Embracing Individualism to Develop a Cohesive Culture
Financial Plus CU shares how it's molded a multi-generational workforce into a cohesive group with a strong culture.
How do leaders engage traditionalists, baby boomers, Gen Xers, Gen Yers and Gen Zers to become a cohesive work group? How do we encourage their interactions and build an amazing workplace? At Financial Plus Credit Union, we have found that having leaders adapt to and understand individual employees’ needs has been a game changer.
As a Gen Xer leading a human resource and training department, I have realized that despite what you hear these days, not every millennial has poor work habits and not every traditionalist employee is technologically challenged.
Employees, no matter what age they are, are unique individuals who are driven and motivated differently. One assessment we utilize is the CliftonStrengths (formerly StrengthsFinder) questionnaire. This assessment is based on years of research by professionals that conduct Gallup polls on leadership topics. The assessment identifies an employee’s top five strengths out of 34 various attributes. The results of our employees’ assessments, coupled with monthly coaching meetings and individual development plans, allow us to coach employees into jobs where they can thrive and excel.
While each employee is unique and leaders should honor that, we have found that some values are common within every organization. All employees, no matter their age or position, value transparent communication, honesty and trust. We all want to feel like we make a difference in our workplace, regardless of our age or how long we have worked at an organization.
The question for leaders is, how do we provide effective training, tools and communication that will resonate with each generation? Each employee hears and sees the world differently. The beauty is that when employees trust their employer and teammates, they can grow and learn together.
Through employee engagement surveys conducted within our workforce, we discovered that our way of communicating change to our staff through memos or page-long documents was not effective. Some employees didn’t feel we communicated enough, and others felt we communicated too much detail.
What we found is that employees enjoy multi-channel communication. We encouraged employees to get involved in making podcasts and videos (in addition to our memos), and the feedback about our communication has improved. We also instituted a “walk a mile in our shoes” day when employees shadow each other. This creates an opportunity for employees to gain a new perspective and learn from one another. Getting creative with channels of communication is what drove our improved engagement scores.
We have also experienced a large shift in our culture as a result of the pandemic. Employees have taught each other how to use our internal communication portal as well as our technology to work remotely. Employees in the Gen X and older age groups have embraced remote or hybrid work as much as our Gen Y and Gen Z workforce has. They love having the ability to check on their elderly parent, or to start work earlier in the day without waiting for the office to open so they can enjoy more of their evening. Younger team members may enjoy sleeping in and working later.
As an employer, we understand that employees who embrace technology might accomplish their job in fewer hours than those who struggle with newer systems. Both can accomplish their job-related tasks, but might require different schedules. HR professionals must be flexible with this and encourage employees to work together to embrace technology and gain wisdom from each other.
We have utilized team building activities within each department so employees can build rapport and find commonalities regardless of their differences. Through these opportunities, employees develop trust and begin to form relationships.
Our training options have become diversified so that individuals can pursue what interests them. For example, our learning and development professionals are providing access to Zoom trainings with breakout groups, webinars, external conferences and “lunch and learns” on topics that aren’t job specific, but help us build a well-rounded workforce.
A unique driver for Gen Yers and Gen Zers is their desire to learn various jobs when they first arrive at an employer, and this has created a learning curve for our leaders. They have had to learn to be proactive in quickly providing employees with different opportunities, and not try to silo them into a single department like we have in the past. Employees who are longer tenured have seen these changes and are becoming more open to learning as well. Again, we need to understand each individual’s talents and personal development goals.
As mentioned by corporate culture and governance expert and CU Times contributor Stuart Levine in a recent article, strategy execution is contingent on the CEO’s and senior management’s ability to provide visible leadership, support and openness. A command and control approach with employees no longer works. To inspire talented individuals to work hard for you, give them opportunities, encourage honest communication and build a foundation of trust. Then sit back and enjoy the work of your amazing team.
DeAnna Wallace SVP, HR & Member Experience Financial Plus CU Flint, Mich.