For your employees’ sake, give the Golden Rule a twist

The workplace of the future requires more of us than ever before. It was true before COVID and it's certainly true now. Your people want more out of work than to just show up and get paid. So, how can you as their manager or boss give them what they want? Use the Platinum Rule.

Big thanks to Phil Blair for quoting me in his article in the San Diego Union-Tribune all about putting a twist on the Golden Rule by employing the Platinum Rule instead. Phil recently attended a talk I gave about the "Winning Formula for the Future of Work."

(Article below originally appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune on February 21st, 2022.)

Dear Mr./Ms. Employer: Are you wondering why so many of your employees are so unhappy and leaving your company to go elsewhere or quit?

Let me share what I’m hearing out there, when prospects contact us in response to a job posting, or we contact them because we think they’ll be a great hire for one of our clients.

Start with your HR department, where, as I like to say, your corporate culture begins.

Is it fully staffed, so it can be supportive of your current employees? Or is it scrambling just to keep afloat? Believe me, your employees want to be listened to, and heard, not merely tolerated.

Do your employees get a quick response when they ask simple questions, like about benefits? If your answer is no, you’re looking for trouble, especially if you have more than a few millennials and Gen Xers on board.

Recently, I heard a presentation by Dan Negroni, a highly successful career coach of CEOs whose workforce consists mainly of those “kids” who were born between the mid-1960s and late 1990s.

Together, they now represent nearly 70% of the U.S. workforce — and growing fast.

Here’s Dan’s twist on the Golden Rule: “Treat others the way?they?want to be treated.”

Very possibly, his advice is not how?you?would want to be treated. What’s more, his guidance is wholly appropriate for all employees, no matter what their age.

In other words: If you give everyone what they want, you’ll get everything you want. Make your employees happy and they will make your most valuable asset, your customers, very happy.

Go into the office every day of the week

Let’s take working remote. Do you know how rare it is to find job applicants who say, “I want to go into the office every day of the week”?

About zilch.

If you are requiring that, and you don’t have a valid reason — like you’re in healthcare or hospitality — then get over yourself.

If you can’t justify why your employees are needed in the office, then expect a mass exodus because other employers will offer them that option.

Are your goals strictly profit-driven? Big problem. Today’s younger workers are not interested in making you rich and leaving them behind.

Is your management style all about you? Does your company generate negative media coverage? Are you making the world better in a way your employees think is important?

Do you encourage your employees to volunteer in the community? Or you penalize them when they do?

When your employees tell their friends where they work, are they proud of your company? If not, why not?

Now, listen to what your “future hires” think about your job offer:

• Will my work day be enjoyable because I’ll like the people I work with?
• Will I enjoy working with this company’s customers?
• Will this job teach me how to build relationships and to excel in my chosen career?
• Will this job help me to understand myself better?
• WIIFM? (“What’s In It For Me?)

As for compensation, what counts is their definition of what’s fair — not yours.

We’re also finding that new employees are less concerned about taking the highest-paying job than about the opportunities for upward mobility. In other words, “Where do I go from here?”

The current crop of workers isn’t strictly driven by the old-fashioned ethic of “put your head down and do your work.”

Believe me, if you run your company that way, you’ll have more challenges than you want.

Instead, most employees want to learn how to be better at their jobs, now and into the future. And they want to be respected for what they do.

As their employer, you have the responsibility to provide that kind of supportive environment.

Pay fairly, show appreciation to your team, and make your employees’ work professionally meaningful. Make your employees feel like they really matter, that they are part of a team that cheers each other on, and that they feel safe under your leadership.

When you think about it, isn’t that the way you’d like to be treated?

Blair is co-founder of Manpower Staffing and author of “Job Won.”