2018: The Year of Organizational Reflection?
2017 was riddled with scandal. From the #MeToo movement to data breaches, organizations faced increased scrutiny and as we now enter 2018, feel understandably nervous as to what's ahead.
This last year, it seemed that no organization or industry was exempt from scrutiny. From Susan Fowler's bold blog post into Uber's toxic culture, to a scandalous sexist memo from an engineer at Google, to of course the never-ending list of those in the media. Ever week it seemed there was a new actor to denounce.
Time For A Change
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the United States, a 2016 report states that although 25–85% of women say they experience sexual harassment at work, few ever report the incidents. The most common reason is due to fear of retaliation. We all know it was there but the extent and prevalence was murky.
The good news is that thanks to fearless women sharing their stories and industry hand-raisers we now feeling more empowered to speak out against harassment in and out of the workplace. Who knew that a simple tweet from Alyssa Milano would spark such a movement. However it was sparked, this is fantastic, and much needed shift.
Although a change is clearly on the horizon, companies shouldn't be necessarily worried, but encouraged that a healthier working culture is ahead. But nonetheless, change is never easy and there will be bumps in the road. The companies that survive will be those that embrace change and aren't scared to take a hard look in the mirror
Trust Matters
We can all agree that empowered employees are the best employees. But before we can feel equipped and ready to take on more responsibility, we need to feel safe & respected in the workplace. This is a basic need. Creating psychological safety in the workplace is be foundation of a healthy culture.
All business owner should be making sure employees have this basic need met before we move to the next phase of empowering our employees. This goes beyond setting up town hall meetings, comment boxes, etc. It requires a real effort by leaders to connect individually with employees like setting up communication channels that work best for each team and providing recognition and transparent feedback without the fear of repercussion.
A Look Under The Hood
My hope is that we take care of what's under the hood this year. Instead of solely focusing on the "bottom line," we should take a good hard look at how a company is actually operating and take care of the good people behind the scenes.
We should be looking closely at how teams are set up & managed. Every leader should be asking and answering questions like:
- Do our employees have the tools and support they need in a time of crisis?
- Are lines of communication open for each member of our team?
- Are we doing enough to ensuring our employees feedback will be taken seriously and kept confidentially?
- Do our employees feel comfortable approaching leadership should a problem arise?
- What are the specific immediate steps we will take when harassment occurs?
- How can we be more proactive and uncover problems before they are reported?
In order to future success, this year it's time to conduct a bit of reflection to make sure employees have the tools & support they need.