Navigating the modern workplace: improving your team’s performance
| Published date | 12 November 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-11-2018-152 |
| Date | 12 November 2018 |
| Pages | 307-308 |
| Author | Alistair Shepherd |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Employee behaviour |
Strategic commentary
Navigating the modern workplace: improving
your team’s performance
Alistair Shepherd
Innovation today often requires
specialist skills in very
technical disciplines such as
applied machine learning, mobile
application development or
programming. Technology is
developing at such a pace that it is
outstripping our education system’s
ability to teach it. This means the
number of people entering the talent
pool with the skills required for the
modern workplace is decreasing.
We’ve now become so focused on
attracting this rare talent that we’ve
forgotten the importance of
retention.
The factors that influence retention
are numerous, and many are quick to
point to salary, geography or
employee perks. However, according
to a new study by Bupa UK[1], 53 per
cent of UK employees identify trust as
a primary reason for handing in their
notice.
Indeed, company culture and team
dynamics are playing an
increasingly vital role in both
employee engagement and overall
productivity. In fact, according to
Hay Group[2], happier workplaces
achieve 4.5 times the revenue
growth of less happy organisations.
Yet still, HR leaders and managers
rarely focus on the correlation
between a team’s dynamics and its
output, largely because they are
unaware of which steps are needed
to take in order to steer in the right
direction.
Create meaningful teamwork
To effectively improve team-
performance we must shift our focus
away from the individual contributors
that comprise a team to the network
itself; this may seem like an obvious
point, but it is one that is so often
missed. Improvement of employee
engagement may require a re-
orientation of your management
approach to improve retentionand
hold on to the valuable skills you
already have within the business.
Companies tend to place far too
much focus on their product or
service as compared to other areasof
the business such as HR, and it’s
easy to see why: the product,be it a
digital banking wallet or a new phone,
is often the very foundation on which
organisations are built. If someone
mentions Apple, you think of the
iPhone, when you encounter a Marvel
logo you think of Spider-Man; rarely
do you consider the people and
processes behind the scenes.
When certain short-term goals aren’t
met, (revenues drop or customer
retention decreases), foundersand
management teams can quickly jump
to the wrong conclusion.
Unfortunately, this mistake is made by
companies who are still early in their
life cycle as well as established
players. They will often wonder
whether their product is user-friendly
enough or whether its interface is
engaging enough. However, only
rarely do they look for internal
Alistair Shepherd is CEO at Saberr,
London, UK.
DOI 10.1108/SHR-11-2018-152 VOL. 17 NO. 6 2018, pp. 307-308, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398 jSTRATEGIC HR REVIEW jPAGE 307
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