Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

employee management

The Great Resignation: How Canadian Leaders Can Retain Talent and Navigate the Labour Shortage with Four Key Strategies

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

TL;DR: By implementing four key strategies, which include promoting a growth mindset, normalizing departures, and supporting employee engagement and recognition, Canadian leaders can effectively address the Great Resignation phenomenon and retain talent in the face of a labour shortage.

The Great Resignation is a phenomenon in which millions of employees have left their jobs searching for new employment opportunities. With Canadian organizations facing labour shortages, leaders must focus on hiring new talent and retaining existing employees. It is essential to recognize the value of remaining employees and support them during this challenging time to maintain stability.

In light of empirical research, we propose four strategies for leaders to address the Great Resignation effectively:

Recognize your influence. 

The actions and words of leaders have a significant impact on the perceptions and attitudes of employees. Examine your communication style to ensure you are not inadvertently exacerbating fear and uncertainty among your employees. For instance, instead of saying, "we don't know what the future holds," try saying something like, "we are prepared to weather any storm with our collective efforts." Understanding your impact will help you to lead your team toward a more positive outlook. For example, rather than highlighting a team's difficulties, leaders can focus on the solutions and the opportunities available.

Emphasize potential and opportunities

In times of change, a growth mindset, which emphasizes learning and potential, can foster resilience. For instance, when faced with a challenging task, people with a growth mindset might focus on the skills they can learn, while people with a fixed mindset might focus on the potential for failure. Encourage your employees to envision the best outcomes for your organization and discuss what excites them about the future. Feelings of fear and uncertainty can be alleviated by creating a sense of potential and opportunity.

Normalize departures

Respectful offboarding processes have been shown to improve the psychological well-being of remaining employees. Recognize the contributions of departing employees and express gratitude for their service. For example, hold a farewell party for an employee who has been with the company for many years and shares stories of their impact on the team. Considering departures as a natural part of the employment process can contribute to a more positive working environment.

Acknowledge and support your employees

Retention and organizational success are strongly correlated with employee engagement. Reconnect with your employees, discuss their aspirations, and recognize their efforts during difficult times. For instance, take the time to appreciate accomplishments made by team members or colleagues and thank them for their contributions or check in to see how they are doing. Make sure your organization's compensation and recognition systems are fair and transparent. Engage employees in problem-solving and decision-making processes to enhance their engagement.

Conclusion

Finally, Canadian leaders must address the challenges of the Great Resignation and focus on supporting their existing employees. Ensure that employees are heard, understood and valued to create an atmosphere of inclusion. This will help ensure that employees remain committed to their work and their teams. Giving employees autonomy and control over their work will empower them to make changes and drive innovation. Companies should also invest in training and development opportunities to ensure employees have the skills to stay competitive. Finally, providing benefits and rewards that recognize hard work and effort will help show employees they are appreciated.

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CISOs are stressed and I can prove it

GeneralEdward Kiledjian
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Not a week goes by without some data breach, leak, hack, attack or other significant cybersecurity failures that spills all over blogs and even national media.

Five years ago, only avant-garde companies invested in cybersecurity; today, it has become a must. Companies realize the importance of a solid cybersecurity plan built on the People, Process and Technology pillars. One topic rarely discussed by corporate executives or security leaders is the incredible (and growing) stress the current environment inflicts on CISOs.

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The stress is real

Stress is a normal way of life for most executives, but CISOs feel an acute level. Nominet's report, in collaboration with Vanson Bourne, The CISO Stress Report - Life Inside the Perimeter: One yes on", was the first quantification of this systemic issue.

In 2019, Nominet and Vanson Bourne conducted 800 online interviews in the USA and U.K (400 C-Suite and 400 CISOs). The included CISOs worked for both public and private corporates with at least 3,000 employees. They were quizzed about work-related stress and its effect on their professional & personal lives.

88 percent of CISOs consider themselves under moderate or high levels of stress

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Some Interesting conclusions

  • 7 out of 10 CISOs agree their work-life balance is too heavily weighted towards work (71%)

  • Almost all CISOs are working beyond their contracted hours, on average by 10 hours per week (95%)

  • This equates to extra time worth $30,319 per annum

  • 87% of CISOs say that working additional hours was expected by their organization, while 78% of board members admitted this to be the case

  • 83% of CISOs spend at least half of their evenings and weekends thinking about work

  • Only 2% say they are able to switch off once they’ve left the office

  • Over a third have failed to take all entitled annual leave

  • 45% have missed family milestones or activities

More about the stress

The average tenure of a CISO is 26 months, and many believe stress is the primary motivator of change.

CISOs reported missing important family events such as birthdays, vacations, weddings and even funerals. Even with all the stress and extra working hours, most CISOs aren't taking their full annual leave (or sick days, time off for medical & dental appointments, etc.)

Stuart Reed, vice president at Nominet, suggested that the stress and wear & team on CISOs result from a combination of internal and external factors. The external factors are the headlines your read about, while the internal stresses are the pressure from executives expecting CISOs to "properly" handle these incidents and to provide updates & answers continually.

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What are the most stress inducing elements?

  • 44% being responsible for securing the organization and preventing breaches

  • 40% the need to stay ahead of threat intelligence

  • 39% the long hours worked

  • 65% of those surveyed had suffered a breach in the past 12 months

  • 37% of CISOs consider themselves ultimately % responsible for a breach while 31% of board members agree

  • A fifth of CISOs believe they would be fired as a result, regardless of whether or not they themselves were responsible

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What are the effects of the stress?

  • Nearly half of CISOs said the levels of stress they are under has impacted their mental health (48%)

  • 35% also reported that their stress had impacted their physical health

  • 4 out of 10 CISOs said that their stress levels had affected relationships with their partners or children

  • 31% said the stress affected their ability to fully perform at their job

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How are CISOs coping with the stress?

  • A quarter of CISOs are turning to medication or alcohol to manage their stress - an increase from 17% a year ago

  • A fifth have taken a leave of absence due to stress (21%)

  • 21% believed there to be no support structures in place within their organization to help deal with stress, while 94% of board members suggest there are

  • 9 out of 10 CISOs would take a pay cut to improve their work-life balance; on average 7.76%, equating to $9,642

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The silver lining

The report suggests that boards of directors are aware of the stress affecting their CISOs (74% of respondents believe that moderate or severe stress impacts their CISO).

As the board of directors and CIOs acknowledge this significant issue, they show more willingness to hire support staff to alleviate some of the stress elements. Ensuring the CISO is surrounded by skilled senior professionals can help alleviate many of the most aggravating elements. These supporting professionals must be experienced security technicians and have strong business acumen, strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work in teams or alone.

Another important stress reliever is ensuring the CISO can honestly share the state of their cyber universe with the executive leadership team to ensure decision-makers universally understand risks and provide executive support to the CISO (guidance and funding). The CISO must know he/she is not alone.

Cybersecurity is growing in importance and, for many organizations, has become the price of entry. Executives have started to understand this important fundamental truth and are now more willing to share the cybersecurity burden.

Conclusion

I built my first security business (a Canada wide security practice) that was later sold to Bell Canada in the early 2000’s and have been actively involved in cybersecurity since. Over the last 20+ years, I have seen the importance of security grow and this has required the creation of the CISO role.

Unfortunately I see too many CISOs that have been promoted to their level of incompetence (read about Peter’s principle here). The job is difficult enough for the professional with the right skills but is deadly for the wrong professional promoted as a reward (not because of merit).

Companies should perform an honest review of their CISOs competence and abilities. Thrusting the wrong person into this role is a disservice to the candidate.

Additionally it is important to realize that most security certifications tackle the technical skills. These are important but form less than 40% of the CISO’s true day to day responsibilities. The key skills (negotiation, strategic vision, budgeting, people management, etc) are completely ignored in most of the certifications companies deem “required” when posting a CISO job. HR leaders must quickly understand the new realities of the CISO role and craft job descriptions akin to that of a business executive leader than a manager for firewalls. This realization is important because a properly skilled CISO will handle the stress much better and therefore will deliver a much higher return on investment for the company.

HR leaders must learn to hire the right candidate for the CISO position

It's time to evaluate your company

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

As we pass to the second half of the year, many companies start their annual merit review cycle. It is an opportunity for your leaders to evaluate the corpus of your work and determine how much value you delivered to the company (thus deserving a salary adjustment).

What employees often forget is that they too should use this period as an opportunity to determine if they are doing the right job, in the right company & at the right compensation level.

Read my blog entry The “You” Brand

The 4 power questions

  1. Do you like what you are doing?

  2. Do you like who you are doing it with and where you are doing it?

  3. Does your company offer a path your desired future job?

  4. Are you fairly compensated

As we walk through each of these questions, it is important to remember that there is no "perfect" life partner and there is no "perfect" company. What we are trying to determine is: "Is this company the right one for your at this moment in time".

It is important to evaluate the questions in the order I have presented them.

Do you like what you are doing?

Ask yourself if you (honestly) are excited about the work you are doing. When Friday comes along, do you turn off “work mode” until Monday morning? If you do then you have a job, not a career. It means you are not passionate about your chosen profession and it may be time to figure out “what you want to be when you grow up”.

Do you like who you are doing it with and where you are doing it?

Many leaders would probably break this question down into 2 separate ones (one for people and one for the company) but I believe they work better together.

You may like your job but do you like the people you are doing it with? There is no perfect environment but overall, do you enjoy collaborating and working with most of your co-workers? Are you surrounded by like-minded people who challenge you and respect you? Do the people you work with care as much about you, as you do for them?

In the same vein, do you like working for your company? Do you share the vision, mission and core values of your company? A 2017 MetLife survey found employees (9/10) would rather work for a company that shared their values than one that offered higher pay. The survey also found that employees were willing to take a 21% pay cut to work for that better-aligned company (jumped to 34% for millennials).

This is also the category I include work-life alignment in. Does the ratio of work-life balance the company expects to, align with what you are looking for?

Obviously, every employee’s requirements are different but the importance of this alignment is undeniable.

If you love your job (question 1) and you love who you work with (where), then work doesn’t feel like work. You can enjoy going to work and living your best life.

Does your company offer a path your desired future job?

Not everyone is looking for career advancement but most of you probably are. Does your company offer a supportive, nurturing environment where you can learn and grow? Are executives willing to take a chance with less experienced employees, allowing them to develop? Are executives willing to coach and guide employees to develop their skills in preparation for future promotion? Last, but not least, does the company promote from within or do they hire most leaders from the outside?

Are you fairly compensated

The question about compensation was purposefully left until the end. Every other question we have examined will feed into this one.

The old 1980's corporate mantra was :

"Employees work just enough not to get fired. Employers pay just enough so employees don't quit".

As stupid as this mantra sounds today, some older leaders still espouse this as a "nugget of wisdom" (do the companies values align with yours?).

The modern strategy of salary management dictates that companies must pay enough so employees aren't stressed about money and spend their mental energy on doing what they do best.

The real-world equation is more complicated and is a subjective evaluation of fair pay within the company (often difficult to judge because the information is not readily available), and compare to other organizations offerings for similar roles.

It is easy to understand why a company that compensates you properly, probably also values your skills and expertise properly.

Remember the MetLife survey, where employees were willing to work for less if the company's values aligned with their own? This is also true about the other 3 questions we previously discussed.

If you feel that the company's values don't align with yours and/or that the company doesn't offer career advancement and/or you dislike the people you work with, you may decide to stay but may demand a higher premium for the extra "suffering".

Conclusion

Ultimately this is a deeply personal introspection and one you must do honestly (regardless if you are a new graduate or a seasoned executive).

Your company evaluates you annually to decide if you are worth keeping, you should do the same and decide if the company is worth staying at.

Rebuilding broken Employee Engagement

GeneralEdward Kiledjian
Image by GDS-Productions used under Creative Commons License

Image by GDS-Productions used under Creative Commons License

Employee Engagement was incredibly popular in most mid to large organizations, then the recession hit and organizational survival become the modus operandi. It's not that employee engagement isn't important but rather less important than ensuring the survival of the company. 

With business and employee confidence back on the rise and the economy stabilizing, it's no wonder that HR departments and the organizational leadership are now trying to dial back into employee engagement (we are seeing employee engagement discussed at fireside chats during conferences, written about again in management magazines and discussed in HR oriented online forums.)

In the past couple of years, some organizations stopped measuring employee engagement for 2 reasons:

  • cost saving 
  • fearful of the results

The first point is fairly obvious, surveys cost money to prepare, deploy and analyze. In survival mode every penny counted and "superfluous" or "luxurious" items were the first to be cut.

The second point is the sheer fear HR departments and company leadership had about the results. When you cut staff, reduce pays, cut bonuses and otherwise get rid of most perks (from toys to training), you should expect it to hit employee engagement. Whether you measured it or not, the impact of these strict controls are very real on employee engagement and it will take time to fix all the damage.

Communication is often the chief complaint from employees and stressed out leaders tend to communicate less. Reduced communication leads to clouded visibility (by employees) and often feeds the rumour mill. Employees start to question the decisions made by their leaders. They feel ignored and unimportant. Some become extremely vocal about their unhappiness that I nickname them the "prophets of doom". 

“It is during these times of difficulty and turbulence that real leadership is discovered. Regardless of the challenges a leader is facing, he must be willing to keep the communication channels open and must be available to his people”
— Edward N Kiledjian

As a leader you must "pull up your pants" and keep communicating openly and honestly with your employees. Tell them what you can and don't make promises you can't keep. It's especially important not to hide in your office behind a closed door. The more difficult the situation, the more you must be available. Sure some confrontations will be painful but it's our job as leaders to take the good with the bad.

How to improve employee engagement?

Assuming you fell into the above mold, how can you now fix your employee engagement problem? First step is building the lines of communication. Honestly and sincerely communicate with your people. There is no such thing as over-communication. Be honest and share (within reason of course) the challenges being faced, the decisions being taken, why they are being taken and the opportunities you see. Share as much as you can about Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT). Show fortitude of character to take the heat in the tough times not just the glory in the good times.

Employee-employer trust is likely broken because of all the hard decisions most companies have had to take and like situations of infidelity, rebuilding trust takes time. Accept the fact that this is likely something you will have to work hard at for a while. Sincerity and honesty go a long way here. 

“Do what you say and say what you do.”
— Edward N Kiledjian

Like a 12 step program, be honest of any mistakes you (or the organization) have made and explain how you plan on correcting them. Your people are more resilient than you think and often times they can come up with much better and more creative solutions to your problems. Remember that two heads are better than one.

The rest of the solution is to constantly measure employee engagement and fine tune your plan.