When you want to inspire happiness at work: 9 things organizations should stop doing
For those of you who missed my blog last week, that was 100% on me. I ended up with a bad case of strep throat (apparently we have a rash of many cases right now that are a little immune to antibiotics). And, while I wrote it while sick and emailed it to my subscribers, I missed posting it on social media. For those who would like to check it out, here is a link to the post about shoring up middle managers.
More often than not, I focus on what we can do to change behavior or influence the behavior of others to come to a positive and productive outcome. For this week, I am focusing on the negative, or rather, the silly things organizations do that inadvertently create bad feelings and demotivation, and, ultimately, cause unhappiness within our workplace.
Our jobs and workplaces are not perfect. If we expect perfection in anything in life, we will always be disappointed, and no one wants to live in perpetual disappointment. Take it from someone who watches her perfectionism condition regularly, it is not a good place to be mentally.
We are all far from perfect, of course, but we can tend to have blind spots that could be overcome if we become aware of them and are given tools to mitigate them. This goes for leaders and enterprise-wide cultural facets that can get in the way and create a little unhappiness. This is why I am a big fan of not only building self-awareness regardless of your level in an organization but also supporting the organization’s understanding of its culture, norms, explicit and implicit behaviors, and "rules" that emerge from repeated behavior.
Here is my list of things organizations do that can cause angst among employees. What are yours? Unfortunately, I feel we could add to this list.
Draw out Recruiting Processes.
If we start from the beginning, having efficient and effective recruiting processes seems to have gotten lost. We have swung the pendulum from hiring after a one-hour conversation during COVID to creating nine rounds of interviews with homework each candidate needs to do to prove they are worthy of the job. There is something in the middle. I am a fan of multiple interviews so leaders and candidates get to know each other sufficiently, but I am hearing of long and ridiculous rounds of interviews lately that span months. Think about the role, skills, experiences, and potential you need in someone and architect a good enough strategy in terms of the number of interviews and any "work" you are asking them to create and share/present.
Skip Onboarding.
Too often, we hire people and either share a one-hour Orientation and send them to their laptop or we put it all on the manager who is on vacation when the person starts. How someone joins the organization matters! This is the time an employee is the most committed and excited to join the organization. What are you doing to inspire that, support that, and help continue that through their careers? Good onboarding takes work and effort, but it is a worthwhile investment especially if the people you are onboarding continue to have career options elsewhere.
Deny Access to Simple Tools.
I have had too many occurrences where a simple and cheap tool would make my job easier. I certainly understand budgets. I have built and maintained my fair share of them, but when a tool for $150 would make someone more engaged and efficient, there should not be a tall barrier here. One time in my career, I spent about 20 hours developing a business case and pitching to leadership to buy a tool that cost $350/year and would create a great experience for thousands of learners. We need to use common sense in these times and a little cost/benefit analysis.
Don't Provide Time and Money for Development.
As a learning professional, this one hurts a little. Whether you provide development opportunities internally or funds for external development or both, you need to provide something. Another facet we sometimes overlook is ensuring employees have the time to take a course, shadow a professional, or engage in a mentoring relationship. To support true development, employees need time, money, and support. They also need the ability and a safety net to try new skills or practices on the job!
Avoid Creating Role Clarity.
One of the biggest detractors of engagement is not gym memberships but a clearly defined role and guidance on how to be successful in an organization. I am seeing lots of organizations focusing on perks and benefits that are nice to have but aren't enough to engage employees. At the core of being engaged at work is understanding my role, how I will be measured and rewarded, how I can make a difference, and how I grow and develop.
Make People Return to Office When Unnecessary.
I know this is still a hot topic. Please understand that I am not anti-office or anti-hybrid. I think hybrid is a good compromise and solution. What I am opposed to are arbitrary rules like 3 days/week or actual days of the week people need to be in without a strong business reason and purpose. If Wednesdays are team meetings and brainstorming days, then yes. By all means, ask the team to come in on Wednesdays. But, if Bob has global web meetings all day Wednesday, then it is pointless to force him to commute to the office only to sit in a small conference room facing his computer.
Don't Trust Employees.
I realize our current environment with people being home or working from anywhere makes some of us nervous. I have seen trust erode because we can't shake someone's hand or look them in the eye in 3D. We need to figure this out, however. We need to be clear on roles and responsibilities and how we will measure success and hold people accountable without being in the same room. If someone gives us a reason to not trust them, then feedback and tough conversations need to occur. But, if we approach our work relationships as a “trust first” and not a “you have to earn my trust” situation, we will have a happier workplace.
Refuse to Provide Flexibility.
Related to the two points above is providing flexibility when you can. I am not suggesting all organizations need to allow people to work whenever and wherever, although some do, rather managers should get to know their employees and figure out what works for their lives while meeting business objectives. I still see some managers managing through presence detection -- she is yellow all afternoon; where is she? Flexibility needs to be given because life happens. Good communication and transparency on both sides will help make flexible schedules work.
Keep Promotion Criteria and Career Options a Secret.
To support the development point, not defining and letting people know what they need to do to be promoted or evolve their career path with the organization will quickly frustrate people. Most of the time, these things aren’t communicated and development/career conversations are not held because managers don't have the answers, not because leaders want to keep this a secret. Spend time defining skills and experiences for key roles and equip managers and mentors to have solid carer conversations with their staff. If a path is unclear, ask questions and try out some new ideas. We need to be more open to being experimental on the job to engage our teams.
I probably have 20 more bullet points I could include, but these are my top nine. Most of these are unintentional, but leaders and organizations need to be mindful of inadvertent consequences of decisions and actions.