The Secrets to Building a Wildly Profitable Organization

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Profitable Organization|The Secrets to Building a Wildly Profitable OrganizationIt’s no secret that every CEO and executive leader wants a profitable organization, but reaching that goal may seem elusive. With companies going through high turnover rates, you might wonder what causes some leaders to struggle with building their organizations.

I’ve witnessed highly intelligent CEOs start companies with excellent ideas. Some would make a great start but flounder around and not really gain the momentum of success. At the same time, others with similar skills and intellect would take off like a rocket and be wildly successful.

What was the difference between the two? Was it just “luck?” Was it the “timing?” Was it “location?”

No! It all boiled down to the fact that one CEO knew how to create and leverage a talent-centric organization (TCO).

You can have the same success with your company by learning these five secrets to building a wildly profitable organization (hint: they all build a TCO, too).

Create an Amazing Work Environment

Let’s start with the basics that many CEOs may overlook. You must have an amazing work environment. You need a place that attracts talent and makes them want to be at work. Maybe you already have this. If not, you need to find out why. What is in the way of the company being a place where employees love to work? Then, create an amazing work environment that draws in and retains top talent.

When you talk to potential candidates or new hires, the enthusiasm will shine through if you believe the company is a great place to work. Others will feel it and buy into your sales pitch.

Have a Clearly Defined Workplace Culture

The workplace culture is how things are done within the organization. Culture is like a company’s brand image. It consists of its vision (where they are headed, its goals) and its mission (how it will get there, the strategy).

When the culture is well-defined, it gives the company character and purpose. It provides a sense of calm and organization. Some leaders may not think culture and vision are that important. So, they come up with a vision statement that doesn’t indicate who the company is.

Over time, it will be evident that the culture is haphazard when it changes with the circumstances. You don’t want to be all over the place with company values and vision. Instead, think it through carefully; then establish what culture is and put it in place across the board.


Bring Talent On Board That Aligns With Company Culture/Vision

Once you know what your company is all about, you’re ready to focus on the best talent since you have its culture and vision spelled out. The best talent doesn’t necessarily mean that person with the most skills and experience. You want to ensure you bring people on board who align with the company’s culture and vision.

Not every person will be the right fit for your culture, and that’s ok. Don’t try to make your culture work for everyone. Establish what your culture is, then recruit talent that matches it. You’ll find much less turnover when you find talent that is an ideal fit for your company.

Encourage Employee Feedback and Communication

Nurture an environment of employee feedback. You don’t want to stifle communication from your employees. Their thoughts, opinions, and perspectives are highly valuable to CEOs.

Employees need to feel that they can speak up (respectfully) without fear of reprisal. This cultivates transparency and open dialogue that can be helpful for CEOs. Remember, they are not dealing with the same things the employees are, or if they are, it is from a different vantage point. SoThis enables them, they can to glean information about changes they may need to make or as well as areas that are working well.

Invest in Your Talent with Development and Training Opportunities

Once you find talent that is aligned with and ideally suited to the company culture, you want to develop their skills and abilities. Provide them with development and training opportunities. Most people thrive on challenges and learning new things and are bored when there is a lack of stimuli.

Go ahead and give your employees the chance to move beyond their comfort zone and excel. You will be doing yourself a favor, too, because you are training the lower-level talent to take over higher positions as they become available. In other words, you are training to retain.

As you provide team coaching and leadership development opportunities (where appropriate), you create the building blocks of a wildly successful organization.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Carol SchultzCarol Schultz, founder and CEO of Vertical Elevation, is a talent equity and leadership advisory expert with 30 years in the business. She’s helped hundreds of companies transform their organizations and create sustainable, talent-centric cultures that run at maximum efficiency. Her new book is Powered By People: How Talent-Centric Organizations Master Recruitment, Retention, and Revenue (and How to Build One). Learn more at verticalelevation.com.

The 5 Things You Need To Provide For A Happy Workforce

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Happy workforce|The 5 Things You Need To Provide For A Happy WorkforceToday’s workforce is very different from the ones of the past. To attract and retain employees today, providing an environment that meets their needs and expectations is essential. This requires a new way of recruiting, onboarding, and retaining top talent.

Changing your way of thinking about employee retention isn’t easy. And it can be challenging for most company leaders to make this leap of faith. If you are sick of losing good employees, read on to learn why happy employees leave and what you can do about it right now.

The Problem With Employee Retention

Undoubtedly, employee retention is a massive problem for most companies. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the average employee leaves their job after less than two years. Although there are many reasons employees leave, the Workforce Institute research indicates that most people leave their jobs because they don’t feel appreciated or are treated poorly.

Almost two-thirds of workers said they felt more appreciated at their last job than at their current one. That’s a lot of unhappy employees who might look for a new job soon. When your employees leave, it costs you money. And it takes time and money to recruit new talent, onboard them, and get them up to speed.

What Are The Benefits Of A Happy Workforce?

A happy and engaged workforce can do so much for your company. Employees who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to stay with their company. Looking after your staff means you enjoy improved efficiency, among other things. They’re more likely to put in more hours, work harder, and be more innovative than employees who don’t feel valued. A happy workforce is contagious; employees want to share that feeling with others when they feel valued.


1. Offer Remote Work And Flexible Work Hours

If you have employees who travel frequently, or if your business is in a field that requires employees to work remotely, this is an easy win for your company. Offering remote work or flexible hours shows your employees that you understand that their lives are not all contained in their work hours. In addition, when you offer these benefits, you show your employees that you care about them as people, not just as workers.

2. A Little Bit Of Recognition Goes A Long Way

It’s important to remember that your employees are human beings. They crave recognition for the work they put in and the challenges they overcome. The problem is that most companies don’t offer much in the way of credit. When you offer your employees more recognition, it shows them that you care. It shows that you are aware of their contributions and that you appreciate them.

3. A Workplace Where Employees Feel Valued

To feel valued by your company, employees need to see that you appreciate them. You must treat your employees with respect, pay them fairly, and offer benefits that increase their quality of life. Employees feel motivated to do their best when they feel valued at work. As a result, they feel like they belong in the office and want to stay with the company.

4. Culture Is Key

It’s no secret that the most successful businesses have strong cultures. When you focus on creating a positive and engaging workplace culture, you make your employees feel like they belong. You let them know that they are appreciated and needed. A strong culture also means that you have a set of values that are clear to every employee. This helps make decisions and solve problems easier, as well as build trust among your employees.

5. Pay For Professional Development

Most employees want to grow and learn new things. They want to expand their skill sets, try new things, and challenge themselves. They want to look back after a year or two and know they have accomplished something meaningful. When you offer the opportunity for employees to attend conferences, take online courses, or attend training seminars, you show them that you care about their professional development. You can take this one step further and help workers from other walks of life work for you. Applying for LMIA can help you find workers to fill an imminent need in your company.

The Bottom Line

A happy workforce is one where the employees feel valued, are challenged, and are part of a strong culture. When you take the time to invest in your employees and create an environment where they can thrive, you are less likely to lose them to opportunities elsewhere. Replacing your old ways of thinking about retention with new ones makes keeping your best employees much easier. Remember, it’s not enough to hire good employees; you also need to keep them engaged and motivated, so they want to stay with your company for the long haul.

Make Working From Home Work For Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Working from home|Make Working From Home Work For Your BusinessFor all the horror and sadness Covid-19 has inflicted on the world, history tells us that seismic global events often lead to unexpected changes in the way life and business are conducted.

World War II permanently altered our outlook on virtually every aspect of life and Covid has certainly given every business owner and employee a new perspective on effective working practices.

The Motivation for Working from Home

In the pre-Covid world, there was a relatively small and select band of people who worked from home. Plenty would check emails, organize shift patterns, and create a quick weekly schedule from the comfort of a couch, but the office was still king when it came to working.

Covid made working from home the norm and the enforced physical separation from colleagues has shown business owners that this model can be incredibly effective.

Time and money are saved on an unnecessary commute, the online nature of modern work means that fear of an employee neglecting their duties has virtually disappeared. Zoom calls, Teams calls, Google chats – it all works just as well as a meeting room.

The Right Tools for the Right Working Environment

There are, of course, pitfalls when it comes to working from home. Some of them are quite amusing, while some are not.

The sight of a stray kid wandering through the background of a high-level Zoom call, the illuminating décor of a colleague’s house that you never imagined, or a dog strewn across the couch have all produced a welcome chortle to the new business call.

Where things become less amusing is that famed glitch in the matrix that comes from a dodgy internet connection. Thankfully, the online world has switched on to new working practices. A reliable connection is the right of every working American and organizations like the internet service provider in Vistancia are guaranteeing a new sense of reassurance that encourages the work-from-home culture.


Say Goodbye to the Nine-to-Five

Covid has also demonstrated to business owners, and more importantly, to employees that the old practice of a nine-to-five in the office does not work.

If a worker feels at their best at 4 am, working from home allows that person to produce their optimum level. People are all wired differently, so some find their best form late at night, while others find it in the early morning.

Business owners are learning to embrace this new phenomenon and it is producing results. Make your business work around the staff and everyone will benefit.

The Final Word

Business changes all the time, new ideas are introduced, and old ones are discarded.

The key for a business owner is to show flexibility that allows the employee to be at their best. If the job is done well, who cares about the when, where, and why? Motivated employees will do a great job in every environment. All they want is a profession that allows them to flourish.
Business is about results and working from home has been proven to give great results. Just mind the dog.

6 Ways To Improve Productivity In The Office

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Improve office productivity|6 Ways To Improve Productivity In The OfficeDriving office productivity is a ley task within every office-based business. Over the years, there have been many drastic attempts to improve productivity that have ultimately failed. More subtle, empathic models of productivity provocation typically bear the most fruit. Here are six ways that a business can improve office productivity.

Listen To Your Staff

Contented staff are typically productive staff. Employees will not work to their full potential if they feel like their concerns are not being listened to. Every responsible business owner needs to listen to employee concerns about bullying, office culture, performance roadblocks, and discrimination. Employees are working on the frontline – their perspective is extremely valuable and can help drive institutional change that ultimately increases productivity.

Accept The New Normal

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses have struggled to negotiate the transition back to office-based work. Many employees have simply quit their jobs when forced to go back into the offices they despised. The companies that are having the most success with the transition into a post-pandemic world are those that are able to see the benefits of a hybrid system. Allowing employees to spend some of their working lives at home or in the office is a perfectly good way of embracing the new normal while maintaining the ability to call workers in.

Hybrid working models are a great way to maintain pre-pandemic levels of productivity without simply embracing the bad old ways. It can only be implemented, however, when there is adequate security measures implemented to protect the company when people are working remotely.

Design Your Office Space Adequately

Good office design can go a long way. There have been some rather dismal office configurations popular in the past that have – quite understandably – driven employees to hate their jobs. The dreaded ‘cubicle office’ is perhaps the most famous example of a depressing office configuration. Human beings need to be in a pleasant and natural environment if they are to work to their full potential. Check out these five office design tips that can improve employee satisfaction. Modern office spaces that produce happy, productive employees are typically semi-open in design and feature live plants, places to relax, and the option of some genuine privacy. Make your office a place that people actually want to work in.


Offer Good Benefits

In order to cultivate a productive workplace, you need to give employees good benefits. Unless employees are well paid, their wages will not cover expenses during a pregnancy, dental or legal emergency. In the United States of America, companies need to cover some kind of health insurance as a minimum benefit in order to retain happy employees. However, if you want to retain loyal employees for a longer period and have lower turnover rates, then you should consider other benefits than just the bare minimum. This could include things like paid maternity and paternity leave, so staff can feel secure when they take time off to be with their new family, or regular recognition and small bonuses for high-performers – it doesn’t have to be a large amount of money, a small gift card can go a long way in making people feel appreciated.

Use Project Management Software

Poor project management is one of the most common reasons that businesses reach stumbling blocks in their schedule. No matter how simple a project seems, it will still involve multiple stakeholders, budgeting issues, multiple workers, and the need for accurate communication. More complex projects typically require regular reporting, complex data sharing, and multiple teams working in conjunction with one another.

Project management software makes projects far more efficient and cohesive by combining reporting, communication, monitoring, and just about every other essential area of project management. If you don’t use project management software in your office, you have fallen somewhat behind the times.

Don’t Push Multitasking

People working in offices are often expected to take on too much at once. While multitasking might seem like an acceptable way to drive up productivity in a workforce, it can actually damage overall productivity. Set guidelines for task delegation should be written up to make sure that managers do not ‘pass the buck’ onto their staff colleagues. In recent years, a great deal of academic attention has focused on the development of effective delegation styles. Read up on the latest organizational psychology research before committing to a set of rules.

Staff members that are allowed to focus on one task at a time are more likely to work efficiently and effectively. This will ultimately drive up productivity.

How to Encourage More Employee Loyalty in a Post-Pandemic World

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Employee loyalty|How to Encourage More Employee Loyalty in a Post-Pandemic WorldAfter the Great Resignation, it’s becoming increasingly apparent to employers that they will need to do more if they want employees to be loyal and stick around for a long time. The attitude towards the workplace has shifted significantly since the COVID19 pandemic and more and more employees are now putting themselves first, thinking nothing of quitting for better opportunities if one comes their way.

Because of this, employers need to think outside of the box and come up with creative ideas to encourage employees to stick with them. These days, employees aren’t going to stick around just because they have a job – there is so much more on offer elsewhere. Some of the main things that you can do to encourage more employee loyalty include:

Provide a Great Place to Work

First and foremost, employees do not want to feel like they are a slave to the company that they work for. Providing somewhere to work that is fun, interesting, and challenging for employees while rewarding them handsomely for the effort that they put in will not only attract more of the top talent to come and work for you but will also encourage them to stick around for longer. Focus on providing a workplace that people will not want to leave, even if a potentially better opportunity comes along.

Offer Health Benefits

After the pandemic, an increasing number of people care more about their health and wellbeing than they did previously, so it only makes sense for employers to take notice of this and offer benefits that employees will want to take advantage of for better health. Along with offering health insurance through your company to provide employees with more peace of mind when it comes to medical bills, you may also want to consider offering supplemental health benefits where employees can get discounts on additional insurance products, medical products, healthy food and more. Find out more about how some available health benefits compare with Soultran.


Invest in Employees

These days, employees don’t want to work somewhere where they often feel like they could be replaced at any moment. To encourage your best employees to remain loyal and continue working for your company for a long time, it’s important to invest in your people. This might be in the form of offering training opportunities for future promotions, paying towards the cost of online degree programs and more. The more you put into your employees, the more you are likely to get out of them.

Prioritize Mental Health

Last but not least, mental health in the workplace has become a hugely important topic over the past few years, especially after the COVID19 pandemic which had a huge impact on peoples’ mental health around the world. As a company, one of the best things that you can do to show your employees that you care about them as people and are a company worth sticking with is to make their mental health and wellbeing a priority.
With employees leaving companies that don’t meet their needs at a rapid rate, it’s time for employees to change their approach to employee retention and focus on providing a workplace that encourages workers to be loyal for the right reasons.