It s up to you to make sure your employees are all on the same page.
It s easy to get caught up in responsibilities and lose the connectedness and integration of your organization, the people who made it what it is today. Focusing on organizational development allows you to view your company from a large-scale perspective. Taking a step back to understand how each aspect of your company ties in with one another and what exactly they produce is crucial – don t forget to look at the bigger picture. Through taking time to understand the changes and development needed for your organization – the very purpose of your company – there is only success on the horizon.
Organizational development helps align your organization to its core. With an aligned organization, companies can expect to see several benefits. For example, aligned companies churn 36% fewer customers each year and close 38% more sales proposals compared to non-aligned companies. Besides a productivity standpoint, aligned companies also bring in many financial benefits.
Aligned companies grow revenue 58% faster and are 72% more profitable than their misaligned counterparts. Roughly 10% of a company’s spending is wasted on misalignment, on average, which again is another advantage of focusing on organizational development.
Not convinced yet? Don t worry – today we ll be taking a look at four different areas of your organization that can be analyzed and grown with a focus on organizational development.
Focus #1 – Organizational Development Through Connection
Your team has undoubtedly experienced growth since the start of your company, and even more so has developed into a well-oiled machine hopefully! With all of your team members and employees, it s without a doubt that several connections have formed between them. Some between coworkers, between managers and employees, between departments, and even between senior-level executives and all other employees.
With these connections in mind, it s important to reflect on your current work environment and question if your connections are all cohesive and meaningful. Do all the people I connect with have the same customer profile as I do?
In an ideal alignment, all employees and connections will work with one another collectively to expand and grow your business to never before reached heights! One example of this is working collaboratively to understand the customer base that you are attracting. When you break down the silos, all departments update and share data in real-time. This gives the entire organization a 360-degree view of the customer.
A misaligned organization will have different departments believing in differing and mismatched views about their customer base and decreasing efficiency. By focusing on organizational development from the angle of connections and group work between one another, all employees and departments will unite under one vision and understanding – thus improving the business overall.
Checking up on your staff from time to time to reconfirm their perceptions of the company vision will only benefit your company in the long run. The flow of a company should be your top priority – that s what achieves results.
If you re looking for one way to get that process started, AirMason offers the ability to create a digital employee handbook focused on creating connections between employees. Countless companies have gone through organizational development starting with AirMason!
Focus #2 – Organizational Development Through Policy Changes
In modern organizations, policies can change and update often. At times, companies decide to experiment with structural changes to the organization and consider implementing new policies. This is a great example of organizational development – where to improve the alignment of an organization, senior staff changes the overall structure of the organization.
A relevant example of this would be a company deciding to transition to work fully virtual and take away physical office space in favour of workers to continue working remotely. Another example would be a workplace implementing a four-day workweek rather than the traditional nine-to-five, 5 days a week, to conduct organizational development and motivate employees.
In Japan, Microsoft gave it a try in late 2019 and found that doing so boosted workers productivity by 40%. Heavily reducing stress and lessened employee burnout, it also had the added benefit of lowering operating costs for that month. Workplace analyst Dan Schawbel says that younger people actually choose work flexibility over health care coverage, even though that expense in America is pretty high. In avoiding a burnout crisis, companies need to consider steps like this to ensure their employees are recharged and motivated to be at maximum productivity.
Organizations are constantly going through forms of policy organizational development, as almost every company goes through policy changes often. In a study done by KPMG, 96 percent of organizations reported they were undergoing business transformations, but only 47 percent expected to realize sustainable value from those efforts.
With this in mind, it s important to understand that organizational development is something that you should expect in a company, however it is important to focus on which changes will bring the best alignment possible for your team. By experimenting and finding out what works best for your employees, you ll only be promoting growth and highlighting what your company vision is about.
Focus #3 – Organizational Development Through Employee Experience
Your employees are what consistently drives your business, so it s always essential to keep their interests and experience as a top priority. Here at AirMason, we ve talked a lot about the concept of employee experience, and how it s monumental in shaping the achievements of your company.
It s commonly known that employees who are engaged and interested in both the work they do and the company they work for are the highest performing employees you can have. With that in mind, shockingly only 15% of employees are engaged in their work. Building employee experience is not an easy task, but when done properly can cause a boost in wide-scale organizational development.
Some examples of ways to improve employee experience include offering more benefits to employees such as health and financial benefits. Another way is creating more incentives to work at the organization, such as fun and interesting events or experiences that would only be available in working for you! Make your company stand out. By showcasing an experience you can give your employees that they can t find anywhere else – choosing your company to work for becomes a no-brainer.
By focusing on organizational development and finding ways to build up your employee experience, you will find employees working harder and generating better results than ever before! Employees respond incredibly well to organizations that support them and openly provide them with all the resources and tools they need to grow. A company that has its employees backs pushes them to want to grow within your company – and not just while they wait for a better opportunity to present itself. After all, no company wants never-ending turnover.
If you re curious about if your organization has all the right policies and benefits in place to encourage an excellent employee experience – take a quick look at our Small Business Checklist!
Focus #4 – Organizational Development Through Company Culture
Like employee experience, a company culture is a form of organizational development that can easily be focused on to generate an incredible change in your company. Your company culture defines how your employees act and work when they re on the clock. Ranging from intense crunch periods to fewer work hours and shorter meetings – what is right for your organization may not be the same for many others.
Regardless, company culture is an essential part of organization development. By improving your culture to one that is more supportive to your employees, you are opening up the road to organizational development and positive change. 88% of job seekers say that a healthy culture at work is vital for success – if your organizational culture is not perfect, now is the time to change it!
Stay connected with your employees. Asking them what changes would positively affect their productivity and coming up with a happy medium is pivotal in determining what level of success you want your company to reach. Employees that feel respected by their superiors will put them all into their company and its goals. Never forget – a company s achievements are its employees’ achievements.
Organizational development is an essential tool to skyrocket your company s growth
By embracing the need for organizational development, you embrace the need for constant growth and development. Remaining stagnant causes your organization to be misaligned and inefficient, while focusing on ways to increase alignment and continuously develop, is one solid way to secure the future of your company.
As your company is growing and expanding, consider using AirMason to help build out a fantastic and engaging digital employee handbook for your team. We ve helped thousands of companies all around the world work towards increasing engagement, making onboarding stress-free, and boosting the overall employee experience! If you re interested in learning more, click here to book a free demo with our sales staff today to learn more about solutions for your company!
