So you founded your business and dove headfirst into all the excitement and drama of growth and success. Now it’s months or years later, and you’ve suddenly realized that your HR strategy (people practices) is pretty much nonexistent. You might be one of the lucky ones who just happen to have found a minute to breathe and focus on your people practices … or you might have had a serious problem come up in the business that’s forcing you to address your HR game plan fast. Either way, I’ve got good news for you: creating an exceptional workplace grounded in solid, sustainable people practices is easier than you think.

Know this first: there is no magical window of time in which to develop your HR strategy

Right now you’re probably asking yourself loads of questions, like “What am I doing to actually manage the people side of my business?”, “Is there a better way to do this?”, or the gut-clenching, “Am I even in compliance?” As scary as that can feel you’re actually in a good place.

There is no “right” time in starting, growing, and owning a business to ask these questions. A lot of clients come to me really embarrassed about the state of their people practices, or worried that they’ve somehow missed the window of time in which they should have been developing their HR strategy. The truth is, there’s no perfect time to start developing your people practices, so you can let go of any guilt or “should-have” feelings!

Start with an audit

I always recommend that you start with a baseline HR audit to get a really good understanding of how things stand right now in your business. During the audit, take a detailed look at all of the aspects of your business that touch employees: recruitment, training, onboarding, employee relations, compensation, benefits and workforce communication. You may choose to conduct an HR audit on your own or work with an HR Consultant or Employment Attorney who have expertise in this area.

Then use what you find as a baseline to understand what you’re doing well, and what you need to focus on to cultivate excellence.

Ask your employees too

Audits are great in that they give you a lot of hard data about your business, but they’re also inherently limited, especially when it comes to qualitative, softer data, so you need to make sure you’re asking your workforce what they think too.

You can do this really easily with a simple employee engagement survey, followed up quarterly with a NPS survey, which is a 1 - 2 question survey that gives you a quick “temperature check” of your business and lets employees give open-ended feedback.

Then take it even further.

Once you have this really powerful combination of hard data and insight into your employees’ thoughts and feelings, you can start working towards excellence. Identify at least one area where you could change or improve, and make that a priority for the quarter.

You’ll know that you’re actually working on something that needs improvement (instead of just shooting in the dark) because of your baseline audit, and you’ll have an easy way to check in with the results of your changes in your quarterly NPS survey. With this kind of information, the sky really is the limit, so dream big — and enjoy the benefits of a business people love working for.

When a team is working well together, it’s like nothing can go wrong — everything runs smoothly, projects end up better than you could have hoped, and any setbacks you have seem challenging, but doable. But when a team gets out of sync … everything goes downhill fast. Things start to get lost in the shuffle, communication breaks down, important tasks slip through the cracks, and before you know it, you’re struggling with total chaos. Sound familiar? Try these 5 things to get your team back on the same page fast.

1. Create a clear vision

You know what your vision is for the company, team, and project, but your team won’t unless you tell them. So start by getting very clear on your vision and the real reason you do what you do.

For instance, if you have a financial services company, you’re not just selling financial services. You’re giving people peace of mind about their retirement. If you have a catering company,  you’re not just providing food — your services make or break important events. Knowing this big why makes it easier to keep employees engaged with their projects, and it helps them love your company. And as one of my favorite quotes from Simon Sinek says, "Employees must love the company before the customers ever will.”

Once you’ve figured your why out, it’s time to break your vision down into specific goals and communicate those to your team. Break it down so it’s clear what part each team member plays in meeting those goals, and answer any questions that come up. This way, you’ll be able to get everyone heading in the same direction, towards the same goals, using the same road map.

1. Work together, play together

It’s rare to find a team where everybody naturally pulls in the same direction. But you can foster that sense of teamwork by having people work on non-work projects together. It can be something that contributes to the community, like building a house together for Habitat for Humanity or working a water station at a local marathon; or it can be something a little lighter, like playing a game together. One client even had their team visit the Portland Escape Room — they had a blast and came away a stronger team.

Want a really easy way to implement? Try doing a team builder at the beginning of your team meetings. it will get everyone focused, and will help the team work together. Here is an epic list of great team builders.

1. Schedule regular team meetings

It sounds archaic, but team meetings can be a lifesaver if you know how to manage them properly. Make sure you set an agenda before the meeting, and pre-schedule meetings in intervals that work for your business so your team can count on them happening. This is the ideal time to reinforce the vision and focus on team building.

And remember, your meeting doesn’t have to look like a stereotypical, hour long, talking in circles team meeting. Some teams only meet for 15 minutes every Friday, others meet for an hour every month. You could set a timer to ensure your meeting ends on time and is efficient or have a standing meeting - standing meetings are always efficient. Figure out what works for your team — and stick to it!

1. Appreciate the good stuff

In so many businesses, the only time employees really hear from their leaders is when things go wrong. But this is discouraging, and it sets up an adversarial relationship between teams and leaders.

So make sure you take the time to appreciate what’s going well with your team, especially if it’s on par with your vision. This could be as simple as saying “thank you” when someone does a really good job, or you could go with something more tangible, like giving Amazon gift cards for a team that’s really knocking it out of the park. One important thing to remember: when you do give positive feedback, make sure it’s specific, timely, and grounded in an example. (More on this here.)

1. Communicate

Your team needs to hear from you regularly, so decide how often and in what ways you’ll communicate with them. For example, you may decide to send out a regular Monday morning email to your whole team setting out the goals and agenda for the week, and then have a quick Friday afternoon email, video message, or conference call to wrap up the week.

Or you may decide to base your communication around projects, with a call to start the projects and weekly email check ins. It’s all up to you — but remember, be strategic, not tactical about your communication plan. You don’t want these particular communications to get bogged down in back and forth or detailed discussions. This is more about high level leadership than day-to-day troubleshooting.

Imagine with me for a minute what it would be like going through life, or even a day, using only your non-dominate hand to write with during your daily activities. Sure, we don’t write as much as we use to, but the exercise remains relevant. Think about this, you’re making your to-do list for the day, taking notes during a meeting, editing a report, writing a note to your partner, creating your grocery shopping list and you can only use your non-dominate hand. What would it be like? People report that it is “difficult”, “not as easy”, “I really have to think when I write with my other hand”, “it doesn’t come naturally”, and “my handwriting is horrible”. This is precisely what it is like when at work you focus predominately on overcoming your weaknesses. Now, imagine using your dominant hand for those daily handwriting activities. It feels “natural”, “easy” and people report, “I’m good at this”. This is the same feeling you get when you focus on and capitalize on your strengths. Things come easy, natural and you’re good at them. Using strengths-based leadership is like creating a certain Zen in the workplace. It’s how things are meant to be. You and your team are working “in the zone”!  

In Q4 of 2015, I invested in Gallup’s Strength-Based Leadership materials for trainers/consultants.

About Strengths-Based Leadership

Nearly a decade ago, Gallup unveiled the results of a landmark 30-year research project that ignited a global conversation on the topic of strengths. More than 7 million people have since taken Gallup's StrengthsFinder assessment, which forms the core of several books on this topic, including the #1 international bestseller StrengthsFinder 2.0.

In recent years, while continuing to learn more about strengths, Gallup scientists have also been examining decades of data on the topic of leadership.

(SOURCE: www.strengths.gallup.com)

Gallup has 50+ years of researching that has given me a deeper knowledge base so that I could train and facilitate more strengths-based programs with my clients. I believe in this approach, and the results it delivers, thus using Gallup’s tools has become a focus of my practice. Did you know that leaders who focus on their teams’ strengths increase the chances that their team is engaged eight-fold?

Strengths at Work

In January I conducted a Strengths is Our Superpower ™ training for a client. The 24 participants began the training by taking the StrengthsFinder Assessment to identify their top 5 strengths. Based on what they learned they participated in a fun exercise to show the benefits of knowing and using their team’s strengths. Strengths is Our Superpower is built to help participants gain a deeper understanding of their top 5 strengths.

Participants worked in teams to build a structure out of uncooked spaghetti, string, tape and a marshmallow. The goal is to build the tallest freestanding structure using only the supplies provided. Teams were given time to plan as a group how they would build prior to actually executing the construction of this structure. Then they had 10 minutes to build. Some teams building process or execution didn’t go according to plan and they had to adjust their plan on the fly. Teams that leveraged their members’ strengths proactively had better and quicker results than those that did not take this information into account or only considered their strengths reactively after initially experiencing failure.

Team Strengths Grid

Beyond understanding strengths individually, having a strengths grid for the overall organization, can be a powerful tool. At the recent client training, we mapped everyone’s top 5 strengths, to show where employees had similar and different strengths. For this client, executing is what they do. It’s not surprising then, that many of the strengths fell within the executing domain. It makes sense. For leadership teams, having a strengths grid ensures alignment between people resources and current business goals. Looking to the future the strengths grid is a tool to understand any gaps in your organization’s skill set in order to more effectively recruit and hire in a purposeful manner for the future.

Knowing and understanding your individual and organizational strengths is a super power.

I am a sucker for a good employee PR story. By now surely you’ve read the headlines about REI and their #optoutside campaign. The outdoor retailer just went rock star status by opting out of Black Friday. Just as many other retailers are putting the finishing touches on their 1am, 3am and 5am super sales and doorbusters which require their employees to skip out on Thanksgiving dinner, REI has said that’s enough. To take it a step further they are encouraging employees at their 143 retail stores, and 5.5 million members, to get outside too. The message is to ‘get outside’ on Black Friday. And, the icing on the cake is that they are paying their employees to take the day off.

This is good news. Finally, a popular retailer choosing the good life. This one action tells us that REI is choosing to value its employees, workforce, culture and brand above all else. Think about it, this is 100% on-brand for REI. Their President and CEO, Jerry Stritzke, announced this bold move on the REI website. He said, "We're a different kind of company—and while the rest of the world is fighting it out in the aisles, we’ll be spending our day a little differently. We’re choosing to opt outside, and want you to come with us."

Employee engagement can save a company millions in promotion

Advertising is expensive and the ability to reach consumers via television news, social media, newspapers, magazines and personal conversations is arguably impossible unless there is a news story. In REI’s case, one new story about their business strategy that highlights the underlying tone of employee engagement is the golden ticket. Millions saved.  

Actions speak louder than mission statements

The case for engaging the workforce has always been there. REI just magnified it for all other employers to contemplate. And contemplate you should!  

Bold moves like this send a bold message to employees, stakeholders (in REI’s case, it’s members), and the public about REI’s brand. Actions absolutely speak louder than a company brand document or mission statement could ever dream of speaking. Think about it, if you work in retail and you’ve been mangled by previous Black Fridays your opinion of REI as a potential employer just went way up. You get the day off, you get to #optoutside and you get paid for it. Now that’s something to brag about at the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Employees are talking, what they say is up to you

Good news travels fast. In this case, it was lightening fast and shared a gazillion times globally. Bad news has a way of creeping out too. Employees talk, text and post about businesses. Yes they do.

Take it from Glassdoor, employees are talking. According to their website, “Glassdoor holds a growing database of more than 8 million company reviews, CEO approval ratings, salary reports, interview reviews and questions, benefits reviews, office photos and more.” Anyone who signs up for a free account can get this information. Let’s compare a few companies;

Company                     Star Rating (0-5)          Would Recommend to a friend          Approve of the CEO

REI                                 4 Stars                               84%                                                          89%

Dicks Sporting Goods   3.2 Stars                           57%                                                          69%

Sports Authority             2.9 Stars                          42%                                                          59%

As a comparison, Google ranks #1 on Glassdoor’s list of Best Places to Work.

Company                     Star Rating (0-5)          Would Recommend to a friend          Approve of the CEO

Google                          4.4 Stars                           90%                                                          96%

Now, let’s look at Amazon which was recently highlighted in a New York Times article published in August that highlighted its lack of work/life balance.

Company                     Star Rating (0-5)          Would Recommend to a friend          Approve of the CEO

Amazon                          3.4 Stars                          62%                                                          80%

The ratings aren’t bad but take it one step deeper by looking at the comments taken directly from Glassdoor. Ouch.

Glassdoor is not the only way employees share information about a company. Twitter (#Ihatemyjob, #ilovemyjob), Facebook, LinkedIn and sometimes even Yelp will tell the world how things are going down inside a company. And take it from Amazon, you don’t want “not the best work-life balance" splashed all over news and social media.

Steven R. Covey told us to “Always treat your employees exactly like you want them to treat your best customers.” What can you do, as an employer or leader at your company, to take action to ensure this philosophy is alive and well in your workplace? 

Take action

What can entrepreneurs, company presidents, business owners and leaders do to garner good workplace PR?

1. Analyze the perception of the business in its current state.

   1. External analysis; Research online (Glassdoor, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn). First look at these external sources to see what, if anything is published.

   2. Internal analysis; conduct an employee engagement survey and stay interviews.

   3. Then identify the top three areas of strength and top areas of opportunity to focus on. Both of these are important.

   4. Evaluate your benefits. If you are a financial services company, you want your retirement plan to be the talk of the town. Setting your own employees up for retirement success will translate naturally into your brand. Similarly, a chiropractor whose wellness benefits rock (massage benefits in the healthcare plan, work/life balance, etc.) is on-brand. On the contrary, a dental office who offers subpar dental insurance is off-brand. Evaluate your benefits to understand if you are on-brand internally. Employees will talk and you want them to be raving fans both as an employee and as an ambassador of your service or product.

   5. Make a bold change. Just like REI. Buck the system, be a rebel in your industry. Is keeping up with the Joneses off-brand for your company? A bold change may be just what’s needed to boost your brand both internally and externally.

Businesses who land on the local, regional or national Best Places to Work list also have an easier time recruiting. It’s a momentous cycle.

A workforce that is engaged is invaluable. Employees are your best recruiters. The engaged employee who casually boasts about her employer in public (while in line at Starbucks, at happy hour and even online) create positive opinions in the marketplace. Multiply that by the number of employees in your workforce like Google’s 57,100 and the result is an army of employees radiating in the public about their stellar employer. Now, that’s good PR and the birthplace of attracting strong talent. Do the math, the average executive search has a fee of 20-35% of base salary. Employers who maintain an engaged workforce have top performers knocking at their door to get in. That’s a huge recruitment savings and the result of attracting top talent is the same.  

Google is ranked #1 on the list of the 100 Best Places to Work according to Fortune.com for the sixth year in a row. They have made bold moves to continually engage their workforce and be on the forefront of this movement. They know that an engaged workforce is invaluable and creates a momentous cycle of attracting even more top talent. The time is ripe for all employers to take bold moves to strategically engage the workforce. Unemployment is low, talent is hard to find and the economy is strong.

Be bold.