According to a Gartner study 2019, traditionally companies have spent as much as $2420 per employee comprising- flexible work policies, workplace redesigns, learning & development opportunities etc. However, only 13% employees in the study reported ‘satisfied’. 

Satisfied and motivated employees bring-on innovation, continuous improvement, increased productivity and in general creates a ‘happy’ space for everyone to work together in the organization.

Employee morale is one of the key ingredients of business success, thus it cannot be overlooked. So, the glaring question here is- How can leaders keep employees happy?

I would say that it is a three-part process, namely:

1. Calibrate expectations.
2. Personalize experience.
3. Shape memories.

Calibrate expectations-
Organizations should be clear about what it can and cannot deliver given their available resources and priorities, which will change as the economy ebbs and flows.

Once this map is ready, HR leaders should involve employees in creating a topography thru a survey about what changes they would like to implement and what makes them excited to come to work.

I would recommend using Personal Kaizen (or Employee Kaizen) tool to create an ‘experience blueprint’. You may combine Kaizen with day- long workshops designed to help employees determine and document their priorities. Use these blueprints for employee engagement.

Next, Managers should engage in one-on-one dialogue with workforce to align each employee’s aspiration with organization’s vision.

On the face of it, this exercise may look lengthy and cumbersome, but it is not. Calibrating employee expectations with organizational expectations is a sure win-win approach to go for.

Personalize day-to-day experience:
Employees might fear repercussion from voicing their requests or objections if any, so leaders need to create a psychologically safe environment for discussions. Encourage transparent, often and intellectual dialogues between leaders and employees. Scrap-off ‘Do as I say’ work code (that is, if it still exists at your workplace) .

Shape memories:
This involves shaping memories both good and bad. HR leaders can ask employees to reflect on how the employee development programs have improved their work lives. Encourage them to post their stories on company blog, newsletter, and share them at team meetings, open-house gatherings, off-site boot camps and other forums.

As companies emerge from the current economic crisis leaders might seek ways to highlight examples of how they supported their employees, such as- by continuing to pay sidelined workers or providing extended sick leave.
Of all the times, today’s business leaders and decision-makers must exhibit high emotional maturity, empathy and tolerance.

Installing a culture of Leadership Kaizen at your workplace creates successful leaders, motivated workforce and a thriving business.

Governments of practically all countries have initiated unlock procedures after a complete lock down for 3-4 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Organizations are slowly getting back to business, but situation is different now. Wearing mask in public spaces and offices, physical distancing is the new normal. And companies must gear up to this challenge while ensuring operational productivity and profitability.

Here are top 3 guidelines which companies can follow to keep their workforce safe despite the uncertainties posed by crisis such as Covid-19:
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1. Protect the workforce.
2. Engage the workforce.
3. Manage risks effectively to ensure uninterrupted workflow.

Protect workforce:
Formalize / revise SOP (standard operating procedure) and tools that keep your workforce safe. This includes man and/or material flow, air flow patterns, building maintenance, housekeeping etc. Conduct regular swab tests and volumetric air sampling to monitor clean air and surface conditions at your facility.

Engage workforce:
Leaders and superiors must exhibit high emotional quotient and tolerance. Let there be a two-way communication with your workforce than just top down. To achieve this, ramping up your company’s communications strategy is a sure winner. Regularly share information about your company’s evolving knowledge of the crisis and how it is using that knowledge to protect its employees and organization.

Clarity, simplicity, transparency, positivity, framework, and frequency of message together play an important role in effective communication.

Manage risks effectively to ensure uninterrupted workflow :
Just as it is important to receive correct information, it is also equally important to stay away from fake news and rumors. This implies consistent content, reflecting a single source of information at the corporate center.

Open offices are shrinking; soon they will be a thing of the past. Remember we went for open offices because it allowed better people contact and created mini bonds between members of the workforce which ultimately boosted productivity.

Now with social distancing, work-pods and remote working in place, we have moved a notch farther away. In such a scenario circulating fake news or rumors can cause a state of chaos and confusion among employees thus resulting in apprehension and conflicts.

3Cs- Clear, Correct and Concise communication plays a vital role in ensuring uninterrupted workflow, high employee morale and productivity.

So how do we head-on to it?

Managers and supervisors must maintain open and two-way dialogue with their workforce. Collect queries and concerns from front-line team members each morning.

The company’s HR/ PR division can publish an updated daily list of Q&A which are displayed on the company’s intranet, staff notice boards or sent out as email or text messages to employee cell phones. This will help drop absenteeism and increase productivity.

As an additional benefit this approach will uncover several previously un-asked questions perhaps unrelated to the pandemic, but these questions may have been brewing in the minds of front-line workforce for a while.

Answering such questions and dealing with whatever needs to be done to sort out any issues will boost productivity and workforce satisfaction.

A parting note- Capitalize on these improvements by standardizing the enhanced communication approach, periodically improve communication SOP in order to prevent letting things regress to pre-crisis norms as the situation stabilizes.

Begin Kaizen-ing your communication SOP. It does not cost much. Just 10-15 minutes daily and you can reap exponential rewards.

Kaizen is a time-tested Japanese technique of continual improvement. Kaizen professes small incremental changes to business processes and brings-in faster returns. 

Want to initiate Kaizen at your workplace?

So far rising competition and changing customer demands have posed immense challenges to businesses. However, businesses today must deal with two additional problems namely- high rate of 'change' and irregular cash flow. 

There is little direct control a business has over change, market economy, competition or customer demand. But preventing a situation of irregular cash flow is hundred percent in the hands of the company.

As many as 80% of small businesses worldwide deal with irregular cash flow crisis on a daily basis. This can be completely avoided by installing a culture of Continuous Improvement in your company.

A culture of continuous improvement straight away means continuous business improvement, lower operational costs and higher profits.

But, for Continuous Improvement programs to generate faster ROI (return on investment), we must consider following four factors-

1. Employee engagement.
2. Communication strategy.
3. Employee training.
4. Choice of Continuous Improvement methodology.

Let's look at them one-by-one ...

Employee engagement-
One of the most important ways of developing culture of Continuous Improvement in an organization is to let the employees know their significance to the 'Continuous Improvement' goal.

​Adding an incentive to Continuous Improvement campaigns has often been found to raise employee morale. Incentives such as monetary rewards, flexible work timings, insurance, promotions, paid education, low-interest loans are usually appreciated by employees.

Next success factor is- Communication strategy.

Communication strategy-
Developing a culture of Continuous Improvement often relies on the Continuous Improvement change leader's ability to communicate regularly, precisely and authentically share ideas with employees.  

While designing communication strategy, it is necessary to be conscious that, everyone do not have the ability to communicate exactly what's in their mind. Regardless of the caliber, level of education or work cadre, people do have challenges expressing thoughts and feelings, and it is very human, nothing wrong with it.

Hence, continuous improvement change leaders and HR leaders must design communication strategy over a solid foundation of emotional quotient to empathize and anticipate employee concerns.

Also, change leaders must repeat their messages frequently. The '7 times rule' of branding also applies here.

The 7 times rule says that information must be brought in front of the audience at least seven times via multiple channels and at periodic frequency. Employee-communications must be repeated frequently, so that employees are often reminded of the objective underlying the continuous improvement campaign, and also how their contribution is vital to the success of the campaign.

Further, employees should know whom they can ask questions to; because it is vital that employees are encouraged to ask questions and feel comfortable asking them. 

Lastly, the communication strategy  must be modified from time-to-time as work-place realities change.

The third success factor is Employee training ...

Employee Training-
Continuous Improvement in an organization means that employees are constantly learning, improving and consistently contributing to the main goal of the company.

​In any company big or small, employee mix has various components- old hands, new hires, varied levels of intellect, analytical ability and memory. Therefore learning tools and techniques must be malleable and customized according to leaner's capabilities, only then it will give best rewards.

Another point to note is that, unlike previously, skills today have a short shelf life of 2-3 years. As technology advances or customer demands change, companies need to continuously reinvent themselves to stay afloat. Employees too must unlearn and reinvent themselves to stay relevant. And this can happen with continuously learning.

Therefore corporate learning and development strategy must focus on continuous re-skilling and up-skilling, so that your talent pool is always confident and job-ready.

The fourth success factor is Continuous Improvement methodology itself...

Choice of Continuous Improvement methodology -
​Continuous Improvement necessitates all individuals within the company to move in the same direction and meet goals in an organized manner. Using a variety of assessment and planning tools determine the speed and duration of change, operational effectiveness and sustained organizational excellence with the Continuous Improvement initiatives. 

There are over 18 different time-tested Continuous Improvement methodologies including- Lean, Kaizen, Six Sigma, ISO, Kanban etc. These Continuous Improvement methodologies are scientific in outlook, easy to implement and versatile- meaning they can be applied to any industry sector.

The choice of the continuous improvement methodology largely depends on the size of the business, work-place culture, product offerings, regions of operations, customer persona, cash-flow situation and operational pains of the organization. Hence, it is extremely important to understand ‘how to choose a continuous improvement methodology’ that is most beneficial for your business.

Selecting the right continuous improvement methodology is therefore, lifeline of your continuous improvement program.
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Ensuring excellence in strategy design of all of the above four success factors and its execution, largely guarantees sustained success with continuous improvement aka business growth!

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​Have you ever been in a situation where there are open positions in your department that haven’t been filled out for one or two years?

On one hand there is mounting workload while on the other hand the response from HR office is that, they are and have been doing their best- they have personally looked out for good candidates, contacted several recruitment companies to get biodata of suitable candidates, yet they haven’t been able to find a correct fit for the open roles.

Many a times supervisors and department heads term such HR responses as ‘excuse’. 

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