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Nov. 22nd, 2006 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greya
Over the years, we have been privileged to work and consult for a
few companies with extraordinarily low turnover. You won't be
surprised to learn that low turnover is not the only good thing about
these companies. Indeed, they seem to excel at many or most of the
people-conscious qualities discussed in these pages. They are the
best.
The best organizations are not of a kind; they are more notable for their dissimilarities than for their likenesses. But one thing that they all share is a preoccupation with being the best. It is a constant topic in the corridors, in working meetings, and in bull sessions. The converse of this effect is equally true: In organizations that are not "the best," the topic is rarely or never discussed.
The best organizations are consciously striving to be best. This is a common goal that provides common direction, joint satisfaction, and a strong binding effect. There is a mentality of permanence about such places, the sense that you'd be dumb to look for a job elsewhere—people would look at you as though you were daft. This is the kind of community feeling that characterized the American small towns of the past. It is something too often missing from the cities and municipalities where we live, so it is all the more important in the workplace. Some ambitious companies set out explicitly to engender a sense of community. At Reader's Digest and certain Hewlett-Packard locations, for example, the company has set up community gardens for employees. At lunch hour, the fields are full of amateur hoers and weeders and people talking tomatoes over their fences. There are contests to grow the sweetest pea or the longest zucchini, and active bartering sessions where you can trade away some of your garlic for corn.
You can prove that community gardens don't make any sense at all in the short term. Whatever costs there are will come right out of this quarter's bottom line. At most companies, that would be enough to quash the concept immediately. But in the best organizations, the short term is not the only thing that matters. What matters more is being best. And that's a long-term concept.
People tend to stay at such companies because there is a widespread sense that you are expected to stay. The company invests hugely in your personal growth. There may be a Master's program or an extensive training period for new hires, as much as a year in some places. It's hard to miss the message that you are expected to stay, when the company has just invested that much in your formation.
A common feature of companies with the lowest turnover is widespread retraining. You're forever bumping into managers and officers who started out as secretaries, payroll clerks, or mail-boys. They came into the company green, often right out of school. When they needed new skills to make a change, the company provided those skills. No job is a dead end.
Again, one can prove that retraining is not the cheapest way to fill a new slot. It's always cheaper in the short run to fire the person who needs retraining and hire someone else who already has the required skills. Most organizations do just that. The best organizations do not. They realize that retraining helps to build the mentality of permanence that results in low turnover and a strong sense of community. They realize that it more than justifies its cost.
Peopleware : productive projects and teams
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upd. fulltext
The best organizations are not of a kind; they are more notable for their dissimilarities than for their likenesses. But one thing that they all share is a preoccupation with being the best. It is a constant topic in the corridors, in working meetings, and in bull sessions. The converse of this effect is equally true: In organizations that are not "the best," the topic is rarely or never discussed.
The best organizations are consciously striving to be best. This is a common goal that provides common direction, joint satisfaction, and a strong binding effect. There is a mentality of permanence about such places, the sense that you'd be dumb to look for a job elsewhere—people would look at you as though you were daft. This is the kind of community feeling that characterized the American small towns of the past. It is something too often missing from the cities and municipalities where we live, so it is all the more important in the workplace. Some ambitious companies set out explicitly to engender a sense of community. At Reader's Digest and certain Hewlett-Packard locations, for example, the company has set up community gardens for employees. At lunch hour, the fields are full of amateur hoers and weeders and people talking tomatoes over their fences. There are contests to grow the sweetest pea or the longest zucchini, and active bartering sessions where you can trade away some of your garlic for corn.
You can prove that community gardens don't make any sense at all in the short term. Whatever costs there are will come right out of this quarter's bottom line. At most companies, that would be enough to quash the concept immediately. But in the best organizations, the short term is not the only thing that matters. What matters more is being best. And that's a long-term concept.
People tend to stay at such companies because there is a widespread sense that you are expected to stay. The company invests hugely in your personal growth. There may be a Master's program or an extensive training period for new hires, as much as a year in some places. It's hard to miss the message that you are expected to stay, when the company has just invested that much in your formation.
A common feature of companies with the lowest turnover is widespread retraining. You're forever bumping into managers and officers who started out as secretaries, payroll clerks, or mail-boys. They came into the company green, often right out of school. When they needed new skills to make a change, the company provided those skills. No job is a dead end.
Again, one can prove that retraining is not the cheapest way to fill a new slot. It's always cheaper in the short run to fire the person who needs retraining and hire someone else who already has the required skills. Most organizations do just that. The best organizations do not. They realize that retraining helps to build the mentality of permanence that results in low turnover and a strong sense of community. They realize that it more than justifies its cost.
Peopleware : productive projects and teams
замечательная книжка -
cousin_it, выложить?upd. fulltext
no subject
Date: 2006-11-23 10:24 am (UTC)Можешь выложить или прислать по почте?
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Date: 2006-11-23 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-23 06:18 pm (UTC)