For the first time, we have five different generations in the workforce – but the things that drive Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Baby Boomers and Traditionalists are very, very different.
To cater to them all you need to rethink a lot of things you take for granted inside your business, from communications and technology to recruitment, working practices, incentives and process automation.
Recently at the NextGen in Business conference we heard from global experts about their insights on how some of the world’s most advanced companies are turning these problems into a new opportunity.
Hubspot Australia
Claudia Shepherd, Culture & Engagement Manager at Hubspot Australia, said throughout the whole employee lifecycle, employees need to feel their company cares about them and that this is core to creating great company culture.
Shepherd said for millennials the ‘care factor’ is more important than any perks a company can provide. Here are Shepherd’s four hot tips for creating and growing workplace culture:
- Train your team to give AND receive open feedback.
- Don’t wait for meetings to check in on concerns or performance.
- Allocate responsibilities and activities to team members for creation of culture.
- Team culture and activities don’t need great monetary investment. Sometimes the simplest activities can be the most effective; like a team walk around the block.
Netflix
Patty McCord, Netflix’s culture architect, shared her wisdom on creating a culture of freedom and responsibility.
McCord focused on the importance of honest conversations with employees, which is similar to Shepherd’s tip of training your team to give AND receive open feedback. McCord said for employees to grow and improve they need clarity, honesty, reality and judgement. They need to be privy to the profit and loss of the business. That way employees can engage with the business’ goals and success.
McCord believes human resource management is not about making people happy but facilitating the joy and fulfilment for employees in achieving something. The aim of leaders in creating an organisational culture should be to ‘create a great place to be from’ to make people proud of working there rather than just using employee retention as a yardstick of company culture.
McCord said leaders need to play to WIN and to change their assumptions to:
- Employees need clarity, honesty, reality and judgement.
- Employees are trustworthy adults.
- High performance results are ALL that matter.
- Discipline and structure for people and performance outcomes.
- Culture needs to go beyond engagement to creating company spirit.
Start honing your skills to tackle the next generation of business challenges and make your workplace work better. How is your workplace culture? At Harrison Human ResourcesTM we regularly facilitate employee engagement surveys and HR audits to implement strategies that build high performance culture.
Contact Harrison Human Resources on 1300 001 447.
Claire Harrison is the Founder and Managing Director of Harrisons, a flourishing HR consulting business that sprouted in 2009 from Claire’s passionate belief that inspiring leaders and superstar employees are the key success factor to any business. With over 20 years’ experience, Claire has worked as a HR Director of multi-national organisations, as a Non-Executive Board Director, and a small business owner. Claire’s corporate career includes working with companies such as BHP, Westpac, Fonterra and Mayne Nickless.
