Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Next Generation Workforce and Workplace

We help individuals, organizations, and communities think innovatively about the next generation workforce and workplace. Read these forward-thinking stories and best practices from our work and lives.

  • Tiny Homes, RVS and Millennials- What this all means to your employee benefit and engagement strategy

    Tiny Homes, RVS and Millennials- What this all means to your employee benefit and engagement strategy

    The demand for tiny homes and RVs is on the rise. And millennials are driving these sales. As an article in USA Today stated,

    Trailers, not motor homes, make up a large part of this growth, now accounting for 87% of the units sold, the association says. Buyers are likely to be Millennials, those in their 20s or early 30s, including a lot of young couples who don’t have kids yet….

    For Buckles and many other first-time RV buyers, the focus is more on the short term. She and her husband Josh hope to use their new trailer to drive to barbecue competitions and enjoy the outdoors in her local area, which means that summer — and the freedom that comes with it — is just an RV purchase away.

    And from thetinylife.com:

    What are tiny houses? The tiny house movement? Tiny living?

    Simply put, it is a social movement where people are choosing to downsize the space they live in. The typical American home is around 2,600 square feet, whereas the typical small or tiny house is between 100 and 400 square feet. Tiny houses come in all shapes, sizes, and forms, but they enable simpler living in a smaller, more efficient space.

    People are joining this movement for many reasons, but the most popular reasons include environmental concerns, financial concerns, and the desire for more time and freedom. For most Americans 1/3 to 1/2 of their income is dedicated to the roof over their heads; this translates to 15 years of working over your lifetime just to pay for it, and because of it 76% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

    So what is the alternative? One solution might be to live smaller. While we don’t think tiny houses are for everyone, there are lessons to be learned and applied in order to escape the cycle of debt in which almost 70% of Americans are trapped.

    The trend in different ways to live, travel and find leisure for younger Americans also points to trends in lifestyle preferences that are important for employers to take note of, especially when it comes to employee benefits that lead to engagement and retention:

    1. Keeping up with the Jones’ isn’t as much of a priority as it once was. This isn’t your baby boomer generation that desires above all else income and traditional benefits from their employer. This isn’t the day and age where employees are as concerned as previous generations about competing with the Jones to buy the two story house with the 2 car garage and 2.5 kids that a steady pay check and a climb up the corporate ladder can help facilitate.
    2. Experiences are extremely important. RVs allow us to get out and see the world. Tiny houses create a unique living experience for the owner. Millennials value experience and the flexible work arrangements that facilitate experiences.
    3. Debt is an issue. Many younger workers have racked up college debt that their parents and grandparents never would have imagined dealing with before they even started a career. As the cost of a college education continues to rise, it’s important to think about how the debt equation affects worker benefits and engagement.

    With all these trends, employers would be wise to revamp benefits packages around them. This would include more flexible and experience-based work arrangements (for candidates and employees), packages that focus on helping to pay off college debt (even over retirement savings packages like your traditional 401ks), and al a carte benefit options that allow employees the flexibility to choose what they need when they need it.

    Have you rethought how to revise your benefits structure to meet the needs of today’s worker?

  • Is the role of the millennial male changing the way they lead at work?

    Is the role of the millennial male changing the way they lead at work?

    If you still watch TV these days and don’t fast forward through the commercials, you’ll begin to notice a trend. More and more consumer products commercials are now geared towards men, not women. Men are washing the clothes, buying the groceries, making purchases for their children and making the decisions that we typically associate with females/mom.

    A CBS Sunday Morning piece recently cited that 80 percent of dads born after 1980 are the primary grocery shopper.  The piece goes on to highlight the changing role of men in the home:

    “A father would come home, read the newspaper, not pay much attention to the kids really, and still be considered a good father because he was making the family financially stable,” said psychologist Ray Levy, who grew up in the 1950s, when dads were expected to be breadwinners and disciplinarians, but not much else.

    “Nobody actually believed that fathers could be warm and soft. That was an unusual father,” he said.

    We know now kids that get time and attention from their fathers do  better in school, on the job, and in their own relationships — that’s according to research that barely existed a generation ago.”

    What peaks my interest in this is not the hype over the millennial spin, but the thought that an increasing role for men in caregiving in the home leads them to be more caring leaders at work.  (Thanks Trish McFarlane and Steve Boese of HR Happy Hour for sharing this thought on their Mr. Mom podcast.)

    Breadwinners and disciplinarians in the 1950s can be tied to the idea of command and control management of that time. In today’s world, is a dad now being seen as a nurturing caregiver in the home consistent with the shift to a caring coach as leader in the workplace?

    And does practicing these skills at home help male leaders apply them on the job and visa versa?

    Of course on any topic related to the difference between men and women in the workplace, I ask my husband what he thinks. On a Saturday morning run, I broached the topic with him.

    He is a very caring, nurturing and involved father with our two children, but he- from the way I see it at least- is less of this at the office than he is at home, for a variety of reasons.  He also assumes most of the male associated homemaking roles in our home, for example, mowing the grass, whereas I assume the more traditional females roles- laundry and groceries. We divide and conquer usually on the cooking duties.

    His initial reaction was that experience in general, whether in the home or at the office- leads a person, male or female- to be more caring. Because working with a variety of people over time, he says, allows you to learn how to read people and respond to their needs accordingly. Servant-based leading is what came to mind for me through his thoughts.

    So as I hope we all strive to be more caring, compassionate leaders, maybe it isn’t necessarily having kids to care for at home that creates this for us. Maybe it is seeing needs in the home and at the office and meeting them, regardless of the traditional roles associated with that task.  Seeing our personal lives and our work lives as fluid not separate places where needs can and should be met helps to mold us into the leaders that we need to be.  And maybe breaking down some gender roles with guys buying groceries and doing the laundry helps us all to break down gender stereotypes at work as well.

    Maybe I should get out and mow the grass this weekend…

     

    Where do you best serve at home and at the office?

  • Millennials – Seekers of a Professional Development Fix

    Millennials – Seekers of a Professional Development Fix

    As a member of the Gen-X population, all the hype regarding how different millennials are is intriguing to me – especially considering the work I do in career development. I did a quick search on millennials and career development and was enlightened to find that for the most part, they love to grow in their field and crave professional development.

    According to Gallup:

    Millennials fundamentally think about jobs as opportunities to learn and grow. Their strong desire for development is, perhaps, the greatest differentiator between them and all other generations in the workplace.

    Gallup’s latest report, How Millennials Want to Work and Live, reveals that 59% of millennials say opportunities to learn and grow are extremely important to them when applying for a job. Comparatively, 44% of Gen Xers and 41% of baby boomers say the same about these types of opportunities. Millennials assign the most importance to this job attribute, representing the greatest difference between what this generation values in a new job and what other generations value.

    And although they want to learn and grow, the report also found that only 29% are engaged at work. My personal thought regarding this is that millennials need to find companies that are forward thinking. For instance, we recently worked on a proposal for a client company who is actively working to engage employees by incorporating a mentoring program for high achievers. I foresee an increase in engagement for their millennial employees and an incline in millennial applicants for this forward-thinking organization.

    So, in the world of career development, how do we help millennials connect with companies that engage them and allow for professional development opportunities? One activity I do with most clients, regardless of generation, is to put together a list of target companies. While working to do this, they are encouraged to research companies to find organizations with values that closely match their own.

    Is your company in need of improvement regarding engaging employees and offering professional development to millennials and others in your organization? We can help! Check out the What We Do section of our website.

    Do you need a personalized career development plan? We do that too!

    Millennials represent a large percentage of our workforce. Let’s work to engage them and provide profession development opportunities! To exit on a positive note, check out this feel good article regarding a town revived by efforts led by millennials: Meet the Mayor Who Used Millennials to Revive Her Small Town.

    Like this post? You may also like:

    Millennials Don’t Feel Entitled to Your Job, They Want You to Help Them Chart Their Career

    How Millennials Like to Work and Run  

  • A Culture Where Nothing Is Ever Good Enough and How to Fix It: An Interview with Rajeev Behera CEO of Reflektive

    A Culture Where Nothing Is Ever Good Enough and How to Fix It: An Interview with Rajeev Behera CEO of Reflektive

    1 in 4 people say their jobs are the most stressful part of their lives. What is creating stress in the workplace and how can it be resolved?

    Rajeev Behera, CEO of Reflektive, says that a fear-based work culture where nothing is ever good enough is a main cause of stress in the workplace. This occurs when managers use intimidation tactics, putting more value on the employees that put in the most hours, instead of those who are team players.

    Rajeev saw this first-hand in his work life before founding Reflektive, a performance management and talent development software company, where he is CEO.   In a fear-based environment, he said, “Managers task managed instead of people managed.  A focus was always placed on the past judged by the metric of what tasks were completed or not completed.”  As result of this mindset, Rajeev saw a culture of intimidation taking over the workplace.

    This resulted in the wrong things being measured and rewarded, leading to nothing ever being good enough.  For example, Rajeev points to time spent at work as one thing that was measured, instead of results.  “Time”, he says, “is subjective. How much is enough?  And you can never give enough of it.”

    So how do you change it?  Rajeev emphasizes several key points in helping managers move a fear based culture where nothing is ever good enough to one that is employee and future focused:

    1.  Set goals:  Instead of measuring things like time that are subjective, set goals with employees and monitor and measure performance based on the progress of these goals. Empower the employee to take the first pass to set their goals each quarter and collaborate to agree on realistic outcomes.
    2.  Be collaborative and agile in your future focus: Rajeev encourages leaders to, “talk about it (goals and projects) while they are being worked on so employee and manager can partner together.  Because things can change quickly, the goals can be adjusted when needed. This is contrasted with the manager just saying ‘go, do and don’t bother me till it’s done and perfect.’ This fear-based approach leads the manager to become judge and evaluator instead of collaborator and coach.”

    Rajeev says that one of their most popular products is Agile Goal Management, because it makes sure that goal setting is a “Collaborative process- not just one-sided- so both manager and employee agree.  And if expectations change, they can edit it together, document, and focus on what to do to move the business forward.”

    “So how do you get managers to become coaches instead of evaluators?” I asked Rajeev.

    He offered these practical steps:

    1.   “Discuss the why, not just the “what” to do.”  The why comes back to achieving business success by treating people as partners instead of task completers.
    2.   Diagnose the current culture.  Rajeev said you can do this by paying attention to “How the employees and managers talk. For example, in meetings, when there is a problem or process that is not up to par, how is the leader phrasing an action item? A fear-based approach will phrase it as something that isn’t done, placing it in the red, or when it should be done or already have been done, and saying things like ‘why didn’t we already have that done?’  This demonstrates a culture of negative reinforcement where nothing is ever good enough.”

    In contrast, leaders with a future oriented approach ask questions about what can and should take place to accomplish a goal and help employees plan from there.

    1. Mandatory weekly one-on-ones and quarterly check-ins. Future oriented cultures, focus on employees and managers having regular, one-on-one checks, but as Rajeev says, “it up to you (the manager) to decide on what’s  important to focus on and as a leader, manage your schedule and flow of these meetings accordingly.”  People managers actually meet with people, so the one-on-ones provide a time for relationship building, giving clear instructions up front, setting goals and talking about career development as it relates to organizational and personal goals and priorities. Quarterly check-ins provide the opportunity to step back and discuss progress, readjust objectives, and plan for how the manager can help the employee achieve their goals over the next quarter.

    This approach allows you to “talk about it while you’re working on it so we can partner together, instead of the go do and don’t bother me till it’s done and perfect,” says Rajeev.

    1.  Focus on career development.  “Coaches instead of fear-based managers,” Rajeev says, “figure out what employees want to do with their career and where they want to go, and then they give them projects to help reach those goals. Many people leave a company because they see a lack of opportunities.”

    While we can learn from the past, a focus on the future is what drives performance management today. Equipping organizations with the tools to look forward, instead of backward, inadvertently leads us to think about the possibilities of how great we can be instead of thinking nothing is ever good enough.

  • Mommas Maintaining Grit?

    Mommas Maintaining Grit?

    Throw-up had literally been everywhere.  All week.  As had it’s counterpart that also comes along with what would later be diagnosed as rotavirus in my son.

    I had multiple meetings scheduled both with current and desired clients.  I had blocked off time to prepare for the next week that involved three different training sessions.   Each required the preparation and roll out of new material. I just couldn’t wing these.

    And because of said throw-up coming often at night, I hadn’t slept.  Neither had my husband, and he had multiple priorities at work to attend to as well.

    I canceled all but a couple of meetings.  Some were rescheduled, some were covered by someone else on my team, and the ones I made were possible because my husband and I swapped out or my in-laws were available for a couple of hours to help.

    In between his (my son’s, not my husband’s) trips to the bathroom, I laid with him, laptop in hand and tried to crank out the work that needed to get done, while rubbing his head.  By figuring the logistics out on that, I have officially deemed myself as the master of multi-tasking.

    But I really didn’t feel like a master at anything. I felt pulled in multiple directions.  When my in-laws called as I was finishing up a meeting and said “He wants you,” I dropped everything and went to pick him up.  When we got home, the throwing up that I thought had stopped had returned.  He had just wanted to puke in the comfort of his own home.  I set the computer down and took a nap with him.  And then later, we made a trip to the emergency room for fluids because his blood work showed that dehydration had thrown everything out of whack.

    During this time research, that I had seen before, showed up again on my radar.   Taken from a Business Insider article, titled “Parents of Successful Kids have these 12 Things in Common”.  Number eight reads: “The moms work outside the home”:

    According to research out of Harvard Business School, there are significant benefits for children growing up with mothers who work outside the home.

    The study found daughters of working mothers went to school longer, were more likely to have a job in a supervisory role, and earned more money —23% more compared to their peers who were raised by stay-at-home mothers.

    The sons of working mothers also tended to pitch in more on household chores and childcare, the study found — they spent seven-and-a-half more hours a week on childcare and 25 more minutes on housework.

    ‘Role modeling is a way of signaling what’s appropriate in terms of how you behave, what you do, the activities you engage in, and what you believe,’ the study’s lead author, Harvard Business School professor Kathleen L. McGinn, told Business Insider.

    ‘There are very few things, that we know of, that have such a clear effect on gender inequality as being raised by a working mother,’ she told Working Knowledge.

    Hmm, I thought.  He had definitely seen his daddy role model that it’s not just mommy’s job to clean up the throw up.   But as I looked at the same article, number seven on the list was “the (parents) are less stressed.” Was there some methodology and importance to the order of this list? Does being less stressed trump me working outside the home when it comes to my children’s success in life?  If multiple priorities raise my stress level, should I choose just one- my kids?  Will this lead them to success? Or is success what matters?  These research findings point to nothing related to happiness and joy.

    As I contemplate this idea a few weeks later, I’m solely focused on work, because I’m alone in a hotel room.  And when I’m alone, I catch up on reading while I work out in in hotel fitness rooms.   While reading Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, (I had about zero grit in reading this book considering I started reading it in 2016) I quickly scan through the author’s quiz on grit- which is a measure of passion and perseverance- and, as the author shows through research, more important that talent in success. I realize by this quiz, I’m short on some grit.

    The author says just after the scoring for the quiz. “Keep in mind that your score is a reflection of how you see yourself right now. How gritty you are at this point in your life might be different from how gritty you were when you were younger. And if you take the Grit Scale later again, you might get a different score.”

    Yeah, I thought. I’ll take this quiz in about 16 years when both my kids are off at college because I’ve made them so “successful” because I’ve worked “outside the home” while simultaneously raising them, doing my best to keep them alive while basically being able to focus on nothing with passion and perseverance because something like the rotavirus is always lurking.

    But passion and perseverance does come in raising children.  And it does come in work- even if there are bouts of intensity in hotel rooms-  followed by periods of idleness because of other demands.

    One author, who wrote on the same research findings about what parents of successful children do says, “There is no such thing as a complete list.”  He points to grit saying,  “like virtually every other trendy article on this subject, they recommend teaching ‘grit,’ defined as the ‘tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals.’ While that’s virtuous in a vacuum, I think we’re going to find as a society that the way we teach grit omits something serious: the ability to maintain motivation while simultaneously, continuously reevaluating your goals.”

    Sometimes goals are as short term as making it through a nap with your kid without throw-up ending up on either one of you.  And sometimes it’s about getting an article done about such a topic.

    But overall, as we approach mother’s day as a time to celebrate all the mom’s in this world, motherhood is a lesson in grit, whether you work outside the home or not.

    Give yourself some credit moms (and I’ll try to do the same for myself), realizing that there is a time and season for everything, and it is up to you to choose what is best for you and your family right now.   Grit or not, don’t let anyone tell you that it is not okay to shift focus for the sake of what is important when it is important.   That will teach your kids to be successful because they have been taught through your “modeling” to know what is important and adjust accordingly.