THE ULTIMATE BLOG ON ALL THINGS HR
& THEN SOME
& THEN SOME
As harvest seasons come to a close, this topic popped into my head. I come from a long line of farmers on both sides of my family. I am proud to say this. Recently I was driving a back highway in the countryside of Western Iowa. (I relocated to Iowa from Texas at the beginning of September.) When I describe Iowa to my friends in Texas, I tell them, “Iowa has lots of corn.” Now that I live here, I have discovered that statement is an understatement. And I’m quite proud of this as well.
Something else Iowa has is hills. Many people have a misperception of Iowa as being flat—that’s Nebraska. So imagine planting rows and rows and rows of corn on hillside after hillside after hillside. Now imagine driving a tractor or a combine on these same rolling hills. Then it hits me—this landscape is reminiscent of Northern Denmark! When I visited Danish family members in Denmark this past spring, I saw canola fields for the first time. Bright, bright yellow flowering plants that reminded me of the mustard plants in West Germany when I was a kid. This spring I visited Kongenshus Mindepark in Denmark where the heath remains natural and untouched. Memorial stones are placed for farmers who “broke the heath” and made the land fertile and farmable. Breaking the heath is done through backbreaking, hard manual labor. It also takes determination. My great-great grandfather, Anders Poulsen Andersen, is one such farmer. So as I was driving the hills between Avoca and Oakland, Iowa, several words came to mind: Perseverance. Hope. Disappointment. Gratitude. Fortitude. I realized the magnitude of the commitment it took for my ancestor to break the heath in northern Denmark at the turn of the century. This heath is un-level ground full of stones big and small. This land is often unfertile at best. But he did not rest until his land was fertile and flat enough to plant crops. To appreciate this feat, you have to visualize what this land was before it became a farm. If you have ever seen Wuthering Heights, you understand. The heath in Denmark is much like the moors of Scotland & England. The words above are indicative of life as a farmer. Perseverance. According to Merriam-Webster, perseverance is defined as, “continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition” or “to persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counterinfluences, opposition, or discouragement.” A synonym is steadfastness. Hope. Merriam-Webster defines it as “to cherish a desire with anticipation and expectation of fulfillment; trust” with an antonym as “doubt”. Disappointment. To disappoint is defined by Merriam-Webster as, “to fail to meet the expectation or hope of; to fail or let down.” Gratitude. “The state of being grateful or thankfulness” is how Merriam-Webster defines gratitude. Grateful is defined at appreciative of benefits received. Fortitude. I think how Merriam-Webster defines fortitude is my favorite: “strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage.” There’s a certain quiet power in this. And the synonyms say it all, “backbone, constancy, grit, guts.” These words describe a farmer, any farmer. But I began to ponder how these words relate to employees. I am reminded not all employees are alike. Some employees put in great effort without recognition. Some employees work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Still other employees sacrifice to pursue a higher education while working full time. Consider all these individuals sow and what they may reap in return. Being in touch with employees is our job as HR professionals. But it is the responsibility of leadership to support efforts—both on and off the job—employees make to fulfill their dreams. Setting up scholarships instead of tuition reimbursement or evaluating wages for fair market value so an employee doesn’t have to work multiple jobs are ways to enact support. I am a huge believer in bringing “human” back to Human Resources. We may have zero idea what an individual employee is experiencing in their personal life. However, with initiative, it is not difficult to gather input from employees to truly understand what would help ease any struggle they may be enduring. After all, for financial reasons there are some Traditionalists working into early or mid 70s. In 1927 my great-grandfather Ernst Andersen left Denmark for Iowa at the age of 19. One of 12 children, he chose to take risks and sail to America. He chose to bring his farming knowledge to the Midwest and settle in a community called Avoca, which welcomed Danish immigrants. He continued the heritage of his father by choosing to farm the land. The farm is still in our family. You can see it from the interstate. I am proud as punch every single time I visit. It is not lost on me the perseverance, hope, disappointment, gratitude, and fortitude that went into life as a farmer.
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Have you ever wondered if Sesame Street was just for kids? Recently, I have had conversations with multiple individuals wherein company culture was discussed. Company culture is a critical and pivotal element for any organization. It affects retention, customer service, effectiveness, productivity, and it can even affect reputation. I would love to hear from each of you about what you believe company culture is. And now I want to share with you what I believe company culture is.
Culture is comprised of a multitude of things: trust, loyalty, empowerment, diversity, values, transparency, communication, and oh so many more. It can also be comprised of things such as: dishonesty, disengagement, disloyalty, and dissension. What I believe company culture may not be are the mission, vision, and values plastered all over the website and walls of the organization. Why, might you ask? Unless the mission, vision, and values are enacted on a consistent basis within all levels of the organization, they are virtually meaningless. I read a post on LinkedIn using this quote, “The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.” Let that sink in for a minute. Now take a moment to consider whether there is such a culture within your organization. How is this culture displayed, what behaviors are tolerated? If there is this type of culture, how does it seem to penetrate the organization? The affect culture has across an organization is contagious. It ripples throughout the company and can spill over into the community. Think about your most recent experience at a hospital or a hotel. Was it a good experience? How could you tell? This experience may depend upon wait time, sincerity of caregivers, thoroughness of exam, timeliness of ancillary services, if discharge information was relayed, and the list continues. Or it could be how you were greeted at the front desk, timely check-in process, satisfactory room, friendly hotel staff, ample parking, breakfast hours, cleanliness of the pool or workout room, and again the list continues. My guess is you either had a good experience or a bad one. My next guess is if your experience was excessively good or bad, you told friends, you told family members. You told as many people as you could. How does culture impact your experience? I firmly believe if a company values its employees, it will show in how the employees engage with the customer. I’ve talked about employee engagement before. Culture is how engagement acts. In other words, if employees are engaged, their actions will express it. But culture is more than that. Culture permeates the environment and can smell like roses or it can stink like rotten eggs. If a CEO is heavy-handed and barks marching orders to managers, this will likely have a negative trickle-down effect. The manager may then return to his or her department in a grumpy mood and shut their office door without communicating to staff. However, if the top leader seeks manager input and listens to feedback, a culture of inclusiveness and collaboration exists. That same manager may return to the department, gather staff, and have a staff meeting to discuss ways of improving service and effectiveness. Now ask yourself how much culture costs a company. Is it millions of dollars? Thousands? Hundreds? Here is a secret: culture doesn’t have to cost a dime. It truly can be implementing the Golden Rule. Treat others how you want to be treated. As a CEO or manager, if your employees feel valued, they will value customers. This leads to great experiences and positive word-of-mouth advertising, costing zero dollars. Incidentally, the employees will value you as the CEO or manager. It’s a triple win! Conversely, culture can cost a company tons of money in lost sales, increased turnover, bad publicity, even legal action. If a leader is not attuned to the workforce, you can bet it results in a negative culture. When such a culture exists, employees don’t care about the customer experience. Employees get sloppy, lazy, and tend to have poor attendance. Culture can also be status quo and the “it’s not my job” syndrome and nobody knowing about recent policy changes. Or, culture can be welcoming innovation and “teamwork makes the dream work” and company-wide communication when a policy changes. It’s all these things. Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines got it right when he said, “Culture is what people do when no one is looking.” So let’s talk about that for a minute. What would you say if you found out your office was bugged or your work email was being monitored with eagle eyes? What kind of culture what you say that is? To me, this is another version of “no one is looking” wherein the culture is one of high distrust, extreme micromanaging, and even invasion of privacy. While your office is company property, it should also be a place of confidential conversations. And while your work email is also company property, it can also be a place of confidential information being exchanged between two parties. Do you think that employee continues to believe in the company? Do you think he or she wonders if people are talking about them behind his/her back? In my experience, this employee’s level of trust has been knocked down drastically. Attendance may start to slip. Performance may begin to decline. Sense of purpose is somewhat shattered. This employee likely leave the organization. When no one is looking, how will you behave? When no one is looking, how do you expect the leaders in your organization to behave? Ideally, your mantra is something along the lines of the Golden Rule. Ideally, lessons you learned watching Sesame Street have stuck with you and you enact them on the daily. Ideally, the culture within your organization practices the same and all employees feel valued, included, collaborative, and impactful. “C” may be for culture. But I hope your organization’s culture warrants an “A”. |
CreatorCreator: That makes me sound all powerful. I suppose I am in many ways. Hi! My name's Amy and I've been practicing HR for twelve years now. No big deal. I am here to offer fresh perspective on HR topics and topics about the world we live in and life in general. Archives
February 2022
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