I think we can all agree that structure within a company is crucial to its success. But when an organization gets bogged down in managing growth, it’s easy to ignore making a plan for the roles and people you need. A team of talented employees thrown together on a long-term project is not sustainable if their tasks and purpose within the company are not clearly defined. While it will take some time, starting from scratch and clarifying roles and responsibilities within the workplace will lead to increased financial performance, a healthy corporate culture, and an advantage over competitors.
Where Do I Start?
To gain clarity and accountability for who is responsible for which task, you must first identify:
Overlap, confusion, and conflict
What’s falling through the cracks
Over- and under-utilization
Better ways of organizing work
Hang ups, drag, wasted time
Work the current team is not equipped to handle
The most efficient and inexpensive hiring
If this seems like a big task, don’t worry. I broke down the process into just five phases that you can easily implement within your own company.
Phase One: Capture
The preparatory stage focuses on asking your team members to identify the roles and tasks they are responsible for. You are capturing their answers to determine the best way to move forward. This phase prompts employees to ask, “What am I not doing that I want to do?” and “Who do I report to for each task?”. Have workers catalogue their day-to-day tasks for at least a full week. By writing down everyday responsibilities, excess or unnecessary work will reveal itself, as well as tasks outside of the employee’s primary role. PRO TIP: Compare results from Phase One with your most recent job description.
Phase Two: Consolidate
Next, you will consolidate individual results into a single spreadsheet. Clean up assigned roles by reorganizing tasks, deleting repetition, and adjusting the level of abstraction. At this point, considerations should look like: Are any tasks/roles missing? Is there overlap? Who can handle more? Who is handling too much? What roles/tasks would fit better elsewhere? Then, meet with team members as needed to fill in the gaps. Meeting one-on-one with your team members will increase employee satisfaction by addressing problems such as avoiding burnout from too much work or feeling unsatisfied from too little work. PRO TIP: Start with the ideal: if we had limitless resources, who handles x? Work backwards from there.
Organize new tasks and responsibilities under each department for a more efficient workflow.
Phase Three: Cuss & Discuss
This phase is intended to get the feedback you need to finalize the updated roles and responsibilities. Schedule meetings with key people who can help you answer questions that came up in Phase 2, specifically team members who will experience a significant shift in their role moving forward. Additionally, discuss plans with department leaders whose responsibilities and tasks are similar to yours to cut down on overlap. And finally, meet with people above you who need to approve the plan. PRO TIP: Remind employees that roles and tasks are not ‘in a perfect world’ assignments—these are ‘what works for the next quarter/six months.‘
Phase Four: Commit
As you begin to implement the new plan, review these ground rules with your team:
Everyone will have responsibilities they don’t love.
No job is permanent — we will review every six months.
Our goal is everyone doing more of the work they love that falls within their strengths, and less of the work they dislike.
We believe our team is capable, and therefore each member deserves to have a domain they can own rather than a list of unrelated tasks to complete.
At this point, have a full team meeting to catch everyone up to speed. Provide each team member with their own responsibilities agreement to review and sign. PRO TIP: Address any concerns that arise from the full team meeting.
Meet with your team members to get feedback on improving your plan.
Phase Five: Continue
The last phase is an ongoing one. Check in with team members on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to see if the plan is working well. Determine a system of accountability. For example, a person ‘responsible’ for activities should coordinate with the person ‘accountable’ to confirm the frequency of communication for each task (ie once a week, ‘never tell me unless’, etc.). At the six-month review, include an area on the spreadsheet where individuals can add random tasks they took on between the semi-annual reviews. PRO TIP: Confirm with your manager decisions you own and decisions that need input.
Ready to Begin Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities?
I believe in this foundational principle: We are not infinite. We must carefully protect each person’s attention by not sharing info and asking for time on things that don’t need their attention. If you’re ready to make this change a priority, you can download the roles and responsibilities templates for free on the Focuswise website. You can also check out my podcasts, infographics, TED Talk video, and more at focuswise.com/free.
Workers are quitting their jobs at rapid rates. Employees leave because of job dissatisfaction, perceived low worth due to minimal salary increases, and rigid return-to-office plans, among other reasons. As an employer, how do you develop an employee journey map that invests in your workers so they will want to stay?
Let’s think about a model companies use as a common marketing tool: the customer journey map. Customer experience is a top priority using this model, and its main goals are to assess the customer’s needs, exceed their expectations, and develop an ongoing positive relationship with them. The five main steps are awareness, consideration, conversion, user experience/loyalty, and advocacy. A prospective customer is carefully guided through each stage until they become forever loyal to the company. What if a new employee joining a company was treated the same way?*
What Is Employee Journey Mapping?
Similar to the customer journey, an employee journey map progresses through different stages to achieve total employee loyalty and an overall positive experience with the company. HR teams should begin crafting a long-term plan for the employee as soon as the hiring process begins.
Stage 1: Employee’s Discovery
The employee journey starts with your job listing. Potential candidates view the job application and make judgements about the company based on the information given to them. They then conduct subsequent research on the company to determine its remote work flexibility, salary, and values. To attract the best candidates, companies need to put their best foot forward —as publicly as possible. HR leaders should provide straightforward information on the job listing and clearly communicate the company’s vision on their social media channels and website.
Attract top candidates with a compelling job description that emulates employee values.
Stage 2: Employee’s Evaluation
At this stage, potential new hires are deciding whether the company and job position is worth their long-term investment. Throughout the interview process, the prospect is critically observing the company just as much as the company is determining the prospect’s own compatibility and potential. To solidify a good match, the company should show candidates why their values align and be open to addressing the candidate’s pain points.
When we talk about prospective employee pain points, we’re really talking about companies finding ways to offer solutions to a variety of prospective employees’ concerns. These can range anywhere from a negative opinion of applicant screening software, to being seen as an individual (especially within a large company), to a necessity to work from home, and a compelling salary that matches their worth, intelligence, experience, judgment, ingenuity, and contribution.
*P.S. On a personal note, I’ve heard from many employees over the years who grew tired of being viewed as interchangeable commodities, were frustrated by the perceived indifference of their employers, and felt discouraged by their company’s lack of interest in anything they tried to communicate upward. With time to think about it (courtesy of the pandemic), they’ve reset their priorities. So now, anything less than a personalized approach to their future won’t go far enough to encourage millions of Millennials to rededicate themselves, sustain employee engagement, create genuine employee satisfaction, and support the retention levels companies need. Again, you’ll find more on this in my Forbes column (link above).
Here we are, in the midst of the “Great Resignation“– a time when people are quitting their jobs at historic rates. Just in December 2021 alone, 4.3 million Americans resigned from their jobs. Among those resignations, 776,000 came from the business services sector. As someone who works with executives building focused and productive workforces, I find these statistics quite significant, and companies across the country should be concerned.
There are a number of factors behind the mass exodus of the workforce. The pandemic was the initial force, but gradually the reasons for leaving work have started to shift beyond health concerns. Following COVID-19 lockdowns and the shift to working from home, people began to identify or rediscover what really matters to them. This is what the problem ultimately boils down to: employees are resigning in record numbers because employers can’t give them what they want.
Top 5 Reasons People Are Quitting Their Jobs
1. Their employer does not offer remote work options. People are accustomed to working from home. They can work from anywhere: the home office, couch, patio, park, and coffee shop offer variety, and employees can choose where they focus best. Two years ago, just 1 in 67 jobs was remote. Today, it’s 1 in 6. That’s reflected in research that shows 87% of workers want to work from home at least half the time. Plus, employees save money by not having to pay for commuting, parking, business attire, extra childcare, and meals away from home, which ends up being the equivalent of a $4,000 raise.
2. They feel undervalued by their employer. Workers are demanding better salaries and benefits. Employees want to know that their input is welcome in the workplace, their ambitions are taken seriously, and their needs are seen as valid and important. If their paycheck does not reflect the perceived value they add to the company, workers will leave. Employees are placing a growing importance on respect, in addition to a raise.
3. They can afford to be picky. The top 20% of Americans got richer from the pandemic. The bottom 25% of income earners also saw a 50% raise in checking account balances. Government stimulus checks, billions of dollars spent on the economy, and unemployment benefits all helped to keep households afloat, and a lot of them are thriving. Many Americans were in a position to save the extra money or invest it in the stock market. By doing so, workers had the ability to quit unsatisfactory jobs and look for new opportunities instead.
Unsatisfactory feelings about work lead to people quitting their jobs quicker than in the past.
4. They started their own business or side hustle. During initial lockdowns, spending lots of time at home forced people to take up new hobbies in their free time. As a result, people started side hustles with their newfound hobbies. Many Americans then made the leap to converting their side hustles into a full-time businesses. According to the Census Bureau, there was a 24 percent increase in Americans filing for new businesses in 2021.
5. People are re-evaluating what matters. At the end of the day, living through a global pandemic has shifted people’s perspective about what they value most. With COVID-19 deaths approaching a million in the US, family and home have become top priorities for the majority of Americans. Working a flexible, well-paying job that allows employees to spend time with and provide for their families is a big reason people are quitting jobs that don’t support that goal.
How to Retain Your Employees
Companies that decide to empathize with and embrace the evolving needs of a pandemic workforce are the companies that will retain the most employees. Workers are looking to their management to make executive decisions that will benefit the whole of the company, not just the C-level.
A hybrid workplace is critical to employees today. If a leader is opposed to remote work because they think employees are not working unless they are visibly present, those leaders need to revisit the facts. Productivity soared during the pandemic when relatively no one was in the office, no one was physically supervised, and only essential workers commuted to work.
Prioritizing mental health is another reason people are quitting their jobs. If a job is consistently causing burnout and demanding strict office hours, employees are going to pull the plug. People are more focused on their emotional, psychological, and social well-being during the pandemic, and that trend is continuing.
So how can you prevent your own employees from eyeing the exits and have them enjoy their jobs again? First, understand why they’re leaving, and respect that. Then, build some of what they’re leaving for into your company’s culture. Bottom line, people leave for comfort, and stay for culture. Make your culture fit their needs well, and they’re more likely to stay.
For more information on how to enjoy work and avoid burnout, check out my recent TED Talk.
Nothing can ruin the holiday spirit faster than a bad customer service experience. Sometimes employees are just having a bad day…but at other times, company practices are to blame. Personally, I want to maintain a good relationship with my own clients. So I took a few lessons from companies with terrible customer service to find out what I need to avoid doing in the new year.
When customers are dissatisfied, they typically tell nine to fifteen other people about their experience. Additionally, a negative customer experience is the reason 86 percent of consumers quit doing business with a company. Clearly, satisfying the customer should be a top priority for well-performing companies. But what about those that place profit over people? Below are a few examples from businesses that are still performing relatively well in the market…but with a dim future ahead if they stay on the same track.
Some companies put profits over people…but are the long term results worth it?
Companies With Terrible Customer Service (or Poor Practices)
Spirit Airlines
Spirit Airlines is known within the airline industry to provide flights at a cheap price. The trade off is poor customer service. Little to no leg room between seats, hidden fees, and damaged baggage are just some of problems this company has chosen not to fix.
HubSpot
This marketing company provided me with a poorer service than what was promised after payment. Plus, they make the customer sign a mandatory contract as a loophole to avoid liability. I am not the only one with a bad experience: a one-star rating on the Better Business Bureau proves my point.
Publix
Customers don’t like when their favorite stores pick a side during election season. The daughter of the founder of Publix Super Markets donated to three organizations that organized the Capitol raid on January 6, 2021, leaving the company damage control from the outcry that followed.
These are just a few examples from businesses that need to make better choices. Head over to Forbes to read the full length article. I suggest a few possible solutions for these bad practices.
As we head into 2022, let’s ditch companies with terrible customer service. Instead, we should celebrate companies that treat their customers right…companies that don’t treat their customers like commodities.
Don’t forget to check out the contributor article my SEO intern wrote about working with Focuswise here.
My team and I have spent the past year researching the best new ways to work. Thanks to a series of conversations with Erica Volini, Senior Vice President of Global Alliances & Channel Ecosystem at Service Now, we began to consider, and ultimately put together, what I believe is a landmark white paper detailing workplace solutions for the post-pandemic corporate workforce.
(Want to skip the blog post and download the white paper directly? Click here.)
In my opinion, this is an important paper for any corporate leader to read because it addresses two very timely questions:
Why isn’t work working?
How do we fix the many problems facing the workforce today?
Key Questions for Leaders
What should businesses learn and do when recovering from the pandemic?
Companies should not return to their former working model. Working from home opened many eyes to the possibilities of accomplishing tasks without commuting to a brick-and-mortar office. It proved that much office work doesn’t require an office at all. Consequently, leaders should listen to their workers to learn what they need to be productive — not necessarily what they need to return to the office.
How will these dramatic shifts affect workers’ views of the workplace?
Workers have been experiencing serious levels of burnout for three or four years now, and the pandemic has only exacerbated the problem. According to the 2021 Microsoft Work Trend Index Report, 54% of employees feel overworked, and 39% say they are exhausted. As a result, workers are looking for flexibility within the workplace. Leaders, this is your chance to improve your employees’ perspective of the office by implementing a hybrid workflow, converting office space to new and better uses, getting rid of artificial engagement activities, banning unproductive over-connectivity, and more.
A hybrid work model increases productivity levels and job satisfaction by giving workers maximum opportunity to focus in the comfort and quiet of their homes.
What framework can leaders use to shape productivity in the future?
At Focuswise, what we call (as shorthand) “the four C’s” (clarity, capacity, curiosity, and community) provide a framework for a healthy, focused, and productive way to work. Our white paper explains these concepts and offers manageable workplace solutions for each one.
How can businesses re-engage office workers without also reigniting their dissatisfaction with working in the company’s offices?
Job satisfaction is crucial to avoiding burnout. If workers aren’t satisfied with current working conditions, productivity will diminish. In the long run, corporate leaders need to find sustainable ways to re-engage office workers on their terms without sacrificing company culture. It can be a tricky line to walk, but engaging your workers as fellow human beings (and not merely as metrics) is the most effective way to move forward.
Download Our White Paper for Workplace Solutions
The questions (and answers) I’ve highlighted above only begin to scratch the surface of our comprehensive white paper. Additionally, you’ll find wonderful insights from Erica Volini, such as the concept of the “internal talent marketplace.” I thank her once again for the inspiring series of discussions we had.
You can download the white paper here: Work Isn’t Working: New Solutions for Leadership and Productivity.
Let me know what you think of it in the comments below! I encourage you to pass this link to other leaders who could benefit from the solutions we have identified.
Before the pandemic, converting office space into a better, more relaxed environment was a hot topic. Now more than ever, employers have to find a balance between meeting the needs of remote workers and those who have returned to the office. Open floor plan? Outdoor workspace? Glass walls? There are many options available for office conversion.. but how will you know what’s best for your employees and the company as a whole?
Design with Function and Focus in Mind
Workers today are no longer relegated to completing repetitive tasks that require them to sit in one place all day. In fact, the majority of work can be accomplished from home, as the pandemic has proven. But the return to the office requires a serious look at the Activity-Based Working (ABW) model. The goal of ABW is to create task-oriented solutions that encourage movement and empower people to select the right space for their current task.
I started to give this more thought when I found myself appreciating workplace expert Kay Sargent’s insightful comment about office space, “One size misfits all.” Sargent is the director of HOK’s online WorkPlace, where they advocate environments that create balanced spaces. In a column about office design that’s behind the times, she recently explained those balanced spaces as “a variety of settings that allow people the freedom to transition to the area that best supports the needs of the various tasks they engage in on a day-to-day basis.” These activity-based working spaces (ABWs) are a whole ecosystem of spaces, grouped and coordinated to serve the five major work functions, which HOK defines as solo work, collaboration, learning, socializing, and rejuvenation.
She’s not alone. In 2016 — before the pandemic — a national Gensler survey revealed that innovative companies are five times more likely to balance group and individual workspaces.
While individual focus and collaborative work are often thought to be opposites, Gensler’s research demonstrates that they function best as complements. Ultimately, workplaces designed to enable collaboration without sacrificing employees’ ability to focus are more successful. And this plays back to Sargent’s concept of designing (and embracing) offices that suit multiple needs and allow employees to use those areas as needed.
Incorporate regular movement within your workspace. Credit: Unsplash
Office Conversion to Encourage Movement
Encouraging movement within office space is crucial to long-term success. Here are some of the benefits organizations gain when their people move around…
Retention of information increases. Looking at the ABW model, movement between different work areas is a chance to stimulate mental activity while simultaneously providing a break from a focus session. I’ve spoken before about the brain’s association between spaces and tasks, and how doing all tasks in one space actually works against the brain’s productive nature by failing to provide the physical transitions that cue new activity.
Employees are healthier. People can get work done and exercise at the office. Provide options like standing desks, place water dispensers at the far side of the office, encourage lunch breaks outside, etc.
Creativity levels are higher. Staring at a screen all day does not generally produce creative ideas. Getting up, moving around, talking to other people, and enjoying the outdoors are brain stimulators that produce creative thoughts. Breaks spent viewing or being surrounded by outdoor elements of nature — trees, water, birds — lower anxiety and provide a mental reset.
Itrelieves stress. Research shows that exercise such as swimming, running, and hiking reduce stress, but something as simple as walking does the trick, too.
Natural light helps improve worker satisfaction and productivity. Credit: Unsplash
Matching the Space to the Task
I talk more in-depth on this subject in my book, Can I Have Your Attention? Here is an excerpt from the chapter on office space.
Employees have diverse space needs based on the variety and focus demands of their work. Some are rarely or never in the office and may not require assigned seating. Others need the continuity of their own desk and may rely more heavily on office services or support spaces… Most of us have a variety of tasks that demand different levels of focus and can benefit from a variety of spaces throughout the day.
The important thing to remember is this: do not impose a one-size-fits-all work environment on your people. Employees need different options to choose from when working through various tasks.
More focus-heavy, deadline-driven assignments are best done in an enclosed room, while brainstorming sessions and responding to emails can be accomplished in a communal space. Giving the employee their choice of work environment is beneficial for worker satisfaction and overall productivity. Less distraction = more focus, and more focus = better productivity.
A step toward office conversion is working outside. Credit: Unsplash
Practical Steps for Office Conversion
It may seem daunting at first, but converting office space for the good of your employees will benefit any company in the long run. Some short-term and long-term solutions include:
Create/label different “zones” within the workplace.
Convert a spare office into a “vault” — a space where workers can achieve full focus with no interruptions.
Provide more light (preferably natural, but artificial can substitute).
If outdoor space is available, designate an area for working outside.
Open floor plans, cubicles, and remote work all have their pros and cons. Taking the best attributes of each and applying it to an overall office space strategy will make for more focused employees.
Here are four tips to get started:
If you have an area with lots of natural light, try to set it aside as a meeting space where employees can bounce ideas off of each other.
Install cubicles to filter out visual distraction when employees need an increased level of concentration.
Have a room (or multiple rooms) set aside to block out noise and create an atmosphere for intense focus.
Finally, support the option to work remotely so that an employee can work from the comfort of their home if they decide that’s their best option.
The Focuswise Space
A 2021 Gensler survey found that the majority of employees at top-performing companies consider their company’s workplace to be the best place for a wide range of work activities. For instance, 56% said the office was best for brainstorming with coworkers, while 27% would rather attend a video conference for meetings at home. For anything other than reading, respondents generally preferred their company’s office — but writing and reflecting also scored notably high in the preference for working away from the office. Workers also expressed moderate interest in working from third places or co-working locations.
What can we see from this research? Employees returning to the office after the pandemic want variety within their workplace — and need it for focus and productivity. I call spaces that plan for these needs focuswise spaces because they reduce costs and turnover in the long run. Also, they make the office a perk, a pressure value, and a place to gather intentionally, occasionally, and enjoyably. Office conversion for employees’ best interests will serve employers’ best interests because these spaces promote stimulation, focus, well-being, and productivity while reducing stress. Above all, the concept of activity-based workspaces helps leaders create offices that are meaningful tools for their employees rather than just real estate investments where, increasingly, “one size misfits all.”
