3 Ways Staff Managers Can Outdo Tradition-Driven Doctrines

“Old ways” are failing to help businesses situationally train staffers

No matter the industry type or business size, owners, managers, human resource pros and other leaders of every sort are suffering tradition-driven doctrines—employee oversight and engagement approaches that, today, fall far short. “Old ways” are failing to help businesses attract and retain top talent, engage those with high potential, situationally train staffers, course correct sub-par performers, aptly shed problematic workers and foster the collective health of the employee pool—and business bottom line in kind.  
 

Today there are new approaches, technologies and paradigms that are aptly elevating the game, helping leaders establish a far more prepared, present and duly motivated employee pool. Here are three modern-day methodologies that have solid potential to boost profitability benchmarks in relatively short order.

1. Simulation-based Staff Training

The benefits of simulation-based staff training are indisputable and innumerable. Given its power and efficacy, this methodology is being used in a litany of sectors beyond aerospace and military, where it gained its initial foothold. These include everything from manufacturing and retail, to healthcare, fitness, fashion and hospitality, reports indicate. No longer reserved for mammoth corporations, now businesses of every size and scope can benefit from highly optimized, interactive cyber-training innovations. This is the form of short-burst microlearning 3D simulations that are now as accessible as they are effective. Such brief, easy-to-digest content, which learners can access on their own time, provides numerous posthaste benefits. 

At its highest level, modern 3D simulation remote training methods can immediately teach employees how to effectively navigate difficult conversations and communicate in a way that drives optimal outcomes and enriches relationships—all irrespective of where that employee is based.

This kind of interactive microlearning technology, which complements any in-person training initiatives, is helping companies rapidly improve internal and external communication skills relating to sensitive subject matter and operational mandates. This includes reducing customer confusion, rectifying unconscious bias to create a more inclusive culture, stemming microaggressions, promoting conflict resolution and de-escalation, conveying appropriate and consistent responses to crises like Covid-19, driving feedback conversations that enhance employee relations, empowering employees to constructively escalate issues that aren’t discussed outside of “water cooler whispers” and more.

So powerful is this approach, Allied Market Research indicates the virtual training and simulation market size, currently valued at $204.41 billion, is projected to more than double and reach $579.44 billion by 2027. This, and other such forecasts, reflects the extent to which companies are now requiring their executives and managers to participate in virtual training and simulation to become better prepared for real-life situations. Not surprising given the several points of substantiation. For one, global consulting firm Accenture underscores that “experiential learning has long been argued as the most effective way to learn, and studies have shown that learning through experience increases learning quality by up to 75%.” 

The firm indicates this approach allows companies to recreate real-life situations, reduce travel costs to outside training and increases repetition of experiences to allow employees to practice more. As one case in point, it notes that major retailers like Walmart leverage the technology to train managers to prepare for key events like Black Friday—with potential benefits including an 80% savings in training time.  

“3D simulations help companies provide employees with interactive bite-sized learning sessions that provide a quick and easy way to engage in real-world scenarios, explore emotional responses and receive immediate feedback so they can reflect on their own performance—all in a safe virtual environment,” said Ed Beltran, CEO of Fierce Conversations—a  company spearheading customized simulations that teach employees how to handle difficult customer conversations like those relating to the coronavirus pandemic, diversity and inclusion and other notorious, angst-inducing points of contention.  

“This kind of training can address and resolve veritably any on-the-job challenge. The overarching goal of microlearning immersion is to help employees become expert conversationalists by knowing what to talk about, how to talk about it and why it matters for the bottom line of the specific employer. This is why the most effective 3D simulations are those that are ‘bite-sized’—as in 15-minutes or less—and also fully customized for each business and situation. In this way, businesses can efficiently address several critical issues via interactive real-world situations, all with the look and feel of your own location, organization and audiences. Personalized avatars are also used to recreate scenarios and build empathy, and immediate feedback helps employees learn and improve with each session.”

Learn and improve they do, as gamification capabilities are shown to maximize learner engagement and knowledge retention. In fact, interactive learning is not only shown to boost learning engagement by 50%, but it also enhances knowledge retention by more than 20%.

“It also scales cost effectively per learner so employers can mitigate training expenses,” Beltran notes.

Duration is also key. According to Software Advice, most employees (58%) would more likely use online learning courses if they were broken into “multiple, shorter lessons” and creates more than 50% higher engagement. Additional metrics indicate microlearning in segments of 3-7 minutes “matches the memory capacity and attention spans” of most humans.

So, next time you need to address internal complications or generally enhance operations, consider opting for interactive 3D simulations rather than those long, boring training videos. You know, the ones that cause employees to lose interest and are hard-pressed to truly resolve the issues at hand—especially when you need that genuine resolution fast. Such customized 3D real-world microlearning, practiced virtually, can get to the heart of challenges that employees are facing today with immediacy. The result will be conversations that make a real, meaningful and measurable impact. 

2. Recalibrated Performance Reviews

If you want to be the best and grow your business, not only do you have to hire and reward the best ... you must either develop or remove the rest. It’s that simple. You might be surprised to learn that traditional, so-called “tried-and-true” performance management methods fail. One top offender is the ubiquitous and erroneously exalted Performance Review, according to leadership expert and executive coach Roxi Bahar Hewertson, author of “Hire Right, Fire Right: A Leader’s Guide to Finding and Keeping Your Best People.” 

“This HR ‘tool’ will not help your business achieve ANY of its growth results and, in fact, leaning on performance reviews to assess staffers can greatly increase the likelihood of achieving the exact opposite results,” she warns.

Business leaders and human resource professionals have had a dogma hammered into them that annual evaluations or reviews are sufficient to document employee performance. Hewertson asserts the problem with that logic is that it is short-sighted and often inaccurate.

“There are times when managers need to fire someone, but find that nothing in that person’s ‘personnel file’ indicates a problem and too often the opposite is true,” she says. “This is a chronic problem when supervisors don’t like to (or don’t know how to) deliver ongoing constructive feedback when it’s needed—all year long rather than during one ceremonial yearly event. This is the stuff grievances, arbitrations and lawsuits are made of and, quite often, are legal battles lost by management for good reason. Having an annual performance evaluation or review isn’t a panacea. It’s more akin to ‘using a broken crutch for a broken leg.’”

In fact, studies are emerging that further substantiate such performance evaluation shortcomings. A recent U.S. National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health study published in 2020 provides evidence that “performance feedback discussions can have counterproductive effects by increasing the recipient’s self-serving attributions for past performance,” with unintended associated effects including “lower feedback acceptance” and “lower motivation to change.”

Businesses need something far more effective because the “old way” may not help retain your best talent, engage your high potentials or course-correct below-par performance. Instead, Hewertson advocates that businesses wholly replace formal Performance Reviews with a Personal Dialogues (PD) Process. Unlike a traditional performance evaluation, PDs are a powerful and highly strategic conversation between a supervisor and an employee that happens at least once a year and is followed up by check-ins that happen quarterly at the very least, sometimes even more frequently.  

“It’s important to establish a protocol and methodology that managers and employees understand and agree to follow,” she says. “Instead of dreading the ‘annual review’ meeting, a PD is a two-way conversation that both parties can look forward to. It’s one that builds, versus diminishes, rapport and trust. The PD is intended to engage both parties in positive ways and add real value. Acquiring and retaining talent is a relational, not a transactional, process.” 

Hewertson’s PD process involves three viewpoints: (1) the employee’s perspective; (2) the employee’s beliefs about the supervisor’s perspective; and (3) the supervisor’s perspective. Individually, the supervisor and the direct report write down answers to a series of ten questions (below) prior to their meeting where they will present and discuss their respective answers.

“It’s insightful to see how accurate or inaccurate the employee’s ‘reading’ is of their direct supervisor,” she says. “They both gain valuable insight about how much they are, or are not, on the same page and can respectively course correct on the spot.”

During the PD, performance is discussed in the context of the employee’s overall experience with the job. But Hewertson also clarifies that the nature of the discussion also provides a way for the supervisor to demonstrate respect, honors the employee’s dignity and recognizes the employee’s shared professional partnership by delving into their job, achievements, hopes, disappointments, goals and needs.

“During this conversation, ongoing expectations and metrics for the future are agreed upon, with full transparency between both parties,” she notes. “It also gives the supervisor ample opportunity to openly appreciate and recognize the employee’s positive contributions.”

While the PD process requires more planning, time and thought, it has the powerful upsides of increasing employee engagement, building trust and driving positive versus negative ROI for any organization. 

3. Gamified Corporate Wellness 

The glut of U.S. workers contending with obesity and other chronic health troubles is costing companies billions of dollars annually in lost productivity from absenteeism, alone—a situation exacerbated by even more staggering productivity loss from the four-times more detrimental “presenteeism.” In seeking an effective solution to the problem, Corporate America is increasingly leveraging the spirit of competition and cash rewards to improve staff wellness, more effectively compel men to lose weight, and, in promoting these organization-wide behavioral changes, boost their own bottom lines. 

Study findings have, in fact, uncovered that social gamification plus competition increases physical activity among overweight and obese adults—paradigms that businesses large and small can tap into. 

According to new study findings published by JAMA Internal Medicine, behavioral economics-based gamification led to “significantly” increased physical activity among overweight and obese Americans. An additional study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine proved that money is an effective motivator to “increase both the magnitude and duration of weight loss,” which can certainly hold true in business for staff wellness initiatives. Results from another study, “Loss Incentive’ Motivates Employees to Take More Steps,” published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that financial incentives framed as a loss were most effective for achieving physical activity goals.

“Throngs of studies reiterate the importance of the 'stick' in the design of a wellness incentive program, whether for individuals at home or for employee groups,” said David Roddenberry, CEO of HealthyWage–a company that has created gamified weight-loss programs for thousands of Fortune 500 and other public and private companies, hospitals, health systems, insurers, school systems, municipal governments and other organizations throughout the U.S.

“Many studies have demonstrated that the threat of losing something of value is much more effective than the opportunity to win something of equal value. Indeed, loss Aversion is a powerful dynamic that can propel the results of a gamified weight loss initiative. A key element for the success of a gamification program is giving participants something to lose if they fail to meet their goal—whether tangible or intangible.”

So, the key here is for corporate wellness participants to have some “skin in the game” in working toward their reward. 

Even adopting one, two if not all three of these approaches can help a business owner or leader glean more profitability vis a vis wholly-controllable internal operations. Don’t let the fact that these tactics are each relatively easy to implement fool you, as the ROI upside can be extreme and impressively expeditious.

Merilee Kern, MBA, is an internationally regarded brand analyst, strategist, and futurist who serves as chief strategy officer for the Ascendant Group. She is a member of the Forbes Business Council. Connect Merilee Kern Visit www.ascendantgroupbranding.com