The Stuff of Legends!

I've been getting to know a few new clients recently. They've been introducing me to their culture and I've been helping them learn a bit from their demographics.  In writing a report for one client yesterday, I was repeating back to them a factoid they gave me. It went something like, "70% to 80% of new employees make it through the first year and tend to stay." I stopped typing.

It is exciting, but is it true? Do they have the data for it?

Every company has legends. Stories that they use to define the company as a hero. You have them in your company. You have them in HR. The thing is that, like all legends, things have been polished up a bit to build in drama. Or they may have been true once but over time the story has become more reassuring than accurate.

Or one day a few people wished upon a star.

Some legends are powerfully tied to the company's sense of self and should be negotiated carefully. Odds are Marissa Mayer thought she was tackling a legend when she limited telecommuting at Yahoo! She still thinks it was the right thing for the business.

Let legends automatically guide our decisions and over time our decisions will become dusty. This can be bad for the business, our employees and, frankly, our careers.

If people at your place of business toss around legends, especially if they involve a belief that things are just so, it's a good idea to check them out. ("We target the 75%ile" is a good one, if your market index is hovering around .6. Another is, "We pay for performance" when most employees are surprised by their performance ratings or the size of their incentives.)

Anybody out there have favorite legends to share?

Margaret O'Hanlon is founder and Principal of re:Think Consulting. She'll join Ann Bares and Dan Walter of the Compensation Cafe to speak the unspoken -- Everything You Do (in Compensation) Is Communication -- in an upcoming book. Margaret brings deep expertise in compensation, career development and communications to the dialog at the Café. Before founding re:Think Consulting, she was a Principal with Towers Watson. Margaret is Deputy Director of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Pacific Plains Region. She earned her M.S. and Ed.S. in Instructional Technology at Indiana University, Bloomington. Creative writing is one of her outside passions, along with Masters Swimming.

Comments

[Vidal F.]

For me the best one, and I believe most used is "We're a pay for performance company" or "Our performance management system is flawless".
Many companies out there that preach such legends, are actually the ones that require a strong boost on the Total Rewards and Performance Management culture and practices. Great article – thanks

[Margaret O'Hanlon]

Flawless is such a wonderful idea! I'd like to meet the reality that is flawless. Thanks for your contributions, Vidal. Great stuff.