Eat the Frog and Stay Productive! (infographic)

Eat the Frog and Stay Productive!

Do You Give Good Feedback?

Do You Give Good Feedback?

I don’t mean good as in positive. I mean do you know how to give feedback effectively?

Giving feedback to employees is an art. There are some rules to follow to make sure that you’re doing it well.

First off, make sure it’s timely. Think of dog training. If a dog poops you need to let it know immediately that it was bad, not 3 hours later. I’m not saying that your employees are pooping dogs, but, well, this metaphor is getting away from me. But I think you get the point. Don’t wait 4 months to tell your team they’re doing well or that they need improvements in certain areas. (or else they’ll just keep pooping on that carpet…)

Be calm, and stick to the facts. Is it feedback if you’re shouting and throwing a report that your team member did incorrectly? Or is that just anger and rage? I don’t think anyone is going to listen well to whatever constructive criticism you may be offering in a wild scream. Also, if you pepper the “criticism” with epithets like “You freaking moron”, the new behavior you want to see is unlikely to stick. So stay calm, and stay focused on the facts.

Since you’re now having a nice calm conversation, take a moment to ask the other person what they think. You may get some interesting information from them, and they may well in line with what you were going to tell them. Getting their buy-in on the required changes should make it go a little easier.

Need more help? Check out C4CM’s upcoming audio conference, Delivering Highly Effective Feedback: Tips, Techniques, and Best Practice Strategies to Communicate More Effectively, coming up on April 16 at 2:00 PM ET.

Do You Do HR Right? Know the Dos and Don’ts of HR – infographic

5 Types of Bosses That Drive Employees Away

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, there are five types of managers that lead to employees getting burned out on the job or unhappy with their work environment.  

The research included more than 400 participants, and they found that employees grow increasingly more dissatisfied, and worse, can result in their leaving the company.  

“Nearly 60 percent of workers in the OfficeTeam study said they stayed on the job, despite having a nasty boss. Only 11 percent quit immediately, without another job lined up. Another 27 percent planned their escape, finding another job first and then leaving.”  

1. The Micromanager
2. The Bad Communicator
3. The Bully
4. The Saboteur
5. Mixed Nuts  

 

Read the complete Entrepreneur Magazine article

 

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Reasons to Bring Back the Lunch Hour at Your Company

Has it become part of office culture for employees to eat lunch at their desks where you work?  

This month, a new campaign called “Take Back Your Lunch” was initiated by The Energy Project, encouraging employers to minimize worker burnout in their organizations.  

Many employees who tend to work at their desks at lunchtime would argue that doing so increases their productivity and shows a high level of commitment to their employers.

However, what is concerning for HR and management professionals is that this work culture could be damaging other areas:   

• Lessening their interests in the work they do (and the effort they put into it)
• Shortening job retention with your organization due to burnout
• Increasing the frequency of bad moods and conflict in the workplace
• Creating lower energy, leading to overall poor employee wellness  

“We want you to do anything that helps you relax or recharge — walk, take a yoga class, have a picnic lunch in the park,” says Emily Pines, the Take Back Your Lunch co-founder. “The main thing is you walk away, get out of the office, disengage from work.”

Read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette news article

Image: m_bartosch / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tools and Guidance for Preventing or Dealing with Employee Burnout

It is a fact that employee burnout costs employers more than $300 billion in lost productivity in the U.S. What can executives and managers do to address this obstacle in their workplace?  

“The number one issue for executives is that they have to have more trust in the people they work with,” says Ellie Maggio, managing director of Emend Management Consultants in Toronto. Less micro-managing gives employees a greater sense of ownership over their work.  

Other helpful tools and techniques:   

• Executives should lead by example. If a manager works around the clock, this sets a particular tone for the rest of the staff.
• Identify expectations early on. If you work in a deadline-driven place, don’t hire someone who stressed out from deadlines. Make sure they are a good match before you hire them.
• Emphasize cultural fit for candidates. Also, when recruiting new hires, consider using screening tools like personality testing, to see if an individual would thrive in your environment. 
• Investigate the early signs. If you notice increased absenteeism or irritability in an employee, it is better to find out the cause and provide support needed to deal with high workloads, lack of interest, little or no recognition, etc.  

Read the Globe and Mail article

Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Getting Rid of Cubicle Walls in Today’s Modern Workplace

The high-walled cubicles of yesterday’s workplace are fading away. American offices are getting smaller, especially with employees who are on the road, who telecommute, or split their time evenly between your office and their home office.    

Employers are beginning to note the value of comfortable work spaces, where coworkers sit closer to one another and have more eye contact than in cubicles, making for a more collegiate atmosphere.  

It was during the recession when several companies had downsized their office spaces, even if it left a significant amount of empty space they still owned or leased. The upside? The money they saved enabled them to invest in future company growth.  

While some employers have moved from cubicles to shared work spaces with low or no walls, there are many others who are getting more progressive.  

• Designated private rooms for quiet zones, where employees can go to concentrate on a task
• A “Star Trek” shaped table for executives to sit together, allowing for maximum dialogue
• A café using an open floor plan and complete with casual tables, access to vending machines, and a great view of Millennium Park in Chicago  

Read the MarketWatch News article

Image: bulldogza / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Work Watch Survey: American Employees Feel Overqualified for Their Jobs

From a Work Watch survey by Randstad, more than 1/3 of employees in the U.S. feel overqualified to do their jobs. However, they do want to acquire new skills or be more challenged at work.  

The recruiting firm found that among 1,000 participants, 33% felt overqualified, 65% felt appropriately qualified, and only 3% felt underqualified.  

“It’s surprising that one out of every three American employees feels over-qualified in their job,” said Jim Link, managing director of Human Resources for Randstad, in a statement.

“The data suggests that U.S. workers are less challenged by their current jobs. It also raises questions about how this will affect employee turnover and retention as the job market recovers.”

•  74% of younger workers and 56% of older workers want more skills 
• 50% of Gen Y and Millennial workers wish they had more hard skills (e.g., trade knowledge)
• 30% of overall American workers want more soft skills, such as social and leadership skills  

Read the Atlanta Business Chronicle article

Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Most Common Mistake That Employers Make When Launching a Worker Wellness Program

In a nationwide survey, 86% of employers communicated their intentions to focus on more employee wellness and health promotion programs over the next three years. At the Harvard School of Public Health, for instance, their analysis showed that absenteeism costs fell by $2.73 for every dollar spent on employee wellness programs.  

Most employers focus on the basics like quit-smoking, weight loss, or lowered blood pressure programs. And according to the Harvard Pilgrim VP of Medical Management, the goal to reduce employee medical and pharmacy bills is only a mere 25% of a company’s total health costs.  

Harvard Pilgrim is one innovative organization that offers activities with the goal of reducing worker stress in order to tackle the other piece of the pie when it comes to overall health costs. Some of these perks include meditation classes, sleep seminars, an organic gardening club, and much more.  

“The other 75% are the costs from ailing workers’ absenteeism or subpar performance while at work, which is often linked to stress,” she said. “It’s the back pain, the fatigue, the headaches that are the cost drivers.”   

Read the Boston Globe article

Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

An Inspired Success Story: Democracy in the Workplace

Innovative organizations are starting to reshape their leadership model and the workforce dynamic for their employees. According to the CEO of engineering firm Namaste Solar: “One person, one vote is the best way to make decisions and the right way.”  

Currently an employee-owned company, Namaste Solar employs a core cultural value centered on democracy that extends beyond the company stock. CEO Blake Jones just sees himself as another employee with a vote, and not the CEO.

For example:

• A colleague, peer-to-peer environment exists in place of the traditional corporate hierarchy  
• All company decisions were made by employee consensus
• Only on rare occasions does the Board make decisions (e.g., layoffs, pay cuts)
• Decisions affecting employees were announced at their bi-monthly Big Picture Meetings
• Membership isn’t restrict by role (e.g., an engineer can sit on the Marketing Committee, or an interested marketer can sit in on the HR Committee)

Employee democracy, much like government democracy, requires patience and time. For Namaste and other innovative companies like it, the strength of employee consensus improves office morale, overall productivity, and support needed to drive a company in a forward motion.  

Read the Inc Magazine article

Image: Jeroen van Oostrom / FreeDigitalPhotos.net