As a recovering Type A, I recognize that flexibility was both a challenge and mantra raising children and developing as a professional.  Many of the heart to hearts with my adult sons opened the kaleidoscope back on those days as I see the rigidity through their lens, accept responsibility, and challenge myself daily in decisions.  With gratitude for these conversations, I rejoice from the enlightenment of mind, body and spirit professionally and personally. A freedom that flexibility has created.

I received a txt last week, asking if I was available in 3 days to present at a Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber event – a last minute opportunity which arose out of a speaker cancellation. An older me without hearing parameters, might have declined – I accepted.  The evening before the event, Jack and I conversed – his vision revealed. The topic – ‘Retain & Retrain your Workforce’ – a panel discussion targeting Manufactures in the Lehigh Valley. I was tasked with creating a motivational and inspirational key-note intro.  This came naturally as it reflects our daily best practices and translates universally - a message regarding maintaining a “employee” competitive edge in these times. 

With unemployment being down, near to a 49-Year Low of 3.7% , and in the wake of Amazon and other large scale retail / distribution centers here in the Valley increasing their minimum wage to $15 along with other long term compensation based incentives,  attracting talent from competitors or alternate industries is on the rise, and hiring the right candidate exceedingly difficult.  Couple this with the costs of losing an employee costing greater than 2.0x the employee’s annual salary  (based on Josh Bersin of Deloitte’s low estimate).  Traditionally this looks at cost of hiring, on-boarding, training, and time with an unfilled role but doesn’t necessarily take into consideration some of the big intangible costs like impact on employee morale, perception in the community, or impact on customers.

You don’t have to be a cyber geek or rocket scientist to - now more than ever - pursue the latest best practices and theories regarding maximizing the amount of time a viable employee stays … actively contributing and thriving at your company.

A few weeks ago when I was at the Lehigh Valley Consortium of Professional Organizations, Don Cunningham, President & CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) shared “The Lehigh Valley is unique among major metropolitan areas in the United States in that manufacturing is driving such a large percentage of its growth, “Manufacturing is clearly alive and well in the Lehigh Valley, and our regional GDP is the largest it’s ever been, far surpassing even the days of Bethlehem Steel.”  To maintain that growth and our competitive edge, we must be innovative, welcome change, ask ourselves the difficult questions, and be willing to be brutally honest – challenge the status quo.  Digest this, what are you doing to nurture, challenge, grow and retain your employees?

Our intention today is to initiate a change.  If you are an old schooler - a ‘ I pay them a wage – that should be enough’ – I encourage you to begin by being open, and today, begin to challenge your thinking.  For those of you that have promoted from with-in because ‘someone had to do it’, consider that some may not be in the right seats, on your bus.  For all - our hopes are that you will leave here and open the dialogue tomorrow – engaging your team to create a more viable future with action items.

Retaining employees – When does that process start?    With marketing?, recruiting?, perhaps onboarding during your initial IDP( Individual Development Plan) conversation…..   Are your teams comfortable career pathing and speaking to development often?  Do you have a performance management mentality?  Are job descriptions a dusty piece of paper or spring board to realizing potential?

During Organizational Design sessions, having those initial conversations with recruiting managers- we encourage a philosophy shift, away from fitting a person into a job to seeking bright, positive individuals with solid work ethics.  Would you create the position around talent? This approach goes beyond sourcing new, but is a fundamental practice with existing employees.  Did you know that Joe or Josephine writes creatively at home?  Imagine the potential of knowing and nurturing the hidden talents in your company?

Change management is essential.  Cultural shift starts at the top.  There is no one path. It may begin with an appreciation for the difference between creating a culture of Leaders in which pride and ownership becomes the motivation to succeed.   

Let’s look at Leading vs Managing.  Here are a few questions to self-evaluate and determine your mindset:

·       How involved are your employees in decision making that affects their assignments?

·       How much autonomy are they given in their sphere of influence?

·       How much support do you offer toward their ideas and goals?

·       How often do you reiterate the purpose and intent of your mission, decisions, and vision?

·       How have you outlined professional development for your team and individual employees?

Communicating often and openly is essential, and active listening even more so. While mediating a conversation between an owner in the Valley and his production manager, who had been promoted based mostly on product expertise, in other words, his temperament, Emotional Intelligence and other components of ‘leading’ were not the deciding factor.   The conversation escalated -  ‘No one ever listens to me, I’ve spoken to the problems and suggested solutions, but no one cares – how can you not listen to someone who works in the thick of it, that sees it all?’.  Funny, but truly not funny - both of them confident that they have spoken to each other and have shared information directly, and with the same intensity, both of them feel the other never listens.  Does this sound familiar?

Communication realized goes beyond this..

Transparency is key – People want to be told the truth and are energized when they are connected to the bigger picture. 

Like Patty McCord of Netflix’s we too advocate for Open honest debates centered around customers and business, not the person.

Open, as in out in front of others – this keeps people professional and accountable for what they say. Modeling desired behaviors such as when leaders admit they are wrong, sends a powerful message and creates an environment for other to feel safe and share – like nutrients to encourage innovation and collaboration.

Loving to come to work, feeling challenged at finding solutions, being part of a team and knowing how what you do impacts the success of the company, becomes the motivator.

We invite you to keep your minds open, to actively listen, – and before you leave tonight – commit to 1 actionable item, toward energizing your most valuable resource, your people. I look forward to hearing your perspectives after the panels. 

Flexibility to challenge thoughts, dogmas, approaches, is more than our competitive edge, it is the freedom to think outside the chains of repetition and historical patterns. It is the ability to actively choose -based on past, present, and with a meaningful intention toward the future.