66 Leadership tips to create the 'best of the best' workplace culture with Shanyn Payne

Shanyn Payne is the Executive Director of Human Resources at Online Education Services (OES.edu.au) where she has been since 2011, part of the start up team. She guided the creation and implementation of all people related initiatives across the business including recruitment, remuneration, leadership development and organisational culture and engagement. All this through rapid expansion and growth. The efforts have not gone unnoticed, and OES has achieved and maintained Aon Hewitt Best Employer accreditation in 2014, 2015 and 2016. In 2017 they were named "The Best of the Best". *** SHOWNOTES: www.zoerouth.com/podcast/oes In this interview, Shanyn reveals: How you merge two distinct cultures - Swinburne University and Seek - to create a new business that thrives, instead of imploding like many joint ventures. The secret is in defining the culture from the beginning and making a decision to be a people first business. Culture of trust: what they did from the start to set them on track to be the Best of the Best of workplaces. This included discretionary sick leave and no probation period. How discretionary sick leave led to fewer average sick leave days taken. The recipe of fundamentals for creating a healthy workplace culture, and keep it going, even through rapid growth and expansion. These fundamentals include: Remuneration that is benchmarked, market rate, and transparent. Extensive and thorough leadership development for all managers. Incorporate values in to every day practices. Never compromise on values in the recruitment process. The surprising requests from staff that keep them engaged: focus on purpose, make the student experience better, and the occasional perk. How you can make remote employees be even more engaged than office staff with these three key actions: Create a sense of community with good online platform that has staff rooms, chatter rooms, tutor rooms to swap ideas, weekend chat places. Flexibility of hours and working arrangements Ongoing professional development Avoid these mistakes when trying to address culture: Thinking perks will fix things. You need to get the fundamentals right. Not listening to people. Seek input and opinions on engagement, improvements, and ideas. Make sure your actions match words: don't pay lip service to the values and behaviours you promise to uphold. The number one thing that keeps the culture healthy and accountable: the ability to give and receive effective feedback and create an environment where it is safe to do so. *** Related Episodes: Corporate Culture: An interview with Megan Bromley, RedBalloon E56 - How to Boost Morale in the Workplace E46 - There's more to listening than hearing - a marvellous interview with Oscar Trimboli *** About your podcast host, Zoë Routh: Zoë Routh is one of Australia's leading experts on people stuff - the stuff that gets in our way of producing results, and the stuff that lights us up. She works with the growers, makers, builders to make people stuff fun and practical. Zoë is the author of four books: Composure - How centered leaders make the biggest impact,  Moments - Leadership when it matters most, Loyalty - Stop unwanted stuff turnover, boost engagement, and build lifelong advocates, and People Stuff - Beyond Personalities: An advanced handbook for leadership. People Stuff was awarded Book of the Year 2020 by the Smart WFM Australian Business Book Awards. Zoë is also the producer of The Zoë Routh Leadership Podcast. www.zoerouth.com