Cultivating a Thriving Workforce - Tips for Employee Retention & Satisfaction with Karen Hughey

Create a thriving workplace culture that attracts top talent!

Tune in for a valuable conversation that provides a roadmap for leaders and managers eager to foster a company culture where employees don't just survive—they thrive.

Karen Hughey, CEO of Nucleus Learning and KRHR, shares her expertise in working to transform company culture.

With  two+ decades in human resources, L&D and training, Karen highlights the pivotal role senior leadership plays in cultivating a supportive environment. This episode also includes her strategies from Fortune 100 companies that have proven to boost employee retention, satisfaction and develop top-notch customer service.

Karen candidly discusses her hands-on experiences and helps leaders discover how to navigate the complexities of change within their organization - from manager communication to role clarity. She emphasizes the importance of effective communication and the human component of change management.

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No sales, no strings...just a candid conversation about company culture.

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Transcript

William Gladhart: 0:00

Welcome to the Leadership Levers podcast. I'm your host, Will Gladhart, CMO at the Culture Think Tank. Our Culture Think Tank community is committed to advancing workplace culture and well-being. We're a virtual hub for authors, investors, leaders, managers and employees worldwide to connect, engage in candid discussions, share ideas and explore resources for cultivating a healthy work environment. We're here today to learn about the actions leaders have taken to address cultural change. Our guest today is Karen Huey, the CEO of Nucleus Learning and KRHR. Thanks for taking the time to join us today. I thought we would start by having you share with our audience a bit about yourself and your organization or background.

Karen Hughey: 0:48

Thanks. I've been in the people business for over 20 years in human resources and training and development. I've worked for Fortune 100 companies as well as smaller companies, before then starting my own HR consultant firm just pay our HR and then the training and development company Nucleus Learning, and the two really support each other. They just have two different names.

William Gladhart: 1:12

Well, we'll be discussing three questions today as a warm-up to start our conversation. Would you share while you believe a healthy culture is critical?

Karen Hughey: 1:20

Culture is really critical, especially if it starts from the top down. And I'm very fortunate twice in my career at those Fortune 100 companies to have senior leadership and executive leadership who truly believed in and supported investing in our most valuable asset, which is our voice. And there are a number of different initiatives that two companies that I worked for where we went in and being made sure and putting into place really good recruiting programs. We put in really good interviewing and hiring and then onboarding programs and at one our onboarding was actually a year long. So we started with the job skills that somebody needed for this first job, but then we continued to develop and grow those skills from their personal skills perspective and so they then launched after a year. It's a navigate where they chart your own course and they could go from there and we gave them the tools and resources to get there.

Karen Hughey: 2:16

And other companies senior leaders we really knew that in our customer service area people were calling in not a good call and we had to have customer service. So it's really good at the really good customer service and listening skills and we invested heavily in training our folks and how to develop those skills and so I've really found that over the years, that background, bring that to those smaller companies that we work with now and it makes such a difference in the success of the companies, the customer experience, as well as the employee retention and staying around.

William Gladhart: 2:54

I really appreciate you mentioning that. We hear so many times from employees, but also in the culture space of individuals that are just seeking clarity and role, and that's why they often leave a company, because they don't have a clear career path, etc. So what do you see as the biggest challenge leader space when addressing cultural change within an organization, or maybe something specifically you faced in your own organization?

Karen Hughey: 3:18

I was glad you gave me that question at that time. I've had so many different experiences over the years. I want to start with my experiences going through many mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. That's been with really large companies, has been with smaller companies and a key to the success of that different cultures coming together, different approaches, ideas, how we work, how we communicate. It's got to start at the top, with the leaders focusing on change and changing management.

Karen Hughey: 3:48

Oftentimes I'd found that if there's success, the leaders focused on that and said, oh yes, he realized that most people don't like change. I know it's not a shocking, but yeah, they really do. I'm one of those rare ones. Yeah, bring on the change, but most people don't. They take it from a bunch of what's in it for me with them. What will this change due to my job responsibilities? How will I change my processes? I'm pretty comfortable where I am right now. The senior leaders who is a part of their culture and their approach focus on that. Change management have seen much more success than the companies say oh yeah, we'll just give one announcement and we'll tell them how it's great for the share price, for the future of the company and they'll be good and it doesn't work like that.

William Gladhart: 4:31

I appreciate you addressing that, because no one wants to get a 600 word plus email about the announcement of the company when you really only want to know several things. But your questions may have not been answered that first couple rounds. What do you think leaders can do to address those challenges that they are facing, or what have you helped them do?

Karen Hughey: 4:49

A key approach again for success or failure I like to look at it that way is leaders who can take a step back. I've coached some of them on that. We can think, oh, yeah, yeah, they've been so immersed in whatever that change might be, whether it's a continuous improvement or a new acquisition, so they feel pretty knowledgeable about it. They think that one 600 word email that you mentioned that goes out yeah, yeah, yeah, they're fine, they're on board. What they don't realize is back to that resistance to change and that discomfort with it.

Karen Hughey: 5:17

If people are looking at different approaches and I'm going to lose my overtime, or am I going to have to work extra hours or on Saturdays now, or am I going to lose my flexible work schedule, what's going to happen to me and my family or my dog when I have to pick them up after work? So really worked on multiple approaches to communication, multiple ways to communicate and giving people some time to absorb it, make through it and become comfortable. Now they can't take five years to get there, so we do have a business to run. But yeah, when executives can use that empathy and really think about their employees and put in a purposeful change management approach, they will be successful the ones that don't do that. It could be totally disastrous. We can't get those two cultures together and people on board.

William Gladhart: 5:58

I think it is a real challenge with merger and acquisitions. But I love that you touched on the point of those multiple communication touch points, because people aren't tired of taking a survey or an engagement survey. They're tired of pressing the button and receiving no communication and feedback from the leader or C-suite. So I think having that strategic plan in place for the leader, and no matter what size of company, is really, really important. So thank you so much for sharing those kind of tidbits. So is there any other nuggets or pieces of information you'd like to share for leaders?

Karen Hughey: 6:30

Yeah, one last thing for leaders, and it does deals nicely off of your discussion about culture surveys.

Karen Hughey: 6:35

Yes, people like culture surveys.

Karen Hughey: 6:37

They like to be asked about a variety of things that impact their work and how they're able to do their work, and oftentimes what I find is that leaders don't ask.

Karen Hughey: 6:46

They'll have focus groups, look at a bunch of executives together, senior managers, and they're going to solve all the problems, and their folks have really good ideas. Just go ask them and they can get anything from a major initiative, a new product launch, a new piece of equipment, or write down to the manager having regular one-on-one meetings with their direct reports saying Will, how do you like to be recognized, do you want to be up in front of a big crowd? Or simple thank you. So it's part of that culture immersing their folks. And then the other great thing that happens out of that is that once you ask some folks what they want to do, they've had an opportunity to give their input, give their ideas, be a part of solving a problem and creating a new opportunity. They own it, they're on board and you've got complete buy-in and they're ready to go. So I said, don't ask your folks and tell them what you heard.

William Gladhart: 7:37

I love that. That is awesome. So, Karen, I've enjoyed having you on today. Thank you so much for your insights.

Karen Hughey: 7:43

It's a delight, Will, and I appreciate you having me.

William Gladhart: 7:46

Thank you for joining us on the Leadership Lovers podcast. You may find all our Leadership Levers episodes in our Culture Think Tank community at www. culturethinktank. ai. Join the community at no charge and tune in weekly as we invite leaders to share their experiences and strengthen culture, one action at a time.