Too often, companies fall into the trap of treating people as secondary to a product rather than seeing that without people, there would be no product. For small and medium-sized businesses, it's especially easy to lose touch with employees when the focus is on it's all about automation, valuation and gross profit according to their scale. But remember, if an organization grows to 2,000 people, it's the first 20 who tend to create and perpetuate the culture. So the question is, what kind of culture do you want to put in first?

To get the best out of people – and for EMPLOYEE to get the best out of the company — managers must treat the employer-employee relationship as a mutual partnership. Then we must choose for cultural fit to always build on that sense of community and belonging. One of my former managers summed it up best when he said, “I want you to help me create an environment where the weekend gets in the way.” It meant a workplace where people were so fulfilled in their jobs that the close of business on Friday felt like they were being taken away from what they love.

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Our people are more than a “cost”

The idea of ​​getting one community-centered approach running a business crystallized in one of my first executive jobs, where I was responsible for the call centers of a large healthcare company. The callers had real and urgent problems: they were sick, had an emergency, or needed an appointment. But we had become so data-driven – focused on metrics like call handling time and calls per hour – that we had forgotten the number of people of these exchanges.

My approach has always been for management teams to be open to empathetic dialogue if one of our reps or nurses has had issues with their data. We had to give patients some freedom to tell their stories instead of just cutting them off. It was a formative experience because I learned to look at the data behind the data—in other words, the human dimension of business. However, my learning was far from over.

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Determining the root causes of the breakdown

I have seen the correlation between many resignations across an organization and hiring managers treating people as a commodity. After doing a root cause analysis, I discovered that the underlying mentality is, “If someone doesn't like it here, they should just be happy they have a job.”

This was the polar opposite of the culture I wanted to lead. If you're experiencing a high turnover or attrition rate, there are two tried and tested methods to gauge why people are leaving. In either case, don't be afraid to listen the truth about your organization because here are the solutions:

1. Employee surveys: Look for trends in live feedback. If different departments are losing people, it could be the culture of the entire organization. If the same things are repeatedly mentioned by a department, the issue is likely to be centralized. Watch out for data points that cluster around an outlier for underlying problems.
2. Exit interviews: I ask people, “If you could ever go back, what would you like to see us improve or implement as an employer?” Leaders still need a good filter to know when people are just venting, but these data points will reveal whether you're choosing the right people, posting in the right areas, or being too hasty to decide. warm bodies.

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How to change employment practices

The main theme of changing hiring practices to create a workplace community is choosing only people who possess the right skill set and fit for your team and culture. To get everyone in the C-suite to share this emphasis, here are five practices to follow:

1. Agree on the type of culture you want, as this will influence your choices. If you have a highly collaborative organization, a more authoritarian or hierarchical leadership style is a poor fit.
2. Prioritize candidate profile over demographics. This approach is almost built without name, face or gender to focus on cultural adaptation. It helps to create a variety, inclusive and thriving workplace community.
3. Involve hiring managers in candidate screenings. It can be tempting to choose the most experienced person, but any red flags should be included in the scoreboard.
4. Set realistic time expectations. In companies that are always innovating, sometimes hiring is rushed. Instead of hiring 20 different personalities, try hiring five who have the right profile and build from there. If it takes 45 or 90 days to find the right person, that's enough.
5. Build your workforce through employee referrals. People tend to refer those with similar values, so your community can be built from within.

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Creating true partnership

There are two other points to consider, both of which will come up in the interview – treat the hiring process as a two-way assessment and give people time to decide. As the vice president of human resources, I continue to conduct interviews, which I say to candidates: “I'm fully aware that you're interviewing us as much as we're interviewing you. And you have the right to say 'no' if it's not the right fit because this is a partnership: you'll hold me accountable for everything I say, and I'll hold you accountable for everything you say.”

The community is built on this foundation tRANSPARENCY, trust and mutual responsibility. After three decades in human resources, my message to business leaders as we all become increasingly automated is this: Never forget who got us here. By giving someone time to accept or decline an offer, we're really allowing that person to feel like they're part of something bigger, rather than just lucky to get a paycheck.