| | DECEMBER 2020MANAGEHRMAGAZINE.COM8In MyOpinionAn increasingly disruptive and hypercompetitive business environment, compounded by a pandemic, social unrest, and ever shifting consumer demands, has created unprecedented change for organizations, and subsequently, chronic stress for employees. With mounting pressure for improved financial performance, organizations are engaged in an incessant drive to achieve more with less, at great cost. Organizations must confront the impact that workplace stress has on human and business performance, and take action to restore the health and wellness of employees. This article offers a brief overview of an example on how OD and HR, in close partnership with business leaders, can play a strategic role in strengthening business performance by leveraging technology and integrated data analysis to isolate root cause issues that cause harmful stress.Organizations often become immersed in a mindless pursuit of resolving symptomatic issues rather than addressing root cause origins, leading to a recurring pattern of futile, and wasteful, solutions that offer nothing more than temporary relief. Further, problems may be separated into business and `people' issues, with different teams committed to each, unintentionally exacerbating the situation. For progressive companies, Organizational Development (OD), enabled by technology and data analytics, is emerging as the `tip of the spear' to objectively guide leaders and teams into and through the change void by means of systemic analysis and diagnosis of root cause issues that erode both human performance and the execution of strategic imperatives. In this case example, an opportunity for OD originated when a review of employee engagement survey comments by HR suggested an unacceptable level of team stress. The problem was postured as "business performance impacted by eroding employee morale and motivation and increased turnover". Accordingly, the OD team was asked to conduct a comprehensive system analysis and to propose recommendations for the team to (1) return to growth AND (2) be a great place to work.Using a technique learned in the U.S. Coast Guard for safely navigating a ship by triangulating three terrestrial reference points to accurately determine location off coastlines, a methodology was designed to integrate and triangulate internal and external data points to pinpoint root cause factors. A thorough analysis was conducted that involved multiple `reference points':· 56 employee interviews (all levels, all teams) · YoY employee engagement data · YoY sales reports· YoY turnover reports· leadership 360 scores· customer data and feedback · operations survey dataA comprehensive analysis revealed several core factors suspected of impacting business performance.· Work overload,· Excessive decision makers,· Lack of accountability and authority, and· Lack of role clarity amongst teams and individualsWhat about the stress? Stress was acknowledged as an outcome and not a root cause. To examine workplace stress, the Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI) was administered online and had a 77% participation rate. The OSI is a self-assessment to examine organizational stressors (overload, ambiguity, boundaries, etc.), strains (vocational, psychological, physical, and interpersonal), and personal resources for coping (recreation, social support, rational skills, etc.). Using batch data obtained through the assessment platform we were able to analyze data by team and level, amongst other variables and to explore relationships with and between stressors and strains. The analysis revealed the most significant stressors were:ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT (OD) AS DIAGNOSTICIAN: THE EMERGENT ROLE OF OD AND TECHNOLOGY TO MANAGE WORKPLACE STRESS AND DRIVE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE By Chris Forando, VP, Organization Development, L'Oreal USA
< Page 7 | Page 9 >