By: Thomas Schlick
When you ask your leadership team about a high-performance workplace, how do they describe it? For many on your team, it may mean “hitting the numbers”, low employee turnover, and your employees getting promotions.
Today, these criteria would barely make the list.
Creating a high-performance workplace in your company requires a deep commitment to establishing a culture of high development – one where your employees find purpose and meaning. The people who work for you are now more concerned about their professional development than simply being promoted (though getting promoted is still a good thing)! A recent Gallup study shows that almost 9 out of 10 millennials want greater development and career opportunities. And not having these career growth opportunities has become the #1 reason people give for changing jobs.
So what’s the secret sauce?
It’s been my experience that there are at least four key ingredients to creating a High-Performance workplace. These include:
1. Shifting your perception about employee development
Promotions are still nice, but what’s really important is that your employees feel valued for their unique talents and abilities. And that these strengths can be further honed through various cross-functional roles and job experiences giving your employees a deeper and richer understanding of their value and purpose. Having a keen sense of purpose is an amazing catalyst towards feeling great about what you do at work. Much more so than just having a new title.
2. Expect your leaders to play a key role in developing people
Back in the day, this responsibility was the domain of HR, and then the Training & Development department. No longer! Today your employees look to their manager for immediate feedback on how they are doing and guidance on specific areas of
development to help them improve. In many respects, your managers are more like coaches than bosses.
3. Build a culture with high employee engagement
It’s no secret that this has always been important. Now put it on steroids! Your company – like almost every other company – is looking to hire more team members and retain those that are already on-board. Losing good people is painful! That said, your employees will want to stay only if they are engaged in their work and committed to your company. And that happens when you build a culture of high employee engagement.
4. Ensure leadership owns the culture change to a high-performance workplace
In the past, this might have meant that you scheduled more town hall meetings with employees, delivered better company-wide communication and provided meaningful public recognition. Today, the fundamental action your company can take is for
leadership to be completely committed to creating and sustaining the high-performance culture where employee development thrives. This means not only “walking the talk”, but “walking the walk”! Here, actions speak louder than words.
And what’s the payoff? Looking back at the recent Gallup survey, they found that companies with high performance/high development cultures reported 11% greater profitability and were twice as likely to retain their employees.
Contact our leadership coaches today for a risk-free consultation and see how this move could be your best one yet!
