Sometimes, it’s very obvious when it’s time for an employee to move on (like, they embezzled funds, punched a colleague, etc) but sometimes it’s less obvious. Here’s 5 questions to ask yourself when you’re on the fence about whether it’s time to act:

1. Are their colleagues being unfairly impacted by their behavior?

2. Is their work not up to standards even after coaching and training?

3. Do they have everything they need to do a good job?

4. Are their priorities always changing, or has there been clear and consistent communication?

5. Do you struggle to work with them or talk to them? Does the idea of another meeting with them make you want to run away to the middle of the woods, ne’er to return?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, it’s time for our training: The Hard Stuff - Firing

1. Employee Handbook - an up to date handbook is your best friend. Let it answer questions about PTO, Pay, and Policy. When in doubt, point your team right back to the handbook.

2. Learning Management Software - Pick your favorite, there are many to choose from at every price point from $0 - $Enterprise. Let your trainings and SOPs live here, and assign them to team members as needed.

3. Core Values - got an employee that just seems lost? Help them understand the core values to get them back belonging.

We define Culture Quakes as events and moments that impact how we as individuals and as a collective live, appreciate, or support each other. A Culture Quake changes how we view ourselves in our world. Some recent examples include: January 6th, Roe V Wade, Legalization of Gay Marriage, Pandemic, and more.

1. Identify the Culture Quake - To do anything in a Culture Quake, you have to know it's happening. Some ways to identify a Quake are to answer the following questions: Are you seeing a media or social media response to an event? Are your employees actively discussing a situation in the news at work? Are any of your employees taking individual action as a result of things in the news? Are any of your core values as a company in direct opposition or alignment to something big happening in the world right now?

2. Communicate about the Quake - Once you know what the Quake is, it's important to let your employees know that it's on your radar, and important to you as a collective team. Call a meeting, write a communication, and let them know that what's important to them is important to you, and what your next steps are as a company to take action on what's important. (Note: you don't have to know what the steps are, but you should be able to communicate the steps you will take to consider what actions are appropriate to take. Tell them when they'll hear from you next, and where you'll be starting with your process.)

3. Engage Empathy - Use an empathy map (we provide one!) to help review the situation, determine which of your employees are most effected and how, and also review your corporate values and policies. Talk to your employees and your stakeholder team, learn about your employees specific pain points, and determine what you can impact, and what's beyond your reach.

4. Take Action - Decide on what you can do to meet the moment, and start actively communicating it back to your team and your clients/customers, being sure to invoke and lean on the values as a backbone, to help everyone make sense of your actions and put them into context. This is a trust generating step.

Want the step by step training? Download our training on Communicating During a Culture Quake

You've got your candidate and you're ready to hire. Great! What comes next is some of the most critical employee work you will ever do - both for the company's performance, and the employees satisfaction and longevity with your organization. Don't sleep on onboarding!

1. Overcommunicate - Be communicating in advance of their first day, during their first week, and throughout their first 90 days. Set expectations around behavior, meeting cadence, times, locations, and policies early and often. 

2. Give your new employee a buddy - Get your employee engaged by assigning them a buddy that they can reach out to in advance and during the onboarding process. This person will act as an informal guide to company culture, expectations, and be a great casual social touchpoint to help your new hire feel connected and included. The buddy should be someone that everyone sees as a culture captain and be able to handle (and enjoy) helping someone integrate.

3. Have a workload plan - Slow rolling your new hire's workload and responsibilities will help them ramp up faster than you expect. Having anyone drink from a fire hose is a fast way to burnout. Letting them absorb the new information, lingo, providing training, and helping them see the big picture in a more organic way will lead to stronger ties and solid trust building early on.

Overall, the most important thing you can do to help integrate a new hire is have a plan, communicate the plan, and exercise some patience. They'll be up and running in no time.

Learn More in MANAGEMENT TRAINING

Pay Transparency is now required in many states by law, and almost nothing sucks more than adjusting your HR systems and processes. Here's how to make this piece of culture shift a non-issue for you, your team, and your employees.

1. Get clear on your Compensation Philosophy - easy to understand structure that defines the parameters of pay by taking elements such as qualifications, employee location, and  tenure into account. Bonus points: Make it public. Be proud of it. Show how it ladders into your corporate values!

2. Work with your HR/People team to make sure that roles have clearly defined hierarchical levels that correspond to compensation and that employees understand the differences in responsibilities and pay between these levels. (EG: Associate - Lead - Manager - Director - VP - Executive)

3. Systematize where salary ranges are posted and create templates that include them. (EG: Job postings, Careers page, Job descriptions). 

4. Research the standards of pay for the roles you have and make sure that you're confident in and can explain your salary ranges to employees and prospective team members. 

5. Perform an annual compensation audit and deliver a Total Rewards package to your employees so that they can clearly see all elements of their compensation laid out and you can ensure that you're staying competitive.

Handboooks are often the last thing on anyone's mind when starting a company - they can feel like exactly the type of rigidity that entrepreneurs are desparate to get away from. However - they do exist for a reason besides government compliance AND have the power to make your life better. You know it's time when:

1. Employees are constantly coming to you with questions about different policies, and you struggle to give them answers

2. You feel like a traffic cop when it comes to resolving employee conflicts

3. The team isn't meeting your expectations or respecting your boundaries leaving you feeling drained

4. Compliance with State and Federal law is starting to come up more and more in conversations

5. There are more rumors about your policies and what they are then actual written policies

Check out Our Handbook Training and start to plot the alignment between your culture and policies can align.

Here are some of the key signals that it's time to up your headcount (for the first time or the hundredth time)

1. Customer Service and/or your products and offerings are no longer up to your standards

2. Your existing employees are burned-out and their work is not up to your standards or their own

3. Your growth is beginning to stagnate because you do not have enough resources to get the job done

4. You have a lack of flexibility and struggle to pivot to met changing needs

5. You are spending an increasing amount of time in the day-to-day of the business and less time strategizing

But it's not enough to just have employees...you need to train them, too. Check out FUNDAMENTALS OF PEOPLE FIRST MANAGEMENT to make sure that you're setting your team up for success.

All companies and teams have a culture, whether it's built intentionally or not. When cultures are strong and productive, they can make any company great to work for and great on the bottom line. When cultures are dysfunctional, it can cut into productivity, happiness, and revenues all at once. Read on for some signs of a dysfunctional culture (and what can be done about it):

1. Teams feel as though they need to compete, rather than collaborate. There's an emphasis on being "right," and taking credit for being "right" (and pointing out when folks from other teams are "wrong")

2. Employees complain of a lack of being heard by management and other team members, and there's a lack of process (or people refusing to use the process) for feedback and input

3. People are afraid to share their workload and don't trust their team members

4. Employees are less likely to take credit for when they fail, and will pass the blame around

5. There's a rotating door of people in and out of the company

6. Inefficiency in process is to the point where it's impacting all areas of the company and clients, customers, and vendors are starting to notice and speak up, leave, or refuse to follow standard processes

This can happen to any company, but there's ways out! Read EMPATHY, VALUES, AND TRUST and take corrective action to get yourself back on track and out of toxic cycles.

Every person exists at an intersection of their Inherent Qualities, Acquired Experiences, and their Individual Worldviews. A Diverse Workforce is created when teams are comprised of people whose identities are varied combinations of these intersections.

1. Inherent Qualities - Includes: race, ethnicity, age, nation of origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability

2. Acquired Experiences - Includes: education, personal experiences, socioeconomic status, spirituality, religion, citizenship, geographic location, family status

3. Individual Worldviews - Includes: cultural events, political beliefs, knowledge of history, and one's outlook on life

A Diverse Workforce is an assortment of different Individual Worldviews, Acquired Experiences, and Inherent Qualities across job function, management status, seniority, department, and union affiliation.

Learn More in COMMUNICATING DURING A CULTURE QUAKE