Is your company going through a high employee turnover period?

Is your company going through a high employee turnover period?  Of the employees that have left recently, what have they told you of the reasons for quitting/leaving?  Often times they leave and don't tell you the true reasons, particularly because of fear.  They don't want to burn any bridges.  Do you guys do a separation survey on the individuals that quit?

I've lived through such an ordeal. Money is part of the issue, but not all of the issue. In my humble opinion, the main issue and cause is poor leadership - that's because even though we concentrate on "getting it right," we still need to concentrate on "doing the right things(Covey)."

The following list is from Leigh Branham(2005). The 10 most frequently mentioned issues that employees say companies do poorly are:

• Poor management—uncaring and unprofessional managers; overworking staff; no respect, not listening, putting people in wrong jobs; speed over quality; poor manager selection processes.
• Lack of career growth and advancement opportunities—no perceivable career paths; not posting job openings or filling from within; favoritism or unfair promotions.
• Poor communications—problems communicating top-down and between departments; after mergers; between facilities.
• Pay—paid under-market or less than contributions warrant; pay inequities; slow raises; favoritism for bonuses/raises; ineffective appraisals.
• Lack of recognition—that says it all.
• Poor senior leadership—not listening, asking, or investing in employees; unresponsiveness and isolation; mixed messages.
• Lack of training—nonexistent or superficial training; nothing for new hires, managers, or to move up.
• Excessive workload—doing more with less; sacrificing quality and customer service for numbers.
• Lack of tools and resources—insufficient, malfunctioning, outdated, equipment/supplies; overwork without relief.
• Lack of teamwork—poor coworker cooperation/commitment; lack of interdepartmental coordination.

In addition to the above survey, Branhan also found that 89% of managers believe that high turnover is due to money, yet according to the same survey delivered to the employees, 88% left for reasons other than money.

Lopsided isn't it?

If you fix the stuff in the list above, you are on your way to minimizing employee turnover, which will save your organization a “dumptruck” load of money. 

If you need help with this, I can support you.  Shoot me an email at jclavel669@gmail.com.

References:

Leigh Branhan(2005) , The 7 hidden reasons employees leave: how to recognize the subtle signs and act before it's too late.

Emotional Intelligence and "The Ladder of Inference"

I read about(and saw on PBS) how human beings are actually "Feeling machines that think" rather than "thinking machines that feel." This means that we cannot forget our emotions - it's impossible. We can be aware of them, and minimize their effects, but it's tough to ignore them - particularly when we encounter key moments.


I think that ALL companies - at least to some extent, should try to institutionalize Emotional Intelligence. I say "to some extent" because some people, just won't embrace it, no matter how much we coach it. One of the things that organizations struggle with is faulty assumptions. This normal behavior comes from invidual belief systems that cause distorted though processes. Peter Senge in the Fifth Discipline teaches a concept called "The Ladder of Inference" to try to diffuse this. The "Ladder of Inference" comes from a gentleman named Chris Argyris. It goes like this:

1.Data is observed
2.I chose the data points from what I observe
3.I add meanings based on my own belief systems
4.I make assumptions based on the meanings that I created
5.I draw conclusions based on the assumptions
6.I adopt or change my beliefs about the organization(and the world)
7.I act based on my beliefs
8.I apply these new beliefs in rung #3 above, when the situation/cycle starts over.

It's important that we look at all of the data.

It's important that we base decisions on facts, not our personal SPIN(in most situations)

Break the cycle and teach others to break the cycle!

Jarrod

A little bit on Organizational Psychology

Organizational Psychology Defined


A company or organization behaves similar to the human body. Like doctors, company decision-makers need diagnostic information about their organization or entity within their organization. Diagnostic information is necessary prior to making decisions on how to run a company or organization. The following work discusses the meaning of organizational psychology along with its uses. This post paper also explores various applications and attempts to describe the utility of organizational psychology as a science.

What is Organizational Psychology?

Organizational Psychology is defined as a scientific study of individual and group behavior in formal organizational settings. Formal organizations are not only companies but also can be nonprofit organizations, military units, and even clubs and fraternal organizations. This science is part of a larger group called Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Industrial Psychology focuses on the classic Human Resources (HR) functions of the organization, such as performance appraisals, pay and compensation, hiring and firing, and training.

Organizational Psychology focuses on things like motivation, socialization, organizational development, leadership, and team dynamics. Each of these issues can help or impair a manager’s ability to run a company or an organization. Motivation is important, because organizational success relies on the individual workers doing their job well. Socializations and team dynamics are important because working in groups is often times more effective. Leadership is important because it is the foundation of any good company. Leadership is the soul of an organization.

Research and Statistics

Research is necessary because leadership teams cannot make good decisions about how to run a company or organization without accurate information. Making a decision without acquiring as much information as possible is tantamount to a Medical Doctor writing a prescription without asking any questions or running any tests. It is virtually equal to a car mechanic replacing parts, without diagnosing the actual problem.

As discussed above, leadership teams need information to make decisions. The quality of the information that the team receives, hinges upon the quality of the data collection methods, the accuracy of the analysis, and the quality of the report. Statistics make the research accurate because, typically statistical research is more structured and controlled, and therefore more valuable to a decision maker. Statistical research can also test specific correlations between organizational changes and employee sentiment and attitudes. Performing surveys at some periodicity is good for determining the health of the organization as well as the health trend of the organization. Sometimes, the trend in response rates can actually help determine a degrading culture. A lowering response rate from year to year, would be indicative of a loss of confidence in the ability of leadership to resolve problems that have been identified for years, but haven’t been addressed.

Organizational Psychology – What’s it for?

Simply put, Organizational Psychology can be used to help organizations perform better in two major ways. The first way is by researching and reporting on existing problems within the organization. The second is by solving the problems that were found during the research or other means. Some examples of problems to be solved are things like, safety culture, problems with working hours, lack of organizational focus, and overall employee morale. These problems can be addressed and solved by, leadership development, changes in compensation, team building, and restructuring of workflow. Jex and Britt (2008) discuss the process of “organizational development” in chapter 15 of the text. This process is what a practitioner can use to help an organization enact sweeping changes. The organizational development process gathers data from research, and works with the company to develop new structures, goals, and core processes.

Conclusion

Organization Psychology is a science that is used to study and improve organizations. Practitioners can help companies improve through the organizational development process. By performing organizational assessments, a company can determine where they are with respect to where they want to go. By performing leadership training and by developing employees, a company can improve their results, making them more competitive, increasing profits, and even improve employee morale and retention.



Jarrod Clavelle


References
Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2008). Organizational psychology: a scientist-practitioner approach (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Cooper, D. R., & Schindler, P. S. (2006). Business research methods (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill/Irwin.

You can't change what happens to you - but you can change how you respond to it.

I like talking about the topic of emotional intelligence.  It goes beyond the simple treatment of people.  To me, emotional intelligence is a important skill that managers (really all people) need in order to be truly successful.  It starts with being aware of our own emotional and behavioral shortcomings.  I was taught to conquer my "Key moments."  Meaning that when something occured, evoking a response from me, I had a choice regarding how to act. 

As managers and people, our decisions to act are based upon more than what's right and wrong, they are based on our own perceptions about life.  I'm sure that you all have heard of the term paradigms.  Normally, in a business context  the term concerns the beliefs of an organization as a whole.  But in an emotional intelligence context, paradigms are about how the individual views the world and as a result makes a decision.  It's about our individual constellations of core beliefs, and how they drive us to act. 

Not all of us have the same belief systems, and it's important that we realize that.   That is one spot where emotional intelligence is extremely important.  As managers we must listen, process and think, then speak or act.  We must be cautious about what we assume, and prevent letting our emotions and beliefs distort reality and "make things up" that don't exist.

Going slow, listening, thinking, and reversing roles are the keys to conquering those key moments.

90% of our life moments are driven by how we respond to events.  The events only set things into motion – our reactions change the world around us.

Most of these thoughts come to me from Steven Covey, and from Roger Allen, who taught me a course on emotional intelligence.  Good stuff!