Tuning in to Employees’ Top Priorities

Despite workplace pressures and slow growth for compensation, greater opportunity for career advancement is the number one priority sought by employees in their next position. Right Management polled 561 North American workers via an online survey and asked:

What is your highest priority in your next position?

• 27% Greater opportunity for advancement
• 21% Better management team
• 21% More flexible work environment
• 17% Better compensation
• 14% Less work pressure

We posed a classic question to today’s workers, what they’re really looking for in their next job. We wondered if higher comp would top the list, or perhaps less workplace stress, but we found that opportunity for advancement is number one. That tells us that despite all the workplace complaints we hear most employees are still highly motivated about their own development and careers.

Higher compensation and less work pressure trailed other concerns including quality of management. The second highest priority among respondents is a better management team, which may mean either more competent leaders or more considerate bosses, a finding that’s common in a workplace poll such as this. This is a variant of the truism that people quit their bosses, not their companies, and it’s a key lesson for all organizations when there’s strong competition to attract and retain quality talent.

But senior management’s main interest ought to be how to engage employees during a weak economy. The most recent Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is for continued sluggish hiring across most industries. Employee turnover has been remarkably slow for the past two years, and everyone is itching for new horizons. In fact, many workers feel trapped in their current situation. Now that’s bad for everyone concerned and the savvy employer will make strenuous efforts to vary people’s tasks and responsibilities, to shuffle work teams, to do cross-team training…to do whatever is needed to demonstrate real commitment to career development and to counter a pervasive sense of career stagnation among their employees.

Some organizations are surely on top of the problem, but I’m afraid too many aren’t. Are you tuned in to what your employees want from you most?

Navigating Workforce Strategy

Workforce demands and compositions are shifting in response to economic, social and demographic trends. Talent assets need to be managed as aggressively as the fine-tuning applied to other organizational assets. Everything else fails if the right talent isn’t in the right place. This requires an alignment of workforce strategy with business goals.

In the changing world of work, the one constant is the need for an exceptional workforce. The effectiveness of your workforce strategy makes the difference between thriving and diving. Today, talent is the only source of sustainable success and differentiation. Building an exceptional workforce will drive higher levels of performance and positively impact your organization’s ability to deliver on business strategy.

I will be presenting on this topic at the SHRM 2011 Conference and Exposition on June 28 in Las Vegas. Please join me and learn language, a process, business drivers and key metrics to architect an effective workforce strategy is aligned with business objectives.
Architecting a high-performing workforce strategy starts with the foundation of a five step process:

• Identify current state and future goals;


• Establish understanding and commitment;


• Gather the data and assess priorities;


• Analyze results and conduct gap analysis; and,


• Action planning and implementation.

Why make the investment? Building an exceptional workforce will drive higher levels of performance and will positively impact your organization’s ability to deliver on its business growth strategy. Investing in this process upfront will iidentify constraints and accelerators to organizational performance – top strengths to leverage and top priorities to fund and why. It will also increase executive alignment across functions and geographies, while also aligning talent initiatives to business goals – whether they are related to globalization, growth, productivity or even the brand.

I hope to see you at SHRM.

Cutting Back on Cutbacks

For the past couple of years, organizations have cut costs and laid off staff. Most organizations have very little, if anything, left to cut. After two years of widespread downsizings most companies foresee few or no staff cutbacks in the year ahead. We recently surveyed more than 700 firms across the U.S. and learned that just five percent of firms nationally anticipate significant cutbacks or restructurings.

While it is anticipated that organizations will likely continue to be conservative with cash, many leaders are shifting from crisis mode to a growth agenda. According to research by Gartner, some 42% of CEOs are focusing more on revenue growth than cost control and 29% expect this to be the prime focus for 2011, according to Gartner research. In 2009, this research reflected CEOs’ focus on restructuring, layoffs, consolidation, write-offs and rebuilding trust.

So the road ahead will be one focused on growth. Many organization’s are at a point where they need to make a greater investment in talent to ensure strategic viability. An organization’s people are, in the end, the only differentiator that may be sustained. And a coherent strategy around talent will be needed to deliver on increasingly aggressive business goals. Businesses across the board have successfully taken costs out of their structure through a variety of methods. The challenge is rebuilding and growing the business with the talent left after the wake of cost cutting efforts.

Engagement and motivation levels are not the only challenges firms face when re-focusing the business on the future. The skill sets and abilities of the remaining workforce may or may not be what is needed to take the business forward. Organizations that evaluate what the “new normal” looks like – and how the mindsets, skills sets, motivations and abilities of the workforce need to be developed, adapted and changed to meet the future – dramatically increase their the chances of success.

Sending mixed messages

Employers often send mixed messages about the work/life balance their organization offers, paying lip service to the idea of workforce health and wellness without really committing to it. This can be very difficult to resolve. Employees become fearful: “What if I don’t put in the extra time like others in my department? Will this slow down or prevent a future promotion?”

Most employees want to be seen as team players. They do not want to risk being viewed as lacking commitment, energy, or enthusiasm. Companies and leaders need their people to be agile, responsive and improve their productivity.

Technology helps organizations be productive 24/7. Well-equipped international companies can respond to customers and colleagues in every time zone. Businesses use social media web sites to connect with customers and prospects across physical, geographical and technological boundaries. However this 24/7 cycle presents a paradox. Since people cannot work around the clock and always be instantly available, this makes the 24/7 pace unsustainable.

Instead of shorter work weeks, technology – i.e., global Internet connectivity – has increased everyone's workload. Email is just one example. Most people feel overwhelmed by the hundreds, if not thousands, of messages that arrive each and every day in their inbox. Some important messages may be overlooked or, worse, a power outage brings your email server down. A new prospect or customer inquiry may be forever lost.

While it appears that human productivity has increased a thousand fold, in reality we are accomplishing less and are increasingly less productive than perceived.

It is time for leaders to re-evaluate their goals and expectations. Simply telling your people to take a long lunch or use their vacation time is not enough. When workforce talent is stretched so thin, burnout quickly results. Reassess timelines. Push, but be reasonable about timeframes and expected outcomes.

As a leader, coach your employees on their decision-making skills. Help them create decision-making guidelines and adequately prioritize so they can effectively manage their workloads. Your goal is to help them avoid focusing on the wrong things – i.e., the non-critical path tasks – and keep them focused on the critical work. By effectively influencing your decision-makers and coaching your staff on setting goals and milestones, this will keep them on track and prevent projects from stalling.

Reward efficiency – e.g., your team accomplished project goals ahead of schedule and under budget. You will earn their gratitude and trust.

It is important to both commit to and maintain a work-life balance. If your team does not have the opportunity to re-energize, they will make costly mistakes. It is far better that they accomplish optimal results the first time around.

Playing Goal Keeper

In sports, a goal keeper is a player that is charged with directly preventing the opposite team from scoring by defending the goal. As a leader, you need to be a goal keeper of a different sort. You need to be the one who establishes goals for your team, clearly communicates them on a regular basis, and the person who helps your talent to learn ways to fulfill and exceed the set objectives.

Goal setting involves establishing specific, measurable and time-targeted objectives. Sure, that sounds easy enough. But how do you do this in an uncertain operating environment, where the winds of change are constant and the latest fire drill flips the priorities? In essence, goal setting today is a lot like chasing moving targets. But the reality is that uncertainty and change are the norms of doing business today. If you don’t establish goals, it’s easy to lose your line of site and miss out on fulfilling the broader vision for the organization.

With a clear vision, one that is regularly articulated and discussed with your team, you can define accountability for meeting goals and have a solid platform to loop back and review performance. It’s important for leaders to regularly communicate with the team, set milestones on the path to achieving the goals, and ask for regular updates from everyone on progress.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set with your team. When you measure progress, the whole team is more likely to stay on track, reach target dates, and experience the sense of achievement that spurs everyone on to continue the efforts required to reach new goals.

Boost the commitment and development of your team by setting goals that will help to stretch their learning. Employees want career development opportunities. Employees want to be led by those who recognize and appreciate them, and who give them the opportunity to be challenged and enriched by their work.

Is your team clear on the goals for your organization? Are you actively keeping them on track to fulfill them?

Is Change Interfering With Your Productivity?

Nearly two-thirds of senior executives and human resource professionals say that employees are struggling to focus amidst all the changes at work, according to a recent poll conducted by Right Management. While that may not be completely surprising to you, the larger problem is that they also acknowledge it is seriously impacting productivity levels.

Reacting to change is an emotional roller coaster. The greater the impact of the event and the less welcomed the change is for people, the more dramatic the emotional response will be. The process often includes a time of clinging to the past, followed by a period of apathy or hopelessness, and finally the eventual acceptance and positive movement toward the future. It’s actually a healing process, and individuals differ greatly in how long they move through it and how well.

To accelerate the pace of change implementation and increase the potential of succeeding with the objectives driving the change, you need to build change management capabilities at all organizational levels. Each organizational level – senior leaders, middle managers and staff – needs to learn how to effectively respond to and manage change. But each requires different capabilities, depending on role and amount of control over the process. For instance:

-- Senior leaders need to ensure engagement and alignment. They should encourage input from employees, communicate and keep them informed about the change process, value and act on ideas, follow through on actions, and model appropriate responses to change.

-- Middle managers need to facilitate change and help employees understand the reasons and objectives for the change. Provide direction and support, understand typical responses and cycles of change, guide people through the cycle, and help them to maintain their productivity through the process.

-- Employees need to continue to meet performance objectives during and after a change initiative. Involve them in the process. Ensure they understand the rationale for change, their role in making change work, and what is expected of them. Create strategies to help them overcome natural resistance to change, and show them how to recognize their own styles and reactions to change through assessments, workshops and team meetings.

If you are frustrated with the impact of change on productivity, consider building change management capabilities at all organizational levels. Are your employees struggling to focus and maintain performance levels?

Making Innovation More Than a Buzzword

I read with great interest Ric Merrifield’s blog post where he commented: “My growing fear is that innovation is on course to become the fad of the day in the same way quality was in the 90s.” Far from a “fad”, I believe innovation is core to growth for many businesses and it is not likely to get blown away by the next breezy trend. The foundation to creating innovation in your firm is to develop a culture that supports risk taking. It’s not about fads, trends and buzzwords. It’s about creating an environment that promotes creativity.

Complacency can ruin any good business. Just look at Blockbuster who announced last month they are filing for bankruptcy after not being able to anticipate, adapt and cater to new market and customer demands.

As Fast Company reports, there’s a strong correlation between innovation and failure. One of the worst habits organizations get into is that of not taking any risks. Place the bet on smart people who push the envelope. These are the ones who will help spur innovation. Fostering innovation is about the way you do business as much as who does business with you. Recreate the same uncreative processes, fail to listen to your customers, miss market trends and you’ll have the same uncreative business.

If you value innovation and want to instill it as a cornerstone to success in your organization, then you will need to establish the kind of culture that is conducive to sustainable innovation — one that enables innovation to become part of your company's DNA, rather than being yet another buzzword. Demonstrate to people that ideas are at the heart of what your organization values. Give people room to grow, to explore new ideas; build a strong sense of openness and trust and community; and facilitate the internal mobility of talent. All of this will go a long way to fostering sustainable innovation.

Is innovation a fad or a cornerstone in your organization?

Why Aren't We Getting Anything Done?

As BNET reports, U.S. companies’ return on assets (ROA) have progressively dropped 75% from their 1965 level despite rising labor productivity. Even the highest-performing companies are struggling to maintain their ROA rates and are increasingly losing their positions as market leaders.

In essence, we’re getting less done. Why? Lots of reasons, but let’s hone in on one… How long does it take to identify a problem, evaluate the opportunity or challenge, strategize a course of action, create a plan and execute? How many task forces do you put into place, how many meetings are held, and how many people are offering feedback before anything gets done? And worse, how many times do the task teams fall apart, lose focus and momentum, and fail to follow through on goals or actually take any positive forward action?

It’s hard work and it takes strong self-management skills, determination and a real commitment to get things done in the operating environments of many businesses today. Too many initiatives hit a wall when the real work needs to get actioned. Everything we do doesn’t need to be accomplished by a team. We need to empower individuals – coach them to reach out to key stakeholders to ensure everyone is aligned and on board, seek guidance from experts and colleagues – and work smarter and faster.

As leaders, we need to ensure we aren’t road blocks to productivity. It may feel risky to loosen control and resist micromanaging. But a good leader empowers his or her people in ways that make employees want to do their best. Encourage employees to work to their strengths. It’s in our nature to be driven to perform and achieve personal accomplishments. Give power to individuals and then recognize and reward them for taking the initiative, running with a solution, and coach – rather than direct or criticize – if the course of action needs to be adjusted. The end result is better performance, higher productivity and stronger commitment.

How much are your employees getting done these days?

Stressed Out With Change?

According to a recent poll conducted by Right Management, 71% of senior executives and human resource professionals said their jobs are more stressful amid the current demanding and changing business environment. No big surprise, really… who isn’t feeling like this lately?

One of the main triggers of stress is understanding what you can and can’t control. Stress can be a common cause of negativity, driven by a lack of understanding for the business rationale behind change initiatives, the role each employee plays in making the change work, as well as an inability to adapt quickly to changes in the environment. Focusing on the factors you can influence and control helps to develop a more positive and productive response to change.

We’ve conducted research in this area and found that nearly one in three employees don’t adapt well, if at all, to changes at work. More than 9 in 10 employees are disengaged when organizations don’t implement change well. For employees who said leadership managed change effectively, only 40% were disengaged. Improving change effectiveness positively impacts performance. Our studies also identified the top global drivers of effective change management. The number one driver: senior leaders implement effective change. However, our results revealed that less than one in two employees work in organizations where senior leaders are perceived to implement change effectively. And only one in three people believe that the reasons for decisions are fully explained.

What can workers do – at all levels of the organization – to reduce stress and cope more effectively with change? Take a look at the three main pillars that provide the foundation for our ability to adapt to change:

-- Attitude. A feeling or emotion toward something that impacts what we think, feel and do. Attitude is impacted by our openness to change, our ability to embrace it, adapt to it and persevere through change.

-- Self-management. Being able to manage your own emotions and behaviors to increase personal resilience in a range of situations. This is also a pillar in developing strong emotional intelligence. Your ability to control your emotions and the self-confidence that comes as you successfully navigate interactions all contribute to a strong sense of self-management, particularly important during times of change.

-- Relationship management. The ability or willingness to carry out interpersonal interactions in a way that increases the likelihood of beneficial outcomes. Your skill at building relationships, combined with influence, provides you with the ability to build agreement and affect positive change.

In the words of John Wooden: “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

Are you stressing over what you can’t control?

Building Virtual Capacity

There’s a technological revolution taking hold across the globe which has the power to change where, when and how we work - enabling organizations to be more agile and innovative. It’s fueling a growth in virtual workers, which is also being supported by many businesses as a way to reduce costs, increase employee engagement and empower individuals to have greater flexibility in how they accomplish work.

According to recent studies, virtual companies - companies that use technology to link a geographically dispersed staff - are showing an increase of 8% to 15% in productivity. Key to that gain in productivity is the virtual company's workforce. As McKinsey reports, boosting productivity of knowledge workers and virtual employees is not a one size fits all approach.

How these workers interact with colleagues plays a large part in their success. We’re moving to a social business model that stresses our ability to communicate and collaborate effectively, not just in personal interactions but also in virtual interactions. Virtual interactions can be tricky – often, there are no visual clues for guidance and it requires a stronger emphasis on good communication and self-management skills. Basically, working virtually requires a different set of behaviors and motivations.

As this pool of mobile talent continues to grow for many organizations, assessments can play a practical role in evaluating whether employees have the right behaviors and are motivated to be successful in working virtually, or identifying gaps that might impede their success. Good assessments will help identify a potential employees’ adaptability, autonomy, decisiveness, dependability, stress tolerance and resourcefulness. In short, whether or not a person will be successful as a virtual worker.

Are you assessing the behaviors needed for your employees to succeed in an increasingly virtual and social working environment?

The Benefits of Impromptu Chitchats

Is the water cooler conversation dead? Maybe so. With many companies today stretched so thin, leaders are expecting people to take on more, expanding their responsibilities and increasing productivity goals. Add to the mix the growing trend of working virtually, office chitchat is on the decline.

However, impromptu chitchat can have real value. As MIT Professor Sandy Pentland reports on the results of a new study proving the benefits, he says: “Individuals who talked to more co-workers were getting through calls faster, felt less stressed and had the same approval ratings as their peers. Informally talking out problems and solutions, it seemed, produced better results than following the employee handbook or obeying managers’ e-mailed instructions.”

Office chitchat is often perceived as unproductive down time. But, in reality, it can lead to innovative problem solving, new ideas, stress relief and collaborative efforts that actually increase both productivity and performance. And it can be fun, too!

Sure, when chitchat is excessive it can lead to frustrations and lowered performance. So, help employees to learn the skills to move on from unproductive conversations. It’s ok to tell someone you’re “on a deadline” or “have a call to join”. However, managers should encourage conversations among team members - and not just email exchanges. An office devoid of personal interaction can create an atmosphere that’s unpleasant, even oppressive. It’s human nature to interact. The relationships that are built out of sharing can go a long way toward building a cohesive team. And, it’s well known that relationships with co-workers are the main reason employee stay with their current employers.

Encourage employees to reach out to one another to help solve problems and create solutions, even if they work virtually. Use technology, such as the telephone, Instant Messaging, wikis and other tools to help them keep engaged with each other. And as the leader, it's important to role model this behavior.

When was the last time you stopped to chitchat?

It's Time to Get Off the Bench

There’s a lot of data circulating in recent months, including our own, that cite how many employees are displeased with management, disengaged, stressed with more work and longer hours and looking for opportunities to leave. But will they really leave? As Dan Walter put it in a recent post: “Employee engagement surveys are like New Year’s Resolutions.” Meaning, what people say they want to do is not always what they actually do.

But the reality is employees are leaving. One in two employees has been approached with a job offer in the past 6 months, while 54% of companies reported losing top performers in the same time period.

Our own engagement research found that as many as one in two employees are disengaged. If you are doing your own engagement studies, then you have insights into how your own employees are feeling. If you have the data, act on it. Those who “quit and stay” -- we call them "Benchwarmers" -- are a real drain on productivity. While many may want to quit, the worst thing is that many don’t. Instead, you run the risk of them quitting in terms of their commitment and loyalty, but staying on the payroll just the same. That is not to say that these people are no longer valuable to the organization. They may have just lost interst in their job or role but could still be highly committed to the organization’s direction, values and culture. Oftentimes, with the right type of re-assignment, re-deployment or expanded job responsibilities, these people can be effectively re-engaged. It is often far more cost effective to look for ways to re-engage this group rather than lose these people who you've invested in and who possess valuable institutional knonwledge.

Either way, you’re courting disaster if you don’t address the problems within the organization that are leading to high levels of disengagement, while failing to support one of the greatest sources of influence on engagement levels: managers. If left unaddressed, customer service, ability to attract high caliber talent, the employer brand, productivity, and ultimately, performance will all suffer. Make the hard decisions fast about the complacent employees who are warming your benches. No company is going to move to the number one position in their industry with a complacent workforce.

Do you know who the benchwarmers are in your organization? Do you know your options for dealing with them?

Burning the Midnight Oil

Employees are working longer hours. And I have no doubt that most senior leaders are doing the same. According to MetLife Inc., many companies have increased employees’ workloads and put a higher priority on productivity since the recession. Our own research confirms this is the case. Three-quarters of employees say they now work more than 40 hours a week.

The findings reflect the pressures people are under to do more with less and shoulder heavier workloads in today’s workplace. Is pace sustainable, or even desirable? Companies run the risk of burnout and turnover.

And consider the impact on you and your peers. As BusinessWeek reports, fully 25% of executives at large companies say their communications -- voice mail, e-mail, and meetings -- are nearly or completely unmanageable. So, employees working longer hours, doing more work, while at the same time leaders are finding it more difficult to keep up with communications? Sounds like a recipe for disaster if left unattended.

Wireless technology and smart phones most certainly are factors contributing to both longer work hours and the unmanageable communications overload experienced by leaders. We have created a 24/7 workplace, with managers and employees always plugged in. Today, many employees stay connected and plugged in -- accessible all the time and available at a moment's notice.

Managers need to take the lead to ensure employees are managing their time effectively, as well as find ways to better manage their own overloaded schedules and inboxes. Technology affords a new flexibility by allowing individuals to work wherever and whenever, but it may also become a "collar", making it more difficult to assess appropriate workloads and work/life balance. Take time to regularly talk with your employees to review project lists, priorities, deadlines and role expectations. Seek input on improving efficiencies that can help reduce excessively long hours. Adopt best practices for time management and communications prioritization demanded by the new “always on” technologies.

Workloads are increasing and employees are working longer hours. Acknowledging and addressing this reality will go a long way to building a strong manager-employee relationship. Managing one’s own time as a leader can provide the model for others to follow.

Is it time to address your workload and help your employees to do the same?

Solve a business problem: develop employees

We all know that organizations are facing a much more difficult landscape than they did two years ago. Organizations at the forefront of their industries are the ones that attract the best and the brightest talent who bring the innovation and creativity needed to win.

Organizations that value their employees know that they bring a unique set of experiences and expertise. They realize those in the trenches can see where efficiencies can be created and are often the best source for innovation. Encouraging employees to share their perspectives and insights will help an organization enrich its offerings, address organizational issues, become more creative, more efficient, offer a fresh point of view, and escalate the competitiveness of their organization.

Employees want to be involved in business strategy execution and in helping their employer to be more successful. These future leaders want to play an active role and contribute to its success in a meaningful way. Employees are no longer content watching from the sidelines; they want to be part of the decision process.

However, study after study share findings indicating future leaders are poised to leave organizations once the job market improves, while engagement research shows that keeping employees engaged is a key to retention.

Leaders must address how to improve engagement while staying focused on business needs. Developing employees is highly correlated with increased engagement and employee retention. However, simply developing employees may not lead to improved organizational results. There needs to be a link between development and the strategic goals of the organization. An Emerging Talent Program focused on identifying and developing high potentials is a catalyst many high performance organizations use to engage and retain their best and brightest. With direction and input from senior leadership, employees identified as “Emerging Talent” are given organizational goals to research, analyze, and make recommendations on. Examples include identifying additional solutions or offerings, establishing more effective practices, and identifying new market strategies. Throughout the program senior leadership assesses the direction of the projects and makes refinements where necessary to ensure constant alignment with business objectives. Recommendations are then reviewed by senior leadership, decisions are made based on strategic priorities, implementation owners are identified, and action plans are created. Throughout this implementation process the Emerging Talent members are fully involved, and their development continues to expand as a result. Upon completion of the one-year Emerging Talent program, members become mentors and coaches to the next program class to help share their insights and give feedback on the direction of the projects.

Organizations that engage employees through development activities, such as an Emerging Talent Program, while focusing on strategy, increase engagement and retain key talent, creating the high performance workforce needed to move the company to the forefront of their industry. When implemented as part of an organization’s overall business and talent strategy, engaging high potentials by offering development opportunities solves a critical business issue: having the right people with the right skills in the right roles.

Finding Your Next Big Idea

You never know where the next great idea is going to come from. Creative ideas and innovative thinking are what it takes to succeed in today’s hyper competitive market. The best place to look? In your own workplace. Employees have a lot to contribute. In fact, 57% of employees say they regularly make suggestions in the workplace.

Employees really want to be heard. Making suggestions signals they are thinking about the performance of the organization and want to contribute in a much more meaningful way. And this can be a great opportunity for organizations – if you have the right organizational culture, processes and leadership to support and leverage it.

An important demographic to consider are those just entering the workforce. They bring a new perspective and aren’t encumbered by the old way of doing things. They have lots of ideas. What motivates this group is the opportunity to contribute at a higher level, play a more active role in the organization and grow in their career. This is an important group to engage. Why? They are our future. However, most college graduates don’t expect to stay long in their first job. Consider how to encourage younger workers to contribute creative ideas as a great way to engage them, develop them and build long-term commitment.

Given flatter organizations and potentially less opportunities for promotion, encourage innovation and help younger workers to feel part of the organization by listening and supporting ideas. Use the opportunity to develop employees by having them be accountable for implementing their ideas and measuring the impact. Encourage suggestions but provide coaching to ensure the suggestions are meaningful and executable. Have them make a compelling business case, research any associated costs and related trends. It’s also a great way to raise individual visibility and credibility throughout the organization.

Be sure employees’ ideas and suggestions are not only acknowledged, but that employees have a chance to make them happen.

Do you work in an environment that encourages employees of all levels to make suggestions?

Why Training Matters to Everyone

When budgets get cut, often training is the first thing to go. In the last three years, training budgets have fallen by 21%. Cutting training can have a devastating impact on the customer service experience. Today, the customer experience – which can be instantaneously broadcast far and wide via social media – is a powerful differentiator.

Without training, frontline employees often find it difficult to make the connection between their roles and the success of the organization. Consider the influence on the customer’s experience when you factor in that only one in three U.S. retail employees have received formal training from their employers, according to a June report from the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College.

Training may not require significant investments of cash and resources. Training and development have taken on newer and far more cost effective forms without losing the power to change behaviors or acquire new skills. Online courses, scenario-based learning and on-the-job learning applications have all made development more “real time”, reducing “time away from the job” costs associated with more traditional training models. It might be more of an issue of coaching managers to regularly engage employees in discussions to keep them informed about the business strategy so they understand how they play a part in the company’s success. Whatever the method used, solicit employee feedback and opinions for improvements so they can make meaningful contributions. And empower them to implement their own solutions.

A classic example of great training reported in a recent BNET article comes from CitiStorage. One of the key stakeholders in the business argued that it wasn’t just customer service representatives who should be trained; everyone should. This wasn’t a trivial suggestion. Taking every employee out for three days is expensive – never mind the cost of the trainer. But, argued the stakeholder, isn’t customer service everyone’s business?

The acid test was this: CitiStorage’s customers got the impression that the company had taken on more staff. But of course they hadn’t. They were just getting more involvement, commitment and creativity from the staff they already had.

Can you afford to cut training and potentially taint the experience your customers receive from your “directors of first impressions”?

Communication: Lost in Translation

There is nothing more frustrating during a busy work day as when I receive a cryptic email with a vague request and an immediate deadline. This often leads to numerous back-and-forth emails trying to clarify the message. The result is wasted time due to ineffective communication.

As a leader, you’re in a position to provide frequent communication – whether it be by email, conversations, speeches, press interviews or even through social media. Are you doing all you can to ensure your communications are clear and easily understood? Are you coaching others around you to do the same?

Maybe I’m more of a stickler than most due to my background as an English teacher in the early part of my career. I offer my guidance to help you to shape more effective communications:

-- Provide context: don’t expect anyone to be able to read your mind.
-- Make sure that all communications answer this question for the target recipient: “Why should I care?”
-- Define expectations by focusing on what is important for the audience to know and do as a result of your communication.

We know our message is important and we expect that everyone will take the time to read it. But that’s not true. Take a page from the Forbes article on Great Speeches: "People don't remember much of what they hear, so focus and keep it simple." Skip the BS. Pretentious, extraneous information might make you think you’re adding value, but it obscures the message.

If you want employees to connect with the business mission, vision and strategy, speak directly and plainly. Consider various types of communication vehicles rather than favoring any one channel. Consider how the audience likes to receive information. Speak in bullet points to make messages easy to scan and digest, and connect the dots for the recipient. This cuts down on the time-sucking back-and-forth that goes on when more clarification is needed. It also helps to keep people informed and interested. Share these techniques with your team. Provide guidance. Don’t tolerate ineffective communication.

Are any of your communications getting lost in translation?

Measurement minus action equals disengagement

A recent article in BusinessWeek focused on the increasingly important role of measuring employee engagement and tying these findings to corporate performance. Leaders need to assess and understand engagement levels in the same way they need to understand other critical management information, such as financial, productivity and customer data. Measuring employee engagement levels on a regular basis enables organizations to tie job satisfaction, commitment, loyalty and advocacy levels to key business metrics and adjust strategies and practices accordingly.

But measurement without action can do more harm than good. Simply surveying for current engagement levels and then doing nothing with that information often leads employees to feel they aren’t being heard. This, in turn, can negatively impact morale and trust.

Robust, business-oriented measurement and analysis is required to identify key drivers of engagement for your organization. Survey design should be aligned to the specific nuances of your firm and its strategy, values and culture. And it should provide a measure of an employee’s engagement to both the job and the organization as a whole. This knowledge provides key insights that help organizations to predict behavior and its impact on key business metrics.

We measure engagement levels by four main categories:

-- Disengaged employees, who are likely to underperform and leave;
-- Benchwarmers, who are likely to underperform and stay;
-- Free Agents, who are likely to outperform but leave as soon as the opportunity arises; and,
-- Stars, who are likely to outperform and stay.

Identifying and analyzing engagement levels and the drivers of success is the first step. The real challenge is in equipping your business to act and ensure that change is embedded in the culture so that the workforce remains focused and aligned to business strategy. An engaged workforce is the key to sustained competitive advantage and accelerated business performance.

As many as one in two employees are completely disengaged. Are you actioning your engagement data with the same diligence you give to other key business metrics?

Bad attitude! Who, me?

Leading in today’s ever-changing business climate can come with frustrations. Change is constant and often implemented at break-neck speed. As a result, employees who are finding it challenging to adjust and adapt quickly often begin to exhibit negative behaviors. And worst of all, negativity is contagious. It’s important to address as soon as you see signs of it in your workplace.

The signals to look for include criticizing others not present, gossiping, power struggles, lack of teamwork or collaboration, tardiness, absenteeism and even a lack of healthy conflict through withdrawal. People are either unskilled or reluctant to have those difficult but crucial conversations -- critical to a productive environment. When employees are bewildered by change and floundering as they try to cope and adapt -- and in the absence of straightforward methods to deal with growing negativity -- productivity and morale can decline swiftly.

Employees express negativity with statements such as “it will never work,” or whining, sarcasm, or sighing, and even outright complaining. As a leader, the worst thing you can do is to remain silent and permit or tolerate bad attitudes and negative behaviors.

Here are some tips to help you eliminate negativity:

--Start with yourself and check your language and behaviors.
--Persist in showing zero tolerance for negativity.
--When negativity could escalate easily, smile…choose not to react in that moment.
--Stop the cycle of a lack of appreciation.
--Don’t collude with the negative employee - Be careful not to validate or encourage negativity just to make the individual feel better.
--Lead by example. Identify and authentically communicate the positive aspects of the situation.
--Offer recognition when deserved and for specific behaviors and results.
--Ask open-ended questions, listen and help develop solutions.
--Counsel the complainer and challenge negative and pessimistic thinking and beliefs.
--Set expectations. Don’t permit others to complain without first suggesting possible solutions.

As a leader, you are in a strong position to break the cycle. At the end of the day, you can’t please everyone. But you can do your best to educate and inspire those around you. Is your negativity level growing? Do you have the skills and motivation to turn yourself and others around?

If you’re interested to learn more on this topic, Manpower is hosting a webinar on Creating Positivity in the Workplace on September 29.

Knowledge is power...before it walks!

According to recent research from the Manpower group of companies, employers and employees are not in sync when it comes to company loyalty in the coming year. Employers may be the ones to pay the price for this disparity when employees – the keepers of their organizational knowledge – walk out the door.

So it’s important to identify critical knowledge and make sure all that information doesn’t sit with just a few key people. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon, especially given reduced workforces. When someone leaves, you run the risk of being left high and dry. Knowledge transfer seeks to organize, create, capture or distribute knowledge and ensure its availability for future users. It's more than just a communication problem. If it was merely that, then a memo, an e-mail or meeting would accomplish the knowledge transfer.

You can approach knowledge retention and transfer strategy from many angles. Some companies carefully document job roles. Some identify employees who have been cross-trained and can fill in when employees leave. Others use succession planning strategies to identify critical positions and key performers who can be developed for leadership roles. All of these are good strategies that should be implemented to ensure a smooth transition when turnover occurs.

The solution lies in creating processes that foster and enable the transfer of knowledge. This starts with identifying the knowledge holders within the organization, motivating them to share, and then designing a sharing mechanism to facilitate the transfer and application of that knoweldge. Common practices include teaming, pairing or shadowing on assingments, mentoring, and literal narrative transfers. For more ideas, review this list of suggested knowledge transfer strategies.

Every phase of the employee life cycle — from the time an employee is recruited and on-boarded to long-term retention and eventually to promotion or exit — presents an opportunity to share knowledge. There are many advantages for employers who are aware of the importance of protecting institutional knowledge. It helps new employees to become productive more quickly. It leverages developmental investments within the organization. And when executed successfully, it can create a competitive edge.

However you approach it, transferring knowledge is a complex workforce management process because knowledge resides within people. The trick is to harness, leverage and share knowledge to not only protect your investments, but elevate strategy execution and enhance business performance.