Positioning your company into the list of desirable places to work

Every year The Globe and Mail has a publication which identifies "Canada's Best Workplaces."  They cover all sizecompanies and outline why employees are happy and engaged at these companies.  Reasons can range from working flexibility to cafeterias that offer subsidized food.  

A few years ago the Globe commented on the results with some advice for companies who were trying to change the culture in their own organizations in order to make them more attractive to candidates and more engaging for their own employees.

They made a very clear point, that of all the companies who were considered desirable by employees, the one common theme was that all the companies had their employees TRUST.

The article then went further to outline the process for establishing that trust for companies that do indeed want to change.  They suggested the following steps.

1.  Choose areas of focus. - Where do you want to target to generate the trust.  Is it collaboration, communication or something else?

2.  Take inventory - Assess the current situation.  What are the strengths and what is already going well and where there could be momentum for which to build.  

3.  Map the gap.  Where are you now and where is it that you want to see yourself.

4. Check your thinking - Make sure that you are on the right track and bring in people that you can trust that will assess things objectively.

5.  Take the first step.  This is key as it will likely not pay off right away, but change will come for the committed, and action (even small actions) that support words can be powerful as long as it is consistent.

6. Continue to assess the situation.  Add to the inventory of desires and re-map the gap.

Farewell,

Mike