by thepeopleplan | Jul 10, 2012 | Uncategorized
I have yet to meet a supervisor, manager, executive or business owner who tells me that their organization has it “easy “in the current economic climate.
What I do hear is that they have to:
- Adapt to a changing competitive environment
- Do more with less
- Consider how to keep profits with rising costs and lowering prices
- Respond faster to customer requests and orders
All of these business requirements trickle down to employees.
Surveys show that employees feel they are:
- expected to do the impossible
- overwhelmed with too much work
- 40% are stressed to the point of feeling “burned out”
- 64% are physically exhausted when they get home from work
This is not a recipe for creative products or world-class customer service.
If employees do not have the resources to do their jobs (time, information, approval, authority, the rest of the organization delivering on promises) they will become frustrated, lose engagement and then individual and company performance will decline.
A key element to improving your working conditions and employee work load is to collect employee suggestions and issues and then systematically address with process improvement.
Read more in Verne Harnish/ Gazelle article Dehassling your company
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by thepeopleplan | Jul 7, 2012 | Uncategorized
A leader is best when
- people barely know that she exists,
- not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
- worst when they despise her
- But of a good leader, who talks little, When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, They will all say, ‘We did this ourselves.’
-Lao Tzu
Most employees want to be involved in decisions that affect their work.
Every manager has her own style in how much they involve employees to make decisions that are important to their performance and to the quality of their working lives. Some choose to “command and control” and some are more lenient —see continuum of leadership chart below. Studies show that employees have higher engagement under a manager that is more participative and democratic (toward the right side of the chart).
Employees do not expect that they will make the final decision in all cases, but if it affects their work they want to at least be given an opportunity to discuss and suggest.
Read abstract of Tannenbaum & Schmidt article on this leadership continuum
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by thepeopleplan | Jun 21, 2012 | Uncategorized
Henry Ford said, “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”
When employees feel they are acquiring new skills, have development opportunities and a clear career path they are more likely to be engaged with their job and stay with the organization.
It is not enough to offer training programs, it is critical to communicate and provide appropriate and engaging learning and development opportunities to your employees (especially to Gen Y employees). If you identify high potential employees and systematically increase and broaden their skills, you will also do more to retain rising stars in your organization.
There are two types of development Job specific or in current knowledge area (depth) and new skills (breadth). Both are important but there are many reasons to expand the skill set of your employees to add new potential strengths:
- You don’t know what they might turn out to be great at, or interested in, beyond what their current role involves.
- You need to build a broader talent pool, a network of possible replacements that could be tapped as business needs change (or as key people leave the organization).
- You need to develop a strong learning culture, one where employees naturally seek out new skills and competencies with less explicit prodding from you or your HR partners.
- You want your people engaged and interested in the work and research shows that new, challenging assignments are one of the best ways to accomplish this.
(source: Taleo Research White Paper -Learning and Development: The New Business of Business Leaders)
Large employees are continuing to use training and career opportunities as part of their Total Rewards portfolio. A recent Aon Hewitt Total Rewards survey reports that over half of organizations focus on Career development (61%) and training/ learning (56%) to increase engagement and retention.
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by thepeopleplan | Jun 11, 2012 | Uncategorized
“Every company has a culture, whether they like or not. It’s an undercurrent, sometimes silent, sometimes outspoken.” (Tom Foster management blog)
Culture is the #1 factor that influences employee attitudes, actions and results and cannot easily be overcome by standard “motivational” tools (pay, incentives, performance reviews).
This post is an excerpt from a report of the 2012 Human Resource Roundtable was held at the Harvard Club in New York City.
“How many of you have worked in more than one organization? How many of you have noticed different attitudes, habits and ways of doing things? Did that cause different values and behaviors to show up? Culture is the unwritten ground rules. Everyone in an organization leads culture.” Senn Delaney, consultant.
What is culture?
- Culture is creating a sense of who you are as an organization and representing that culture in everything that is done in the organization.
- Culture is the history of the organization that defines how things get done.
- Culture is the attitudes, belief sets, values, written ground rules, and unwritten ground rules that set the tone of the organization.
Why does culture matter?
- A healthy, high-performance culture impacts financial performance and increases employee engagement (often twice that of low performing cultures).
- Companies with a strong and aligned culture perform better financially, are more resilient and last longer.
- Culture is a top concern for CEOs (fourth on a list of “top risk concerns”) and should be a critical part of a CEO’s strategic focus and business model.
How to change your culture (short list)
- Get consensus on organization direction and goals
- Build and communication the business case for the change and goals
- Communicate the required beliefs, values and activities (Culture) to support the goals
- Recognize and reward those employees that become committed and engaged with the direction (behaviors that support the Culture)
“The leader is a critical part of change; they either enable or create the culture.” — Craig Ivey, president, Consolidated Edison Company of New York Inc.
Read our related Blog post— Are your employees aligned to achieve organization’s goals? Some signs this is lacking….
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by thepeopleplan | Jun 7, 2012 | Uncategorized
To achieve your organization’s goals, you need employees that are competent in their jobs, committed to the goals (believe in values and direction) and engaged to use their talents to achieve those goals.
When employees do not share the values of the organization, do not believe that they can/ should work toward the goals, or do not perform with the required activities (actions) to achieve their own required results, there is mis-alignment in the organization.
Signs of lack of alignment:
- People remain silent and don’t voice their opinions when you call for a decision/ input
- You are being surprised by the actions people take because they are inconsistent with the agreed-upon direction or core values
- You don’t see tangible progress on goals when by all rights you should be moving forward
- In meetings, people keep bringing up the issues that you thought were resolved
- People complain, make excuses, and blame others for lack of results
- You observe a lack of ownership and enthusiasm for implementing an established course of action
- People voice disagreement with a decision or a direction that has already been taken
The solution:
A company’s culture will not become aligned by itself. This change will take a concerted effort to brief alignment to the fundamental beliefs that employees (including managers) hold that prevents the change in behaviors to support the new direction. Here are the overall steps to the “Leadership Alignment Process.”
- Get consensus on direction and goals
- Build and communication the business case for the change and goals
- Communicate the required beliefs, values and activities to support the goals
- Recognize and reward those that become committed and engaged with the direction
-source, Partners in Leadership Culture Change model
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