The Bar Should Be Higher Than "Human": Elevating Workplace Standards in Professional Services
Recently, I asked someone how their new job was going. They paused. Then said:
“They seem human. Seem nice.”
“They seem human” should be a warning siren, not a compliment.
In professional services, where client trust is currency and intellectual capital drives revenue, the bar must be far higher.
Yet, talented professionals continue to celebrate basic decency as a hallmark of exceptional culture. We’ve normalized dysfunction so thoroughly that the absence of abuse now feels inspiring.
We’ve normalized dysfunction to such a degree that the absence of abuse feels inspiring.
There’s a path forward, and it starts with understanding why “human” became our ceiling instead of our floor.
The Cost of Low Standards: What the Data Wall Reveals
The numbers paint a devastating picture of the professional services culture.
Gallup's 2023 State of the Global Workplace shows only 23% of employees worldwide are engaged, while 18% are actively undermining their workplace. MIT Sloan School of Management research found that toxic culture is 10.4 times more predictive of attrition than compensation. A critical statistic when recruiting and training costs reach $100,000 or more per senior hire. Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends report confirms organizations prioritizing "human sustainability" outperform peers on every financial metric.
Here’s the real takeaway: In a $50 million professional services firm, a 12% boost in client metrics from higher engagement equals $6 million in new annual revenue. This isn’t kindness for kindness’ sake. It’s business survival. Treat it like HR fluff, and you’re ignoring a competitive threat that can gut your firm from the inside out.
How We Got Here: The Perfect Storm of Diminished Expectations
Four destructive trends converged to create our current crisis:
The Billable Hour Trap: Business models that maximize hours create inherent tension between human sustainability and financial performance, training leaders to view people as revenue units rather than strategic assets.
The "That's Just How It Is" Culture: Industries normalized dysfunction under tradition's guise. “That’s how it’s always been" isn't about necessary rigor. It's justification for poor leadership.
The Scarcity Mindset: Economic uncertainty created pervasive fear where "not terrible" became "good enough" and employees felt grateful just to have jobs.
Technology as False Solution: Organizations tried solving human problems with software while ignoring fundamental relationship issues. Technology amplifies culture; it doesn't create it.
What "Higher Standards" Actually Look Like in Practice
Moving beyond "human" requires redefining workplace excellence.
Based on research and observation of high-performing firms, the elevated standard includes:
Inspiring Leadership: Leaders connect individual contributions to meaningful outcomes, helping people understand not only what they're doing but also why it matters beyond immediate tasks.
Mutual Accountability: True accountability isn't just punishment for mistakes, but a shared commitment to excellence, where feedback flows in all directions and success becomes a team experience.
Growth-Oriented Culture: Every interaction becomes a development opportunity through heavy investment in coaching and mentoring. This isn’t an employee benefit. It’s a competitive advantage.
Sustainable Performance: Optimizing for long-term output rather than short-term extraction, recognizing that peak performance requires recovery and strategic thinking requires space.
The RISE Implementation Framework
For leaders ready to elevate standards, I've developed the RISE framework a systematic approach to building organizations that inspire rather than merely employ:
R — Recognize Current Reality: You can't improve what you won't acknowledge. Culture audits, exit interview analyses, client feedback reviews, and leadership 360s reveal gaps between intentions and actual effects.
I — Inspire Through Vision: High standards require compelling reasons. Purpose clarity, growth vision, and values integration move beyond wall posters to decision-making processes.
S — Systematize Excellence: Inspiration without systems fails. Hiring for culture, performance management redesign, recognition systems, and transparent decision-making frameworks embed standards into operations.
E — Evolve Continuously: High standards aren't static. Regular pulse surveys, leadership development investment, feedback loop creation, and experimentation mindset ensure sustainable progress.
The Leadership Challenge: Beyond Management to Inspiration
The transition from "human" to "inspiring" requires fundamental mindset shifts:
From Task Assignment to Purpose Connection: Move beyond "Here's what you need to do" to "Here's the challenge we're solving and how your unique skills contribute."
From Problem-Focused to Growth-Focused: Replace "Let me tell you what you're doing wrong" with "Let's explore what's working and how we can build on strengths."
From Individual Performance to Team Excellence: Transform "Your utilization rate needs improvement" into "How can we organize work so everyone contributes their best thinking while maintaining sustainable performance?"
Industry-Specific Implementation Strategies
Law Firms: Alternative billing models, mentorship programs, client development for junior staff, and work-life integration policies address billable hour pressure and hierarchical traditions.
Consulting Firms: Career path diversity, local market development, skills-based project assignment, alumni network cultivation, tackle travel demands, and up-or-out cultures.
Accounting Firms: Year-round workload planning, technology investment, advisory services expansion, clear promotion criteria, managing seasonal extremes, and limited growth visibility.
Marketing/Creative Agencies: Client boundary setting, creative process protection, diversified service offerings, talent development investment, address client-driven chaos and feast-or-famine cycles.
Measuring Progress: The KPIs That Matter
Employee Engagement: Pulse survey results, retention rates among high performers, internal promotion percentages, employee referral rates.
Performance Indicators: Client satisfaction scores, project success rates, innovation metrics, quality measures.
Cultural Health: Psychological safety index, development investment per employee, leadership effectiveness scores, work-life integration indicators.
Business Results: Revenue per employee, client retention rates, profit margins, market reputation metrics.
The Strategic Imperative
The question isn't whether you can afford to raise standards. It’s whether you can afford not to.
In an economy driven by knowledge work and human creativity, organizational culture isn't "nice-to-have." It's a competitive advantage.
When organizations with highly engaged workforces show 23% higher profitability, 18% higher productivity, and 40% lower turnover rates, the math becomes clear: higher standards aren't moral luxury (Gallup 2023). They’re a business necessity.
The Bottom Line: Humanity as Starting Point, Not Finish Line
When someone describes their workplace by saying "They seem human," they're revealing both a crisis and an opportunity.
Because if "human" feels exceptional, imagine how powerful truly inspiring leadership could be.
The bar should never be "human." It should be inspiring, mutually accountable, and growth-oriented. A place where people contribute meaningfully while still feeling like themselves.
If we can't offer that, we're not leading the way. We're managing bodies until they leave. In today's economy, that's not just morally insufficient; it's also economically unsustainable. It's strategically suicidal.
Every organization has the power to choose higher standards. Every leader can decide to inspire rather than simply manage. Every employee has the right to expect more than basic decency.
The question isn't whether we can elevate workplace standards in professional services. The question is whether we will.Because somewhere out there, someone is describing their workplace by saying, "They seem human."
And that person, and everyone like them, deserves so much more.
Ready to Elevate Your Workplace Standards?
For Leaders: I've developed a comprehensive Workplace Standards Diagnostic that assesses current culture against these benchmarks. The assessment encompasses all four RISE elements, providing specific improvement recommendations.
For Professionals: If you're in an environment where "human" feels like the bar, you deserve better. I offer confidential coaching to help high-performers navigate workplace cultures and make strategic career decisions.
For Organizations: Ready to implement the RISE model? I work with professional services firms to design and execute cultural transformation initiatives that drive both engagement and business results.
Sources
Gallup. “State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report.” Gallup, June 2023. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-global-workplace.aspx.
Sull, Donald, Charles Sull, and Ben Zweig. “Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation.” MIT Sloan Management Review, January 11, 2022. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/toxic-culture-is-driving-the-great-resignation/.
Deloitte Insights. “Focusing on Human Sustainability and Employee Wellbeing.” 2024 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends. Deloitte, 2024. https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/talent/human-capital-trends/2024/focusing-on-human-sustainability-and-employee-wellbeing.html.
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). “The Real Costs of Recruitment.” SHRM, February 23, 2022. https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/talent-acquisition/real-costs-recruitment.
Discussion Starter
What's your experience with workplace standards in professional services? Have you seen organizations successfully elevate their cultures, or are you navigating environments where "human" feels like the bar? Share your thoughts and experiences. Changing industry standards starts with honest conversations about current reality.
About the Author: With over 20 years advising consulting firms and federal contractors, Andrew Hernandez, MBA, SHRM-SCP, specializes in operational excellence and workforce strategy for professional services organizations. His insights on industry trends and workforce management have guided dozens of firms through growth, compliance, and competitive positioning challenges.