{"id":32212,"date":"2019-08-15T11:30:25","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T15:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=32212"},"modified":"2019-08-16T13:42:12","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T17:42:12","slug":"keeping-employees-interested-challenged-is-important-to-a-strong-workplace-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/08\/keeping-employees-interested-challenged-is-important-to-a-strong-workplace-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Employees Interested, Challenged Is Important To A Strong Workplace Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Brian Rollo, is the owner of Speak Up Solutions Training.
\u00a92019 Saratoga Photographer.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Christine Graf
\nAccording to a recent Gallup poll, approximately 70 percent of employees consider themselves \u201cnot engaged\u201d or \u201cactively disengaged\u201d at work. In many instances, their disengagement is directly related to their company\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n

Culture can be defined in simple terms as a company\u2019s personality. It is reflected in everything from dress code to office setup. Culture often develops organically over time, based on the traits of the people the company hires, experts say.<\/p>\n

The importance of culture is often overlooked by many businesses. Yet it is culture that sets a company apart from its competition and enables it to attract the best talent, according to experts in the field. Because 30 percent of today\u2019s workforce is made up of Millenials, culture has become especially important. According to Pew Research Center, Millenials want to work for companies that share their values. They also want to feel that their work has purpose and meaning.<\/p>\n


\nNone of this comes as a surprise to Brian Rollo, owner of Speak Up Solutions Training. He is an expert on corporate culture and leadership training. He opened his consulting business in 2019 after taking early retirement from Arrow Financial Corp., the holding company for Glens Falls National Bank, Saratoga National Bank, and Upstate Insurance.<\/p>\n

In his role as senior training manager at Arrow Financial, Rollo oversaw training for more than 500 employees. He is a certified workplace consultant as well as a certified human resources professional.<\/p>\n

Rollo said corporate culture can be defined \u201cas the thoughts actions and beliefs of an organization. Sometimes we say, \u2018It\u2019s the way we do things around here.\u2019 It is those hidden things\u2014sometimes visible but many times hidden\u2014that define the work experience, the work setting. It\u2019s the unspoken rules, office politics and all of things that people talk about that are nowhere in the employee manual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rollo said all businesses\u2014whether they are aware of it or not–have cultures that have developed over time. He used the analogy of a lawn to illustrate the concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour lawn is going to grow whether you are conscious of it or not. Just like your lawn, your culture is going to grow whether you are conscious of it or not. The question I ask people is, \u2018Would you rather have weeds or a garden, because it\u2019s up to you.\u2019\u201d
\nAccording to Rollo, most company leaders don\u2019t spend much time thinking about culture until problems arise in their organizations. Those problems typically revolve around employee recruitment and retention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have trouble keeping their best people and finding new people to replace the ones they have lost. I have found that to be the primary driver for most businesses to want to look at investing in change. But it can also be performance related. Why aren\u2019t we meeting our goals? We have a good strategy, why isn\u2019t it working? The best strategy isn\u2019t going to work in a dysfunctional culture. If you have a great strategy and it\u2019s not working, let\u2019s look at the culture and the levels of leadership, identify the problems, and make them better.\u201d<\/p>\n

When working with a client, Rollo focuses on both culture and leadership development. He believes it is essential to examine both.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found culture and leadership to be two sides of the same coin,\u201d he said. \u201cI can come and do all of my work, we can do an assessment, we can talk about the plan. But if the leaders of the individual departments or groups aren\u2019t on board then it\u2019s going to die a slow death.\u201d<\/p>\n

When working with clients, Rollo begins by defining the culture that currently exists within the organization. He accomplishes this by interviewing employees, conducting focus groups, or utilizing online surveys.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve found many times is that companies don\u2019t really know what their culture is. That\u2019s because they haven\u2019t spoken to the people who make up the culture about how they view it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to figure out\u2014especially for companies that can\u2019t hold on to their best employees\u2014how do people see the workplace? What do they like about it? What don\u2019t they like about it? What motivates them? What\u2019s demotivating them? We have to find out the answers to those questions before we can take the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second step involves identifying what is working best within a company. It also requires identifying what Rollo refers to as \u201cpain points.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone thinks the pain points are going to involve pay. But it\u2019s usually not pay. A big one is lack of communication or clarity from the top, a lack of a sense of progress for people. Once they reach a certain level of performance there\u2019s no next level, no next goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

When that happens, Rollo said employees begin to lose their motivation. Over time, work becomes about punching in, punching out, and collecting a paycheck at the end of the week.<\/p>\n

After identifying pain points within an organization, Rollo works with management to develop strategies to address them. At that point, it is important that all managers have a clear understanding of the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure all functional areas are aligned with the main culture. With the lack of a clearly defined culture, little micro-cultures begin to pop up in different departments,\u201d said Rollo. \u201cThis is especially a problem with new hires. They may come in not understanding the true nature of the company\u2019s culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rollo achieves the most success when working with companies that have a basic understanding of culture and its importance.
\n\u201cI find I get the best results by working with companies that already get culture as a concept, understand the importance of it, and want to invest in making theirs even better. One of my mentors told me very early on, \u2018Work with people who get it. Don\u2019t try to convert people who don\u2019t.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Rollo, it is essential that all companies invest in leadership training. People promoted to leadership roles from other jobs within the company are especially in need of this training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have found that companies promote people to leadership roles because they are really good at doing something else. For instance, if they have a sales team and they have a vacancy at the top they look around and say who is our best sales person and then they say, \u2018How would you like to be manager?\u2019 Leading people may be a totally different skill set.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany times they aren\u2019t given a lot of resources to help them succeed. They need to have resources and training to grasp this whole new skill set in order to be able to lead people effectively. If that doesn\u2019t happen, all the culture work in the world isn\u2019t going to matter very much because the employees under that manager who isn\u2019t doing their job very well are going to suffer because they don\u2019t have a good leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to providing leadership training through companies that contract his service, Rollo offers one-on-one consulting to individuals. He is also a conference and keynote speaker and a member of the National Speakers Association New York City chapter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about goals, achievement and mindset\u2014how to put yourself in a position to achieve what you want to,\u201d said Rollo.
\nFor more information, visit www.brianrollo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christine Graf According to a recent Gallup poll, approximately 70 percent of employees consider themselves \u201cnot engaged\u201d or \u201cactively disengaged\u201d at work. In many instances, their disengagement is directly related to their company\u2019s culture. Culture can be defined in simple terms as a company\u2019s personality. It is reflected in everything from dress code to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":32213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nKeeping Employees Interested, Challenged Is Important To A Strong Workplace Culture - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/08\/keeping-employees-interested-challenged-is-important-to-a-strong-workplace-culture\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping Employees Interested, Challenged Is Important To A Strong Workplace Culture - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Christine Graf According to a recent Gallup poll, approximately 70 percent of employees consider themselves \u201cnot engaged\u201d or \u201cactively disengaged\u201d at work. 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