NORTHFIELD, Minn. July 25, 2011 - When organizations hire new people, extra effort is needed to ensure workplace success. Free parking. A nice office. Nice - but not the keys to workplace integration and success.
Supervisors will find it pays to pay special attention to the culture surrounding the new employees.
Recently I heard a presentation summarizing comments of managers who had hired newly trained nursing assistants. They reported what problems they had experienced with the new workers.
This is just one side of the equation. The other side is the environment into which people go to work.
What should managers do to support the likelihood of workplace success?
Managers should be attentive to five key areas. In each, focus on providing what most employees want and avoid what they don’t.
1. Employees finding a sense of place within the team and organization
WANT:
- A sense of ownership and belonging about their experiences.
- Feeling ‘a part of’ not ‘apart from’ the organization as a whole
AVOID: Some people as ciphers (a nonentity and or nobody)
2. Employees having courage to voice/share experiences and recommendations
WANT:
- An acknowledgement of their identity
- A feeling that what they have to offer has merit and adds value to the enterprise
AVOID:
- Feel unworthy, so they hide their perspectives and hold back their views.
- Procedures, processes do not work well for some and the supervisor doesn’t know this
3. Employees building bridges between work, team, and family
WANT:
- A sense of connectedness between home and work communities, and
- A feeling of community between themselves, peers, and managers
AVOID: Creating unnecessary choices between family and work.
4. Employees and supervisors seeing conflict as a catalyst for development and change
WANT:
- Conflict that is well managed
- Understanding that conflict has a central role in moving people closer to understanding themselves and others
AVOID: Blaming the lower status individual for causing problems
5. Employees gaining a sense of self efficacy and supervisors viewing the new employee as a contributor to trust
WANT:
- A feeling that change and improvement is possible
- Belief that they are agents of change, especially for areas that affect them directly
AVOID:
- Discounting early efforts to contribute
- Marginalizing some people due to their ‘rough edges’
Please Comment: As a new employee, have you experienced any of these areas - good or bad? Supervisors - what would you add?
This article was inspired by research done with first generation college students by Rashne’ Jahangir.
Sources: Rashne’ Jehangir, Higher Education and First Generation Students: Cultivating Community, Voice and Place for the New Majority
Read more from Donna Rae Scheffert at Washington Times Communities and Online-Leadership-Tools. She can also be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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