Colleague vs Staff vs Employee, the story continues. If you have stuck with this journey and you’re now invested, we love you and thank you. It’s hoped you have drawn value and this final piece rounds out a part of our case for “People Centric” businesses.
Catching up? This story is the finale of a series of 4 perspectives driven by a single hypothesis we'll dig into shortly. There are three LinkedIn posts that lead into this finale:
How Your Relationship with the Business Impacts Success
We started with the question or hypothesis, “organisations that talk of Colleagues are more successful than those that talk of People, Staff or Employees”. It's the battle of Colleague vs Staff vs Employee if you will.
Our consensus is that of the “labels” we listed, “Colleague” is in fact the label of choice:
“.. emphasises a sense of equality and mutual respect between people who work together. It suggests that everyone on the team has something to contribute and that each person's skills and expertise are valued. Using this label may help create a more collaborative and supportive work environment.”
We did find a caveat in our thinking around culture, values, and goals but on the whole, using labels that emphasize a sense of equality and collaboration is a winner.
Given our openness to explore we put forward that the labels we use to define ourselves and the beautiful humans we call colleagues infer a relationship. So, why not have a relationship with the business and what impact to the organisation might that have?
We came out with this gem of a statement, “Having a relationship with the business you work for can significantly alter your perspective, goals, and motivation to do your best. A positive relationship, built on a sense of collaboration, mutual respect, and shared purpose, can motivate you to work hard and invest in the success of the organization as a whole.”
Not satisfied, we did a bit of digging into whether there is any psychological or sociological substantiation for these assertions. As a quick snippet, “Taken together, these studies suggest that language and labels play a critical role in shaping the social identities and group dynamics within the workplace.”. We’d encourage you to read the post for full context in which you will find the relevant citations.
Phew! It’s been a ride, but what’s the point you ask?
As I mentioned in the 3rd post of this series, we eat sleep and drink Engagement and Collaboration and we do so to create Outcomes that benefit all, businesses and their colleagues alike.
Before I forget, I did suggest there might have been a missing piece to the puzzle. That is the “Job To Be Done”. Yes, we see the value, dangling there ever so alluring like a carrot to a rather hungry rabbit. But! How do we do it? I am not going to share a solution, sorry to say, although I will name it. I declare the missing piece to this puzzle is, “Complexity”.
Yes, I can hear you mumbling under your breathe but hear me out. What we have effectively been talking about is a shift in culture. And within that, how it permeates throughout your business. It’s not as clear cut as stating, “All staff are now known as Colleagues”. Over simplified I know but complexity of such “organisational change” boils down to, in part, recognizing the fundamental needs of your colleagues, from bottom to top, and these are not necessarily objective. The values and goals of the business and creating the environment in which all can believe and rally around them. Then it’s a question of time and pragmatically identifying, adjusting and iterating the functional components of the business to sustain an environment optimised for Engagement and Collaboration. Bare in mind you will still have to manage and excel at delivering daily ‘business as usual’ activities as you transform. It’s complex, challenging but the reward we believe is worth the effort.
It’s at this point I will invite you to explore how we handle complexity for ourselves and for clients. We’re powered by BIG PICTURE® which is, in consulting practices, unique as it zeros in on all things Engagement, Collaboration and Outcomes. But it’s our own Wicked Challenges approach that resolves the risk reward ratios of change at this scale. Check out the link below.
An Introduction to Wicked Challenges
Back to the point, “what’s in it for us?” and by us I mean you, your colleagues and your business. Here are some stats that hopefully highlight the answer to that question:
20% Higher sales
21% Higher profitability
17% Higher Productivity
10% Higher customer metrics
40% Fewer defects
41% Lower absenteeism
24% Lower Turnover of people (B2C)
59% Lower Turnover of people (B2B)
70% Fewer safety incidents
For those organisations who “Actively” chase a “People Centric” environment to the degree they have stated “Engagement” as a priority in their Vision and Mission statements, their outcomes tend to correlate against those mentioned above.
The sad reality is that only 20% of UK companies fit this criteria.
We get out of bed each day to help businesses be better, more human, natural, more like an organism rather than an organisation. If this resonates with you, come and chat. Biscuits and Tea are at the ready.
As this story says, the sad reality is that only 20% of UK companies actively include engagement within their strategic and governance plans. We get out of bed each day to help businesses be better, more human, natural, more like an organism rather than an organisation. If this resonates with you, come and chat. Biscuits and Tea are at the ready. Come and join us for Tea and Biscuits as we explore what this kind of change means to you and how you can maximise your approach.
