Tag: Leadership Tips

The coronavirus has shaken the foundation of business to its core. While many business leaders are still reacting to the immediate impacts of the virus, others are looking into the future and asking themselves: What’s next? The answer, especially for those in the manufacturing industry, is transformation. 

If you think it might be time to revolutionize your business by transforming your workforce, you’re in the right place. In this 10-part master class series, MAU president Randy Hatcher is sharing how to manage, analyze, and utilize your workforce in this new normal. In this post, we’ll explore the good and the bad of the Patriarchal Workforce Model.

If you missed them, be sure to check out part one (“Workforce Transformation is the Key to Future-Proofing Your Business”) and part two (“3 Signs It’s Time to Rethink Your Business Model”) of this series.

The Dangers of an Outdated Labor Blueprint
What a great country the United States is. Early business pioneers perhaps understood this best—the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and Fords. They participated in the U.S. manufacturing transformation that would ultimately produce more than one-third of all global industrial output.

Between the late-eighteenth and early-twentieth centuries, America gave birth to many of the world’s most successful companies. From these came second-, third-, and fourth-generation international entities and spin-offs. In most of these organizations, everyone worked for the “Company”: one big, happy “Family” of full-time regular employees—the janitors, cafeteria workers, security guards, groundskeepers, drivers, managers, and CEO. They all belonged to the Family and they all received a paycheck from the Company. According to this Patriarchal Workforce Model, people expected to stay with one organization until they retired—or died.

According to the first labor blueprint, the Patriarchal Workforce Model, people assumed that they would be working for one company their entire lives.

Over time, many of the Family members grew dissatisfied, maybe because of too much perceived or actual corporate greed, too much concentration of power and money, or too much employee abuse. Eager to improve their situation, some of these disenfranchised workers sought the help of an outside partner: the union.

Unionized companies provided higher pay scales and rich benefits, including health care and generous retirement programs (which eventually became too generous). Whether or not you support unions, you can’t question their significant influence on wages and benefits throughout the marketplace, since even the nonunion companies copied from union playbooks. In many cases, they did so just to make sure they kept the unions out. Although businesses didn’t particularly like the situation, corporate profits were soaring, and there seemed to be enough money to go around for everyone.

Huge corporate profits masked the escalating compensation and benefit costs that were generating a long-term employee legacy debt.

The Dark Side of the Patriarchal Model
With its static full-time workforce, the Patriarchal Model offered no buffer against changing business conditions, seasonality, or market fluctuations. Companies found themselves overstaffed when their production levels dropped and understaffed when they rose, but never perfectly balanced with the right number of employees. Employers had no effective staffing solutions for marketplace expansions and contractions.

When production decreased, management had to decide whether to let go of employees or carry the fixed cost. A few industries could afford to keep workers when business conditions did not justify doing so, but most companies had to let them go, a step they were very reluctant to take. Not only did layoffs increase their unemployment insurance taxes, but they also tarnished their reputation as an employer, consequently affecting their ability to recruit the best talent in the future. Furthermore, layoffs opened an employee wound for which unions provided emotional salve.

Having only a static labor force at their disposal, employers had no effective staffing solutions for marketplace expansions and contractions.

On the other hand, when production ramped up faster than expected, organizations had to hire new personnel or work overtime. But hiring put pressure on the company to recruit, interview, select, and train totally new people—a long, expensive process to undertake to meet an immediate, unpredictable need. And working overtime not only increased the cost of the product but also led to decreased efficiency as employees put in longer hours.

The Patriarchal Workforce Model saddled employers with having to make ongoing difficult decisions on over- and understaffing. In hindsight, we can see that this premium-priced family workforce offered very limited business flexibility and led to an ever-growing debt that was too far off to see but was real nonetheless. 

Curious to learn more? In part four of this series, we’ll introduce you to two more workforce models and explore the pros and cons of each. You can subscribe right here to follow along with the whole series.

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Note: This blog post was inspired by and adapted from Randall Hatcher’s book, “The Birth of a New Workforce” and originally appeared here.

As tech consultants and staffing experts, we are no strangers to business transformation. In order to stay competitive, businesses must constantly look for opportunities to adapt and evolve. Since the coronavirus hit earlier this year, the need to innovate has become even more critical.

We know change isn’t easy, especially in the midst of a global pandemic. But here’s the silver lining— this could be an opportunity to rethink multiple aspects of your business to make it stronger and more sustainable long-term…like the way you approach your workforce. 

In this ten-part series, MAU’s president Randy Hatcher is sharing how to make the most of this time by exploring the “what ifs” of your company and unlocking new ways of thinking to better focus on the parts of your business that truly matter. 

If you missed it, be sure to check out part one of this series: Workforce Transformation is the Key to Future-Proofing Your Business.

Transformation is Necessary to Your Business
Ray Meads was the VP of Butler Manufacturing, a division of the Pisces Group. He had risen swiftly through the ranks of this international giant by taking advantage of the parent company’s financial strength as it acquired competitors, which in turn provided him greater opportunities.

This climb had continued for two decades, and now at the age of forty-five, Ray was beginning to realize that he had been blinded by the intoxicating pace and rewards of his corporate ascension. Although what he had been doing for years in building new plants and rolling up competitors had undoubtedly proved successful, something had changed along the way.

In the current marketplace, he needed to evaluate how his business model had eroded. You see, Ray had been reading from the old labor blueprint from which many other executives are still reading today. They keep doing things the same way, sticking to their knitting. After all, it’s always worked in the past.

Yes, Ray had contracted out the low-hanging fruit of standard corporate functions—security, janitorial, trucking, food service, and landscaping. But inside the plant, where his products were made, lived the sacred cows: the full-time employees who managed the manufacturing and support processes. Occasionally, Ray called in a small percentage of temporary help for peaks and special projects. However, in the end, he was absorbing the impact of the long-term, fixed labor costs of his plants. Even after driving down his inventory and raw material costs as far as he could, he was becoming less competitive not only with his rivals but also with his own company’s sister plants.

Does this story sound far-too-familiar? If so, it might be time to evolve the way you approach your workforce.

Even if you’re in the midst of fantastic growth, a transformation may be necessary to sustain your business success.

Here are some telltale signs to look out for:

• Have you made many business changes over the years but found your market share still slipping?
• Are you constantly making excuses to avoid addressing the high price tag and inefficiencies of your full-time regular workforce?
• Are you afraid to eliminate any of your sacred cows?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, be sure to follow along with the entire 10-part series. Next time, we’ll break down the old labor blueprint and explore how it is creating dangerous, ever-growing debt for business owners to this day. 

Note: This blog post was inspired by and adapted from Randall Hatcher’s book, “The Birth of a New Workforce” and originally appeared here.

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During this time of major transformation, many of us are looking into the future wondering whether or not our businesses are ready for what’s to come: How can we gain a competitive advantage? Is there a way to escape ever-growing debt? How do we sustain long-term business success? These are questions today’s business owners grapple with every day. 

Our parent company, MAU, has been helping businesses better manage, analyze, and utilize their workforce for over forty years. According to president Randy Hatcher, future-proofing your business starts with your workforce. 

In this 10-part master class series, Randy shares his expert insights on how to keep your business growing and prospering despite all of the unknowns.

Are You Ready for the Future of Business?
Golf professional Kenny Perry was leading the 2009 Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, on the final day with two holes to go. At age forty-eight, he had worked all his golfing life for this moment: a chance to win a major tournament.

His second shot on the seventeenth hole ended up on the back fringe of the green, leaving him a difficult but very playable chip shot. Unfortunately, though, his next shot landed too far from the hole for him to make par. He bogeyed instead, a one-stroke mistake that ultimately cost him the championship.

During an interview later, a reporter asked Kenny what happened on hole seventeen. He said something to the effect that really great players would have made the shot, so maybe he wasn’t that great a player.

I have to admit that his words saddened me. 

Here was a dedicated, longtime professional questioning his abilities. He had made it to the big dance, to the pinnacle of his career, and yet he’d failed.

Isn’t this every business leader’s greatest fear? To fail, even when you’re expecting success? No matter your company size, number of years in business, or current wins in the market, failure is an ever-present possibility.

Just like great people, great companies can fail – even at the height of their success. 

Businesses can go under for a variety of reasons, but I predict that in the future, those achieving longevity will be run by leaders who understand they cannot be great unless every position in the company is being managed with excellence, from the janitor all the way up to the CEO.

Never in any of our careers has there been a better time to consider new ways to operate our businesses. In the years to come, thriving businesses will know how to manage every part of their organization with excellence, and the most successful executives will concentrate a majority of their time and resources on what will keep their companies growing and prospering.

If you’re a business leader looking to transform your company and workforce, you’re in the right place. This 10-part master class series is designed to help you explore the “what ifs” of your company and unlock new ways of thinking to better focus on the parts of your business that truly matter. By the end, you’ll be confident in your ability to transform your company, gain a competitive advantage, and sustain long-term business success.

This series was adapted and inspired by “The Birth of a New Workforce” by Randy Hatcher. You can read part two here: The Deadly Business Mistake You’re Probably Blind To.

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Whether you’re new to managing remote tech teams or a telecommuting vet, there’s never been a better time to brush up on your remote management skills. Leading a remote team can be a challenge, but with the number of professionals working from home rising, it’s a challenge you’ll likely need to overcome. 

Here is a roundup of the best way to manage a remote tech team that thrives and produces greatness. 

Set Clear Expectations
When you’re not physically connected with your team, clear communication becomes even more critical. Your expectations around project goals, time tracking, processes to follow, etc. should all be communicated and reinforced often. Most importantly, help your team members understand why their contributions matter.

Be Social
For many of your employees, work is an outlet that they use to connect with others. Working from home can be liberating—it can also be lonely. Give your remote team opportunities to gather (virtually) and connect on things outside of work. A real-time communication tool (like Slack) can help with this. Schedule virtual team happy hours, coffee breaks, or even a pizza party on the company dime. Remember that remote workers are humans who crave connection.

Check In Often
In an office environment, checking in on your team is straightforward. When you’re managing a team remotely, you need to make your communication a bit more strategic. Without consistent communication, you may lose engagement and productivity. So much of communication is non-verbal, so be sure to schedule regular facetime with your remote team members.

Invest in Solid Tools
We all know what it feels like to be drowning in emails. Relying on email alone to communicate important project details is not sustainable for remote teams. Spend some time considering the tools your team will need to stay productive in a remote work environment—like a real-time communication tool, video conferencing tool, cloud-based document sharing tool, and more.

Trust Your Team
Trust is the foundation of every successful remote team. The good news is that statistically speaking, you have every reason to trust your remote workers. A recent poll of more than 1,000 US workers found that not only did working from home eliminate commute time; it also increased productivity. Tech talent is particularly well-suited to work independently and thrive in a remote work environment. 

Encourage Well-Being
Especially in times of uncertainty, it is your responsibility as a manager to consider the emotional well-being of your employees. Remember to be a human—ask them what their biggest challenges are and how you can help. Keep an open dialogue surrounding mental health and how to practice self-care during this time.  

We hope these remote team management tips help you. For more, check out our full roundup of remote work resources. 

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Seemingly overnight, the world has fundamentally changed. So has the labor market for tech professionals, which has experienced a drastic shift these last few months. As many employees face the painful reality of layoffs and furloughs, the most forward-thinking companies are seizing the opportunity to hire this rarely available tech talent. 

Tech giants like Apple, Amazon, and Google are hiring software engineers, data scientists, product designers, and more in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Why? Because they are aware of the hiring opportunity in front of them and are willing to look beyond the short-term of this crisis to capitalize on it. 

Other businesses are hiring tech talent right now out of sheer necessity. Many are relying heavily on their technology function to quickly adapt and meet demand during the outbreak. As a result, talent acquisition teams are scrambling to process an influx of applications and screen tech talent at high speed. “This is the first time we have engineers looking for jobs and reaching out versus the other way around,” one talent manager in this Wall Street Journal article so aptly sums up.

The Rise of the Virtual Hiring Process

As remote work becomes the new norm for businesses with the good fortune of having work-from-home as an option, many are shifting to 100% virtual recruiting, hiring, and onboarding processes. This is a new challenge and uncharted territory for most companies. Luckily, tech employees are well-versed in the virtual world and are highly capable of performing remotely.

3Ci has been helping our clients find and hire the best tech talent virtually since the beginning. Using a combination of video interviews, technical evaluations, and behavioral assessments, we are helping companies screen potential candidates and implement virtual interviewing processes so they can build successful teams faster.

Prior to this pandemic, onboarding a new hire virtually was not a common practice for most companies. We’ve helped companies adapt by shipping computers, monitors, and other necessary equipment to new hire locations. To help workers hit the ground running, we also enable VPN technology.

The influx of available tech talent on the market right now is unprecedented. For those looking to move projects along faster, innovate quickly, and get ahead of competition, now is the time to redirect some of that talent toward your company or project. 

If you’re looking for a partner who can help you successfully implement a virtual hiring process to capitalize on this opportunity, get in touch with the team at 3Ci.

With so much uncertainty spreading through every family, business, and neighborhood in the country, I wanted to take a moment to offer words of encouragement for anyone leading a team during this time. 

Right now, your employees are worried about their jobs and keeping food on their plates. They’re scared for their lives and the lives of those they love. Every day, they are facing this disheartening spread of COVID-19 and doing their best to adjust to a new reality. 

These unprecedented times call for unprecedented actions from leadership. Here are five ways to ease the panic and keep team morale as high as possible during the coronavirus outbreak.

Turn on Your Camera for Video Conferencing
Video conferencing technology is a no brainer right now, right? It seems like everyone is using Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, or Microsoft Teams to stay connected. 

The key is to ask everyone to turn on their cameras for remote meetings. Nonverbal communication is crucial for building and maintaining relationships from afar. It’s one thing to hear a person’s voice—it’s another thing to watch them smile, laugh, and engage. 

At 3Ci, we have a quick 20-minute virtual meeting every day to help us stay connected and see and hear from everyone.

Stay Focused on the Positive
Fear is a natural response to this situation. Keeping a positive mindset can go a long way in managing this crisis. That’s why we start every meeting with a “Positive Focus.” Each member of our team shares a “win” or achievement since the last meeting. It doesn’t need to be work-related. Some share “wins” from work, and others share “wins” from their personal lives:

“We closed the deal with that company.”
“My daughter took her first steps today.” 
“I’ve run three miles every day since our last meeting.”

Starting with a positive focus gets everyone in the right mindset for a productive meeting.

Continue to Celebrate Your People
Most people are more motivated by positive recognition than compensation or incentives. We give out a “Hard Hat Award” twice a week to a team member who has gone above and beyond. 

We’ve also implemented weekly contests for our teams. It’s been great to see them pushing and encouraging each other to hit their goals.  It’s helped the team stay positive and self-manage.

A lot of contests don’t work if the contest is top-down from the boss. Let your teams set their own contest goals and watch as they support each other every day to meet them.

Make Communication a Priority
As the president of 3Ci, It is my responsibility to drive the company’s mission and lead its team through a time of crisis. That means keeping our employees and contractors informed through regular communication. Whether that means sharing tips on how to stay safe or giving our team access to remote work resources, every communication is intentional.

Start a Prayer Group
It’s not for everyone, and that’s fine! It’s optional. At 3Ci, anyone who wants to participate meets once a week to share prayer “concerns” and “praises.” I find that praying together as a team can be pretty powerful.  

Here’s the good news—we’ve been through hard times before. If your business was around in 2001 or 2008, you know what is required right now. It’s time to come together (from a distance, of course), get creative, and adapt quickly. 

3Ci is a technology staffing and consulting company that’s been around for more than 42 years. If you’re looking for a partner that can weather this storm with you, reach out. I’d love to hear about the unique challenges your company is facing during this time and start a conversation.

Keep putting people first. Stay safe.