What we know about great workplaces

About a month ago, ERC celebrated 20 years of hosting the annual NorthCoast99 awards, a program that recognizes the top 99 Northeast Ohio workplaces.

The program was founded on the belief that the attraction and retention of top talent is key to organizational and regional success. We believed if we could identify and showcase companies that create an extraordinary environment for top performers, we could learn from them and encourage other area organizations to emulate their leadership.

Over the last two decades, we collected tons of data about workplaces and top performers through our application and employee surveys. Here is what we learned:

• Leaders of great workplaces are special people and genuinely understand talent management. And, we discovered a whole heck of a lot about top performers – what they want of their jobs and expect from their workplaces.

• The human spirit is alive and well at great workplaces according to our data collection and incredible stories shared with us in through the application process.

• Essentials of a great workplace extend well beyond a solid HR infrastructure. Great places to work are fun, compassionate, empathetic, community-focused, diverse, inclusive, respectful and where leaders lead by example.

• Forward-thinking employers take risks, try new ideas and fail at times but never veer from their laser focus of putting employees and their families ahead of profits and committing to only attracting and retaining the best.

So, where are we today relative to the evolution of workplaces and their ability to attract and retain good talent?

We believe we are just getting started. Overall, there has been some progress over the last 50 years, but there is a long way to go.

For example, it is amazing what we are still talking about in 2018 – “glass ceilings,” equal pay for equal worth, hostile work environments, the need to have more diversity at our workplaces and more inclusive thinking, to name a few.

Today, more than ever, we believe that the key to sustaining corporate growth and success is the attraction and retention of top talent. And, with an increasingly challenging and complicated business environment, prioritizing talent management and respect at work is simply no longer an option.

So, what about the next 20 years? What will work and our workplaces look like in 2038?

How well will today’s younger generations do as they lead companies and re-shape our workplaces? How about the impact of technological advances? How will we balance humans versus machines? What role will we play?

Perhaps we do not need to guess as I believe we have significant control of our destiny if we decide to lead and not follow.

It’s a heck of a lot more fun if we take action and make things happen rather than wait for things to happen to us.

So if your organization wants to enhance its workplace to increase the probability of hiring and keeping great talent, consider the following five action steps as we march into the future:

Think different. Think out of the box and encourage and support creative thinking at work. Identify the roadblocks that are holding your organization back from making positive change. Then get rid of these roadblocks! Take risks. This is critical if you are going to lead. Get rid of antiquated policies, programs, bureaucracy and politics that get in the way of success. Ask and listen to your top performers. They are the best consultants you will ever hire. Ask them about everything and ask them often. Listen to what they have to say as it may surprise you. Commit to only hiring and attracting top performers. Once you do, everything changes.

Policies, compensation, diversity at every organizational level, community impact and how you lead. Top performers drive your company’s success and increasing their population in our region is critical.

Try these action items for one year, or perhaps the next 20.

The modest and incremental enhancements, we see in workplaces today will not suffice in the future. Quantum leap changes are critical and necessary for your workplaces and our region.

We need to change thinking and the workplace to truly become the region of great workplaces for top performers.

Imagine if the phrase “Where Great Workplaces Are” became Northeast Ohio’s tag line one day? If that happens, we will no longer be worried about a talent shortage in our region. It’s just a matter of our local corporate leadership committing their organizations to become extraordinary places to work.

Pat Perry is ERC’s chairman, a 2018 Cleveland Business Hall of Fame Inductee, author and keynote speaker.