Episode 77 : Importance of Humanizing Workplace Communication

Dear Corner Office

Hello, everybody what is up? It is February. I cannot believe it is already February. Oh 2023 Just yesterday it was 2000 I promise you it was my senior year in college. It was the year 2000. That nine nine and a 2000. Okay, I know I got a little excited. But I want to welcome each and every one of you to tonight's lace of communications. We are excited. Yes, we are. Just in case you forgot. Melissa Amber's is joins me for these lanes of communications conversations. Tonight we're going to be talking about the importance of humanizing workplace communication. Yes. humanize like what, how, what do you mean, be? And so we really want to talk about what does it mean to humanize communication? How people can do it, how they can do it better improve upon it? Because let's be honest, we're looking at the layoffs. And you're like, what, how could I know? Yeah. But you? Are you like why? And so you're looking at people wondering what in the world is going on in the workplace today? So So Melissa, and I are going to be talking about that. Today. I'm talking about how do you humanize communication in your organization? Because we see some stuff right now. It's like, you worried about you really, you some of these people really worried about laying off people saving money, but they probably haven't thought about what they're going to do when it's time to hire. And what people are going to remember. So anyway, Melissa, what's up? How are you today?
Man, it's been one of those days, but I'm in the unfortunate part is that, and 2023, we still gotta have some of these same old, same old conversations, it just don't make sense.
Some people don't ever learn, and I think I know the problem, but I'm gonna leave it alone, I'm gonna get into it, but I'm gonna leave it alone for now. So that's the caveats, oh, I'm gonna let you kick this off. Because I love the way you have been framing this conversation that we've been having around communications in the workplace.
Well, just like he's said that we are human, we are people, we are individuals. And we need to start being treated like that, and not more. So like, it's a dictatorship, or, I'm the boss shooting employee do as I say, you know, that type of mentality that so many just simply don't realize that how, you know, I realize how it's affecting just day to day operations, something as simple as listening something as simple as having a open conversation. And so men are just in that mode of, you know, you know, having the title and not really working with the employees and in the organization. And, you know, as the title is just that a title, but you are put in that position, because you're are a leader in whatever capacity that may be, but you are a leader, and being a leader means that you have people that you need to guide, you have people that is looking to you for direction, and if your direction is just point and being a dictator, we're defeating the purpose. So as Michelle said, you know, just kind of get into, you know, the human to human connection, you know, understanding that we're individuals, you know, I'm human, just like you are I have feelings, just like you do, you know, just like you want to be treated with respect. So do I. So, um, it's, you know, come out, you know, one of the things we really want to jump into, because we see it a lot and, you know, post COVID You know, it started to shift a little bit, we thought we may see a little change, but we didn't know it was not going to be for everybody. That was a given. But we started to see a little shift and a little change but I'm actually starting to see and I'm sure you are to Michelle starting to see it kind of go back a little bit to you know what it was that you started that you know how Have people need, you're hiring people. And you have the same mentality, the same attitude. And you wonder why your door won't stop turning, you keep having that rotating door, and investing time and money, hiring and recruiting. Yes, you may not see it up front. But if you really sit down to put all those numbers together, you're gonna start seeing that bottom line look a little funny. And I promise you is from the rotating door of hiring. So invest in your people, and it's not always monetary time is huge. When you're investing into your people, so let's get right into it. And talk a little bit about this human to human connection. How people aren't, you know, they it's almost like they're in the invisible, and they're not recognized in these organizations. So what are your thoughts on that Michela? You know, how we're kind of shifting back to what we were, we're not seeing that change getting better, is kind of either leveling out or going the opposite direction. So
I want to take, I want to tell my story that happened to me as a as a probably a teenager, I'm thinking I was in high school, I might have been middle school age. And I remember the conversation ending like this, I said to my mother, well, he's just a janitor. And my mother said, there, no one is just anything. You should be thankful somebody's cleaning up. Let me tell you something that completely changed my life. Every place I have worked, that I can think about just about at work if the click janitors were there housekeeping, ever maintenance. I knew their names. I remember I was working in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a client's office, we were in a basement. And I ended up learning the, the cleaning lady's name and the two maintenance guys name. And one of my co workers like, how do you know their names? I was like, because I speak to everyone. Everyone matters, right? And so what we saw at the beginning of the pandemic essential workers, they didn't all of a sudden become essential workers. Yeah. Essentially, right. Yeah. But people felt they were low level, thankless jobs. And they were, it changed from faith less to fake full to having them there, at the onset of the pandemic. And we should be thankful that somebody's cleaning up our mess, we should be thankful that somebody's packing our eggs at at $6. Because you're gonna cry them eggs. And so if you're saying, yes.
Okay, well put this down real slow.
Exactly. Like, it's like, guess what age is. So it's really important that we do self assessments of how do we treat people outside of work outside of knowing who somebody is from a job title, or what car they drive or neighborhood they're in or college they graduated from. It is truly looking at a human, as a human as a person. Somebody has feelings, emotions, and AI and classism has built into that. And straight away and push people aside because of what they may or may not own and have. And I think the pandemic for a while, brought that back into perspective. And so we see at certain points in time where that matters. 911 changed a lot of for time here in the US. I remember in 1989 here in South Carolina, when we were hit by category five hurricane, it changed how people engage and it even changed donations. I remember people, my aunt uncle, their house was destroyed during that hurricane. And people were writing them letters like they didn't know who the stranger was, was going to get this bedspread they were sending it to from Kansas, right from Kansas, like I don't know, what can't mock and we pull out the globe or the maps, I can see where Kansas is. And people writing notes like just just pouring out and emotions and saying, you know, we hope you recover and you're doing well, and things will turn them off for you. But it takes so much for people to engage with others on a on a human level when it's a stranger. And how do we do that on a on a regular basis and more importantly, inside of the workplace because that's where a lot of us or not even in a virtual workplace was on a zoom or virtual space, still humanizing people. And so I just wanted to bring that in. That we've seen it at one point And we see ebbs and flows of it change, usually around disasters, usually around high stress points, I'll say within society, but it really needs to be can take a continuous effort, and practice in society overall. So I'll turn it back over to you.
Look, keep going. You hear, you got to put a stop sign on it like that, man.
So what, what I would say, as far as the workplace, I know, we have a lot of things we're gonna try to get to, we're gonna try to not do in an hour, we're gonna, we may not hit 30, we want to try to do at 3540 minutes. But really, understanding the importance that people play in your life may not always get dark, searching, right? Yeah, it may be the bus driver. It could be for some people, the Amazon delivery person. Because whatever's in that package is gonna keep your child quiet, right gonna sue them
or keep us sane.
It'll be something that you need. If you're like me, you have sciatica. And you're like, I need this tennis ball to show up. Because I can't leave the house. But I needed to help roll out this nerve, because I'm in pain. It's so many people, it's those times when you're just thankful that they're people doing something that you can't do, especially at a time with me. And I think we need to be thankful all the time. Like, look, I did not have to put that on a trophy and my vehicle driving home, unloaded, all I had to do was bring it in the door. And sometimes we catch delivery personnel bringing in the door for you. So we really just need to be thankful that people in a lot of aspects are buying, they are giving us our time back to do other things as well. So what is sometimes the value of what people do for us, them bag it, like, I shop at all these because it saved me money. But I'd be like, I might need to go down to the Piggly Wiggly to their bag. Break the egg. I've covered about reggae, so me. So we really have to understand the value of what people do. And if your aspect is I have to think about it. And they give them given me time back and providing the do it that way. But please understand people are valuable and invaluable, actually, and really being thankful for them.
Yeah, a lot of it is a simple, thank you. Not you don't need to say nothing else to do nothing. It's just a simple thank you that, you know, shows the appreciation. So but I think that takes us into you know, the communication, the humanizing communication, which is trust and respect. And, you know, just that whole piece of, you know, knowing you're talking to another person, and that communication, the way that you're talking, and granted, and I am truly guilty of it, where, you know, you're you're saying certain things, and people take things the wrong way. Then there's times like no, I'm sorry, you know, I didn't mean it, how it sounded or, you know, or how I came across. That wasn't my intent. I meant, you know, x, y, z. So, you know, understanding that and not, you know, we got to get out of ourselves. That's just who I am. That's just who I taught? No, no, you gotta, if somebody came to you one way, they will say the same thing, you got to be in your fields. So it's that human to human communication and connection to where you have to understand the person that you're talking with. And if they did feel a certain type of way, what's the Big Bear, say, I'm sorry, you know, I'm sorry, we're moving on. And just leave it at that. So that's, and that's also part of, you know, showing some integrity, caring and just, you know, showing that human is humanizing, it's that simple. Um, and so I'll make it bigger than what it is. But it's truly that simple, of just being a human and open communication, talking, being respectful to each other. And just that integrity of you know, throughout their conversation or the relationship, if it is a long term relationship or someone you're going to be around a lot, and most people that that is working, you know, regular jobs and even, you know, small businesses, you're in business, so you're working with people all day long, more than you are really with your family most of the time. So, you know, take the time to do that. And, you know, sometime I know it's hard, don't get me wrong. I'm not gonna say is that easy, I get it. But um, you know, just taking the time to have that opportunity to get out of your Self and understand the person that you know you're in front of connecting with.
Absolutely. And you know what's what? What struck me as you were talking about trust, respect, integrity, caring movies and cartoons we grew up with. So Ebenezer Scrooge, right? These things that we were supposed to learn as children, I don't know the Grinch. Right. And and if you try, it's like what happened between these lessons being taught as children to morphing into adults and I know things have everybody's gonna have bad days. But every day, you treating people dehumanizing people, is not where you should be. And so oftentimes, we need to reflect on our feelings, because hurt people hurt people. And you may need to go seek professional help to understand what's going on. But also to understand when there's also those of us that we when we see somebody dehumanizing somebody else, how do we step in. And I literally remember this one time, one of my former co workers was being I'll see chastise by an executive in the company at his cubicle. Oh, wow. out his at his cubicle. And what happened was, another guy from another team went to our admin and said, Hey, can you stop him from doing that? And so the admin like, okay, she went and got our senior vice president to go talk to this man. Do you know what happened? He lowered his face.
That's typically how that happened. Yep.
Because there were no repercussions to his behavior. And oftentimes, when we talk about toxic workplaces, we talk about poor cultures. That is what we're talking about. Right? Now, people not being able to have conversations, people not being able to provide criticism and feedback in a constructive way, in a nun public setting. And then it completely breaks, it was to the point, this particular employee just stopped coming in after a while to that office, he just worked somewhere else. And I will go back, I'll be like, you know, where it's like, he's working such and such location today.
Like from I remember for, when I left that project, I hadn't seen him in a year. And so I was not surprised when he I just after a while it just stop coming. And just stop asking if he was gonna be there. Because he literally just stopped coming in and started avoiding that particular executive. Because he reported to him and he couldn't get out of that role. It was. And so we, when we think about the workplace understanding, when you do things like this, it did not just impact this one co worker, nobody else including me want it to work with this particular executive. To the point I took, I remember my mentor at that time was i Hey, I can get you on that project was like, I've never worked with that man. And I literally, he's like, no, no, you don't have to report that's like, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. I will never work for the man lay me off. Yeah, because that just show poorly on our entire company. Because demand was literally there at that point for 30 years. Yeah, so they already knew. And they made that decision to keep them. So they isn't expensive, less isn't expensive costs for some company, but they seem to find a way to cover those costs for
ya aesthetic, never given the PEEP necessary.
People raised their cover costs for something like that. And is it goes to like, the culture of that environment. Because whether that guy lost his voice or not, that was not the first time that he's done this. And if this particular employee was the type of person that would be like, Okay, first of all, you're gonna lower your voice back up and kind of you know, try to correct the situation. Now that supervisor will get offended. They will want the to terminate or write them up for insubordination, and a list of whatever else that they may tack on. But, again, regardless if you're my superior or not, there's a way that you should talk to a person. It's not your child that you're reprimanding. and talking to another adult, another human, you know, like that and expect them just to sit there and let you just, you know, talk to them that way is insane. And supervisors, you know, they want to be respected. But the the old saying goes, you gotta give respect to get some?
Absolutely, absolutely, yep. So let's see could look like you say we got we're gonna limit our time. So we're gonna I mean, we could stay on this for some hours. But let's move on to our next one, which is an emotional attachment, um, we'll you know, we'll stick with the same example, you know, problems for this employee, you know, it could have been, he's been there for so long or He adjusted his lifestyle to make sure you know, that was the place he wanted to, you know, be and you know, been out for, you know, X number years, and you get attached to, to those jobs, not to say you attach in a sense to where you get lazy and just don't want to go anywhere else. But it could be the culture, the benefits, the location, it could, you know, there's a list of things that could have some lots attached, and they could just really, really love the job that they're doing. And having someone to dehumanize, you can shift all of that you can go in hating everything about that job, not the task to be done. But just being in that place, it makes everything just seemed horrible.
So I think you know, wit, that is still, you know, humanizing and talking to people, even if you'd like to say we all had a bad day, and I came in, I'm just talking to you, and not even realize I'm yelling at you, because I'm already, you know, frustrated with something else, you know, it's okay to say, Hello, do you want to take a minute before we had this conversation, and we want to come back to it, you know, let them know, oh, you know, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you, you know, or I don't want you to seem you know, that, you know, I'm coming down on you or anything. So it's okay leaders to take a step back. And to excel criticism critique from, you know, people that report to you. And sometimes it may not be criticism or critique, it could be simply that, you know, you want to step back for a minute and go breathe, or go smoke a cigarette or step aside or whatever, and then we'll have this conversation later, or either we can have it tomorrow, you know, so I think it's, I know, okay, you know, to do things like that without leaders being so defensive.
I love it, I agree, is we can get tied to an employer, to a brand, even to the work we do, I can say, a lot of times, when we see marginalized people doing work, especially in the nonprofit space, the treatment may not be the best, but they're there because of the work they do and who they're serving. And so it becomes very painful for them both ways. It's painful when they leave. But they can start to heal, go through the healing process from the trauma that you're enduring. But they may have to go to a job or a place where they don't feel as though they're providing a service or impacting community and other marginalized people. And so it can really be tied to so many, so many different values we have, even if I'd say a lot of women go into environmental engineering, sometimes you're coming through a civil engineering firm, you're one of few women. And so you may be encountering a lot of barriers there too. But you you like the work you do, you're doing you like focusing on clean water, you like focusing on clean air and any missions and really doing that work.
But the environment may not be very welcoming to you. And the communication styles are very different and can be very difficult. So now you're torn about what to do and where to go. And so it's it's sometimes we think, like you're seeing the huge layoffs in in tech. And a lot of people are tied to oh, I work for Fang, which is now a main company so Facebook. Amazon was the other a I'm gonna get to it. Netflix and Google I forget what other he is right now. But there really tied to those companies. When actuality they bring value to the company, their skill set their knowledge, their abilities really are what makes the company be able to do what it was. If not, it would just be a sign on ability. And AI has not. It's not that far enough long. Well, we don't think so anyway, to to run, run Google on his own without human interaction. And so sometimes the communication we endure, to be tied to those brands, but also what I've noticed, too, is how people communicate because they work for those brands, right? Oh, well, I work at such and such.
So it can have an elitist type way of communicating, right? Oh, you only work there. And so we really have to also be mindful of how we tie ourselves to things. And so it's always interesting, when I see people have x, whatever, behind it, X that IE x dash, a company name. And I was like, oh, okay, but it's their thing in tech, let them roll with it. But also to understand, um, those companies aren't loyal to you, the same way that you may be loyal to them. And you can see that and how they communicate it during layoffs. Right, you can see how they communicate it. Like, oh, we sent everybody an email that morning, knowing there was an opportunity that people gonna miss, why not just let people know, at the end of the day? At lunchtime, I here's your lunch break. Here's your lunch to go. Having conversations, having managers spending the day or two, letting people know this? Oh, I have a team of 50. Okay, how many of you letting go 17? Well, that 1720 minute conversations you're about to have, and just go through and have those conversations, because it really was important to be able to do that. And that that human to human engagement was taken away. And a lot of these employees that are left behind, not not even the employees that are there, they have a Saturday, but our employees that are still remaining, how they are looking at you and your inability to humanize communication when their co workers and their friends. They're jogging their workout partners, right? We're let go. And so you really have to understand that humanizing the these particular points in a person's career are really, really important.
It is, and it's, it's the simple things. And I think we got to get back to the simplicity of communication. And part of that is technology is we we put technology in the place of the human to human interaction from terminating people via email, text messages, certain communications that should be had in person, even if it's a phone call, you know, still having that human to human communication, and not send them a text message in the email. And a lot of these large companies are doing that. They're sending an email, letting them know, okay, well, this is your two week notice. You know, it's, I can only imagine what some people you know, what they like, but, you know, for me, I'm like, What the hell, which means that we noticed somebody, oh, you know, so it's, I'm having those connections. And that takes us into like recognition, recognizing your employees, it's not always about doing a hinge Shindy quality or spending a lot of money, sometimes just really going, you know, hey, I appreciate that, you know, thank you for catching it, thank you for staying on top of this, or, you know, good job stepping up, you know, just simple things like that, to show people that you appreciate them. And, you know, some companies that are large enough that do have the budget, may, you know, give a bonus or, you know, give them a gift card to lunch or a movie or something. It shows some type of recognition and me being in a leadership role. I've been with a company that just really didn't do that.
And I will go in my own pocket sometime it you know, give them a list of $25 You know, gift cards or restaurant, or, you know, to a movie or something. So, I've done that myself. For some employees, even though the company don't recognize I'm not saying that you should do that was just my, my thing that I did. But a lot of couples should have something in place as they're deciding on their budgets and where they're going to allocate money for different things, they should add in a bucket for recognition, employee poof day or whatever they want to call it, you know, so I think that should be part of their, their discussions, when they're outlining their pie chart was gonna have one to do that and allow these departments to do it. And companies have to regardless of the tenure of a person, I don't care if they PhD, doctorate, whatever degree already let us they got behind their name, that should not be a factor on well, we need to keep them on payroll, if they're not treating employees with respect. It's sometimes you might miss better don't have, you know, all them letters lined up behind their name. And I was actually talking to somebody today about that, that, you know, regardless of what piece of paper you have, and what you want to call yourself, it really doesn't matter. You know, I know a lot of people come across a lot of people with all of this stuff added to their name and quantity behind. And they just don't have simple common sense. So paper doesn't matter, that I really don't want to say, but you know, we'll stick with that.
simple common sense. You know, regardless of what it is, and how many copies are relying on all when they gotta be MBA or PhD, or, you know, whatever else they want to call it. And why you put so much focus on that. It seems like you're focusing more on them having these letters you want them to have instead of the actual experience, and skill set that a person has, because those are the people that's going to be able to execute, and to get the things done that need to be done, and not so much to say, Doctor or PhD or MBA or whatever, you know, the hell it is, you know, who cares? I'm not saying that you shouldn't, if you're getting it great, if you haven't great, but employers should not let that be a factor when they are looking for talent. That's not how you're going to attract or retain a person. Yes, people that's been working 20 plus years that don't have a degree, but they can run circles around somebody that have a PhD or doctorate or whatever. So look, at the skill set the experience, what do they have, and not somebody that's going to come in to say I'm in an office, dress up everyday, kick their feet up on the desk, and be a dictator, and then talk down to somebody else that may not have a piece of paper? Because at the end of the day, that's all it is, is a piece of paper? Yes, you do. You know, you've learned some things or whatever. But you know, it's a piece of paper. And that's not really putting you in the position where you need to be at, and the amount of money these organizations are paying people just because they have a piece of paper, they really need to refocus, and look at their recruiting policy, the HR policy, who's putting these job descriptions together, you know, all of these different things, who's doing the who's coming up with the rules for this. So go back to the to the chalkboard and redo your plate, we need to know that we need another play this play is not a whole new book puts the errors and all of that stuff, but it's just not where organizations should focus as much as they are. And if it's time for them to really change that. And shift the mindset of why they are doing that. Because what they could see is they have a rotating door, but you're not going to be able to keep the talent that you want. Now you're going to be upset that why do we have to keep hiring people why does people want stay in their job? Why are we bringing these people in and they're not able to produce? So you're bringing on one person that you think should be the handle of the job, but now you got to bring in two or three more, or this one position, because this one here, it can't handle it. They got the sheet of paper, but they don't know how to execute. They don't know efficiency. They don't understand efficiency. They don't know how to be productive. They know how to do bare minimum to push a piece of paper across the desk smile pretty dress period and go collect a nice check. So organizations really I need to refocus on that and look at the playbook for the hiring practices. You're asked me.
I want to read a comment we have. I've had a recruiter asked if I applied to a business analyst role by accident, because apparently they wanted someone with an MBA, but wasn't anywhere on the job description and their role was not a senior role, even if it was a senior role. Do they really need an MBA? Right? Yeah, yes. For some of these MBA programs, that well, she just college tuition. And journalists not even say that. But that for MBA has to be hot is expensive. Were they even paying enough to cover a warrant? So my MBA is too often they're like, Oh, we want 12 years of experience and master's degree for $35,000. In New Light, where? Yeah,
I did want just just out of curiosity, I started going on, you know, somebody's job sites in the monster and looking at something like mine, and not even an executive administrative assistant, but just an administrative assistant, you want them to have an NBA Jam, like, why that just simply does not make sense. Let me go read the job description. Maybe it's something more than what I'm thinking, go read the job description. You just need somebody that have the experience and have the tenure, you know, that that did this and have the skills, this is not call for MBA. And again, you're paying under 50,000. So absolutely not, you know, if you want somebody to step in with an MBA to really step in, execute, do the things that you need them to do, minimum and this is still low, but minimum, you need to look at least at at least at it.
It depends where you're at in the country. I literally remember just just Administrative Assistant Executive Assistant, I'm a woman I know. She's in Pittsburgh, it was the early 90s. And she saw this job posted in a newspaper for this where you went, and she, she could do everything. And she said it had this computer thing. And then she's like, I don't know what it is what that is, so I'll learn it. And so she applied for the job was a tech startup. And it ended up getting acquired by Intuit. And they were like, Oh, well, you can move to Silicon Valley. But the salary they were paying her to move from Pittsburgh to California was not commensurate to she was like, we don't have a job. We're moving completely across the country for my family. She was like, No, so
you can have your right. And you still aren't being able to provide them with finances to do a cross country. It doesn't add up. And not at least they communicated with it. But the other thing I wanted to go back to was what we're seeing now in the workplace is more company saying they're looking at skill set. We still haven't seen it show up in job descriptions yet.
Nope.
But what we're hearing is they want to go back and 20 years ago, we had a lot of companies that did management training programs in the early 2000s 90s. They did a lot of management training programs. When I was an undergrad in engineering, they literally had what they call cow requirements for us, no communication, oral and written. So we had to take speech, we took technical writing, because they knew it. On average engineers were very poor communicators. Now imagine now you you have somebody who's very poor communicator, they're great electrical engineer, but bad communicator over the first team of five or 10 engineers, it generally didn't work out too well. And so as a lot because they they aren't today even worse because they aren't training them at all like oh well you do well as engineering, you should leave them like no leave them where they are until you train them on how to better to communicate in in speaking verbally, in written form, in shorthand, meaning Tech's DMS and slack messages, all of that, and that really isn't being cultivated, especially at the mid management level, the first level of management and then when they do get to it if they make it isn't an executive level, and they're like, Well, I've never been I haven't been doing the last 50 years like yeah, that's a problem.
So we need to be cultivated this skill set of communication over all earlier in A career, because it is valued very much. I have a career coaching client. She knew she was really great communicator. And she was an engineer. And she literally was getting people on the plant floor who ran production minute, 1520 30 years, they were performing better for her than any engineer to have been there the same amount of time, because she had a way of communicating with them that other engineers did not. And so she knew how to leverage it to get her projects and work done. But you know what happened, the other engineers didn't like her because she was able to communicate to such a degree with everybody else. And so we really have to explain to them, they don't like her better, because she's a nice, she communicates at a different level of skill set. And even if my client went to try to help other people, they took it the wrong way. And she was really just saying, Oh, if you communicate this way, they find it better, they react better. I want to read another comment finding a lot of places do not have training paths, entry level jobs. Just want you to know everything versus training on skill sets based on potential. Yes. Okay. That is that is very, very, they literally like we want somebody to come in and hit the ground running. I don't know nobody. You want to Olympian, even Olympians? Yes, we do. Yes. What they do. years is four years between the Olympics, four years for term Yantar for Olympic four years. You know, what happens in those four years?
Do you want to guess Melissa, do you a lot of training. And this is not the physical training mentally, physically, your food, your intake, your your lifestyle, your entire lifestyle has to change, to even fit your lifestyle have to change, if you want to just run a marathon, you know, a short, you know, in your neighborhood marathon. So forget even trying to be, you know, go go to the Olympics that's like, Oh, come on,
you know? Exactly. So when I hear these things, I cringe like, so how long have you been 18 years? As I've seen a lot of turnover? Can we have not? It's not a great fit? Yeah, but most people, because they're not going to come in hitting the ground running. Yeah. And so what I would say is reading those job descriptions, really start telling a story about what the culture is like, because they're communicating with you, sometimes very clearly, than other times when you go through the interviewing process, they can, they are clearly communicating with you about what the culture is really like. And then other times, you're going to have to dig more to understand better about that, that manager more specifically, because as I say, a company can have a culture, a location of that company can have a different culture. And then within that location, you can have cell cultures. And so it's really important to understand what you're walking into some Oh, I love working there. They work for a completely different VP, who's a senior director, down to senior manager, the you will and so the culture can be completely different for the team in which you will work. And so I had a very time when I remember, first construction project I was on. It was It wasn't even maybe 10 of us for my employer on that construction site. We generally didn't work all the time. We literally came near that time and went home. This other guy, it was like, everyday was a work day. It was like Groundhog Day over and over again. Because it was seemed like it was a 1214 hour workday. Now, did I realize you know what? He never gonna stop unless I stop him. Guess what? I just left
Yeah,
too, sit here and watch him go about how the world keeps turning and needs to stop for him. What? And so you really sometimes the communication sometimes has to come from us. Right? And we have to communicate and tell people how I'm human, how you would treat me as human and I and and it can be very difficult for marginalized people to do that women, people of color, disabled people, people who are non Christian to do this. But I highly encourage you to do that because now you have set boundaries, you're starting to set boundaries, and they're gonna push because for a long time they had these boundaries. They are like, I don't like this new place I don't like If the new you, and like, you know what every two year old has to become three, and a three year old has to become four. And so you want to get out of the terrible twos or the terrible threes, and you're gonna be four. So I'm gonna let you go through that that scene, and sometimes you have to have a discussion with them. But definitely, definitely set your boundaries so that communication can work both ways to let people know you will not treat me this way. What comes will come, but you can definitely put not I don't even say put a line in the sand. I said, put it in the concrete because I'm a civil engineer, it's not hard deadline is gonna go nowhere. Unless you move it so fast. I want to get some final thoughts from you on humanizing communication?
Well, I think one of the final thoughts would be is kind of, you know, piggyback off what you were just talking about on, you know, how, you know, with the whole rotating door, and you know, the the hiring process and the job descriptions, this goes to, you know, some Employer Branding, that, you know, so many organizations, we do our websites, we get the mission statement, all these different things out there. But all of that for your consumer, that's for your customers, but what are you doing, and then employ your brand new will help with some of that, not some, but it will help with that. Helping your candidates to understand, you know, what the company is about who you know, the culture there, who they will be working with, all of these things should be included in this employer branding for those particular positions. Now, based on how large the company is, your departments and all of that, you may have to have multiple, multiple ones throughout the organization. But your standard Employer Branding will talk about the organization as a whole, but you have that extra cherry on top, if you will, that talks about specifically, that department, the people they work, who they will be working with, how the management, and all of those things will work. So it's really looking at that and just being on top of how can you attract and keep those employees at your organization.
Because if you can keep if you can retain those candidates at your organization, not only is that a it shows a place that anyone will want to work, because now these candidates, they're gonna go on social media and talk about how happy they were at work, oh, this, my employer gave me a gift card, you know, those types of things, it just highlighting all of those different things that you are doing for your employees, and just letting those employees know. So it's really staying on top of, you know, all of those different things. I'm gonna look over here and look at our comments. And they I keep seeing me look this way My screen is over here. But look at somebody's comments. But I think that with this employer branding, and you know, companies understand that they need to have that in place can help with some of this human to human communication as well. Because now that you have that, your leaders will be trained on that and they will be expected to follow what that that is and not come up with their own, whatever they may call it over there. But that I think will be a huge shift in company culture, and how leaders are treating employees and how a company can retain the right candidates and decrease the cost of hiring. Because that is so big. You know, if you really look at your numbers, you know that but a lot of companies don't even pay attention to it. They just know, hire somebody to hire somebody to hire somebody to hire somebody. And the money you put into doing all this hiring, interviewing job descriptions, and all these other things. It's just it will eat at your profits.
Well, some people like to put a lot of money in into recruitment and I'm just saying yeah, it's but that's the reality.
I like I like the dating part that relationship hard work, which is hard somebody like literally you would not believe some companies recruitment budget, and people just keep quitting. Why aren't you figuring out why they quit? Then
that right there let's figure out why they're quitting instead of just Oh, okay. When that job description, job description put off When you get a job description, yeah, job.
They never take down, that's just it, they never take the job. The job description now why take it down, you know, the person isn't gonna be there, the only thing that they do is just gonna change the date because, you know, it expires after Salah going into just the date. So
I know, we laughing but it's really sad so many practices. It is.
It's, you know, it's so sad that you have to laugh at it. Because it's like, how can you not see this and understand this. So in start making the changes, instead of wasting the money in all this recruitment, invest that money and to bring somebody in to help you figure out why this is happening. And what can we do to resolve this? Put the money there and not recruiting? Well,
I think one of the reasons they can it doesn't go to retention efforts, right? Yeah, somebody could be held accountable for why people are leaving, if you don't ask, you don't collect data. People do not have to be held accountable. And so this, because organizations we do diversity, recruitment and positive hire, and people will often Oh, we haven't troubled like, well, how many black employees do you have? Well, not that many. Well, how many left in the last 12 months? Um, the ones that are there, how long have they been there? Yeah, right. The failure to measure does not mean to you're trying not to be held accountable. It's like, you want to lose weight, but you don't want to get on the scale. You don't want to waste beads, you don't want to use a measuring. What exactly are you like, I must wear the same, you know, I'm aware of the same mumu I'm gonna figure it out. And I'm sitting there, like, what the mood would it get tight or tight? I'm good. It's like, you're not measuring or you don't have you're not measuring the right thing. And so right now, there's a big, big push, you know, on figuring out how to measure DEI efforts. Well, right, Where were your PIP rates. And so there are things in there you can measure. But guess what, who's gonna be held accountable for when they fail? And so oftentimes, they want to push back and chief diversity officer, well, let's talk about some of these managers. Oh, you like them? Right. So So that's, that's a whole other discussion. But that's what I'm seeing. It's one reason why they have so much focus on talent. Because if you look at retention, and recruitment, talent, recruitment, because when you look at retention, you're going to have to hold people accountable, you're going to have to make change, do some change management. And you do not want to do that, oh my god. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna say this, as we wrap up, and wrapping up, I'll say, the ability to communicate in your organization on a human to human level with empathy, with sympathy, with compassion, with joy, and to recognize your employees is not a bad thing. It is extremely important in how you communicate on a daily basis, what is verbally and written form. written form can be very, very different ways. If it's sign language, whatever that form is, it is very, very important that you humanize that. Also understand it, and I had to catch somebody today, they were ordering food on the phone. And the person didn't understand the word special. Instead of them slowing down. They're like, you know, you know what our tendency is? To get louder.
think out loud, or can you hear me? You can't hear what I'm saying? Yes.
And so it's really important to understand through training via on communications, how to slow down when you have a communication or language barrier, especially if you're not in front of the person. And so it's really important that we understand there are different things that we need to change about how we communicate, whether it's, it's changing our intonation for different people, our organizations, it is not always doing things verbally, but sending it in writing. It is also speeding up or slowing down our language because you know, I'm a Southerner, and I used to work in an office with a lot of people from the northeast. It's like you talk too slow. I say, Yeah, but I dance fast. That's why I talk slow, so that it makes it but really having a way to communicate very is very important on so many different levels and training that at all levels throughout your organization. Because if you're not doing with your front, um, customer facing roles, we always think about executives, because they're going to go talk to other executives and the board. Yeah. Yeah, your customers are who are, are interfacing with your frontline people, your essential workers, you need to be paying attention to them, and you need to be investing in them past entry level, but focusing on those roles that are communicating the most with each other, each other as employees as well as your customers, so change that and really focus on that in 2023. So where we kind of we can't we can't we're gonna be back, we got a gap. I have a virtual Summit coming up. We'll be back February 28. We're going to wrap this up in February. So if y'all have missed the lanes of communication, this is the third edition we have the fourth and final will coming up. Y'all missed a lot. We're gonna wrap it up. It's probably going to be an hour fit to try to tie everything into a bowl for y'all on what it looks like in the workplace. What employee branding with talent, retention, talent, tension, right. When winning and just workplace culture, all wrapped around communication. So everybody, Melissa, you're excited for February 28.
I'm excited like I'm over here, Ryan right now. Yes, ma'am.
Everybody, check us out. We'll have the next event up. February 28. Event up next week. We hope to see you join us if not, yes, the one of us and we will send you the link for that broadcast. You don't want to miss it. Everybody. Have a great week, and we will check you out later.