One of the greatest challenges companies face in the future is hiring and retaining a strong workforce. According to a recent study by Deloitte, work place turnover is likely to approach nearly 25% in the next few years and just over 40% of those who want to resign would remain for more money and/or a promotion. Yet, when they stay it only lasts on average approximately 1 year before they leave the company.
What’s the solution? Many experts believe it should be about understanding the various characteristics of each generation and tailoring leadership and compensation structures accordingly. However, I tend to agree with Dan Prosser, a Radical Disrupter and author of Amazon Best-Selling Thirteeners – Why only 13 Percent of Companies Successfully Execute Their Strategy and How Yours Can Be One of Them, who says it’s about how CEO’s allow any one generation to make a difference in the company.
I asked him what specifically he recommends, because whether we like it or not, there are unique differences between Baby Boomers, Generation X’ers and the Millennials. He explained, “What I propose is a radical and new alternative for the business world that is a trilogy of relational behaviors – cooperation, collaboration and co-creation. It’s a new relational value system that takes the focus off of pure compensation and forces companies to think, act and operate differently. It’s about developing great people, not the so-called ‘renting’ of experts that then feel underappreciated over time.”
This resonates with me because I believe companies need to challenge their current way of thinking; especially when they make the decision to go to the next level. When you decide to grow, or even launch a company, you have to be prepared to do things differently than what’s been done in the past. I find that if you repeat habits from the past, you get the results you achieved in the past. If you want to achieve extraordinary results, you have to study and implement extraordinary business methods.
Dan put it well when he said, “Most businesses today struggle with an impending future that is being given to them by their failures or disappointments of the past. This causes leaders to shift their attention and focus on the wrong things – mainly avoiding failure. It is this limited thinking that disconnects their organization from them as leaders, from the future unlimited possibilities and ultimately from their employee base.”
As I have grown several companies in the past, I know this to be true based on my firsthand experience. I think he is right when he pointed out six critical things needed to achieve ultimate growth that are missing in many companies today:
- An understanding of how to hire ‘Future Employees’ – Don’t hire the “ready to wear” employee that is unable to learn, expand or grow.
- An awareness of the conversations and beliefs that undermine and sabotage companies – understand the water cooler conversations as they are dictating the real potential growth of your company.
- An enduring vision that puts everyone on the exact same page – create a future that empowers people, can’t be forgotten and won’t disappear or go out of existence.
- An execution strategy that eliminates the need for survival tactics – empower employees to take responsibility for causing breakthrough results.
- A future-based culture – create connections amongst employees and customers that are consistent with your company’s vision.
- An accountability system – give people the power to produce radical and real results.
Dan’s radically disruptive approach is spot on because it takes different thinking to generate different results. I have also found that lasting results depend upon three key factors: where leaders first understand what to do then secondly create an implementation program and finally they consistently continue to implement. Consistent behavior generates exceptional results and over time, this is what differentiates the good from the great.
Successful businesses of the future need to either disrupt their daily behavior or plan to be disrupted by the lack of results. I recommend adopting a disciplined focus so your businesses can not only grow but rather can thrive in any economic environment.
This article was written by Kevin Harrington from Forbes and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. SmartRecruiters is the hiring success platform to find and hire great people.
