Even as variants maintain their grip and the global pandemic continues, the global economy shows signs of significant recovery. And yet, many companies can’t seem to find enough employees to make their corporate recovery a success. Some industries, of course, have been hit harder than others. A 2021 survey by Joblist, for example, found that over 50% of former hospitality workers refuse to return to work within that industry.
When faced with this challenge, the easy way out for leaders is to blame a “labour shortage.” However, when we look a little deeper, there is a significant disconnect between what CXOs expect from the workforce and what the workforce demands from employers.
The inevitable return to work has caused another debate – one between business leaders and employees:
- According to the HR research firm Best Practice Institute (BPI), 83 percent of CEOs want employees back in the office in 2021.
- In that same study, BPI reported that only 10 percent of employees would prefer a full-time return to the office.
- Buffer’s 2021 State of Remote Work report showed that a head-turning 97.6% of those surveyed choose to work remotely at least some of the time for the rest of their career.
The root cause of this considerable disconnect? Leaders who require staff – after eighteen months of freedom that allowed them a voice in when, where, and how work got done – to return to what was always a less-than-fulfilling “old normal.” In far too many organizations, that normal was based on a company-first (versus human-first) model. Unfortunately, despite all the data to the contrary, many business leaders still seem to think that their “Because I said so!” leadership style will win out, that people will do what they’re told.
And yet, here we are – right in the middle of “The Great Resignation.” In record numbers, employees are leaving leaders and work cultures that suck.
That makes creating an uncompromising company culture – one that enables employers to keep and attract talent – perhaps the highest possible priority for businesses in what will eventually be a post-pandemic world of work.
A Workplace Revolution (Or at Least an Evolution)
The pandemic – even within the stressors of a vicious virus, an increasingly negative news cycle, lost jobs and income for some and learning how to work from home for others, expiring eviction bans, and much more – has given employees time to reflect; they’ve re-prioritized. Now, going back to the old normal doesn’t seem all that attractive.
Sure, remote working wasn’t 100 percent positive (just ask anyone who had to work, and at the same time home-school children). Still, the overwhelming majority of people (97.6 percent, according to Buffer, see above) wish to remain in remote work situations. This means leaders must – along with fellow executives, mid-level leaders, and key employees – co-create a company culture that works for everyone (and not just the executives).
Employees of all generations desire and—after what they’ve gone through for the past eighteen months—deserve workplaces where they are respected and validated for their ideas, efforts, and contributions, every day.
This means even reluctant leaders must now create work cultures where everyone – every stakeholder – expects respect while being held accountable for driving results. Leaders must offer workplaces where managers act more like mentors, where the mission is more about improving customers’ quality of life than exclusively making money, and where the work performed matters – really matters.
The Challenge for Leaders Today
So, as many leaders have learned, changing company culture is no easy task. Most change initiatives, even before the pandemic changed everything, failed. Or at least failed to have any real impact for two reasons:
- For the most part, leaders have always been measured first and foremost by results.
- Since the Industrial Age began, we’ve rarely asked business leaders to change their embedded work cultures.
As a result, compensation plans haven’t incentivized executives to lead a culture change effort. So, only a very few leaders have experienced, let alone led, successful culture change.
Just a few exceptional leaders such as Robert Pasin at Radio Flyer, Kris Malkowski at Newell Brands, and Joel Anderson, previously at “the world’s largest retailer” and now at Five Below, have led efforts where the entire work culture, top to bottom, changed for the better. Each created a repeatable, scalable work culture where employees are fully engaged, innovate organically, and commit 100 percent to living their company’s clearly defined values. Each day, employees at those companies – under those leaders and change champions – go to work knowing their efforts, ideas, and contributions matter.
So, even as market conditions demand, most leaders don’t know how to take their culture from unhealthy and perhaps toxic, to consistently respectful and rewarding. And those leaders don’t know where to go for advice.
Their predecessors were never in this position. Their professors in business schools never mentioned culture change in their syllabus. And their mentors – who they rely on to provide been-there-done-that advice – can’t help because they’ve never been there, and they’ve never done that.
However, as Radio Flyer, Five Below, World Kitchen (now Home Solutions at Newell Brands), WD-40, and many other companies large and small have learned, culture change isn’t just possible. Done right, culture change is probable – and profitable.
By the Numbers: The Business Case for Culture Change
In our new book, Good Comes First: How Today’s Leaders Create an Uncompromising Company Culture That Doesn’t Suck, my co-author, Chris Edmonds, and I present a process for leading effective culture change. The world’s best leaders are leveraging this process – right now – to co-create a work culture where employees can expect respect while they help drive optimal results. Specifically, they:
- Define a work culture that puts good – good for team members, front line leaders, executives, vendors and all stakeholders – first.
- Align to that good comes first culture by monitoring, measuring, and rewarding behaviours that demonstrate carefully defined values and agreed-upon standards.
- As alignment to the defined company culture gains traction and people start to see the change as real, refine that work culture by holding every contributor accountable for living up to the organization’s values and behaviours.
Of course, we can’t ask leaders to emphasize workplace respect if that change in culture doesn’t mean better results. And the good comes first companies we’ve tracked have volunteered these numbers:
- Employee engagement: Up 40 percent
- Customer service ratings: Up 35 percent
- Results (including profits): Up 35 percent
As you can see, respect has a direct and lasting impact on results. Every time. All because respect means people work within an uncompromising company culture and for leaders who’ve earned their respect.
Don’t make the mistake of plugging people back into a work culture that sucks.
Instead, attract the best talent, and avoid the negative impacts of the employee mass exodus many companies are now experiencing, by intentionally building a culture where people enjoy their work. Your goal is simple:
Good people. Doing good work. In a good place to work.
Mark S. Babbitt is President of WorqIQ, a community and change management consultancy that helps organizations understand leadership’s impact on culture and the company’s collective level of Workplace Intelligence (WQ). In addition to Good Comes First with Chris Edmonds, Mark co-authored A World Gone Social: How Companies Must Adapt to Survive.