Take REI, for example. The outdoor clothing and gear co-op was the top CQ-ranked brand overall and also scored the highest on our measure of respect. Last year REI announced it was closing all its stores on Black Friday to encourage employees and consumers to spend the day outdoors with their families and friends.
A bold move, and it paid off: At the end of REI reported a 9. So, all in all, each study participant rates two companies — one that has good intuition and one that does not. Companies with high CQ scores are the ones that customers frequently bring up and rate highly when asked for positive examples and seldom bring up when asked for negative ones. Customers also value companies they see as authentic. While some basic level of quality is a prerequisite, consumers place a premium on brands that they believe to be direct, forthright about their values, and consistent in acting on them.
The health and beauty care vertical generally scored high on authenticity — fitting, given that its products have an impact on how people feel, how they care for others, and how they are perceived by others on a daily basis.
Both are overt about their values and actively pursue them in their employment practices, corporate culture, and public stances. Power poses can be helpful before important meetings to get your body and your mindset focused. In order to grow, you need to recognize your limitations and address them. When others see that you are nimble in your approach, they will be more willing to collaborate with you. Every quarter or so, assess your areas for improvement, being honest with yourself and others.
This humility goes a long way in disarming colleagues and convincing them of your value. Communicate Effectively —Stop talking and start listening. The way you actively listen to and speak with co-workers determines so much of your success. If you want someone to understand and accept your opposing viewpoint, you need to model that behavior first. Connect your data to a story so people can see actual applications.
Humor helps everyone. Find a mentor —Why go at this alone? A good mentor can be an amazing resource as you advance in your company. Your mentor does not have to be senior to you or even in the same field. Look for someone you admire and respect to whom you can vent and from whom you can seek advice.
These relationships can strengthen over time or be more of an ad-hoc service depending on need and connection. Manage Your Time— Try to establish yourself as one of those early people, minus the smugness.
Create Boundaries— Be wary of blurred lines between the professional and personal. While maintaining a collegial environment with colleagues is important for engagement, so is establishing parameters around those relationships. Productivity and efficiency typically decrease when roles become conflated and, potentially, toxic.
Keep it professional and make sure your direct reports do the same. Leading a dysfunctional group is not perceived any better than creating the dysfunction. The way you dress and present yourself matters more than it should, especially for women in male-dominated industries.
Communication tops the list when organizations ask what qualities make a company a great place to work. Open and timely communication builds transparency and trust that goes both ways, in addition to uniting employees and leadership under the same goals.
Companies that check in regularly with their employees through employee engagement surveys open the opportunity for communication that benefits all involved.
Employees are able to share concerns and feel heard, while management can utilize employee survey insights to start important conversations that might otherwise have been missed.
Some companies offer employees stock options. Others, like Google, provide their employees with free meals at work, or in the case of Quicken Loans, a free arcade. But the great place to work criteria is about more than just fun employee perks. Top Workplaces that have a satisfied workforce focus on ways to be intentional and improve company culture by consistently developing employee engagement, communication, and trust.
A healthy company culture is also a powerful way to stand out, promote your unique brand, and make a statement to potential recruits. No organization is perfect. Recognizing imperfections and gaining a clear perspective on employee engagement allows an organization to purposefully build a company culture that aligns with its values and goals.
Top Workplaces utilize employee feedback to better understand what makes a great workplace and also pinpoint areas where more effort is needed to create positive change.
Transparency in this respect is often what makes a great workplace in the eyes of top talent who appreciate an organization that is committed to honesty and growth rather than denial and stagnation. Innovation is at the heart of any successful company. Innovation keeps an organization at the top of their game, allowing them to flex their competitive muscles and take pride in the work they do.
They are more resilient, cooperate more with others, perform better and more creatively, and are more likely to take direction from their leaders. Conversely, a lack of respect can inflict real damage. In addition, disrespectful treatment often spreads among coworkers and is taken out on customers. I spent 15 months studying a unique work program for female inmates of a state prison.
Nowhere are the differences between a disrespectful environment and a respectful one clearer than in a setting where people shift back and forth each day between being inmates and being employees. Although outfitted in the same orange clothing for both roles, the women interact with others in vastly different ways. Televerde is a technology-focused business-to-business marketing firm staffed largely by inmates.
At the time, Televerde had one computer and no paying customers. Hooker recognized the potential to pair a need in the expanding tech market with the opportunity to provide valuable jobs for incarcerated women. In recent years the inmate employees have helped fuel an extraordinary run of profitability, and the company experienced a compound annual growth rate of 8. It now employs people— of whom are inmates—and has nine call centers in the United States, Scotland, Argentina, and Australia.
Although I interviewed members at all levels of the organization, I focused on new employees, reasoning that respect dynamics would be most salient when the experiences were novel. Women arrive for their first day of work with their identities stripped and their self-worth diminished by months or years of prison life.
While society in general devalues incarcerated women, stereotyping them as dangerous, evil, and bad mothers, Televerde communicates that they are valued and deserve the chance to be successful members of the business world.
Although all inmates are required to work, jobs vary in pay and prestige. Trainers and company leaders work at understanding their perspectives.
I saw them explain complicated business concepts using scenarios that the women were likely to have encountered previously: For instance, they elucidated organizational charts using familiar restaurants as examples and discussed supply chain management in the context of dealing drugs.
Company leaders also communicate that newcomers are a high-priority investment. They describe the many opportunities for professional development, such as participation in specialized training sessions, professional book clubs, and a six-month series of workshops in the year prior to release, aimed at preparing women mentally, emotionally, and professionally for the transition.
The women can also apply for Televerde scholarships toward higher education. As a final project for the two-week classroom training I sat in on, each new employee presented a business plan, building a hypothetical company around an idea or a passion. Televerde managers, directors, and executives attended the presentations. Leaders are also intentional about how they present employees to outsiders. When existing or potential clients visit the call centers, managers speak about the professionalism, passion, and competence of the staff.
He did not interrupt. It was very respectful, and he totally trusted us to carry out an intelligent conversation with the clients. Owed respect permeates the culture. Other inmate employees communicate their support for and availability to all newcomers—for example, by offering to help them understand training materials after work hours or by sharing stories of how steep the learning curve was for them.
In one call center, experienced employees organized a social afternoon with the newcomers. Members of the two groups learned about one another, shared tips for navigating life in the call center, and discussed their evolving career aspirations.
These practices establish and reinforce an authentic, consistent foundation of owed respect for all staff members. You are going to be acknowledged as a human being, someone of value, someone who has worth. Establishing and upholding a high level of earned respect for the inmate employees requires managerial creativity, because prison restrictions stipulate that they may not be given raises, bonuses, or promotions.
Instead, from day one of the hiring process they must clear specific hurdles, such as passing a typing test and successfully completing a phone interview. Such milestones continue throughout the training.
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