Putting A Stop To Workplace Conflict

When was the last time that you or someone in your team had a disagreement, misunderstanding or conflict? How much are these workplace conflicts costing you in wasted time, energy, effort, lost productivity and lost revenue? Are you tired of spending so much time and energy addressing conflicts rather than growing your business?

Most workplace conflicts arise from misunderstandings and disagreements due to differences in personality and communication style. Some conflicts arise from lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities or from preferential treatment of one employee over the rest. Conflict can even arise because one employee overreacts to another employee’s comments or behaviour, as well as between a business owner and customers, suppliers and alliance and business partners. Regardless of how the conflict arises, addressing it quickly is critical to your business success.

Think about the impact workplace conflict can have on the morale of your team, their attitude when dealing with customers, and the impact on your revenue and business results. Unresolved conflict between two or more staff members, can result in the rest of your team taking sides, which has the potential of dividing your team and reducing team effectiveness.

The most dangerous part of that dynamic is that a lot of the disharmony will occur “under the radar”. Over time, this can subtly sabotage the team’s performance and your business results. This is why it is critical to work through issues, however small, as soon as they arise. If you ignore them and hope that they will go away, chances are they will come back even bigger or in some other form.

Here are seven steps to assist you to put a stop to workplace conflict, to assist your team to refocus on doing their jobs, as well as assist you to refocus your energy on growing your business:

1. Resolve any past emotions (eg. anger, sadness, fear, hurt, guilt, etc.), self doubts and limiting beliefs. For as long as these are unresolved, other people will be able to ‘push your buttons’. You will find yourself easily overreacting to other people, which will affect your communication and relationships with others, and your performance.
2. Understand what motivates your team suppliers, customers and partners, their preferred ways of communicating, their values and drivers. Then learn to communicate your message effectively, taking their preferences into account. This way your message will be heard loud and clear every time, and you will minimise disagreements and misunderstandings.
3. Be clear about your vision, goals, expectations, roles and responsibilities and those of the people around you. Agree and communicate these with everyone in your team, including your employees, customers, business partners and alliance partners. This will avoid much stress, disagreement, confusion, duplication of effort, errors, rework and under-performance.
4. Have clear agreements around roles, responsibilities and communication so that everyone in the team understands what is expected of them, and the type of behaviour that is appropriate.
5. If anyone in the team disrespects these agreements, ensure that they are aware that their behaviour is inappropriate and put a stop to that behaviour immediately. If the behaviour is not stopped it will recur and will become harder to address, as any lack of intervention will send the message that the behaviour is ‘acceptable’.
6. Work through issues, however small, as soon as they arise. If you ignore them and hope that they will go away, chances are they will come back even bigger or in some other form.
7. If you find yourself having challenges with addressing the above or if the conflict persists or recurs, call a professional to assist you with creating lasting harmonious workplace relationships.

Just imagine how much more focused and productive you and your team will be once you put a stop to workplace conflict. And how big a boost this will have to your business results and success!

Author Credits

Dr. Vesna Grubacevic is the Founding Director and Performance Transformation ExpertTM with Qt. She is the creator of breakthrough behavioural change techniques, holds a PhD, a BEc and has over 27 years’ business experience, including working directly with CEOs, senior executives and their teams to assist them to create exceptional results. For more techniques on fast tracking your business success and for your FREE gifts, visit http://www.qttransformation.com/ today, call Dr. Grubacevic on (03) 9653-9288 or email her at vesna@qttransformation.com

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Make Yours The Greenest Pasture – Retaining Your Top Talent

Employee turnover can cost companies up to 40% of their annual profit. The financial impact of losing a significant number of high performing and high potential employees can be exponentially higher.

Furthermore, these top notch employees are the ones who are being contacted daily by executive recruiters. Are they ready to bolt? Consider these recent survey findings from Salary.com:

Over 66% of employees surveyed said they plan to look for a new job in the next three months; nearly double the 36% that employers believe are looking.
More importantly, employers are at risk of losing their most productive talent – people who have been in their positions for 3-10 years. Nearly 66% of tenured employees plan to find new jobs over the next 3 months.

This could have tremendous hard and soft cost implications for employers. HR professionals estimate that the hard costs to replace an employee ranges between 33% and 50% of their base salary, in addition to soft costs such as the loss of productivity and institutional knowledge, as well as new hire recruiting and training expenses.

How do you stem the flow of your top talent from leaving the organisation? While one can never reduce the flow completely, there are five clear steps that can be taken to ensure that people aren’t attracted to what appear to be greener pastures elsewhere, and you are prepared to address the eventuality that everyone will not stay forever. These five steps are:

• Know who your top talent is and where they are located – Too many organisations only begin to recognise how valuable their talent was when those employees have decided to leave the organisation. Work is not getting done as quickly, effectively, or creatively. How can this be prevented? An effective performance management system should identify and differentiate top, acceptable, and marginal performers. This requires that:
  • Clear, challenging performance standards demonstrate how each employee adds value and contributes to the overall business objectives.
  • Clear, challenging performance standards demonstrate how each employee adds value and contributes to the overall business objectives.
  • A meaningful performance rating scale differentiates talent. Often, a 3-point scale to assess the extent to which goals/results were met coupled with a 3-point scale to assess the extent to which competencies were applied will suffice.
  • Managers calibrate their ratings to ensure they are using the rating scales consistently.
  • Communication and education are provided to enable managers to have performance-based conversations.
• Communicate with your top talent – do they know they are valued? – Special attention should be given to those identified as top performers by the performance management system. In order to continue to reap the value that these employees provide, managers should take time to have sincere dialogue with them throughout the year, ensuring that managers do the following:
  • Recognise their efforts and accomplishments
  • Explain how their contributions add value to the business, and to other leaders
  • Ask what additional help and resources they may need
  • Pay attention to any indicators that may suggest that their interest is waning, and address it promptly
• What is the Employee Value Proposition for high performers/potentials? – Several organisations conduct periodic employee engagement surveys. This data is often analysed in terms of various demographic criteria (e.g., geographic location, functional area, etc.). In order to keep the data anonymous, it is rarely analysed in terms of high performers/potentials. However, we need to measure the attitudinal pulse of this group. It is important not to fall into a “one size fits all” trap; instead, get a good handle on the needs and desires of this employee population as well as regularly monitor their levels of engagement. Some suggestions on identifying the Employee Value Proposition for this community include:
  • Convene focus groups with this targeted group of employees and determine their key drivers (what does the organisation offer to them that they value) as well as what organisational barriers get in the way of them feeling completely engaged.
  • Consider establishing task forces to explore these barriers in greater detail and determine how they can be minimised or eliminated. Involvement of high potentials in these task forces can be a great way to help them have additional organisational impact and be a part of the solution.
  • Use the outputs from this process to develop and communicate a unique “employee brand” that can be used in recruiting other top performers to your organisation.
• Ensure they are receiving rewards that are meaningful to them –  None of us would likely turn away more money. However, a total rewards program considers not just monetary rewards, but also non-monetary rewards that are valuable to many. Consider the following list as you explore how to build engagement with all top performers, and ensure you are effectively communicating the rewards that people have at their disposal. Employees often do not realise the true market value of the benefits they receive – distributing a customised Employee Benefit Sheet providing the market value of salary, benefits (e.g, employer retirement contributions, employer contributions to health care, sick time, vacation time, etc.) to show the “total rewards package” is very meaningful and can make someone think twice before they jump ship.
  • Monetary rewards:
  • Base pay
  • Benefits (retirement, healthcare, paid time off, etc.)
  • Annual incentives/variable compensation and cash recognition
  • Long-term incentives (pension, stock options, increased paid time off, etc.)
  • Non-monetary rewards:
  • Growth and career development
  • Non-monetary recognition and visibility
  • Training
  • Work environment (e.g., telecommuting options, flextime, collaboration with others, etc.)
• Develop a Workforce Plan – Realistically, we cannot hold on to our best performers forever. Some attrition is expected, especially as employees near retirement age. It is important to analyse your demographic data for your most critical roles in order to identify and prepare talent for future roles, as well as ensure that a great deal of your institutional knowledge does not leave the organisation as people retire. Consider the following as you develop a workforce plan and determine your future recruitment and development needs:
  • Current numbers of employees
  • Projected growth rate for the organisation
  • Expected turnover rate
  • New entrant turnover rate
  • Retirement rate (based on age distribution of workforce)

If you are able to hold on to your better performers longer, and ensure that a plan is in place to replace them when they do leave, the bottom-line savings are dramatic.

Consider an organisation that loses 20 high performers/high potentials per year, with an average salary of $50,000 per hire. Assuming the organisation stays the same size over five years (no growth), and the recruitment and lost productivity cost of replacing this talent is at least 50% of their salary, this turnover costs the organisation $2.5 million over that five year period.

Reducing this turnover by 20% per year (four top performers decide to stay each year) produces a very conservative savings of at least $500,000, and undoubtedly more when one considers the impact that high performers leaving an organisation has on the morale of those who are left behind. If your projected growth rate is greater than 0% or your high performers earn more than $50,000 per year, the savings are even more dramatic.

Author Credits

Scott Cohen, Capital H Group. Capital H Group is a consulting firm that takes a value-based approach to helping companies manage, and invest in, their human capital. Partnering with our clients, we focus on creating value through their people. For further information, visit web site: http://www.capitalHgroup.com

Republished from IIDM – your online business resource – www.iidmglobal.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered direct to your inbox. Register NOW for your copy of IIDM’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.iidmglobal.com/subscribe/

Bye, Bye Boomers: Planning For The Inevitable

Your leaders are leaving soon and you may have gaps within the ranks, both in qualified people and the necessary competencies. While this is potentially alarming information, now is not the time to panic.

Many companies have been stripping out layers of management to gain operating and cost efficiencies. But in the process of paring down, these ‘lean’ organisations cut out many developmental opportunities for next-generation leaders. So there are fewer and fewer candidates ready to step into crucial management roles as older managers retire.

Replacing capable and seasoned employees, while developing a new cadre of managers, certainly takes considerable time and investment. It is time to focus efforts on creating a leadership development strategy to meet this challenge, and then rigorously execute this strategy to maintain – and drive – business both during and after this flux.

The key is to get ahead of other companies by taking action now, with six critical steps designed to competitively position your organisation during and after this dramatic workforce transition:

1. Map the exiting skills and expertise – Determine who is retirement-eligible and when retirement is likely. Have frank discussions with your senior management team on their future plans and determine if they have made any efforts regarding succession planning. Know what skills the company will lose and what functions, locations and roles will be impacted the most.
2. Accelerate knowledge transfer – Start with a preliminary meeting with potential retirees to understand the gap between the knowledge only known by the individual(s) versus that which is documented as part of your company’s process or knowledge management.Once you have a general sense of the information that needs to be captured, you can then decide how to do it. If you use a technology system, be sure to think through how the successor will employ it, in order to balance a system with a lot of “bells and whistles” with a practical one.Also, keep in mind how the knowledge transfer process might change for different positions, and whether a third party will do the gathering or if it will be left to the retiree. The higher the impact of the retirement on the organisation, the more tailored this process needs to be in order to capture all relevant information.

   The process may need to involve speaking with direct reports and job shadowing, particularly for senior management. For departments where there will be a larger number of retirements, a process can be designed for department heads to distribute knowledge transfer plans in a more time efficient manner.

3. Assess talent supply and demand – both internally and externally – Once you have identified the impending skill gaps, the next obvious step is to fill them. First look internally, and use the information you have gathered from retirees and other managers to determine whether the skill sets exist within your organisation. The goal is to identify successors.Where no successors exist, look externally to see if the type of skill you need is available in the market. If talent is available, begin building a pipeline. If it looks like a tough market, use a three-pronged approach: build a pipeline, keep looking internally for potential successors and work to retain Boomers past retirement.

4. Accelerate development – Now that you have identified the successors, they need to start moving towards the goal of stepping into the retiree’s position. This will require creating a plan that develops the required skills within the necessary time frame.This is often a difficult process to balance that only gets tougher the longer companies wait to prepare for retiring Boomers. The plans ideally should include on-the-job activities, formal training and knowledge building.
5. Maintain focus – The first four steps require a methodological approach that is best carried out by one project management office or one team leader depending on company size. Nominate a person or group to centrally coordinate and lead workforce planning. Ensure that the leader(s) also keeps an eye on your employee brand in terms of how retirees are treated as they exit and how the company is portrayed to external candidates during this crunch process.

6. Learn from others – Now that you are aware of your problem areas, keep an eye out for ideas. Consider ways to retain Baby Boomers past their retirement date with alternative arrangements such as part-time retirement.

Many companies have already addressed the Baby Boomer issue. While this is further reason to get started if you have yet to begin, there is also the chance to learn from others who have gone down this path.

Guest Author

Norman Schippers, Capital H Group. Capital H Group is a consulting firm that takes a value-based approach to helping companies manage, and invest in, their human capital. Partnering with our clients, we focus on creating value through their people. For further information, visit web site: http://www.capitalHgroup.com

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered direct to your inbox. Register NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com/subscribe/

Top 10 Employee Selection Mistakes … And Solutions

Selecting the right people is a critical leadership lever that drives growth. Employee selection is the ultimate pay-me-now or pay-me-later leadership proposition.

Do it effectively now and reap the benefits of a high-performing team later. Do it fast and cheap now, and pay the price later of increased turnover, underperforming teams, a diluted culture and drain on managerial time.

The cost of turnover averages 40% of annual salary in hard costs only (i.e. does not include ripple costs). Although there are many things managers can do to reduce turnover, making the right selection decision is where you get your bang for your buck. You can do the math: reduce your turnover by just 10 employees with a $40,000 average salary, and you have just dropped $160,000 back to your bottom line.

To help you reduce your turnover and improve your bottom line, below are solutions to the top 10 employee selection mistakes.

Use only a “gut feel” approach

No relationship has been found between years of experience hiring people and effective selection, so the experienced manager is no more effective than the rookie manager. Experienced managers tend to rely more on gut feel and stray from validated practices for effective selection.

Experience and intuition are important, but so are more reliable and valid ways to collect data such as testing, simulations and work samples. No one aspect of the selection process should be relied on exclusively; rather they should be weighted based on the company’s values and the job requirements.

Solution: Design and train on a selection process that contains various forms of data collection (qualitative and quantitative). Design your process and weight each selection component based on your company’s values.

Don’t know what you are looking for

It is hard to find “it” when you do not know what you are looking for.

Solution: Like most decision-making, employee selection is fundamentally emotional. Therefore, it is important to define and prioritise the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for the job in advance. This enables clear thinking to establish a specific position profile. Yes, it takes time, but it is an effective use of time versus “shooting in the dark”. See the following Applicant Evaluation Tool to help you avoid this mistake.

Screen in vs. screen out

Most interviewers inherently look for characteristics that match the company culture and job requirements. They want to find a winner – a match! This perspective subtly but significantly makes us filter in good attributes and rationalise why negative attributes will not be a problem if we hire this person.

Solution: View your job as an investigator who is looking for any little clue, any reason, why this candidate will not be wildly successful.

Talk 80% and listen 20%

The reverse should be true. If you are talking too much, then you are selling the job (see below) instead of screening the candidate.

Solution: The interviewer should listen 80% of the time.

Take candidates at their word

Do not settle for vague general responses to be polite.

Solution: You are on a data collection mission. Probe for specific examples and situations where the candidate has demonstrated the success factors you are looking for. Let the candidate know at the beginning of the interview that your goal is to fully and specifically understand his / her capabilities.

Give in to work and market pressures

The vast majority of managers hire too quickly and fire too slowly. In a tight labor market, it is not uncommon for a hiring manager to meet the candidate only once then make an offer. And when candidate supply is plentiful, managers tend to miss the opportunity to sift through lots of candidates to find the very best fit due to “lack of time”. Interesting that these same managers can find the time to deal with performance issues resulting from poor selection – again, pay me now or pay me later.

Solution: Use the 3 x 3 x 3 Rule: 3 employees interview 3 candidates 3 different times. You are thinking, “All that time for one hire?” You will spend much more time than that if you make the wrong hire.

Selling the job

This is another mistake that can be exacerbated in a tight labor market. Managers want to sell the candidate on their company because they know that the candidate likely has an offer on the table from a competing company.

Solution: The effective, long-term objective is to look for a good “fit” for the job and the company, regardless of the labor market conditions.

Oblivious to the legal Do’s and Don’ts

This may not prevent you from making the right selection decision, but it sure will increase your company’s liabilities.

Solution: Ignorance is no excuse. Know, train, and enforce the law in your selection processes.

Go with the flow

This comes down to lack of preparation and relying on those “favorite questions” and gut feel. Most interviewers do not take control of the interview.

Solution: Once you have identified the success factors and prioritised them, then prepare questions (and appropriate follow-up questions / probes) that will extract the necessary information from the candidate. Remember, it is your interview. You set the process, timing, roles, pace and questioning – not the candidate. This requires thoughtful preparation.

Listen only to the candidate’s words

90+% of all communication is nonverbal, so being attuned to the multitude of nonverbal cues provides an interviewer with much richer information about the candidate.

Solution: Don’t stop at the traditional cues: eye contact, posture, facial expressions and gestures. Consider intonation, pacing of speech, energy level, self-confidence. How did you feel after the interview? Enthused, tired, impressed? Perhaps those who work with the candidate will feel the same way.

So there you have it! Select well today, prosper tomorrow.

Guest Author:

Lee J. Colan Ph.D, is a leadership advisor, speaker and author of 10 rapid-read books, including the best selling, ‘Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence’.

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Tips For Successful Performance Reviews

The following 10 tips are designed to help you prepare for your next performance review process.

Most managers will tell you that they don’t look forward to the annual performance review season. It’s not hard to see why. Reviews are time consuming, they can often take hours to prepare for and many of us have had little or no formal training in facilitating a performance management process, let alone delivering sensitive feedback in a constructive manner or conflict resolution.

Relax. With a little bit of preparation and a positive attitude, you’re certain to learn a great deal about your team and more importantly yourself.

The golden rules

Before we look at the 10 tips below, there are a few golden rules of management that overlay the entire performance review process and in fact successful management techniques in general.

1. Remember that your employees are probably just as anxious about the review process as you are.
2. Like you, your team members have feelings and may from time to time show emotions at work.
3. Treat your employees with the same respect and courtesy that you would expect from your manager.

1. Establish the right mind-set – If I asked you to rate your level of satisfaction with your company’s annual performance review process, how would it fare? If you’re like most managers in most organisations, it probably doesn’t rate highly on the list of tasks outlined on your position description.For your performance reviews to be a success, it is imperative that you go into the process well prepared and with a positive frame of mind. To do this, you need to take a step back and see the process for what it really is; an opportunity for you to spend time with your team so that you can uncover ways to improve their performance and satisfaction. Why is this important? Well, if your team members are happy, they’re more likely to perform better and less likely to leave your organisation. With happy, committed and more productive staff, your life as a manager can only get easier.

   We know for a fact that an employee’s manager is the number one reason for employees seeking alternative employment. With this in mind, the performance review process is your opportunity to learn more about your team; specifically what motivates them, what new challenges they’re looking for and how your needs (i.e. a stable, productive team) and theirs (i.e. personal development and career path) can align. Happy team members really do stay!

2. Remember, reviews are a two way street – As mentioned earlier, managers have typically viewed employee performance reviews as an opportunity to point out all the things an employee’s “stuffed up” over the previous 12 months. Warning: If this is your approach, it’s a sure fire way of increasing staff turnover and damaging employee morale and trust.Savvy organisations have long been using the performance review process to find out how their managers and indeed the organisation can lift its game. By allowing the employee to have their say about where they feel the company or manager could improve, they are also more likely to accept comments about their own performance gaps and areas they need to develop over the next 6 to 12 months.

   A small caution for all managers when hearing feedback about your own performance: sit back and listen to the team members comments – take it all on board. Do not jump down their throat in your defence as this will defeat the purpose. Instead, try to ask probing questions, “can you give me an example of that so I can better understand?’ ‘How do you think I/we could handle that better in the future?”. Acknowledge their comments, “‘I appreciate your comments on that.’ ‘I’m sorry you feel that way.'”

3. Take time out to prepare – A large percentage of managers I speak with only spend 10 minutes on average preparing for an employee performance review. Often this is done 5 or 10 minutes before their next review meeting.If you’re looking to get maximum value out of your review process you need to make time to prepare. Block out at least 1 hour in your calendar for every team member and if possible leave the office to do it; you need time to think about each team member without the normal day to day interruptions. Talk with your manager if you don’t think your current workload or schedule will allow for that to happen and ask for assistance in covering for you during this time.
4. Talk with other people before the review to source other opinions – Performance reviews have traditionally been very insular. That is, they have been based on the opinions of two people – the manager and the employee. If you don’t already, try talking with some other people such as your fellow managers, the employee’s peers and even their subordinates. Try to do this at various stages throughout the year so it doesn’t look like a last minute effort.We know that when feedback is obtained from multiple sources:
   • Employees are more likely to accept the feedback as accurate
   • Managers feel more comfortable discussing the perceptions of ‘many’

   If obtaining the thoughts of other managers, subordinates and peers is a little difficult in your organisation, there are a number of online performance review tools that can facilitate the collection of information from multiple sources. This is often referred to as 360 degree or multi rater feedback.

5. Prepare an agenda and communicate this to employees in advance – It is vital that you have an agenda for the review meeting: a road map that includes the things you intend to cover off. Having an agenda will convey to your team that you are treating the performance review process seriously and that there will be some structure to the conversation. It is particularly useful to provide each employee with the agenda several days before their review and that you encourage your team to add agenda items that they’d like to discuss. Understanding what is on the mind of your employees before the review meeting will help you to be better prepared.  No surprises.
6. Stay on track – It is possible that the review meeting may get a little heated. Conversation may also head in a direction that takes you out of your comfort zone or is non work-related. The minute this happens, excuse yourself [interrupt] and reiterate that you only have an hour now so whilst this issue is of obvious importance, it might be best to get back to the agenda given there are other important issues to get through. If required, the point of contention can be addressed in another forum at a later point in time.To minimise the likelihood of this occurring, make sure you keep the conversation work-related at all times and don’t ever criticize or blame team members directly.

   If you can’t reach consensus on a particular issue, always go back to the agenda and move on. The agenda is your friend; you just need to remember to refer back to it when required.

7. Start and finish with positive feedback – They say that as a rule of thumb, you should give 5 pieces of positive feedback for every 1 piece of negative or constructive feedback. Whilst this may be a little difficult to do in some cases; what it does indicate is that the overall theme or flavour of your review needs to be positive.Always start off by thanking the team member for their contribution over the past 6 or 12 months. Regardless of what you’re about to say, you have to remember that they have turned up for work more often than not over the past 365 days and that they have probably spent more time sitting at their workstation than they have with their family. Scary but true.

   Ensure that you finish the meeting off on a positive note. The following point about action items will help you to do this.

8. Create a list of action items – One of the main complaints employees have of the performance review processes is that nothing ever seems to change after the review.  In fact you can hear these sentiments echoing around the corridors of almost every organisation in the land, “I just spent an hour and half talking about the same stuff I talked about last year and nothing ever changes”. It’s easy to see how employees can be skeptical of the performance review process.Managers have historically left the performance review process and immediately become ‘busy’ again with their own day to day tasks.

   Like any serious business meeting, it is important that you take notes during the meeting. At the end of the meeting, recap the content of the meeting back to the employee; ask them whether you’ve missed or misunderstood anything. Spend 5 or 10 minutes at the end of the performance review meeting to brainstorm the top 5 key action items that can form the basis for that employee’s development plan over the next 6 to 12 months.

   Make sure you spend 5 minutes to brainstorm the top 2 action items for you as their manager to walk away with. This will demonstrate to the employee that you’re also serious about continual improvement and making their life at work better.

9. Have the team member agree on the action items and next steps – So you’ve created a list of action items. The next step in the process is to get the employee to agree and more importantly commit to the action items; that is to treat them seriously. Before leaving the meeting, seek verbal confirmation that the employee understands what was discussed and that they are comfortable with the proposed action items.The final piece of information to convey to the employee in the performance review meeting should be to advise them that you will be typing up notes from the discussion and booking in three half hour ‘catch ups’ over the next 12 weeks to ensure momentum is maintained and the next steps are on track. This is best done in a more relaxed environment; say at a coffee shop over a drink, breakfast or even lunch. Don’t underestimate the power of taking your team out of the office for a meal or a drink.
10. View this as the start of the process not the end – Many managers walk away from the performance review meeting and leave the conversation back in the meeting room. This is only the start of a 12 month program designed to improve the performance and satisfaction of your team.When you walk out of the review, schedule in at least 3 catch up sessions over the next 12 weeks. Once you have completed all of your performance reviews, block some time out of your diary once again to finish off the performance review process. This will include typing up the notes from each review and reviewing each action item to ensure you know what is expected of you as manager. Type up your action items as well and if you’re brave enough (and you’re not breaking confidentiality or trust to do so) stick them up on the wall in your office so that you are looking at them every day.

    As a rule of thumb, you should allow at least 30 minutes per employee for the post performance wrap up.

Guest Author:

Founded in 1999, Onetest’s goal is to provide a more effective and economical way to recruit talented people for your business.

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Determining Your Pay DNA

More and more, employers are redefining and allocating their mix of rewards based on individual needs – like a stock portfolio of investments – and finding trends amongst workers as they begin to look at work-life balance, flex-time and other original ways to keep people happy and productive.

There’s much talk today circling diversity in the workplace, both in the make-up of workers and the delivery of rewards. Smart companies have also discovered that contributions of this new “multi” workforce – multi-cultural, multi-generational and multi-otherwise – positively impact the competitive advantage of the organisation.

However, companies will not benefit unless they keep these widely-varied groups happily rewarded and retained. This presents a totally new compensation challenge: When designing total rewards packages that work for each employee, regardless of segment, it is now necessary to understand multiple needs and desires from different workers, and then compensate them accordingly.

When it comes to packaging pay, employers today are clearly challenged. In the average company, there are as many different vehicles to reward employees as there are diverse segments within the employee population.

To get a clearer idea of how to assess what is important to your top talent, let’s take a look at the four distinct employee population segments and what each group values in the work experience – ground zero for understanding what drives their rewards needs.

1. Traditionalists (1909-1945), or Veterans, are part of the old school, command and control, brick and mortar chain of authority. And while they may be the “old guard” of a company, they are traditional in the best sense: They know that people, face-to-face communication and ideas are what make businesses run.They are willing to change and see new points of view, but it may not be easy. Hardworking and hierarchical, they have seen business change for decades – and adapted. They are “company” men and women.
2. Baby Boomers (1946-1964) traditionally have been motivated by money and career advancement. Yet ironically, as Boomers age, yet remain in the workforce, flexibility and work/life balance have become much more important than the need to make senior partner – a goal that may have driven them two decades earlier.Today, many Boomers’ complex lifestyles have shifted to include caring for both their children and aging parents, sometimes in the same household. They have already made a significant mark in the business world, and while they may not be quite ready to relinquish life at the top, they have come to understand the value of balance and life beyond the board room.
3. Among the most popular rewards requested today for the Generation X (1965-1978) crowd include better benefits: wellness, work-from-home arrangements, education reimbursements and, in some cases, child care in the office. For this independent group, it is critically important to set goals and then step away, letting them find their own solutions rather than “how things have always been done”.They are often unconcerned with long-term loyalty and have experienced significant downsizing during the dot.com bust, fostering a spirit of self-preservation, rather than survival of the company. They build strong relationships and serve as a bridge between older and younger groups.
4. On the other side of the coin, Millennials (1979-2000), or Generation Y, are looking for a high level of engagement on a team and employment-based rewards, a concept they hold as near and dear as their 80 GB iPods. They like instant gratification over long term investments of time and effort and want to contribute to society and have full and balanced lives.They want responsibility, the ability to make a direct impact and be rewarded accordingly. And they continually redefine their commitment to the workplace with the knowledge that they are able to “move around” significantly until they find the best employment fit – and they will.

Given the variety of priorities across these four groups, it is nearly impossible for a company to be all things to all people. Therefore, an important first step toward developing a competitive package is to examine organisational demographics.

Understanding what people in your organisation value will help guide decisions on setting compensation opportunities and benefit options. However, in looking at demographics, you must consider expectations and timing of future shifts of the makeup of your workforce. Planning for these shifts can help retain high-performers, as well as attract new talent.

In addition to demographic analysis, collecting information that can add an essential qualitative aspect to a rewards strategy is important, sourced from:

• employee opinion surveys,
• exit interviews,
• focus groups, and
• recruiting feedback.

Armed with this knowledge, competitive compensation and benefits packages should be designed to reflect the values held by employees.

Increasingly, professional and office employees are willing to put pay at risk for the opportunity of being rewarded for superior performance. Team-based awards and project-based bonuses are becoming more prevalent and attractive to lower level employees.

The difference in values across generations can be addressed by varying opportunities at different levels in the organisation. Comfortable base salaries can be offered at the executive level, whereas individual recognition through significant merit awards and variable pay may be more appropriate for middle managers. Similarly, deferred compensation or supplemental retirement contributions will help to keep key leaders engaged and satisfied up through their retirement years.

Individualising rewards

There is no longer a “one-size-fits-all” approach to total rewards. It is time to shift your view on how you promote and reward employees. The system presently utilised in most organisations often promotes and rewards seniority, rather than results.

If you look at most companies today, you find the executive leadership tends to come from the older group and more of the entry positions are filled by the youngest. This approach needs to be exploded and rebuilt, to allow for a more collaborative team ethic that taps into the collective wisdom that all four generations bring to the table.

Younger employees are not going to be patient and follow the path that Baby Boomers set of working up rungs of the corporate ladder. If they are not engaged quickly, they will simply move on. Gone is competitive advantage, and succession plans crumble.

Perhaps the most important considerations employers can incorporate into how they pay today, include a strict performance management assessment process, that is based on individual goals and metrics, unrelated to seniority and utilising the “3-F” appeal to each job: balancing;

1. family,
2. fun, and
3. flexibility.

In fact, an HR executive for one of the world’s largest Internet information portals recently revealed an experimental program for top employees to work in a “few months on, few months off” schedule, an extreme – and workable, in this case – solution to keep a talented team member happy.

Despite differences, all employees want some of the same elements when it comes to the work experience:

• the ability to be satisfied,
• valued,
• have clear objectives, and
• most importantly, directly report to a superior who empathises with a strong degree of work/life balance.

Using the same rewards vehicles – cash, equity, flex-time, incentives – employers can invest differently depending upon the needs of the individual.

Guest Author:

Jonamay Lambert and Adam Steinbrunner, Capital H Group.

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered direct to your inbox. Register NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com/subscribe/

Poor Performance – It’s Time To Bury The Walking Dead!

You can receive varying levels of service. The service at one company I dealt with recently was exemplary, whilst the other could best be described as zombie like. A large percentage had ‘died’ many years ago, the problem was no one told them to go home and ‘get buried!’. Zombie like service exists everywhere, maybe even in your organisation. Take charge, grab your shovel and bury them now!

What can you do about it?

I believe in organisations today there are four categories of people:

1. New Recruits
2. The Battle Scarred
3. Walking Zombies
4. Engaged Employees

Understanding where your people fit will enable you to support and encourage them, or maybe just get on with it and ‘bury’ them.

New Recruits

New Recruits are simply that, new people to your organisation, who are usually young or fresh to the workplace. They are keen to learn and be part of the team, they want to contribute to the success of their team and the organisation.

Not only that, they are keen to better themselves and look for opportunities to shine and stand out in the crowd. They do this by going the extra mile in service or productivity and generally are willing to tackle any challenge presented to them in the workplace.

These people are easy to nurture and with little effort, will maintain this happy and productive demeanour for as long as you support them in their role. Over time, these people will progress across to the Engaged Employee category.

The Battle Scarred

The Battle Scarred are people who have been attacked or hurt in some way, either by their boss or colleague(s) at work. Like someone in a battle, they will call out in their pain and will tell anyone who stops by to listen, to all their trouble and woes. Deep down these people still like their job and the organisation, it’s just that they have been attacked by someone and come off second best.

A typical example is when someone is overlooked for a promotion or a plum project role within the organisation. Sometimes their hurt is the result of their own action or inactions in the workplace.

These people can recover and be helped into the Engaged Employee sector by some recognition of their hurt or anger. A caring manager will take the time to listen to this person and coach them back to either New Recruit or Engaged Employee status. The Battle Scarred can recover quickly, if identified, and can be saved.

Walking Zombies

Walking Zombies are people who have been battle scarred and never recovered. Often they have been hurt and when they cry out for help and get no response, they get bitter. They employ “work to rule” campaigns, the problem being they make their own rules as part of this campaign. These people not only have a poor attitude, they do their best to share that attitude with others and even recruit others in the team to their cause.

They are like a viral infection, hard to cure yet often hang around for a long time before you can shake them off. These people continue to turn up for work even though they loath the experience. Amazingly, if these people are moved on, they often return with a new lease of life and report that they should have left the organisation ages ago.

Engaged Employees

Engaged Employees are the people who wake up on Monday mornings and say “I’m going to work today” and have a smile on their face. They find their job or career fulfilling, challenging and fun.

The reason these people love their work is because they usually have a worthwhile contribution to make and they are appreciated for their contribution. Their team leader or manager listens and hears their suggestions and takes the time to encourage and compliment them for their efforts.

Moving from Battled Scarred or Zombie to Engaged Employee

So you have some Battle Scarred or Walking Zombies in your team, what can you do with them? If they are Battle Scarred there is a good chance you can quickly resurrect them to New Recruit or even Engaged Employee status.

Take some time to catch them doing something good and praise them extensively for it. Sit down with them and talk about the vision for the team and reinforce where they fit in to the team and how their contribution is essential to the success of the team. Review their performance agreement and focus on achieving simple goals together.

Is it possible to change a Walking Zombie to an Engaged Employee? In my experience, the best treatment for these people is to ‘put them out of their misery’. Termination is always a good option for these people. You will be doing them a favour and may even give them a new lease of life to begin again in a new organisation.

I can hear some of you groaning already, “but it’s so hard to sack someone!”. Of course it takes some effort, but think about the effort and the cost of having a Walking Zombie on the team, spreading the virus of discontent and lethargy.

Guest Author:

Lindsay Adams, Teamocracy. There are many organisations that provide training, but Teamocracy is fully committed to providing more than just training. We are willing to consult with you to clarify what you are trying to achieve.

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered direct to your inbox. Register NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com/subscribe/

Incentive Compensation During Challenging Times – Boom Or Bust?

Some good news: During times like these, we have the unique opportunity to really determine – with a huge degree of certainty – the viability and efficacy of our incentive compensation plans.

Bottom-line (no pun intended), if you are seeing poor earnings or results today, but still paying out boatloads of money, then …

You’re doing it wrong!

Not that we cannot ever pay for effort versus results; sometimes we do just that, but at lower levels of the organisation, where “line of sight” to profitability is less than clear.

But folks, if you’re paying big (or even “any”) bonuses or incentives to managers, leaders or executives, and your company’s performance is in the tank – “Stop it!”

First, some definitions. I use specific words in compensation to mean specific things, and the two that are key to this article are Bonus and Incentive.

• Bonus – A Bonus is just that. Something more than expected. Something provided on top of that which I felt deserved or was entitled to. If I buy a single-scoop ice cream cone, and the young lass gives me two scoops, that’s a bonus. Not sure what I did to get it, not sure how to get it again, but plenty pleased that I received it now.

  Same thing with a Bonus in compensation. Happy to get it, certainly grateful, but no clue exactly why, or what I can do to ensure its payment again next time.

• Incentive – An Incentive, on the other hand, is the payment for an “if-then” statement. If you do this, then I’ll pay you that. If you exceed production by 10%, then I’ll pay you 5% of your annual salary. I know what I did to get it, and presumably know what to do to get it again.

  And Incentives are expected. We had an agreement, and I expect you to honour it with payment.

So, if we want to encourage behaviour with compensation, it’s clearly going to be through incentives. But we must use caution; it’s easy for the “law of unintended consequences” to creep into incentive efforts. So, what makes an appropriate, effective Incentive Plan?

First, it must reward correctly. In the compensation world, it’s not what you want, wish for, hope for, or manage to; it’s what you pay for. Many an incentive plan short-circuited when it was discovered it promoted behaviour we did not want, just to get to results we did.

Pay attention there.

Next, it must influence behaviour. By that I mean a couple of things:

1. It must be understandable, that is, I must realise what I can do to reach the incentive, and

2. It must be sufficient to warrant a behaviour change. Make it chump change if you want, but don’t expect your best and brightest to get on board. Realise that, if you get it right, it doesn’t really matter anyway, does it?

Finally, it must, must, must be kept simple. Complicated plans create two significant issues:

1. They become too onerous for people to comprehend. No understanding, no change in behaviour.

2. Employees believe that complicated plans are simply corporate subterfuge. And I agree. Plans do not need to be tomes like War and Peace. A page or two tops is all they should take. More than that, and you are clearly talking about why we won’t pay the incentive, instead of why we will.

Incentives can work. They can provide the behaviour changes you need in your employees today to drive results in the face of almost any economic conditions.

Done well, and you’re paying incentives from a bucket of money that you wouldn’t have had anyway, so it’s great! Done poorly, and you’re paying out money after losing money.

Let’s avoid that last one, shall we?

Guest Author:

Kevin Berchelmann, Triangle Performance. Described as a Human Capital Expert by The Harvard Business Press, Kevin Berchelmann helps new managers at private equity, Fortune 500 and small to medium sized businesses become top leaders that deliver results.

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered direct to your inbox. Register NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com.au/subscribe/

Finders Keepers – Losers Weepers

How to attract, retain and develop your talent. A must read for all leaders and managers – if you want to keep your best people away from the head-hunters and weekend papers!

Finding talented people isn’t all that hard. Throw a ‘Start Up’ bonus on top of the attractive salary package and they probably won’t say no. Keeping them… now there’s the challenge. And if you thought the ‘War on Talent’ has already occurred, think again. The job market is hot, and the battle lines have been re-drawn. And as far as your organisation is concerned, the fight is on to retain staff who make up those talented individuals who conservatively add at least 20% to the bottom line.

What makes the difference between employee engagement and disengagement?

Make sure your leaders are serving up ample quantities of ‘The Seven Universal Life Requirements©’. They are a recipe for creating employee fulfillment. These seven requirements underpin our ‘value’ system, and leaders are notoriously bad at making sure their talented people’s ‘emotional bank accounts’ are topped up regularly in these areas. Let me explain.

Success leaves clues, and there are patterns in people’s behaviour. Whilst we are all unique and individual, we are all human beings and therefore instinctively similar. You can basically take all the things people value, desire, need, are motivated by, or driven to achieve, and distill them down into seven universal requirements we need satisfied in order to feel fulfilled as a human being.

The seven universal requirements

1. Belonging
   A sense of belonging is a primal urge and requirement. We all long to feel connected to a family, work group, or to belong to a cause. And, of course, we all require love and affection. As one senior leader of a client organisation put it: “The team needs a bit of a cuddle occasionally!”
2. Importance
   As human beings, we all have a need to feel special and significant to someone. To know that we make a difference and we are ‘worth’ something. This is one of the deepest needs humans experience, and the absence of it causes significant issues for many.
3. Absolutes
   We require some absolutes in our life. We need to be certain we can feed ourselves, pay the mortgage or the rent each month, or know with absolute certainty that our partner loves us. Children love us unconditionally – we absolutely know we make a difference in someone’s life.
4. Diversity
   In an apparently cruel paradox, our creator has decided that whilst we need some things to be absolutes, we will also want some variety. We all have experienced the feeling of boredom if life does not serve up some variety and diversity. Variety is, after all, the spice of life.
5. Personal development
   We all have a fundamental requirement to grow. Some people lose sight of this and then wonder why they don’t feel fulfilled. We were designed to expand, grow, and evolve in terms of our capabilities, knowledge and skills.
   Let’s look at people who have started a new career or job. They will tell you they left the old job because they were not growing anymore, and now they feel excited and outside their comfort zone. In essence, their need for diversity is now being fulfilled again and they are growing personally or professionally.
6. Altruism
   This is about making a contribution. We feel more satisfied and fulfilled when we are contributing to someone or something else. We are giving back – a deep instinctive response overlooked by many. A true leader is always contributing to the growth and well-being of their team and therefore making sure that this requirement is met.
7. Faith
   Faith is defined as confidence or trust in something or someone, a belief which is not based on proof. We are not necessarily referring to religion here. For some, this is simply a belief and faith in something bigger. Read any article about why people leave companies and change jobs, and you will frequently hear the feedback “I lost faith in my one-up leader, or the direction the company was moving”.

Note:

• The first four are Fundamental requirements: We will do anything to have them satisfied. We will compromise a value in order to get a ‘Universal Requirement’ met.
• The last three are deeper Spiritual requirements: They are often missing. People can have the first four met, but without the last three they feel a sense of un-fulfillment, and yet often can’t put their finger on why they feel what they feel.

Rules of thumb in any relationship:

• If 2 are met  – Connection occurs
• If 3 are met – Rapport occurs. They like you.
• If 4 are met – They become addicted/they care.
• If 6 are met – They forgive mistakes.
• If all 7 are met – LOYALTY; The chances of leaving are slim.

Some initiatives to keep your talented people engaged – and saying ‘no’ to the recruitment head-hunters:

1. Create a career map or pathway – Document a clear career pathway for your people. Include the skills and competencies they will need to develop along the journey. Design some positive consequences in respect to managing the overinflated expectations of Gen Y.
2. Structured induction training program – Too many companies inadvertently make ‘new starts’ feel like a nuisance. In this time-poor world, many outwardly positive staff send the wrong sub-conscious message: “I have better things to be doing than training you!”. A well structured induction training process is a fast track way to ensure potential talent feels a sense of belonging, connectedness, and of value.
3. Coaching and mentoring program – Implement a structured ‘coaching and mentoring’ program for your emerging talent. This strategy will build a nice retaining wall around your talented people – despite market offers from your competitors.
4. Training and development – Implement a targeted training and development program to up-skill the workforce. It will make your staff think: “Thank you for investing in me. I feel like this company values me. I’m growing personally and professionally.”
5. “Open door” return policy: Promote an ‘open door’ return policy to the valued talent who has succumbed and left the company for greener pastures. Drive from senior levels and have the CEO personally thank them for their contribution to the organisation and inform them of the ‘open door’ return policy.
   Based on the ‘Don’t burn your bridges’ motto, the aim here is to make it easy to re-enter the company, if indeed the grass was tougher to chew! Surprise, surprise. Some good people were welcomed home.

Remember the rules of thumb above – serve up all seven requirements and people get addicted and staff loyalty increases to the extent that it will take something rather significant to move them. If all seven needs are being met, why would you ever leave?

In summary, it seems the ‘War on Talent’ will not be won in the trenches, but driven by a well thought out action plan to retain and engage your talent.

Re-examine how well your organisation scores!

Guest Author:

Ian Stephens. Ian is a sales specialist and peak performance coach. He has a passion for the practical, coupled with an ability to inspire and equip people with simple everyday tools they can apply immediately to make more sales and profit.

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered direct to your inbox. Register NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com.au/subscribe/

Finding Superstars Who Stay

It’s easier to retain employees who feel their talents are aligned with their work. Companies can do more to foster this process. People who are hired as a good fit from the beginning are more likely to stay in the long run.

Any executive knows the success of the business ultimately depends on the quality of employee talent. But finding the best talent is a challenge.

Too many companies waste time, energy and money on hiring strategies that don’t pay off in the long run. Some hiring managers make impulsive decisions, desperate to get a job filled quickly. Others wait too long, hoping to find the perfect candidate. By then, the company goals, needs, structure or environment may have changed.

Superstars are few and far between in organisations, typically less than 5% of the employee population. They’re small in number, but pull much weight in the business. Companies would like to find more stars and weed-out poor performers.

Think about it. How much time are you spending on helping weaker employees improve performance as opposed to helping stronger employees leverage success? How much time are you spending trying to fix a problem instead of building strength? The more superstars you have, the more you can focus on the leadership and business management issues you really need to or should address.

Where are the superstars hiding?

Some may be hidden in your own organisation just waiting to shine. Others you’ll need to attract from outside.

So where do you start? Organisations often instinctively focus on hiring tactics: running ads, posting openings, enlisting recruitment agencies, etc. But they’ve missed a critical step in the process: being very clear about the skills and capabilities required for a particular job.

“But we have a job description.” The job description typically outlines the job duties or responsibilities, but it doesn’t state the skills or attributes that are most critical to success.

In fact, if you were to gather a room full of people who hold the same job (e.g., sales representative or branch manager or customer service representative), they would have difficulty agreeing on the skill that is the most important to that particular job.

What is a superstar?

Some may believe that self accountability is most important, while others see decision-making, problem solving or interpersonal skills as most important. They can’t help imposing their own biases or experiences. Each person views the job through a different lens.

When determining what a “superstar” looks like in your business, don’t be limited by the people you currently employ. Too many organisations make the mistake of trying to set job performance standards based on the performance of their strongest internal people. Get ideas from other companies, even other industries.

Stretch your thinking. The ideal superstar may not resemble anyone in your business at the moment. Raise the bar. If you raise expectations, people will often rise to the occasion.

Be careful about making subjective decisions. Keep in mind a superstar in one job will look completely different from a superstar in another job. It’s tempting to select a candidate you like, but it’s more important to select a candidate based on what’s most important for the job.

Reaching agreement

Here is a suggested process to help you identify star potential:

• Determine key accountabilities for the job Not the “to-do” types of responsibilities, but the main outcomes the person in the job is expected to achieve. Do this as a first step.
• Project the needs of the business into the future Don’t ask, “What do we need right now?”. Ask, “What will the role look like 3-5 years from now?”.  Forward-thinking companies keep a more long-term focus.
• Establish a job benchmarkGain input from multiple stakeholders, not just those currently in the role. Consider involving supervisors for people in the job being benchmarked or other employees who interface with people in that job.
• Use assessment toolsQuick surveys and benchmarking assessment tools can aid the process. The benchmark should reflect the most important skills, behaviours and motivators required for the job.

The key is reaching agreement on these issues at the beginning and being able to speak about what you ultimately want for the position in a common language that everyone understands.

With a benchmark established, you can ask candidates to take an assessment which will help you measure their strengths and skills against it. Of course, this is only part of the process. You’ll also need to consider their background, experience and interview impression.

A common lens

When everyone sees the same picture, you’ll see star potential more clearly and you’ll make more confident hiring decisions. You’ll stop crossing your fingers hoping the new person will perform well. Instead you will predict success.

Being clear about the skills required for the job also helps employees focus their development efforts. You can help would-be stars develop specific skill sets for them to be most successful in a given position. They’ll see a potential path for themselves and engage in their own growth.

Guest Author:

Gayle Lantz, President of WorkMatters, has helped hundreds of companies and organisations just like yours improve performance and drive real results. She is also author of ‘Take the Bull by the Horns: The Busy Leader’s Action Guide to Growing Your Business…and Yourself’.

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered direct to your inbox. Register NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com.au/subscribe/