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

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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/

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/

How To Motivate Unmotivated People

All it takes is an understanding of the appropriate steps to take and a willingness to do them. This article contains the steps. The willingness is up to you.

If you walk around a Walt Disney World resort or theme park, you are likely to witness something that in most other settings would seem bizarre. Not the presence of a large animated character, although you may witness that also. Rather, at any given moment, a person in dress clothes will be walking from one destination to another and will stop, pick up a piece of paper, a cup, or other piece of trash someone dropped, and throw it in a trash can. Executives do it, front line managers do it, hourly employees do it, everybody does it.

There is no special monetary compensation for this behavior. No point system exists where $5 bonuses are given out for every fifteen pieces of trash that someone picks up. There is also no special monitoring system in place which watches for people who don’t do it and then issues penalty points or demerits. Yet, people are motivated to do it anyway.

Now picking up trash may not be your top concern, but are there other things in your department, division, or company that you would like your employees to do? Are you looking for ways to motivate your people?

The answer is not pixie dust or magic. The key is being very good at employing five essential motivation steps.

To some leaders these steps can seem intimidating. First time managers in particular, who were promoted because of their individual skills are often uncomfortable with these ideas. Many times they feel people should just do what needs to be done “because that is what they get paid for”. Or they believe the only way to motivate people is to give them more money.

Successful motivators don’t think that way. They know that by following the five steps, people can be motivated far beyond what they get paid for, and far more effectively than when money is the only incentive.

Step #1 – Clearly articulate what needs to be accomplished and why

Often the problem with getting people to accomplish things is not that they are unmotivated, it is that they are uninformed. Leaders discuss goals with their peers and superiors on a regular basis and are therefore intimately familiar with them. Because of this familiarity, they mistakenly assume all of their employees also know them. Usually this is not the case.

Take time to explain to all of your employees exactly what needs to be accomplished and the reasons why. Don’t forget the “why?” Knowing that enables people to make educated choices in their day to day decisions. For example, the output from a team at a market research company whose goal is to launch three new products, will vary greatly, depending on if they know that the “why?” is because the company is losing market share to competitors with products that can be downloaded from the Internet.

Goals should always include specific numeric objectives and timelines. A goal of “Improve Customer Service” is nebulous and people won’t know how they are doing in their efforts to achieve it. However, “Decrease customer wait times to 10 seconds by June 1st” is something people can visualise and work towards.

Step #2 – Involve people in finding the solutions

People are more motivated to succeed at something if they personally choose to attempt it. Therefore, managers should involve their people in choosing the goals the group needs to accomplish. If this is not possible, then involving people in the creation of how to achieve the goals is the next best thing. Their involvement will generate buy-in and also opens up the opportunity for an optimal solution.

Successful coaches use this technique on a regular basis. While it is true they watch hours and hours of game films looking for weaknesses in their own team as well as their competitors, they also involve their players in finding the best way to win. They do it because no matter how much film they watch, or how close they are to the game, they aren’t in the game. The perspectives of players or employees who are in the midst of the action can be drastically different from a coach or a manager who is near the action.

If those perspectives aren’t incorporated into the solution, two things will happen. First, those in the midst of the action will feel that no-one is listening to them, and they will become unmotivated. Second, decisions will be made without incorporating all the relevant data. Both of these will negatively impact progress toward the goals.

Step #3 – Explain the rules of the game

Have you ever played a new sport or game against people who are experienced players? In the early stages of learning how to play, every few minutes you do something which you think is correct only to be told that it is illegal, or against the rules. It can be exceptionally frustrating.

This scenario often plays out in the workplace. Employees are given a task, but are not told all the parameters or rules. Weeks into a project they present their work to someone, only to be informed that they need to change direction because of something they were never told about.

This is particularly demoralising and should be avoided at all costs. People can find solutions to almost any problem, but they need to know the rules of the game.

Step #4 – Link people’s personal goals with the organisations goals

There is a reason that each employee goes to work. Successful motivators know what that reason is for every person who works for them. Each day they help their employees fulfill those reasons. Really successful motivators understand not only the reason, but how the reason ties into the person’s bigger life goals. When necessary, they help their people think about and articulate those bigger life goals. When a person no longer thinks “I work so that I can make money,” and instead thinks “I work so that I can enable my daughter to attend a school that will give her a chance to go do what she wants in life,” there is a significant mental and motivational shift that occurs.

Understanding that someone comes to work because they thrive on personal interaction, are trying to gain experience so they can run their own corner deli, or whatever is their personal goal, enables a manager to talk in that person’s language. It also enables the manager to assign responsibilities in that person’s area of interest, and remind them how what they are doing is tied to their bigger goals.

Managers who enable people to fulfill their life goals through work never have to worry about how to motivate their people. The act of fulfilling their life goals is enough to keep them motivated. All the manager has to do is find the links between those goals, and the organisation’s needs, and match the two up.

Step #5 – Move negative people off the team

Nothing can halt progress like someone who is discontent simply for the sake of being discontent. It is demoralising to others and it draws energy and time from the tasks being attempted. That doesn’t mean you don’t want good “counter-point” people on your team. Someone who says “Look, I know what we are all trying to do, and I think there is a better way,” can be a valuable resource to help make sure the team is on the right track. However, someone who just regularly says “We’ll never get there,” will just hold everyone back. Move them off the team, and bring in someone who will assist and support the group’s efforts.

Whether you are trying to motivate people to help create a clean environment for guests, or something more pertinent to your organisation, remember that anyone can be a great motivator. Now that you know the steps, all you need is the willingness.

Guest Author

John P. Strelecky is the international best selling author of ‘The Why Café’ and a highly sought after inspirational speaker on; ‘How to Achieve Maximum Success with Minimal Effort.’ His CD series of the same name has received rave reviews from listeners. A graduate of Northwestern University’s MBA program, John has served as a business strategist for numerous Fortune 500 companies. Through his book, CDs, articles, and appearances on television and radio, he has positively impacted the lives of millions of people. John can be reached through his website at http://www.whycafe.com, or by calling 407-342-4181.

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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

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/

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/

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/