Pokemon Go lessons to improve your Employee Relations

No, this isn’t about your people taking a long lunch to find and capture Pokemon’s and the drain on productivity.

This is about the evolution of Pokemon and how it compare to the evolution of employee relations. Pokemon started in 1996 as a video game, then trading cards, a tv series, graphic novels and now into an app that is getting people walking and making dogs very tired (from all the extra walking). Pokemon has gone from being a very sedentary activity to being active, without losing it’s fan base and acquiring more fans along the way. Some aspects of the app need you to walk up to 5km before something happens. If you have a business that relies on foot traffic, I would suggest figuring out how to make your place a poke-stop.

So what does have to do with employee relations?

Employee Relations has gone through a similar evolution however not everyone is up on the latest. Employee Relations has it’s roots in Labor Unions, where the focus was on pay and health. Back in the day, workers who earned very little had major health problems and passed away young. Once that was established it turned to Vocation Training (think plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc.).  The focus moved to On-The-Job-Training, how to promote from within, work/life balance to the current issues of motivation/purpose/engagement. Long gone are the days of the “suggestion box” or bonus to keep people at the company – after all that was the time of “lifetime employment”, people staying with one job until retirement.

As technology has changed and different generations are making their way through the workforce companies are finding they also need to change or evolve with the times. Employee relations is no longer a one issue cause to make the long-term employment journey more interesting. It has become a business necessity to keep employees engaged and working towards the goals of the company for the length of their employment.

So how can you turn your employee relations into a Pokemon Go game that has people running around, chasing goals and constantly wanting more? To translate that into Employee Relations terms you want to people actively engaged in your business, working towards the same goals, and striving to perform better.

How to do it?

• They have to know your vision for the company
• Make sure each employees knows how their role impacts the organization
• They understand their contribution to company goals
• They enjoy their work
• There is no guessing about how the company is doing because you are telling them

This is just the starting point, get to know each person and understand what motivates them to do good work. Once you understand their motivation you can trigger it with the type of work they are doing.

Make sure you have teamwork and no petty arguments.

Want to learn more about what you can do? Contact me to schedule a discussion of your needs, reach me at either [email protected] or 773.531.8199.