I recently visited a client who gave me a tour of their newly remodeled workspace.  Among the changes, they decreased the size of their partner offices and changed their conference rooms to create more open space, including a town hall workspace so employees could sit in comfortable chairs and unwind, double as an open lunch area, and host their all-staff meetings.  The space was impressive! When I asked my client 'why' they made the changes, their reasoning was that by applying new best practices to their physical space, they could create an environment that was stimulating, fun and professional that would have a positive impact on their employees' productivity and ability to collaborate.

Often our clients come to us to help them identify best practices and new ideas in human resources and employee development when they discover that the 'status quo' isn't working. Most want us to assist them to identify and apply new ideas and fresh thinking to their organizational challenges. There is always one small catch: what works this year, may not work in the future or that what works well for some organizations may not be the right formula for their firm.  When it comes to best practices, there really is no such thing as a one size fits all approach.

Best practices are about finding the most effective way of doing something.  More often than not, this requires consistent evaluation of your organization, competitors and industry as a whole.  It shouldn't be a start and stop process, but something that HR or your Talent Advocate can lead on a consistent basis.

Assess what is working well, and get rid of the things and/or change the things that are less effective.  If your employee referral program isn't working, change it!  If your lunch/learn training programs are stale - find out from your staff what they want to learn about. The more that organizations can assess what is working well, and change the things that aren't, the greater chance for continued success in today's business environment.

So, look outside of your comfort zone and see what's happening in your world of work and try on something new!  You might be surprised how well it fits your organization!