Driving Engagement and Retention through Development Initiatives

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[00:01:28] Joseph Varner: Thanks for having me.

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[00:02:09] Joseph Varner: First of all, thanks for having me really excited to be on. I really value the work that you do and I'm honored to be on your podcast here. With regards to my background and some of the things that I've done, I've been very fortunate to have tapped into many different industries and have done many different things.

I learned early on in my career. That in order for me to truly be successful in what I'm doing in my role, I have to truly understand the nuts and bolts of the business. So I've always looked at what I'm doing beyond my current role. I want to get in and understand what every person within the organization is doing, what keeps them up at night.

cently I am in the wonderful [: 00:03:00

But regardless of the types of industries that I've been in, the core premise is always there. How do you create value for the organization? How do you create. Programs that lock in the business goals of your organization and drive those forward. With my years of experience has helped me tie all of those pieces together.

So I'm really excited to do some of the great work that we're doing right now.

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What was your process like for accomplishing that?

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This industry, I don't, so I'm going to ask a lot of questions and I'm going to take lots and lots of notes. And ultimately I will get there, but just walk me through, the operations of the industry. And let's talk about the history of the industry. And I've had some fantastic mentors within my current role right now, who've been able to do that.

And of course, as time goes on you ultimately begin to understand and know the organization. And I've applied that within all industries. I didn't know beauty when I got into beauty. Now I know how to create skincare and perfume. I didn't know media. Now I know how to I know how magazines are put together.

I know how to find. I didn't know spirits. Now I understand how those those products work as well. So I apply the same type of form format into any industry that I'm going in. And I think we all should be able to do that as well.

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[00:05:05] Joseph Varner: First thing again is listening, meeting as many stakeholders as you, you can. So your first 30 days, you are literally back to back to back meetings, understanding the business, understanding all of the roles within the organization. And then from there, you began to decipher where the organization is today, where we're trying to go tomorrow and who are the pivotal people in the current roles that's essentially going to get us there, but it's about listening and understanding the business. It doesn't matter how much experience I have in my industry. I have to go in with all of my meetings with my hand held out to the leadership team, to the employees, essentially saying, listen, this is an opportunity for you to walk me through your work, your world, role, what keeps you up at night?

hat trust with the business, [: 00:06:00

What are the goals? What are the things that you essentially want to get done? And then let's matrix, matrix that out and put the plan together to essentially get that done. And my job is to have a realistic timeframe on how it's going to work. Walking the organization through the process of what we're going to do and how the pieces are going to essentially come together.

And then of course, execute and implement that. And then once you begin to get that buy in, once the organization and the the leadership team sees that, okay, he's actually moving the needle here. Then you can, again, building that trust. Then more projects began to land on your plate or your phone rings a bit more.

ability and the advice that [: 00:07:00

[00:07:02] Dr. Jim: One of the things I think when we're thinking about embedding a development culture at all layers of the organization, it's not an easy thing to do for any industry. Now I'm not overly familiar. Actually, I'm not familiar at all with the home building industry. So tell me a little bit more about.

What makes this particular industry unique and that will give us a good springboard into the conversation about how you build a development culture within that industry.

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So we want to make sure that that customers who purchase our products, our homes truly believe and value the work that we put into that home. And it, It [00:08:00] spans many different industries. It spans many different sectors from your engineers to your construction men and women who are actually building it.

Your framers, we have trades the design process, you have the sales side of it. So there's many different pieces that have to come together for it to work. The industry is not necessarily different than other product driven industries and that we're all trying to create something that the consumer wants.

However, in this particular industry, it's a big price tag to what you're trying to do. And you can be there for up to 30 years. So we want to make sure that the homes that we build are safe. They are effective. They're user friendly for you. And your family or yourself as you, embark on your journey of life in your space.

It requires lots of collaboration, lots of communication to make sure that, the right hand is essentially talking to the left hand. And once it all comes together it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful and unique thing.

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things that I'm curious about is if in fact. The sector that you work in from a people strategy perspective tends to be a little bit more transactional. How do you get the buy in to embark on this development journey when it might not be something that they're even used to as an industry or as a company?

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If we're talking about, development means many different things for many different sectors. If I'm dealing with [00:10:00] construction, men and women, the development may be on the safety side, just making sure that folks are able to go home after climbing roofs all day safely. If we're transitioning to the sales sector development means interpersonal skills and making sure that people are able to connect with a plethora of buyers that come in from all over the world and being able to understand the various nuances that, that buyer may have to the product that we're trying to And of course, you have your standard corporate employees as well, who development could look like soft skills development to, hard skills development, whatever the case of me.

So I think, in my organization. The wonderful thing about Woodside is my business is pulling versus pushing. So once I'm able to communicate the types of things that we can provide our employees and the employees are asking for this, then the leadership team and the executive team understands it, excuse me, and they get it.

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[00:11:17] Dr. Jim: Let's dig into that a little bit because one of the dynamics that I would imagine is pretty challenging is, Building a cohesive development and talent strategy for both field based teams and corporate teams. So what was your process for not only doing that, but also identifying what the areas of focus should be for those two distinct groups of employees that you're serving.

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So now our business has a blueprint. Of what good looks like, and then from there, we're able to identify strengths and gaps within our employee base. And then that's where the development pieces tie in. once we took the variability out of essentially just what good looks like, then we were able to really create some concrete.

Development actions based off of the various roles that we have within the organization. So that was the first thing that I needed to do. And I had to do and just create that framework, walk the leadership team through the framework, how it's going to work, how do we apply it? And then walk the organization through it, which again, they were.

Hungry for it. So it wasn't a situation of folks with their arms crossed. I'm not doing this mumble jumble stuff, whatever this was. Okay. Finally, we have something. This is what we've been waiting for. Thank you for putting this together. Now let's, move the needle with it.

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We gotta drive delivery. How did you overcome that potential resistance because it's taking away from like the core job. So what was your process for getting over that?

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We value you. We want you to be the best that you can be. And we want to continue to advance you throughout the [00:14:00] organization. When the company across the street knocks on your door and offer you. Offers you another position. You say, no, I'm going to stay here because I see a future for me here. And that's how I'm able to keep, keep folks within the organization.

And they create programs from there. It was never a situation of. Of course you have one or two, a small minority of folks who, may not understand how this works. They just want to work and not everyone is chasing the carrot, but for the most part, the majority of the organization understands it and gets it.

And then they begin to see their colleagues and their peers around them succeeding. Everyone wants to do better and everyone wants to do well. One way of doing that is just develop to develop yourself.

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Why did you land on development as the primary? Lever that you wanted to focus on as you're working through this transformation.

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So that's the anchor for people in culture for human capital is developing employees coming in the door and the folks that we currently have. And then from there, it's a springboard. You can go anywhere once folks truly understand their value personally, as well as their, the work that they're doing for the organization, you can do [00:16:00] anything, but we have to get that piece done.

We have to get, We have to get the we have to stand this up within the organization. And if, and my company didn't have a program before, so it was just a lot of kind of just not understanding why they were so much, such high turnover. And unfortunately in some pockets of the business, they just got used to.

It being a high turnover, and you say it doesn't have to be that way. Let's create pathways for employees that they can see themselves being within the business for X amount of years are putting a career within the organization. So we don't have that high turnover. Or disgruntledness or our employee relations cases went completely down.

Our EAP calls went completely down cause folks are starting to feel value in the work that they're doing. Again, it all starts with development.

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So if you're looking at development as an anchor for your overall talent strategy as a hedge against keeping your personnel costs down, it obviously makes sense.

And especially when you look at the numbers on turnover.

Now, I get that from a, Corporate strategy perspective in a corporate execution perspective, but you and I both know that the success or failure of that effort is going to sit with your first and second line managers, whether they're in corporate or in the field. So when you're looking at building this development culture, how did you bring that to life? At the director and manager level, both in field and corporate, so that this has staying power and actually starts moving the needle on those

outcomes that you're looking to drive.

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So I will walk them through what this could potentially look like. I've connected with you all. We've had many conversations. This is going to. Solve some of the challenges that you're facing within your teams,. You want to get out into the field and build houses. I understand that. And unfortunately there are times when you haven't been able to do that because you've been focused on all of this noise that's been going on within your groups.

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I want to, reach out to you all. This is what we're trying to do. I want your feedback. Let's test it. Let's break it. Let's see if it works. Does this fit this particular. This group, and then we can modify it and change it. And then from there, I'll roll it out to the organization. So once I do it in that fashion, I have many stakeholders who have had their hands into the process.

So this is not just a. Initiative from HR or people in culture. Now I have, buy in collective buy in from many stakeholders, half the organization, where it gets out that this is a really interesting thing. We're doing something over here. Wait till it gets over there. So then I get phone calls.

Like we heard about what you're doing. When are you hitting my division? When are you coming up here? When you come to California to work with us, when you come into Utah to work with us, et cetera, et cetera. So I use the. The business to help me build the momentum to the initiative that we're trying to roll out.

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and iterate from that piloting process and then expand out.

Am I getting the core elements correctly?

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[00:20:21] Dr. Jim: I'm pretty sure this came up. How did you deal with those situations where the strategy was built at the executive level and you're trying to launch a pilot within a functional group and the leader of that functional group looks at this and goes that's never going to work because you have flaws here and here. So Oftentimes strategy falls apart at the execution layer or can fall apart at the execution layer. So how did you work through that process of making sure that you don't lose momentum because there are gaps that the executive team didn't see or didn't recognize, and you're still looking at moving this forward.

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Touch all pieces of the building of the process. So I have folks in the field, I have folks at the corporate side, I have folks, on the finance side, this is what we're trying to do. This is what it looks like. Give me your feedback, essentially like a focus group. And then from there once I have that, once I've ironed out all of the kinks, if you will then I will be able to roll it out.

our energies behind creating [: 00:22:00

Maybe we need to do this, piece via piecemeal so we can get it off the ground, but the fact that the matter is what's been happening right now isn't working. So we can discuss why that isn't working to where blue in the face, or we can put some action behind it and try to move the needle and make some change.

And again, once the business begins to understand that and see that, okay, this is actually effective, then some of the. The doubters, if you will come back and say, you know what, I have my reservations to this. I've seen this thing not working in many other places, but, I give it to you that, it's working here, or I appreciate you even trying to put something together because over the past X amount of years, reason why we haven't had this is because no one wanted to do it and no one knew how to do it.

So the fact that you're just tackling this is a wonderful step forward. it's just all about communication and buy in. To get to that point.

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Walk us through your process for

creating that feedback loop.

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This is how we're moving the needle. This is what's coming down the pike. This is the calendar. So it all goes, it all comes back to open communication, overly communicating and collaborating. I don't want. I hate, I use the analogy, any grenades thrown in a meeting when someone [00:24:00] doesn't know something or someone hasn't been brought in or someone hasn't been briefed.

So by the time we get to the particular meeting, you have the pre read in your inbox. Read it before we have this specific meeting so we can truly discuss the nuts and bolts of what we're trying to do that way. We are all connected. And I also make myself available. I tell my business, I don't stand on formality.

So if you need to reach me, call me, email me, text me if something doesn't pass the sniff test, you need to let me know. Let's not wait until we get this off the ground. And then you have a concern and it was never shared. As a leader, that's a gap that I'm going to call out in that perspective.

So overly communicating, make sure that everyone is on the same page. We're all singing from the same song sheet and not doing the work in silos. I got to get everyone together. You're hearing it from me. One shot, one email, whatever the case would be. So we're all on the same page.

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[00:25:12] Joseph Varner: So one of the things that I rolled out was, an engagement survey. We hadn't had one in a while. I wanted to get a true pulse of the organization. What's working, what is not working. And within that survey, I spent. Spoke or asked questions that ties back to some of the initiatives that we either didn't have or that we're trying to do.

So I, I have a clear voice from my employee base of things that are working and things that aren't working. And that provides me the ability to pivot wherever I need to pivot. In addition to that, I have my metrics. I can't do anything without. Putting together an ROI for the organization in the business.

versus doing it for the sake [: 00:26:00

I can see that the likability of the business is up. All of those things are true factors of the initiatives that we have put through and it's real time data that I can see in black and white.

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[00:26:48] Joseph Varner: Great question. So a few things come to mind. The first thing you can't do this without it. Leadership commitment. You have to go to the boss of the [00:27:00] business and walk her or him through the plan. And if they are not tied to it, it's not going to work. Bottom line you have to foster a growth mindset within your organization versus a fixed mindset.

A growth mindset essentially shows that there is opportunity for the diversity of thought and new ideas to seep into the business. If folks have their arms crossed and are using the stance of I'm just going to do it my way or the highway, it's not going to work. So you're going to have to exclude either those people from the business or exclude them from the process that you're trying to try to roll out.

case may be, but we have to [: 00:28:00

Within, happening with them within the organization. And I think the last piece is just change management and growth. It's okay to say that the way that we've structured, is it working? I think a lot of times. Folks get stuck there. If we have, if we've designed this business like this and it has gotten us to this particular point, it's okay to say maybe we need to redesign the organization to get us to the next level to take us to the next level.

Horizon of business. And then what that looks like. And unfortunately, we may have to move some people around, but it's okay to do that. So those four pillars, if you have that aligned, you can go forward and whatever you're trying to do.

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[00:28:51] Joseph Varner: Yep. So you can reach out to me at joseph. f. garner at gmail. com. And I'm always available to, to take your messages

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But that lens needs to be informed by what the people at the front lines at the execution layer are saying. You need to create feedback loops within your organization and you need to be intentional about understanding from the folks at the front line. What are the things that get in the way of their success? And That could be systems issues. That could be process issues. It could be any number of things, but you have to get that information from them to build the momentum necessary for change. Now, once you've done that, it's your job to go ahead and point out the ROI to the executive team and building buy in at that layer. But you have to listen first before you act. And you have to understand that just because something is a particular way, it doesn't mean it has to stay that way. If the people [00:30:00] on the front lines are saying this is something that needs to be changed. So I think that's an important lesson that I drew from this conversation. I appreciate you sharing that with us. For those of you who have listened to this conversation, we appreciate you hanging out, make sure you leave us a review on your favorite podcast player. If you haven't already done so make sure you join our HR impact community. You can find that at www. engagerocket. co slash HR impact, and then tune in next time where we'll have another great leader joining us and sharing with us the game changing insights that they've had that helped them build a high performing team.