Smart leaders are starting to realize that organizational culture isn't just a nice thing -- it's everything in business. It's the most important element of your organization's success, by a mile. Nothing good can happen unless the culture is healthy. No matter what else you measure, none of it will matter at all unless your team feels valued and part of the mission.
For years most medium-sized and larger employers have been conducting pointless Employee Engagement surveys whose main function is to let HR people feel that they've done something useful when they've done nothing at all. It's insulting to stick a survey in an employee's face and then use that data to tell the folks in the executive suite that HR is on top of their jobs.
You don't do a good job in HR by hitting a certain bar on a survey. You do a good job by walking around and talking with people and listening to them.
Here are nine metrics that come closer to answering the question "Is this a good and healthy place to work?" than any employee engagement survey could do. Bring these metrics into your HR program and start making an impact on your organization's culture and bottom line!
Employee Referrals
Employees refer their friends to work with them when they like the environment. If your employee referrals aren't responsible for at least 25% of your new hires, then your culture is off. Your current employees are the best source of fast, pre-oriented and pre-vetted new hires, so if you're posting job ads and hiring strangers instead of the friends and relatives of your own employees, you're missing the boat in a big way.
Internal Transfers
Internal transfers are a good thing. The easier it is for your teammates to move freely about the organization, learning more and employing what they know to help your company grow, the better! If it's hard to transfer internally, employees won't try. They'll stick around in a job they've outgrown and eventually leave the company altogether. If you're not transferring or promoting as many employees as you hire in from outside, your internal transfer system is keeping your greatest talent source locked in limbo.
Re-Hires
When an organization is healthy, people leave and their colleagues wish them well. Get used to throwing parties for people who are leaving - cake, balloons and all! If you believe that anyone who leaves you apart from a retiring employee is an enemy of the company, you are stuck in an ancient and destructive mindset.
People will leave you to check out the outside world, and lots of them will come back. Your job is to wish them well and let them know they're welcome to return if they want to. Lots of them will do it! What a signal that will send to the other employees: "Wow, if I venture out to another company and I don't like it, I won't have burned a bridge." Exactly!
Hotline Activity
You must have a hotline that employees can use to report unethical or inappropriate behavior. That is essential, because your employees won't always feel comfortable going to HR or their manager's boss to report something bad, like sexual harassment or theft. I am an expert witness for HR matters, and nearly every one of the employers who has paid a bundle to a mistreated employee in one of my cases would have saved their money (and their culture) if they had had an effective 'back channel' hotline in place.
When you have a confidential hotline and it is busy, that's not a bad thing. It means that employees are telling you what's up! Over time, you will keep building the trust level so that employees use the hotline less often and talk to their supervisors more often. You can start building that trust by making your employees comfortable using your confidential hotline - that will tell you about the concerns your employees have and make it easy for you to respond to them in newsletters and at Town Hall meetings.
EAP Usage
An EAP is an Employee Assistance Program. If you have over 100 employees, an EAP is a must-have business tool. Your employees can get free, confidential advice on financial, legal and mental-health issues by calling the counselors at your EAP. That's a fantastic pressure release valve for your team, because everyone runs into issues now and then. The more active your EAP participation is, the more comfort you can feel that your employees are getting help with their stickiest human issues, the same ones that would keep them from focusing on their work.
Your job as a leader or HR person is to help boost EAP participation by reminding employees all the time that the company has provided this free, confidential service for them and their family members. The better your culture, the more easily people will pick up that phone!
Parking Lot at Closing Time
Half an hour after the end of business hours, your parking lot should be pretty empty. If it isn't, your supervisors are riding your employees too hard to stick around. There is no more productivity after five p.m. A business day in today's high-powered environment is a full-out eight-hour sprint.
Get your employees away from their desks, out the door and off to their other adventures! Good leaders know that a full office at seven p.m. is a sign of a sick organization, and you're not only robbing your employees and their families of their precious downtime in that case -- you're robbing your customers and shareholders, too.
Speaking Engagements
Your employees are hands-down the best evangelists for your brand. When you've got dozens of people from your organization out on the conference circuit spreading the gospel, you're building a community of followers and fans that will take you to a higher level of brand awareness. When you don't let employees get out from behind the desk to speak at conferences because you think it's a distraction from their "real" job, you are very confused about branding and the viral nature of powerful messages.
Teach your employees (the ones who are interested) in public speaking and set them free to send your message far and wide! Your PR chief will be thrilled to keep a roster of several dozen thought leaders (at any level - not just executives) from your company who can show up to galvanize an audience on a panel or in a keynote presentation.
Leads from Employees
Your employees are the best source of new sales leads for your company, if they are trained to understand what your ideal client looks like and how to bring an inquiry to your sales department. As in employee referrals, where people will stop referring their friends if your recruiting process ignores and insults your employees' referred applicants, when your teammates bring you sales leads and you ignore them, expect the flow of new sales leads to stop.
You must treat your employees' sales leads like high-priority prospects, and if your teammates aren't bringing you the right kinds of leads, then take the time to educate them. If your employees aren't responsible for at least ten percent of your new accounts every year, then you're under-utilizing a powerful channel for new business!
Turnover
People are going to leave you for all sorts of reasons, and if you treat them well on the way out some number of them will come back. If your voluntary turnover is over seven or eight percent per year, it's time to stop and ask why. People who are thriving at work, learning something new every day and feeling like part of a team don't job-hunt. Maybe your salaries are out of line or the demands on your employees are unrealistic.
Don't kid yourself about culture -- you can pretend it doesn't matter as long as you like, while your talent flees and your customers leave to work with other vendors. Tell the truth about what's working and what isn't, clear out any obstacles in the energy in your workplace and watch your business explode!
