5-Star Careers Create 5-Star Companies
Over the last 18 months, employees across industries demonstrated self-motivation and reliability when called upon to manage and execute their work remotely. They felt a new kind of empowerment and they liked it. As a result, how millions of employees think about work has changed and ways of working has become a buzz phrase. Many people are uneasy about the future of work and of their own work. They are questioning how they can, and want, to execute work going forward. Win-win situations and balance have increased in the work value equation. Employees have seen proof that other ways of working are possible. The mindset has shifted.
Ergo, how employers approach employee engagement must also shift.
Shifting the Employee Mindset Towards 5-Star Success
Implementing the science of quality management to define and manage the quality of products and services has been the focus of my 30-year career. My new book, 5-Star Career: Define and Build Yours Using the Science of Quality Management (9 Nov 2021, Productivity Press) explores how the science can be personally applied to career development. You may know that this science underpins many of the current approaches to employee engagement. If you search quality management and employee engagement on the Internet, numerous sources of information and ideas will pop up. Quality management concepts, tools, and activities have been increasingly used by companies to inspire employees to remain engaged and ensure corporate goals are ultimately met. At the core, It’s all about the company. It’s not about the employee.
Employee engagement must be about the employee. The purpose of engagement requires a shift away from achieving goals defined by the company toward a new purpose: supporting the employee to define and build a career that they personally deem 5-star worthy using the science of quality management. If companies invest in and develop strategies to support such a shift, and build a culture focused on employee authenticity, engagement will sky-rocket. Why? Because the employee becomes the customer.
The science of quality management tells us that an individual’s life and/or career, as it stands today, is not a process, it is a product. Employees can learn to manufacture/build the 5-star career they envision (their product) using the science proven to ensure quality. Quality is defined by customer satisfaction; therefore, the specifications of a product must be defined by the customer. Therefore, only the employee can define the career that they deem 5-star worthy, assess their current career to identify gaps, evaluate root cause, and make sound decisions on how to go forward.
In his recent Entrepreneur, Inc article, “Innovation Comes from Intrapreneurs” (October-November 2021 print edition), Frank Theodore Koe, Ph.D., addresses the issue of disengaged employees. According to Koe, a Professor of Engineering Entrepreneurship at Penn State University, “People want more control.” He also notes that, “As a company feels threatened by its competition or changes in its industry, it may be forced to look at things differently – and that company’s staff could be a wellspring of ideas.” (Go here to read the online version of Koe’s article.)
Companies that commit to increasing employee empowerment must anticipate that doing so may call for innovative ideas for shifting work assignments, job descriptions, reporting structures, positions, etc. as needed to move individuals into scenarios or create new ones that best fit their authentic skills and goals. In addition, innovative approaches for establishing annual employee goals may be necessary. Empowering each employee to consider their authentic career goals along with their current job description and the departmental goals when developing annual goals can create win-win scenarios. There is no assumption that all of this will be easy. However, the science of quality management tells us that a company culture supportive of increased vulnerability through career gap analysis and goal setting focused on the authenticity of the individual employee, comfort levels associated with discussing issues, sharing ideas, and accepting change will increase.
The science of quality management proven to ensure the quality of products and services across industries for more than 100 years can be applied to create 5-star companies if leaders can accept that, at the core, it is the individual’s view of quality ultimately engages them, not the annual corporate goals. Placing the employee in the customer seat can enable employers to partner with employees in creating the future of how we all work. Employees with 5-star careers create 5-star companies.
Authored by Penelope Przekop