You need to hire, you have openings, but the culture, led by upper management, just doesn’t see the need to hire. Your staff is overworked. Your business could be more productive – happier too – with more employees in place to pick up the workload and produce more. There isn’t a good training/orientation program in place – new employees come on and leadership doesn’t invest in time needed to properly onboard new hires. This delays understanding of internal systems and processes and delays the impact the new employee can make on the bottom line.
These are just some of the issues you deal with as an HR professional, corporate recruiter or hiring manager. How does company culture hold back hiring and what can a company, HR professional or small business manager do about it? What is the long-term affect that trickles down throughout the organization?
There is no doubt that when this happens there is often a disconnect between managers and the everyday happenings of their employees, and the only true solution is solid communication, says Tony Sorensen, CEO of Versique Search and Consulting and McKinley Consulting, a leading Minnesota IT and business consulting services group. “It’s important for managers to make an effort to understand what their employees need in order to be successful,” says Sorensen.
Farhan Farooqui, President and CEO of HR Milieu, a Dallas, Texas-based HR consulting services provider, agrees.
“The culture of a company is based heavily on the approach of the company’s leadership team,” says Farooqui. “Leaders today need to be open-minded and be able to hear the suggestions from the front line managers and consultants that they bring in to help.”
Open dialogue allows solutions to be brought to the table and implemented, says Sorensen. Open communication also makes employees feel valued and understood, while managers will be able to see a clearer picture of hiring needs, and in turn find the right talent to make a change.
What can be done to change this culture? How can HR get the message across to start the cultural change process? Farooqui offers some thoughts and ideas below:
Top to bottom alignment
Does upper management or leadership understand what it takes to get the job done?
“I have seen this time and time again,” says Farooqui. “Management needs something done but has no clue of what type of talent, or how many people are needed to do the job. This creates a disconnect and frustration on part of HR and the front line supervisors who are responsible for the delivery of services.”
At HR Milieu, Farooqui works with company executives to train them on the importance of getting involved and understanding and listening to what HR and the mid to first line managers have to say. Capacity planning is a continuous process and it requires diligent work to match:
- Available internal talent
- Available external talent
- What needs to be accomplished
Timeline to complete task
Most companies look at adding people as an additional cost, but fail to see the turnover which is being caused by the work overload, says Farooqui. Such organizations continue to run understaffed and continue to combat the turnover which includes hidden costs to the bottom line. Costs such as recruiting costs, onboarding and training time and cost, low morale, not having seasoned employees in the mix due to consistent drainage and burnout.
“Above all, there is reputation risk in the market for being know as a place where employees burnout,” says Farooqui.
Farooqui recommends an ongoing, open-minded dialogue with all key players to help understand industry standards to ensure there is no project or particular task understaffed by being short-sighted. This means they look at the initial costs of hiring and think bottom line costs, but they don’t look at the effect of leaving a team short-staffed. In other words, take a view that yes it costs money upfront, but it helps us make money in the long run. And don’t underestimate the cost of a happy and motivated workplace. Employers who have this can get key employees to stay, because they feel the company culture values them by balancing their work/life demands.
Role of an HR professional or an HR Consultant
Communication should be a two-way street, says Farooqui. An HR professional can initiate dialogue and help the leadership team understand the concerns heard on the production floors. The HR partner, to be able to do this, must have the courage to call it out as it is. But to be able to do this, the HR professional must have built strong trusting relationships with the management so he/she is comfortable at providing feedback and is able to initiate that dialogue when needed. Then, HR needs to be able to educate front line managers on how they could staff smarter. It’s a combination of resources working together to foster a company culture that breeds success.
Are two employees better than one?
Many companies, especially small employers, look for inexpensive labor to maintain and/or meet cost. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. In this case, the small employer does not receive the capability that is actually needed and soon enough feels that an additional body is needed to do the task. While what could have been most economical in the long run was to hire one trained professional at the right cost. While the more trained professional will be more expensive than the lesser trained one, but is at times able to do the job of two non-trained professionals. And even with two lesser trained people, neither is trained enough to approach a task.
“When we work with a clients leadership team we stress the importance of understanding how to align the right talent for the right job without cutting corners,” says Farooqui. “We discuss short-term and long-term needs and the needs for each position.”
Farooqui says a key piece often overlooked is the reputation of the company’s management. That company culture trickles out via social media platforms and industry professionals and suddenly HR is tasked with a greater issue because they have a tougher time finding employees who want to work with the company.
“We have seen companies that treated their employees like a number,” says Farooqui. “They paid them higher than the market but treated their people like trash. In the long run what happens with such companies is that people come in for a short time to make good money with the plan to leave. Such companies continue to have low morale, and high turnover even if they are able to attract all kinds of talent because of the initial higher offer they are able to put on the table.”
Times are changing and with technology, social media and online employer reviews, people quickly know and spread the word about a company’s culture and the leadership style.
“Company management needs to be aware that gone are days where one could keep their internal culture secret,” says Farooqui. “Now what happens inside companies are very quickly on social media.”
What is holding your HR department back? How can the company culture change for the good of the company? What issues does your company face?
“It may take time, especially with a stubborn manager, but fostering communication throughout the entire office can help shift the company culture and create a more efficient and healthy work environment,” says Sorensen.
