When you applied for a management job, you knew it would be a challenge. But you felt confident that you were up to it. 

When the interview panel asked you to describe a situation where you had to cope with stress, your answer convinced them you would be a calm leader. So they gave you the position and put you in charge of your team.

So how is it that you already feel overwhelmed? 

On your first day, you told your team “My door is always open”. Now, there’s a constant line down the hall.

You’re bouncing from meeting to Zoom call to meeting. Your inbox and your to-do list are backing up. You can’t quite get a handle on the new team dynamics. You’re noticing hints of a brewing conflict. 

Not to mention, there’s a major project deadline looming. 

How can you keep calm and carry on when you feel like you’re in too deep?

In this article, we’ll look at why we get overwhelmed and how overwhelm affects us, our work, and our teams. 

We’ll look at the characteristics of a calm leader and give you 5 practical approaches to your new position that will help you keep calm and carry on (even when you’re overwhelmed).

The impact of overwhelm

We’re not going to lie--being a new manager can be incredibly stressful. There will be challenges. There will be conflicts. Crises will happen. That’s the nature of being a manager. 

Stress is not always a bad thing. In fact, it can even be a positive motivator that pushes you to achieve. Too much stress, however, can lead to overwhelm and even burnout. It depletes your ability to be able to cope well with challenges, so that the more overwhelmed you feel, the more overwhelming your challenges become. It’s a vicious circle. 

A Harvard Business Review study found that, under pressure, 53% of leaders are more closed-minded and controlling. 45% of stressed leaders ignore or reject employees’ input. In another study, more than half of respondents felt that a manager who can’t handle stress effectively is harmful to the organization’s performance. 

What this means is you have a duty to be a calm leader. 

Now, if you’re thinking that sounds impossible, don’t worry. It’s really just another management skill to work on. 

What does a calm leader look like?

Calm leaders are simply those who know how to harness the power of their intuition, experience, maturity, and wisdom to be a more effective leader.

Doug Dickerson, leadership expert

Leadership trainer and arbitrator Doug Dickerson identifies the four key attributes of calm leaders:  

• They see the bigger picture
• They know when to act and when to wait
• They challenge the standard ways of doing things
• They provide much-needed stability in trying times. 

They’ve also developed a core skill set to help spread their calm to the rest of the team: 

They have a calm, assertive communication style 

It’s no good facing challenging times calmly if you don’t communicate your plan clearly, confidently and effectively. Calm leaders use an assertive but compassionate approach to communication. 

They inspire resilience and stress management in others 

If stress can be contagious, so can handling stress well. In fact, 79% of employees with a manager adept at management stress aspire to progression within the company, as opposed to just 55% of those with less resilient leaders.

Developing this skill set comes down to 5 key habits:

• Practicing self-compassion
• Taking a mindful pause before acting
• Learning to ask for help
• Single-tasking
• Delegating effectively. 

How to develop your skills as a calm leader (even when you feel overwhelmed)

1. Go easy on yourself

This first step is all-important: be kind to yourself. Being a manager is a big responsibility, but it’s also a process. Becoming a great manager is something everyone has to work at—it’s not a skill that comes naturally. 

To grow your skills as a calm leader, you need to accept that you have a lot to learn-and that’s absolutely fine. Start with a self-compassionate mindset.

Action points: 

• Practice self-care in the workplace. Make a point of looking after your physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being. For instance, if you’re getting stressed, take a short break from your desk and head outside for a walk. Build pauses into your work day to stretch, exercise, or even meditate. 
• Be aware of self-judgment and negative self-talk and nip it in the bud. Ask yourself, “Would I give my direct report this kind of feedback?” If the answer is no, then stop talking to yourself that way.  
• Keep a “Wins” file. Set up a document on Google Drive and add in any positive feedback you receive from your managers, team, mentors or clients. Open it up on a bad day and remind yourself that you’ve come a long way. 
• If you need a reminder, read Jo Small’s letter that begins: “Dear frazzled manager, You’re doing a tremendous job…” 

2. Don’t rush; reflect

It’s vital not to rush into action, especially when you’re facing a crisis. Harvard Business School professor Nancy Koehn points to the example of Abraham Lincoln, who made a point of reacting to high-stakes situations by doing… nothing. 

By allowing himself the time to reflect and assess the situation, Lincoln could come up with a more considered and grounded plan than if he had rushed headlong into action.

Koehn says: “The smallest pause before picking up the phone, sending out the tweet, or saying something to someone will help a leader gather his or her thoughts and maximize the chances that he or she makes a smart move.”

McKinsey researchers Jacqueline Brassey and Michiel Kruyt call this skill integrative awareness—the process of connecting your awareness of the situation with awareness of yourself and your responses. 

By taking a mindful pause before responding, you can process your stress, cultivate a deliberate calm, and create the space to make clear-minded decisions and responses.

Action points: 

• Schedule in time to think. At the beginning and the end of each week, set aside a time slot to review your performance as a manager and identify your trigger points. If you experienced overwhelm, what was the root cause and how can you reduce the chances you’ll feel that way again? What were the points where things went well? 
• Consider establishing a mindfulness practice. Even a few minutes of meditation during the workday can help you pause before you react. 

3. Ask for help

No matter what, all of us are going to be faced with issues that are beyond us. But it’s important not to let pride get in the way of asking for help. 

Whether from co-workers or your own boss, it’s okay to seek support—especially if you’re a new manager. Despite what you might think, people are far more likely to want to help you than to judge you for asking.

“When you’re right at the edge of your comfort zone,” says Kane Carpenter, Practice Lead of Employer Branding & Growth Strategies at Daggerfinn, “it’s OK to try and figure something out yourself. When you feel like you are out of your depth completely, then it’s time to ask for help.”

Action points: 

• When you ask for help, be open, honest and specific about what you’re finding difficult. Show what you’ve already attempted, offer a potential solution or two, and ask for feedback. 
• Prepare what you want to say ahead of time, and frame it in a positive way.  
• Find a mentor outside your own organization, so you can discuss issues and challenges without worrying about looking like you can’t cope. 

4. Do one thing at a time

The ability to multitask is often worn as a badge of honor. But multitasking isn’t as productive as we think. It slows us down, keeps us distracted, and increases the likelihood that we will make mistakes. On top of that, research shows that we tend to badly inflate our ability to multitask. 

By doing one thing at a time, we can focus on doing each thing well, and keep from feeling snowed under. In his book, Full Catastrophic Living, mindfulness expert John Kabat-Zinn advises: 

“Try doing one thing at a time and giving it the attention it deserves for as long as it deserves, without distracting yourself or allowing yourself to be distracted, such as by incoming emails or texts.“

Action points: 

• Prioritize your task list, and then take each task in order, one at a time. 
• Distinguish between what’s important and what’s urgent, and decide what you need to do first, what you can do later, and what you can delegate. 
• Try out a prioritization tool like the Eisenhower Matrix. 
• Digital task managers like Todoist or Trello can help you and your team organize your project tasks effectively. 

5. Delegate

Don’t try to go it alone. You’re still part of a team, but you aren’t simply an individual contributor anymore. Delegation allows you the space to focus on your managerial priorities. It gives you the time to decompress and develop yourself as a manager. 

As an added bonus, it also helps your staff to develop and learn new skills and competencies.  

Action points: 

• Take the time to map out all of your tasks. Identify which actions can or should only be done by you. Anything else that could be done by another member of the team, delegate (even if you feel you could do it better!)
• Consider the roles, aptitudes and existing workload of team members before delegating. This way you’ll not only ensure quality, you’ll also avoid simply shifting your overwhelm onto your direct reports. 

Keep calm and carry on

Being a calm leader doesn’t mean you deny the challenges of management, or pretend they’re not challenging. It simply means choosing how best to respond. It’s about acceptance and action, not reaction. 

You don’t have to wait to qualify as a “calm leader”. Just like Lincoln, you can choose to act calmly. The nice thing about acting like a calm leader is that it actually helps you to become a calm leader. Best of luck!

Some further resources to help you on your management journey:

• Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help As A New Manager (and How to Do It)
• People Management Tips For New And Experienced Managers
• How To Go From Manager To Coach
• Clarity, Responsibility, And Accountability (CRA) Model Of Leadership
• Unlearning Leadership: How To Lead In The New World Of Work (with Bev Attfield from Within People)
• 10 Best Leadership Development Programs to Grow Future Leaders in 2022

The post In Too Deep: How To Keep Calm & Carry On When You’re Overwhelmed As A New Manager appeared first on People Managing People.

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Organizational values are an underlying factor in how a business operates and its overall corporate culture, including managing employees, creating customer experiences, and making important decisions. 

About 80% of Fortune 100 companies publicly list their core values, but many stick to cookie-cutter ideals that fail to accurately describe their organization.

Below, we’ve included an overview of company values as well as organizational values examples from 8 leading companies.

What are company values?

Company values, which are sometimes very similar to company culture, refer to a set of core philosophies that guide an organization’s mission, culture, and vision. Often related to cultural aspects such as business growth, accountability, and customer and employee relations, company values support a healthy corporate culture and distinguish organizations from their competitors.

Company values should support the scenario its vision statement describes. For instance, if an organization’s vision statement describes a scenario of social responsibility, its values might relate to ownership, environmental impact, and activism. Strong core values are specific, memorable, and simple, and should accurately describe and evolve with an organization over time. In short, each company value should be a guiding principle.

Some examples of company values include:

• Transparency
• Social
• Integrity
• Customer service
• Innovation

Why are company values important?

When used in conjunction with a strong organizational culture, carefully crafted organizational values give businesses a strong foundation for growth and development. Some impacts and advantages of core values include:

• Giving employees purpose: Surveys show that 70% of employees feel their purpose is largely defined by work, and 75.5% agree that core values are important in the workplace. Values give organizations and employees a code to live by, improving employee engagement, productivity, and the bottom line.
• Describing your organization: Crafting a company identity through values not only tells customers, clients, and employees what it stands for, but also how it stands apart from its competitors.
• Fostering teamwork: Values unite employees for a shared purpose and common goal, unlocking teamwork and fostering collaboration.
• Improving cultural alignment: Organizations with strong values and culture naturally attract and retain like-minded employee pools.
• Optimizing decision-making: Aligning the values and goals of organizational leaders can help streamline the decision-making process.

Who’s responsible for formulating the company values?

The responsibility for creating company values falls on the senior leadership team and the organization’s HR leader, and it’s also their responsibility to model them too.

This way, other team members will mirror their behavior (and should also be recognized and rewarded for doing so). This is how values become a genuine part of the organization, not just empty words.

7 organizational values examples from top companies

We’ll now delve into some of the values of successful organizations and how living them has contributed to their success.

Comcast

Comcast, like many other companies, lists integrity as one of its main values, along with the statement, “It’s as simple as doing what’s right and treating people the right way.”

Comcast’s other values are similarly simple, describing its values of entrepreneurial spirit, respect, and giving back. It demonstrates how simplicity is an effective tactic when backed up with action, such as its significant investments in initiatives to promote inclusivity, sustainability, and accessibility.

Comcast’s goal to promote inclusivity and accessibility culminated in Project UP. With a commitment of $1 billion, one of the project’s goals is to provide affordable Internet to tens of millions of users.

Airbnb

CEO Brian Chesky established the company’s core values in the beginning of its founding. He believes that values such as integrity, honesty, and other common values are defaults that everyone should possess, and instead encourages people to look deeper and understand what values are unique to them.

Airbnb’s values are:

1. Champion the mission
2. Be a host
3. Be a cereal entrepreneur 
4. Embrace the adventure.

Summarized, these core values describe an organization that is dedicated to its mission, hospitable by nature, curious and eager to grow, and determined to make its goals a reality.

Airbnb’s values directly relate to its responsible hosting initiative, which reminds hosts of the importance of safety while also providing them with advice and guidelines. This helps ensure a relatively consistent experience for guests across the world.

Microsoft

One of tech’s major global leaders, Microsoft, is known for its innovative and human-centered culture. As a large company with many initiatives and communities to manage, Microsoft keeps its philosophies simple.

Their three core values are:

• Respect: We recognize that the thoughts, feelings, and backgrounds of others are as important as our own.
• Integrity: We are honest, ethical, and trustworthy.
• Accountability: We accept full responsibility for our decisions, actions, and results.

On the subject of integrity and accountability, Microsoft actively monitors all of its supplier facilities to ensure sourcing is done responsibly. This also applies to their zero tolerance of forced labor, to which the company holds itself and its suppliers accountable for ensuring human rights are respected throughout the supply chain.

Lululemon

Launched in 1998, the yoga-clothing brand Lululemon has become a successful and dominant company. Targeting its fun-loving customer demographic with the header “our best life,” Lululemon’s core values are:

• Personal responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Honesty
• Courage
• Connection
• Fun
• Inclusion

Backing up its commitment to inclusion, Lululemon has committed to promote diversity with some key actions:

• Using its brand voice to fight for change.
• Focus on diversity among its employees.
• Expand Inclusion, Diversity and Equity training.
• Investing $5M a year in the company’s internal Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Action fund.

Nike

As one of the world’s most recognized athletic brands, Nike’s company values reflect the organization’s commitments and responsibilities. Its core values are:

• Accomplish more together
• Have a positive impact
• Make it even better
• Have a good idea and be bold
• Be the best person you can be

With $97.7 million contributed toward positive impacts in 2021, it’s invested in building communities and supporting athletes of all backgrounds.

Apple

Like Microsoft, Apple is a tech giant with simple but effective values. On its website, each core value is followed by a link to related resources.

Apple’s organizational values are:

• Accessibility: Technology is most powerful when everyone can make their mark.
• Environment: Our goal is to leave the planet better than we found it.
• Privacy: We design Apple products to protect your privacy and give you control over your information.
• Supplier responsibility: We believe in a safe, respectful, and supportive workplace for everyone.

Not only is privacy one of Apple’s core values, it’s also something the company considers to be a fundamental human right. As such, Apple products are designed to protect a user’s privacy. 

Whether it be through the ability to lock photos in a private album, transparency on which apps actually track you or even the Safari web browser that keeps trackers away from you, Apple builds its products with privacy in mind.

Coca-Cola

As one of the largest companies in the world with many brands, Coca-Cola has a major impact on its employees and communities. Its social impact page lists initiatives such as gender diversity, human rights policies, and supplier diversity, showing how it exemplifies its values.

Its core values list includes:

• Leadership: The courage to shape a better future
• Collaboration: Leverage collective genius
• Integrity: Be real
• Accountability: If it is to be, it’s up to me
• Passion: Committed in heart and mind
• Diversity: As inclusive as our brands
• Quality: What we do, we do well

In terms of diversity, Coca-Cola created Employee Inclusion Networks. These are employee-led resources for both the company itself and its employees. Officially recognized by the company, the goal is to create a sense of allyship while helping diverse voices be heard.

Value Your Company Values

Organizations that take the time to define and enshrine clear corporate values do so to build strong foundations for growth and to create positive employee experience. 

Some further resources:

• How To Lead With Your Values
• How To Bring Your Organizational Values To Life (with Tanya Schecter from HTI Institute)

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According to Gallup, one of the top reasons that employees leave workplaces is a lack of employee recognition. Let that sink in for a moment. If your team is losing talent, and you haven’t been able to figure out why, employee recognition could be something to address. 

Recognition is a key motivator for any sort of human behavior, especially in the workplace. As employees, we might expect that our hard work will be rewarded—possibly in the form of promotions, bonuses, increased responsibilities, or other tangible rewards. 

Yet it goes beyond that when it comes to what really motivates employees to succeed, and recognition does not need to cost a dime. 

The best part of employee recognition is that it’s easy, and fun. There are multiple forms of recognition, and every employee looks for something different, but ultimately even a simple ‘thank you’ can go a long way towards improving your workplace retention and culture. 

This article will focus on taking a closer look at employee recognition, why it’s so important, how it differs from employee rewards, and strategies for implementing a successful recognition program into your workplace. 

What is employee recognition?

Employee recognition is the practice of recognizing employees for their good work and living the organizational values. This can take multiple forms, and have different purposes given different circumstances. 

For example, some workplaces will take measures to recognize employees simply when they complete an important task. This does not mean that an employee receives huge accolades simply for doing their job. A small, genuine gesture of recognition, such as a verbal ‘thank you’ or an email of acknowledgement, is much appreciated.

Employee recognition vs. employee rewards

Recognition and rewards are often confused, but there is a difference. Employee rewards are monetary tokens that are awarded to employees for their hard work, and maybe a direct result of their efforts.

If an employee closes a high-value deal for the business, they may receive a reward such as an enhanced bonus, a gift card, or some other form of monetary reward. These rewards are things of cash value.

Recognition, on the other hand, does not have a cash value. We may think of those old-fashioned ‘employee of the month’ plaques hanging on a wall, but employee recognition can be anything from a verbal acknowledgement to a mass email to a shout-out in the latest employee newsletter.

Why is employee recognition important?

At the root of everything, employees want to be acknowledged and valued for their contributions. They also want to know that their managers or their teammates recognize when they go above and beyond their role.

The Society for Human Resources Management says that 79% of employees work harder due to being recognized in the workplace. 

So why is recognition so important to a successful workplace? A large part of the answer is based on value. While recognition is an important motivator, more than that it makes a person feel like a valued member of their team. Taking the time to acknowledge someone’s efforts shows that you value their contribution. 

Happy employees translate into a happier and more productive workplace. Research from the University of Warwick shows that happier employees are 12% more productive and that employees are less productive when unhappy.

Enhanced recognition is not only beneficial for employees, but it benefits their managers as well. Almost 90% of employees indicated that they placed more trust in their bosses who took the time to recognize them, vs. less than half of all employees who did not feel that they were recognized for their efforts. 

Recognized employees are engaged employees, and engagement is key to workplace success. Those employees who receive proper recognition realize that they’re not simply nameless pieces of a puzzle or a cog in the machine.

They hear that they matter, and that their work matters, and that motivates them to stay and contribute more to the company. 

How does recognition support employee retention?

It’s a common misconception that employees need rewards to stay motivated. Sometimes a simple workplace recognition program is all that it takes to turn the tide and encourage employees to put in their best effort or beyond.

According to research, 91% of employees say that a strong culture of recognition will motivate them to work for a certain company. 

If an employee has a choice between two roles—one at a company where they know that their efforts will be recognized, and the other at a company where their superiors may not even know their name let alone recognize their efforts—it seems obvious as to which employer they might choose. 

In a climate where companies are competing for talent, and employee turnover is a perennial concern across most industries, a recognition program may be one of the most effective tools in helping great employees stay, and will only serve to make your workplace more effective for those considering joining the team.

Related read: the employee lifecycle: how to develop and retain top talent.

How to ensure employees get properly recognized?

The most certain way to ensure people get properly recognized in organization is to create a culture of recognition.

This starts from the top, from managers, who set the example by scheduling time to recognize their team members, preferably publicly, for their contributions. They then encourage team members to recognize each other publicly too. 

It might take a little while, but if leaders are consistent then, over time, a culture of recognition will form.

How to build your employee recognition program?

Creating a culture of recognition is not entirely without its challenges. How should you properly recognize employee performance in a way that befits the employee’s effort? 

In a world where an entire generation grew up earning participation ribbons, how do you properly give credit to those who go above and beyond?

Start by looking at what you’ve already got

First, look at what exists within your current workplace culture and what might integrate well. What measures do you have in place for tracking when employees exceed their goals or KPIs? Your team might benefit from having a rewards program as well, or both a recognition and rewards program depending on the nature of the work.

Do you have an internal mechanism that can help with your recognition program, like a newsletter or an internal messaging system (Slack, Teams, etc.)? 

Also, remember to include everyone from rainmakers to support staff. Everyone deserves to have their efforts recognized, and will feel better for it. 

Keep an eye on the calendar 

For recognition to be effective, it should be done in real-time (or as quickly as possible). Quarterly or annual announcements do not have the same impact as a true acknowledgement in the moment of someone’s efforts. Frequent, regular recognition will inspire employees to work as hard as their coworkers to reach those same heights. 

Lastly, shout your praise from the rooftops

Ensure that recognition is public so that each team member can recognize their colleague’s achievements, and be inspired by their good work. 

If you can make the recognition visible outside the company too, even better. For example, one airline puts its employee of the quarter on the side of a plane!

What are fun examples of employee recognition?

Employee recognition is a way to inject some fun into the workplace and show off your company culture and personality, so I thought I’d end with some example ideas.

The Dundies (DIY Awards Ceremony)

Not every idea you have needs to be a ripoff of The Office but, in this case, it may not be the worst idea. A dedicated reward ceremony (with a bar tab) is a great way to bring teams together to recognize earth other for their achievements.

Have some fun with the awards too! Along with genuine praise, give out a few gag awards that highlight the personalities on your team.

Most Improved Parking Spot

If you work at a large enough facility where parking alone is an issue, recognize employees by upgrading their parking spot. It may seem like a small gesture, but a better, reserved spot can serve as a status symbol and give employees something to work towards.

If better parking isn’t an option, take a cue from the Simpsons and consider a pair of roller skates to ease their commute to the door. 

A Day at the Races

Think about how to offer employees experiences. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a racetrack, but a day out of the office can do a lot to recognize employees and boost morale. You may want to consider a team building activity, or even make it a day just for fun.

If not the ponies, look into local activities like an amusement park, arcade, zoo, bowling alley, go kart track, or even a rage room (leave the photos of the bosses at home for that one). If it’s just a fun activity, consider letting staff bring partners and children. 

Or, if you want to make employees really happy, consider allowing them a bit of time off. Either one day, or a few days, the recognition of their hard work can easily come in the form of paid time to rest and recover. 

Hire a Skywriter

Employee of the month plaques still work, but there are new ways of telling employees you appreciate them.

If the skywriter is a little much, think about posting on the company social media channels. A Facebook post, LinkedIn post, or a Tweet with that person’s name attached to the company’s brand is incredibly powerful, and shows that you’re not afraid to show employees how much you value their hard work. 

Further examples: 4 Fun Ways To Showcase Your Personality Through Employee Recognition

Final Thoughts on Employee Recognition

Employee recognition is important to the health of a business and the company culture. It’s also easy to implement and can cost little, or nothing at all, to show employees appreciation for the work that they do. 

These simple touches boost employee morale, and a happy employee is one that tends to stay for the long term. 

For the human resources professional looking to spice up employee recognition, there are great resources available online with further recognition program ideas, and statistical insight as to how employee recognition programs can benefit the overall business. 

Some further resources to help you nail employee recognition:

• How To Do Employee Recognition The Right Way (with Tom Short from Kudos)
• 10 Best Employee Recognition Platforms To Celebrate Top Talent In 2022
• 30 Creative Employee Recognition And Appreciation Ideas

The post Why Employee Recognition Is Important And How To Do It Right appeared first on People Managing People.

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61% of employees believe diversity and inclusion strategies are beneficial and essential.

(Ryba, 2020)

With DEI being so important to people, hiring a DEI consultant to help you identify and implement DEI work can go a long way to making your organization a better and more attractive place to work.

I consult with organizations to help them make HR, and other business operations, more accessible and inclusive. I do this by providing workshops and training on initiatives such as an accessible recruitment process and supporting people with disabilities.

This article will inform you about what a DEI Consultant is, how they can benefit your organization, how to know you are ready for one, how to go about hiring one.

This is important because there’s a lot that goes into choosing a DEI consultant that’s right for your company, and this will hopefully provide important insights you must consider before hiring someone to do the complex problems of DEI. 

• What is a DEI consultant?
• How can a DEI consultant benefit your business?
• How do you know if you’re ready for a DEI consultant?
• How to hire a DEI consultant?

What is a DEI Consultant?

DEI consultants help organizations create more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces to ensure increased employee engagement and help foster innovation. A DEI consultant can help you to:

1. Identify and hone your DEI goals
2. Help convey the importance of having DEI training and help you implement effective training on DEI issue
3. Evaluate and assess your DEI work.

How can a DEI consultant benefit your business?

Hiring a DEI consultant can help you to:

Help You Meet Your Goals

DEI initiatives should be implemented to aid the overall organization’s goals. A DEI consultant can help HR, managers, and executives to understand the organization’s DEI goals and how they relate to the overall organizational goals.

For example, committing to hiring more diverse candidates should contribute to the organization’s goal of reducing turnover. Hyatt Hotels was among the top five workplaces for diversity, and the company that awarded this found that leading employers had substantially lower turnover.

Another goal could be to increase employee development and engagement levels. A DEI consultant could identify that, due to the lack of inclusivity and diversity in the organization, engagement levels are low and people feel like the company only develops certain types of team members.

They can then help give training(s) around these topics, ensuring everyone is included to increase engagement. They’d also likely look at the type of people who are put in positions to be developed and how to ensure everyone in the organization has the resources to grow within the company.

Another goal that most companies have is to increase innovation. Innovation comes from diverse thinking. Therefore, having a consultant to educate on how to foster diversity and inclusion has been shown to also lead to greater innovation. It’s also been found that more cognitively diverse teams solve problems faster.

Help You Move Towards An Inclusive Culture

As well as tackling specific issues, a DEI consultant can help shift your company to a more inclusive culture overall. 

This means helping you understand how employees feel about the organization’s culture, and helping to break down barriers to understanding the underlying issues surrounding DEI within your organization.

This information will aid you in fostering a culture where everyone feels included through their expertise in DEI by looking at your recruitment process, policies and procedures, and day-to-day way of things. 

How do you know if you’re ready for a DEI consultant?

You’re probably ready for a DEI consultant if:

1. Your organization has started considering doing DEI work but doesn’t no where to start.
2. Diversity training has started but hasn’t been working effectively
3. Employees are complaining about the lack of an inclusive culture
4. You’re using your team members from diverse backgrounds to educate on DEI issues when they aren’t trained to do so
5. There was a major incident or minor incidents surrounding DEI.

How to hire a DEI consultant?

So you can see the benefits and think you’re ready to hire a DEI consultant. Here’s what to consider when hiring a DEI consultant for your organization:

The needs of your organization

For a DEI consultant to be successful, you need to be clear about your needs. This ensures they know the full scope of what they need to execute and help implement.

If you’re not sure about this, you can get a clearer understanding of your specific needs by asking your employees formally in a survey what they think of your culture around DEI, as well as look at your DEI metrics e.g. employee demographics, turnover, and retention rates of ERGs.

The consultant’s experience

First and foremost, the consultant you hire should understand the issues within DEI. It’s a complex field, so it’s important that the consultant you work with has a deep understanding and awareness of the main problem and how to address this problem in the workplace. 

There are a lot of specifics, but it’s important that they know theories, issues, and how to educate and consult on these things.

DEI experience to look out for (not comprehensive):

• Previous experience providing DEI insights (ideally in your industry)
• Creating an inclusive culture 
• Using and implementing systems and programs
• Leveraging their lived experience
• Conducting and implementing DEI training 
• Aiding in the implementation of DEI strategy.

A red flag is when the DEI expert claims that they are the expert and they know everything when no one truly knows everything.

It’s also important that the DEI Consultant has a good and solid plan and proposal to present to you and other leaders assigned the task of hiring them. 

This is to see if they can create a plan and showcase that they have a working knowledge of the issues you are looking at having them address once hired. 

Lastly, they should be able to demonstrate the ability to communicate with different and diverse stakeholders. They have to be able to take what they know of DEI and communicate with different folks in ways they can understand, and for your particular company and industry.

To gauge this, you should inquire about their knowledge about DEI issues and, ideally, they should show you a case study, or show clear examples, of previous experience showcasing their ability to speak to the various stakeholders involved.

Costs and Expenses

A DEI Consultant can be expensive which is why before hiring them it’s important to understand the scope of work they need to undertake in your organization. 

With this, you and the consultant can negotiate a price. Let’s look at the numbers and the range for hourly rates, shall we? 

Years of Experience	Hourly Rates
1-5	$50-100
5-10	$100-200
10+	$200-250

This is an average basis of what most consultants charge per hourly rate based on their level of experience, but understand it could look higher or lower depending on the depth and level of the expertise.

Next Steps

I highly encourage you to look at your organization to see where you’re doing well with regards to DEI space and where you could improve.

Remember, it’s OK not to know it all; it’s important to start the work, and continue to ask questions, as well educate yourself on these DEI issues and social issues. 

Hiring a DEI consultant can help you better understand your organization and meet your goals.

Some DEI Issues to Educate yourself on (Not Comprehensive) 

• Gender Expression
• LGBTQ2S+ 
• Indigenous History and Reconciliation
• Disability, Accessibility, Neurodiversity
• Cultural Competence
• Microaggressions and Unconscious Bias

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We’re passionate about the world of work, and how we can make it better. To help satisfy our curiosity, we’ve launched an interview series where we pick the brains of experienced leaders, business owners, managers, and individual contributors to get their thoughts on how we can collectively build better workplaces.

Join us in our next installment below as Sharath Jeevan OBE—Founder & Executive Chairman at Intrinsic Labs—shares his insights with us.

We’d love to get to know you a bit better, tell us a bit about your backstory.

I am the son of South Indian immigrants to the UK. So I felt pressure to conform and do the “right” things. I went to universities like Cambridge & Oxford and worked for companies like Strategy& and eBay. In retrospect I am glad I did. I met amazing peers and mentors and learned so much. 

But there was always a yearning (perhaps inspired from many summers in India) to make a bigger difference. So, for 10 days I founded a non-profit called STiR Education, which reignited the motivation of 200,000 teachers in over 35,000 schools and 7 million children in countries like India, Indonesia and Uganda. I was awarded an OBE and Honorary Doctorate for these efforts.

Through these efforts I became the world’s leading expert in intrinsic leadership. I wrote a book, “Intrinsic”, which has just come out in the US. It’s all about how we can reignite our motivation for ourselves and others in these challenging times—in our work, careers and also personal lives.

I have been supporting leading companies like L’Oreal, Shopify, Skyscanner to bring these ideas around Intrinsic Leadership to their leadership and workforces, through my organisation Intrinsic Labs. I also teach Intrinsic Leadership at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. 

If we were to ask a friend to describe your personality to us, what would they say?

Thoughtful, emphatic, caring, well networked, and someone who loves new ideas.

Thinking back to your career journey, what’s an interesting story that stands out? 

I’m of Indian origin, so I believe in the idea of Karma. I spent 15 years as a CEO myself and know how hard and lonely leadership is today. Especially in this current world where there are few predetermined answers to the challenges we face, and even fewer “right” answers. So it’s wonderful to now have the chance to support CEOs and senior leaders across sectors to grapple with these challenges. It’s like my career has gone full circle. 

It feels like so many of the “old rules” of leadership aren’t fit for purpose anymore. It’s a great chance to practically reinvent them with amazing leaders I work with. I use a “Guided Journey” process that helps them look at the direction they’re taking, how they keep themselves and their teams motivated, and how they can fully nurture the potential in themselves and others. 

What’s the most impactful lesson you’ve learned over your career thus far?

I think it’s that even the best leaders these days feel pulled in so many different directions—from the demands of boards, shareholders, employees and communities. That’s the inevitable fact of leadership today. 

The key is not just to let yourself get pulled in the direction of those with the loudest voice.

Really stand for something. Have a deep intrinsic direction that comes from your unique vantage point on the problem. Know what deeply motivates you and your teams. And know how to nurture the very best potential in others, from whatever background they come from.

If we can do these three things well, we’ll be much better leaders—and enjoy our journey as leaders far more. 

Thanks for giving us some insight into who you are! Let’s jump into things. When you hear the phrase “build a better world of work”, what comes to mind?

I think it’s about creating a world where all our motivation and talents are nurtured. Today, workforces mostly work not just for people who look and sound a certain way, but think and act in a certain way. They therefore exclude so many people from being their best selves at work.

It’s harder than before, but if you can do these things, you can engage people in a way that was never possible before. That’s what I mean by Intrinsic Leadership. 

For you, what’s the main blocker you see as standing in the way of building a better world of work?

We need to create workplaces where the ingredients of Authenticity, Connection and Excellence come to the fore. That means getting rid of the “mask” we wear as leaders and really standing for something—particularly something that we care about in terms of serving our customers, employees and communities. And making sure that our teams understand what we stand for and why it matters so much. That drives Authenticity & Connection. But it also means that we can really help our teams see the need for Excellence rather than apologise for it. 

What’s one thing within our control that we can practically do to build a better world of work today?

I think that we all need to become better Nurturers—people who take others to places they wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise. Nurturing is different from traditional managing, coaching or mentoring. It’s about building that Authenticity, Connection & Excellence in others. Nurturing can definitely be developed, and we can develop cultures of Nurturing in teams and organisations—something that I spent a lot of time on. 

What are some immediate steps someone could take to become a better nurturer or to grow a nurturing culture?

First of all, really commit to being a Nurturer. 

Then identify a couple of potential people who you think you could nurture and chat to them to see if they would find it useful. Agree norms and expectations. Then have an initial conversation to really understand where they would like to go and how you could deeply support them through your Nurturing. 

Once you have started the journey with a couple of people, you will start to be able to extend your Nurturing style to other areas of work and life. 

Can you share one thing you’ve experienced, seen, or read about that is leading us towards a better world of work?

With Intrinsic Labs we are building a really exciting network of Leaders—across sectors and around the world—who are committed to building these new rules of Intrinsic Leadership together. Please reach out if the Intrinsic Leadership Network is of interest. 

And the chapters on Work & Success in my book “Intrinsic” provide some powerful pointers on how we can reignite our motivation in our work and careers. 

I’m curious, thinking about building a better world of work, is there a company and/or leader who stands out to you as someone we should follow? If so, what are they up to?

Please watch this space—over the coming months I am going to be interviewing and profiling a number of unusual leaders who are breaking the mould. 

How can our readers follow your work?

Please follow me on LinkedIn (“Sharath Jeevan OBE”). 

You can pick up a copy of “Intrinsic” on Amazon or your favourite bookseller. 

And please visit Intrinsic-labs.com to find more free resources and sign up to my newsletter. 

Thank you for adding your voice to People Managing People’s interview series on How to Build a Better World of Work! 

It’s such a pleasure. Building this work of better leadership and work is a huge passion. 

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To be attributed by Naomi Humber, Head of Mental Wellbeing at Bupa UK. 

During the pandemic mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, increased due to a range of factors attributed to working remotely.

Bupa research found that a third of UK adults think that remote working has negatively impacted their mental health, while almost a quarter (23%) say it has eroded their sense of self-confidence. 

Remote working has led to some bad habits sticking, such as: 

• Not taking adequate breaks – causing low productivity and burnout. 

• Staying logged into digital work systems – work and leisure boundaries disrupted.  
• Limited interaction with colleagues – losing a sense of connection. 
• Extensive video calls – leading to employees feeling drained. 

In response to this, companies are introducing a wellness action plan to support employees, helping to provide a better working environment to boost overall wellness and good mental health.

Managers are encouraging staff to be self-aware, open to conversations, and not be afraid to ask for help when needed. 

What is a wellness action plan? 

A wellness action plan is an evidence-based system that helps employees develop ways to support their mental wellness with their manager. 

Employees are given the opportunity to document the issues that may cause them to become unwell, along with what they believe helps to keep them well at work. 

This list is then shared with their manager or a nominated colleague.  

What are the benefits of a wellness action plan for employees and managers? 

Mental health issues affect one in four people at some point in their lives and can have a significant impact on wellness and working abilities. Mental health is one of the most common issues of long-term absence from work.  

Managers who use a wellbeing action plan benefit from a greater understanding of their employees—including finding out about their experiences and needs. This extra knowledge can help you to identify and adjust to your employee’s needs, within reason, and helps to create an open culture within your team.  

Employees who feel empowered to share what makes them happy and well in the workplace will feel more listened to and supported.  

As a manager, what should I include on a wellness action plan? 

To be most effective, a wellness action plan should be completely personalized so you and your employee can develop it together. The document should have open questions, with multiple answers they can choose from to help express how they’re feeling. Example questions: 

• What do you feel and act like when you’re well and happy at work? 
• What do you find useful to support your own mental health and wellness? 
• What wellness initiatives have worked (or not worked) for you in the past? 
• What support or adjustments do you have in place or need? 

• What might trigger poor mental health or stress at work? 
• If you feel in poor mental health, how might this affect your work? (If at all) 
• What steps do you take to manage stress or poor mental health at work? 
• What support would be useful from your manager? 

How can I introduce a wellness action plan? 

Wellness action plans should be offered to everyone, including new starters. Check if your company already has a template in place. The charity Mind has an example WAP template that you may find useful.  

Set up a meeting with your team to discuss any plan ideas, including what it could look like and the questions you’re thinking about including. Encourage your employees to look at the questions and make any suggestions with anything that could be improved on to help it work best for everyone.  

Be flexible, make any adjustments to the plan before finalizing and signing off – and don’t forget to review the plan regularly. 

Some further resources:

• How To Create A Holistic Approach To Employee Wellness (with Anjan Pathak from Vantage Circle)
• 10 Novel Employee Wellness Program Ideas To Attract and Retain Top Talent
• 10 Best Employee Wellness Platforms For Employee Health & Well-Being

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For decades, organizations have leveraged the concept of mentoring to invest in key talent. In fact, mentoring programs are so popular that 84% of US based Fortune 500 companies report having a mentoring program including 100% of US Fortune 50.

Yet, despite the proven benefits of mentoring programs, research has shown that only 37% of employees cite having a mentor. Beyond this, it’s often unclear whether these programs are truly adding value or if they’ve simply become checkboxing activities.

The nature of how we work is fundamentally changing. As employers rapidly embrace agile work models, and even begin to shift away from jobs to skills, reskilling, upskilling, and cross-training have emerged as critical priorities.

Further, the move to both hybrid and/or fully remote working often leaves new and tenured employees alike struggling to connect with their colleagues and the company; a problem that can readily be solved through mentorship.  

As an HR leader and leader of people, I believe that providing mentorship to others is one of the single most important things I do.

Now is the time to invest in building up your people. When done right, high-quality mentoring programs can play an enormous role in impacting your company culture, developing your employees, and preparing them for the future of work at your organization.

In this article, I’ll take you through: 

• What is a mentorship program?
• How can a mentorship program benefit your organization?
• How to start a mentorship program in your organization

What is a mentorship program?

Mentorship programs are an organized approach to matching employees with a more experienced colleague who can act as a trusted coach or adviser to support their growth and professional development. 

Mentorship programs are all about taking a highly intentional approach to building human connections at your organization. Mentees gain the ability to develop critical knowledge, skills, and abilities through the coaching and guidance of their mentors.  

You may have heard of the 70-20-10 Model of learning and development for building a learning and development strategy. In this model, 70% of the way you develop your employees should be through experiential learning, 20% should be through social learning and 10% should be through formal.  

Mentorship is a significant element of any well-constructed colleague and leadership development program and ties to the social learning component of your overall learning and development strategy.

How can a mentorship program benefit your organization?

Mentorship programs provide a slew of benefits to both your organization and to your employees including not just those who participate as mentees but also to your mentors as well.  

Support Colleague Development

Through mentorship programs, your employees have the ability to learn and grow, whether the mentor or mentee. 

Mentees benefit by:

• Gaining a deeper understanding of their strengths and opportunity areas 
• Getting advice/feedback/perspective from other colleagues in a psychologically safe forum
• Gaining new skills, new perspectives, new relationships/partnerships around the organization, and a greater sense of belonging at your organization
• Better understanding the makeup of the organization (this is especially beneficial for newer colleagues and/or colleague at complex organizations that can be hard to navigate) 
• Gaining life skills that can benefit them even beyond the workplace
• Feeling more empowered to realize their career goals 

Mentors benefit by: 

• Developing their coaching skills and playing a different role than they might in their day to day work 
• Gaining new perspectives and relationships with employees around the organization 
• Potentially building succession plans and helping ensure that their knowledge, skills, and abilities are passed onto the next generation of talent.

Internal Mobility and Succession Slates 

As organizations across the globe battle for top talent, it’s imperative that they’re able to build slates of talent ready to be deployed as new opportunities emerge around your organization.

According to the Harvard Business Review, investing in your colleagues through mentorship has “a host of professional benefits, including more rapid advancement, higher salaries, greater organizational commitment, stronger identity, and higher satisfaction with both job and career.”

Your employees benefit by gaining a network of advocates who can help them navigate the organization, be a sounding board and coach through challenges, and ensure they’re focused on honing the key strengths needed to further their career goals. 

Develop Diverse Talent Pools 

The networking and mentoring partnerships built across your organization via mentorship can also play a significant role in supporting your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Mentorship organically helps spread diverse perspectives across your organization by allowing mentors and mentees to learn from each other and embrace the highly diverse makeup of your company.  

Further, many organizations use mentorship programs to invest specifically in underrepresented demographics within your organization. This can allow you to help build a pipeline of diverse talent ready to take on new challenges within your company, and help ensure your leadership team is representative of both your colleague base and the communities in which you live and serve.   

Enhanced Workplace Culture and Employee Engagement 

Ultimately all of these benefits boil down to building a better work experience for your people and increased employee engagement and retention for your organization. Higher levels of engagement translates to higher levels of performance and profitability.  

In today’s highly complex world of work, professional development is listed as the highest-priority investment that employers can make to improve company culture, and mentorship should be included as a critical part of any comprehensive effort to develop your people.

How to start a mentorship program in your organization

1. Revisit Your Talent Priorities 

Like all strategic human resources initiatives, building a workplace mentorship program starts first and foremost with your talent priorities.

Just prior to designing your program, you should revisit your organization’s talent management philosophy and get a better understanding of how the journey you’ll be embarking on will be docked into your strategic talent goals.

Consider what it is that you’re trying to accomplish through your mentorship program and how your mentorship program will contribute to your strategy. This will help define the guardrails or ‘bumpers’ that you use during the design phase, and ensure all of your programmatic efforts are working synergistically towards creating a great employee experience.

2. Design your program

Designing your program starts with a simple question: “What do you want your employee mentorship program experience to be like?” There’s no wrong answer to this question, except perhaps on a few points (see 2.5 Differentiating Design Factors section below). 

Consider the following questions for each of your key design decisions.   

2.1 Define Your Audience 

• Who do you want your mentoring program to support? 
• Are there specific demographics we are working to impact via our DE&I initiatives? 
• Who needs mentoring the most? Executives? Leaders of people? Future leaders of people? Individual contributors? New hires? Young people/early in career?  High potentials? 
• Are there specific segments of your business that are at risk of losing talent?  
• Should mentorship be a required activity or something your employees opt into?  

2.2 Program Enrollment 

• How will your employees enroll in the program? Can employees opt-in on their own or does their leader need to be involved in the process? 
• Are there similar programs at your organization that you can lean on for inspiration? Is there a specific tool that is commonly used at your organization that you can use? 
• Do we need to acquire mentoring software to support the mentorship process?  
• When should your employees enroll in the mentorship program?  When they are hired? Annually? Bi-annually? Whenever they’re ready? 

2.3 Define Responsibilities 

• What are the specific expectations of both your mentors and your mentees? What types of mentoring are you trying to provide(technical, leadership, etc.)?
• Do your mentors have the competencies and skills needed to provide quality mentorship to your program participants? Is there training needed to enable your mentors? Should some colleagues not be allowed to participate as mentors (too new to the organization, on a performance improvement plan, etc.)? 
• How will you match your mentors to your mentees? Will it be randomized or based on other criteria? Will you offer group mentoring or individual? 
• What does the future of work look like at your organization? Are there key competencies and leadership skills that need to be a focus of your program?
• What types of topics should be covered? Does the mentor/mentee have the latitude to define this, are they provided with a repository of topics to discuss or will this be driven centrally (i.e., monthly topics, webinars, etc.)?

2.4 Mitigating Potential Challenges 

Part of designing your program must include a proactive look at what might potentially derail your mentorship experience.  

I’d start by examining what hindered the success of other programs at your organization.  Beyond this, consider how you might address the following common challenges:

• Having more mentees than mentors
• Mentors/mentees not meshing well 
• Performance challenges and someone using this as an excuse to not work
• A mentor/mentee leaves the organization leaving the other without their mentor/mentee
• Ensuring that people are actually utilizing the program effectively
• Mid-level managers do not give employees sufficient time to focus on the mentoring program.

2.5 Differentiating Design Factors 

As I mentioned early in this article, mentorship programs are becoming increasingly common.  Your organization might already even have one. So how do you go about making sure that it’s as effective as possible?  

Consider the following differentiating best practices when designing your program:  

People Come First 

I am a huge proponent of involving your employees in the design process for all HR solutions.  For a great mentorship program, this isn’t optional—your people need to be at the center of the design process. If your program doesn’t meet their needs, they’ll never adopt your program.  

There are a few ways you can go about this. A more formal approach would be to leverage human-centered design experts to help support your process, but simpler approaches like surveys, focus groups, and listening sessions are all practical ways to ensure you’re leveraging the voice of your colleagues to create the best possible mentorship program for them.  

Minimize “Marginal Mentoring” 

The Harvard Business Review points out that “if there is a single, consistent Achilles heel in organizational mentoring structures, it is marginal mentoring.”  Marginal mentoring (or mediocre/ineffective mentoring) can actually be worse than not mentoring employees at all.

The plague of poor mentoring can stem from many sources. One of the major culprits comes down to aptitude—do your people have the right power skills in order to be strong mentors?  

Strong mentors are great listeners, communicators, givers of feedback, and networkers. If your mentors do not have these abilities, it’s critical that you provide them with the tools and resources to upskill in this space before you let them loose on their mentees.   

Another common pitfall is simply time. If your mentors and mentees aren’t given sufficient time within their day-to-day bandwidth, they simply won’t execute the expectations of your program.  

Make Your Program Mandatory

Studies have found that mentorship programs provide the most value if they’re mandatory. The risk of voluntary programs is that, often, the employees who need the most peer mentoring are often the ones who opt out of taking advantage of your program. 

Requiring mentorship helps ensure that none of your employees are left behind. This is especially critical when you’re leveraging your program to impact your DEI goals.  

Beyond this, mandatory mentorship helps solve the ‘marginal mentoring’ problem. Required work comes with performance expectations. This means your mentors and mentees are held accountable for the work they do in this space, are given regular coaching and feedback to ensure their performance is adequate, and are given sufficient time within their workload to contribute to your mentorship program.  

Automate, Automate, Automate 

It seems like we are looking everywhere these days for systems, processes, and tools to automate. Mentoring programs are a perfect candidate for automation.

Depending on the size and scale of your company and your mentoring experience, mentoring programs can create a significant amount of manual effort that would highly benefit from an HR tech solution to help minimize this workload and streamline the experience for your participants. 

Mentoring solutions, often found in technology solutions like talent marketplaces, can leverage artificial intelligence or specific algorithms to connect your mentors and mentees together based upon their unique competencies, strengths, and opportunities.

This helps minimize the oversight needed for your program, while ensuring the highest quality of matches between your mentors and mentees.   

3.  Develop Tools and Resources

The development of your program is going to be based closely on the key decisions of your design process. This may include the implementation of new mentoring software or other new tools to help manage your program.

Additionally, you’ll also need to develop all the tools and resources your program participants will need in order to be successful.  Examples might include: 

• Program Guide
• Roles and Responsibilities Overview 
• Job Aid – How to Be an Effective Mentor 
• Job Aid – How to Be an Effective Mentee
• Job Aid – How to Build an Individual Development Plan (IDP) 
• Job Aid – How to Begin the Mentee/Mentor Relationship  
• Job Aid – How to Conclude the Mentee/Mentor Relationship
• FAQs

4.  Build a Communication Plan 

Implementing a successful mentoring program is no small task. This could be a major change for your organization, especially if certain employee groups are required to engage in the program.  

It’s important that you leverage a well-thought-out change management process and build a communication plan designed to drive adoption. This plan should consider all key audiences who need to learn about the new mentorship program and help ensure they receive all the information they need every step of the way.

This is also your opportunity to market the benefits of your program, the value it will drive for both your employees and the organization, and help your employees see the investment you’re making in their personal growth and career development.  

5.  Call for Participants and Matching Mentors and Mentees 

This is probably the most exciting part—soliciting participants for your program! Once you’ve thoroughly communicated the intention of the program, you can move forward with identifying participants for the program.  

During your design phase, you will have identified how you will match mentors and mentees together. There are a couple of factors that I recommend that you try to balance here:

• Generally, you want to ensure that you’re connecting mentees to mentors outside of their team/business unit. This allows your participants to better contextualize how the work they’re doing contributes to your overall organizational imperatives as well as giving them a broader understanding of the business. 

• What competencies and skills do your mentors have that your mentees need? Matching junior employees with more senior-level colleagues, with strong subject matter areas in which they’re trying to grow and develop, helps ensure your participants will get the most skill-building out of the experience.

6.  Evaluate Success and Adjust Your Approach

All products, programs, and services that you provide to your employees should be iterative and mentorship programs are no exception to this rule. 

Make sure that you’re dedicating sufficient time, effort, and energy into this. It’s always tempting to jump directly into your next big idea to deliver more opportunities for your people, but your mentorship program will have been a major investment in your colleagues and you want to ensure you are getting positive outcomes out of your investment.

Your approach here is going to be very dependent on the design of your program and what goals you set out to conquer.

Your mentorship program needs to have a plan for ongoing maintenance, the collection of feedback, and the implementation of tweaks and enhancements to ensure it remains successful over time. 

Where To Go From Here

Mentorship programs can be a huge differentiator in how you develop, retain, and engage your talent, but only if done in the right way. 

Whether you’re building a brand new program or trying to stand up an existing one, you can leverage the best practices detailed in this article to ensure you provide your employees with an amazing mentoring program experience.

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We’re passionate about the world of work, and how we can make it better. To help satisfy our curiosity, we’ve launched an interview series where we pick the brains of experienced leaders, business owners, managers, and individual contributors to get their thoughts on how we can collectively build better workplaces.

Join us in our next installment below as Renée Safrata—Founder & CEO of Vivo Team Development—shares her insights with us.

We’d love to get to know you a bit better, tell us a bit about your backstory.

I was fortunate to grow up with an inspired entrepreneurial childhood. My father was an entrepreneur working with global clients out of his home office in the late sixties and seventies. I am grateful for how this set the context for my career as a solopreneur to then an entrepreneur.

I have owned and operated a small boutique design firm specializing in big-box retail throughout North America, an infant clothing line, a business that brought together CEOs and presidents each month for strategic learning and professional networking, a consulting business, and now Vivo Team Development. Each one has been a stepping stone to the next.

I’m a proud Canadian leading an outstanding team who are across Canada (Halifax, Toronto, and Vancouver).

If we were to ask a friend to describe your personality to us, what would they say?

I think they’d say that I have energy that just keeps ticking, I listen extremely well and I am loyal.

Thinking back to your career journey, what’s an interesting story that stands out?

One of the most interesting stories comes from 2019. As a female business owner in the midst of a capital raise for Vivo Team and a daughter to my best friend, I was faced with a critical choice to continue the raise or to choose to be at my mother’s side as she entered and completed her dying and death experience. I am a richer human being making the choice to be her loyal and best friend.

What’s the most impactful lesson you’ve learned over your career thus far?

There are so many! I think the top lesson would be to choose to always say “Yes”. 

They may be small or big yeses, but keep saying “yes”. 

Make decisions quickly. Rely on others and keep learning, unlearning, and relearning.

Thanks for giving us some insight into who you are! Let’s jump into things. When you hear the phrase “build a better world of work”, what comes to mind?

Disrupting employee disengagement and the big quit crisis.

A better world of work means adults solving problems, reaping the rewards of creating outstanding customer experiences, enjoying career achievement and a lifestyle they deem healthy, alive, and prosperous.

For you, what’s the main blocker you see as standing in the way of building a better world of work?

C-Suite executives who value profit over people and planet, meaning that they put the resources towards what they value and are blind to the significant impact investing in people and planet can make for all of us.

What’s one thing within our control that we can practically do to build a better world of work today? And, how do you recommend going about it?

Consider the invisible balance sheet—the people in the company. Value everyone’s contribution, and develop their competence, motivation, and collaboration to connect leaders and teams to be proud of their great work.

What does valuing everyone’s contribution look like? And, what steps can someone take to do this?

Recognizing the behaviours demonstrated that match expectations of performance. 

For example: “During that client meeting, I noticed you smiling and laughing when you were sharing a recent project story. I noticed the client smiling and enjoying the interaction. Well done!” You created a small personal and professional personable interaction. These interactions build trust over time.

Imagine you have a video camera in your hand tracking behaviors. Then make a point to bring them forward regularly.

What are some recommendations for how to develop competence, motivation, and collaboration?

P=MC3

Performance equals motivation times competence.

Focus on competence and motivation, collaboration will follow. Competence refers to the behaviors or skills required. You may need to model or show and focus an individual. It’s a way to build trust. With motivation, you need to provide support,. e.g., “I saw you build trust with customers in the past, now do the same with the new hires we just added to your team. I know you can do it!”

Can you share one thing you’ve experienced, seen, or read about that is leading us towards a better world of work?

I think COVID has shaken the world of work. If we embrace the paradigm shift over the next decade the nature of work will prove to be significantly different and will foster heightened flexibility of professional and personal lifestyles.

How can our readers follow your work?

• Website
• LinkedIn (company)
• LinkedIn (personal)
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook

Thank you for adding your voice to People Managing People’s interview series on How to Build a Better World of Work!

Add your voice to the conversation

Join our interview series and share your ideas for how we can build a better world of work! 

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As a kid, I was never great at getting to appointments on time. Unfortunately, this bad habit trickled through to my first job out of university, working in human resources at a downtown hotel. 

One morning, my manager hosted a meeting of other HR leaders and asked me to join. As usual, I showed up ten minutes late, even though I tried (in my mind) to be there on time. After the meeting, she asked me into her office, explained how disappointed and embarrassed she’d been by my lateness, and told me politely, but firmly, to never be late again.

I took that feedback to heart and made sure to never be late to that job again. Why? Because I knew the expectation was reasonable, she delivered the feedback perfectly, and also I respected the heck out of her.

Building on that experience, this article digs into the basics of why dealing with underperforming employees is important, how to know when a team member is underperforming, and five simple steps for managing underperforming employees.

Jump to:

• Options for dealing with an underperforming employee
• Why dealing with underperformance is important
• How to know when someone is underperforming
• How to correct someone’s performance

What are your options when dealing with an underperforming employee?

There are many examples of underperformance, or when an employee fails to meet performance standards or expectations, such as:

• Poor work quality
• Inability to meet goals or deadlines
• Continued interpersonal conflict
• Poor time management
• Excessive absenteeism or lateness
• Insubordination.

When a team member is demonstrating poor performance in some area of their work, you can either:

1. Ignore the problem: stick your head in the sand, and hope the poor performance will miraculously fix itself.
2. Fire the employee: terminate your team member’s employment and hire someone new.
3. Do the employee’s job for them: step in and take on the aspects of their work that they’re underperforming in.
4. Move them to a different role: they’re underperforming in their current role, but maybe they could do better in a different one.
5. Correct the performance issue: implement a structured performance improvement process, which can include additional training and development.

While the focus of this article is on option ‘5’ above, generally because it’s the best option to explore first, it’s not always the right option.

Why dealing with poor performance Is important

When it comes to deciding on one of the options outlined above, consider the following:

• Costs of employee turnover: according to Benefit News, a single resignation can cost a company up to a third of the employee’s annual salary. Two-thirds of this cost can come from things like reduced productivity and training someone new, with the other third coming from “hard” costs like recruiting.
• Impact on team morale: unless the underperforming employee works in a bubble, the odds are their co-workers are being negatively impacted in some way by their performance. Ignoring the problem or doing things for them doesn’t send the right message to the rest of your team.
• Respect for employees: firing someone might sometimes seem like an easier path, but if you’re “too quick on the draw”, especially if it’s an issue that could be corrected with a little effort, your team may see that as a lack of respect for the people you’re responsible for and can undermine feelings of psychological safety.
• Costs of correcting performance: sometimes, getting an underperforming employee to perform may simply be too expensive, too time-consuming, or impossible for other reasons. In these cases, you may need to make the tough decision to let someone go or move them into a different role.

How To know when an employee is underperforming

In the case of my habitual lateness, the issue was made clear to my manager when I finally showed up late for an important meeting. However, it’s not always this obvious. 

I remember working with one team member, a manager, who I thought was doing well. He was delivering on his performance goals, I’d received positive feedback from other managers, and customers liked him. 

However, when I talked to people who reported to him, I learned that there were issues. This prompted me to begin a performance improvement process.

Below are some of the many systems of checks and balances you can put in place to give you early warning about real or potential performance issues.

1. Establish SMART goals or OKRs: these provide a solid foundation that you and your team member can use to check progress. For example, if you both agree on a goal to “achieve weekly sales of $10,000”, and your employee is only closing on $5,000 per week, this could be an indication of poor performance. 
2. Regular check-ins and one-on-one’s: whether they’re virtual or in person, 1:1s are a critical part of assessing how an employee is performing. You can check in with your employee, hear from them about what they’re working on, learn about their progress toward goals, and understand any issues that may be affecting their performance.
3. Employee feedback systems: I learned about my team member’s poor performance from skip-level meetings I had with members of his team. Employee surveys, 360-degree performance reviews, and casual conversations with your employee’s co-workers are also useful feedback methods that can alert you to possible performance issues.
4. External stakeholder feedback: in addition to employee feedback, it’s important to get feedback from people outside of the organization, such as customers, partners, and suppliers. Data from things like customer reviews, Net Promoter Scores, and satisfaction surveys can often yield valuable insights into an individual’s performance.
5. Performance management software: most of the checks I’ve listed above can be implemented using good performance management software. This enables you to capture individual, team, and organizational performance data. Many software packages also provide data analytics, reporting, and automation to make things easier.

5 steps can you take to correct performance

One of your early warning systems has helped you identify a performance issue with one of your employees, and you’ve decided to try and correct the problem. Great, so now what? 

The steps you take will vary slightly on the exact nature of the performance issue, but the ones outlined below will apply to most situations where it’s just one aspect of an employee’s performance that’s a problem (e.g. lateness). 

If it’s the rare case where they’re underperforming in all areas, it may be worth considering moving the employee into a different role or out of the organization entirely.

Step #1: Check your facts and do some research

Before you even talk with the employee, be prepared to do your homework. There may be a variety of other reasons unrelated to your employee’s work that are impacting their performance, such as personal issues, underperforming colleagues, or lack of understanding of the expectations.

For example, if a customer is complaining about the technical support they received from someone on your team and the phone or email interaction was recorded, take the time to review the information. If your employee is behind on a project that relies on other individuals or teams, check in with those other employees to see if they’re on track with their deliverables.

Step #2: Reassess your performance standards

I remember working with salespeople to set revenue targets and, as often happens, pushing them to achieve higher numbers. In hindsight, there were many times when my expectations were completely out of line with the reality of what was achievable. 

Before you talk with your underperforming employee take a long, hard look at your expectations of their performance and ask yourself these questions:

• Have my performance standards recently changed e.g. become higher?
• Has my employee ever met these standards since they’ve been in place?
• Have other team members been able to achieve the same standards?
• Have I added new responsibilities that might be interfering with their performance?   
• Have I provided my team members with all the training and resources they need to meet my expectations?

Step #3: Conduct a performance management discussion

Once you’ve done your research, reviewed your performance expectations, and are reasonably certain there’s a legitimate performance issue, it’s time to talk with your employee. 

In my experience, performance discussions are an art form. There’s no recipe on how to conduct one since every issue is different and every person takes feedback differently. That said, you can find some best practices in our article, “How to Conduct a Better Performance Review”.

In addition to those practices, try the following:

1. Be concise: don’t beat around the bush; get right into explaining as concisely and factually as you can what the issue is from your perspective, and that the purpose of the meeting is to get their thoughts and come up with an action plan.
2. Be clear: they may not be meeting performance standards simply because they don’t understand why they’re important or how they impact their team or the organization.
3. Be honest: it’s OK to tell them if their poor performance leaves you feeling disappointed, embarrassed, or even angry. Similarly, if the issue is so serious they’re on the verge of being fired, they should know that too.
4. Be respectful: honesty is never an excuse to be rude or demeaning to an employee. It’s good to communicate hard messages as long as you’re doing it calmly and with respect.
5. Be empathetic: try to imagine how the conversation is going from their perspective. Is this a big surprise for them? Are they feeling overwhelmed or anxious? Are they dealing with personal issues?
6. Be curious: make sure to solicit their thoughts and opinions, and ask lots of open-ended questions. This will help you get the whole picture, help them realize there is an issue (if they’re defensive or defiant), and get them involved in the solution. For example:

• How are you feeling about your progress toward your project milestones?
• What support are you getting from engineering on building that new feature?
• Why do you think we missed that customer’s deadline?

7. Be supportive: explain to them how you’re prepared to support them, whether it’s with additional training and development, changes to their job, or simply emotional support.

Assess how the performance discussion goes before deciding whether to jump right into the next step of developing the performance improvement plan, or postpone it to a subsequent meeting. 

In some cases, your employee may be emotional and not in the right state of mind to discuss an action plan, or the issue may be more complex and require some deeper work to figure out.

Step #4: Develop a performance improvement plan

Once you and the employee agree that there is a performance issue and that you’re both committed to resolving it, it’s time to put together a performance improvement plan. This will typically include:

• Performance standard description: describe the aspects of the employee’s performance they’re working on e.g. sales goal achievement, co-worker communication, etc., and the specific standard they’re trying to achieve e.g. weekly sales of $XX.
• Action plan with SMART goals: detail the specific “baby steps” that the employee can take to achieve the performance standard you’ve set e.g. take a strategic selling course by XX date, reach out to YY prospects on LinkedIn by ZZ date, etc.
• Time period for evaluation: define how long the employee has to correct their performance. Typical plans range anywhere from 1-6 months depending on the performance issue.

Statement on importance: briefly describe why the performance standard is important to the organization. If the poor performance is serious enough, you may also need to state that their continued employment may be at risk if they can’t meet expectations.

Step #5: Check progress and recognize results

With everything clear and your performance improvement plan in place, it’s time for you to support your employee through executing it.

A critical part of this execution is getting regular feedback from you that they’re on the right track (or not).

Conduct regular 1:1 check-ins on their progress and, wherever possible, recognize and reward positive results. You can also use these check-ins for course corrections, help them through any obstacles to progress, and adjust the plan if necessary.

One last piece of advice

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! As a small token of my appreciation, let me leave you with one last piece of advice that I’ve taken to heart when it comes to managing underperforming employees: always assume positive intent. 

In my experience, most people want to perform their work well, and they take pride in a job well done. No one likes feeling or knowing that they’re doing a poor job so, until you know otherwise, assume that your team member will want to fix their performance as much as you do. This can help pave the way to a great collaboration and get things back on track.

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We’re passionate about the world of work, and how we can make it better. To help satisfy our curiosity, we’ve launched an interview series where we pick the brains of experienced leaders, business owners, managers, and individual contributors to get their thoughts on how we can collectively build better workplaces.

Join us in our next installment below as Dan Berzansky—CEO of OneTeam360—shares his insights with us.

We’d love to get to know you a bit better, tell us a bit about your backstory.

The path that brought me to the point of running a technology company stemmed from the strangest place…the swimming pool. As a teenager I was a competitive swimmer and spent many summers coaching swim. Even calling it a passion feels like a huge understatement.

When I graduated high school I received a scholarship to swim at Stony Brook University in New York. Each summer, I would come home to Southern California to coach and teach. In turn, I quickly developed a notable name as a coach. Right out of college, I took a job as an Aquatics Director, but quickly realized I needed to do more.

Thankfully, my boss realized the same thing, and agreed to pay for a portion of my MBA at Pepperdine. In a strange turn of events, as I graduated with my MBA, my new role in the organization became unavailable. While I could have stayed in my current role, my wife and I decided that I had to take the opportunity to strike out on my own.

From there, Premier Aquatics was born. Over the course of nearly 12 years, Premier Aquatics developed into the largest pool management company on the west coast of the United States. It grew to produce our sister company, Premier Swim Academy, a brand of swim schools.

As we continued to grow and grow, it became abundantly clear that we were in over our heads when it came to human resources. We had hundreds of employees at nearly a hundred sites. The truth is, we couldn’t keep up with discipline, daily management, communication, compliance and most importantly, engagement.

With that, the first version of OneTeam360 was born (which was originally referred to as “The App”). My developer and I dreamt up a system that would help us promote compliance, engagement, and communication within the team. We saw how it worked– and it worked well.

We made a system that rewards performance through a series of customizable levels. The system allowed even an employee at the lowest level to assign tasks, reward co-workers, and track all communication. It evolved into an incredible system that has changed the way small to medium sized businesses protect themselves and promote productivity, all in one.

If we were to ask a friend to describe your personality to us, what would they say?

Truthfully, if you asked one of my friends to describe me, they would likely say I am a nut. In fact, one of my team members recently described me as someone with frantic energy. I generally run at one million miles per hour and do not enjoy slowing down.

Thinking back to your career journey, what’s an interesting story that stands out?

A story that stands out to me is one that relates to my career and the story of how I made the decision to start OneTeam360. I have already mentioned why I came up with the idea, but the actual decision to create a company out of it is pretty interesting.

It started with one of my classmates at Pepperdine, Amar Ganwani. Amar was the smartest guy I knew, and someone I deeply looked up to. Months before we launched OneTeam360, I showed Amar “The App” just to give him ideas to help him better manage the team at his then-current company. Instead of just taking ideas, he wanted to use the system himself. At that point, the system was only a single tenant system, and bringing on another tenant wasn’t an option.

Long story short, one night over drinks, Amar brought up the idea of taking the system and redeveloping it to sell as a SaaS offering. After just a little bit of coaxing, I agreed to take it on as long as Amar agreed to remain by my side on the project. Without his push, I don’t think we would be talking here today.

What’s the most impactful lesson you’ve learned over your career thus far?

Simple… there is nothing more important than your team. 99% of the time, your team just wants to be utilized and feel a part of something where they can make an impact. Utilizing this fact can shift the entire workplace to be more motivated and productive. Keeping this core value has led me to create an entire business!

Thanks for giving us some insight into who you are! Let’s jump into things. When you hear the phrase “build a better world of work”, what comes to mind?

When I think of building a better work world, the #1 thing that comes to mind is communication. So many hiccups, glitches, hurt feelings, and such are due to poor communication.

Mis-communicated (or un-communicated) expectations can be so easily avoided, but still it remains such a common problem. Leadership must be intentional with accomplishing the goal of clear, consistent and open communication.

Great communication will never happen by accident.

For you, what’s the main blocker you see as standing in the way of building a better world of work?

I hate to be repetitive, but it is the lack of clear communication that I see as the main blocker. A lack of communication creates a low-morale work environment where employees feel disconnected from their company, and in turn, become unmotivated.

Clear communication can be the solution in what I consider a very messy and noisy work world. There are so many distractions, it is incredibly hard to remember all the things we should know. Having clear communication maintains a consistent tie between employees and the core values of a business.

What’s one thing within our control that we can practically do to build a better world of work today? And, how do you recommend going about it?

If I had to come up with one thing that we can practically do to build a better world of work, it would be to systemize all the important components of management that tend to get overlooked. This includes the way you communicate your goals and expectations, administer performance assessments, manage tasks, and document information. Without a formal system, it is nearly impossible to keep up with it all.

In today’s age, we have a huge advantage that we didn’t have before; technology! Now, we can utilize technology to automate management tasks that are overlooked. At its most basic level, technology is a tool to make tasks easier. This is the first step in building a better world of work. However, software can be crafted to build genuine human connections between people in a way that wasn’t possible before. So, I harnessed that ability and ensured OneTeam360 met every practical management need, like extensive documentation features that protected companies in the legal sector. But I also went one step further and created a gamified software system that fosters the personal connections between companies and employees.

Can you share one thing you’ve experienced, seen, or read about that is leading us towards a better world of work?

The biggest influence for me lately is the book Traction, by Geno Wickman. Traction systemizes the way we track performance for leadership teams, and it gets all parties rowing in the same direction.

The book includes many useful strategies that are geared towards taking control of your business, utilizing momentum, and eliminating common problems– which is one of my main focuses. I have read the book three times, and every time I read it, I end up with new takeaways.

I’m curious, thinking about building a better world of work, is there a company and/or leader who stands out to you as someone we should follow? If so, what are they up to?

The work of Geno Wickman (the author of the book I mentioned before) definitely stands out to me. His Entrepreneurial Operating System and the idea of identifying and harnessing the individual qualities of every business is a game changer for me.

How can our readers follow your work?

My work can be followed through my Linkedin profile, and our eblast list through OneTeam360.com.

Thank you for adding your voice to People Managing People’s interview series on How to Build a Better World of Work!

Add your voice to the conversation

Join our interview series and share your ideas for how we can build a better world of work! 

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