The Art of Retention: Strategies for Keeping Key Personnel in Your Organization

Aug 14, 2023

By Judith Mewhort, Managing Partner, Montridge Advisory Group Ltd.

The challenges that employers have faced over the last three years have been extraordinary.  Having survived the Covid-19 pandemic,  business owners and human resource directors now must adapt to a partially or fully remote workforce, quiet quitting, a rise in mental health concerns, a desire for greater flexibility, and so much more.  The shift in the concerns of workers worldwide has made it increasingly difficult to retain staff and none more so than your key people.

So what is an organization to do? The answer may surprise you. In a survey from Employ, 1200 HR decision makers and recruiters stated the number one reason people left their organization was for more money (37.1%). However, a recent article in Leaders Magazine, citing several surveys, concluded that while employees state that better pay is important, it ranks tenth, not first! Resolving the disconnect between what organizations feel is the key to retention versus what employees express is important to them could be a significant factor in your company’s future success.

So what are the areas that are important to workers and even more so to your senior people:

  • Purpose and mission
  • Alignment between their personal values and the company’s culture
  • Opportunities for advancement
  • Flexibility regarding hours of work as well as taking leave
  • Growth and development opportunities
  • Impact and influence over critical changes

So what are the things your organization can do to improve retention?

Be Clear About Your Firm’s Reason For Being 

This is more than a slogan. This is the embodiment of your values and how you demonstrate those values over time. To get it truly right, strategies, goals, tasks, and the work environment must reflect those values in large and small ways. For example, at Montridge, our Mission is “To support our clients in caring for the physical, emotional, and financial well-being of their employees”. Therefore, our work culture must reflect that mission not only for our clients but for our own employees. To help the well-being of our employees, we have implemented flexible work hours, a generous vacation allowance, a hybrid working model, and financial support. Our mission shows up in a variety of ways including an adaptable leave policy and adjustable working hours that enable people to pick up children from school or to take elderly parents to medical appointments.

When you look at your organization’s mission, is it supported at all levels of your firm in both small and large ways?  If not, you likely have some work to do.

Nurture and Promote From Within

Promoting from within often garners increased loyalty which is one of the keys to retaining staff.  It is important that employees understand the steps necessary to move forward in their career path, such as goals to be met, courses to be taken, and skills to be demonstrated. Leadership needs to provide regular, meaningful feedback and ensure that skill and technical development is part of the nurturing and training of the next generation of management and leaders.

In addition to providing a clear road map to career advancement, it is vital that unconscious bias or discrimination doesn’t get in the way of promoting people. Your organization will lose excellent people who become frustrated and discouraged if they are overlooked due to our human tendency to want to be around others that look like or think like us.

If your organization is smaller with a relatively flat hierarchy promoting from within is still possible. It’s more about providing interesting work and offering new challenges for those that want them more than a new title.  However, be prepared to offer additional compensation or other perks when increasing job duties or responsibilities. Piling on more work without recognition and reward is a surefire way to a rapid exit.

In addition, there is often a longer timeline to leadership roles within a smaller organization due to fewer positions but the ability to have a greater impact on a firm’s trajectory will be rewarding in and of itself for the right candidate provided that there is a forward movement for their career path and the company.

Offer Professional Development Opportunities

Fresh ideas and the ability to share challenges, problems, and successes with colleagues in the same industry or profession can bring a fresh perspective and new energy to your management team. Industry conferences, working groups, courses, and working toward designations or degrees can be incredibly powerful. Developing new skills improves technical abilities but also provides employees with a confidence boost and can enhance problem-solving abilities.

When markets change or growth slows, professional development or travel is often an area in which firms cut back. While this can be a sensible approach in market downturns, it can come at the cost of slower long-term growth. Employee turnover is expensive.  Losing key people even more so. Be careful not to reduce expenditures that are central to retention, training, and promotion in the long term as a way to bump the bottom line in the short term.

Ensure Transparent Communication Both Up and Down the Reporting Hierarchy

The importance of clear, bi-directional communication cannot be overstated. When plans and strategies only travel in a downward direction with little or no meaningful input from those on the front line or nearest to the problem, the result is frustration, feeling undervalued, and being overlooked.

Not being heard or having one’s ideas co-opted by another may be the fastest way to having your best, most engaged people leave your business.

In larger organizations, a structured hierarchy can have many benefits but cross-pollination of ideas is not one of them. Ensure that there are both formal and informal ways to have information and ideas transmitted. Make sure that there are regular check-ins for key people with both their reports and those that supervise their growth and development.   When adopting new ideas, new technology, or new divisions, make sure that all the stakeholders are present and providing input, and the feedback of those on the frontlines be incorporated into the planning.

Offer Benefits Tailored to the Needs of Your People

Benefits and compensation are the go-to when employers are looking at recruitment and retention strategies. It makes sense, as 80% of potential hires consider compensation and the quality of benefits when weighing job opportunities. But the key to retention for senior people lies with aligning your benefits to support your mission and values as well as ensuring that the benefits on offer resonate and provide a degree of customization and individualization.

There is a tendency within organizations to want to treat everyone the same. Unfortunately, a plan that treats everyone the same is not equitable as the needs of individuals at various points in their careers differ. One of the best ways to find out what appeals to your key people is to ask them. Survey your key people to find out what their priorities are and be prepared to adjust benefits and compensation to suit their needs. Flexibility can be built into an existing framework through a variety of methods without creating a discriminatory situation. Allowing you people to tailor their total compensation to suit their individual needs whether it is enhanced leave, greater retirement contributions, more support for family, or support for charitable causes will go a long way to improving their perception of your organization as one that cares about them as an individual and values their role in your company thus increasing loyalty and productivity.

One additional word of caution is to ensure that compensation to your current key staff is equal to or better than anything you would offer to attract a new hire for the same position.  With compensation transparency legislation in force or planned for many jurisdictions, existing staff can easily determine if your organization is more interested in attracting new talent than retaining those already contributing to the success of your firm.

Manage Change Well

As companies grow, change is necessary for survival. The next generation of leaders needs to be involved in creating and leading that change and not simply left to implement policy after the fact.

When managing change, it is very important that people at all levels of the organization understand the reasons change is necessary, what the nature of the change will be, the plan to implement and follow through on the proposed change, how the process will be communicated, and how roadblocks will be dealt with as they arise. It is especially important that key people are armed with the necessary communication tools to convey their ideas, concerns, and frustrations but also those of their direct reports and frontline workers.

Companies need to be open to, and have a process for encouraging key people to propose and champion new ideas and processes. Ambitious, curious, and driven key people will leave an environment that is stagnating. Conversely, many companies are guilty of chasing the next shiny new thing without working through the recommended steps in the change management process or abandoning the change part way through the process. Stagnation or change for the sake of change are both surefire ways to lose your best and brightest.

Conclusion

As with many things in life, complex problems have simple, easy-to-understand wrong answers. When considering retention strategies for your key personnel, it is not enough to simply consider enhancements to compensation and benefits. While those are both important for your senior people – or those who wish to be – it is all the other more complex and harder to define elements that are key to retention.

Employer Branding Starts Here

Jun 6, 2023

By Vivo Team

The best  brand ambassadors for your company are already sitting at the table! Your employees shape your culture, demonstrate your values, and live your vision and mission everyday.

“What’s important for me, as leader of the company, is I want to make sure that everybody can embrace our core values. That I too want to be a creator. I want to be a leader. And I want to be a champion. If we can all align with that, then we’ve got something to build on.”

– Renée Safrata, Founder and CEO, Vivo Team

Here are some ways to facilitate ongoing alignment to your employer value proposition.

Accountability to the Vision, Mission, and Values

With good leaders and managers that are tightly connected around their accountabilities, you will have an equation for success. Be accountable to your values, your vision, and your mission. Accountability isn’t a one-and-done. It’s all about ongoing alignment.

Here, Renée expressed: “I want my employees to be able to achieve our vision, mission, and values in their day-to-day and in their career achievement with us.”

Behaviors demonstrate accountability, so it’s important to behave in a way that supports and reinforces your vision, your dreams, and your aspirations.

One way we do this at Vivo Team is on a weekly basis, we provide feedback to one another in response to the question: “What are the behaviors that I, or others, demonstrated that align with our values?” It keeps our coast-to-coast hybrid team aligned and accountable!

Whether you do this in a regular meeting, during Friday afternoon “happy hour” or have a dedicated slack channel, regular interactive feedback should be a systematic practice within organizations.

Norms and Transparency

Just because it’s obvious to you doesn’t mean it is to everyone! By agreeing to a set of behavioral norms, teams increase productivity and engagement significantly.

Clearly outline the types of behaviors that are expected of existing and new employees. Do you have email norms? Meeting norms? A particular way files are stored and shared? Make sure these things are clearly laid out and that everyone understands and is aligned.

Increasing digital visibility among your team boosts productivity and reduces stress. At Vivo Team, we have access to everyone’s calendars, and everyone does a daily check-in on our internal communication platform (we use Slack). This makes planning meeting times a breeze because you know who’s available when. Also, by checking in each day, you won’t have to spend time and energy wondering where people are or what they’re working on.

Create Connection

Being in the same building doesn’t ensure employee connection; the key is really about developing a thriving company culture.

During onboarding, we ensure that every member of the team books our new team member for a casual get-to-know-you chat. They also get invited to participate in internal weekly training sessions on our core teachings to build their knowledge and connections.

We have tools and techniques embedded at the start (check-ins) and end (appreciation, difficulty, final statement) of every meeting to help build connection and increase interactive feedback.

Here are other workplace activity ideas that promote connection:

  • Share and celebrate wins, often—even the small stuff!
  • Plan weekly development meetups to stir the creativity and collaboration juices, where smaller groups work on learning something new together.
  • Assign a mentor to new employees for 30-minute chats once every week or two.

Walk the Walk

The words used to describe your company to current and potential future employees are certainly important, but behaviors speak volumes. Focus on the behaviors you, your leaders, and your teams demonstrate on a regular basis and prioritize them, ensuring that they align with your core values.

Since your employees are your unofficial recruiters and marketers, set them up for success to be able to communicate your company’s employer value proposition by incorporating into the day-to-day culture of the organization.

Refreshing Benefit Offerings to Attract and Retain the Modern Worker

Apr 12, 2023

By Damien Lacey, Marketing Coordinator, Montridge Advisory Group Ltd.

With the world of work continuing to evolve, business owners need to adapt their benefit offerings to attract and retain modern workers. Demographics are changing, workplaces are becoming more diverse, and the impact of technology is greater than ever before. Employees are looking for benefits that keep up with and match their needs and personal preferences. In this article we look at the importance of refreshing benefit offerings with the goal of attracting and retaining the modern worker.

The Landscape of the Modern Workforce & Remaining Competitive

The modern landscape of the working world has undergone a significant transformation over the past decade, and as a result of the pandemic, the traditional office-based work culture has undergone even further changes. Workers are no longer limited to working from the office or their homes, as technology has enabled them to work from anywhere. This has given rise to new challenges for organizations looking to attract and retain top talent. Companies that fail to adapt to these changes and refresh their benefit offerings risk losing their competitive edge in the market.

Simply put, refreshing benefit offerings is a key component to your overall strategy. With all these changing components in the modern workforce meeting workers needs and preferences must be done. If you are not first, then you are last. What does that mean? You don’t attract talent and time after time you lose employees to organizations with better benefits on offer.

With employees working from home or across different time zones, flexibility has become a critical factor in their decision-making process. Benefits such as flexible schedules, telecommuting options, and access to wellness programs can help organizations attract and retain top talent. In addition, employers must also ensure that their benefits align with the needs of their diverse workforce, including women, minorities, and LGBTQ+ individuals.

As the workforce becomes more geographically dispersed, companies must consider how their benefit offerings can be delivered to workers regardless of their location. For example, virtual wellness programs, digital mental health support, and telemedicine services can provide workers with access to vital services irrespective of their location. It is also important to consider the legislative and regulatory challenges when workers relocate to another province or another country either temporarily or permanently. Special consideration should be given to relocated workers to ensure their coverage remains in place. This may mean simply updating the insurer, but it may also mean the need for different types of coverage for those working abroad.

Why Refreshing Benefit Offerings Is Important

One of the primary reasons for refreshing benefit offerings is to keep up with changing demographics. As the workforce continues to become more diverse, employers need to offer benefits that cater to the unique needs and preferences of different groups. For instance, younger workers may value benefits such as flexible work arrangements and professional development opportunities, while older workers may prioritize health and retirement benefits. With five generations in the workforce, this balancing act can be tricky.

In today’s world, workers are accustomed to fast, individualised service. There is an expectation among workers that benefits should be customized for their own situation and delivered in the same efficient manner as an Amazon package. This means that benefit plans need to be flexible, offer a variety of ways to access information, submit claims, and utilize services. For example, some people may wish to access counselling services in person. Others are fine with a digital or telephonic appointment. While certain people prefer text messaging. While it may be impossible to know which of your people prefer which method, being able to offer multiple modalities for the same service is key. The other key is to ensure that your people truly understand what is available and how to access it.

Another reason for refreshing benefit offerings is to stay competitive in the job market. Today’s employees have more choices than ever before when it comes to job opportunities. Offering a comprehensive benefits package can help an organization stand out in a crowded job market and attract top talent. Additionally, offering unique and innovative benefits can differentiate an organization from its competitors and give it a competitive edge.

Examples of Refreshing Benefit Offerings

There are many ways that organizations can refresh their benefit offerings to meet the needs of the modern workforce. Some examples include:

  1. Flexible Work Arrangements: Offering flexible work arrangements, such as remote work, unlimited paid time off, or flexible schedules can be a significant benefit for employees who value work-life balance and autonomy.
  2. Professional Development Opportunities: Providing professional development opportunities, such as training programs or tuition reimbursement, can be a significant benefit for employees who value career growth and development.
  3. Health and Wellness Benefits: Offering health and wellness benefits, such as gym memberships, mental health support, or healthy food options, can be a significant benefit for employees who prioritize their health and well-being.

Conclusion

Work is no longer what we initially imagined it to be. Workers are coming into the office, working from home, or even a bit of both. Teams no longer feature individuals in the local area but can branch across the country and even internationally. With a drive to attract and retain top talent, organizations should be considering how they can refresh their benefit offerings to meet the needs of their workers today.

Leadership Development – You Reap What You Sow.

Feb 13, 2023

By Ashli Komaryk, MBA, ACC, Associate Consultant, Chemistry Consulting Group

Each new addition to your leadership team represents a significant investment.

It’s a bit like gardening, actually. When you add a new plant to your garden you need to water it, make sure it has enough light, and maybe even add some supplemental nutrients or fertilizer for it to thrive.

Leadership Development is a highly effective nutrient to keep your new hire growing, blossoming, and evermore engaged.

Your investment starts with the time spent by an external recruiter or by your internal HR team on recruitment and selection. More time and effort is invested in the hiring process, and hopefully, on a thorough onboarding. Your new hire will need some time to integrate and acclimate as they go through your initial training and orientation, making connections and finding their place. In a supportive environment, they will quickly discover the best way to contribute to the team and to the organization’s success.

Terrific! Now how do you retain this great new member of your team and start generating some return on that initial investment?

What type of Leadership Development Program is right for you?

One size does NOT fit all.

Teams are made up of members with a variety of personality styles, learning preferences and differing types of tasks. Why wouldn’t you want a Leadership Development Program that takes that in to account and is as adaptable as your leaders need to be? Talk to your training provider about customization options. Choosing a rigid, prescriptive training model may risk alienating some participants – so if those were plants in your yard, you’d be aiming your watering hose onto the sidewalk.

Key Elements of your Leadership Development Program

A large part of Leadership revolves around the sophisticated art of persuasion. So, your Leadership Development program should touch on topics such as Emotional Intelligence, communication skills and listening skills.

Equipping your Leaders with the skills to understand diverse personality styles is just as essential.

Consider incorporating a personality assessment tool as part of your program. While there are many options available, DiSC® is one of the most popular and effective tools because of its powerfully simple yet intuitive format.

Debriefing the assessment report generated by DiSC®, provides a leader with deep insights about their personal communication style, needs, behaviours and priorities. This self-awareness is the first step toward understanding those elements in others and thus building better relationships and more productive teams.

In today’s globalized, multicultural workplace it’s more important than ever before to know how to leverage diversity to achieve a competitive advantage.

Inclusion

A quick review of different leadership styles and of the various sources of influence within an organization reminds us that anyone at any level can be a leader. You don’t need a fancy title or a big office to be a leader whom others follow. Those informal leaders set the tone and maintain your organization’s culture. Those charismatic experts up and down the org chart are your top performers, your high-potential contributors and your leadership succession-planning pipeline.

Therefore, to protect your investment in your people and to ensure it yields rich dividends, it makes sense to deliver appropriate Leadership Development programs at several levels of your company – just as you would tend with care to all the elements of your garden so they all grow well and bear fruit!

Leadership Development as a Powerful Motivator  

The message you’re sending to your team when you offer to enroll them in a leadership (or other) training program is powerful. You’re telling them things like: “you matter to us”, “you’re worth investing in”, “we want you to stay”, “your contribution is important”, “we want to support you as you develop into the best version of yourself”. Even if you’re seeking Leadership Development as a remedial expedient, the messaging can still be constructive.

In his book entitled Drive, thought leader Daniel Pink discusses the power of intrinsic motivators: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. Done properly, delivering Leadership Development training to your team will also serve as a powerful intrinsic motivator, building engagement, empowerment, loyalty and retention (Pink, 2011).

Leadership Development as a Bridge to Retention  

The cost of turnover is huge. Some research calculates this cost at an average of six to nine months of the employee’s salary. It can even be as high as 100% to 150% of the departing employee’s salary for highly skilled technical roles (Charaba, 2023). The cost will depend on the role, the loss of productivity, and the amount of time it takes you to find a replacement. If you can curb avoidable turnover, you’re significantly cutting unnecessary costs.

Just as a skilled gardener can detect the early signs of pests or weeds and take action to protect the garden, a skilled leader can detect when team members need added attention or support. A proactive leader will nip issues in the bud before they blossom into major problems that could lead to dysfunctional conflict or resignations.

Cultivating your Garden

At Chemistry, we recognize that your team is a unique constellation of contributors each with their own personality style, learning style, needs and preferences. Our Leadership Development division works with organizational leaders to thoughtfully curate an effective Leadership Development program built to meet the unique needs of your team. Reach out to us today for a conversation about where your team is at and how you want it grow. We’ll plot the course together.

References

Charaba, C. (2023, February 2). Employee retention: The real cost of losing an employee. PeopleKeep. www.peoplekeep.com/blog/employee-retention-the-real-cost-of-losing-an-employee.

Pink, D. H. (2011). Drive. Canongate Books.

Chemistry Consulting Group offers HR consulting services to clients across Canada.  We have consultants based in Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Toronto and Montreal with virtual services offered in all other cities. We offer a range of solutions tailored to meet the diverse needs of businesses in these regions.

Chemistry Consulting Group offers Leadership Development services that are designed to enhance the skills and capabilities of individuals at various levels within an organization. These services often include personalized coaching, team development programs, and organizational leadership solutions. Chemistry Consulting Group offers a range of services such as leadership training, 360° feedback assessments, and workshops tailored to both individuals and organizations. Additionally, Chemistry Consulting provides comprehensive, research-based leadership development programs that can be customized to fit the unique culture and needs of any organization. These programs aim to broaden mindsets, develop critical leadership skills, and drive transformational change across all levels of leadership.

Contact us today!

Promoting Health and Wellness in the Workplace

Dec 12, 2022

By Damien Lacey, Marketing Coordinator, Montridge Advisory Group Ltd.

When employees feel good, organizations benefit. But this doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

Employees may not be aware of best practices and exactly how to be the best version of themselves from a health and wellness perspective. This is where you as an employer come in.

What is the key for your workplace to create an environment for good habits and healthy choices? Support, support, and more support!

Here are seven measures you can take to enhance your workplace to encourage healthy behaviours and mindfulness to benefit your people’s physical and mental health.

1.  Encourage movement and exercise

It is very easy to sit at your desk all day long with your head stuck in your computer. Encouraging employees to step away from being engrossed in their work stations can do wonders for their health – increased blood flow and energy, improved posture and a clearer mind just to name a few. How about having a timer every 30 minutes that you have to do 60 seconds of exercise like jumping jacks or stretching to counteract the effects of sitting.

2.  Healthy eating habits

Food has a huge impact on our productivity levels. Having policies and best practices at work will help employees be healthier eaters. The changes to do so can be small. People tend to eat healthier in groups, so instead of leaving employees to eat at their desk why not have a designated area in the office or on site and encourage people to eat together.

3.  Educate, Educate, Educate

As the saying goes, we don’t know what we don’t know. It is key to provide resources and information to allow employees to make informed decisions on how they are eating, exercising and living. Bringing in experts to educate your people. Nutritionists, mental health experts, fitness trainers are all examples of great resources to have come in and speak.

4.  Create a wellness team

Designing and managing a health and wellness program is tough.One really effective tool is having a team made up of a cross section of employees from all company levels to help implement, and monitor the plan. Having leaders at various levels, in different departments will increase buy-in and provide effective feedback.

5.  Keep employees connected

Employees don’t like to be isolated. Humans need social interaction. What can you do to ensure this happens?  Keeping in mind that some of your people experience social anxiety.  Have in person office hours, weekly team meetings and opportunities for non-work related interactions such as an  in person or virtual happy hour, hobby clubs such as knitting, or cooking, or hiking. Even having a puzzle on a spare table that people can work on alone or together. Encouraging social interaction has become tougher with the changing work arrangements but it can still be achieved with a little imagination. Ask your team for suggestions.

6.  Create a supportive environment

A workplace culture where employees feel  that you value their health and wellness acts as an incentive to be more proactive. Create an environment which allows employees to flourish. Have healthy food choices in the vending machines, work schedules that allow workers to prioritise exercise, reward health achievements like completing half marathons for example.

7.  Encourage people to stop smoking/vaping

Millennial vaping is at an all time high whilst Canadian manufacturers produced 1.1 billion cigarettes in January 2022 (up 7.5% from last year). Encourage your employees to stop smoking and vaping. Even being in the presence of smokers can have detrimental impacts on your health.

Conclusion

Don’t worry, promoting health and wellness in the workplace doesn’t have to be expensive and really complex. Start with small steps.  Measure what has worked and what hasn’t.  Tweak the plan using feedback from your people and build on your successes. When you make this a priority, your employees will work harder for you.

Developing the Modern Learner

Oct 12, 2022

By Renée Safrata, Founder and CEO, Vivo Team

The leadership training industry has proliferated, with the rise of online, hybrid, and live, virtual instructor-led training. In a saturated field, what do you look for? How do you know what’s right for you and your teams and leaders?

Today, the “modern learner”, as Josh Bersin, Principal and Founder of Bersin by Deloitte describes, is impatient, distracted, and overwhelmed. The modern attention span is fractured at best–“most learners won’t watch videos longer than four minutes” (Bersin).

With 66% of knowledge workers claiming they don’t have time to do their work (The Modern Learner infographic), frequent interruptions (as often as once every 5 minutes!), and a 5-10 second window to catch one’s attention online (Bersin), catering to the infinitely distracted, impatient, and overwhelmed is more important than ever before.

So whether you’d like to accept it or not, successfully harnessing the meaningful and mindful attention of your employees and team(s) requires active and deliberate effort, response, and understanding. You have to be ready, willing, and prepared to course correct, adapt, and change with the times.

It’s essential that your leadership/management training takes these elements into consideration and is designed for the modern learner; otherwise, your investment will become just another item on your employees’ never-ending “To Do” lists, and another factor fueling this always-on, overwhelmed state of “I’m too busy”.

Vivo Team, under the guidance and research of EVP, Dr. Jim Sellner, has spent the last 10+ years developing the ideal methodology; it is simple, and three-fold: (1) diagnose, (2) train, and (3) track. This approach enables measurable performance and outcomes.

We use people analytics; live, virtual instructor-led training (Live VILT); and spaced learning to ensure the modern learner is present, engaged, and activated.

Here are a few of our top leadership training best practices that engage the modern learner to increase the impact of people development and business results.

People analytics in learning and development (L&D) provides insight into the efficiency of your talent and workplace culture by clearly illustrating what is working and what areas need improvement.

“People analytics in L&D provides the data you need to measure the growth, development, and successes of your team and/or leader development programs and coaching. This should be done in terms of behaviors and dollars (by measuring a decrease in the cost of lost productivity).

People analytics in L&D is highly accurate in diagnosing the effects of behaviors on teams. That’s why people analytics in L&D is so important!”

– Dr. Jim Sellner, PhD, EVP People Analytics and Talent Activation, Vivo Team

Live VILT is dynamic, engaged, and most importantly, two-way. Guided in real time, this instructor-led training and coaching is tailored to your specific needs, with leaders and their teams learning together.

A spaced-learning approach allows training to fit seamlessly into the workday (supporting the needs and preferences of the modern learner). Learning in this way–via a series of short, intense training sessions punctuated by a deliberate break in the learning–is highly effective, and better yet, research-based! With this approach, when training reconvenes, the learning objectives are repeated so there is no lag time; learners can see change by practicing and implementing their training right away. Gone are the one-off, multiple day, 8 hour training sessions of the past!

Like Bersin explains, the modern learner has come to expect “accessible, interactive learning experiences anytime, anywhere and on any device.”

The high demand on modern learners (i.e., YOUR employees and team members) must be critically considered and remain top-of-mind. If your learning and development leadership/management programs and platforms don’t take this into consideration, your company’s bottom line will suffer just as well as your team cohesion and collaboration.

Don’t let digital be a divide. Be open, accepting, and willing to adapt to the ever-evolving modern learner and you’ll get results and have the data to prove it.

Keep these leadership/management training best practices in mind and you’ll be sure to have a workforce that doesn’t fall behind!

Reference

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/meet-modern-learner-cristina-brembilla

About Renée Safrata, Founder & CEO, Vivo Team

Over the past 30+ years Renée Safrata has worked with thousands of companies and executives throughout North America and Europe, helping them to connect, adopt new behaviors, and become confident members of highly functioning teams. As Founder and CEO, she oversees Vivo Team’s full spectrum learning experience, develops leaders and teams through live, online training, coaching, and people analytics.

About Vivo Team

Watch your workplace culture and profitability soar! Vivo Team’s full spectrum learning experience develops competence, motivation, and collaboration among your leaders and teams through live, online training, coaching, and people analytics. The content and format are based on the latest, proven research in learning and development.

A Shift in Hiring Practices in 2022

Aug 24, 2022

By Deb Walker, Associate HR Consultant, Chemistry Consulting Group

Does it feel sometimes like you are immersed in a game of pick up sticks and someone has just dropped them all randomly on the table?  The chaos of all those sticks seems daunting in the beginning.  How to pick them up, in accordance with the rules, and get the most points to win seems overwhelming and definitely not a simple task.

Recruiting these days can feel a little bit like we are starting a new game of pick up sticks. Technology is rapidly shifting how and where we access candidates; potential employees are radically shifting their expectations of workplaces; and priorities are realigning for best practices in attracting and retaining candidates.

The Job Market Today and Why it Has Changed

There has been much talk about the Great Resignation that has risen to the surface in the last few years.  Within that discussion are thoughts about people reassessing what they want to do, how they want to do it and which organization(s) to connect with.  The advent of the gig economy where people are shifting from working for someone else to being their own boss and potentially working for multiple organizations has played a factor as has the role of AI and the rapid advancement of technology that can streamline the workflow process as well as open up new career paths that didn’t exist even a couple of years ago.

In addition to shifting work agreements, however, is something that has been forecasted for many years but we are now seeing come to fruition.  Baby Boomers started exiting the workplace beginning in 2011 and their ages as well as the pandemic has accelerated some of that movement.  In 2022, the youngest of the baby boomers will be 58 and there are not the numbers in the upcoming demographic groups to replace them.

(Source:  www.cbc.ca; www.forbes.com; www.washingtonpost.com)

What that translates to is there is more competition for fewer qualified candidates.

So what can we do as potential employers in this new environment to attract and hire good fits to openings and opportunities within our workplaces?

Best Practices Include Establishing and Maintaining Solid Foundations

  1. Conduct regular job assessments to validate that the activities for each position are removing non-essential duties and activities that are no longer required or provide minimal value-added.
  2. Ensure job descriptions are in place and accurately reflect the needs of the role, providing clarity for incoming employees and incumbents alike to connect with their roles and how they aid the organization in meeting core values of both the individual and the organization. That is, assist candidates to make connections between their purpose and values with those of the organization.
  3. Regularly review benefits that are available to employees, ensuring that they are aligned with expectations of employees as well as fitting their evolving needs. For example, learning and development is a mutual benefit for the organization and the individual.  As technology, in particular, shifts the deliverables for a position, proactively working with employees on their next career step is fundamental to developing skills and expertise in-house that may fill gaps otherwise accessed through recruiting.
  4. Being open to alternative work statuses may assist in bridging. Having options for employees such as: onsite vs remote work vs hybrid; full-time vs part-time; semi-retirement and consulting roles; leaves of absences to aid in work life balance; flexibility with work schedules.  All of these are hot topics for potential employees as well as existing and contribute to providing environments that allow employees the flexibility to meet both personal and professional demands.
  5. Psychological health and wellness in the workplace requires ongoing leadership development and fostering open dialogue for a culture of safety and wellness. Mental health and recognition of the impact on health and wellness are key cornerstones being actively sought by candidates.
  6. Respect in the workplace is not a new concept within work spaces but what this encapsulates is continuing to evolve. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion need to be integrated and woven into the culture of an organization as these are core values that employees are seeking out as part of their decision on which organization to devote their professional time to.
  7. Streamline and speed up your recruiting processes. In a different time, it can take weeks to complete a recruit, from drafting the posting, gathering applications, interviewing and making the selection/offering the position.  This is a luxury that few have in this market environment and many organizations are finding that by the time they complete their process, the candidates they wanted the most have long been scooped up.
  8. Interviews are two way information exchanges and marketing the organization through an effective and well strategized brand is key to leading with your best foot forward in attracting and selecting candidates for your organization.
  9. Continually re-evaluate the technology platforms that are accessed for finding where your potential candidates are spending their time. Gone are the Career page ads in newspapers but replaced are platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.
  10. With a shrinking candidate population to draw from, total compensation is a factor, albeit not the sole one. Regularly reviewing to ensure that candidates are being offered a fair, market aligned wage but also that the structure of the compensation plan builds in strong opportunities for both reward and recognition.  These assurances are actively being sought out and monitored by candidates.

All of these are foundation building blocks for building effective tools for recruitment.  It is a sellers market out there at the moment and will continue for the foreseeable future.   Hiring practices in many ways are reflective of retention strategies.  It is the ground work with culture and communication that will provide the basis for attracting and developing employees that will sustain and nurture the sustainability of an organization.

(Source:  www.theglobeandmail.com; www.washingtonpost.com)

So here we are back at our game of pick up sticks.  The rules of the game have changed slightly so how we prepare to play now is to become familiar with the changes, adjust our strategies accordingly and then just roll up our sleeves to begin making sense of what seems at first to be haphazard chaos with sticks everywhere.

Chemistry Consulting Group offers HR consulting services to clients across Canada.  We have consultants based in Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Toronto and Montreal with virtual services offered in all other cities. We offer a range of solutions tailored to meet the diverse needs of businesses in these regions.

Chemistry Consulting Group provides Professional Recruitment services that offer a range of solutions to help businesses find and hire the best candidates. These services utilize the skills of our certified recruitment specialists who identify and attract top talent.  Chemistry Consulting Group also offers value-added services such as background checks, skills assessments, employment agreement development, salary negotiations, and onboarding support to ensure a smooth transition for new hires. By leveraging our extensive networks and industry expertise, our professional recruitment services can significantly streamline the hiring process and improve the quality of hires.

Contact us today!

Changing Up Your Employee Perks and Benefits Program

Jul 16, 2022

By Jamie Laprise, Associate, Montridge Advisory Group Ltd.

People drive the success of your organization. As an employer of choice, you see the connection between your success and the need to support your employees’ physical, emotional, and financial health.

So what’s the secret to attracting and keeping the best talent? Studies show over and over again it’s all of the things you offer over and above the paycheque.

Personalisation

The talent market is more competitive than ever before. Along with this, employers are beginning to realise just how costly employee retention is on their budget. Today’s employees want their employer to really care about them. It is safe to say that personalised perks are more relevant and important than ever before. The way to figure out what makes your employees tick is to simply ask them.  Below are some suggestions you may wish to incorporate into your strategy.

Customized Rewards

Blueboard is a rewards and incentives program that allows you to provide meaningful experiences to your employees. The days of cash rewards are dwindling away because the new wave of workers value memorable, shareable moments. With Blueboard your people can go through a catalogue of different experiences, organised by topic – travel, food and drink, exhilaration, entertainment, outdoors and more.

Unique Features

Did you know that only 12% of people leave a job for more money? Today employers require a greater understanding of an individual’s circumstances, and a willingness to cater to them. If people are leaving you,  it might be because you didn’t provide them with the value they’re looking for. Here are some benefits you can look at offering to make a difference and stand out for competitors:

  • Housing Down Payment
  • Retirement & Savings Plans
  • Financial Education Support – Credit Counselling, Financial Literacy, Investing
  • Health & Lifestyle Spending Accounts
  • Employee Vacation / Travel Benefits
  • Pet Insurance
  • Fertility Treatment Coverage
  • Child Care
  • Extending Prescription Coverage to include Obesity Medication & Sexual Dysfunction Medication
  • Flexible Hours / Working From Home, If Possible
  • Fitness Reimbursement Plan
  • Stock Options
  • Paid Bereavement Leave
  • Employee and Family Assistance Programs
  • Support Programs for Substance Abuse, Addiction
  • Gender-Reassignment Assistance
  • Paid Industry Certifications/Training
  • Summer Half Day Fridays
  • Catered Lunches / Snacks

Showing Appreciation to Workers 

No one has ever complained when they have received a compliment for their work. A simple “great job!” or “kudos!” when an employee is doing well can have a hugely positive impact on performance. This is extremely important to do amongst virtual and hybrid teams to stimulate productivity.

Slack is a messaging platform where you can create chat rooms with all of your employees to give recognition, when they hit milestones, complete projects, etc. These can be organised by team, department, topic or by project.

Discounts

It is no secret that people love discounts and feeling like they got great value for their money. Discount perks enable employees to live the kind of lifestyle that they want (especially in today’s economy!).

WorkPerks gives companies a competitive edge when it comes to attracting potential  candidates and keeping current employees happy. This discount program allows employees to have access to thousands of exclusive discounts from big and local brands across Canada, both in -store and online. As a bonus, Workperks manages the whole program for you. Whether it is clothing retailers, dining out, travel, or recreational activities this program caters to every worker.

It allows you to search a specific area you are in and show you what discounts are close by and where (see image below). They also allow each employee signed up on the platform to add 4 people to their account for no added cost so they too have access to these discounts. See a demo here.

Final Thoughts 

The perks and benefits program offered to employees is the key to what brings in and keeps employees in your company. Not adapting to today’s new work environment will leave employers behind. Combining employee feedback with a thorough data analysis from your benefits advisor is the best way to determine which changes may be most beneficial to create  a comprehensive, modern benefits plan that will go a long way to enhance both your company’s culture and productivity.

Turn Conflict into a Competitive Advantage For Your Team

Jun 16, 2022

By Ashli Komaryk, MBA, ACC, Chemistry Consulting Group

Yes! You heard that right – conflict as an advantage!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could channel all the energy, focus and passion invested in conflict so that it yields a positive outcome? As a leader at any level, think about all the extra time you would get back! You’d have more time and energy to devote to your strategic work of leading instead of dealing with exhausting and stressful conflict resolution.

We’re used to thinking about conflict as bad, negative, unhelpful, dysfunctional, decidedly undesirable. Yet not all conflicts are created equally and some of them can be downright helpful. Let’s take a closer look and make a distinction between two main types of conflict:

 1. Relationship Conflict (Dysfunctional)

This type of conflict is characterized by personal attacks, ego-driven agendas, focusing on one party’s personality or communication style, facial expressions, or even tone of voice. Relationship conflict is quite common. This is not surprising when we consider that we don’t get to choose our colleagues. Sometimes (often) we can find ourselves on a team or having to collaborate with individuals we may not have chosen, were we given the opportunity.

Relationship conflict is decidedly dysfunctional, destructive and demoralizing. Through it, we’re not working to resolve any important issues, or find better or new ways to do things. Instead, it distracts our attention, absorbs our energy and destroys our team’s functionality.

2. Task or Process Conflict (Functional)

This type of conflict deals with issues, ideas, different ways to do a task, the prioritization of action items, or choosing which process or methodology to adopt.

If the conflict is task- or process-focused, then having your team engage in what we would call functional or productive conflict makes sense. The exchange of differing points of view (even heated exchanges) regarding the way to accomplish a task, set out a process, or put priorities in order of importance, could be of great benefit! Especially if you have diversity on your team.

It’s important to remember that leveraging the benefits of diversity doesn’t come easily. It takes time and patience because this very element that could yield rich dialogue and debate, requires a deliberate investment of time and effort for that richness to be given the chance to flourish.

Task- or process-conflict are not personal. Thus, when your team engages in these types of functional or productive conflict the results will likely include:

  • More viewpoints
  • Diverse viewpoints
  • More options
  • Higher quality solutions
  • A greater sense of collaboration as the debate may fuel additional new ideas and solutions
  • Creative thinking

Psychological Safety is a Key Ingredient  

So how do we achieve this wondrous and productive practice of functional conflict?

One fundamental element is creating and maintaining a climate of sincere psychological safety within your team. Dr. Amy Edmundson, author of The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth, defines psychological safety as “the belief that the work environment is safe for individual risk taking” and “the experience of feeling able to speak up with relevant ideas, questions or concerns…when colleagues trust and respect each other and feel able – even obligated – to be candid”.

We want all members of the team to feel at ease expressing their thoughts and ideas.

When everyone knows the rules of engagement and that it’s safe to say “I don’t agree!”, that’s when everyone has permission to share and explore ideas. The benefits of psychological safety to an organization’s financial health, overall safety, the quality of the customer experience and also the degree of engagement and retention of top talent are well-documented in research by Dr. Edmundson and others.

Strategies to get more Comfortable with Conflict

Here are six strategies you can experiment with on your team to build trust and psychological safety. These strategies set the stage for more creative solution-finding, improved operational efficiencies in every department and a generally heightened state of well-being on your team.

  1. Co-create rules of engagement for discussion in meetings, including behaviours that all agree are acceptable.
  2. Thank others for their ideas and perspectives.
  3. Apologize for inappropriate behaviour (taps into vulnerability-based trust).
  4. Speak up when something is bothering you about what’s being discussed.
  5. Whiteboard different points of view and their pros and cons to help everyone follow the discussion.
  6. Use the “yes, and…” technique: follow each team member’s contribution with “yes, and…” instead of NO… (this is a collaboratively constructive approach, rather than a confrontational one that could potentially make your team members defensive)

Good luck implementing some (or ALL!) of these strategies to help your team kick dysfunctional conflict to the curb, on the road to becoming an even more cohesive, creative and high-performing team!

Call us at Chemistry Consulting to discover how our customizable Leadership Development programs will help you learn and implement MBA best-practices in leadership. Give your team a competitive edge and reap the benefits.

Chemistry Consulting Group offers HR consulting services to clients across Canada.  We have consultants based in Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Toronto and Montreal with virtual services offered in all other cities. We offer a range of solutions tailored to meet the diverse needs of businesses in these regions.

Chemistry Consulting Group offers Leadership Development services that are designed to enhance the skills and capabilities of individuals at various levels within an organization. These services often include personalized coaching, team development programs, and organizational leadership solutions. Chemistry Consulting Group offers a range of services such as leadership training, 360° feedback assessments, and workshops tailored to both individuals and organizations. Additionally, Chemistry Consulting provides comprehensive, research-based leadership development programs that can be customized to fit the unique culture and needs of any organization. These programs aim to broaden mindsets, develop critical leadership skills, and drive transformational change across all levels of leadership.

Contact us today!