How to Discourage Employees and Limit Business Growth
By Dr. Jay Colker, Executive HR Advisor, HRBoost®
This topic is of interest to me because despite sincere intentions to be effective in their roles, many leaders inadvertently behave in ways to negatively impact employees and business results overall. Leaders take on the burden of being overly responsible and feel the pressure of business success, however defined; the business rests solely on their shoulders. They spend considerable time on business metrics, such as capital expenditures, P&L, customer acquisition and retention, competitor analysis, and forecasting. All these areas of focus are essential. However, often the largest expense on the balance sheet, employees, get little senior leader attention. Day-to-day management of human capital gets delegated to Human Resources. All HR-related activities are viewed as operations-related and an expense rather than a strategy that enhances ROI. Outcomes are prioritized over processes; business decisions are made top down without truly consulting with or engaging frontline staff.
A clear example is annual goal setting. Senior leaders may set aggressive profit goals that lead to expectations of department performance that front line employees may feel is untenable. Bonuses and incentives often are out of reach. Overall, not engaging with those employees that are closest to the day-to-day operations has significant negative consequences.
Employees may react in many ways that are predictable. Being treated as a number versus a partner, employees may not have a sense of truly belonging to the organization. Because leadership takes on a role of being responsible, employees may take minimal responsibilities beyond daily work requirements. If they see problems, they assume that leaders are aware of them and will address them. When problems remain, they point the finger at leadership and blame rather than suggesting solutions. It is not my problem, or my responsibility becomes a mantra. Employees may disengage and do just enough to stay under the radar thus retiring in place. They may have no sense of career progression with the company and may see no future. They may feel they are there only for a paycheck and at some point, employees may exit the organization leaving a gap in knowledge of production or customer needs and concerns. The loss of this information and the time to hire and train are often not tracked against the time needed to invest in employee well-being and development. Organizations that depend on staffing to meet sales goals take a hit on profit and customer satisfaction. Growth goals are stymied.
To counter these trends, I recommend several actions leaders can take.
First and foremost, leaders need to take full responsibility of human capital development and not throw it over the wall to Human Resources. For eleven years, I was Chief Learning Officer (CLO) of a 2.4-billion-dollar bank holding company with 12 companies in the U.S. and abroad. I interacted with a number of CLOs in major companies. The best companies had full day quarterly meetings where senior leaders would review critical roles and ensure there was enough focus on development, career progression, and action learning projects where high potential employees could demonstrate their skills and abilities. There were expectations of similar processes at lower levels as well. Aligning company goals and objectives with individual employees’ career goals became essential areas of focus. Leadership development and employee development does not have to be expensive, although investing in a reasonable budget that considers ROI often evolves into a robust training budget where gains in productivity and sales translate into higher profits. Leaders can create a human capital council with representatives at all levels. Not only can the council consider current needs and concerns, but they can also be charged with forecasting to project future knowledge and skill needs. Managers can have specific expectations that are tracked, such as being the net exporter of talent. Coaching and career discussions can be required of supervisors at all levels; the effectiveness of these relationships can be monitored and tracked. Monitoring employee satisfaction and engagement scores become more than an annual task. Transparency around this data and commitments to actions to improve employee experiences must be consistently demonstrated. Frequent two-way communication that builds trust is also essential.
Given what is at stake, it is amazing to me that many companies ignore best practices and make many of the mistakes noted above. Those companies that aggressively incorporate best practices gain a considerable competitive advantage. I am more than willing to have a conversation regarding this blog topic or beyond to offer my perspective on what your company may be doing and how some simple adjustments can make all the difference. I can be reached at jcolker@hrboost.com or at 312-213-3421.
