Becoming an Employer of Choice: This Isn’t Your Father’s Oldsmobile - Dr. Lawrence Firkins, University of Illinois, from the 2020 Minnesota Pork Congress, held January 28 - 29, 2020, Minneapolis, MN, USA. More presentations at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_5bHW6MgRAxDHcrbY42-xvfSZdMGNdQD

1. L.D. Firkins
University of Illinois
College of Veterinary Medicine
11
Becoming An Employer of Choice
This Isn’t Your Father’s Oldsmobile
2020 Minnesota Pork Congress

3. Becoming the Employer of Choice
• Doesn’t happen by accident
• Responding as the rules of the game are changing in
order to maintain relevance
• Managing generational expectations
• What people value in a job and why they leave
• Creating a culture for success
• Effectively sending the message that you are part of this
team
3 3

4. Becoming the Employer of Choice
• Doesn’t happen by accident
• Responding as the rules of the game are changing in
order to maintain relevance
• Managing generational expectations
• What people value in a job and why they leave
• Creating a culture for success
• Effectively sending the message that you are part of this
team
4 4

5. “As a business you are going
to change…. you can either
see it coming and pick how
you get better, or you can
have it imposed on you. The
ones that have it imposed on
them are called the ‘losers’
and history is littered with
them.”
Sir Gordon Hewitt
Key Pork Producers Meeting
Responding: Changes in the Rules of the Game
5

6. There are no prizes for getting better at the wrong
game.
Its not just about getting better, many times it is
about getting different.
Continuous improvement or Disruptive improvement
Sir Gordon Hewitt
6

7. “It is amazing how our best companies keep
backing off our biggest challenges
and instead take on second order issues
because they are easier to solve.”
Larry Page
Co-Founder of Google
Former CEO, Alphabet
7
Innovation: Addressing First Order Challenges

8. Are you taking on your biggest challenges?
What is the single biggest issue/opportunity facing the
swine industry/your business that you are backing away
from and instead taking on secondary issues that are
easier?
Who’s responsibility is it to define/champion?
Why are you at your business, what is your passion, and
what does your business need to be doing in 5 years in
order to be viewed as being relevant?
8
Innovation: Addressing First Order Challenges

9. Losing Relevance
9

10. PayPal Evolution
• 1998: eBay – ability for electronic transfer of funds
• Existing banks – not our business, 4 individuals
• 2002: sold to eBay for $1.5 billion
• 2014 spun off as independent business
• $90.1 billion market-cap value today
• 203 million active users in 202 countries
• $315 million a day in transactions
• 87% of millennials use Paypal – pay and receive $$
• 83% market share

11. Losing Relevance
11

12. Kodak
-Best film and printer paper
-Got disconnected from the future of the industry
-Bankruptcy in 2012 after 131 years in existence
Continuous vs Disruptive Improvements
12

13. Instagram
-“The home for visual storytelling”
-#1 photo sharing app - a community of more than
600 million who capture and share the world's
moments on the service
-0 to $1 Billion in 2 years, purchased by Facebook
Changing the Game to Maintain Relevance
13

14. Borders
• 40 years ago when Borders opened it’s first store,
the book industry was a different business, but
for years Borders acted like it wasn’t
• From 659 stores to bankruptcy
• Missed the market signals
- Too late to the internet - outsourced to Amazon
- Too late to e-books - no Kindle, no Nook
- Invested heavily in CD sales – shift to digital music
14
Losing Relevance

15. Amazon
• “The Everything Store”
• Placed one of the first and largest bets on
the Internet and forever changed the way
we shop and read
• In just 24 years:
- 4th largest company in America
- Market Cap Value: $795 billion
15
Changing the Game to Maintain Relevance

16. Borders or Amazon
Kodak or Instagram
Encyclopedia Britannica or Microsoft
Xerox or Canon
Minnesota Pork Industry or…………………..
16
Staying Relevant – choosing your path

18. “Pork: It comes from a pig, not Silicon Valley,” will
help raise awareness of plant-based products
violating labeling law.
- Jim Monroe, NPPC assistant vice president of communications.
18

19. “What’s impossible is to make pork from plants,” This is a
brazen attempt to circumvent decades of food labeling
law and centuries of precedence. It’s not pork. It’s not
pork sausage. It can’t be labeled as such.”
-Dan Kovich, NPPC director of science and technology
19

20. • WE HAVE A SIMPLE MISSION: TO REPLACE
THE USE OF ANIMALS AS A FOOD-
PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY, GLOBALLY, BY
2035.
• Impossible Foods already offers a beef
alternative in its Impossible Burger.
• Front page of their website:
“Impossible Pork Made from Plants”
20
Impossible Foods

21. Becoming the Employer of Choice
• Doesn’t happen by accident
• Responding as the rules of the game are changing in
order to maintain relevance
• Managing generational expectations
• What people value in a job and why they leave
• Creating a culture for success
• Effectively sending the message that you are part of this
team
21 21

22. Progressing in the Future
Every generation that enters the workforce causes
stress, frustration, and criticism from the
generations already employed.
Knowing and understanding what makes us
different is the secret to determining strategies and
actions that can transform the workplace.
22

23. “Each generation imagines itself to be more
intelligent than the one that went before it and
wiser than the one that comes after it.”
- George Orwell, 1945
23
Progressing in the Future

24. This is Nothing New
• “There is a growing generation
gap in the workforce that is
frustrating employees of all
ages.”
• 74% believed a generational
gap existed in 1974
• 79% believe a generational gap
exists today
24

25. The Most Multi-Generational Workforce in History
• Millennials currently are over
40% of the workforce and will
swell to 75% by 2025
• Boomers are extending their
working lives for financial
reasons and reasons of
professional satisfaction
The Deloitte Millennial Survey, 2014 25

26. How Do We Manage Generational Expectations?
• Are you willing to adapt?
• Are you willing to explore
what comes natural for
the other generations?
• Are you willing to invest
in developing
relationships?
• The current on this does
not flow strictly in one
direction.
26

27. Becoming the Employer of Choice
• Doesn’t happen by accident
• Responding as the rules of the game are changing in
order to maintain relevance
• Managing generational expectations
• What people value in a job and why they leave
• Creating a culture for success
• Effectively sending the message that you are part of this
team
27 27

28. Employees Share These Common Needs
• We have a need for:
• Mastery: the feeling of being really good at something
• Belonging/purpose: we long to belong, to be part of
something bigger then ourselves, to feel included
• Autonomy: the feeling that we are not
strictly forced to comply at the hands
of others, but rather are the
authors of at least some decisions
Drive, Daniel Pink 2009 28

29. Am I part of the team? Is there a fit for me?
• Personalization
• Knowing the name of each person
• A method of measurement
• We keep score
• Are we winning or losing?
• How am I doing?
• Relevance – connecting my job with the bigger picture of
what is occurring at your business
• How each person makes a difference
The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, 2007
29

30. Creating a Culture for Success
“Developing a culture of world class teams will
continue to be the great differentiator.”
Pat Hord
Keynote Address, CVS Annual Meeting
Sept 1, 2015
’18 Pork Masters: Hord Family Farms
committed to growth with purpose
Permission for use granted by Mr. Pat Hord

31. Culture of World Class Teams
“Culture is not what you proclaim”
“It is what you practice, promote, and permit”
-Tim Kight,
www.Focus 3.com
@TimothyKight

32. Culture of World Class Teams
•It is what normal looks like
•Intense, active listening
•Profuse amounts of eye contact
•Everyone talks to everyone
•Handshakes, fist bumps, shoulder grasps
•Laughter and acknowledgements
The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle

33. •During the first week, the new hire
receives a letter from a senior leader
•Gains an understanding of their role
within the company
•Is started on a day other then a Monday
and made to feel welcome to the point
they tell someone – like their family
•Is paired with your best people
•Everyone wears a name tag
33
Creating Culture Starts on Day One

34. Good Morning
Larry
Welcome to ___________
We have you set up in this shower.
We are looking forward to you being
with us today.

35. Good Morning
Larry
Welcome to ___________
We have you set up in this shower.
We are looking forward to you joining
our team.

36. •30 day, 60 day, or 90 day mark
•Is the job what you expected?
•Are you getting all the information you
need, adequate tools, adequate training?
•Are you facing any roadblocks in hitting
your goals?
•In your time here, what is the best thing
that has happened to you?
36
Creating The Culture For Success

37. • A powerful factor is whether individuals do
most of their work on a team
• Those that did were more then twice as likely
to be fully engaged than those who said they
did most of their work alone
• The people they worked with and their
interactions with them was only surpassed by
the level of trust they had in their team
leader
37
What Drives Engagement
ADP Research Institute, 2019

38. 38
The Power of Trust
ADP Research Institute, 2019
8
17
45
Not on a team On a team On a team AND have a
deep trust of leader
Percent Fully Engaged

39. Concepts most closely
associated with trust:
• At work, I clearly understand
what is expected of me
• I am included in conversations
• The video matches the audio
• Consistency, repeatability,
confidence
39
Team Leaders Building Extreme Trust
ADP Research Institute, 2019

40. 30 minute one-on-ones
• What are your priorities this week?
• How can I help by offering a tip,
advising, paying attention?
Weekly, 10 minute check-ins
• Follow 80/20 ratio
• Help me understand
• Talk more about that
40
Coaching: Steps To Building Trust
The Effective Manager, Horstman, 2016

41. Becoming the Employer of Choice
• Doesn’t happen by accident
• Responding as the rules of the game are changing in
order to maintain relevance
• Managing generational expectations
• What people value in a job and why they leave
• Creating a culture for success
• Effectively sending the message that you are part of this
team
41 41

42. The Best Team Wins
Sports Illustrated, June 2014 42
• San Antonio Spurs: Uniqueness of Gregg Popovich
• Hard core, old school, unapologetic,
authoritarian
• Won 117 more games than should have based
on talent level, double next closest coach
• He tells you the truth, he fills their cup
• Eat together as often as play basketball
together
The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle

43. The Best Team Wins
Sports Illustrated, June 2014 43
• San Antonio Spurs: Uniqueness of Gregg Popovich
• Address gap between where are and ought to be
• High candor feedback - uncomfortable truth
telling
• You are part of this group
• Group is special with very high standards
• Believe you can reach those standards
• We will help you reach those standards
• We will not lower those standards
The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle

44. Becoming the Employer of Choice
“True leaders rise to the
occasion and provide
people with what they
need, even when they
themselves are
overwhelmed.”
- John Maxwell
44