Originally posted as contributing author on the TalentCulture Community Blog

"At Every Company our mission is to provide customers with the best experience possible. That means consistently delivering exceptional quality, customer service and value each and every day. We're proud to say it's our people that make this possible."

Sound familiar? Perhaps because it represents thousands of companies that claim people as their greatest asset. Yet the psyches of American workers have been bruised by the recession. Recent articles suggest that the "War for Talent" we've all been waiting for has changed. One such reference appeared in a recent piece from SHRM, as Max Caldwell, a leader at Towers Watson, stated that he thinks organizations are gearing up for the wrong war. "Instead of a war to attract top talent, organizations should be waging a war to hold on to critical talent."

As I imagined being in the shoes of this "critical talent" I found myself wanting nothing more than to craft a letter to the CEO. Here's how it went. What would you say? 

June 22, 2010 

 Dear CEO,

I can only imagine how difficult the past few years have been on you. You’ve made some tough decisions and all eyes are still on you to turn this ship around. While I don’t mean to add to your plate, I hope you’ll stop what you’re doing long enough to read about my experience and opinions as one of your highest performing employees. I speak on behalf of many and for what they’re worth, I’ve included some ideas that might help you.

When I decided to join Every Company in 2004 I was excited about the promise of autonomy, collaborative culture, open, communicative management style and career growth in return for my performance and dedication. Once onboard there were clearly gaps in the value proposition but as a team player I chose to focus on the work. I was happy. In fact, most people were except for the naysayers. They didn’t bother me though. Sure we had our issues but every company does. I continued to work hard, earned high scores on my reviews and overall felt pretty engaged.

Then the recession hit. It’s been three years since our department was struck with two layoffs. I feel lucky to have a job even with a 30% pay cut, extra work and long hours. But CEO, it’s taken its toll on me too. My family life is a mess. I’m under more stress then ever especially with the new health care benefits, managing our retirement and now my career path. That is if the company is stable enough to allow for one. Even so, I’d take stability over advancement. The problem is, I’m exhausted and for lack of a better term, fed up.

CEO, I have no clue where this company is headed, what our strategy is or if our mission is even relevant anymore. All I know is, “we need to be innovative and stay the course to get and keep happy customers.” With all due respect, how can we possibly innovate and keep doing things the same way? I am not alone either. Most don’t know our strategy and frankly many stopped caring a long time ago. They just do their job to go home and fire off their resumes to recruiters in waiting.

Some of my friends have already left and with so many others talking about jumping ship I assume it’s just a matter of time before they find jobs too. Since companies started hiring again a few recruiters have approached me. Yet after everything I’ve been through I still want to help. I still believe in this company. Many of us do. We just need you to respect us enough to take notice.

With this, I've done some research and as you probably know, many CEO’s face the same issues you do: retention, low morale, lower engagement, declining quality, service and productivity. All while smaller, more nimble competitors chip away at our business. That's when I began asking colleagues for their input on what could be done to improve Every Company’s culture.

On the following pages you’ll find a high level overview of the concerns I collected, the issues most often repeated by your employees, myself included. Following that is a list of ideas we put together for your consideration. On behalf of everyone that contributed and all employees, please hear us out. We want to help Every Company succeed. The irony is, all you had to do was ask.

Respectfully,

 
Every Company Employee Concerns

1. Lack of Trust: 90% of people feel leadership is invisible; managers hide and trust among peers is dwindling. Mostly due to leadership behavior and lack of alignment between what’s said and what’s actually done. The lack of understanding for what the future holds or genuine concern for employee well-being has left the majority feeling hidden agendas still exist.
2. Lack of Communication: Most everyone felt communication has worsened since the recession and no news breed’s rumors of bad news to come. People are scared and voicing concerns to anyone that will listen: other employees, friends online, family, virtually any social situation and in some cases, to our own customers.
3. Lack of Collaboration: Another area that was high in promise but low on delivery is has all but disappeared today. People are sick and tired of silos, departmental blame games and think the company would benefit from bridging departmental divides to streamline workflows.
4. Lack of Training: This category spanned several areas all the way back to onboarding. Most employees felt that with the technology available today, it should be easier to keep people informed on everything from their performance to new products and services, changes within our company, overall expectations and again, company strategy.
5. Lack of Recognition: Employees are under a lot of pressure to deliver and continue to perform at levels that will keep them employed. Without recognition, people voiced anger as they felt taken advantage of. No one really demanded bonuses except a few. What most people want is a genuine acknowledgement by you and their managers for all they do here.
   

Ideas for Positive Change

• Talk to Us. The world has changed and people need two-way conversation with you to regain trust and feel you genuinely care. Communicate. Be human. We are. 
  • Hold regular town hall meetings
  • Step out into the field and talk to people one-on-one
  • Start a blog to keep employees up-to-date and feeling connected
  • Create monthly podcasts or video updates on the Intranet
  • Asking for our feedback-regularly-and using it to generate more
  • Share customer feedback with us to create customer-centric teams

• Lead by Example. When employees see that your actions match your words, the level of trust and respect people have for you will begin to improve as will your ability to influence them. In turn, their behaviors will start to mirror your positive influence.

• Explain our Business Strategy in Straight Talk. We’re the people you hired to deliver on it. We share your objectives as long as we know what they are. The more transparent you can be with us, the better we can align our actions to reach them.

• Tear Down the Walls. Hundreds of CEO’s have opened up the lines of internal communications to implement platforms that increase idea sharing and collaboration across departments. Some examples include Best Buy, Zappos, SunGard and IBM . These leaders created amazing systems for open communication to spur collaboration employee engagement. While we know we have a long way to go, we could start by:
  • Developing an Internal Social Networking Site that allows people to post and discuss ideas, submit blog entries about what they’re working on to open up two-way dialogue throughout the company. This would also help strengthen relationships among peers where there were once barriers and distrust. It’s also an ideal platform for keeping people educated on everything from new products and services, changes within the business and compandy, resources to manage healthcare benefits, retirement tools even how to take control of our career paths.
  • Adding Social Tools like Yammer This is like Twiter for business and it would enable people to communicate quickly and effectively via short messages. Great for sharing information and again building relationships while rebuilding trust.
  • Having Access to Social Networks allows us to gain information and knowledge from industry experts, peers and our competitors for business use. At the same time extending our network and establishing new relationships. We can even use these tools for attracting new talent to the company when we return to hiring status.
  • Creating Cross-Functional Education would help individuals in other departments understand the workflow throughout the entire company. When people see the big picture, they have a clearer understanding where they fit in and how they can improve their piece of the operation.

• Recognize Us. If you want us to be creative, more engaged and continue to go above and beyond, show us the appreciation we deserve. The reward isn’t always about the money (though money wouldn’t hurt). Right now most people would appreciate a simple, genuine thank you.
  • Share Success Stories. When people are recognized for doing great work, others should know it. Let's share success stories to celebrate each win and in time people will learn to match their behaviors to those that earn the greatest recognition, reward or acknowledgement.

• EMPOWER US. We can talk all day about goals but until we have the autonomy we deserve to take action toward those goals, we’ll continue to go nowhere. Let us do the jobs you trusted us enough to hire us for. Allow us the freedom to create and express ourselves. The more empowered we are, the more ownership we have. When we feel like we own it, we’re going to do everything we can to make it great, keep customers happy and coming back for more.

Two CEO's that are changing their game.

Call them epiphanies, minds opening up or just trends in leadership. Regardless of what's in the air, I for one am enjoying the "fresh air" that's beginning to seep from corner offices recently. And by fresh air, I mean, the waves of interviews and articles highlighting leaders that are moving from command and control to listening to their employees and customers.

While I don't think we can't say "gone are the days" of top-down organizational structures just yet; there's definitely a shift taking place; one that will inevitably take time but also brings promise of innovation during an era when change is needed most. While there are several CEO's making change happen, I decided to focus on two superstars today:

CEO #1: Cristóbal Conde of SunGard

This interview got my attention for many reasons but primarily due to Conde's use of social tools, understanding the importance of employee recognition and above all tapping into the hearts minds of his employees to gain valuable feedback.

In his New York Time interview, "Structure? The Flatter, the Better",  Mr. Conde touches on several ways he's changing his approach as a CEO from command and control to collaboration and teamwork and points out that:

"Collaboration is one of the most difficult challenges in management…top-down organizations got started because the bosses either knew more or they had access to more information. None of that applies now. Everybody has access to identical amounts of information."