Is Your Company Ignoring the Seven New Vital Signs for Corporate Health?

Not too long ago, I was onboard a commercial aircraft, poised to ignore the flight attendant as she droned on and on with the one thousand and first rendition of yet another safety demo. I was snapped back to attention and lowered my paper to pay close attention to her when she made the following announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure many of you are seasoned air passengers. However, in the case of an emergency, failure to execute the instructions you're about to receive could result in your premature death."

Needless to say, her approach made a difference and everyone on the plane stopped what they were doing and focused on her safety demo. She made the demo more personal and it made a difference. If you are a seasoned corporate leader, this segment will have a similar impact on you because ignoring the ideas you're about to read could result in your company's premature death. Too many companies have ignored these issues for far too long but the one's who are building for the future are seeing these ideas pay off in big ways. What are these big ideas?

Sue Schellenbarger, a Wall Street Journal columnist, said it best. "The single element that looms largest at all companies is the issue of employee satisfaction." Barbara Reinhold, in her book, Toxic Work, reports that less than 10% of Americans are really satisfied with their work. So? Here's the industrial strength application for that stat; The July 22, 1998 edition of The Wall Street Journal reports that internal surveys by industry leaders like EDS, MCI, Northern Telecom and Sears have conclusively proven a direct link between employee satisfaction and higher revenues.

While this research is making news in senior leadership circles, it's been a front line no brainer for quite some time now. Let me get this straight, people who feel more satisfied with work and see their job as a vehicle to enhance their quality of life perform better? And if we have a lot more people feeling this way, our profits go up? Duh, Ya think?

In what has become the tightest labor market in 30 years, employers are waking up to the realization that keeping their people happy is a critical component to the company's over all financial performance. As a corporate leader, you'll also be glad to know that keeping your people happy is an easily implementable solution, as it is about responding to the lifestyle needs of your people and has very little to do with hard costs.

What makes people happy? While the key indicators of employee satisfaction are different with every organization, a few tend to be regularly mentioned in almost every company we've worked with. Our research and experience has led us to pinpoint seven new vital signs of not just employee satisfaction, but these vital signs will ultimately be the new indicators of lasting corporate health in the new economy as well.

The central principle guiding these new vital signs is… Build people first, then they will build a company that lasts. Look into the mirror of the seven new vital signs of corporate health and see how your company stacks up. The seven new vital signs are…

1. Demonstrated employer respect for work/life balance.
A life away from work brings life to your work. Marriott Corporation has found that connection to be true and has launched a fathering program to better equip their employees with strategies for succeeding at home. Renewal away from work is like life giving water, we need it to survive. And single employees need it just as badly as those who are married with children.

Even the military recognizes the need for R&R between battles. What is your level of commitment to renewal? I can guarantee you that habitually denying yourself of enjoyable hobbies and activities away from work just to spend more time on the job, has a point of diminishing returns. Take some time for you. It's amazing how much more productive your seasons of intensity will be if you can drink from the reservoir of rest.

2. Trust builders
Violating trust destroys the capacity to create positive change. Trust can only be earned and maintained in one of two ways; by consistent acts that align with aspired values or by the four universally accepted acts of trust;

• A level of fear-free openness in conversation.
• Evidence that the other person is committed to understanding your position
• A demonstrated ability to emotionally support each other.
• A conscious choice of loyalty to established partners and their positions above expediency.

Recently, one of the leading auto makers received seats from a vendor who was experiencing a labor strike. When asked who made the seats while the union was striking, the vendor explained that replacement workers had been used. Having union workers as partners themselves, the auto maker refused to use these seats in their vehicles and demonstrated loyalty to the positions of their established partners. Trust is everything.

3. Does senior leadership model core values?
In the 1950's, two psychologists named Singer and Schacter reported what was at that time a ground-breaking piece of research. They were able to prove that people took their emotional cues toward behavior from the culture or environment they were a part of. Conformance to norms and acceptance by others is a powerful hidden motivator of human beings. What environment are your people unconsciously conforming to?

What kind of operational decision making have you allowed to evolve? Do the values in your daily decisions model those core values hanging in the lobby as part of your vision statement? For your core values to be more than fantasy, your people need to see living examples of excellence in you. How well do you model your core values? Remember, people are watching your every move and taking their cue from you.

4. Employees first, customers second, shareholders third.
When asked, "What is the purpose of business?" most corporate executives say, "To make money." WRONG! If the purpose of business was just making money then our role models would be the ones who make the most money with their business. But the last time I looked, The Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine weren't writing articles about the marketing strategies of crack dealers and drug cartels. I mean after all, their revenues are tax free.

The purpose of business is more than making money, the purpose of business is to make money honorably. Making money with honor takes a different breed of culture where employees are first, customers second and shareholders are third.

I was speaking to a Fortune 500 company who was in the middle of another round of restructuring. I had been brought in for a series of events that would serve as morale boosters for those who had survived the cuts. They were told how revenues were down and how the company had to adjust in order to compete. They bought it, a lot of companies were doing it and they believed that what the senior leaders were doing was in the best interest of the company.

Two months after my events concluded, the CEO announced that the company was buying a minor league baseball team for a purchase price in the millions. While this was viewed as a slam dunk marketing opportunity by company officials, the real people on the front lines couldn't understand why the money was there for a baseball team but not there for their co-workers dismissed just six months earlier.

Which commitment is the strongest where you work? Building paper profits quickly or building people first so they can build a company that lasts? You can't betray people and expect trust, loyalty and commitment. You can't continue to cut your way to paper profitability. At some point you've got to grow the business. The best way to do that is with a commitment to people first, customers second and shareholders third.

5. Is this a fun place to work?
Fun companies are a place where customers continue to come back because of the enjoyable emotional experience they had during the transaction. If you want a place where customers like to go, build a place where co-workers like to go. Your people's enthusiasm and enjoyment for work is like a magnet for attracting customers.

Fun companies also have people who can find a freshness to work because it's exciting to be there. Every day has a new infectious spirit of adventure with creativity oozing out of every office. These companies don't just encourage their people to experiment with new ways of working, they also lead people to accept each other and build relationships with each other that allow humanity and wholeness to come to work every day. WOW!

6. Finding common ground through unity.
Diversity has taken on a new meaning in the real world of work. Today, diversity means I'll respect your journey, culture and perspectives while you respect mine. We can work side by side and we may even be on the same project team, but that doesn't mean the barriers have been eliminated. And any barrier weakens the spirit of unity.

Respecting each other's journey doesn't help us apply each other's unique strengths. Superficial respect and limited knowledge of each other is no longer good enough. Businesses today need people with a sense of community, a place where people can see themselves belonging there. Let's build a workplace where we can talk with each other about our deepest feelings and needs and seek to genuinely understand each other. Let's go to work in a place where each other's unique strengths can be used to make a difference every day for the team, that's unity. Unity beats diversity every day.

7. Stimulate change from a changeless foundation.
The most critical of the new vital signs is the ability to preserve your core values as changeless while endlessly stimulating change to meet marketplace demands. That's a stormy sea to sail on, but it is critical because it provides people with anchors of clarity during the storms of change. You don't need people in confusion during dynamic times of change, you need people who can think with clarity and make decisions based on a commitment to core values.

With this base of clarity, people can learn to renew themselves professionally and stay in demand with a current set of skills that are valuable in this new economy.

Performing Company Miracles

Remember, we're living in a new age of loyalty. Many companies have cut their staffs to the bone, then carved the bone. They have unwillingly created a mercenary culture of free agency among their people. Expecting their cost cutting moves to create momentum, these organizations are instead finding uncooperative cynicism. As a result, loyalty to these companies is dead or dying and in its place we are seeing the rise of a new breed of loyalty-to customers, co- workers, your family and yourself but not to the company. Today's business leaders are finding it harder and harder to rebuild a sense of commitment and trust after betrayal.

And somewhere, deep inside such a company there exists an executive who is gaining ground as she swims against this current. She believes in the value of the person and seeks to gain every edge for every member of her team. This overlooked champion of people is hard at work doing all she can to help sustain her people during peak seasons of intensity. She works to meet any need they have, emotionally, personally and professionally. She builds hope instead of fear and she is motivated by one single assumption; building people first builds an organization that lasts.

Those who work with her will walk through fire for her because they have seen how she aggressively protects her people while at the same time leading them to exceed expectations. This workplace phenomenon of islands of trust in a cynical sea happened because one person valued other people more that what was natural and customary in their culture. We call these islands of trust… Company Miracles.

Company miracles are the flashpoints that re-ignite the flames of commitment. One person can perform a company miracle and start a grass roots recommitment. One person can make a difference even within a culture that devalues people in daily decisions. If you are caught in such a culture, remember there are many paths to success. My prayer is that you would choose the path that's wide enough for what matters most. If however, you choose to stay, think of yourself as a miracle worker who can make magic happen once your people know you are committed to them no matter what.