TANGLED in RIGID RULES
These heavy-handed, largely useless edicts drive away employees
It’s difficult to attract and hold on to good employees — and retaining the best employees is even more of a challenge. Certainly they leave because of great opportunities, but many times the cause lies with the company they’re fleeing. Too many workplaces create rule-driven cultures that may have management feeling as though things are under control but actually squelch creativity and reinforce the ordinary. The more rules, the less passion, which means less motivation.
Faced with a rule-driven culture, the best employees — the most talented, creative and hard working — are usually the first to go, because they’re in high demand and have more opportunities than most. What’s left is a pool of people who are mediocre at what they do, willing to compromise their standards and in it mostly for the paycheck.
Here’s a simple principle for hiring and keeping the best and most talented people: Stop creating dumb rules. If you have a talented team, trust them to do their jobs and stop hamstringing them with bad rules.
Here are some of the worst offenders: Dumb rules for hiring: Imagine you’re a potentially great employee applying for a job. You polish your resume and write a compelling cover letter. And then you enter the black hole — the space between applying for a job and being hired (or getting an impersonal notification that the job’s been filled). It’s not just dumb; it’s inhumane.
Isn’t there a way to create hiring processes with a human touch? Isn’t it possible to find the right person on the basis of their words and presentation and a sense of who they are instead of relying on a keyword search? Humanize the process and you’ll get better and more talented people. Dumb rules for performance reviews: Let’s be honest, performance reviews are a waste of time. Brilliant and talented people deserve better than being slotted into some bureaucratic five-point scale once a year. It doesn’t provide valuable feedback. Gifted and talented people should be supported in their strengths and uniqueness, not compared with others through ridiculous rankings or measured against arbitrary standards.
If you don’t trust the people you hired, why did you hire them? (And if you don’t trust your managers to hire good people, why did you make them managers?) Get rid of annual reviews and rankings. Encourage workers to set goals and maintain high standards, and support them in doing so. Trust them to produce, and if they are not producing let them go. Dumb rules for attendance: In many positions, smart people don’t need policies to force them into showing up at the office. People know what work they have to do that day and where best to do it. One week, they may know they have something truly valuable to contribute at the office. But the next week, they may see that their time is better spent meeting a deadline from home with availability by email or phone. Those who consistently fail to show up and contribute are likely not meeting other standards as well. Dumb rules for approvals: Do you really want your best workers to spend their time chasing people for rubberstamp approvals? If you’re talking about a big project or new procedure, approvals are appropriate. But to require them on everything is ludicrous. It slows down work, wastes money and tells people you don’t trust their judgment. Dumb rules for time off: If people want to take a personal day, don’t make them lie about it. Treat the great people you hired with respect. Trust that they know how to honor their time and work hard delivering on their promises and encourage them to take a down day if they need it. Dumb feedback methods: I have worked with companies that put complete faith in employee engagement surveys, but frankly I believe they’re a sham. If you want to know how things are, just walk around and ask people. A quick online survey will give you shallow responses. The best way to learn what’s happening is to have candid conversations about what is working and what is not. If that’s impossible, you have a big problem with connection and communication. Dumb rules for internet use: These are among the lamest rules of all. In offices that have such policies, the rule is broken by everyone, including the person who created it. It’s one thing to ask people to limit their time or to put reasonable restrictions on what kind of sites they visit, but to forbid access to online information is just plain dumb. Dumb probationary rules: Many organizations have the throwback rule that employees have to be in a position for six months before they can transfer or be promoted. This might have worked in the past, but the work force is different now and this rule may result in someone quitting out of frustration. Lolly Daskal is the president and CEO of Lead From Within, a global consultancy that specializes in leadership and entrepreneurial development.