“Take care of your employees, and they’ll take care of your business. It’s as simple as that.” – Richard Branson
Our mission is to make work better for people and to make people better for work.
But how does that help you and your organization with YOUR mission?
Every organization wants to grow market share, increase profitability, and attract the best talent. And all of these mission-critical tasks for your organization require people.
So here’s how making work better for people can benefit you.
Make People Better for Work
1. If you want to grow your market share…
… you need to expand your customer base, and/or expand your offering to your existing customer base.
To do that, you need customer loyalty. You need to have exceptional customer service.
That requires people who can think on their feet in addressing customer needs. It requires people who can problem solve, act with integrity, and build relationships that matter.
I think of a contact of mine who had a salesperson in their organization who was difficult to work with. They made everything from meetings to software transformations more costly and time consuming.
When that salesperson left, my contact did a market analysis. In one year, that salesperson had lost the company millions in sales. Their relationships with customers had eroded much like their internal relationships had.
Every aspect of an organization depends on people.
2. If you want to increase profitability…
… you have to optimize operations and reduce costs.
Who streamlines processes, negotiates better deals with suppliers, and leads teams to operate more efficiently? People.
Your people need to collaborate and work efficiently as cross-functional teams for this to be effective. Yet many organizations “assume” that employees come to the job ready with these skills. Or, that there’s no way to remedy problematic behavior.
Communication, constructive conflict, and other “soft skills” impact the bottom line as much as (or more than) “hard skills,” and they need to be taught and measured.
Another contact of mine recently sent out a company wide email asking everyone to please respond to emails within 24 hours of receipt. Even if that answer was just “I don’t have an answer yet.”
It had been a problem they were struggling with, and my contact called me to see if I thought that was “normal.”
I responded with:
“Not one person has the exact same idea of urgency, or appropriateness when it comes to any kind of communication. That’s why we need to have conversations around ‘how we do things here.’ Otherwise, there is no baseline, and no accountability.”
3. If you want to attract the best talent…
… you need:
Leaders who inspire
A brand, products, and services that are compelling
Relationships inside and outside of the company that are magnets for that talent
Competitive benefits including those that are less “traditional” like flexible work schedules, and remote and hybrid work options
The benefits of achieving this are monumental.
Turnover costs millions, and lost productivity is almost incalculable. And yet, getting and keeping talent is harder than it’s ever been.
But people with creativity and drive generally want to work with other people with creativity and drive. People with resilience and tenacity are looking for a workplace that appreciates and rewards those qualities.
So what are you cultivating in your workforce?
4 Tips to Make Work Better for People
People have come to your team from any number of organizations, universities, and trade schools with different backgrounds and values. The best people you can hire. But maybe not yet fluent in how to excel at teamwork, communication, or collaboration.
How do you ensure that the people who are “expert” in their “tasks” within your organization are also able to have effective conflict, think outside the box, and potentially contribute to the legacy of your company?
1. Make your organization a place where individual contributors feel inspired, and see purpose and meaning in their work.
2. Build a work community, and foster other communities within your workplace so that people “find their tribe” and look forward to being at work.
3. Get specific and clear on how you recognize and reward team members. Are they seeking promotion, flexibility, or more responsibility?
4. Listen, and incentivize listening. If you want to know how your people are doing, what they need, and what they want, it’s not enough to ask. For someone to feel heard, you need to listen.
When we can make work better for people, companies make more money–as much as 29%, evidence suggests.