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April 2010
Welcome to the April issue of "The Edge"!
CEOs and managers who invest the time to manage their staff effectively
are the ones who see payoff through higher productivity, lower turnover,
better guest feedback and, most of all, stronger bottom-line success. When
staff feel that you care about them, and that you support them, they become
more productive and more connected to your business.
Managing staff is about much more than setting out job requirements. It
involves your leadership style, how you motivate your team, how you guide
the work to be done, how you address absenteeism, the work environment
itself, and the safety and productivity of your people, -how you create
a "people plan". In short, there are many different factors that contribute
to creating an efficient and happy workforce.
Employees of Canadian small businesses have reported that the following
changes in management and supervisory behavior would influence their decision
to stay or leave a job:
"¢ Give more recognition for a job well done
"¢ Give employees more constructive feedback
"¢ Share information with employees
"¢ Clearly communicate the work to be done
"¢ Give feedback on a regular basis
"¢ Make sure employees have the training they need to do their work
"¢ Plan work effectively
"¢ Ask employees for input before making decisions that affect their work
In the articles below you will find some interesting observations and
ideas that can help you create and maintain a culture where employees consistently
make a significant contribution to the organization.
Enjoy!
Peter Neufeldt
Do You Create Opportunities For Your Employees
...to make a significant contribution to the organization?
Of course you do. Employees already have their responsibilities and deliverables. They know
what to do and how to do it. A system of audits and quality control already ensures that human errors are caught and corrected. A system of rewards and recognition is in place; a monthly or year-end
incentive plan motivates the high performers.
But now you wonder why sales only shows minor incremental growth. You realize that there is
little innovation. Decisions come slowly, and only after being passed up the ladder. Senior management has to push for new programs; none are being suggested from the rank-and-file. You struggle to
identify "high" performers who deserve the year-end rewards.
Let's concentrate on the phrase "significant contribution". Generally a "significant
contribution" is the result of innovative thinking - thinking outside the box - considering a situation from alternative points of view.
But explicit responsibilities and deliverables are, generally, simply lists of tasks. A list cannot generate innovation.
Employees can only innovate when they know the organization's mission and vision. They need
to know the organization's goals and capabilities, not just their own roles and tasks.
Employees can only innovate when they know that success will be rewarded, and that "failure"
will be treated as a learning experience.
Employees can only innovate when they know that there is latitude for experimentation.
"Latitude" does involve limitations. By all means, limit the budget or the timeframe for innovations, but ensure that the limited "innovation budget" has room for meaningful experiments.
But, beyond "knowing", there is also the need for energy. The best computer won't run
without electricity; nor the fastest car, without fuel. How can you energize your workforce?
Be clear in your organization's mission and goals. Fuzzy goals leave everyone wondering,
"Just what does that mean?" Don't just aspire to be an industry leader - aspire to lead the industry in a measurable way. Aspire to lead in numbers of new customers, or new products, or in price, or in
volume. State a clear vision of the mission.
Share your organization's mission and goals. Communicate them to everyone. Ensure middle
management carries the flag and explains the goals to their staff. If the employees do not know the mission, how can they contribute?
(There's a story that staff persons at NASA were asked about their jobs. Most replied with
variations on, "I do my specific job". But one janitor said, "I help launch rockets". That was the person who understood and internalized the mission; imagine the attitude he brought to work!)
Align the employee's personal goals and development with the corporate mission. Ensure that
responsibilities and rewards truly are aligned with the company's goals.
(There's a story about a company with the goal of selling products "A", "B", and "C" in
similar volumes. Management was concerned because "B" far outsold "A" and "C" combined. The sales people, however, were responding to the tangible message that the commission for product "B" was much
higher than that of "A" or "C".)
So that's all it takes to empower your employees to significantly contribute to your
organization? Frankly, no - but that's the start.
Contact us; we can help.
~ © Copyright protected, all rights reserved worldwide. Written for us by Gary Sorrell
Continue to build your team in 2010.
Take advantage of the opportunity to attend or to enrol you staff in one of the following impactful workshop series.
High Performance Leadership: Peak performing organizations require
peak performing people. One of the key roles of leaders and managers is to is to guide staff to new levels of achievement in the face of constant change. This is intensive, and very practical leadership
development program designed to do just that, -and to get bottom line results. Participants meet every other week for fourteen half-day workshops to build their leadership skills and to achieve results.
Call for more information. The first workshop in this series begins Wednesday May 26, 2010
Time Management for Success: Only people can be made to appreciate in
value - by making them more productive. Each person can learn how to get more done, with lower stress, using these powerful, personal management tools and techniques.
The first workshop in this three half-day series begins May 6
For more details go to www.peakperformanceconsulting.ca and click on the Performance Programs button or call Peter at 306-790-4570.
We custom design workshop to meet your specific needs!
Job Benchmarking To Improve the Bottom Line
When a company goes to hire someone for a particular position, the
trusted method for a long time has been to accumulate a large number of resumes. From there, somebody sorts through the resumes and then attempts to find potential candidates that will suit the position
and be a good employee. Those that are selected from the pile of resumes are then invited for a face to face interview.
Consider how many things can go wrong with this process; the person who is screening the resumes is likely not familiar with the job duties. The resumes might have incorrect or completely falsified
information on them. Most screeners are looking more for spelling mistakes than they are for the proper skill set.
Now consider what can go wrong when some of those people who
submit resumes are invited to go for an interview. There is a personal bias on the part of many interviewers. People might get selected more on their looks or the clothes that they wear instead of how
effective they are going to be. They may be from the interviewer's home town or they may have practiced the correct canned answers and ace the interview as a result.
Wouldn't it be good if there were a better approach?
There is, and that is working from the standpoint that the requirements necessary to be
successful in the job should first be analyzed, instead of finding good candidates first and trying to fit them to a job.
Job benchmarking involves taking all of the necessary key
accountabilities, personal skills, behaviors, and motivators for a position and identifying them. When this is done, you can then look for those qualities in the candidates to find a match. The best
performer is not necessarily going to be somebody who has had that same job title in the past at a different company, or somebody who has worked in the same industry for a long time. It is somebody who
fits the requirements of the job and possesses many of the qualities & traits that the benchmark identified.
From the start, companies who utilize job benchmarking will
have a better understanding of what is needed in the candidates filling the positions. Not only will they be more likely to effectively perform in their role because of their job match, but they will do so
enthusiastically. The hiring manager can go over all of the things that are necessary for the job so everyone is on the same page. At this early stage, the candidate can be asked to commit to those
responsibilities.
Once hired, employees are more productive and happier if they
clearly know what their objectives are and are more likely to have the ability to meet them. It's obvious that more productive employees are good for a company. An added benefit to having fulfilled
employees is that retention is better. If you consider how much it costs to go through the process of hiring an employee and then subsequently training them, you can see how this can affect the bottom
line.
Companies that engage in job benchmarking will show better
profitability because getting the right people into the right position at the beginning means less strain on human resources and more productivity from employees who are engaged in their job.
Here a just a couple of our job benchmarking successes:
* Success Story - 50% of a company's new hires were lost during the training program. After benchmarking the job, they were able to hire the right people and increase retention
to 80%.
* Success Story - An organization had a 74% turnover in their sales force. After benchmarking and debriefing, they retained 100% of the sales force for the last 18 months.
In our next issue we will explore how to use job benchmarking to avoid unnecessary costs. Ready to learn more?
Contact us, your benchmark specialist, today!
~ © Copyright protected, all rights reserved worldwide. Written for us by Gary Sorrell
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The Edge
