21 Questions That Will Make Teamwork Work!

To assist and evaluate team building efforts, here are 21 key questions you need to answer to make teamwork work.

You can work through the questions, either alone or with your team, and answer “yes” or “no”, jot down some notes about why you answered that way and what you can do to improve in that area. 

1. Are you involving your team members in hiring decisions?
   You live with a bad hiring decision for, on average, 18 months. And yet, what management considers a good hiring decision, and what team members consider a good hiring decision, may be dramatically different. Let team members meet potential new hires before an offer is made. Factor their feedback into the decision.
2. Do you know who your team “slayers” are and have you taken steps to deal with the problem?
   Have you identified team “slayers” – those individuals whose behaviour detracts from team performance – and have you spent time with them diagnosing the reason and what to do about it?
3. Do team members understand the team’s vision, mission, goals, values and expectations?
   These are the blueprint for the team’s success, so team members must have a crystal clear understanding of these important components.
4. Are team members committed to the team’s success?
   This is a situation where simply asking isn’t enough. Look for an outward manifestation of commitment. More likely, it will be easier to spot a lack of commitment. Excessive questioning of why people are being asked to do what they do is one sign. Complaining, lack of performance, low morale – all of those would suggest that the commitment to vision, mission, values, goals and expectations may be lacking.
5. Have team members been trained in teamwork skills?
   Is your teambuilding curriculum in place? Training should be ongoing, and whenever possible, team members should attend sessions as a group.
6. Have team leaders been trained for their role?
   There are natural born leaders, but there aren’t enough of them for most organisations. Leadership skills must be developed. In addition to basic team skills, make sure team leaders get special skills training in areas like group facilitation and mediation.
7. Have you started relationship building with future team members?
   Some day you’re going to lose team members. They’re going to quit, move away, or go to another team within the organisation. When you receive notice that they’re leaving, you’ll need to have potential replacements identified and, if possible, already thinking about joining the team. Relationship building with potential team members needs to be done well in advance.
8. Are you holding regular team meetings that participants find worthwhile?
   Regularly ask team members to assess the effectiveness of team meetings. If they feel that team meetings are wasting their time, you’re either meeting too frequently or preparing inadequately. If they feel that they need more information to feel informed, you may not be meeting enough.
9. Do team meetings include both information and motivation?
   You’ve got to have both. Use the analogy of the cherry flavoured cough syrup. When you buy cherry flavoured cough syrup your primary motivation is for the medicinal value – you want to suppress the cough. Because if you really just wanted cherry flavour, you’d buy a pop drink. So why do they put cherry flavour in cough syrup? To help the medicine go down more easily.
   You should make meetings interesting, entertaining and motivational to help the information presented go down more easily. Team members need both “how-to” and “want-to”.
10. Is interpersonal communication effective?
    Team communication should provide information that members can use: news rather than gossip, and feedback rather than criticism. Do team members share useful information with each other in an open, honest environment?
11. Do team members feel well informed about news of the larger organisation?
    It’s important that teams don’t operate in a vacuum, but that they understand how they fit into the big picture and how they impact the organisation’s performance. Top managers and others outside the team should be utilised as resources.
12. What efforts has your team or entire organisation taken to create interdepartmental teamwork?
    There is something harder than getting people on the same team to work together, and that is getting people on different teams to work together. Have you made some active attempts to teambuild with other departments within your organisation?
13. Is your team facing some of the same problems today that they were 60 days ago, and if so, why?
    Ignoring significant problems won’t help. After two months, problems that are unsolved are either insignificant or overdue for attention. Deal with problems before they become a source of perpetual frustration for team members.
14. What feedback has your team given to management and how has management responded?
    A team leader once told me that one of his greatest frustrations was that his boss was a “yes man” but that he didn’t represent the needs of their team to management. Does your team or team leader communicate ideas and needs to management? If so, has management responded appropriately and convinced your team that their opinions are valued?
15. Has the team leader taken time to understand the values, likes, dislikes and needs of every team member?
    Because different people are motivated differently, if the team leader hasn’t done their homework in understanding what motivates different team members, they aren’t as far along in team building as they could be.
16. Does the team deal openly and effectively with conflict?
    Have team members learned to use all available approaches to conflict resolution and has the team agreed on a system that allows you to deal with the problems that inevitably arise? The team vision should be the primary agenda being pursued, even in difficult times.
17. Are all team members open to feedback?
    Or is feedback only accepted from the team leader? When a team member has an idea that will help another team member improve their performance, do they offer it?
18. Can you point to specific innovations that your team has made in the past quarter?
    Are you innovating or simply doing things the way you’ve always been doing them and maintaining the status quo? Make sure to reward any attempts at innovation, even if the outcome isn’t successful. Challenge team members to try new things.
19. Are you operating with a team calendar year?
    Teams must be accountable for producing results in time. Have you identified top team goals for the current calendar year and do team members know what those goals are? Use action planning at every team session to translate ideas into results.
20. Do team members feel there is linkage between individual success and team success?
    Do you reward people and recognise them, not just for what they accomplish, but for their contribution in helping the team accomplish its goals? This linkage is critical and must be present if team work is going to work.
21. What celebrations, formal and informal, have you undertaken to demonstrate appreciation and create camaraderie?
    Evaluate results periodically. Regularly and creatively celebrate the team’s efforts and victories. If you’re lucky, you’ll receive accolades from others, but you can’t really control that. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to celebrate your own success.

Guest Author

Mark Sanborn CSP CPAE is an acclaimed speaker, bestselling author and president of Sanborn & Associates Inc., an idea studio for leadership development. For more information, visit www.MarkSanborn.com, http://www.FredFactor.com and http://www.YouDontNeedaTitle.com

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Winning Hearts And Minds Through Workforce Engagement

Instead of focusing more of their efforts on keeping the talent they have, businesses often spend too much time and money finding talent from the outside. Given that it is always cheaper to keep your existing workforce than it is to replace it, what can be done to improve retention?

Retention depends on a number of factors and – of course – a reasonable level of voluntary turnover is actually desirable. In fact, there may be a need to dispassionately assess whether the people you currently have are the right ones to take your strategy forward. If that is not the case, then you clearly need to be worrying about things other than retention. But if it is, then a well thought through program to address workforce engagement (assuming it is also integrated with the rest of your talent management initiatives) is likely to pay for itself many times over.

Let’s not forget, however, that there can often be knee-jerk reactions to retention problems which do not work. They can be desperate and too late in the day, and often involve throwing money at people when dollars are not the underlying driver of dissatisfaction. In fact, such a reaction may be very costly and still not result in true engagement.

What do we mean when we talk about engagement?

Engagement comes when your workforce feels committed to your organisation. Such engagement has to be more than just loyalty to the organisation as demonstrated by showing up each day. It has to be a willingness to go above and beyond, and a feeling both that the organisation is something special and that employee’s individual contributions are valued.

Getting that kind of engagement depends, of course, on the complex interplay of many factors that are ideally measured and analysed through an employee survey specifically designed to measure engagement. But, if you can isolate those factors, you can then better determine what the pressure points are that matter to your people.

Those pressure points can be issues such as:

• Career development opportunities.
• Trust in leadership.
• Rewards and recognition.
• Organisation and staffing levels.
• Work/life balance.

Identifying these pressure points will drive the direction of HR programs and processes you need to have in place to influence those issues.

As you compare the list of engagement issues to your HR policies and practices you should aim to answer the following questions:

• What are we doing right that we need to continue to do well?
• What are we not doing that is conspicuous by its absence to people?
• What are we doing that has little effect on commitment ie. why are we spending time and money on this?

Simply coming up with a long list of action items to address these issues is not going to guarantee that your workforce will be any more engaged. For example, if – as part of a pay-for-performance initiative – a better annual pay review process is implemented, but the corresponding performance evaluation process does not measure the right things, engagement is likely to stay in the danger zone.

What is needed is a comprehensive and integrated talent management plan. One that for example:

• Defines the skills and behaviours required by the organisation,
• Identifies where those skills currently reside and where the gaps are,
• Creates a continuous learning environment to fill those skills gaps through stretch assignments and other development opportunities,
• Recruits from outside those critical skills that cannot be provided internally,
• Supports a meritocratic culture that rewards people for developing and exhibiting the required skills and behaviors, and
• Encourages communication and dialogue between leadership and the workforce.

However, the single most important success factor is that leadership is firmly on-board – both with the need for workforce engagement and the talent management plan that will deliver it.

In summary, the key conclusions about employee engagement are as follows:

• It is easier and less expensive to re-recruit your existing workforce than it is to replace it.
• By measuring employee engagement and understanding what drives it, you will uncover what HR programs should be implemented or re-worked.
• Optimum engagement is most likely to be achieved when all your HR activities are integrated via a comprehensive talent management plan.

In the final analysis, the true benefit of workforce engagement is not reduced recruiting costs. It is the increased productivity and morale brought about by a workforce that has faith in the organisation’s future and its role in it.

Guest Author

Bill MacKenzie, 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/

Do Your Staff Suffer From ADE?

 By now you would have heard of the predominately childhood condition ADD or “Attention Deficit Disorder”. This should cause some concern for managers as they struggle to deal with the needs of staff with short attention spans. I believe there is another condition, however, that is of even more interest if you manage people – ADE. It stands for the Actively DisEngaged employee, a new phenomenon we are seeing in workplaces all around the world.

What it is

To understand ADE, you need to identify two other related terms as well. The Gallup Organisation has come up with an easy to understand guide to the 3 levels of engagement we see in employees currently populating the workplace:

1. Engaged – people who work with passion and feel connected to their organisation
2. Not Engaged – people putting in time but not energy or passion into their work
3. Actively DisEngaged – people acting out their dissatisfaction for others to see

Why it matters

Lack of engagement is a real issue – with real costs attached. A survey of 50,000 employees by the Corporate Leadership Council found that only 11% said they were fully engaged at work, 76% knew they could demonstrate more commitment and 13% described themselves as actively disengaged.

Let’s put those statistics to work and see what they might actually mean for your organisation. Imagine that each of those 13% of actively disengaged employees earns $40,000 per annum and each one is producing 20% less work than your engaged employees (a fairly conservative estimate). If you do the calculations, that means each disengaged employee is costing your organisation a minimum of $8,000 per annum and that’s without considering the many on-going costs.

How to tell if you have any ADE employees

Here are 5 easy to observe characteristics that will help you identify them.

1. Come to work when they are sick and stay home when they are well
2. Only work hard when their manager is around or just before performance review time
3. Enjoy recounting every bad experience they have been through with the company
4. Sabotage change programs and new initiatives either overtly or covertly
5. Negatively influence the attitude of other people around them

Why do we allow it to continue?

So if the ADE employee is costing us so much money and, let’s face it, is fairly easy to recognise, why is it that we allow their behaviour to continue? Surely it would be in the interests of every manager to find a way to re-engage those people as soon as possible.

Well, the reality is, there are a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s hard work to fix! Secondly, we often really need that person’s skills so we overlook their less desirable traits. Finally, add to this the fear of legal implications in terminating someone’s employment and you have a lot of barriers facing managers.

But it’s a bit like the old training adage “what if we train them and they leave; what if you don’t and they stay”. In this case it’s “what if we take action and it’s painful; what if you don’t and it’s still painful and other people follow their example”.

How to fix it

If left unchecked, the symptoms of ADE can spread throughout your organisation like a contagious disease, so it is vital that you take action and quickly. This is equally as important if you have inherited the problem employees.

As difficult as it might be, the best thing you can do is confront the ADE employee and give them an offer: you will help them find a way to get engaged or you will help them find their next employment opportunity. The choice is theirs.

Now I know there are discrimination laws and lots of other legislation that will make it difficult for you to just make this happen overnight but you must take action. If you don’t, other employees will start to question your leadership skills and you may lose one of them instead!

Guest Credits

Karen Schmidt from Let’s Grow! is an award winning professional speaker, workshop leader and author who creates fresh workplace attitudes that help people and organisations grow! To book Karen for your next conference or professional development event contact her on 0411 745 430 or visit http://www.letsgrow.com.au.

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/

How To Lead And Manage A Mixed Generation Workplace

By understanding your employees – their various influencing factors, their preferences and passions – and adopting a strategy of consultative and discursive management, you will gain the respect of your employees, start developing a more creative and dynamic team environment and improve your staff retention.

Occasionally in history massive demographic change combines with relentless technological change and within a generation, society altogether changes. Today, we are living in such an era.

Gone are the days of long service leave, gold watches and subservience to the boss. Members of all generations are seeking more from an employer than is generally offered by most. Retaining valuable employees and increasing their tenure requires new understandings, attitude adjustment and new management skills.

Not only is the job tenure for Generation Y much shorter than has traditionally been expected, there is a noticeable trend that suggests Generation X and Baby Boomers are opting for shorter tenure too. People no longer leave their jobs because there is a compelling reason to leave but because there is no compelling reason to stay. Find a reason to have them stay and you will increase the retention of all your employees.

“Poor management” at 34% is sited as the most common reason for moving on from an employer and when this is coupled with the third highest reason “I didn’t feel appreciated at work”, at 32% then the importance of management becomes a stark reality.

What is wrong with Management?

A recent qualitative research study undertaken in a cross section of workplaces, found that younger employees are asking to be treated in the same way as their more experienced colleagues. They are begging for more responsibility and they are rebelling against managers who want to dole out work, provide detailed instructions on how to complete the tasks and then expect the employee to blindly follow the instructions to completion.

This management style is seen as controlling and suffocating of the employee’s ability to use their creativity to complete and possibly find a better method of completing the task.

Many mangers feel the need to limit the volume of work given to younger workers who see this as being frustrating and condescending. “Don’t they trust us?” is a question often asked. This management style is seen to lack trust and also to lack any thought of a future career path for the employee. They are not being tested to see if they can achieve more or better results and in their minds they are being suffocated.

This is the opposite of what these employees need.

What can Managers do better?

1. Trust that the employee has the interests of the business in mind –  This may manifest itself in a more selfish desire to improve the career prospects of the individual but the result is still better quality work.
2. Let go of the view that “this is how it was in my day and it’s how it’s going to be today” – This outdated view is no longer relevant or constructive and takes no account of the generational influences that have shaped the current generations.
3. “Overload” their employees – By giving the employee more work than you believe they are capable of completing, you provide them with a challenge to organise themselves and find a way of completing the tasks.
4. When assigning tasks, provide an outline of what needs to be achieved (an objective) – Confirm they understand the outcomes you are seeking and let them know you are available should they need any assistance. Then give them the space to complete the assigned tasks.
5. Younger generations value mentoring – There is an older generation of workers who have a wealth of history to pass on to them. By providing the opportunity for Boomers to mentor Generation Y, you create not only an opportunity to have the history passed on, but also an opportunity to have Generation Y improve the computer skills of the Boomers. This two way mentoring relationship is a triple win, as the organisation wins by improving the level of co-operation in cross generational relationships and therefore the morale of the team.

Gain an understanding of the influences of the younger generation and use this knowledge to develop a management style for the team.

Generation Y

This generation finds many traditional activities much less interesting than the myriad devices they carry in their pockets and backpacks. These young people are used to having anyone who asks for their attention – their favourite musicians, their movie makers, their TV stars, their game designers – work really hard to earn it. When what is being offered isn’t engaging, they truly resent their time being wasted.

These influences have led to Generation Y’s unwritten employment contract: “keep me challenged and interested or I will go somewhere else that will”. Add to this, that they expect to be valued on their merit, not longevity, and a picture of what frustrates them and how we might manage them begins to emerge. Challenge them, be available to guide them and expect more than you would have been expected to deliver at the same time in your career.

Lead and manage individuals and you will create a team that is dynamic and highly productive. We speak of generations but all are composites of many individuals each with their own values, attitudes, skills and abilities. By gaining an understanding of the individuals’ preferences and passions, the workplace can be re-engineered to fit the individuals. This provides managers with a higher functioning team and reduced demand for hands-on management time.

Guest Author 

Shirley Singleton is a highly regarded business advisor who works with managers and leaders to create dynamic teams and successful managers for today’s fast paced workplaces. Shirley is undertaking a qualitative research project into what work means to Generation Y. Her findings make interesting reading and a preliminary report is available on her website at http://www.shirleysingleton.com/index.php?section=news_items&id=111 If you would like to contact Shirley and have her advise on the shape of your workplace please call her on 0414 745 455.

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/

Are Performance Reviews Dead?

Performance reviews are essential to increase employee engagement and staff performance, but they do need to be structured in a way that fosters engagement. How can an organisation achieve that?

Performance reviews can be a high stress situation for employees as sometimes pay, promotions and benefits can rely on the outcome. In high-stress situations we are rarely at our best and we may close down our conversational capabilities and be hesitant about speaking up if we don’t agree with feedback from a manager.

Annual performance reviews under these conditions are not sufficient to ensure true personal growth of an employee. Clear communication is needed from both parties in order for a review to be a catalyst for change in an employee’s behaviour.

The two most common mistakes made when conducting a performance review are:

1. Managerial attitude – The mistake managers often make is to see performance reviews purely as a process or a ‘tick the box’ exercise. To make performance reviews effective and valued, managers need to invest time in developing a relationship with the employee that is built on trust. To do this, managers need to be able to conduct effective workplace conversations by listening with interest and engaging in regular dialogue with staff. Managers need to wholeheartedly believe in both the relationship with the employee and the performance review outcomes in order for them to be effective.
2. Regularity – Annual performance reviews as a stand-alone method are not enough. Managers should provide feedback as often as is required, highlighting areas for improvement as development opportunities. It can be a quick two minute conversation to let an employee know they are doing a good job, or a scheduled meeting to discuss how an employee could do a task more efficiently the next time around. A once a year conversation is not enough to engage employees and make them feel valued.

Now that you know what’s wrong with performance reviews, what are some habits and tools to use to increase effectiveness?

Enhance conversation skills

There are a number of tips to keep in mind to increase conversation skills, such as:

• Set clear expectations
• Ensure there is agreement on those expectations
• Seek clarification as necessary
• Don’t avoid conflict, as it may then become a bigger problem later on
• Think before you speak
• Always remember to listen

Conversations are at the base of everything we do, but not every organisation sets expectations around effective conversations between managers and employees.

Relationship, relationship, relationship

The quality of the relationship is the strongest factor in the effectiveness of a performance review. A good relationship provides the foundation for giving feedback which empowers and motivates employees and accelerates the learning process.

Individualise reviews

No two employees are the same, and while you may have hired them for the same, or similar, roles, each person will have a different skill set which adds value to the organisation. This should be recognised and taken into account when assessing someone’s suitability to a role. Individual skill sets should be embraced by managers and discussed regularly. The performance review process is an opportunity to work through all factors to a point where both employee and manager are happy that all the variables have been taken into consideration.

Foster a learning environment

A workplace conducive to fostering learning outcomes is one where ideas from everyone – from the junior to the CEO – are respected and employees have access to resources and training to allow them to increase their capabilities. Leaders with strong coaching skills can aid the encouragement of a learning environment in the workplace, leading to greater engagement and staff motivation.

Performance reviews can increase positive business outcomes and support growth within an organisation if they are prepared strategically, keeping the above tips in mind.

Guest Author

Julie Parkinson, Director, The Institute of Executive Coaching. The Institute of Executive Coaching works with organisations to provide innovative leadership and coaching support to improve the performance of individuals, teams and organisations. Since 1999 the Institute has trained more than 2,500 coaches and become known as one of the region’s most respected executive coaching, coach training and leadership development organisations. All of the Institute’s services are designed on the key principles of the Institute’s mission to empower people to fulfil their potential and develop the leaders of tomorrow. http://www.iecoaching.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/

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/

Motivate Like A Master… Without Spending A Cent!

No matter what industry you’re in, motivated and engaged employees are critical to success. Here’s how to motivate like a master – without spending a cent!

Successful managers spend a significant portion of the day working to develop their team’s skills, improve morale, and drive higher levels of performance. (And if you’re not focusing on these key areas, you should be.)

So how do you motivate your employees to achieve more? Most leaders turn to monetary or tangible rewards. After all, money is a great employee motivator, right? Wrong.

While it is important that your compensation plan helps effectively attract and retain great employees, numerous studies show that recognition is a much better retention tool and performance motivator than money.

A survey by a major staffing company found the top reason employees leave an organisation isn’t because of pay issues but because they feel they aren’t recognised and praised for their work.

The key to developing – and maintaining – a highly engaged and motivated team is to use intrinsic motivators, not extrinsic motivators.

What’s the difference? Extrinsic motivation is a reward: a pay rise, a cash bonus, a gift – in other words, a tangible reward for performance given to the employee. (While it sounds harsh, I often think of extrinsic motivators as bribery.)

The major problem with most extrinsic motivation programs is that the programs have to be continually repeated, and any motivation they initially produce wears off.

And it gets worse: if overused, what at first seemed like a great reward quickly becomes an expectation instead of a reward, with the result that the effectiveness of the incentive – and employee performance – flattens out.

To make a bad situation even worse, if the program is discontinued – as it should be if it’s not producing results – employees may see the cancellation as a “takeaway” and lose interest in their jobs.

There’s a better way, and cheaper, way to motivate your employees. It’s called intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation comes from inside a person: it’s the sense of achievement, responsibility, job satisfaction, purpose, involvement, empowerment, ownership – all the things that make an employee feel that what they’re doing makes a big difference in their lives and in the organisation itself.

If employees feel what they’re doing is insignificant, they’ll feel insignificant; if they feel their work is valued, they in turn feel valued.

Sound complicated? It’s not. The easiest way to provide intrinsic motivation is to say, “Thank you.” Recognising your employees with comments like, “Well done,” or, “Great job,” creates a greater and longer-term effect on employee motivation than providing a cheap reward that’s quickly forgotten. Best of all, in most cases intrinsic motivation doesn’t cost a cent.

What are the benefits of recognising employees through intrinsic motivation? I’ve worked with dozens of companies in the last few years, and in each case effective intrinsic motivation produced these results:

• Improved morale – Both at the employee level and at the team level
• Increased productivity – Employees who feel good about their jobs and their performance tend to perform at an even higher level
• Lower absenteeism – Employees who feel they’re important to the organisation look forward to coming to work
• Higher retention rates – Intrinsic motivators lead to better employee/supervisor relationships, increased engagement, and employees who feel valuable to the organisation – and want to stay with the organisation
• Improved bottom-line results

Here are simple and effective ways to recognise and engage your employees:

1. Praise – Recognise your employees for a job well done. Say, “Thank you,” at the end of the day. Praise your employees for doing a great job. Catch them doing something well – and tell them how well they did. When possible, make your praise public; gather your team together for a moment and celebrate an accomplishment. Spend your day looking for and recognising great performance.
2. Development – Consistently train your employees (and not just the high performers): increase their skill base, prepare them to fill in at the next level, or make temporary assignments to different departments.
3. Promote from within –  An internal promotion not only recognises the employee involved, it also ensures that others know that advancement is possible. Make sure employees know what skills they’ll need to take that next step, and make sure you provide them with the resources to gain those skills.
4. Create informal leadership roles – Leadership roles, even temporary ones, create a higher sense of engagement and recognition. Find ways to create informal leadership roles for your employees: leading a small project, training new employees, giving facility tours to visitors, or sharing experiences from a training seminar or inter-departmental assignment with the rest of the team.
5. Track – and post – key performance metrics – Make sure employees know how they – and the department – are performing. Post results, discuss improvement needs, and most importantly, celebrate accomplishments. Make sure what you measure is in line with your company’s goals; not only will you improve performance but your employees will better understand their place in, and importance to, the organisation.
6. Communicate – Employees in almost every company I’ve worked with say they don’t receive enough communication: formal, informal, written, verbal – you name it. Your employees want to hear what’s going on – and just as importantly, they want to share their ideas, their suggestions, and their concerns. Most managers feel they’re communicating enough; most employees disagree. Start communicating more today.

And that’s just a start. It’s likely you already have a few reward and recognition programs. Before you make any changes, gather your management team and list all of the extrinsic and intrinsic motivators you have in place. Not only will they have great ideas, they’ll also feel more engaged.

If yours is like most organisations, chances are your list of extrinsic motivators will be longer. If so, institute more intrinsic motivators so that there is at least a balance between the two. Better yet, put more intrinsic motivators in place; you’ll reduce your costs and create higher-performing work teams.

Once you’ve developed your ideas as a management team, discuss them with your employees, especially if measurable performance targets are involved.

Employees are truly motivated when they work towards goals that mean something personally to them, and that they had a hand in creating.

If it’s appropriate, negotiate quantitative goals with your employees. Make the goals a challenge to reach but still attainable, and provide regular feedback.

Remember, don’t just reward your employees; recognise them for their achievements, for their contributions, and for their role in the team.

And most importantly, say, “Thank you,” as often as you can. You – and your bottom line – will be glad you did.

Guest Author

James Adonis is Australia’s leading expert on employee engagement. He shows companies how to reduce staff turnover, engage Gen Y, and win the war for talent. Sign up for James’ FREE newsletter Love Your Team: Employee Engagement Newsletter Contact James via Phone: +61 2 9331 2465; Email: james@jamesadonis.com or visit his Web site: http://www.jamesadonis.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/

Recognising The Traits Of Outstanding Employees

Great employees are reliable, dependable, proactive, diligent, great leaders and great followers … they possess a wide range of easily-defined – but hard to find – qualities. A few hit the next level and are remarkable, possessing qualities that may not appear on performance appraisals, but nonetheless make a major impact on performance. Forget good to great – what makes a great employee, remarkable?

Here are eight qualities of remarkable employees:

1. They ignore job descriptions – The smaller the company, the more important it is that employees can think on their feet, adapt quickly to shifting priorities, and do whatever it takes, regardless of role or position, to get things done.When a key customer’s project is in jeopardy, remarkable employees know without being told there’s a problem and jump in without being asked – even if it’s not their job.
2. They’re eccentric – The best employees are often a little different: quirky, sometimes irreverent, even delighted to be unusual. They seem slightly odd, but in a really good way. Unusual personalities shake things up, make work more fun, and transform a plain-vanilla group into a team with flair and flavour. People who aren’t afraid to be different naturally stretch boundaries and challenge the status quo, and they often come up with the best ideas.
3. But they know when to dial it back – An unusual personality is a lot of fun … until it isn’t. When a major challenge pops up or a situation gets stressful, the best employees stop expressing their individuality and fit seamlessly into the team. Remarkable employees know when to play and when to be serious; when to be irreverent and when to conform; and when to challenge and when to back off. It’s a tough balance to strike, but a rare few can walk that fine line with ease.
4. They publicly praise – Praise from a boss feels good. Praise from a peer feels awesome, especially when you look up to that person. Remarkable employees recognise the contributions of others, especially in group settings where the impact of their words is even greater.
5. And they complain privately – We all want employees to bring issues forward, but some problems are better handled in private. Great employees often get more latitude to bring up controversial subjects in a group setting because their performance allows greater freedom.Remarkable employees come to you before or after a meeting to discuss a sensitive issue, knowing that bringing it up in a group setting could set off a firestorm.
6. They speak when others won’t – Some employees are hesitant to speak up in meetings. Some are even hesitant to speak up privately.An employee once asked me a question about potential layoffs. After the meeting I said to him, “Why did you ask about that? You already know what’s going on”. He said, “I do, but a lot of other people don’t, and they’re afraid to ask. I thought it would help if they heard the answer from you”. Remarkable employees have an innate feel for the issues and concerns of those around them, and step up to ask questions or raise important issues when others hesitate.
7. They like to prove others wrong – Self-motivation often springs from a desire to show that doubters are wrong. The kid without a college degree or the woman who was told she didn’t have leadership potential often possess a burning desire to prove other people wrong.Education, intelligence, talent, and skill are important – but drive is critical. Remarkable employees are driven by something deeper and more personal than just the desire to do a good job.
8. They’re always fiddling – Some people are rarely satisfied (I mean that in a good way) and are constantly tinkering with something: Reworking a timeline, adjusting a process, tweaking a workflow.Great employees follow processes. Remarkable employees find ways to make those processes even better, not only because they are expected to … but because they just can’t help it.

Guest Author

Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry. Everything else he picks up from ghostwriting books for some of the smartest leaders he knows in business. Visit http://www.blackbirdinc.com

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10 Issues That Concern Your Employees And Productivity

Work-related concerns have an equal – sometimes greater – effect on employee productivity. Even the issues of just one staff member often can affect the performance of a team or department.

Why employee concerns affect productivity

Employee concerns always affect productivity, positively or negatively. Occasions when their concerns have no effect are rare and possibly non-existent. This is not a psychologically complex reality. Most managers have seen tan
gible effects of personal, if not professional issues, affecting employee performance.

Employees find new boyfriends/girlfriends, get married, receive their college or graduate degrees, or have other wonderful events occur, and their productivity tends to improve.

Conversely, people face divorce, foreclosure, the loss of a parent, issues with children, or a variety of other personal issues, and their productivity declines, for at least the short-term.

Concerns that are satisfied by management for just one team member can often uplift the performance of the whole group. On the down side, should management not address concerns of even one team member, performance of that employee – and possibly the entire team – typically suffers.

The obvious conclusion: Management should address any concerns that employees have to maintain continuity of performance. Certainly, at times, the answers that management must provide are not what the employee wanted. Yet, their concerns were addressed and efforts made to resolve these issues.

How to determine employee concerns

Management sometimes maintain that they didn’t address employee concerns because they were unaware that one or more issues existed. While this statement may be true, it is imperative that management stay aware of employee concerns so they can address them before small issues become major performance detractors.

How can they do this? Just ask. As long as your staff have the security of knowing that they will not be punished or criticised for being truthful about their concerns, they normally will be honest – sometimes brutally honest. But, that is good news. Simple surveys or requests for suggestions or concerns have proven to be sufficient.

The top 10 issues that concern your employees

Surveys indicate that the following issues are the most common employee concerns in a cross section of all industries. These are not listed in any particular order of importance, as people have different concerns when in different situations.

1. Higher salaries and compensation 

   Surprise! Few managers should be surprised by this concern.

2. Benefits programs 

   This is another very common – and understandable – concern of employees. To limit turnover and increase retention, management typically tries to offer the best benefit program they can afford. Should programs fall short of ideal, management should communicate their dedication to make benefits the best they can be.

3. Pay increase guidelines 

   This concern might initially surprise you. Compensation guidelines are normally in place for most larger companies, those with unionised workforces, and government agencies.However, most businesses are classified as smaller companies and it appears that this group often lacks this employee feature, generating confusion and concern from staff.

4. Favouritism 

   This important concern may be related to item number three. Most senior management would dispute this concern, but they may be forgetting one important item: perception.Your company may be diligent in prohibiting favouritism, yet the perception of this failing, or the possibility of its existence, remains a concern of employees.

5. Pay equity 

   While this concern may appear to relate to the above two issues, employee feedback indicates that it stems from a different source. Employees want to feel secure they are earning compensation equal to those who are in similar positions and have comparable experience.

6. The human resource department 

   Most HR professionals are aware of this employee concern. Contemporary workers want and expect their HR departments to be fountains of knowledge about a myriad of issues (benefits, compensation, corporate plans and goals, legal and insurance issues, positions to be open in the future, etc.).

7. Excessive management 

   Sometimes called “over management” or “micro-management”, this concern relates to employees feeling that their every activity is separately managed and little judgment or freedom is permitted.

8. Inadequate communication 

   Has anyone heard this concern before? Employees have a need to believe they are “in the loop” by having as much information as possible on employer plans, goals, dreams, news, etc.

9. Over-work 

   Employees are often afraid that their efforts and high performance may only result in management asking them to do more for the same compensation. Extra efforts should be rewarded by additional compensation (if possible) and/or a sincere “Thank you” at a minimum. Concern addressed.

10. Workplace conditions and cleanliness 

    Management is sometimes caught off guard when advised that this concern consistently appears. But, upon reflection, it is perfectly logical. With more and more people committed to improved health and quality of life in general, it is not surprising that there is deep interest in their workplace’s physical conditions.

It is important to remember that these items are concerns, not necessarily complaints. Senior management in most companies regularly satisfy these and other employee concerns. This compilation of many statistics, however, does display the most common items of interest to the general workforce.

Asking your staff to advise you of their concerns gives management the opportunity to address issues of importance to their employees. Studies indicate that addressing employee concerns – regardless of the answers – is the most important activity.

Management displays their sincerity, their own concern, and their respect for their workforce. Making an honest attempt to address employee concerns typically results in improved staff performance.

Guest Author

Kelly Services is a global recruitment company, operating in 37 countries delivering temporary and full-time recruitment and HR/Recruitment Outsourcing and consulting.

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/

Management Tips To Ensure That Your Good Employees Stay

It is difficult to put a value on maintaining a team of loyal, experienced workers, particularly in the present climate of skills shortages and the looming exit of experienced baby boomers. However most employers would agree that good staff are priceless. So, how do you keep good employees satisfied enough to want to stay in your business?

• Have strong core values which demonstrate that you value long-term relationships with both employees and clients
• Ensure there is a two-way street of dignity, trust and respect between management and employees|
• Encourage open two way communication; listen; and back up talk with action
• Nurture a sense of ‘community’ and connection amongst staff
• Provide higher than average benefits
• Build a transparent culture
• Recognise both work and life events
• Encourage and support ongoing education and personal growth
• Encourage a collaborative atmosphere and involve employees in the planning and feedback process
• Empower by encouraging self-reliance and accountability
• Be sensitive to individual employee needs and lifestyle; foster a good work/life balance
• Consider creating an ‘employee care’ program tailored to the needs of your employees

Guest Author:

NSW Business Chamber.

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/