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33 Fall Employee Engagement and Culture Ideas

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Pumpkin spice season is here, folks, and that means my favorite time of year is upon us–fall. So many good things happen in the autumn:

  • beautiful fall foliage (at least in the Midwest where ExactHire calls home),
  • tailgating for your favorite sporting events like football and futbol (for all you soccer moms like me out there),
  • new fall TV show premieres, and
  • an early start to the excitement of the holiday season (and more frequent chances to be thankful and celebrate life with friends and family).

At least a few of the ExactHire employees love to celebrate the season, too. Can you tell? Did you know an ATS is a great way to develop and create a strong work culture, through finding good quality candidates? If you want to find out more, check out our Free ATS Guide!

Hey, we worked hard to capture the leaves in motion for this shot!

Hey, we worked hard to capture the leaves in motion for this shot!

The activities our “Fun” Committee plans are great ways to break up the work week and give us more chances to connect with each other. Opportunities for connection are increasingly important for employers in today’s web-based workplace and society.

In this blog, I’ll present ideas for using the autumnal season to inspire ideas for employee engagement.

1 – Pick a day each fall month for competition and snacks

It’s easy to let time get away from you when it comes to planning culture-building activities frequently enough. Have a recurring “funday” appointment on your office calendar, and then fill in with surprise one-off activities as appropriate.

ExactHire has Monday Funday the third Monday of every month following our all-hands company meeting. In September, we honored various pro golf championship tournaments with a little putt-putt of our own. Of course the winner, our Co-Founder Harlan Schafir, was able to claim our super classy brass vase (make sure you pronounce it vahzzz to sound fancy). The giant cookies being served didn’t hurt employee attendance to this event, either!

Harlan Putts | ExactHire Monday Funday

Our Co-Founder, Harlan Schafir, putts for the Monday Funday win!

2 – Roast some office s’mores

Don’t try this one inside, friends…unless you opt to use the microwave or remember to blow out your candle afterward. But let’s be honest, a candle probably won’t get the job done. Lucky for you, mini kitchen blow torches are reasonably affordable.

3 – Have a pumpkin decorating contest

Whether you carve, paint or decorate, procure some pumpkins for all employees willing to participate. Have a small prize, display them in your office (make sure to take pictures!) and then encourage employees to take them home to friends and family.

ExactHire Company Halloween Party-Monday Funday

Employee entries from our fierce pumpkin decorating contest last October.

4 – Volunteer for a worthy cause

As the weather starts to cool (depending on where you live), many non-profit organizations, including shelters, will have a greater need for assistance and resources to help individuals fend off the elements. Organize a team or department to take time to serve in a capacity that will assist the recipient organization.

 

 

5 – Have a dance party

Does anyone really do that? Yes, I’ve worked for employers who did this periodically to destress employees. Take requests and then put a season-inspired song on the phone system intercom. Here are some tune ideas to get you started:

  • “Thriller” by Michael Jackson (go ahead, channel Jennifer Garner in “13 Going on 30”),
  • “Dead Man’s Party” by Oingo Boingo,
  • “Toxic” by Britney Spears,
  • “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by The Charlie Daniels Band, and
  • “Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

6 – Stock the kitchen with fancy coffee creamer

Whether it’s artisanal or just the latest Coffee Mate creation, having access to creamer flavors like pumpkin spice, eggnog, spiced latte and peppermint will perk up anyone’s morning brew.

Artisanal Coffee for Office

Image credit: coffee lover

7 – Sponsor an employee team for a 5K

Five-kilometer races abound in the fall in our area. Select a race that benefits a notable cause and sponsor a team of employees who enjoy jogging and walking. Go the extra mile and have a t-shirt design competition, and then produce the winning shirt for all team members to wear during the race.

8 – Board game breaks

Don’t stop at puzzles, schedule occasional “game days” when employees get the chance to spend an hour facing off against other employees to win a game. Hint: Don’t pick Risk–it takes forever! Twister would be a good one to avoid, too. Fun, but relatively short, options might include

  • Uno,
  • Jenga,
  • Qwirkle,
  • Rummikub, and
  • Euchre.

9 – Make caramel apples

If you don’t want to unwrap little caramel candies or don’t have access to a stove in the office, then keep it simple with incredibly convenient caramel apple wraps.

10 – Celebrate Oktoberfest

Whether you go with a full-on German fare-inspired pitch-in or keep it simple with some Bavarian pretzels and a beer tasting, you can’t go wrong with food. Encourage any employees who are brewing and/or sausage-making hobbyists to bring in their own creations to share.

11 – Feast at a festival

The fall is a time for bountiful community festivals. Here in Indiana, the Covered Bridge Festival is a multi-day, multi-town event that combines crafts, cuisine and crowds into an explosion of autumn sentiment. I never miss it. Check your state festival guide to see if any local events would make a great extended lunch destination for your crew.

12 – Conduct meetings outdoors

Does your building have a patio space, or even a few picnic tables? If so, unplug the laptop and head outside for a group meeting or a 1-on-1 discussion. Employees will relish the fresh air and everyone can soak up some extra vitamin D.

Have Meetings Outdoors | ExactHire

Image credit: Picnic Table

13 – Go on a scavenger hunt outside

Plan an autumn scavenger hunt as a team-building activity and friendly competition. A recent chaperone experience I had with my son’s class field trip taught me that empty egg cartons make great containers for small scavenger hunt items. Or, if you want to go a more tech-savvy route, have participants share proof of accomplishing hunt challenges by tagging your corporate Instagram account (a great tactic for employment branding).

Fall Scavenger Hunt Egg Container

Handy container for collecting fall scavenger hunt items

14 – Plan a spirit week

If you enjoyed dressing up for spirit week during homecoming in high school, then you’re bound to be amused by participating in themed days in the workplace. Solicit employee ideas for themes and consider awarding small prizes each day. Our team had fun with high school day in the past when we showed off our letter jackets, senior portraits and yearbooks.

Letter Jackets Group

Some EH’ers showing off our high school memorabilia.

15 – Have a potluck tailgate

Set up a grill in the parking lot and have employees pitch in by bringing tailgate-themed dishes. Depending on the date and time of the event, consider streaming a favorite sporting event for all to watch while eating. Don’t forget to have everyone wear their favorite jersey, and have a drawing to win a couple of tickets to a college or pro sporting event.

16 – Make some microwave caramel corn

Growing up, the only way I’d eat caramel corn was if it was made in a brown paper bag in the microwave. There’s something about that warm, gooey deliciousness that puts it near the top of my comfort food list. The best part about it is that it is easy to clean up after your office teammates dig into it. Just fold up the bag and toss it in the garbage.

17 – Nerf gun turkey shoot

Looking for inspiration for silly office games? Look no further. Gather up a few Nerf guns from employees’ children, and set up bowling pin-style targets that complement the season on a conference room table. Go for turkeys, pumpkins, ghosts or leaves.

Turkey Targets | ExactHire Monday Funday

All set with turkey targets in place!

18 – Produce a Thanksgiving card or video

This is one of my favorite ExactHire traditions. Instead of sending a winter holiday card to clients, we always send a Thanksgiving note. In the beginning, we sent cards in the mail, but then we transitioned to a collaborative video production to show thanks. We can’t wait to put one together for this year, too! If you’re nervous about getting started with this kind of project, we have some video production tips for you.

Wicked Witch Legs

Wicked witch legs on a previous ExactHire Halloween work day.

19 – Have a costume contest

What would a fall activity list be without a reference to Halloween costumes? Incentivize employee participation with kooky prize categories such as

  • best homemade costume,
  • most tech-savvy costume,
  • best unconventional materials costume (yes, I’m channeling Project Runway), and
  • best pop culture-inspired costume.

20 – Take a group trip to pick apples

Go on an outing to gather up ingredients for some red hot applesauce (a favorite from my childhood) or apple dumplings.

 

 

 

 

Image credit: Time well spent

How to Motivate Management to Support Company Culture Improvement

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Hopefully you’ve had the pleasure of working for an employer with a deeply rewarding work culture. One of the reasons you enjoyed the experience probably had something to do with the actual work you accomplished there, but that likely wasn’t the only factor. Or, maybe you long for culture improvements at your existing employer, but struggle to make a business case to senior management to win their support and resources for what can sometimes be deemed as a “fluffy” back-burner endeavor.

However, the impact of corporate culture is anything but fluff. In fact, Lindsay McGregor and Neel Doshi, the authors of Primed to Perform, have repeatedly done work with organizations to quantify the marked impact that company culture has on employee motivation. They’ve based their work on research initially presented by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan a few decades ago, that suggested that there are six primary reasons why people work–three of which are direct motives being related to the work itself, and three of which are indirect since they are not connected to the actual work.

Direct Motives

  • Play – the extent to which you love the work itself
  • Purpose – the extent to which you identify with the impact of your work
  • Potential – the extent to which you stand to gain from the impact of your work

These direct motives tend to increase performance, with those motives being closest to the work itself having the most significant impact (i.e. play is more powerful than purpose, and purpose more powerful than potential).

Indirect Motives

  • Emotional pressure – the extent to which you work to avoid your identity being marred by some external force
  • Economic pressure – the extent to which you work to be rewarded or avoid penalties
  • Inertia – the extent to which you work simply because it’s what you’ve always done and not because you have any other sound reason

Unlike direct motives, indirect ones generally weaken performance. Emotional pressure doesn’t weaken it as much as the subsequent indirect motives because it is still connected to your identity even if it’s not connected to the work itself.

So Why Does This Matter?

Simple. Engaging senior leaders to your company culture improvement cause must start with applying the very same motives that will eventually drive your actual culture improvement efforts–once they’re approved, that is.

Let’s break down six common objections human resource professionals may hear when trying to make a business case for work culture change. Each of these objections will touch on one of the six aforementioned motives. By reframing each objection into an opportunity to maximize a direct motive or minimize an indirect motive, HR professionals stand a much better chance at creating total motivation (ToMo) to convince senior leaders to invest the time and resources necessary to engage employees via culture revolution.

6 Senior Leader Culture Development Excuses

Culture is warm and fuzzy. We have bigger fish to fry.

 

PLAY

Do you sometimes think your company’s owners are singing “Shiny Happy People” by REM when your HR team brings up anything culture-related in conversation? Or, maybe their version is “Shiny Happy HR People.” They’d rather relegate warm and fuzzy culture development to the people who are more likely to enjoy that kind of work. It’s not their idea of play.

Maybe some senior leaders don’t love the work of cultural activity planning themselves, but maybe they do love enabling their department heads to do the work that invigorates them so that they find their own sense of play. Perhaps the owners’ idea of the play motive is entrepreneurial at heart…getting the right people on the team and then giving them the reins to do great things, to experiment and fail, but most importantly to learn what works and what doesn’t.

If this describes your relationship with management, then brainstorm ways in which you can appeal to your company owners’ work passions. That might include an experiment with trying a new, entrepreneurial approach to teaching the workforce how to play the game of business, or using business analytics to find patterns in what has engaged employees in the past.

I don’t understand what good will come from making changes.

 

PURPOSE


The purpose motive highlights whether you personally identify with and are motivated by the outcomes of your own work. If your senior management team is skeptical that anything will materially change as a result of getting new swag for employees and holding a foosball tournament, then I wouldn’t fault them. They may not have experience with knowing what specific impact a focus on culture may have on the organization (and therefore on their identity as the leader of that organization).

Of course the previously mentioned cliche culture activities are not a sound solution to your employee engagement problems. Many other moves may fall short, as well, if you fail to set expectations with ownership about the desired positive outcomes that you hope to realize as a result of any changes. Help them identify with the potential impact of the organization’s focus on culture improvement on others and themselves.

Here are positive outcomes to which businesses often aspire when endeavoring culture evolution:

  • Greater sense of shared purpose (does your work save lives, help people in need, make life more efficient, etc.)
  • Intrinsic motivation (employees are self-directed)
  • Knowledge sharing (no department silos and selfish data hoarding)
  • Momentum for change; enhanced learning leads to richer workforce skills inventory
  • Expanded opportunity for “play” which leads to innovation
  • Better adaptive performance; or, the ability to be flexible with unanticipated demands and not just tied into rigid tactical performance
  • More productivity; higher revenue
  • Healthier workforce; fewer costs related to health insurance and absenteeism
  • Less turnover; faster time to productivity (this outcome alone is very easily quantifiable to the CFO)
  • Wide span of idea sourcing; really good suggestions come from all areas of the organization
  • Increased access to A-player talent when sourcing new hires

Frame your conversation in a way that makes it clear that these positive outcomes will result, in large part, from the owner’s own work to publicly support culture development initiatives.

I fail to see a link between the investment required and a future financial gain.

 

POTENTIAL


To be successful, you must quantify how culture change will move the organization from point A to point B in a financially lucrative way. But how do you quantitatively benchmark culture…that warm and fuzzy, you-have-it-or-you-don’t organizational je ne sais quoi?

The good news is that you can assign a ToMo score to organizations using an analysis of employee responses related to the six work motives. In their consulting work, the authors of Primed to Perform have done this over and over again at many different organizations. And, they found that “in many industries, the most-admired cultures tend to have 15 points higher ToMo than their peers” (e.g. Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Apple Retail Stores).

The research suggests that a focus on having a positive work culture can materially move the needle and deliver a positive ROI. By sharing examples of these kinds of organizations and painting the picture of the impact your organization might have not just on employees, but also on your industry, potential will become clear to your leadership team.

I don’t think we have a culture problem. / I’m worried we’ll try and fail.

 

EMOTIONAL PRESSURE


It’s not really my thing. I don’t want us (or me) to look dumb. I don’t want to acknowledge the cultural elephant in the room. Reframing excuses that relate to one of the indirect motives can be a bit trickier, but never fear. Any of the aforementioned comments reek of emotional pressure and are understandable, as we’re all human.

To overcome the insecurity that they seem to suggest, don’t just explain the “why” of culture improvement to your senior leaders, but supplement your plan with the “how.” You’ve heard it before: come with a solution, not just a problem. Letting your senior management team know that you’re in it to win it when it comes to improving your work environment alleviates some of the emotional pressure (or burden) they may have been feeling about it themselves all along. Double down by enabling senior leaders (and others) the opportunity to “play” to brainstorm ideas on how the culture change might go down. Acknowledging to others in advance that a change is desired, and that it might not be perfect the first time round, is okay. It’s a step in the right direction.

Additionally, during the brainstorm process make sure that managers’, employees’ and customers’ motivations are aligned to succeed. For example, if customer and management expectations for service involve a customized, hold-my-hand relationship, but customer service representatives are paid based on the number of cases handled, then emotional pressure is sure to weaken organizational performance.

It will cost too much.

 

ECONOMIC PRESSURE


Not every company is going to even come close to Google’s budget for culture. However, every company needs to set aside either some funding and/or employee time to intentionally focus on culture development. Focusing on ToMo score in this scenario is helpful in making an argument in favor of culture change, as well. When you think about companies that are admired for their culture like Southwest and Whole Foods–companies with leading ToMo scores in their industries–you’re also reminded that they’re highly successful.

So then the compelling argument to senior leadership becomes, what’s the opportunity cost of doing nothing? Surely, that type of economic pressure warrants consideration relative to the cost of endeavoring change (given that you’re reading this article). In fact, budgeting for culture and engagement may end up eliminating costs in other areas…areas that may include incentives that are eventually found to create the wrong behaviors that weaken total motivation.

It’s how we’ve always done it.

 

INERTIA


The dreaded inertia might as well be called “insanity” in the context of this conversation. After all, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. But inertia is comfortable, familiar, it doesn’t make waves. It’s insidious.

While on its face, this motive seems like the mildest of the three indirect motives, it is the most harmful to total motivation and performance. In fact, it may even be the culture itself…“the way” things get done around your organization.

Tackle this senior leader objection head on with proof that what has always been done no longer (or has never) produced the desired results when it comes to engagement and performance. This may involve an honest look at how your organization stacks up against his competitors in terms of market share, ability to source top talent and length of customer relationships (among other indicators). You may lessen the likelihood of continued inertia by disrupting the status quo with clear suggestions on how opportunities to incorporate play, purpose and potential can be baked into the change process.

 

Convincing senior management to support your company culture improvement endeavors doesn’t have to be a cringe-worthy event. By bearing in mind that the six main reasons people work are the same six reasons your owner works, you can isolate objections and counter with objectives that will both maximize direct motives to support your plan, and minimize indirect motives.

Company Culture Ebook Download | ExactHire

The Best Intentions That Ruin the Pursuit of Great Company Culture

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My son recently turned eight years old, and because his birthday falls in July during the summer months, our family generally seizes this opportunity to throw a low-cost party in our backyard rather than laying down a small fortune for the latest laser tag / foam ball pit / inflatable bounce house venue. As a result, I usually scour Pinterest to come up with a suitable party theme complete with activities to engage kiddos ranging from four to nine (when you count siblings). This year was no exception, and my best intentions of having a fun-filled water sport extravaganza reminded me of an important lesson along the way.

Sometimes even the best intentions can ruin the pursuit of…

Fun

Success

Productivity

…and perhaps at times…Sanity!

 

Water Balloon Fight Gone AwryHere’s why. You know that Zuru Bunch of Balloons product? It’s a magical invention that allows you to fill copious water balloons at once with your garden hose. Well, in my haste to keep a forthcoming water balloon fight “fair,” and prevent any one kid from having a cache of balloons to take out others, I tried to force the rules of the game too much at the expense of fun. By making all the kids line up twenty-feet away while they salivated about potential aerial aquatics domination, their aggressive race to the pile of balloons resulted in shoving, slipping and shouting.

The point is…I should have considered other potential outcomes for my carefully laid plans. Like what could happen when you route twenty kids down a narrow, grassy passage between a paver wall and a plastic sheet to a pile of water balloons?

The same thing happens with company culture all the time. Sometimes the consequences are extreme in their destruction, and at other times we can recognize them as valuable red flags that alert us to change our approach. In this blog, I’ll identify a series of good intentions that can burst like an ill-formed water balloon if not planned and executed with care.

1 – Attempting sweeping change, but biting off more than you can chew

Particularly if your organization has issues with how its work culture has turned out, when it does decide to take action to improve it, it can be easy to jump at every opportunity at once. With both economic pressure (“maybe sales will improve if we get our employee engagement act together”) and emotional pressure (“the latest employee survey makes it clear that our staff members are fed up”) to change, organizations might scramble to roll out recognition programs, performance management, lunch and learns and an in-house kegerator all at once. The key to sustainable improvement, however, is embarking on just a few key objectives at once.

2 – Starting with a clean slate, but forgetting where you came from

When rolling out a new set of corporate values, companies should be honest about the habits, behaviors and “ways of doing things” that are ingrained in the business. Just because some of them may be less desirable on their face, doesn’t mean they should be swept under the rug and ignored. Look for ways to leverage them as a positive cultural trait when possible. For example, an organization’s tendency for employees to be abrasively free-wheeling with their opinions could, with a little bit of emotional intelligence training, be channeled into a strength of championing candor for the effective continuous improvement of processes.

When you go against the grain, organizational change becomes harder than necessary. Follow Google’s example by incorporating ways to go with the flow. For example, according to this Harvard Business Review article, before creating paved, permanent pathways on Google’s campus, senior leaders waited to see where the informal pathways, created by worn down grass from heavy foot traffic, emerged. Then, they built the permanent pathways on the blueprint created naturally by employees.

3 – Ignoring prominent influencers in order to call upon everyone in the class

Great Company Culture Intentions | ExactHire

No one likes the kid that constantly raises his hand first in class and squirms in his seat until he’s acknowledged directly. Does it feel like you have a few employees in your organization who play that role only to cast other less vocal employees in the shadow? If so, you naturally want to encourage participation from others in the group. Just be careful not to shun the eager participants to the extent that they are no longer passionate about sharing ideas and improving your organization. Employ their enthusiasm into a more productive means of sharing ideas that doesn’t also alienate others. For example, have periodic one-on-one discussions to get their thoughts so that they aren’t as compelled to blurt out their grand plans in a group setting on a regular basis. Remember that while they are well-positioned influencers in your business, without constructive nurturing they can just as easily become unfortunately placed toxic influencers.

4 – Benchmarking KPIs, but ultimately measuring just for the sake of measuring

The sophistication of measurement tools has skyrocketed in the past decade. The availability and relative affordability of so many more resources has naturally led many organizations to embrace a metric mindset that is unprecedented.

Marketing qualified leads to won sales deals? Data coming right up.

Revenue generated per employee? That’s a breeze.

Time to first response on customer support inquiries?
Come on, at least make it challenging.

 

Pretty soon, some companies have a dashboard to end all dashboards…in fact the dash has wrapped around the entire vehicle and you need to have eyes in the back of your head to keep up with all the statistics. Eyes glaze over…and because everything is important, nothing is important. Don’t just measure because you can…measure because it is a critical performance indicator for your business. And when it comes to KPIs for culture, take a disciplined approach to evaluating which leading indicators are the true predictors of subsequent employee performance, engagement, and alignment with corporate strategy.

5 – Not getting overzealous about some success, but missing the little wins

Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched. We may have won the battle, but the war isn’t over. Our performance last quarter was good, but…

Sensing a pattern? If an organization tends toward a glass half empty mentality (e.g. values conservatism, perhaps?), all is not lost. However, when a company’s focus can’t be shifted even momentarily to celebrate the little wins and milestones along the way, then by the time it gets to its destination, there may no longer be anyone else left to really celebrate. Genuine recognition is at the heart of a healthy culture, and small–but not insignificant–everyday achievements gone unnoticed in the interest of delayed gratification are a grievous offense to a positive culture.

Download ExactHire Company Culture E-book

6 – Recognizing the wins, but oh wait…not in a forced manner

So you listened to the previous point about awarding recognition and celebrating achievement when it’s due; however, there’s a wrong way and a right way to do so. Relying only on formal recognition programs, complete with an unoriginal plaque and all-too-familiar group email message stink of insincerity.

Enliven your culture with spontaneous and/or organically-sourced recognitions and celebrations. If your business values continuous learning and collaborative personal development, then celebrate the efforts of others with a subscription to an audiobook service like Scribd or Audible. The individuals are rewarded with a unique benefit, and the organization benefits exponentially as the employees share the latest entrepreneurial ideas they heard during that morning’s commute.

7 – Incentivizing behavior, but unintended outcomes emerge

Going back to my birthday balloon story, as you might imagine, I was left with a lawn full of broken balloon bits. Itty, bitty ones. So, I told a few of the kids I know to be predisposed to be good helpers (you know the ones who raise their hands a lot in class), that if they helped pick up all the little bits in the yard that they’d each get a glow stick toy. The more bits they brought, the brighter their potential hand movements at dusk. Genius plan, right? Well, my little strategizers made the rules work on their behalf. Once they picked up the existing yard bits, they started grabbing unbroken balloons (perhaps out of the hands of those four-year olds I mentioned before) and popping them so they could get more bits, and thus, more glow sticks. A similar issue developed from a pesky snake population problem described here. I’ll take balloon bits over cobras anyday, but I think we can all agree…metaphor or actual maligner to your business…you must be careful about the design of your incentive programs. Otherwise, they can constrict your culture!

Constricted Company Culture Intentions | ExactHire

8 – Communicating, but in all the wrong ways

Many times a company’s problem with culture stems from a lack of communication. However, occasionally the communication is there, but executed in an unsavory manner. For example, consider the difference between blasting out an edict email message with numbered rules for a forthcoming policy change relative to a town hall-esque meeting between senior leaders and front-line employees with a chance for Q&A. Both scenarios have a different feel, eh?

Additionally, mind your grammar to communicate in a way that is accountable, responsible and never vilifies others.

According to a post by Jeff Shuck with Plenty Consulting

“One giveaway of a dysfunctional culture is that we hear the passive voice. Remember that from English class? Active voice sounds like responsibility: ‘I made the decision.’ In passive voice, the subject is removed: ‘The decision was made.'”

Passive communication leaves to passive engagement and a poor culture.

9 – Accommodating the newest generation, but minimizing the role of other generations

Depending on which definition of the generational birth year spans tickles your fancy, I arguably straddle the boundary between Gen X & Millennial. There is a gob of content about attracting and engaging Millennials. Undoubtedly, this is a critical endeavor as they lead increasingly important initiatives in the modern workforce and certainly impact organizational culture.

Just don’t get so wrapped up in the motivations of the most recent generation to be employed that you alienate the established, seasoned generations in the process. The older I get, the more I appreciate the perspective that I’m able to develop and how it guides the decision-making process. I mean, Robert DeNiro’s character was thought-provoking and indispensable in The Intern, right?!? And while that may be a stereotypical, if not obvious, encapsulation of the idea of including older workers, too, the message is clear.

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” — Isaac Newton

10 – Being too collaborative, and everything comes up vanilla

Last year, my organization attempted to come up with terms (we didn’t necessarily elevate them to true values) that we felt accurately described our organization. The activity was incorporated into a series of strategy sessions and ALL employees were asked to brainstorm and help narrow down a final list of potential terms together. The result was a resounding “FIR.” That is, Fun, Innovative and Responsive.

Now don’t get me wrong, I believe that all of those things are true about us. The problem is that they could probably describe bunches of companies just like us. They are expected, and are borderline platitudes. Since everyone was involved in this collaborative effort, the senior leaders were beholden to reach consensus. However, the senior leaders are the ones who forged the initial behaviors and attributes that guided our business…not everyone. Moreover, since the three terms we selected are relatively innocuous, we haven’t embraced them in a way that makes them central to our daily behavior. Everyone (including myself) had the best intentions during the brainstorm effort, but our group think resulted in the desire to get the exercise done and land on terms that were just good enough.

11 – Promoting special benefits, but accidentally creating entitlement

So the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. While fatalistic in nature, this statement is a good reminder that organizations should periodically remind employees why specific benefits and perqs are offered so that no one starts to take them for granted and/or feel they are absolutely entitled to them.

At one of my previous employers, business was pretty slow during the December holidays, and so the two owners decided to roll-out a partial company shut down over the course of 2-3 weeks in December. It afforded hard-working employees five extra paid days off to rest and recharge their batteries for the new year. The problem is that after a couple of years, tensions arose over which weeks specific employees would get to take off based on department need, tenure, etc. Bickering erupted amongst employees and one day the owners threatened to just take away the extra time off since it wasn’t being appropriately appreciated. Fortunately, the proverbial horse learned to not bite the hand that fed it before any threats were carried out. But not without the evidence of an entitlement culture subtly influencing future management decisions in the process.

12 – Embracing company culture improvement, but failing to acknowledge mini-cultures

In your excitement to unify employees and managers behind a work culture revolution, be sure to leave space for subsets of that culture within the organization. Failing to manage and acknowledge mini-cultures will make it difficult to move any kind of cultural initiative forward. Respecting the attributes of these subsets is the key to making them come together cohesively in a culture that represents the values of the organization and the needs of its employees.

What about the difference between how in-office employees celebrate teammates’ birthdays and work anniversaries relative to those individuals who telecommute frequently or work entirely remotely? Let’s say the organization as a whole values the individual and prides itself on celebrating career milestones. If tradition dictates that in-office employees share a birthday cake once a month, then perhaps remote workers can revel in watching a good-hearted JibJab video starring the faces of their co-workers as an alternative.

 

Don’t let these cautionary examples of good intentions gone awry deter you from continuous company culture improvement. Do, however, bear the potential outcomes of your efforts in mind as you plan your activities. No one wants to get caught in the face with a metaphorical water balloon when they least expect it. Even if it was super easy and fast to fill up in the first place.

Company Culture Ebook Download | ExactHire
Image credits:

[ raise your hand ] by Luca Boldrini (contact)

cobra nero by Jim Heising (contact)

7 Catalysts for Developing an Enviable Company Culture

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Be intentional. That’s it. Shortest blog ever, right?

Let’s at least call intentionality the prerequisite for positive culture development. While it is true that you can’t force culture because it happens (insert buzz word) organically, purposefully paying attention to the actions and behaviors an organization takes that affect culture is like putting Miracle-Gro on your cherry tomato container plant. It just makes things turn out more favorably. In this blog, I’ll focus on seven intentional behaviors that can agreeably impact the attitudes people have about your organization’s culture. Let’s get fertilizin’.

1 – Senior leadership’s voice and leadership incubation

Your company’s management team sets the tone. Hopefully it’s melodically dependable like Straight No Chaser.

Or, maybe your managers’ behavior and communication falls flat…or not at all. Especially in fast growth companies, it’s easy for senior leaders to be wrapped up in the operations and investment pipeline for the business, and to just Band-Aid employee engagement initiatives. However, a mentality that stalls culture-focused activities until a later date once the company has established itself is a mentality that finds itself with an unintended and often undesirable culture. In contrast, a company that appreciates how culture evolves alongside operational processes and growth spurts right from the inception of an organization is one that is agile enough to dynamically affect its culture’s direction. Moreover, the latter organization will not be left trying to convince employees that “this time, culture will be better/different/important.” A sad repercussion of becoming intentional later in the game is that members of your organizational ecosystem will be more resistant to and skeptical of change.

Senior leaders forge the habits that inherently shape culture. Some may reflect the personal habits of the founders, while others become necessity based on the industry. Regardless of the habits, recognize and embrace them. Then, use them as a foundation for developing tomorrow’s senior leaders. Sentiments about company culture take a turn for the worse when up and coming managers are out of tune with core organizational habits–often because no initiative exists to groom their development.

via GIPHY

Consider the following contrasting organizational habits and examples of how they may shape culture:

  • Risk taking vs. risk aversion and stability – the willingness to accept external venture capital funding or the choice to be entirely self-funded
  • Open book transparency vs. closed books – the responsibility to better educate employees about “the numbers” or the consequence that employees will invent their own ideas about company solvency
  • Compliance-driven vs. relative nonconformity – the necessity to conform to expectations and/or government/industry regulations or the latitude to go in any/many direction(s)
  • Deference to history vs. the open road ahead – the tradition of celebrating a long-standing history of accomplishment or the desire to forget the past and start with a clean slate
  • Liberal work schedule autonomy vs. traditional 9 to 5 – the promotion of attractive work-life balance or the adherence to a standardized, brick and mortar schedule

2 – Value-based approach to culture evolution…maybe even revolution

Every company has values, they just aren’t always artfully framed and displayed on the office wall. But what matters more than using them as wall decorations is that they become an undeniable presence in your work operations. I’ll be honest, we’ve got some work to do on this front at ExactHire. I think we already have a distinctive culture which I enjoy; however, we haven’t specifically called out our organizational values (Alas, it’s a Q3 goal this year!). I think part of the struggle for us and other businesses is that if we make the effort to commit to our official values, we don’t want to fall short of supporting them and run the risk of having meaningless wall hangings. That can happen if companies approach the value conversation with their ideas of “aspirational values” (according to Patrick Lencioni), but not if they embrace the gritty, raw nature of their existing core values. For example, being “candid even when times are tough” doesn’t sound as nice as “integrity” (in gold lettering on stamped leather) but it may better describe your business, and if so, wear your pieces of flair proudly! And by the way, all companies should just omit “integrity” from their value lists because I think we can assume all companies should have it as a baseline “no duh” value.

So let’s say you don’t have any defined values yet. Where do you start? Only the senior leadership team should draft and determine the corporate values. Involving the entire company, whether via open discussion or survey, is a journey down a long, meandering path that results in vanilla values…and ones that won’t necessarily recognize the existing habits of the company.

Once senior leaders determine values, they should simmer on them for a few months before announcing them to the rest of the staff. The point of the waiting period is for management to intentionally work to model the values for the workforce and make sure they fit before outing them to the entire company.

Eventually, employees will help interpret the values through behaviors that impact company culture. The key to sustaining this is to recognize efforts that align with values. For example, if an organization happens to value proactive social communication, then appoint someone to create and post celebratory image posts to Twitter whenever a teammates crushes an important goal. Take it a step further by periodically recognizing individual employees who specifically support your different values through their actions. Or maybe have everyone wear black and white to celebrate “candor” day per my previous value example (“Divergent,” anyone?). Okay, that one was silly. But on a serious note, by being accountable to your values your organization will naturally foster a culture that supports your objectives.

Download ExactHire Company Culture E-book

3 – Communicate and empower involvement to build your community

A culture is really like a community too, isn’t it? And if you think about what makes all the communities of which you are a part thrive, I bet communication is at the top of the list. Being aware of all the happenings in your community is really what makes you feel comfortable. My husband and I have lived in our current neighborhood for ten years, but it has only been in the last three to four years that I have really felt engaged in our community. This is primarily due to a notable increase in communication now that we’re more involved in school activities (kids are that age now), kid sports, church committees and neighborhood HOA meetings. Because we know all the latest information about the activities in which we are involved, we are more engaged in those activities and empowered to participate.

Expect the same effect by employing more regular communication in your organization. Senior leaders should regularly address employees about what’s going on with the company, and HR and hiring managers should make sure that newly hired employees are added to recurring meeting requests and newsletter distribution lists. Be certain that communication habits align well with core values, and setting that example starts at the top. For a traditional banking institution that may mean formal notices in employees’ mailboxes, while a completely distributed workforce of remote employees may rely on messaging via a corporate intranet or a chat platform.

4 – Standardize training, but still champion individuality

Do you have “Ambassadors of Quan” conducting training for new employees and succession planning purposes? Or…just warm bodies carrying out this critical activity?

via GIPHY

The quality and complexity of your training efforts directly impact the degree to which employee actions align with corporate values, and therefore, the extent to which your culture is desirable. Be sure to invest time to train your trainers so that a relatively consistent, comprehensive experience is available to trainees; however, engage trainers in the effort by allowing them to leave their own unique mark on the activity, as well. This may include latitude in methods for testing the retention of knowledge and/or strategies for gathering continuous feedback to improve training activities–both critical exercises.

5 – Hire and onboard with a laser focus on job fit

Let’s not forget that a significant driver of company culture is the workforce, itself. When it comes to hiring new employees, make sure that candidates will jive well with your values. To do so, incorporate behavioral-based questions into the interview process that will elicit whether a candidate’s own values will have synergy with your organization’s set. It can be easy to hire a rock star candidate that has the highly technical skills necessary for a role, but if his/her attitudes will start an internal riot within the company the best move is to move on to another person.

Beyond the initial interviews, create opportunities for candidates to proactively demonstrate their behaviors and attitudes by inviting them to job shadow prior to an offer. Additionally, employee assessments will give you a glimpse into the behavioral hardwiring of an individual so that you may ask targeted questions that will help you clear up any remaining uncertainty about an applicant. Many applicant tracking systems can make these additional steps easy by integrating assessment tools within one hiring software interface.

Achieving optimal job fit doesn’t stop with an employment offer to the top candidate. Use the employee onboarding process to have discussions with new hires about core values and how they support objectives and catalyze your culture. Consider a formal mentoring program that pairs new employees with existing employees who especially exemplify values and champion culture. Another fun activity during the employee onboarding phase would be to invite new hires to complete a scavenger hunt during which they complete value-aligned activities at the organization. For example, if cross-departmental collaboration is cherished at the company, then new hires might be prompted to Pokemon-Go (gasp!) over to other departments’ work areas in order to learn how their roles interface…while catching an elusive animated character, of course. Make sure these culture-enriching activities don’t fall through the cracks by creating a workflow specific to your organization with an employee onboarding software tool.

6 – Reward culture evangelism

Do this by recognizing and celebrating value alignment. If employees are praised for representing corporate values and intentionally nurturing culture, then they will want to keep doing it. Recognize what motivates different employees as it is the key to unlocking a new level of productivity and engagement. At ExactHire, being a smaller business, many of us are motivated by seeing one’s individual impact on the work of the entire company, for example, so we have monthly meetings in which we review financials, celebrate progress on individual and departmental goals and plan the roadmap for the next quarter together.

Recognition should be appropriately customized for the department or individual to which it is directed. Additionally, be specific with praise (no boiler plate email templates please!) so that one has clarity on the exact behavior that resulted in commendation. Be sure to explain the impact of one’s efforts, and do so in a timely fashion. For example, if your business has cultivated a culture of responsiveness then you certainly don’t want a supervisor missing the window of time for maximizing the appreciation an employee may feel for his/her efforts. The thank you note that is received three months after the birthday party doesn’t quite mean as much does it? That kind of misstep forms cracks in the authenticity of an organization’s culture.

7 – Make sure feedback doesn’t land in a black hole

Evolution. Dynamicism. Relevancy. Three adjectives I’d use to describe company culture nirvana. But you can’t get to Shangri La by sticking your head in the sand and going about business as usual. You must continuously evaluate your culture-minded activities and organizational engagement as a whole in order to keep your culture healthy.

via GIPHY

Collect feedback in a way that supports your core values. For some this may mean periodic in-person focus groups where one employee’s idea can feed off another’s in a public forum. For others, weekly “pulse surveys” that prompt anonymous feedback on just one or two questions at a time may be ideal. Plus, don’t forget the value of human resources staff and management keeping their ear to ground and informally gathering feedback everyday.

Mine your feedback for hidden gems by collaborating with others to unearth the ideas that will become the next culture-focused priorities or experiments for your company. Keep in mind that one idea doesn’t fit all and that employees will be motivated by different activities and opportunities. Their opinions may be formed based on past employers’ (perhaps failed) culture efforts and generational differences, among other factors.

Most importantly, communicate what you are doing with the feedback to your workforce! Depending on corporate values related to transparency, you may share all of the feedback or just highlight the ideas that are being implemented. The point is that you communicate action steps resulting from the input and then promote and recognize the worth of the contributions. Report on how ideas have changed the company in the future, as well.

 

With these seven catalysts in mind, you will put your organization in a better position to synthesize the kind of culture that will attract talent from your competitors and engage employees to take the organization to new heights.

Company Culture Ebook Download | ExactHire

MondayFunday: Races and Bases

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Unless you’re Patrick Star and living under a rock this summer, you’ve noticed that the weather has been beautiful…and hot. That hasn’t stopped us at ExactHire from going out and having some fun in the sun though! May and June have both proved to be quite competitive here in the office for our monthly MondayFunday as we raced remote control cars in May and tried to throw wiffle balls into a bucket with gusting winds in June.

Out of the Gates

Since May is for racing, the fun committee decided that it was time for the first official racing of the remote control cars. Even before the races started, there was some trouble as Christa discovered that one remote was controlling both cars so it was decided that each person would go solo. As the newest member of the team, I was forced to play the guinea pig in the first running of the ExactHire races. Unfortunately for the rest of the team, I had a few tricks up my sleeve – tricks being ten year-old sisters that keep me up to date on kids’ toys (such as race cars), allowing me to clock in a lap time of approximately 12 seconds…cue victory dance. There were many other admirable attempts to beat my time, but karma was racing the others as there were many bumps and run-ins with patio furniture along the way.

Tom’s son proved to be the best of the best when it came to stepping in as the flag man and providing enthusiasm throughout the harrowing lap – emonday-funday-racesven going as far as to follow the car to the finish line (such fearlessness). Overall, race day proved to be a great way to relieve some stress and have a few laughs together as it was pretty much impossible to navigate that pesky patio furniture, but either way – we all had a good time (especially anyone who got to help Tom’s son have a blast!)

Throwing Caution to the Wind

June’s Monday Funday proved to be insanely difficult as winds were gusting at approximately 110 mph (I’m not a weatherman, but I’m pretty sure it was that windy). The fun committee, not foreseeing such inclement weather decided to have us all participate in a pseudo-game of baseball/catch; we all had to run base to base and throw two wiffle balls, trying to toss as many as possible into a bucket place on the pitcher’s “mound.” This may seem simple enough, but rest assured, it was not.

monday-funday-basesHarlan Schafir managed to beat us all with a whopping three balls in the bucket. Tom came close to trumping him, with four balls in the bucket, though unfortunately for him, three bounced out – rendering them unscorable.

Despite our winner having a success rate of only 37.5%, we were 100% successful with our goal of having fun! We celebrated our success with a baseball-themed cookie cake which only added to our excitement.

 

Monday Funday is one way in which ExactHire seeks to build and grow a fun work culture. Each month–on a Monday of course–we recognize the workiversaries and birthdays of our team. We also participate in creative competitions that sometimes turn fierce.

We will share recaps of these events via our blog in an effort to spread the word that Monday can be a fun day. But we also want to know how you have FUN at your workplace too. So add that in the comment section below. Our Fun Committee is always looking for ideas!
Image credit: Spongebob Patrick Star Anime by Koorication (contact)

New FOX TV Pilot “HR”…Will It Be A Hit?

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I just finished reading a post discussing a new sit-com pilot on FOX with the working title HR. I’ll link to that article a little bit later, but for now let’s consider what this new show might mean to the world of Human Resources.

I certainly support the idea of a new comedy based around the Human Resources profession–no loss for material there. But I can’t help but wonder if HR will be short-changed. Now before you think that I’m just being a Debbie..er Donnie Downer, hear me out.

Workplace Comedy

People spend the majority of their waking moments at work. Sadly, for many it’s anything but funny. It’s dull, boring, and monotonous. Only 48% of U.S. workers are satisfied with their jobs according to The Conference Board–a nonprofit research organization that has conducted the Job Satisfaction Survey since 1987.

So why are workplace comedies so popular? I think Bob Newhart explained it well, “Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it, and then move on.”

When weary workers arrive home to ultimately plop in front of a screen, they’re looking for something. They want to escape. They want to get distance from their day. This can be done countless ways, but workplace comedy provides the opportunity to both escape and laugh at oneself. And for many, that is more than entertainment, it approaches a type of therapy.

So I know that I won’t find many sympathetic souls to join me in questioning the idea of HR as comedy. In fact, at first blush, the profession may seem to be tailor made for it. Even HR professionals themselves would likely agree that their jobs can frequently incite laughter, or at the very least amusement. People do funny things, and at work HR is there to…document it.

However, there is a risk that the Human Resources profession could–as often occurs–be unfairly painted with a broad brush. Frequently, HR is seen as the rule maker, rule enforcer, and both the source and destination for workplace grievances. Sure, a comedy could succeed in laying bare the hilarious truths and absurdities that HR silently, compliantly deals with–and that’s a great start–but what about the genuinely positive role of HR in the workplace? How is that story told?

The Other Side Of The Coin

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to be a buzz kill here. A sit-com is not a social movement or cause. There is no requirement that it simultaneously function as a PSA either. Its goal is to maximize the number of people tuning in to laugh on a weekly basis.

But in looking back at some popular workplace comedies, yes, they were hilarious, but they also treated the professions they satirized with dignity. Think of TV series like M*A*S*H, Taxi, WKRP In Cincinnati, and Cheers. These shows produced a ton of laughs, but they also developed depth in characters, especially the lead roles. In this way, these comedies became something more for the viewers.

Of course, there are other workplace sitcoms with well developed characters, but these weren’t alone in portraying the dignity of a profession to the masses. These sit-coms were counterbalanced by a TV drama that focused on the same profession. For instance: Scrubs could be over-the-top zaney because ER was grounded; Night Court brought humor to the courtroom, while Matlock brought justice; and the motley team of detectives in Brooklyn Nine-Nine are a nice reprieve from Law & Order: XYZ.

Where Will “HR” Land?

As I said, a comedy around the HR profession should have no trouble providing hilarious stories. I will be watching the pilot episode, and I hope the show is funny and ultimately lands a series. But more importantly, I hope that this show succeeds in creating characters who portray the positive aspects of Human Resources professionals.

Yes, let’s laugh at the self-martyring employees, office pranks gone awry, and innocent, but thoughtless and inappropriate, workplace behavior. But let’s also see the real humans behind these HR roles, the ways in which they are trying to enhance the lives of employees, provide guidance on difficult personnel matters, and how they are trying to make the workplace less dull, boring, and monotonous.

If we can walk away from the pilot episode of HR with a dozen laughs and a greater appreciation for the work of Human Resources professionals, then I think FOX may have a very promising comedy in its hands. To learn more about HR, you can check out the SHRM post here. It gives you a detailed overview of the concept, the cast of characters, and a fun discussion about possible plots for this new show–it’s a fun read.

 

ExactHire provides hiring software for small- to medium-sized businesses that enables Human Resources professionals to spend more time with people and less time on process. 

Rewrite Your Talent Onboarding Story In 7 Game-Changing Steps

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Once upon a time there was a talented, optimistic marketing professional named Simon. An exciting, fast-growth technology firm was fortunate enough to woo Simon during a flashy interviewing process and he was pleased to accept its offer of employment shortly thereafter. His new position would offer him more responsibility, more pay and a chance to learn some new technologies. Sounds like a storybook ending for Simon, right?

That’s what he thought, too, until he began to experience the firm’s employee onboarding process. While the tech firm had many things going for it, it had a few things to learn when it came to giving its new hires the best opportunity to be successful and productive in their working environment. Let’s see how Simon’s story unfolded and consider what the tech firm might have done differently to make a positive impression on him in the critical early days and months of his employment.

1 – Wait, What’s Pre-Boarding?

Once Simon accepted his offer, he still had to give his current employer a few weeks’ notice before finishing his job there. While his new employer was hiring frequently, and at such a pace that it often had employees start just days after accepting an offer, Simon was an anomaly in that he had some time to kill before his start date. Unfortunately, his new tech firm was radio silent during this period. Simon actually had to proactively reach out to confirm details like start date and arrival time. He wondered if his new company had forgotten about him.

Rewrite the Story: Simon’s new hiring manager could have called or emailed him to welcome him to the fold and prep him with some housekeeping details prior to his first day. This “pre-boarding” scenario (aka the period before official employee onboarding) is also a golden opportunity for an organization to send a welcome kit to a new hire with goodies like a prepared training schedule, visual organizational chart, fun facts about the company and some branded company swag.

A best practice during pre-boarding is to make sure that your company’s existing employees know about the forthcoming start date of your new employee so they can be ready to make him feel at home. This also gives the onboarding process stakeholders a chance to update recurring meeting requests and email distribution lists to include the new employee. Otherwise, Simon might feel silly if he was the only one that didn’t know to show up to the monthly corporate meeting.

2 – Learning the Unwritten Rules

Simon was an organized guy and liked to be prepared. During his interview, they told him that they had a relaxed dress code, but he still hadn’t seen any evidence of that and didn’t want to be the only guy in jeans on his first day. So, he showed up in business casual to be safe meanwhile contemplating the extent of the company’s flexibility when it came to the “flexible work schedule.” In addition, he was still in limbo with how daycare arrangements would work for his daughter, too. He would continue to feel a little stressed about that until he could adjust her drop-off and pick-up times to accommodate his new schedule. Of course his nerves weren’t helped when a bunch of his new co-workers asked him why he was so dressed up for his first day.

Rewrite the Story: Starting a new job is stressful enough; don’t make it worse by keeping your new hires guessing. At a minimum send new hires a Q&A sheet of commonly asked company culture-related questions before their first day.

  • Go the extra mile by pairing a new employee with a mentor buddy who can give him the real dish, and
  • assembling an attractive book or website full of pictures of your employees enjoying the unique aspects of your culture (for example, hitting the gong to celebrate a goal achievement or modeling work-appropriate attire).

Better yet, create a video office tour in which you interview employees that answer these burning company culture questions. Give employees like Simon the confidence to know when it’s actually okay to play ping-pong during work hours.

3 – You Mean I Don’t Even Get a Red Stapler?

Once Simon was shown to his working space, it was remarkably bare. While thankfully his laptop was awaiting him, there wasn’t much else other than tedious employment paperwork. His cube neighbor said that the supplies he needed were around, and that he could show him the office cabinet. So, Simon grabbed some sticky notes, a pen and a notepad since he wasn’t sure how much was appropriate to take. Back at his desk, he passed the time waiting for further direction (his boss was in a meeting on the morning of his first day) by investigating a new “twiddle your thumbs” finger workout on his smartphone…or at least he felt like that was what he was doing.

Rewrite the Story: Not having supplies ready on a new hire’s first day is frustrating and makes a poor first impression on a new employee. Stock a new hire’s space with all the essentials…have email setup, browsers downloaded and include a handy guide to applications that will be used on a regular basis. Complete the staging with a thoughtful welcome sign with the employee’s name. To make this setup easy on existing employees, too, have a basic onboarding checklist or template in place that can be quickly customized based on departmental needs. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every new hire.

Identify additional employee onboarding best practices like implementing software to automate both the workflow-related checklists for existing employees, as well as the actual paperwork completed by new employees. Instead of taking up two hours of a new hire’s first few days on the job with boring, redundant paperwork, give him a web-based portal to enter that data in about fifteen minutes. Make sure your onboarding process brand matches the sleek corporate brand that people have come to expect from a fast-growth tech firm.

4 – Be More Innovative Than Lunch

Simon was pleased to learn that he wouldn’t have to figure out lunch on his first day. His manager, as well as some other members of his department, did take him out to a nice restaurant to get to know him better. There’s nothing wrong with lunch as long as that’s not all you do to learn about new hires.

Rewrite the Story: Use your organization’s industry, resources and/or culture to create a unique experience for your new employees. For example, a technology firm might have a space for all employees to share their favorite mobile app along with comments about why each app was selected. A design firm with graphic artists on staff might choose to commemorate the arrival of newer employees by adding their caricature to a wall of fame after 90 days. An organization of travel buffs could have a giant world map and invite new employees to mark the exotic places to which they have traveled with pushpins. Be imaginative and discover each employee’s passion.

5 – My Brain is Only So Spongy

Once his first few days had passed, Simon had to admit that his training schedule did become quite rigorous…full of people to meet all day everyday. He was hustled from one office to another, desperately trying to absorb all the information he heard like the latest chamois cloth mop from QVC. Alas, cramming isn’t generally effective; however, sometimes employers still feel compelled to fill all the gaps in the first few week’s of an employee’s training schedule. While the firm did gain some points for doing its best to expose Simon to a number of areas in the hopes that he’d be more productive sooner, they should have allowed some time for his early foundational knowledge to soak in and then solidify.

Rewrite the Story: Consider a shortened training schedule for the early days of a new hire’s employment. By empowering an individual to train and shadow with others for just part of the day, you enable him to take the rest of the day to reflect and absorb the information gleaned. He can form questions, review the most recent lessons and be better prepared to be a true participant in the rest of his training activities. Incorporate gamification elements into the training and orientation phase by creating company- and/or department-specific quizzes to assess the employee’s learning while also providing entertaining education.

6 – That’s the End?

A month into his employment experience, Simon was starting to feel like a member of the team. Especially when he was thrown into the training mix for three newer hires that were starting the coming week. That’s right, Simon’s fifteen minutes of new hire fame were already up. And while it’s not a bad idea to help new hires hit the ground running by involving them in improving the onboarding process for future hires, you also don’t want to let your hair down too early with your newer employees. The firm was riding on its own cultural coat tails too aggressively. Keeping employees for the long-term requires a learning and development culture that doesn’t end after a new employee’s first three weeks on the job.

Rewrite the Story: Chart an onboarding course for the long haul and remember that the good stuff happens at milestones you intentionally plan for new hires along their entire employment journey…whether it is three weeks or one year into employment. Beyond new hire paperwork and software login credentials, build in triggers for activities like

  • more advanced learning “courses” once initial onboarding prerequisites are met,
  • exposure to other departments to better learn how one’s own job impacts others,
  • individual assessment in order to uncover opportunities for synergy between the newer employee, his hiring manager and/or other department members,
  • succession planning conversations, and
  • personal achievement recognition at notable anniversary dates.

7 – Get What You Expect

Being organized and self-motivated, Simon already had his own ideas about what he wanted to accomplish in his career with the tech firm. He certainly knew his own job responsibilities and had a vague idea of the potential career path available; however, he was foggy on his firm’s expectations when it came to targeting dates for specific skills mastery and project completions. He was looking forward to really producing now that he had a few months behind him, but he would have appreciated more detail about what success had meant for other top performers in the past.

Rewrite the Story: Having a culture of performance management doesn’t mean forcing a performance review every 90 days, or perhaps ever. But, it does mean having candid, personalized conversations with employees about their passions, developmental goals and the organization’s expectations for achievement. Create a job success factors document for all positions so that new and existing employees alike have a benchmark for comparing their own performance to the model for success for their role. Include details about initial job priorities, expected time frames for project completion and resources available from the organization to support the employee. Then, work with employees to align their strengths and passions with opportunities for increasing responsibility and rewards. Providing a map to success will set employees up to have a true sense of accomplishment once they’ve reached important job milestones.

Where Will Simon’s Story Take Him?

Is your organization guilty of any of the onboarding oversights that befell Simon in his new position? If so, take action now so that when your newer employees get a recruiter InMail message after seven months on the job they politely decline the chance to learn more about the next exciting, fast-growth tech firm.

This blog originally appeared on elementthree.com/blog.

Image credit: Swoosh Goes Swish by slgckgc (contact)

Work Culture–Monday FunDay

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ExactHire wrapped up a successful 2015 with the final Monday FunDay of the year on December 21. In addition to the monthly competition and employee workiversary/birthday celebrations, we added a Sweet Treat Exchange for everyone to enjoy. Combining these activities made for an exciting, sugar-charged day that once again brought our company together to enjoy and relish in our unique work culture.

Sweet Treat Exchange

Sharing office space with another company can sometimes present challenges. Organizing office supplies, reserving conference rooms, adjusting to different noise levels, and sometimes just navigating your way through a crowded break space can be frustrating. However, when the Sweet Treat Exchange comes around, suddenly the rewards are realized.

Our officemates at Human Capital Resources joined us in an annual tradition of baking, or otherwise making, our favorite sweets to share with one another. This year, each participant walked away with several dozen bags of home baked goods (or in my case, thoughtfully selected commercially produced sweets). The exchange is just one way our two companies provide opportunities for developing a shared culture that does much to overcome the challenges of a shared office space.

Monday FunDay –  December

After taking down about 200 grams of sugar, the remaining ExactHire team that wasn’t in a sugar coma went to the conference room for a holiday-appropriate contest. The contestants were in luck, as two-time defending champion, Allen, was under the weather and unable to compete. There would be a new winner this month.

The competition melded shuffleboard, present wrapping, and trash talking. Here’s what that looks like:

Jess Sliding present for ExactHire Monday Funday

One of the most skilled contestants was forced to go first and, thus, showed everyone who followed how not to do it. The main beneficiary of this scheme? Our Co-owner, Jeff, who with expert skill and dexterity wrapped his gift and slid it to victory on his first attempt. The winning time: 36 seconds.

Jeff Slides Into First

Jeff Wins ExactHire Monday Funday

Requisite Victory Taunt

Final Results

  1. Jeff
  2. Christa
  3. Jess
  4. Harlan
  5. Tom

The December Monday FunDay was a fitting end to a fun 2015. And after 4 months of testing this new team-building event, I think it’s safe to say that 2016 will continue the tradition and usher in more fun as a defense against the Monday Blues.

Recent Golden Vase Winners

Company Culture Ebook Download | ExactHire

5 Tips for Making the Holidays an Employee Engagement Extravaganza

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Employee engagement comes in many forms. Many organizations look at it as a top-down activity, where perks are given to the rank and file staff by the executives or directors. But another form is one that meaningfully involves everyone across roles and departments.

ExactHire has solidified its monthly tradition of seasonally-themed and friendly inter-office competition. November’s version of this much anticipated event didn’t disappoint and was not surprisingly focused on giving thanks, eating food and taking out turkeys. Wait…what? Read on for details folks.

For those of you who weren’t able to join us for the spirited activities on Monday, November 16th, I thought it would be fun to give you the breakdown in a few quick snippets below. Gobble, gobble! Let’s get to it…

#5 – Deck Your Office Digs With Turkey Swag

Turkey Swag Monday Funday | ExactHire

To get into the spirit, a handful of us conspired to bring in an eclectic collection of autumn- and Thanksgiving-inspired decorations to make the conference room extra special and lively for our annual November potluck lunch. I think we struck a reasonable balance between really hitting the mark vs. making it look like the seasonal aisle at Michael’s or Jo-Ann’s threw up on our conference table. I mean, we even had a cornucopia!

#4 – Eat: Pre-Game, Main Event & Post-Game

Thanksgiving Potluck Monday Funday | ExactHire

Arguably, November is the easiest month in which to host an office pitch-in because you don’t have to worry about coming up with a clever theme. Yes, potluck sign-up sheets are old hat for us at ExactHire since we embrace the paperless nature of our business by using a shared Google Doc file to state our name and our favorite Thanksgiving-appropriate food converted into a portable version (courtesy of a crockpot). Especially on a Monday Funday, the nibbles started early with the pre-game warm-up followed by the main meal in the company of each other. A few people might have kept sneaking the chocolate-caramel brownies later in the afternoon, too.

#3 – Document the Day & Spread the Joy

Staged Napping Monday Funday | ExactHire

Wondering about the picture, aren’t you? What better way to pay homage to a momentous meal than to embrace the power of the trytophan? But speaking of giving thanks and spreading cheer, one of my favorite ExactHire traditions is our annual Thanksgiving card to clients.

ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2014
ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2014
ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2013
ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2013
ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2012
ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2012

We’ve had fun putting together the design for the cards in past years as they’ve always depicted the members of our team in what we hope is a comedic way. This year, however, we wanted to try something new that could reach even more people — a video. We used Funday as center stage for producing our first (dare I say) annual Thanksgiving video card. The collaborative effort involved in the video production helped us engage in the day’s festivities even more…from the decorations to the personal video messages of thanks to the staged post-meal napping.

#2 – Shoot Some Turkeys

Randi Stance | ExactHire Monday Funday

We can’t forget the competitive part of Monday Funday. When we all battle it out for the coveted golden vase and personalized certificate of achievement. November didn’t fall short with a bowling pin-style shooting range of thoughtfully (okay, maybe hastily) colored paper turkey drawings each assigned various point totals. Each participant was given two practice shots before taking six official shots to try and accumulate the highest point total. You may be wondering about our weapons of choice? Well, fellow teammate Darythe was kind enough to supply us with some sharp shooting tools courtesy of her daughter. They were from the Nerf Rebelle line in case any of you want to bring this contest to your own organizations.

I was up first and feeling pretty good about my chances, but was very quickly rousted from contention by pretty much every single other co-worker…except of course, Darythe, who ironically came in last despite owning the goods. The official standings:

  • Darythe – 70
  • Jess – 85
  • Tom – 100
  • Susan – 135
  • Christa – 150
  • Jeff – 185
  • Randi – 200
  • Allen – 250 (for his second Monday Funday win!)
Allen Wins November Monday Funday
Allen proudly reclaims the golden vase for the second time!
Turkey Targets | ExactHire Monday Funday
All set with turkey targets in place!
Darythe Loads Nerf Shooter | Funday
Darythe gets ready to show us how it's done.

#1 – Spend Quality Time With Great Teammates

It’s easy for people to be too busy to really talk to their co-workers these days. I’m sure many of us are guilty of taking lunch at our desks, heading off site to meet others outside of the company all the time or just huddling in our own offices/cubes to finish a big project for hours on end. Our Monday Fundays give ExactHire employees a built-in opportunity to stop talking shop for a bit and get to know and appreciate each other. Fostering that kind of synergy pays dividends when it comes to group projects and resolving challenges in the workplace. We highly encourage you to try similar stress-reducing, culture-building activities in your organization.

I think it is safe to say there is no “case of the Mondays” here!

Recent Golden Vase Winners

Company Culture Ebook Download | ExactHire