Katie Ellis [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome everyone. This is Katie Ellis, President and CEO of our TriVillage Chamber of Commerce, and you are listening to the Business Inspires Podcast. We have our brilliant co-host and pro podcaster, Brett Johnson here with us.
Brett Johnson [00:00:14]:
Thank you. It's great to be back.
Katie Ellis [00:00:16]:
And we have a treat for all of you today. Dr. Eric Hutchison of Hutchison Consulting. He holds a BBA in marketing, MBA and MS and Ph.D. in Industrial Organizational psychology. With more than 20 years of professional experience and 15 years of teaching, his firm specializes in strategic planning, organizational and individual development, employee engagement, and career counseling. Eric, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:00:43]:
Thank you so much for having me.
Katie Ellis [00:00:45]:
And we had the pleasure of meeting you earlier in this year and learning more about you. But before we get into any of that, we want to share something that you're offering, a free employee Experience Consultation. Can you share just a bit about that?
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:00:59]:
Yeah, absolutely. So the employee Experience Consultation is really to talk with the business owner or a leader in the organization to hear what's going well with the employees. What would they like to see that is a little bit different? What are some things that they've tried that maybe have worked well or haven't gone well? And from there, that really helps me to make some recommendations on ways to improve that employee's experience.
Katie Ellis [00:01:25]:
Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. And can you share a bit more about your background and why did you start your consulting firm?
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:01:34]:
Sure. So my background started in the financial industry, and I was in the financial industry for 20 years, and I had some tremendous experiences while I was in undergrad. I worked in collections for a bank and I really enjoyed it. The focus was helping people more financially plan and understand how to correct out of the collections process rather than a stick approach, if you will. And by providing that advice and helping identify needs, it created sort of a habit with me of what does the individual need in order to move beyond where they are. And so I went into the management program after graduating, and I moved to Columbus from Akron to manage a banking center. And this was right at about the time of Y two K. So there was a lot of uncertainty in the financial industry. Working in the branches was also a way to help identify needs with clients. So my career progressed into branding and marketing, and I went to study my MBA in 2002 while still working in banking. And it was during that that one of my independent studies was conducting a focus groups for a marketing research opportunity. So again, helping identify the needs for people is really where I started to see that was the direction that I wanted to go in long term. And at the time I thought I would go on to study organizational behavior, but when the time came that I was ready to go back to school to really support three areas teaching, research, and consulting, it was organizational psychology that I identified as being a great fit for me. So I'll share an analogy that I attribute to Jim Herndon, who was my dissertation chair. The analogy for organizational psychology is that if you're setting up an aquarium, it's very similar to setting up a business. You want to understand how big is the aquarium going to be? Is it going to be freshwater or saltwater, and what is our goal for this aquarium? And then you start making a list, here's everything that can go into my 100 gallon saltwater aquarium, and these are the features, and this is what I would expect to benefit from each of these types of things. And then once the aquarium is built and established, then you're managing to the PH. So for industrial and organizational psychology, that making a list of, here's everything that I need that will go in to make the organization successful. That is the selection process. It's the job descriptions, and it's what types of experiences and skills do we need for people to bring to the company? And then once they're in the company, that's the organizational psychology part. How do you maintain balance within the organization? Making sure that the predators aren't taking over, making sure there isn't too much algae. Right. So that's done, obviously, through studying the employee experience, as well as identifying ways that performance is managed and what type of training and development need to take place.
Katie Ellis [00:04:54]:
And then what made you decide to go out as an entrepreneur and start your own firm?
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:05:00]:
I decided to start my own business when I knew that I was leaving corporate America, because it gave me a way to start meeting clients in different segments and different industries. And I started out helping clients with strategic planning. That was my background at the end of my corporate career, was a lot of operationalizing of methods and plans and processes. So helping small businesses with things like that was really rewarding. And as I went through the I O psychology program, I could then start adding more services and developing into the selection and the organizational development process. And having my own business really gave me the flexibility to work a range of hours while still working toward the degree that's fantastic.
Brett Johnson [00:05:55]:
Yeah. Wow. It's interesting because I run into and work with a lot of other businesses as well, that once they see that strategic planning, it's that looking holistically, I guess you could say, versus like, okay, we have to create this widget, or we have to sell, sale, sale.
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:06:10]:
Sure.
Brett Johnson [00:06:11]:
So I guess the question for me is, how important do you see strategic planning for any size organization or business? What will that strap plan help them do?
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:06:20]:
Sure. And you're absolutely right. That's where a client has done they're an expert in their trade. Right. But they have not had training on hiring and development and they haven't had experience on identifying what the strategic plan or the vision and mission of the organization is. And so really having them look at what is their current vision and their mission for the organization, what does that look like in three years and what needs to happen over the next three years in order to achieve that goal? And so that's where the strategic plan comes in. And then the next phase of that is then saying, how do we align the employees and the resources of your organization to this plan? What do we need to do from a development perspective in order to achieve this goal and this vision that you have?
Brett Johnson [00:07:20]:
All right, I've been through a couple of strap plans, sessions for a nonprofit and everybody was just so I don't like going through this. I thought it was freeing because you got to see the pros and the cons, and it also gave you that opportunity for a working document and the opportunity to say no to something because it doesn't align with what you're doing.
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:07:41]:
Absolutely.
Brett Johnson [00:07:41]:
Or you're all in because, yes, this is what we're going to do, versus, well, we should do this. And you have five people around the table going, you don't know where you're going. All of a sudden you have a roadmap, it's a GPS on what you want to do, a variable GPS, but you're going somewhere right. Versus every opportunity at the table, oh, we could do that, we could do that.
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:08:02]:
It's a hodgepodge.
Brett Johnson [00:08:03]:
You don't know what you're doing.
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:08:04]:
Absolutely.
Brett Johnson [00:08:05]:
Yeah. Amazing.
Katie Ellis [00:08:06]:
And can you share a little bit about strategies that you use in just a general sense and maybe an example or a story that stands out in your mind?
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:08:15]:
So, from an organization perspective, one strategy is really looking at the leadership team and identifying what their roles and responsibilities are if the CEO's focus is not on organizational growth and idea generation and instead they're spending a lot of time in the details in the operations, that might not be what's best for the business. Right. So maybe helping the CEO switch from COO to CEO and while where at times it may be very necessary for them to step out of the idea generation mentality and focus on critical details for the business, that really would be more a role of that division's leader or the CEO or the COO. I'm sorry. However, in a lot of small businesses, sometimes the CEO is also responsible for marketing and maybe human resources. Right. So it's really having an understanding of what everybody is responsible for and is that the area that they should be focused on? Is that where their skill set is? And sometimes it's just a matter of shifting some things around within a small business or an organization and identifying those clarity for those roles. That relieves a lot of that tension that may have been preventing growth and expansion.
Brett Johnson [00:09:48]:
Now we spend a lot of time talking about strategic planning. I'm wondering if the listener is kind of going, wow, this sounds like a long time to do this. What is a timetable for strategic planning from beginning to end? Again, I know there's probably no set answer to that, but we're not talking years here, right?
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:10:05]:
No. And in fact, from a strategic planning perspective, strategic planning is very much like any maintenance activity. It's something that should be top of mind on a regular basis and in that daily decision making process. Hey, do I understand and this is from the senior leadership of the organization to entry level is do I understand how what I'm doing applies to our mission and vision of the organization? And that in effect, is it supporting the strategy for the company. And so it's really an ongoing long term initiative to where it may need to be tweaked and there may need to be other things in the organization that change to support that. But that initial exercise of going through, what are the goals and how do we get there that isn't nearly as long as the three years to get there.
Brett Johnson [00:11:04]:
Good. Okay.
Katie Ellis [00:11:06]:
And then moving to employee engagement, what do you see being the biggest benefit of multigenerational employees? And how can you help businesses and organizations work through the generational divide that can happen?
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:11:20]:
Sure. So we'll start with employee engagement. And that's a great part of my business because really what I am able to do is help businesses identify and better understand what the employee is experiencing on a daily basis that is contributing to that engagement. So you could have an employee satisfaction survey that tells you whether the employees are happy or not. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're engaged. And to figure out what are the contributing factors for their engagement. One of the major pieces that is a predictor of engagement is whether there's a sense of belonging for the employee. And that is so important, especially now as we've seen through the great resignation and people really wanting to have jobs where they feel that is a good fit for them and that they have that sense of belonging. And that transfers over to multigeneration employees because you mentioned the generational divide. And so in the literature, in the academics, we talk about these as generational cohorts. And so for each of the boomers, the xers, the millennials, and what I hear a lot of times somebody will say is, oh, I just can't understand how to communicate with these millennials. And I say, let's step back and look at this from a different lens that millennials, just as any other generational cohort, is a group of people. And we wouldn't say that about a group's ethnicity. Right. So that right there helps reframe the exercise of, oh, I didn't realize that this is actually like a cultural diversity lens. That we need to be looking through in order to address this. And so going back then to belonging is to say how do we ensure that the individuals in these groups understand the complexity that each one of the groups have in terms of work style, communication, workplace behaviors and perspective about what it means to be engaged. And it's encouraging when I see a company that does have multigeneration employees because as problems become more complex to solve, having a complex infrastructure to look at those from different lenses that each generation has is a much better way to solve problems than if everybody is of the same blank.
Brett Johnson [00:14:12]:
Yeah.
Katie Ellis [00:14:13]:
And one of the statistics that you cite on your website about hiring strategies is the cost associated with replacing employees. Could you speak to the tangible and intangible costs associated with this and how to mitigate those costs?
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:14:30]:
Sure. So the tangible costs are the cost to recruit, to run through a selection process and then to onboard and train. And that's really expensive, especially in a small business where it may be a solopreneur who's adding somebody for the first time that then becomes a tremendous part of their time investment that isn't being used to generate revenue. And so if they don't have the budget to hire somebody to assist with that process, then how can I help them? By using the appropriate tools and developing types of selection methods that are specific to their organization so that there is a greater probability that they're hiring somebody who will be a fit and where we can predict that this individual will be a good performer. Because when we then look at the intangible costs of not being a fit and not being a strong performer is this individual may not be contributing to revenue as quickly as you expected them to, but by not being a fit, they may also be off putting to your clients. And if you are not a solopreneur and you have a larger organization and you hire somebody who isn't identified as a fit for the organization, what does that mean in terms of disruption to, again, going back to that aquarium analogy, the PH of the organization?
Brett Johnson [00:16:00]:
Yeah. Wow. So as you work with individuals and organizations, what trends are you seeing happening?
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:16:08]:
One of the trends that is really important and it goes back to that sense of belonging and what does that mean for somebody to belong? And so a lot of times when you hear of an organization going through cultural diversity training or cultural competence training, the employees got confused because they don't really know what's expected of them. And they may already feel like hey, I belong here. But then there also may be a group of employees that don't. And really before entering into any type of training like that, we go back to the employee experience. And if we have an idea and if we've measured which groups have that sense of belonging and which ones don't, that can really help shape the way that training is developed and implemented so that it is specific to the organization and it is relatable to the employees and then it's actionable. We can start seeing expect to see that those ratings change by measuring them over time through like a Pulse survey, if you will. That way it's sustainable rather than we're checking a box by having an employee satisfaction survey and we're checking a box by doing this type of training. It really is more beneficial to the organization to know exactly what the focus should be.
Brett Johnson [00:17:32]:
It sounds as though companies need to have a healthy look at the branding that they do for the company, that it equals what it's actually going on inside too.
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:17:41]:
That's a great point. And part of my career before working in I O psychology was in marketing and branding. And so what is that message that is being sent to not only your clients but also your prospective employees? So if you're looking for a certain type of employee with a certain skill set but they don't have a relationship with your brand, that could deter them from applying and the perspective of the candidates who go through your selection process. One of the things that I share with clients or if I'm working with an individual on career development is that your experience in the selection process is a realistic preview of what it's going to be like when you get into the organization. So if they're responsive to you throughout the selection process, chances are they're going to be responsive to you when you're in the organization. But if you feel if you're going days and weeks at a time without any follow up, you may find yourself having more autonomy in the organization than maybe you're looking for. However, if that is what you're looking for, that may be an indicator that you will be a good fit there that the check ins aren't on a regular basis. So really understanding what some of those signals mean that you could be getting from the organization.
Brett Johnson [00:19:08]:
Interesting.
Katie Ellis [00:19:09]:
Fascinating. So when it comes to everything that you offer the strategic planning, organizational, individual development, employee engagement, and career counseling, do you have a favorite?
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:19:22]:
This question is one I get asked on a regular basis. And the great thing about being an independent consultant and having my own business is that I don't work on anything that I don't like to work on.
Katie Ellis [00:19:38]:
Freedom.
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:19:40]:
Right? It's fantastic. And it would be really difficult. It's like you have your favorite restaurant that you go to and there are a lot of things on the menu that you really enjoy and that's where you have the hardest time making a decision is because you want to experience as much of it as possible. And so for me, the work that I do with organizations, whether they're in the public sector or the private sector or they're a nonprofit, it really is helping to identify what their needs are. And if it's something that isn't my expertise or it's not something I enjoy doing, I have a great network of colleagues that also include other Iosychologists who may be a better fit for them than I am. And I'm very fortunate to have some great people that work for me on my team all in a contractor basis who also have various backgrounds and maybe somebody who is within my network through Hutchison Consulting that can help with that.
Brett Johnson [00:20:47]:
I think it's a benefit of working with a smaller company too. Trivillillage Chamber Partnership that's mostly the makeup is small businesses that if the members can work with each other as well as the businesses that are members, as you just said, you have a network of people. When I think of work with larger organizations, they kind of want to keep it all to themselves and they don't refer out because they're afraid of losing the business where we work on a different level.
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:21:13]:
Right.
Brett Johnson [00:21:14]:
We work on that referral, we work toward that referral. And I think that's a big benefit of working with a smaller company is that they're there to help you even if it's an outsourcing, that, okay, I can't do it, but I know somebody that can. There's no downside to that.
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:21:28]:
That's right at all. I agree with you on that point. And I was just in a meeting before this one where one of the areas that we were talking about is an area that I have zero experience in. And I just said of the five areas that we discussed, the one area that I don't have any experience in is this one. However, I didn't have any experience in some of these other areas before I ventured into them marketing, branding, organizational psychology. So learning it would not be something I would be opposed to doing, but the time may be better spent in some of the other areas we discussed initially before venturing into an unknown.
Brett Johnson [00:22:09]:
Yeah, well, this next question is going to go right into your offer in regards to working with businesses to kind of that initial consult. Is that what's the one takeaway that people can implement or ponder in order to make a positive impact within themselves or within their organization and that could lead to that. Okay, I'm going to think about this, but I need to get a hold of you and ponder this and pull some more stuff out of this.
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:22:30]:
Sure. There are two things, maybe even three things that they could take away from that initial. One is really having an opportunity to discuss with somebody what has worked well and what hasn't. And that's really an indicator in that initial conversation for me to understand the type of climate in the organization when they feel that one thing may have performed better than another. It gives me an idea of what the employees are receptive to it may be, wow, I'm really having a hard time communicating with this person in the organization. I don't understand. Every time I want to talk about this topic, they shut down. And by understanding workplace behaviors and workplace personalities, it may just be a difference in the way that problems are addressed. Some people really have a direct approach to problem solving and they want to discuss it with multiple people, whereas somebody else may have a much more intro some people may have a much more introverted approach where they want to think about it and analyze it for a while. Well, those two are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to problem solving. And so the person who's direct and wants to have a group of people debating and talking about different ideas and ways to solve the problem could view the person who's more introverted as they just shut down. They don't want to be involved and they shut me out. And where that isn't at all what's going on, in fact, they're running through, in some cases, many different opportunities or permutations of problem solving. And they do that in their head rather than out loud. Whereas that person may also view the person who wants to talk about it as being distracting, so helping them understand, oh, wow, that's just maybe their approach of problem solving. And we might get to the same solution and we might agree on a solution long term, but we just have different paths of getting to the final destination.
Katie Ellis [00:24:32]:
Fantastic. Again, fascinating. And then how can people get a hold of you?
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:24:39]:
LinkedIn or through my website. There is a link on every page of my website to generate an email, to ask a question, or to reach out, to schedule an appointment. And also on LinkedIn I have an individual page as well as a company page. So messaging through any of those three methods and again mentioning this podcast, we'll get an appointment set up and talk about what's going on.
Katie Ellis [00:25:10]:
Beautiful. Thank you so much for joining us and we're so happy to have you as a new member.
Dr. Eric Hutchison [00:25:17]:
Thank you very much. It's my pleasure.
Katie Ellis [00:25:19]:
Lucky to have.