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How do you engage, motivate, and develop your most valuable assets? If you’re Deloitte, you make sure that your people have a life, as tax-practice team leader Todd King does. In fact, he calls himself a poster boy for work-life balance. Thus the firm’s recognition as one of Atlantic Canada’s 20 Best Places to Work.
The program recognizes employers who make it a priority to create rewarding environments for their employees. This year, Progress partnered with Best Companies Group, based in Harrisburg, Pa., to benefit from its experience in North American regions characterized by small and medium-size companies. The result is a ranking of 20 workplaces with a minimum of 25 employees that scored well above average based on an analysis of individual, workgroup, and organizational insights and employee feedback.
The theme that emerged is alignment and values. As David Holt advises in his overview, “Value your people. Obsess about your values. The rest, including performance, will follow.”
This is the case for top-ranked Ambir, a software and consulting firm with offices in Saint John, Fredericton, and Halifax. Company founder Ian Cavanagh makes it his mission to know well his employees, their families, their motivations, their ambitions, and their personal values. So it is no surprise to learn that Cavanagh works closely with mentors and consultants who specialize in values alignment and authentic leadership, such as India-based psychologist Dr. J.M. Sampath and Halifax-based Michael Chender, respectively. Both have spent time with Ambir’s team to help management and staff build deep connectivity between corporate values
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such as communication, teamwork, and cultural awareness and personal values such as family, career development, flexibility, and community outreach. The result is a unique business model with global ambitions and strong local roots.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that a focus on such “intangibles” as flexibility, ethics, or personal values is faddish or unaccountable. “Talent” itself is pretty intangible, but it is the fuel that drives knowledge-based organizations and provides an economy’s competitive edge. A recent “talent” survey in The Economist cited the rise of “intangible assets” such as know-how, inventiveness, and good judgement (and their imminent shortage as the workforce ages and shrinks) as the biggest issue facing businesses today. By way of context, the authors point out that more than half of the jobs created in the last decade and more than half of the market capitalization of America’s public companies can be calculated to derive from so-called intangibles. Moreover, “talent intensive businesses have a particular interest in maintaining high ethical standards” the article stated.
That’s why developing the whole person is a priority for Deloitte, which is using its regional offices as a national pilot for employee mentoring and coaching programs. It is also in the process of launching a workplace diversity program. All in an effort to create an environment where talented people can enjoy fulfilling careers without sacrificing their families or the pastimes that they’re passionate about like, say, surfing.
When accountants start talking about “organic” processes, results that are “magical,” and career development trumping billable hours, you know you are encountering the workplaces of the future, where intangibles reign supreme and new metrics are about to emerge. |
