What's in a Name? Only Everything

Long before there was Reimagine Work, I was on the look out for a name. A name to describe who I wanted to be in my world of work and how I wanted to serve others. I wanted to work with people who wanted to find meaning in their work, serve leaders who wanted to build companies where people did more than just survived – they worked happy. I considered calling my business “Work Happy” because I wanted people to spend their days in work that made them feel good. I also bought the domain “Brave Work” because I wanted to support people willing to pursue meaning in the work they did even if that meant leaving the job they were currently in. Both were close to the mark but not exactly right.

And then one day after I had decided to leave my full-time job, I had a very heated argument with my husband who very much wanted me to have a plan that I didn’t have. My response to his question “What are you going to do?” was: “Reimagine work.”

Reimagine Work! Yes, for myself and for others. And just like that, I had it. If not the plan, at least I had the name that represented all the ways I wanted to work with people. I Googled it, the domain was available and the idea began to form. I reimagined a world where people are supported to feel good about what they do, where they feel appreciated and properly compensated, where status doesn’t rule work systems and people can be heard, valued and seen regardless of title. A space where the precious time spent away from our loved ones – pets, children, hobbies, art – had meaning. And so Work Happy/Brave Work led to Reimagine Work – and reimagining work is where you and I meet to shape a world where work can serve you in the way it is meant to. 

And so for the past almost two years since my husband posed what became the game-changing question, I have had the privilege and joy of working with people who want to work happier, braver and who are willing to reimagine the space that work occupies. I have witnessed and supported transformative change in workplaces around Victoria and the Island as companies, businesses and individuals decide to risk working happier over harder, collaboratively over competitively, and balanced over busybusybusy.

Thank you to every client who signed on with me in the past 2 years, who put their trust in a process that is so different than the status quo and Reimagined Work. I wish you all a 2020 filled with more of your good work.

What Have You Done for your Employee Handbook Lately?

We spend countless hours generating documents to support us with working better, or more efficiently, as a team and then we promptly forget about them. We forget to update them, we forget to use them and eventually we forget why we made them in the first place.

Employee handbooks are a classic example of a key document that ends up collecting ‘digital dust’ yet is vital to every workplace. If you want your employee handbook to function as a real living document here are 7 simple tips to bring your handbook to life:

1.      Clarify what you want from your handbook: do you actually want an employee handbook or an operations manual? These two documents are often get confused for one other. Handbooks are designed to introduce your staff to the organization and the company’s culture, including your key expectations of staff.  They are not intended to outline every rule, policy or guideline the organization has.

2.      Use your handbook to introduce your Culture and the history of your company – where you are now, how you came to be and where you want to go. Let the introduction to the manual make your team feel excited about, and grounded in, the company’s vision and values.

3.      Be Common: using language common to your organization makes your handbook accessible. This means avoiding ‘HR speak’ (yes, this is a thing). Your handbook will be most effective if you use language that reflects your work culture. For example, many tech companies use very informal, colloquial and work-specific language in their every day.

4.      Get Clear: employee handbooks should address the five w’s - who/what/when/where/why and how. This means it needs to be clear and accessible and describe things that are relevant to the employee about the organization. This is your opportunity to set the tone of your dialogues with employees. You want your employees to read this document and use it so that you can rely on it to hold them accountable.

5.      Communicate with your staff by reviewing your handbook in person. This eases the onboarding process and informs a conversation about your culture and its expectations.

6.      Stay Current by keeping your manual updated and ensure all employees know when there are changes to the handbook. Offer your in-person availability on request to review any changes or answer questions and make sure they sign-off on understanding the changes.

7.      Handbooks are your opportunity to be Creative. A handbook can be quirky – make it original! Don’t pull other companies’ items off the Internet and stick them in a manual or include policies and procedures that your company doesn't adhere to. Remember, if you don’t use it you lose it - its really tricky to hold staff to a standard you don’t embody or enforce.  All content in your handbook should be well thought out and really explain the expectations for everyone and the parameters for their workplace.

Here is an example of a handbook I love: Valve Handbook.

See, it really can be fun!

In the Event of an Emergency

Lately I have been doing succession planning with most organisations I work with. This month alone, I am working with 3 companies doing various succession plans 1) with a leader to support with the departing of a staff member and the work they are leaving behind, 2) succession planning with staff, ED, and Board and 3) group leadership development with a tech company leadership team.

Succession planning doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does help to get a consultant into your workplace to support you. One of the things you can begin immediately is to future-proof your workplace by being in a continuous mode of knowledge transfer. In other words, don’t wait for the day when one of your team members calls in rich and quits or moves to Australia to become an ultra-minimalist – start knowledge transfer processes and succession planning now.

Having good documentation in place and building a culture of knowledge transfer supports with retaining information inside your organisation. It ensures in the event of a staffing emergency you can continue your day to day operations smoothly.

This can be is done through:

After Action Reviews: These debriefings are a way to capture experiences, what worked well, what needs improvement, and what can be done differently next time so others can learn from those experiences. It allows a leadership team to share learnings with other program leaders and departments.

Creation of Job Aids: These are tools that help people perform tasks accurately and could be built off best practises. They include things such as checklists or decision tree diagrams that provide specific concrete information and serve as a quick reference guide. Job Aids help with knowledge transfer and also improve on-boarding. Job aids  ensure key processes and functions do not just live inside people’s heads.

Mentoring (formal & informal): In mentoring, an experienced skilled person (mentor) is paired with a lesser skilled or experienced person (mentee), with the goal of developing or strengthening the competencies of the mentee. Mentorship programs support with leadership development, succession planning and on the job training (win-win-win!)

Why succession plan? Replacement hiring is a reactive process to a staffing emergency to fill an immediate need, whereas succession planning is proactive and works to address the need before it exists. By having a succession plan in place, companies save time (and dollars) through building internal capacity and knowledge. No emergencies here.