Each company has a different ‘readiness for change’ based upon the hiring standards and both skill-base and soft-skills training that is done each year. It is important to select the interventions for change knowing your work-culture and readiness for the proposed change. The three tiers below offer three levels of change that progress towards a developed and effective work-culture. The most important are numbered low at the start of each list, but to adopt, your people must be ready for the proposed change; if not, skip that and do it later! Tier C is at the lowest level of staff development, but you may still find a change program that, though your business nominally ranks higher than ‘C’, you have not yet considered or adopted; it is therefore worth reviewing all three tiers from Tier C., so that nothing pivotal is lost. This document is a work-in-progress and feedback is welcome!
If senior management and the HR team is brought in to effect work-culture change, then some of the Tier B interventions may be brought into a Tier C company earlier.
Tier C (Defined as… ‘having a of low-level of Training & Development done in the company to date; and no personality-testing attainment required for hire’ typically, the working environment is not precisely controlled, demarked and traceable and there are unplanned events requiring fire-fighting):
- Supervisor-training in coaching skills (reduce staff-leavings, especially in first 90 days – competitively show supervisor’s ‘employee retention scores’ within the supervisor group and support-mentor/train them as needed)
- Focus on soft-skills including: Exquisite Listening, Reflective Language and use of narratives (by example, case-study & personal experience)
- Set out absolute requirements for safety & quality; manage and review and where possible bring in real-time management (Digital apps for 5s for example) or digital displays
- Multi-tasking at the shop-floor to approved standards and posted for all (cover absentees)
- Where useful, form teams[1] and healthy competition for team-recognition
- Develop ‘team’ responsibility to one another
- Potentially add a competitive points-scheme and a best team(s) annual prize
- May also add team-responsibility for covering all team tasks, with the team covering those roles (switching with other teams, calling in people on holiday for example)
- Without setting up Behavioral Norms, establish a few key behavioral expectations (which will later become part of a wider policy): for example: Politeness and respect; listen without interruption.
Tier B (Defined as… ‘having a medium level of Training & Development done over 3-5 years’; you may have some lean/5s disciplines and timely, systematic reviews of quality, safety and operational procedures):
- Supervisors and first-line management to have soft-skills training & Performance Review best-practice training
- Skills will enhance listening ability, Reflective Language, use of ‘carrots and sticks’ etc.
- Workers will score themselves and a review will ALWAYS happen as time-tabled, with the reviewer/supervisor/manager asking questions, challenging politely to get to agreed scores for performance skills and behavioral skill levels
- C-Suite: Leadership development and 1-2-1 Coaching
- Behavioral Norms - Develop and Support at all levels (use for promotions etc.)
- Safety and Quality: Adopt a standard methodology for reporting/calling-out divergence from norms
- Corporate Feedback Norms – adopt, in practice and procedures
- Routinely have career-development and training 1-2-1 reviews, investment and follow-up
- Incorporate community projects including some paid time slots when supporting one of these bodies
- Positively-state requirements on the corporate web-site, work-notices, bathrooms, contracts of employment…
- Staff to report/alert beyond their work-space, for corporate non-normal safety & quality issues
Tier A (Defined as… ‘having a high level of Training & Development done over 5+ years and may already have personality testing attainment requirement for hire’; almost certainly you have high standards of health & safety, 5s and or 6 sigma):
- Senior Manager’s Leadership training to include heavy soft-skills development
- Offer and Appoint Company Champions (provide badging, tunics or hats) who score at high levels on both skills and behavioral norms; add to accelerated-development program
- Advance a company ‘call-out’ non-compliance method when infringements are observed in: Behavioral Norms, safety, quality, waste, productive-efficiency in any work location, at any level
- Train towards a ‘Coaching Culture’ where listening & questioning skills are paramount
- Culture-aligned personality test-pass required for ANY position/interview in the company
- Career-development and training reviews are systematic, reviewed and investment per staff numbers is higher than the business competition
- Secondments to local charitable bodies
- Secondments and 1-3 month job-swaps within the Supply-chain (or outside the supply chain where necessary, or because of an added advantage to learning)
- improve supply-chain relationships & trust, slip-stream methods and costs for improved partnership
- Appoint 50% or more women to the most senior positions for corporate success.
[1] This could be a shift on one line, activity or product.
