirely permanent: Core Values.

The organizations which have staunchly weathered the test of time--through multiple generations of fads, politics, recessions, and more--are grounded in, and guided by, their inalienable values.

Battle-tested businesses like General Electric, Hudson’s Bay, and IBM have learned to adapt and evolve with (or often in advance of) changing times. They have to, or they’d be left behind as a footnote in business books. But these businesses have been intentional about what they reconstruct. As the business changed, they’ve evolved how they talk about their core values (read: how they get things done), but they haven't changed the values themselves.

“Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization's makeup and success — along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like... I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn't just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.” — Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Former CEO of IBM

Values are the foundation of everything in the most successful businesses. They will attract the right people and repel the wrong ones.

How To Reclaim Your Company’s Culture

Step 1: Document “How We Get Things Done Here”

The tricky thing about humans is, there’s often a disparity between what we believe in and what we do. That’s why your core values likely don’t parallel how things get done in your organization. The first step to reclaiming your culture is to gain alignment among leadership of what it currently is.

The retailer Aritzia has the 7 Principles of being an Aritzia-ite. They are cleverly related to fashion, with one of them being Measure Twice Cut Once . It’s clear to anyone reading this principle that at Aritzia, detail is important; we avoid making mistakes. It’s an idea that’s very different, for example, from 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s ideology of Willing To Fail (WTF).

So how do things get done at your company? To answer this, gather the leaders, the People team (HR), and key representatives from each department. Have an honest dialogue about the reality of culture, not a self-indulgent roundtable claiming an aspirational current state. Try not to attach value or quality to it, but approach the analysis functionally.

Discuss and take notes on the policies and unwritten agreements of things like:

How projects get done (collaborations v. independently, agile v. waterfall)
How people speak to each other (thoughtful emails v. messenger, meeting v. memos, public v. private)
What are the do's and don'ts (what's rewarded vs reprimanded)
What stories are retold and what is their message?

In these discussions, work to define management expectations clearly. Don’t worry about making it sound clever yet. Keep communicating until when you speak with different leaders independently, you get the same explanation of how to get stuff done.

Step 2: Look Outside The Boardroom

Having all of your leaders in one room for an honest conversation is something more organizations should do a lot more often. But getting this core group together isn’t a silver bullet for your culture. Your culture is defined by more than just the people at the top, so it’s important to have insights at all levels.

Whether by system-wide survey or representative focus groups, before taking action, it’s important to take stock of how non-leaders believe “things get done.” Compare these results with the findings of your leadership and discuss where ideas are validated and where they are challenged.

Often, there is a gap between these two groups’ understandings. Where there’s a gap, there is learning.

Step 3: Define What’s Important to You

So now you have a clear picture around the state of your company culture. Next, you have to define what is actually important to you. Here’s how to go about doing that effectively:

Reach out to your leadership team and key influencers from across the company. Ask them to get feedback from their teams and spheres of influence on what’s important to them. Encourage them to gather these insights through 1-on-1 meetings or surveys.

Take all this information on what’s important to the people in your organization and hand it over to the communicators in your company to distill it into digestible principles.

Step 4: Note the Gap

You’re staring at the foundation for your current company culture, the core values as defined by the people who create your organization. Reflect and ask yourself:

Do you believe in these values
How do they compare to what you want for your business?
Do these feel like the values of the place you set out to build?

Having a gap between reality and your aspirations is completely OK. Your work to reclaim your culture well underway, but there are a few more key steps to take until you have what you’re striving for.

The Core Values of an organization guide the culture like a beacon. Culture will organically shift overtime, but you have to intentionally establish and maintain foundation and direction. When you identify what it important to you, don’t let a grassroots campaign exclaim tyranny.

Step 5: Take an Inventory of Your People

It should be clear now the beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes that need redirection in order to recreate your ideal culture. At this point, you have to recognize if the people who are in your organization are really the people that need to be there.

Are these your people? This is an opportunity to define (or redefine, if necessary) who you need in place to create and uphold the new foundation of your company culture.

The longer a culture has been in place, the more challenging it will be to overhaul it. It’s imperative to have your leadership, key influencers, and the People team fully aligned on the outcomes you’re aiming for.

Behaviour is difficult to change. Belief is near impossible. Those who don’t align with your vision don’t belong in the organization.

This may feel ruthless, but we’re talking about the future of your business and the livelihood of everyone within it. Culture is delicate and even one or two key people can be enough to derail your concerted efforts to correct it.

Step 6: Establish New Norms

Just like you would launch a product or unveil a re-brand, make a point to address the commencement of your new way of doing things.

The way that you introduce these new norms will either catapult morale or burn it down.

Because it’s futile to try and change others, this commencement will introduce the new way you lead; your revamped leadership principles and practices. This top-down approach shows your people that you’re committed to this change; they’re welcomed to be part of it, or to part ways.

During this process of reclaiming your organizational culture, you’ve taken care to seek feedback and insight from all the people through your organization. This will pay off in them being far more likely to adopt these new norms and eventually perpetuate them.

How Do You Know if Your Culture-Building Efforts are Sticking?

These five steps require a lot of consideration, man hours, and effort to undertake. What are the indications that all your hard work is paying off?

A clear sign that your people have adopted your new way of doing things is when they use your language organically.

The core values of O2E Brands, the parent company of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, are Passion, Integrity, Professionalism and Empathy: PIPE. These values are pasted on the wall, monitors, awards, and more. But how we really know the culture embodies them is that you will hear “PIPE” being referenced regularly by employees of all levels. “Keep it PIPE” is a playful reminder of who we are and how we do things.

Culture and Profits Aren’t Mutually Exclusive. You Can (And Should) Have Both

Those entrepreneurs who are looking to finally work on their culture in light of turnover and lackluster employee performance are better late than never. What they didn’t know that could have saved them time and money is that you can’t focus on growth without focusing on people: Culture drives growth .

Organizations that invest in delivering a strong candidate experience improve their quality of hire by 70 percent ( Glassdoor ) and having a culture that attracts top-talent can lead to 33% higher revenue ( Gallup ). I’m no mathematician, but those stats are telling me:

Better culture = Better quality hires = ⅓ Higher revenue

But the benefits of culture don’t stop there. Highly engaged business units achieve 59% less turnover, a 41% reduction in absenteeism, and a 17% increase in productivity ( Gallup ).

Turns out, investing strategically in your culture is one of the best things you can do for your P&L. The path to success is through inspiring and engaging your people, not on the backs of them. To take advantage of culture’s bounty, follow these steps to reclaim your company culture.

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How to increase the effectiveness of your team by 86%

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 20:23:00 GMT

“In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.” — Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Former CEO of IBM.

Like Gerstner says, your business is only as good as the people in it. And as the world continues to change at breakneck speed, you need to make sure that your people are constantly learning, improving, and innovating if you’re going to survive.

You can hire for curiosity (more on that in another post ), but you also have to cultivate a culture of development and creativity among your existing people. While there are tons of ways to enhance your team’s skills, the most effective method, by far, is having exceptional 1-to-1s.

Why Have 1-to-1 Meetings?

There are a lot of reasons exceptional 1-to-1s are such a game changer. A report by the Personnel Management Association showed that when training is combined with coaching, individuals increase their productivity by an average of 86% (MonteWyatt.com), compared to 22% with training alone.

In an individualized meeting, time can be spent on whatever topic is most impactful for that person, not just what the group has in common. 1-to-1 coaching means that learning is delivered right when (and how) it’s needed. In these meetings accountability is established, which is shown to drive result. Perhaps most importantly, exceptional one-on-one coaching shows your people that you actually care about them .

To develop a culture of improving and innovating, and to reap the rewards of coaching, follow these six steps for exceptional 1-to-1 meetings:

Step 1 – Define Success

Clear expectations are the foundation of having effective 1-to-1s. With a direction in place, you’ll know when and how to course correct. It’s important to note that there are three areas wherein you should define success:

1 – Success for their career

This will help you deliver feedback and coaching to help them achieve long term goals. Their aim doesn’t have to be CEO, it could simply be, to be recognized as the very best around at the role that they’re in. But getting this clear for both of you will strengthen the relationship and make subsequent 1-to-1s far more effective.

2- Success for their role

This is a collaborative activity where you’ll need to give some direction as to what you want out of this person in their current role. Depending on their experience level, you should give them more or less input on what this looks like. Someone who is more experienced in a role will likely have a more clear idea of what ‘good’ looks like than you do.

3 – Success for the organization

Hopefully your business has a well-communicated vision and an awesome, easy to understand strategy. Whether they do or not, it’s up to you to show your team member how they fit into the big-picture success of the organization. If you do this well, they’ll feel like they’re part of building something bigger than themselves. That’s a truly inspirational feeling.

Getting aligned on these three expectations will set the stage for the following steps.

Step 2 – Set The Timing

According to Mike Ovitz, Founder of CAA and widely regarded super agent, service organizations live or die on time management. I would argue this is true in almost every organization, so get this one right!

Spend no less than 45 minutes and no more than one hour with every team member on their weekly 1-to-1. Schedule them at a time when you’ll almost never have to move it, like 8am on a monday morning. Sometimes things come up, but if you’re encountering problems more than once per quarter, rethink your timing.

I once had a leader on the other side of the world. We would do my 1-to-1s at 6am on Friday mornings because that was the only time that we could make it work. That’s extreme, but that’s how important this is!

Step 3 – Document Set Up

I use this document to plan and record my 1-to-1 meetings. If you plan to use the same one, there’s only one thing you’ll need to do. Choose the metrics that align with your definitions of success above.

If it’s an operations role, it might be something about productivity, customer experience, and quality. If it’s a sales role, it will be very different. 3-5 metrics is where you want to land. More measurements than that will be very difficult to influence for a single person.

For more on measurements for success, check out my article on t he five things to measure when growing your business.

Step 4 – Prep For The 1-to-1

Team member prep

The team member will need to complete the following prior to the meeting:

Fill in their results

Compared their results to last week’s goals

Compare their plan to what actually happened for last week

Set their goals for the following week

Set their plan for the following week, and

Reflect on anything they learned along the way

Step 5 – The 1-to-1 Meeting

Introduction

This is where you can build rapport and understand what’s taking your team members attention. Ask very open questions like, “how are things going?,” “what’s keeping you up right now?,” and “how’s the family?”.

Use your best judgement and listen for cues on what your team member wants to discuss. Often what they most want to talk about will come up here. If it does and it’s related to the plan, follow their lead.

Review

Discuss how they did against their goals and what their plan was to hit them last week. Did everything happen as they expected it to? What was different? Test assumptions and push for learning. This is where the questions you prepared earlier will come in handy.

Goal set

Did they sandbag or are they being too aggressive? Maybe they nailed their goal setting and it’s a 30-second conversation. Your job is to make sure they’re following the SMART methodology, and to consider all the things happening in the business that could impact their ability to achieve the goals.

Plan

When you’ve set some strong goals, decide together how the team member will get there. Ask them to walk you through their plan and listen for areas where they seem unsure. Look for opportunities to help them improve their skills to get there faster, ways you could help get them more, or helpful tools and resources.

Agreement

WDWBW? You’ll see me talk about this regularly, it stands for “Who Does What by When?”. In this situation, you will tell each other (fairly formally) what you’ve committed to doing over the next week. I refer to this acronym often because when someone commits to something this deliberately, the chance that it will actually happen increases substantially.

Step 6 – Repeat from Step 3

That’s it, you’re done! It’s not too complicated, is it?

The difficult part is committing to doing this every week, finding the time to do high-quality prep, and having the patience to support a team member through their learning curve. Remember, everyone moves at different speeds.

All it takes to accomplish huge goals is moving a little closer each week. If you can hold yourself accountable to taking these simple steps weekly, you will be well on your way to helping your team execute on the big, important stuff.

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How To Fire Up Your New Remote Employee's Performance [5 Proven On-Boarding Tips]

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 20:22:00 GMT

Just 10 years ago, remote working was somewhat rare. Today, having an entirely virtual organization is a growing trend. 68% of employees work from home at least once a month and 18% of employees work remotely full-time ( OwlLabs ).

Is your organization keeping up with the changing employment landscape?

This shift in how we work presents a huge opportunity for organizations willing to embrace telecommuting, with numerous proven benefits for both employer and employee. However, one fact has become resoundly true: For new remote employees, the first 90 days are critical to their long-term performance. If you're hiring remote employees, it's imperative to make an impactful and effective first impression.

Here are 5 ways you can embrace the future of work and make the most of on-boarding your remote team members:

1. Use Digital Forms

Don’t make them print, sign, scan, and return a bunch of paperwork. It's bad for the environment and productivity. Instead, buy a licence to Docusign (we are in no way affiliated, it's just a great product). Give it a try with this free trial and see what a difference it makes for you and your new hires.

2. Consider Security

The average cost of a malware attack on a company is $2.4 million (Accenture 2018). The security risk to your company's data increases exponentially with remote employees. Due, in part, to the factors outlined succinctly in this article .

Remote workers present new exposures, but with the right measures, risk can be nearly eliminated. The first 90 days is your best shot at instilling good security habits in your remote workers. So, establish security policies, have the conversation early, and avoid pain later.

3. Book Social Time

According to Gallup studies, the social side of work is one of the most important factors for employee engagement. For remote team members, this can also be one of the most difficult to develop. For this reason, it’s critical that you’re deliberate about setting up social time in the first 90 days.

In the first three months, book at least four 30-minute times for your new recruit to connect socially with a group of peers from other parts of the organization. Seed the conversation by telling everyone in the group something they should ask each other about (e.g. "Ask Suzie about sailing around the world with her family.") One of the goals of your calculated remote employee on-boarding program is to build lasting relationships throughout the company.

Despite the endless benefits of remote working, nothing completely replaces quality in-person time. That's why, in addition to the four interdepartmental meetings, you have to meet with your new team member face-to-face within 90 days too. Plan something fun together as a group and help them (and the rest of your team) build a group of friends.

4. Show You Care

People want to know their boss actually cares. But sometimes it's harder to communicate genuine interest than you'd think.

Here's how to start your relationship with a new remote employee off right:

Setting a strong, caring foundation for every new remote employee takes consistent effort. But that time and attention will pay off 10-fold in their satisfaction, engagement, and long term effectiveness.

5. Make Thorough Introductions

Make sure you introduce them to every stakeholder they'll need to collaborate with or influence. Phone or email won't work for these important relationships; make sure they’re all done via video call.

Plan the video meeting to allow enough time for discussing both social topics and expectation setting. They should each understand how one another's preferred working and interaction style.

Pro Tip: When introducing two people, give them each a specific question to ask the other that will lead to an interesting story (e.g. Ask Jeff about Sturgeon fishing).

Conclusion

From accessing a larger talent pool, to increased productivity and lower overhead costs, there are so many advantages to having some or all of your workforce telecommute. But you’ll only realize these benefits if you recognize it is a different way of doing business and adjust accordingly.

The first 90 days are critical for a new remote employee. By following these tips, your recruit (and your team) will reap all the benefits of the new way to work.

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How To Beat 90% of Your Competitors [With 6 Simple Practices]

rhys@trailblazepartners.com (Rhys Green) — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 20:21:00 GMT

Only 10% of organizations deliver on more than 2/3 of their strategic priorities. That means 90% of your competitors didn’t accomplish the things they said were most important for their organization.

So how can you beat the vast majority? By crushing more of the important things.

Every highly-effective, trailblazing company is guided by a killer strategic plan. So having a clunky planning process, where every idea is submitted for evaluation, deliberated to death, and repeatedly compromised on, is the exact opposite of how you must operate if you want to obliterate the competition.

Maybe you're not the hyper-nimble, laser-focused organization that you aspire to be (yet!). But to outshine the 90%, you don't need to overhaul everything you're doing. You just need to practice a few key things consistently.

These 6 habits will launch you into the top 10% of effective organizations

1. Co-Create With Your Team

Commitment is an essential to strategic alignment. Without buy-in from your team, the most flawless strategy will fail.

How do you create commitment to a strategy within your team? Give them a hand in creating it.

It can be as simple as asking for their feedback on your ideas. Better yet, ask how the strategy can be carried out in the everyday things they do. When you ask these simple, yet important questions, you'll find the daily work in your business becomes far more closely aligned with your strategy.

80% of the effort expended in your business will have nothing to do with your “transformational” projects. So that’s where your strategy really needs to be executed.

There’s also the added benefit that when you hire smart people, they tend to have good ideas. When you tap into them, your strategy benefits.

2. Ensure Everyone Contributes

Every person on your team has the capacity to contribute to delivering the strategy. Everyone should.

This principal comes to life when your business needs crossover with your people's unique interests and talents. For example, a front-line employee who loves filmmaking can spend time creating needed content for your employment brand. Or you can engage a salesperson to help coach the finance team on deliver their new expense reporting system.

How do you uncover these opportunities for everyone to contribute uniquely and impactfully? One-on-one meetings. Read about how they can make your team 86% more effective .

3. Share Results And Celebrate Wins

People want to know if what they're doing is working. Share the results, good or bad. Your team will want to help you achieve them and contribute to solving problems as they arise. Your transparency will help to build trust and an owner culture in your organization.

Moreover, what’s the point of doing any of this if you can't enjoy the journey? When you hit a milestone, break a record, or deliver a big project. Always celebrate as a team!

4. Make Sure Everyone Has A Stake In The Outcome

Whether it's profit sharing, bonus plans, share options or any one of a number of other options out there. Make sure your teams benefit financially when the company does.

Not only will it align their goals with the company’s, it's also very rewarding to give someone a bonus check knowing the company also made more money as a result.

5 - Make The Strategy Easy To Remember And Visible

If you're going to dominate 90% of the market, you've got to have an aligned front. Your killer strategic plan must be front and centre and all times.

Here's how to make an effective strategic plan:

6. Open Lines Of Communication (And Use Them)

This is arguably the most important point on this list: Make sure you and your managers are talking to your people and your people are talking to each other.

I can't count how many times I've been in a company and observed dysfunctional communication; a manager who rarely speaks to their team or a sales lead who refuses to talk to the operations lead about a possible solution or opportunity. This lack of communication and feedback loops will hurt your business more than any other internal factor.

Conversely, when feedback loops are established, communication has the potential to help your business like no other item on this list. When your leaders are openly speaking with each other and their teams, giving honest (and lots of positive) feedback, asking each other for help, and making decisions collaboratively, the impact is tangible. Your business will move so far, so fast you may not recognize it. And neither will your competitors as you whizz past them.

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