Sam Caucci
No matter the industry, the driving force behind every successful business is a strong workforce. From Amazon to Pepsi, company culture is a critical aspect of every organization. But in a digital era where new developments are made to make things more accessible than ever before, finding new ways to train and motivate employees to buy into the company culture has become a challenging task for business leaders.
One of the most critical roles and responsibilities a leader has is to find new ways to consistently challenge and coach the people that drive our businesses every day. In a changing economy, a company’s success has become increasingly dependent on the development of a skilled workforce. For your business to thrive, you need a workforce that is not only engaged in their work, but also passionate about the outcome.
But why is culture such an integral part of business, and why have so many failed? Let’s take a look at a few ways in which companies have previously failed in building a strong workforce, and explore several ways you can start implementing new principles into your business today.
Let’s get right to it. Why do businesses fail? The answer may surprise you because it has nothing to do with the bottom line and the company’s overall profit.
Okay, it has a little bit to do with that, but the reason for those things happening requires a much deeper insight into the organization itself. It comes down to three things in particular.
55% of today’s workforce is either a Millennial or Gen Z, which is great, but it also means they likely grew up with helicopter parents that tracked and monitored their every move. Not only that, but some parents even utilized their own business connections to ensure their children were always presented with opportunities to succeed. While their hearts were in the right place, growing up in this environment negatively affected their development and left them unprepared for the workforce in which they entered.
Younger employees have seen the world evolve in drastic ways and have been forced to adapt to every change on the fly. However, as colleges struggle to update curriculums and jobs scramble to update content to keep up with the times, the younger generation has unfortunately been provided with an extreme lack of resources. While the Millennial and Gen Z generations have routinely been the centerpiece of office jokes for their lack of preparedness, most of the responsibility falls at the feet of the generations that came before them.
One of the most common things every Millennial or Gen Z employee wants from their career is a challenge. They’re multi-taskers who crave to learn more and be presented with more opportunities to climb the corporate ladder. However, with outdated practices and routine job duties, some Millennials and Gen Z employees can often check out due to a lack of challenge.
With the continued acceleration in technology, every organization faces the challenge of bridging skill gaps in their workforce. If businesses want to improve they have to invest in their employees, which goes beyond health benefits and gym perks. Companies have to invest in the knowledge and skills of their employees if they want to continue growing their business to make it as successful as it can be.
Research has proven time and time again that employees get better through practice. Good decision making comes down to compressing a tremendous amount of information into patterns that are generally acquired through experience. The key to being a good leader is holding people to higher standards, and the only way to do that is by providing employees with new ways to hone and develop their skills to translate it into overall success for the organization.
Research has proven that nearly 70% of what you learn in classroom training is forgotten within three days, and 87% of such is forgotten within 30 days. Struggle is a critical part of any learning process, and data supports that you learn more through testing than through exposure. With a structured employee training and development program, you ensure that your employees are aware of the company’s expectations and are regularly being tested on the information to ensure retention.
We’ve all heard the saying, “Less is more,” and it applies to just as much to workforce development as it does life itself. For decades, cramming as much information as possible into one session has been the chosen method for teaching new information. By spreading out learning opportunities into smaller, more frequent sessions, you make each training session as effective as possible and create a more robust, long term impact with your workforce.
Expert knowledge can’t be taught in the classroom, and acquiring expert level skills takes a considerable amount of time and effort. Implementing concepts like interleaving and variation will help you get the most out of your time and training and make the information easier to absorb. By changing the testing format, location, and order, you bring novelty to the learning process and make the content more enjoyable to learn and retain.
Research has proven that employees want to work in an environment where they feel connected to a community and with co-workers. Practice shouldn’t be a punishment, and training programs don’t have to be serious to be effective. With improved team happiness, you not only spur productivity, but also make the workplace an environment where people feel encouraged to get work done. Employee performance and engagement will both increase.
Everything comes back to leadership strategy. As leaders, it’s our job and responsibility to be tough on the people around us and to consistently challenge and coach the people that drive our businesses every day. What you tolerate you encourage, which means you constantly have to find new ways to set the right example for the people around you and consistently coach and put pressure on your team to be better than the day before.
As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, it’s a good bet that nearly every company will see its workforce transform over the next several years. While every organization faces its own set of unique challenges, companies will need to learn faster and find new ways to lead an ever-evolving workforce. This means that businesses will have to rethink how they attract and retain talent, but will also have to strategize new ways to lead employees and challenge them to help the organization grow.
While changing company culture seems like a massive undertaking, not being afraid to take the initiative will lead companies and their workforce in a more positive direction. There is a massive amount of untapped potential sitting on the sidelines of our economy, and organizations cannot afford to lose another minute. If business leaders can focus on implementing hard practice in their business, their company and their people will be well prepared to face whatever the future holds.
Consider reading more resources about company culture to better help your company. High Ten by Martin Rooney is an engaging and easy to read book that draws from Martin’s own experiences developing top-level teams around the world to help leaders of all kinds foster and sustain winning cultures.
1Huddle can help you and your team stay ahead of the learning curve. We offer cloud-based employee gamification software. You can customize your content for a seamless experience and all of your employees will be able to access their training anywhere, anytime and at the push of a button. You can use our game platform to measure their performance and make key decisions on where you should take your gamification strategy next.
Do you want to learn more about how 1Huddle can help you level up your own workforce? Talk to us today.
Sam Caucci, Founder & CEO at 1Huddle
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