It’s all about people

Want to build a world-class workplace? Focus on employees’ needs first

By Theresa Suart

A dangerous workplace climate can be just as damaging as an unsafe workplace, according to Cameron Herold, of Backpocket COO. “It kills peoples’ spirit,” he said.

Herold, former chief operating officer with 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, was the keynote speaker at the opening session of the Your Workplace Conference, Being Engaged at Work May 4, 2010. The opening session was shared by the conference co-locating partners Partners in Prevention, and CANECT.

Herold drew a comparison between his message of building a world-class culture with engaged employees with the accident-prevention concerns of many of the nearly 2000 delegates in attendance. “Getting hurt at work can be people just showing up to work and thinking, ‘I can’t wait to go home.’”

Stress days mean people are staying home from work, because they don’t want to be there, he points out. “This is a big safety issue – it’s people’s psyche. We are killing people in the workplace because we’re making them work with other [difficult] people.”
“Think about your workplace,” he suggests. “If the people on your team aren’t people you’d want to have over for dinner, why would you want to work with them?”

Herold noted that engaged employees are people who like coming to work in the morning.

“I talked to my wife a few years ago and said something about how I love Mondays. And she said, ‘why?’ I’m like, ’cause I love going into work, it’s fun, I love what we’re doing, and I love the people and I love the team and the culture,” he says. She then told him that her friend Tina hated the job she had held for 14 years.

“And my wife added, ‘pretty much everybody hates their job.’ And I had no idea. I didn’t know that most people don’t love what they do and don’t love their boss, don’t love their coworkers, and don’t love the environment, don’t love their office chair and don’t love the art in their office. I didn’t know.”

People need to love what they’re doing, and love where they are to help organizations do great things, he says. “When you would rather go to work, that’s a world-class culture.”

One key to building that world-class culture is to take the leader’s vision, rip it out of their minds and share it with the rest of the organization, he said. This vision should be of what the business looks like in three years. This is similar to building a house – the vision of the owner, the builder and all the tradespeople must be the same. These visions match because the home owner approves blueprints and the builder then works from these.

“What your employees really want to follow is what the heck you are thinking,” he says, “rather than complicated or vague vision statements.”

Again, using the building example, Herold notes: “Your job as the leader is not to worry about how it’s going to happen, just know what the end result looks and feels like.”

“If you, as a leader, are off on vacation and your employees make ‘dumb decisions’, it’s because they didn’t know what was in your mind,” he adds.

Building a world-class culture at work is all about great people, he says. “Every single person in your organization is like a jigsaw piece.

“If you want to build an amazing culture, it’s about hiring ‘A’ players,” he explained. “There’s never been an A-player looking for a job somewhere—they’re gainfully employed. If you want an A-player in an organization, you have to poach them.

“You have to think of your workplace as a place to attract people,” he says. Is it one that attracts A-players? Is it what you really want? If not: “Day-by-day, start changing it.”

Culture is not something that can be regulated or legislated, he stressed. “Culture starts with alignment, with vision, and people who are buying into the same vision as the leader,” he says.

Originally published in issue 12-3 of Your Workplace magazine.

Page updated September 1, 2010