LEARNING THE ROPES

Sitting through videos with facilitators. 

Filling out endless reams of paper … or doing so online, with interminable screens.

Lunching with peers and bosses.

Reviewing job descriptions, competencies, org charts, and the like.

Go home.  Repeat.

It’s all part of Day One on a new job.  An eight-hour-plus architecture where everything you ever wanted to know about your employer was sliced, diced, and presented with enough care to wow (and sometimes dull) the senses.

The real question:  Does orientation – and its longer-term cousin, onboarding – work? 

For executives, at least 40 percent fail within 18 months [though we can’t necessarily fault the getting-to-know-you process].  For workers, probably not – especially since 50 percent of HR professionals confess to having limited time to orient and onboard [courtesy of a 2011 SHRM survey]. 

What does work, say an increasing slew of studies, is attention to the individual, a personalized introduction to the company.  Programs range from scavenger hunts to small group conversations, from a limbo bar (no kidding) to company sweatshirts emblazoned with the newbie’s name.  Instead of orientation, it’s now called “organizational socialization,” intended to begin new hire engagement on Day One.  So paperwork (or links to Web sites) is sent in advance.  Ride-alongs and peer coaches give a good taste of reality, what it’s like working for Company ABC.  And initial results show that such personalization promotes higher job satisfaction, better job performance, greater organizational commitment – and reduction in stress and intention to quit.

Now that talent wars are back in force, with employers actively seeking the best and the brightest, it might make sense for us all – marketers and communicators, brand gurus and designers – to raise our hands and work together with HR to develop welcoming events and conversations that stick.  After all, learning the ropes doesn’t mean mastering hangman.

WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM TO BRING YOU

It’s performance evaluation season for many of our clients.

And our hearts are heavy.

Ever since World War II, when the German military pioneered the use of 360° ratings to measure performance, 360s (substitute “multi-rater feedback,” among other nicknames) have risen in popularity among the Fortune 500s as an employee evaluation and/or development tool.  Such instruments usually ask members of an employee’s immediate work circle to provide performance input – not just tap the individual’s manager.

There’s a problem with that. 

In fact, there are several.  Goals, for one.  As HR researchers point out, there is a real difference between a 360 used for career pathing discussions versus pay and promotion decisions.  [Most in the business admit that the tool is best used for development conversations.] 

Other gurus emphasize the “lurking variables”:  number of raters, number of years raters have known the employee, scale of responses, how raters were selected, training for raters and participants, accountability, instrument quality, HR systems integration, among other factors.  All impact the validity of the feedback.

True, there are pros and cons of any course of action, whether it’s an assessment delivered by Human Resources or Supply Chain or Communications or Marketing.  Yet few tools have the potential, as 360s do, to be destructive and to damage morale.  To hurt people. 

We’ve witnessed high-achieving talent be completely devastated by the feedback – and soon thereafter, leave the company for a spot where s/he will be appreciated.  We’ve dealt with situations where, after evaluations were given, passive-aggressive behaviors are rampant … and, yes, voluntary or involuntary terminations follow.  Bottom line, the tools intended to improve corporate performance do the complete opposite. 

What executives and managers fail to remember is that work is all about the people who do it.  When you minimize a fellow human being, even unwittingly and (we would hope) with all good intentions, you knock yourself down a peg.

Our hearts are heavy.

HAPPINESS @ WORK

We’re confused.

When it comes to assessing employee engagement or “contentment,” every consultancy offers a different measure.

One claims it’s about having a best friend (among other factors).  Some point to the amount of discretionary effort workers exert – willingly.  “It’s all about the manager-employee relationship, in part, how well your boss supports you,” say a number of other experts.  At its extreme, happiness can be translated, simply, into higher pay and company-sponsored outings.  [That was the solution for Foxconn, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer that experienced worker suicides not so long ago.]

Then there’s the constant dialogue about the differences between generations – surveyed Millennials, for example, rated their managers more highly than Boomers did – among diverse populations, and in different geographies.

It’s no wonder that work happiness is under discussion.

Our point of view (and you know we have one):  Friend after friend, story upon story tells us that meaningful and self-empowered work makes the difference in productivity and engagement.  No, it’s not a statistically significant study.  On the other hand, these anecdotes are very personal and very powerful.  Listen to the comments:

“I quit my job because life is too short; I wasn’t making a difference.”

“My boss was a micromanager.  In the end, I couldn’t please her – and when a recruiter called, I hurried.”

“The work was boring.  I’d spend hours surfing.  And no one cared.”

Even in this challenged economy, workers, whenever they can, are opting out – to join other companies, to do their own thing, even to take sabbaticals.  It’s about the purpose  of, the meaning behind, and the contribution to work.  Twenty-first century trend-seers have already pegged the issue, from Daniel Pink to Stephen Covey.  And a handful of corporations are experiencing true engagement – and worker happiness, like Southwest Airlines, W.L. Gore, Zappos. 

Happiness, in short, is no longer a warm puppy.

AISLING FOR IDEAS

Pardon us while we indulge in one of our favorite pastimes:  Visual stimulation (also known as retail therapy).

Seriously.  Contrary to our loved ones’ opinions, we’re not exercising our shopping jones.  Rather, we’ve been deliberately spending time in our favorite retailers in search of something, well, inspiring. 

Today, our visual stimulation hobby has turned into a cache of ideas, many of which are extraordinarily relevant to the issues we’re solving today. 

Take some recent statistics about women buyers, for one, hailing from a Surrey, England, retail consultant.   Shoppers who use fitting rooms have a conversion rate of 67 percent; in other words, they eventually buy what they try.  Compare that rate with consumers who don’t try on clothes in store (10%).   [No chauvinism intended since men buy without using fitting rooms, for the most part.] 

Those findings have prompted the likes of Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, Bloomingdale’s, Ann Taylor and others to spiff up back-of-store dressing areas, adding;

• Comfortable communal areas for waiting companions. 

•  Spacious rooms and great lighting. 

•  Buttons that alert ever-hovering sales associates to a specific request and call for one-on-one assistance.

Getting employees to engage with change – and the company - is not so dissimilar.  [Though we don’t advocate sprucing up media for design’s sake alone.]  Try these on … if you haven’t already: 

• Installing channels to answer requests and acknowledge concerns. 

• Ensuring that managers and influencers get the kind of help (read: information and face time) they need to inspire their staff and colleagues. 

• Showing them the change – not just in flattering light, but also from all angles, up, down, and sideways – so they make the right decisions. 

Our analogies can continue.  Old Navy now features quick-change areas and labels – e.g., “I love it” and “Not for me” – to help overloaded shoppers organize their haul during try-ons.  Finally, one we especially like:  Anthropologie writes consumers’ first names on the fitting room doors, so sales staff can start to engage more personally.

Next time you’re strolling in any aisle – supermarket or department store, warehouse club or discounter – compare those stimuli to your employees’ experiences.  Do they register?