Putting employees first naturally leads to transparency
June 8th, 2010Intuitively it makes sense that transparency with employees allows for greater engagement and more lucrative financial outcomes. Leaders who are transparent evoke trust and a higher level of loyalty.
That newspaper turnaround that I mentioned a few weeks back was accomplished by opening the books and sharing financial results on a monthly basis. It empowered employees to participate in developing new and better processes and products.
I didn’t really think about transparency as putting the employee first, but that’s exactly what it does. And when you take care of the employee, they in turn feel compelled to take care of the customer.
In the latest
Shortly after hiring a Vice President of People to formalize and preserve the company’s culture, Blumberg’s philosophy of transparency and employees first was put to the royal business test. He and his team had decided to sell off part of the company, and proceeded to struggle with what to tell the staff.
The top team was divided, debating about impact from competitors and clients, potential workplace anxiety and talent flight, as well as the trust factor. Blumberg resorted to calling his executive coach, who was able to help him figure out how to maintain alignment with the company’s values and culture. Employees heard it first hand from Blumberg.
In the end, a sale didn’t take place. That portion of the business was broken off into a separate entity, and all continue to prosper.
Prosper and transparency are heard in conjunction more and more. Case in point, the man who wrote the book, Employees First, Customers Second, heads up the fastest growing and most profitable global IT services company. Business Week lists it as one of the 20 most influential companies in the world.
CEO Vineet Nayar, flipped the org chart upside down and made management accountable to HCL Tech’s 57,000 employees five years ago. It’s not just lip service, either. Performance appraisals of all HCL senior managers are posted on the company’s intranet. You can’t get more transparent than that.
Nayar is all about embracing change. He says Gen Y will require high transparency in business. After all it is the generation that grew up in the Facebook community, where they share all.
His implementation strategy incorporates what has been on the business platform for sometime, at least in discussion. It includes creating urgency, sharing the current state so employees can see future possibilities, building trust through transparent communication, nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset, and decentralizing decision-making.
In addition, he transfers the ownership of change to employees. That pretty much gives them license to do some of the driving, or to take the lead so to speak.
Change is known as The New Normal at HCL. Employees are put front and center. You can see for yourself at Unstructure.org, where videos from the company’s conference can be seen.
The opening video is all about kids’ perspectives. And from their mouths, we can hear how change is, indeed, the new normal. Internet is listed among the planets, and as for marriage, the chapel will be left behind for a Facebook ceremony.
Why not follow Nayar’s lead and welcome some of this change inside the walls of our business? There have been enough success stories to show it works. It’s time to believe and get on with empowering employees.
Anita Ancel is President of Ancelary Group, a Vermont firm that helps executives and their teams develop attitudes and habits for ongoing success.
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