Page 63 - FDI Alliance International Magazine. Spring 2021 Digital Interactive Issue

comes back too soon?" Is she just taking “a day”? Based on what we have first step. These manufacturing leads I am working with are making some
been through, different thoughts are running through different people’s great insights into their behavior and how by changing themselves, they can
minds based on what has happened the last sixteen months. positively impact others and in turn, without really knowing it, impact their
culture.
TALENT ATTRACTION
The truly worrisome part for me is the loss of connection and relationships
The one thing we know for sure is that the work landscape WILL continue to through the pandemic. Culture is built through personal connection.
change and evolve. There will always be uncertainty. That would have been Talent is built through personal connection. Trust is built through personal
the case with or without the pandemic. There was no better lesson than what connection. Focus on the people side of the employee and help them to
happened to us in the first quarter of 2020. Prior to that, remote work was grow as co-workers and leaders.
felt to be an edgy trend that could have significant implications but was slow
to grab traction. For over a year now, it has been the new normal (oh how I
dislike that term). What happens next will shape our world. TODD’S TALENT ENGAGEMENT CYCLE

A study by Accenture showed that pre-COVID (like it is a pre-historic era or I’ve developed, simply put, Todd’s Talent Engagement Cycle. I know, I need
something) remote workers constituted about 18% of the workforce. Their to hire a marketing coordinator for my business for a better name. The
study predicts that in the next five years that percentage will only increase five stages of the cycle include: Self-Engagement; Pre-Engagement; On-
to 25%. I think if you asked the average person, they would have guessed Engagement; In-Engagement; and Re-Engagement. It would be a several
much higher. hour training to go into the appropriate detail but let me give you a quick
summary.
In our part of the world, we are slowly getting back to the staggering talent
numbers and challenges we were facing prior to the pandemic. No matter Self-engagement is where we focus on employees as individuals with their
where you work for or who you work for, there is still the challenge of finding needs, wants, and desires. This is where the core values are established.
enough people to fill all the vacant jobs. Just in the County I live in alone, Pre-engagement in the talent attraction journey is where we are recruiting
there are over 700 job openings with a total population of about 70,000 and hiring prospective employees. On-engagement is the timeframe from
(about half are workforce eligible). Unemployment is nearing pre-COVID when they are first hired to their “probationary” period. In-engagement
numbers. We are right back where we were before. is the employee as they shift to the mentoring side of the equation. Re-
engagement is establishing communication and connection with employees
after they have left the organization with the hopes the grass isn’t always
WHAT DO I DO? greener outside the organization. There is a lot more detail behind each
of the five steps. This cycle keeps the emphasis where it should be, on the
Where one part of your organization needs to define their policies related to employee.
health, other parts of your organization need to focus on the talent pipeline.
These are not mutually exclusive because prospective employees will shop.
I firmly believe they will shop based on culture and more specifically, core CORPORATE CULTURE AND CORE VALUES
values, within an organization. Do you know yours?
There would be much less questioning of Chris with a corporate culture
One of the companies I am currently working with is focusing on addressing that focuses on trust, optimism, honesty, enthusiasm, and teamwork. Those
their corporate culture. Their vision, mission and values are a part of that, happen to be my core values. The exercise I went through to determine and
but often culture eats vision. They’ve been starting and stopping for a couple develop them was a great experience. They stay with me in every aspect
of years; however, they are now headed in the right direction because of my life. Throughout the talent engagement cycle, core values of the
they are focusing on the elements of culture and will soon be engaging individual and company are important. They aren’t just pretty words to stick
employees from across the company to lead in developing a culture. That’s on the wall in a picture frame. Look what they did to Enron.
promising and a start toward growing that much needed trust back into the
employees. We control the future by owning the future and that is what this You are late to the game if your focus hasn’t shifted back to trust, talent,
company is doing. corporate culture, core values, and your employee’s mental health. It can
be jump-started with the right commitment from executive leadership and
Another company I work with is focusing on team cohesion and we started frontline workers. Change and uncertainty can be conquered.
with a DiSC assessment. Employees must put their oxygen mask on first The pressure is off Chris.
before they can help others and the report from the assessment is a great

TODD KUCKKAHN

Todd Kuckkahn is an independent speaker, coach,
teacher, and trainer with The John Maxwell Team
(JMT). He has done numerous presentations,
workshops, and seminars at local, state, national
and international conferences. Todd is also JMT
certified as a DISC trainer and consultant.

BUCKYBUCKETS@CHARTER.NET
715-498-4979
TODDKUCKKAHN.COM

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