I was invited to participate in a fun and unusual exercise; analysing the staff and management on the TV show The Office from any HR Consultant's perspective. I had to brush up on my knowledge of the show and the characters, but for any of you who are even casual viewers, you can imagine the challenge.
The humor on this show is due to it's disfunction, but in an interesting way, that same disfunction is responsible for the success of the company. This wacky group turns out to have some interpersonal strengths that actually transend the lunacy and it makes for a wonderful and surprisingly educational HR opportunity. Click the link below and see what you think. I had a blast and expanded my thinking.
http://www.hrwatchestheoffice.com/
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Three Strikes and You’re IN!
How a Love of Baseball Helps Improve
Workplace Productivity and Profit
Baseball is a simple game, not easy, but simple if you just understand the basics.
Okay, you’re wondering what could baseball possibly have to do with recognizing employees and getting high performance in the workplace? Here’s a story that will bring this home:
Mike was born with a baseball glove on his hand. Looking back, he can’t remember a day he didn’t think about playing ball or watching his heroes on TV. At nine, then the smallest and fastest guy on the team, he caught a fly ball at the right centerfield fence and threw out a kid tagging up from second. At 12, Mike was the biggest guy out there and as a pitcher, struck out 17 batters in one game. The final play was a grounder back to the mound, so he assisted on the 18th out, too. They lost the game because he walked a few guys, but still got the game ball (remember, this was little league!).
Well, as it tends to happen, Mike’s pro career never materialized, but he’s still a huge fan and enjoys an annual ritual of going to opening day every spring. This year his buddy got them front row tickets on the right field side, Mike brought his glove in anticipation. The first pitch in the top of the ninth was a tailing line drive that was curling toward the stands. Mike instinctively stretched over the wall with fans on both sides scurrying in every direction and then heard a loud SMACK of leather on leather! In what seemed like an eternity, he pulled back his glove and found the prize. Immediately Mike turned and held the ball up to the roaring approval of 3,000 fans above. It was a moment he’d dreamed of since he was a kid and will never forget. He didn’t find out until later that they showed his catch twice in slow motion while the announcer espoused the virtues of bringing your glove to the ballpark. “Now there’s some great glove work by the veteran, Bob!”
Okay, so you’re still wondering what Mike’s love of baseball and his lucky catch have to do with employee recognition and workplace performance? Well, there are five significant lessons we can take from his story:
Training - Be prepared to make the play. Mike spent his whole life learning the skills to make this catch. Not only that, he was ready with his glove on, was still paying attention in the ninth inning and had the instinctive ability to make the play of this level without thinking. A well trained, focused, present and capable workforce will not only make more plays, but will have fewer accidents, waste less material, break fewer pieces of equipment, demonstrate more cooperation, achieve better productivity and make your firm a lot more money.
Practice – Looking back, Mike realized just how many hours he practiced the skills that ultimately made his reactionary catch possible. It was a backhand play on a fast moving baseball. Only well-practiced employees will be ready to instinctively do the right thing under pressure. Those few milliseconds of indecision that separate the well-intentioned rookie from the well-honed expert could make all the difference between a catch and a costly incident. Lost time accidents, injuries and equipment damage due to inexperienced employees continues to be one of the most expensive and wasteful areas for many companies.
Attitude - Have the confidence to go for it while others pull back or duck. Anybody can bare hand a little pop foul, but to snag a tailing liner you’ve got to have a combination of experience, confidence and guts. Employees who feel valued and respected are more likely to put in the hours and the effort to be really good at what they do; not because they fear being fired if they don’t, but because they like you, appreciate the company and want be a part of a winning team. They’re also a lot less likely to take their skills to your competitors when things get tough.
Recognition – When Mike turned to the stands and held up the ball, just imagine how it felt when thousands of cheering fans came to their feet in approval. Giving immediate, appropriate and genuine recognition when an employee takes a chance and it pays off is one of the most valuable things a supervisor can ever do. When your management team is ready, aware and has the tools at hand, this is not only easy, but soon becomes and habit that transcends the entire organization. Most people underestimate the value of an honest, timely pat on the back when it’s deserved. If your team is a well-oiled machine, your supervisors will have more time to concentrate on opportunities to use recognition, because so much less time is being wasted on recruiting, training, and coaching of new employees due to higher than necessary turnover.
Share the Glory – While Mike made the play, everybody around him seemed to enjoy sharing in the moment almost as much as he did as the high-fives ensued. Let’s face it, there’s only so much time in the work day for celebrating success and handing out recognition. The best managers realize this, so they make sure that as many peers as possible get to participate in each recognition moment. When other team members see how often it happens, they share the love and look forward to their turn. Team-based recognition is a great way to foster camaraderie and keep everyone more focused on the job at hand.
So how about that; Mike’s love of baseball and his emotional story really do carry the secret to optimizing your employee’s performance and your company’s bottom line. All you’ve got to do is hire good talent, show them you truly love and respect them, get out of their way so they can be the best they can be, allow them to take calculated chances to improve the company, and be there instantly and in force to congratulate them when they succeed.
What if you could create an environment in your workplace where this happened regularly . . . on purpose! Its fun, it’s easier than you think, and it won’t cost any money. As a matter of fact, it’ll make you money, and you’ll be able to prove it to the CFO!
How a Love of Baseball Helps Improve
Workplace Productivity and Profit
Baseball is a simple game, not easy, but simple if you just understand the basics.
Okay, you’re wondering what could baseball possibly have to do with recognizing employees and getting high performance in the workplace? Here’s a story that will bring this home:
Mike was born with a baseball glove on his hand. Looking back, he can’t remember a day he didn’t think about playing ball or watching his heroes on TV. At nine, then the smallest and fastest guy on the team, he caught a fly ball at the right centerfield fence and threw out a kid tagging up from second. At 12, Mike was the biggest guy out there and as a pitcher, struck out 17 batters in one game. The final play was a grounder back to the mound, so he assisted on the 18th out, too. They lost the game because he walked a few guys, but still got the game ball (remember, this was little league!).
Well, as it tends to happen, Mike’s pro career never materialized, but he’s still a huge fan and enjoys an annual ritual of going to opening day every spring. This year his buddy got them front row tickets on the right field side, Mike brought his glove in anticipation. The first pitch in the top of the ninth was a tailing line drive that was curling toward the stands. Mike instinctively stretched over the wall with fans on both sides scurrying in every direction and then heard a loud SMACK of leather on leather! In what seemed like an eternity, he pulled back his glove and found the prize. Immediately Mike turned and held the ball up to the roaring approval of 3,000 fans above. It was a moment he’d dreamed of since he was a kid and will never forget. He didn’t find out until later that they showed his catch twice in slow motion while the announcer espoused the virtues of bringing your glove to the ballpark. “Now there’s some great glove work by the veteran, Bob!”
Okay, so you’re still wondering what Mike’s love of baseball and his lucky catch have to do with employee recognition and workplace performance? Well, there are five significant lessons we can take from his story:
Training - Be prepared to make the play. Mike spent his whole life learning the skills to make this catch. Not only that, he was ready with his glove on, was still paying attention in the ninth inning and had the instinctive ability to make the play of this level without thinking. A well trained, focused, present and capable workforce will not only make more plays, but will have fewer accidents, waste less material, break fewer pieces of equipment, demonstrate more cooperation, achieve better productivity and make your firm a lot more money.
Practice – Looking back, Mike realized just how many hours he practiced the skills that ultimately made his reactionary catch possible. It was a backhand play on a fast moving baseball. Only well-practiced employees will be ready to instinctively do the right thing under pressure. Those few milliseconds of indecision that separate the well-intentioned rookie from the well-honed expert could make all the difference between a catch and a costly incident. Lost time accidents, injuries and equipment damage due to inexperienced employees continues to be one of the most expensive and wasteful areas for many companies.
Attitude - Have the confidence to go for it while others pull back or duck. Anybody can bare hand a little pop foul, but to snag a tailing liner you’ve got to have a combination of experience, confidence and guts. Employees who feel valued and respected are more likely to put in the hours and the effort to be really good at what they do; not because they fear being fired if they don’t, but because they like you, appreciate the company and want be a part of a winning team. They’re also a lot less likely to take their skills to your competitors when things get tough.
Recognition – When Mike turned to the stands and held up the ball, just imagine how it felt when thousands of cheering fans came to their feet in approval. Giving immediate, appropriate and genuine recognition when an employee takes a chance and it pays off is one of the most valuable things a supervisor can ever do. When your management team is ready, aware and has the tools at hand, this is not only easy, but soon becomes and habit that transcends the entire organization. Most people underestimate the value of an honest, timely pat on the back when it’s deserved. If your team is a well-oiled machine, your supervisors will have more time to concentrate on opportunities to use recognition, because so much less time is being wasted on recruiting, training, and coaching of new employees due to higher than necessary turnover.
Share the Glory – While Mike made the play, everybody around him seemed to enjoy sharing in the moment almost as much as he did as the high-fives ensued. Let’s face it, there’s only so much time in the work day for celebrating success and handing out recognition. The best managers realize this, so they make sure that as many peers as possible get to participate in each recognition moment. When other team members see how often it happens, they share the love and look forward to their turn. Team-based recognition is a great way to foster camaraderie and keep everyone more focused on the job at hand.
So how about that; Mike’s love of baseball and his emotional story really do carry the secret to optimizing your employee’s performance and your company’s bottom line. All you’ve got to do is hire good talent, show them you truly love and respect them, get out of their way so they can be the best they can be, allow them to take calculated chances to improve the company, and be there instantly and in force to congratulate them when they succeed.
What if you could create an environment in your workplace where this happened regularly . . . on purpose! Its fun, it’s easier than you think, and it won’t cost any money. As a matter of fact, it’ll make you money, and you’ll be able to prove it to the CFO!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Is training and development- a good investment or an additional expenditure?
I was recently ask the question - Is training and development- a good investment or an additional expenditure? I thought I'd share my answer as it really got me thinking about how important it is to be able to justify what we do.
This is a very good, but multifaceted question. I am reading Danial Pink's book A Whole New Mind, which I highly recommend. In a nutshell, is points to a new era approaching, what he calls the Conceptual Age (right-brain thinking), as the Knowledge age begins to fade (left-brain thinking). He is not saying that left brain thinking is no longer needed,but must be suplimented with right brain concepts. How this impacts you question, is what I have been developing at Schaefer Recognition Group for about 6 years. Training in itself is a good thing, but it's value is tied directly to employee perception and how much they feel that you truly care about them (right brain thinking), rather than simply using training as a way to get more work out of them (left brain thinking).
There three secrets to making training a good investment are:
1. Make it Real - show employees first and foremost that you value them as people, so they believe you mean it and see your training, recognition and incentive opportunities as more about them, than about the company. You get the trickle down value automatically.
2. Make it Relevant - We have a more sophisticated workforce today than ever before. The good news is that they are more able to hit the ground running and use tutorial-type self training tools. The bad part is that they are very fickle and immediately recognition when they are being manipulated. Your training and communications must focust on keeping your people informed about the big picture (right braining thinking), rather than the more traditional "need-to-know-basis" (left brain, and somewhat insultring, thinking). You must have a component in your train the trainer that gets the management team emotionally on board, so they not only can implement the training, but demonstrate what's in it for everyone involved. If you have begun with showing employees that you genuinely Love and Respect them (right brain), the are more likely to believe and get behind training the will help THEIR company.
3. Prove it's Working - This is the part where many good intentions fall short. If you can't prove that your time and effort spent on training is yielding measurable, profitable results,you will soon find your best training efforts on the cutting room floor. Upper management normally houses the most left brain folks in any business, and while they may give you some warm and fuzzy right brain leaway, they will ultimately need to show the board an ROI component that justifies the money. This can be done using today's high tech platforms, as long as you are working with someone who understands, practices, and promotes the development and use of drill-down reporting as a total performance management strategy.
Don't set up just a training program, but view the goal as building a performance management tool, that saves far more than it costs. Good question and good luck!
This is a very good, but multifaceted question. I am reading Danial Pink's book A Whole New Mind, which I highly recommend. In a nutshell, is points to a new era approaching, what he calls the Conceptual Age (right-brain thinking), as the Knowledge age begins to fade (left-brain thinking). He is not saying that left brain thinking is no longer needed,but must be suplimented with right brain concepts. How this impacts you question, is what I have been developing at Schaefer Recognition Group for about 6 years. Training in itself is a good thing, but it's value is tied directly to employee perception and how much they feel that you truly care about them (right brain thinking), rather than simply using training as a way to get more work out of them (left brain thinking).
There three secrets to making training a good investment are:
1. Make it Real - show employees first and foremost that you value them as people, so they believe you mean it and see your training, recognition and incentive opportunities as more about them, than about the company. You get the trickle down value automatically.
2. Make it Relevant - We have a more sophisticated workforce today than ever before. The good news is that they are more able to hit the ground running and use tutorial-type self training tools. The bad part is that they are very fickle and immediately recognition when they are being manipulated. Your training and communications must focust on keeping your people informed about the big picture (right braining thinking), rather than the more traditional "need-to-know-basis" (left brain, and somewhat insultring, thinking). You must have a component in your train the trainer that gets the management team emotionally on board, so they not only can implement the training, but demonstrate what's in it for everyone involved. If you have begun with showing employees that you genuinely Love and Respect them (right brain), the are more likely to believe and get behind training the will help THEIR company.
3. Prove it's Working - This is the part where many good intentions fall short. If you can't prove that your time and effort spent on training is yielding measurable, profitable results,you will soon find your best training efforts on the cutting room floor. Upper management normally houses the most left brain folks in any business, and while they may give you some warm and fuzzy right brain leaway, they will ultimately need to show the board an ROI component that justifies the money. This can be done using today's high tech platforms, as long as you are working with someone who understands, practices, and promotes the development and use of drill-down reporting as a total performance management strategy.
Don't set up just a training program, but view the goal as building a performance management tool, that saves far more than it costs. Good question and good luck!
Friday, July 31, 2009
The 5 Biggest Recognition Mistakes Managers Make
The Five Biggest Mistakes Managers Make in Recognizing their Employees – They’re costing you money, but are easy to fix!
Jennifer was at the end of her rope. It was time for a new job, one that would let her use all of her talents, creativity and experience. The exit interview was uneventful, and then she was finally free! Her manager Roberta was baffled. How could Jen leave? She was on the fast track, with great potential, numerous promotion opportunities and was a key member of the team. What went wrong? Sound familiar?
A recent study confirms that this vast divergence between employee satisfaction and management appraisal is quite common, as well as confusing and expensive to organizations today. How could an employee be so unhappy while management is thinking everything is hunky dory? There are five big mistakes that when addressed properly will reduce unnecessary turnover and immediately improve morale, productivity and profits. With some minor changes in management’s communication style, your employees will want to bring their “A Game” to work every day.
Mistake #1 – Not Being Believable!
All executives claims to value their people; but are they getting the message? Recognition programs, incentives, bonuses, at-a-boys are common in most companies, but are often seen as manipulative by the very employees they’re meant to incent. Why? There’s a fine line between the perception of true appreciation and feeling that you’re just “throwing them a bone”.
Unfortunately with staffing down, workloads up and everyone busier than ever, it’s easy for a manager’s recognition efforts to be perceived at just going through the motions, not coming from the heart. When your managers understand what’s in it for them and begin to “Make it Real”, their interactions are seen as genuine, with the employee in mind, not as leverage that benefits the company and leaves workers feeling like nothing more than a piece of meat.
Mistake #2 – Not Being Organized
Once your employees begin to believe you truly care about them, the next mistake relates to the number of disjointed programs companies use to recognize and reward their people. Each has its own history, function, author and responsible party, so even if they’re working, there’s no easy way to tell. It’s impossible to properly train your management team about how to use them correctly and in the right order, so effectiveness suffers.
By coordinating all of your employee communications, training, recognition and performance processes into one organized system, you will be able to understand and control costs, manage and rate results and get the most for your investment in people.
Mistake #3 – Not Using a Strategy
An organized approach is great, but the system won’t last is if it’s not tied into a strategy based on the company’s core values and goals. Strategic planning is a leadership function that allows all employees to understand where they fit into the total scheme of things and how their performance directly effects the organization.
Once everyone begins to see that they are all on the same team, marching in the same direction for the same reasons, synergy happens and your combined recognition efforts yield much more than the sum of the individual parts.
Mistake #4 – Not Having Management Buy-in
Even if you solve Mistakes #1 - #3 completely, your best efforts are likely to fail, if you don’t have strong, honest and consistent support from the top. Companies could use a professionally produced video featuring a top executive(s) to not only launch any new program, but then continue to demonstrate their passion and dedication to the goals and objectives over time. Employees are very quick to see through any signs of the company being disingenuous.
Poor upper management involvement is the number one sign that you’re using recognition as a manipulative lever, not an appreciation boost. To keep your top executives intrigued, committees must present program enhancements that show significant and measurable results, not just emotional blue sky and hype.
Mistake #5 – Not Following Through
Any program, no matter how exciting, rich, well organized or effectively supported will lose its momentum over time if it’s not fully integrated into your company’s performance management culture. This is by far the most overlooked weakness in many recognition strategies and it’s very disappointing after you’ve done so much right. A quality reporting system along with an empowered team prepared to manage the information is critical to keeping your programs relevant, fresh, interesting and profitable. The true test of a well functioning recognition strategy is when you can quantitatively prove to your CFO that it’s turning expenses into profits over time.
The five mistakes are quite common, extremely costly, but relatively easy to avoid with some simple communications training and the ability to look at entitlement programs with an open mind. Yes, they are called “entitlements”, because that’s what your awards programs become if they are left alone for very long. It’s nobody’s fault, so don’t point fingers. Just decide to address each mistake in order from #1 to #5, gain support and then develop a measurable set of initiatives that will make the best use of your company’s dollars. The good news is that today’s tools and technology solutions make it easy to develop measure and analyze an effective recognition strategy.
Jennifer was at the end of her rope. It was time for a new job, one that would let her use all of her talents, creativity and experience. The exit interview was uneventful, and then she was finally free! Her manager Roberta was baffled. How could Jen leave? She was on the fast track, with great potential, numerous promotion opportunities and was a key member of the team. What went wrong? Sound familiar?
A recent study confirms that this vast divergence between employee satisfaction and management appraisal is quite common, as well as confusing and expensive to organizations today. How could an employee be so unhappy while management is thinking everything is hunky dory? There are five big mistakes that when addressed properly will reduce unnecessary turnover and immediately improve morale, productivity and profits. With some minor changes in management’s communication style, your employees will want to bring their “A Game” to work every day.
Mistake #1 – Not Being Believable!
All executives claims to value their people; but are they getting the message? Recognition programs, incentives, bonuses, at-a-boys are common in most companies, but are often seen as manipulative by the very employees they’re meant to incent. Why? There’s a fine line between the perception of true appreciation and feeling that you’re just “throwing them a bone”.
Unfortunately with staffing down, workloads up and everyone busier than ever, it’s easy for a manager’s recognition efforts to be perceived at just going through the motions, not coming from the heart. When your managers understand what’s in it for them and begin to “Make it Real”, their interactions are seen as genuine, with the employee in mind, not as leverage that benefits the company and leaves workers feeling like nothing more than a piece of meat.
Mistake #2 – Not Being Organized
Once your employees begin to believe you truly care about them, the next mistake relates to the number of disjointed programs companies use to recognize and reward their people. Each has its own history, function, author and responsible party, so even if they’re working, there’s no easy way to tell. It’s impossible to properly train your management team about how to use them correctly and in the right order, so effectiveness suffers.
By coordinating all of your employee communications, training, recognition and performance processes into one organized system, you will be able to understand and control costs, manage and rate results and get the most for your investment in people.
Mistake #3 – Not Using a Strategy
An organized approach is great, but the system won’t last is if it’s not tied into a strategy based on the company’s core values and goals. Strategic planning is a leadership function that allows all employees to understand where they fit into the total scheme of things and how their performance directly effects the organization.
Once everyone begins to see that they are all on the same team, marching in the same direction for the same reasons, synergy happens and your combined recognition efforts yield much more than the sum of the individual parts.
Mistake #4 – Not Having Management Buy-in
Even if you solve Mistakes #1 - #3 completely, your best efforts are likely to fail, if you don’t have strong, honest and consistent support from the top. Companies could use a professionally produced video featuring a top executive(s) to not only launch any new program, but then continue to demonstrate their passion and dedication to the goals and objectives over time. Employees are very quick to see through any signs of the company being disingenuous.
Poor upper management involvement is the number one sign that you’re using recognition as a manipulative lever, not an appreciation boost. To keep your top executives intrigued, committees must present program enhancements that show significant and measurable results, not just emotional blue sky and hype.
Mistake #5 – Not Following Through
Any program, no matter how exciting, rich, well organized or effectively supported will lose its momentum over time if it’s not fully integrated into your company’s performance management culture. This is by far the most overlooked weakness in many recognition strategies and it’s very disappointing after you’ve done so much right. A quality reporting system along with an empowered team prepared to manage the information is critical to keeping your programs relevant, fresh, interesting and profitable. The true test of a well functioning recognition strategy is when you can quantitatively prove to your CFO that it’s turning expenses into profits over time.
The five mistakes are quite common, extremely costly, but relatively easy to avoid with some simple communications training and the ability to look at entitlement programs with an open mind. Yes, they are called “entitlements”, because that’s what your awards programs become if they are left alone for very long. It’s nobody’s fault, so don’t point fingers. Just decide to address each mistake in order from #1 to #5, gain support and then develop a measurable set of initiatives that will make the best use of your company’s dollars. The good news is that today’s tools and technology solutions make it easy to develop measure and analyze an effective recognition strategy.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
How to Turn HR Expenses into Profits
Nobody’s got new money to spend, but there are some simple ways to get more returns for fewer dollars and be able to prove it to your CFO!
The only good thing about today’s challenging economy is that many established recognition and performance programs are open for review that might not hit the radar in healthier economic times. Everyone is looking for ways to make sure they’re getting the most benefit from the dollars they’re currently spending to recognize and award their people; or better yet . . . how to get even better results for less money!
Joe works as an Engineer in a large manufacturing plant. Every month, he and his colleges anxiously await the company newsletter to view the photo of the General Manager and see if he was wearing a tie. When the weather heats up, in late May or early June, the newsletter displays an open collar photo, so this was the signal for everyone to take off their ties for the summer.
While this was a fun exercise and an appreciated dress code in Arizona, Joe’s wonders, “Who the heck is this guy? Wouldn’t it be great if he just wandered by every now and then and waved at us?” What Joe is experiencing is the very basics of good employee recognition; something termed Management by Walking Around (or in this case, the lack thereof)!
In order to stay in touch with the people who report directly to you simply walk around, talk to them, share with them, observe them, and don’t be critical. If you do this with all your employees on a regular basis, you will quickly identify where they are succeeding, where they are struggling, and where they need help.
As a natural by-product of this technique a trust relationship builds up between employees and manager. The employees will feel like their manager knows what they’re doing and the manager will have a better rapport to address issues, both good and bad, with their employees. Here are five keys that will help:
- Visit everyone
- Stay positive
- Be genuine
- Make sure it’s not all business
- Don’t expect results right away
So what does this have to do with turning expenses into profits? First, it’s an extremely effective way of engaging employees emotionally. It’s also easy and free! The theory is supported by a vast amount of research from experts like the Gallup Organization all the way back to Abraham Maslow, who agree that appealing to employees Self Esteem (their desire to be Loved and Respected) is where real engagement begins. Relationships are the foundation on which effective recognition is built. If you don’t have them with your people you will waste your money and time trying to buy their discretionary performance.
Here are three strategies we find helpful as you share this with your managers:
1. It’s All About Perception
The secret to effective recognition is employee perception. If managers are seen as just “going through the motions”, employees won’t buy it, they’ll feel underappreciated, and will ask you to “show me the money”.
Any time employees ask for Money rather than Recognition,
it’s a sign of a Training Problem, not an Awards Problem.
However, when supervisors see Recognition and Performance Improvement as valuable tools that can actually make their job easier, they’ll get behind your program initiatives and “Make it Real!” You’ve got to win over your managers and supervisors before you can expect them to win over their subordinates.
2. Look Through Your Employee’s Eyes
As supervisors become more aware of how they tend to view things differently than their subordinates you are on track to overcoming the reason for most of the frustration, reduced productivity, turnover, and lack of cooperation in your company.
A George Mason University study shows that while employees consistently rate Recognition and Being Informed near the top and Good Pay around the middle on their list of things that motivate them at work; most supervisors assume that Good Pay is at the top and Recognition and Being Informed (another way of saying Love and Respect) are near the bottom on these employee surveys.
Until your employees believe you truly value them as human beings, any efforts you use to motivate them will be seem as manipulation and will turn them off. Management’s understanding of what motivates employees is often flawed, and the moment your intentions are viewed as “company-focused” rather than from the heart, you begin to lose them emotionally. Make sure that any actions you use to improve performance follow engagement practices that make people feel valued as members of your team, not just a cog in a big machine.
3. Do it in the Right Order
Most companies already have a variety of training, recognition and incentive programs in place, but they may not be well organized and are probably not being used in the correct order. It’s a lot like dealing with your kids; if they don’t know you love them, your well-meaning discipline can come across as mean-spirited, self-serving and more about your convenience than their betterment. We suggest leading with Recognition (Love and Respect), then offering Performance Improvement opportunities (Share the Wealth) and finally special awards for high achievement (Specific Acknowledgement).
When you step back and view all of the ways you communicate with your employees as one cohesive strategy, rather than a group of unrelated awards programs, you will quickly be able to identify overlap, redundancy and areas of confusion. Then, as you relaunch using a training-based approach that puts your people’s emotional needs first, you will enjoy both up front savings and measurable ROI that will surprise and please you and your management team.
******************************************************************
John Schaefer is a Consultant with more than 20 years of experience helping companies realize and react to what he calls the Employer/Employee Disconnect. “Your people have the capacity and desire to become far more involved and productive than they are today. The resources required are freely available, if you simply choose to use them,” says Schaefer. “The key is to get your managers and supervisors to embrace this challenge by seeing what’s financially in it for them.” John is the author of The Vocational Shrink – An Analysis of the Ten Levels of Workplace Disillusionment, as well as The Vocational Shrink The Game and Manager Training Program “Why Should Supervisors Care (or what they’re really thinking). . . What’s in it for Me?”
Nobody’s got new money to spend, but there are some simple ways to get more returns for fewer dollars and be able to prove it to your CFO!
The only good thing about today’s challenging economy is that many established recognition and performance programs are open for review that might not hit the radar in healthier economic times. Everyone is looking for ways to make sure they’re getting the most benefit from the dollars they’re currently spending to recognize and award their people; or better yet . . . how to get even better results for less money!
Joe works as an Engineer in a large manufacturing plant. Every month, he and his colleges anxiously await the company newsletter to view the photo of the General Manager and see if he was wearing a tie. When the weather heats up, in late May or early June, the newsletter displays an open collar photo, so this was the signal for everyone to take off their ties for the summer.
While this was a fun exercise and an appreciated dress code in Arizona, Joe’s wonders, “Who the heck is this guy? Wouldn’t it be great if he just wandered by every now and then and waved at us?” What Joe is experiencing is the very basics of good employee recognition; something termed Management by Walking Around (or in this case, the lack thereof)!
In order to stay in touch with the people who report directly to you simply walk around, talk to them, share with them, observe them, and don’t be critical. If you do this with all your employees on a regular basis, you will quickly identify where they are succeeding, where they are struggling, and where they need help.
As a natural by-product of this technique a trust relationship builds up between employees and manager. The employees will feel like their manager knows what they’re doing and the manager will have a better rapport to address issues, both good and bad, with their employees. Here are five keys that will help:
- Visit everyone
- Stay positive
- Be genuine
- Make sure it’s not all business
- Don’t expect results right away
So what does this have to do with turning expenses into profits? First, it’s an extremely effective way of engaging employees emotionally. It’s also easy and free! The theory is supported by a vast amount of research from experts like the Gallup Organization all the way back to Abraham Maslow, who agree that appealing to employees Self Esteem (their desire to be Loved and Respected) is where real engagement begins. Relationships are the foundation on which effective recognition is built. If you don’t have them with your people you will waste your money and time trying to buy their discretionary performance.
Here are three strategies we find helpful as you share this with your managers:
1. It’s All About Perception
The secret to effective recognition is employee perception. If managers are seen as just “going through the motions”, employees won’t buy it, they’ll feel underappreciated, and will ask you to “show me the money”.
Any time employees ask for Money rather than Recognition,
it’s a sign of a Training Problem, not an Awards Problem.
However, when supervisors see Recognition and Performance Improvement as valuable tools that can actually make their job easier, they’ll get behind your program initiatives and “Make it Real!” You’ve got to win over your managers and supervisors before you can expect them to win over their subordinates.
2. Look Through Your Employee’s Eyes
As supervisors become more aware of how they tend to view things differently than their subordinates you are on track to overcoming the reason for most of the frustration, reduced productivity, turnover, and lack of cooperation in your company.
A George Mason University study shows that while employees consistently rate Recognition and Being Informed near the top and Good Pay around the middle on their list of things that motivate them at work; most supervisors assume that Good Pay is at the top and Recognition and Being Informed (another way of saying Love and Respect) are near the bottom on these employee surveys.
Until your employees believe you truly value them as human beings, any efforts you use to motivate them will be seem as manipulation and will turn them off. Management’s understanding of what motivates employees is often flawed, and the moment your intentions are viewed as “company-focused” rather than from the heart, you begin to lose them emotionally. Make sure that any actions you use to improve performance follow engagement practices that make people feel valued as members of your team, not just a cog in a big machine.
3. Do it in the Right Order
Most companies already have a variety of training, recognition and incentive programs in place, but they may not be well organized and are probably not being used in the correct order. It’s a lot like dealing with your kids; if they don’t know you love them, your well-meaning discipline can come across as mean-spirited, self-serving and more about your convenience than their betterment. We suggest leading with Recognition (Love and Respect), then offering Performance Improvement opportunities (Share the Wealth) and finally special awards for high achievement (Specific Acknowledgement).
When you step back and view all of the ways you communicate with your employees as one cohesive strategy, rather than a group of unrelated awards programs, you will quickly be able to identify overlap, redundancy and areas of confusion. Then, as you relaunch using a training-based approach that puts your people’s emotional needs first, you will enjoy both up front savings and measurable ROI that will surprise and please you and your management team.
******************************************************************
John Schaefer is a Consultant with more than 20 years of experience helping companies realize and react to what he calls the Employer/Employee Disconnect. “Your people have the capacity and desire to become far more involved and productive than they are today. The resources required are freely available, if you simply choose to use them,” says Schaefer. “The key is to get your managers and supervisors to embrace this challenge by seeing what’s financially in it for them.” John is the author of The Vocational Shrink – An Analysis of the Ten Levels of Workplace Disillusionment, as well as The Vocational Shrink The Game and Manager Training Program “Why Should Supervisors Care (or what they’re really thinking). . . What’s in it for Me?”
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Why is a Mentor so Important?
For most of my business life I've worked primarily on my own. Sure, I had associates, support staff, clients, and coworkers, but my office was in my home, so I didn't have daily contact with people face to face every day. I never really thought about until I began to look at creating a more consultive approach to my recognition business. That's when the concepts of a network of people with shared interests began to become important, as did the value of mentors.
While in Los Angeles last week, I was fortunate to be able to meet for a beer with Jim Cathcart (http://www.cathcart.com/), my friend, fellow author and mentor. As I was driving to the airport after our time together, I realized just how valuable a mentor can be.
A Mentor is someone who understands you, but has the advantage of looking at your situation from a fresh angle. This approach can often make the most frustrating, baffling and scary challenges become clear; and if you have a good one, this happens quickly and easily.
That's what transpired when I sat down with Jim. He was able to unravel my concerns about my new Umbrella Recognition Strategy with a simple analogy. Jim told me that, in his view, Schaefer Recognition Group is to the recognition and training business, what a movie producer is to a major film project. The best producers are able to tap into their broad Rolodex of actors, directors, cinematographers, sound and film editors, stunt people and all of the other specialists needed to make a quality motion picture. And this group changes for each project depending on the type of film and talent required.
That's just what we do in helping our clients optimize their investment in people. We bring in our team of recognition, incentive, custom award design, speaking, training, audio/video, and technology partners as needed to best achieve a company's growth and budget goals. In just a few minutes, Jim helped me see and appreciate what I've taken 20 years to assemble; a comprehensive team of experts and the experience to apply them effectively. Boy did I walk out of our meeting with fresh enthusiasm and confidence in spreading the word about this new and timely approach.
Mentors are important for many reasons, but as I learned last week, one of the most important things a truly caring mentor will do for you is help clarify your thinking in areas where you may be too close to see.
Thanks for your time and help, Jim. I look forward to your continued support and to sharing this team approach to serving our clients!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Cathcart is one of the best known and most award-winning motivational speakers in the business with over 31 years of professional speaking around the world, Jim Cathcart . He has delivered more than 2,700 presentations to audiences in every state of the US and many foreign countries. He has created over seventy video programs and is as comfortable in front of a camera as he is on stage. His works have reached hundreds of thousands.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
John Schaefer - The Vocational Shrink
While in Los Angeles last week, I was fortunate to be able to meet for a beer with Jim Cathcart (http://www.cathcart.com/), my friend, fellow author and mentor. As I was driving to the airport after our time together, I realized just how valuable a mentor can be.
A Mentor is someone who understands you, but has the advantage of looking at your situation from a fresh angle. This approach can often make the most frustrating, baffling and scary challenges become clear; and if you have a good one, this happens quickly and easily.
That's what transpired when I sat down with Jim. He was able to unravel my concerns about my new Umbrella Recognition Strategy with a simple analogy. Jim told me that, in his view, Schaefer Recognition Group is to the recognition and training business, what a movie producer is to a major film project. The best producers are able to tap into their broad Rolodex of actors, directors, cinematographers, sound and film editors, stunt people and all of the other specialists needed to make a quality motion picture. And this group changes for each project depending on the type of film and talent required.
That's just what we do in helping our clients optimize their investment in people. We bring in our team of recognition, incentive, custom award design, speaking, training, audio/video, and technology partners as needed to best achieve a company's growth and budget goals. In just a few minutes, Jim helped me see and appreciate what I've taken 20 years to assemble; a comprehensive team of experts and the experience to apply them effectively. Boy did I walk out of our meeting with fresh enthusiasm and confidence in spreading the word about this new and timely approach.
Mentors are important for many reasons, but as I learned last week, one of the most important things a truly caring mentor will do for you is help clarify your thinking in areas where you may be too close to see.
Thanks for your time and help, Jim. I look forward to your continued support and to sharing this team approach to serving our clients!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Cathcart is one of the best known and most award-winning motivational speakers in the business with over 31 years of professional speaking around the world, Jim Cathcart . He has delivered more than 2,700 presentations to audiences in every state of the US and many foreign countries. He has created over seventy video programs and is as comfortable in front of a camera as he is on stage. His works have reached hundreds of thousands.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
John Schaefer - The Vocational Shrink
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Everybody Claims to Value their Employees . . . but are they getting the message?
The concerns over our worlds economic chaos are many and obvious, but there is perhaps a silver lining when it comes to employee performance and what you are investing in people. I wrote the following article because so many of my clients are asking about better ways of getting the most our of their recognition and incentive investments. I hope you find this information both thought provoking and helpful.
Turn Recognition Expenses into Profit Centers –
Optimize your investment in people with an Umbrella Strategy
Do you truly care about your employees? Are they getting the message?
The way we communicate our understanding of their value and performance to our people will determine whether recognition and incentives become a cost item or a profit center. In today’s economy, nobody has new money to spend. Many of my clients are asking about ways to make sure they’re getting the most benefit from the dollars they’re currently spending to recognize and award their people. Or better yet . . . how to get even better results for less money!
Effective recognition is seen as appreciation, while disingenuous, poorly thought-out motivation can be interpreted as manipulation. There’s a surprisingly fine line between the two and it’s all about the employee’s perception of your motives. If they see your actions as more about you than them, whatever you do will yield minimal, short-term results. On the other hand, if your communication appears to value them as a human being first, you will light a fire that leads to discretionary effort – that extra-mile performance you can’t buy, but is only earned through trust.
Here’s the problem. Most companies use a variety of disjointed programs to recognize and reward their people. Even if they’re working, it’s impossible to determine the level of participation and financial return. Imagine if you wrapped your arms around all of the tools used to communicate with employees, so they could be properly measured, kept relevant to company goals and you could easily teach your supervisors the proper way to implement them.
We call this an Umbrella Recognition Strategy and the benefits are numerous; however there are potential challenges involved in transitioning your organization to this approach. First, you must realize that each existing program has an owner and an agenda. Some may be viewed as entitlements, so there is an inherent reluctance to open then up to scrutiny. Here are the three steps you must be willing to take to consider implementing an Umbrella Strategy:
1. You must have upper management support. Only then will you be able to get all of the program owners to open up and provide the information needed to analyze the current situation and begin to see opportunities for improvement.
2. Your team has to be open to new ideas and be willing to brainstorm all viable options. One of the few positives to this current economic downturn is that things are on the table today that would probably not be open to discussion during robust times.
3. The goal of your team needs to focus on developing the greatest ROI on your recognition investments, not protectionism or departmental isolationism. A macro view of the situation, where everyone is considering program initiatives from a broad perspective based on company culture, mission and long term objectives is the secret to getting the best overall program and the ROI you deserve.
As you begin to evaluate your current situation (we use a tool call a Recognition Inventory to help organize this) you will be surprised at both the amount of money leaking out of the organization in various ways and why there may be inherent confusion from the employees’ perspective. As identify redundancy, overlap, and unnecessary complication, the potential for improvement will come to light and doubt will be replaced with enthusiasm.
The Umbrella Solution puts everything under a single technology platform, so you can view all aspects of the program comprehensively, as well as easily engage both supervisors and employees. But, to make it work well, there’s more than just technology to consider. We recommend a Four Cornerstones approach:
1. Communications – Every employee wants to know the direction of the organization and the plan to get there. Communication addresses the “what to do” and provides a professional, well organized theme to overcome skepticism built on years changing strategies. First, you must communicate the commitment of top management to all employees. Then, managers need to be confidently equipped and incented to put themselves on the line. Finally, the strategy and measurements must be continuously communicated. This is done through strong visual concepts that have uplifting, ongoing visibility.
2. Training – Training focuses on the “how to do” and is an important (but often overlooked) element to Performance Improvement. Proper training deals with knowledge and skill that forces active engagement from the lowest level of the organization. Supervisor training must include a good working understanding of all of the programs components, but even more importantly a realization of the personal advantages to each supervisor. This is the elusive “why are we doing this in the first place” component. Simply put, if your managers buy it, so will your employees. If not, you risk your best intentions being seen as nothing more than “throwing ‘em a bone”.
3. Reinforcement – Employees need to “want to”, but how do we achieve this emotional engagement? It’s done by validating. Employees must feel important and appreciated. If they feel noticed and celebrated when they go above and beyond, your people begin to see your motives as team-oriented (not just company-focused) and automatically start to look for ways that they can help. Most of us don’t recognize others often enough or at the right time, so a formalized reinforcement strategy that is readily available, easy to use and continuously updated is vital.
4. Measurements – Measurements address the “how are we doing”. With the vision and strategy in place, the objectives and responsibilities of each employee to support the strategy must be determined. This is the most overlooked part of performance improvement programs, because it requires responsibility and can often be uncomfortable. Outstanding employees want to be measured and ineffective employees want to remain invisible. With this in mind, it’s important to create goals and measurement criteria that are fair and realistic for both individual and team performance. Keep things simple, determine the priority of measurements and create visibility at all levels of your organization. Establishing correct and useful measurements is a critical goal in program development. Only when this information is well organized and straight-forward to use will you achieve true Performance Management; not just a program, but a valuable management tool.
As you can see, there’s a lot more to this than just handing out awards and gifts, but therein lies the opportunity to turn accepted expenses into significant profits. Companies that take on the challenge of embracing this new view of employee engagement are seeing impressive improvements in productivity, profitability, morale and teamwork along with significant reductions in the turnover, recruiting and safety related costs.
References:
Cronin, Joe
Peak Performance – Maximizing
Performance Through People
Minneapolis, MN
Incentive Services Communications
Daniels, Aubrey
Bringing Out the Best in People
New York
McGraw Hill
Reichheld, Frederick F.
The Loyalty Effect
Boston, MA
Bain & Company, Inc.
John Schaefer is a Consultant with more than 20 years of experience helping companies realize and react to what he calls the Employer/Employee Disconnect. “Your people have the capacity and desire to become far more involved and productive than they are today. The resources required are freely available, if you simply choose to use them,” says Schaefer. “The key is to get your managers and supervisors to embrace this challenge by seeing what’s financially in it for them.” John is the author of The Vocational Shrink – An Analysis of the Ten Levels of Workplace Disillusionment, as well as The Vocational Shrink The Game and Manager Training Program “Why Should Supervisors Care (or what they’re really thinking) . . . What’s in it for Me?”
Turn Recognition Expenses into Profit Centers –
Optimize your investment in people with an Umbrella Strategy
Do you truly care about your employees? Are they getting the message?
The way we communicate our understanding of their value and performance to our people will determine whether recognition and incentives become a cost item or a profit center. In today’s economy, nobody has new money to spend. Many of my clients are asking about ways to make sure they’re getting the most benefit from the dollars they’re currently spending to recognize and award their people. Or better yet . . . how to get even better results for less money!
Effective recognition is seen as appreciation, while disingenuous, poorly thought-out motivation can be interpreted as manipulation. There’s a surprisingly fine line between the two and it’s all about the employee’s perception of your motives. If they see your actions as more about you than them, whatever you do will yield minimal, short-term results. On the other hand, if your communication appears to value them as a human being first, you will light a fire that leads to discretionary effort – that extra-mile performance you can’t buy, but is only earned through trust.
Here’s the problem. Most companies use a variety of disjointed programs to recognize and reward their people. Even if they’re working, it’s impossible to determine the level of participation and financial return. Imagine if you wrapped your arms around all of the tools used to communicate with employees, so they could be properly measured, kept relevant to company goals and you could easily teach your supervisors the proper way to implement them.
We call this an Umbrella Recognition Strategy and the benefits are numerous; however there are potential challenges involved in transitioning your organization to this approach. First, you must realize that each existing program has an owner and an agenda. Some may be viewed as entitlements, so there is an inherent reluctance to open then up to scrutiny. Here are the three steps you must be willing to take to consider implementing an Umbrella Strategy:
1. You must have upper management support. Only then will you be able to get all of the program owners to open up and provide the information needed to analyze the current situation and begin to see opportunities for improvement.
2. Your team has to be open to new ideas and be willing to brainstorm all viable options. One of the few positives to this current economic downturn is that things are on the table today that would probably not be open to discussion during robust times.
3. The goal of your team needs to focus on developing the greatest ROI on your recognition investments, not protectionism or departmental isolationism. A macro view of the situation, where everyone is considering program initiatives from a broad perspective based on company culture, mission and long term objectives is the secret to getting the best overall program and the ROI you deserve.
As you begin to evaluate your current situation (we use a tool call a Recognition Inventory to help organize this) you will be surprised at both the amount of money leaking out of the organization in various ways and why there may be inherent confusion from the employees’ perspective. As identify redundancy, overlap, and unnecessary complication, the potential for improvement will come to light and doubt will be replaced with enthusiasm.
The Umbrella Solution puts everything under a single technology platform, so you can view all aspects of the program comprehensively, as well as easily engage both supervisors and employees. But, to make it work well, there’s more than just technology to consider. We recommend a Four Cornerstones approach:
1. Communications – Every employee wants to know the direction of the organization and the plan to get there. Communication addresses the “what to do” and provides a professional, well organized theme to overcome skepticism built on years changing strategies. First, you must communicate the commitment of top management to all employees. Then, managers need to be confidently equipped and incented to put themselves on the line. Finally, the strategy and measurements must be continuously communicated. This is done through strong visual concepts that have uplifting, ongoing visibility.
2. Training – Training focuses on the “how to do” and is an important (but often overlooked) element to Performance Improvement. Proper training deals with knowledge and skill that forces active engagement from the lowest level of the organization. Supervisor training must include a good working understanding of all of the programs components, but even more importantly a realization of the personal advantages to each supervisor. This is the elusive “why are we doing this in the first place” component. Simply put, if your managers buy it, so will your employees. If not, you risk your best intentions being seen as nothing more than “throwing ‘em a bone”.
3. Reinforcement – Employees need to “want to”, but how do we achieve this emotional engagement? It’s done by validating. Employees must feel important and appreciated. If they feel noticed and celebrated when they go above and beyond, your people begin to see your motives as team-oriented (not just company-focused) and automatically start to look for ways that they can help. Most of us don’t recognize others often enough or at the right time, so a formalized reinforcement strategy that is readily available, easy to use and continuously updated is vital.
4. Measurements – Measurements address the “how are we doing”. With the vision and strategy in place, the objectives and responsibilities of each employee to support the strategy must be determined. This is the most overlooked part of performance improvement programs, because it requires responsibility and can often be uncomfortable. Outstanding employees want to be measured and ineffective employees want to remain invisible. With this in mind, it’s important to create goals and measurement criteria that are fair and realistic for both individual and team performance. Keep things simple, determine the priority of measurements and create visibility at all levels of your organization. Establishing correct and useful measurements is a critical goal in program development. Only when this information is well organized and straight-forward to use will you achieve true Performance Management; not just a program, but a valuable management tool.
As you can see, there’s a lot more to this than just handing out awards and gifts, but therein lies the opportunity to turn accepted expenses into significant profits. Companies that take on the challenge of embracing this new view of employee engagement are seeing impressive improvements in productivity, profitability, morale and teamwork along with significant reductions in the turnover, recruiting and safety related costs.
References:
Cronin, Joe
Peak Performance – Maximizing
Performance Through People
Minneapolis, MN
Incentive Services Communications
Daniels, Aubrey
Bringing Out the Best in People
New York
McGraw Hill
Reichheld, Frederick F.
The Loyalty Effect
Boston, MA
Bain & Company, Inc.
John Schaefer is a Consultant with more than 20 years of experience helping companies realize and react to what he calls the Employer/Employee Disconnect. “Your people have the capacity and desire to become far more involved and productive than they are today. The resources required are freely available, if you simply choose to use them,” says Schaefer. “The key is to get your managers and supervisors to embrace this challenge by seeing what’s financially in it for them.” John is the author of The Vocational Shrink – An Analysis of the Ten Levels of Workplace Disillusionment, as well as The Vocational Shrink The Game and Manager Training Program “Why Should Supervisors Care (or what they’re really thinking) . . . What’s in it for Me?”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
