Tag Archives: enterprise

Getting Engaged?

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Our last newsletter introduced the idea that freelancers, and other professional virtual team members, are likely to be more “engaged” and aligned with your business vision than many permanent employees. You told us this warranted further consideration – and we agree!

That’s why our current research project includes questions which ask business owners for their views on the performance of project teams and their expectations when it comes to engagement of internal (employees) and external (freelance) team members.

Many studies over the last 5-10 years have concluded that “engagement” is the key to innovation, performance and productivity and there are some truly compelling statistics (see below) that demonstrate both the positive and negative impacts of ensuring all team members understand, believe in and take ownership of the company’s future;  the goals and the vision. Our own project will help translate this knowledge into useful insights actionable within the emerging, more fluid, employment landscape.

The UK Government’s Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) commissioned a comprehensive report on the subject of Employee Engagement, quoting some fascinating statistics from such trusted international sources as Gallup, Tower Perrins-ISR and the Chartered Management Institute.

Did you know that…

Companies with the best levels of employee engagement (top quartile) can expect to see…

-          18% higher productivity

-          12% higher profitability

-          An EPS (earnings per share) rate 2.6 times higher

…than companies found in the bottom quartile

Likewise, companies in that bottom quartile of employee engagement measurement suffer…

-          Employee turnover 31-51% higher

-          Theft or stock “shrinkage” 51% higher

-          62% more accidents in the workplace

…than companies in the top quartile

Not only this, there are many examples of British companies across various sectors that have quoted similar findings specific to their own operations and business models.

The Co-operative Group focused on developing employee engagement in their recent period of transformation, introducing a focus on engagement that changed their approach to internal communication which has underpinned the turnaround of the business.

Yorkshire based public transport provider Metro has developed an employee engagement program which has helped the company change from a traditional and bureaucratic operation to an award winning innovator with high rates of employee retention and customer satisfaction.

The construction industry was hit hard by the recent economic downturn, with sales figures dropping by 50% year in year JCB pro-actively managed employee engagement to ensure they have a sustainable business built around people who understand the strategy for ensuring they come out the other side ready to grow again.

Also the CIPD regularly quote the most recent examples in their workshops and presentations including major high street and supermarket brands like M&S and Tesco.

In my experience working with large companies, smaller businesses and as a business owner myself, generally speaking the people who are quickest to…

A – understand the concepts and strategies relating to a project/business vision
B – make valid and useful suggestions that will help refine the approach
C – get enthusiastic about action and the delivery of the objectives

…are those team members who have been business owners themselves, the freelancers who are used to thinking strategically about a range of different client business models, at the same time as completing actions to get a job done, making them both agile and adaptable. It can be far more difficult and time consuming to get a similar level of engagement (and therefore performance) from full time employees who have had a narrower range of experience with less strategic decision making – and perhaps even a focus on the security of a monthly wage, rather than delivering client value and trading on reputation.

Whether a team consists of internal employees, external consultants, freelance specialists or a mixture; the quicker you can generate and confirm alignment with the goal the sooner you can make progress against the objectives. Without a shared vision the risk of mistakes, confusion and inefficiency increases massively.

The natural process is to hold a thorough discussion with everyone involved to explore all aspects of where you want to go, getting input and ideas on how to get there and defining their role and responsibilities. It is important to test understanding in advance and along the way, so you can make decisions on whether individuals “get-it” enough to be involved.

That is the whole purpose of the task proposal and discussion elements of the Skills-Hive system. Putting people ahead of process to create more effective teams with everyone aligned to a shared vision.

“One of the key aspects of delivering great projects is making sure that everyone buys in to the goal and the vision. Only working with full-timers can be a false economy – in my experience including freelancers with the right skills can help get more done faster – as they are very delivery focussed – and often the quickest to engage with a great vision.”

Tom Ball – Founder of NearDesk “The card that lets you work anywhere”

Initial discussions with Hirers in our research project have helped us develop and refine our understanding of the importance of this element of team formulation. Building on the insights gained, we want to explore how best to take this aspect of the Skills-Hive ethos further, embedding the engagement principles deeper within the system. We can look at creating things like “alignment ratings” for Workers within the Hirer dashboard and evolving the feedback system to include a measure of how good people are at communicating a vision as a Hirer and engaging with it as a Worker, but more importantly we want to make it as easy and intuitive as possible for Hirers to communicate and explore their vision with team members, perhaps introducing mind mapping tools to aid the discussion. Any other ideas are welcome!

So, what do you think?…

Have you had experience working with freelancers on a project?

What was it like getting them on board in terms of vision and engagement?

What challenges have you faced when enthusing and aligning full time employees with the business strategy?

Maybe your experience has been completely different to what we have found out so far, we would love to hear from you! (just leave a comment below or head to our Facebook page)

Hack It Up!

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I am sure you have all had the same feelings of frustration as me at some point, when you are attempting to get something done and you start thinking “it shouldn’t be this difficult” or “this just feels like bureaucracy gone mad!”

The mountains of red tape we sometimes face can bring on the red mist, we can get angry or we can do something about it. One option is to simply complain but that rarely results in a solution. Another option is to actively look for or create short cuts. This is Process Hacking.

When an organisation insists on putting obstacles in your way, making you jump through hoops in the shape of form filling and endless layers of sign-off and authorisation, the solution is to get creative, change the game and find a new route to the result you are after.

There are several examples of this sort of thing happening already, especially in relation to Government administrative processes. I read online about a resident in one of the London Boroughs who attempted to do his civic duty in reporting issues with roads in need of repair that were having a negative impact on his local community. The number of forms he had to complete to communicate the problems to the right authorities, and the delays in any action being taken as the issues were passed from department to department drove him to desperation. As a result he created a community web portal where residents could log localised problems with roads and other similar issues, upload pictures from their phones and, once he had finally established who in the council could do something about it, created a direct feed to their team for rapid response. This has now turned into the FixMyStreet website. Genius!

Other examples that come to mind include the way musicians have developed and adopted technology to bypass the traditional routes to success. In the past getting your music heard on any significant scale involved layer upon layer of intermediaries between the talent and their audience, all attempting to “guide” the output (or dilute it) and all taking a slice of the pie adding cost to the consumer. Now as consumers we have access to a seemingly endless source of new music via Soundcloud, MySpace, Spotify and Last.fm. We are all A&R talent scouts these days, and if we are overwhelmed by the volume of material and need some sort of filter, we don’t look to the record companies we ask our friends for recommendations because that’s who we trust.

And what about print publishing? I regularly hear stories about authors using new digital print technology to self-publish having struggled for years to get a traditional publisher interested in their work. They have been told they need an agent before they can submit anything, agents are either not interested or put even more barriers in their way and they get nowhere. However, once they have their ISBN number and start selling direct to market via Amazon, their own websites and social media pages, the publishers start coming to them with offers! The power of technology (in the right hands) to drive efficiency and effectiveness is phenomenal, people are changing entire industries, is yours next?

Having worked for large corporations I am only too aware that over-engineered processes are not limited to Government departments and having worked in sales I know that with a little lateral thinking there are ways and means to hack a process. Don’t get me wrong, checks and measures are an important aspect of running a decent business, but if they impede agility and the response to opportunity they can kill a business.

Take procurement for instance. The principle of finding the right suppliers at the right price sounds good to me but in large businesses facing hard times this has very readily become – “let’s treat every service as a commodity, squeeze suppliers to get the lowest price, prevent anyone from sourcing outside of the approved suppliers list and design a lengthy process for getting anyone added to it”. The results of this sort of big business “strategic thinking” are often rapidly shrinking revenues masked by a perceived short term increase in profit, but eventually profit suffers as well.

This type of regime stifles innovation and product development, it leads to disengaged employees who are not empowered to make decisions and disaffected suppliers who either have to start charging more to other clients (unfairly), refuse to work with the big brand (at their peril) or suffer in silence and perhaps go out of business. What is certain is that even if they continue the relationship these companies, including marketing and other creative agencies, are unlikely to be delivering their best solutions as it is no longer a win/win relationship for them.

Many large companies have recognised that this sort of approach isn’t sustainable and, as with most things, the cycle of change is moving us away from such wholesale constraints. The changes are in part driven by those “dissidents” within the organisations who have hacked the processes and demonstrated that there is a better way, individuals can be trusted to make good business decisions that improve efficiency and effectiveness in the short and long term.

I was working with a client as mediatoreal recently and we were exploring potential routes to market for her business Bracket Creative. One of the ideas we developed was around working closely with consultants who are already part of the value chain, not only to better understand the end client and get introductions but potentially to form alliances and partnerships that bypass procurement processes by working alongside an existing approved supplier.

When it comes to process Human Resources professionals are renowned for let’s say – getting a bit carried away. But, good news, there is a new movement on the rise even among respected members of the HR industry body the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) itself. #PUNKHR

If you are unhappy with the time it takes for you to get access to the skills you need to deliver an opportunity then let’s #PUNKHR

If you are concerned with the layers of brokerage and associated cost involved in the recruitment process then let’s #PUNKHR

If you want more localised responsibility for addressing short term temporary skills gaps then let’s #PUNKHR

So, who is ready for a bit of process hacking? Maybe you are doing it already and being thanked for your ingenuity? Tell us about it…

Pay It Forward

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When you have been fortunate enough to have found your route to success, the most rewarding thing you can do is help others to find their own path.

One of my favourite quotes on mentoring is from Sir Richard Branson. Even the most successful business people are able to admit that they received plenty of assistance along the way and it is great to hear them recognising the benefits of being a mentor as well as receiving support.

“The support of experienced entrepreneurs is a key ingredient to help build and grow a successful business. Sharing experiences and ideas is also a key requirement of being a good mentor… be prepared to learn as much as you teach!”

- Sir Richard Branson

Back in November our Hive News “Meant to Mentor” email focused on the importance of mentors in the business world and provided some tips on how to find the sort of support and guidance that’s right for you.

As we begin to launch our Job4Life and Virtual Teaming workshops and Boot Camps this summer, we are actively seeking established freelancers and business owners who have the skills and experience to support our Newbee freelancers and entrepreneurs beginning their journey in the commercial world.

The model has been designed to help participants learn about themselves in terms of their marketable skills and talents, their preferred styles of communication and natural ways of working. We then develop their ability to identify potential hirers and communicate the value they can deliver, tailoring communications to specific audiences and their needs. The programme results in an opportunity to respond to a live brief from a hiring business which could lead to their first paid work as a freelancer. Throughout the process the attendees will have access to suitably experienced mentors who can help answer their questions, providing guidance on key issues and considerations.

We are already seeing plenty of interest from undergraduate students and we are working closely with Universities and organisations like NACUE (National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs) to provide support to the most ambitious emerging talent. But age isn’t the key determinant of ambition. There are many individuals finding themselves in career transition by choice or otherwise. These people are looking at the changing face of employment and considering freelancing as a positive potential career direction for the first time.

Within the range of people considering how they can self-promote to secure freelance work, beyond the students already mentioned, are key groups like Mums on Maternity Leave who have proven professional skills and experience that they can use to bring real value to business projects as a virtual team member. Also, slightly older business statesmen (and women) who don’t want to retire while they still have so much to offer the commercial world in terms of experience and wisdom. If you provide these individuals with mentoring support that helps them shape their approach to self-employment and then blend their mix of energy and talent, there are some amazing opportunities for businesses to create formidable virtual teams to deliver fast paced business growth projects.

There is a multitude of reports and surveys about the effect of mentoring and other forms of non-financial support on businesses, here are some interesting perspectives from a 2011 report published by Youth Business International (YBI) relating specifically to young entrepreneurs…

Businesses are more successful: 55% of young entrepreneurs agree that their business is more successful as a result of the non-financial support they received.

Operational challenges are overcome: two thirds of young entrepreneurs can think of a significant operational challenge in their business that they were able to solve as a result of their non-financial support, that reduced costs and increased profit/turnover in their business.

Loan repayment rates improve: 54% of young entrepreneurs would have struggled to repay their loan over the same time period without non-financial support.

Access to finance increases: the likelihood of approval for a commercial loan more than doubles when young entrepreneurs have established a track record and benefited from receiving a range of non-financial services.

Young entrepreneurs feel more confident: 84% of young entrepreneurs feel more confident running their business as a result of the non-financial support they received.

And the value you receive from the experience of mentoring cannot be underestimated, you will be amazed at what can be revealed about yourself and the benefit of just being around such enthusiastic and creative minds.

Ketan Makwana from Enterprise Lab and Youth Enterprise Live sees huge benefit from providing mentoring and support to others…

“Mentoring is all about developing a platform for others to prosper from… not only does one have to instil confidence or guidance but also provide opportunity… I have found mentoring others extremely enjoyable, educational and empowering. For me mentoring is not just about what expertise I can bring to others, but also what I can learn from them too.”

So, if you have what it takes to help develop the next generation of business leaders, and you also want to continue to learn something new about yourself by working with young entrepreneurial talent, just add “mentoring” as a skill to the talents in your Skills Hive profile. We will be in touch with you about opportunities to get involved with our workshops over the summer.

Why not also add a video clip to your profile which tells us about your personal style of mentoring and how you specifically want to support enterprising new talent.

“Employment 3.0″

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It is pretty obvious that the world is changing all the time and we are all coming to terms with the accelerating nature of this change. The key driver appears to be technology, or at the very least it is a major catalyst that turbo-charges our natural evolution. The debate rages endlessly as to whether the latest developments are good, bad or otherwise but none of us (as yet) can put back the clock. This fact doesn’t make these discussions pointless or futile, they are an essential element of the process of feedback and iteration that occurs in any organic system, our responses help shape our future.

You may have seen the link I shared to a really interesting post on the Harvard Business Review blog written by Professor Rita McGrath. The piece stimulated an extensive conversation regarding the merits and threats posed by the trend towards a more flexible and mobile global workforce. Some of the largely American contributors were concerned that individuals would lose out in terms of being made to source their own healthcare and pension solutions, usually seen as a key benefit of traditional employment there.

Comments from others around the globe seemed more focused on the positives for business of being able to have more flexible control of resourcing costs, there was some concern for the individual worker and the need to provide some sort of centralised support for a large increase in the global “freelancer” population, but overall it was acknowledged that increased choice for the individual to manage their own workload and schedule could only be a good thing.

My own contribution was to point out that people are fast realising that one job equals maximum risk, having the choice to self promote skills to find security in a range of project based work can be more fulfilling as well as more flexible. I went on to reference the way the Skills Hive business model is developing to include training designed to help businesses and individuals understand and identify the opportunities being created by technology and the emerging employment landscape.

 

Job 4 Life

Based on the premise that the only “Job For Life” in this day and age is Freelancing, we have developed a 4 day programme to help people who are new to freelancing to take a structured approach to finding paid project work as part of a virtual team. It starts with getting to know yourself in terms of skills and preferred styles of working, moving on to finding a hiring audience who you can help to grow their business. All the outputs are captured in our Job4Life tool which is designed for ongoing use to develop and manage your opportunity pipeline.

Doing More With Less

For businesses that want to develop a strategic approach to agile and efficient resourcing we have a different programme, also run over 4 days. Companies are shown methods and techniques to clearly define your core business focus, identify skills gaps and talents required to deliver business plan objectives and systems for building and managing a virtual team. As an attendee you leave with an active operating plan that can be developed further to support continuous business growth.

 

We want to continue developing both tools into handy “Apps” that can be updated on the move via your Smartphone. This approach will help individuals and businesses to continuously build strategic plans, updating skills and experience, identifying new opportunities and building talent pools that will drive success.

This summer, working with Enterprise Lab to take the proposition to market, we plan to run both programmes in a Summer Camp format that brings together freelance debutants, experienced mentors and ambitious businesses to initiate live projects in the Skills Hive that will lead to new commercial relationships based on agile resourcing principles. If you are interested in taking part leave us a comment below and we’ll get in touch directly with more details.

As the design of training modules continues we will be looking at what elements, tools and features we can incorporate into the Skills Hive online infrastructure, so let us know what you would like to see…

Already under consideration are…

-          Mind Mapping Tools

-          Problem Solving Process Schema

-          Communications styles and preferences tests

-          …

Feel free to add to the list!

Mo’ Mo’ Mo’ – How do you like it?

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I couldn’t resist this ridiculous title, seemingly cryptic or curiously random? Well – both really!

Recently I wrote about the social and ethical credentials Skills Hive could perhaps claim in the piece entitled Big Foot and it got me on a train of thought. In big business it gets called CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility, but for the rest of us trying to do some good it is really just about living life as a decent human being from day to day. Continue reading →