This is the time of year when many company leaders seek to determine the state of play in order to strategise for changes while enthusiasm is high. Spring brings energy to work, an ideal time therefore to be setting new initiatives in motion.
From initial creation as someone's great idea, a company takes a while to reach cultural imbalance. With just a few people taking care of everything and communication presenting no issues, promising companies can flourish under good leadership and a shared sense of direction. Grown to 15 or 20 employees, undercurrents begin to form, and by the time 50 or 60 staff are on board, you have a full contingent of potential difficulties.
Assessment in my book necessitates honesty, trust and a willingness to share real-time information. The only way a company can achieve the necessary clarity to make the undertaking cost-effective is by commissioning an outsider to come in and talk to everyone - if you try it in-house, you'll get plenty of guarded answers.
Engineering companies are packed full of intelligent people, often undervalued by default as the Industrial Age brought in some harsh policies that have stood the test of time, if not the test of successful application. As it's no longer appropriate to bawl operators out on the shop floor or threaten people''s jobs if they don't agree with policy, other tactics have to be adopted in keeping with a progressive, people-centric society.
The fear such forms of personnel abuse left in their wake has done untold damage to the Trust edict, leaving shop floors and management teams stuck with historic factionalism. Suspicion raises its head far too readily and change initiatives can suffer backlash from deeply-held resistant beliefs. Questing for insight into the mindset of the matrix from a position of power is thus a no-go even for a forward-thinking leader - people can even be on their guard with peers for fear of where their words might end up!
An objective enquirer with an ambivalent approach to key elements of cultural health can gain trust in an instant, simply by ensuring anonymity. This policy comes as a great relief for people being asked about such things as teamwork, morale, and sense of direction. They want to be honest; as they've not even been asked their name, it's easy to adopt an open approach and even desirable to "tell it like it is for once". You get the truth, which presumably is what you want.
Go anywhere you wish to source your Assessment provider, just be sure to resist any attempt to harvest your information from in-house. More cost-effective by far to gain genuine clarity from an outside perspective with the enquirer guaranteeing anonymity for participants and being fully equipped to uphold that assurance.
What others have to say about this subject; scroll online testimonies pointing the same way.
Knowing where you stand with your workforce is essential to any future provision for engagement or strategy designed to boost innovation. Their collective observations will surprise in some measure, with certain aspects reflecting as you might expect. As the findings are clear of bias, they reliably provide you with a solid foundation for development that you can build on sustainably in the long term.
Get in touch with me for a confidential chat on options and potentials;
enjoy the rest of your Spring!
