Work your way back to the beginning - Articles - Employee Benefit News

Employee satisfaction surveys are hot. Many Fortune 500 companies now conduct them. But both research and my own discussions with management suggest that employee surveys often fail to deliver on their promise.

Conducting an employee survey isn't easy. Many companies perform these surveys by throwing questions together haphazardly and hoping something great will happen. Often, this approach not only fails to work but can alienate employees.

Before constructing an employee survey, company leaders should be clear on its purpose and committed to acting on its results.

Management often fails to appreciate how the information in an employee survey links to profit. Because an employee survey is an investment in time and money, it requires a return-on-investment analysis to measure its success.

Using employee surveys to enhance profit requires investigating the causal pathways between three linkages that begin with the survey and end with profit.

However, to construct an employee satisfaction survey, you must begin with profit then reason backward to the survey - a process known as backward induction.

For the complete article on employee engagement surveys; follow the link below:

Work your way back to the beginning - Articles - Employee Benefit News

Why I Put My Employees Ahead Of My Customers - Forbes.com

Here at HCL Technologies we developed a management approach called Employees First, Customers Second that has become known around the world. It is not what you might think. It is not a human resources initiative, as many seem to assume. "It's an employee satisfaction program," one person who heard about it said. "It involves picnics." No. It is about employees, but it's not about HR.

I have nothing against programs designed to improve the lot of employees or at least make them feel a little better. And I have nothing against human resources departments and what they do. But Employees First, Customers Second is a management approach. It is a philosophy, a set of ideas, a way of looking at strategy and competitive advantage.

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Why I Put My Employees Ahead Of My Customers - Forbes.com

BBC News - How not to complain about colleagues

General McChrystal may have sparked a diplomatic spat with his off-guard comments about senior government figures - but at its heart is a story about an employee slagging off his superiors and colleagues. Is that really such a bad thing?

"Oh, not another e-mail from X... I don't even want to open it."
"Here's one that covers his flank for the history books."
"I'd rather have my ass kicked by a roomful of people than go out to this [work] dinner."

Sound familiar? The sentiments behind these complaints surely will, even if few of us grumble about senior diplomats, foreign dignitaries and officials in the Obama administration, as the top US military commander in Afghanistan has done.

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BBC News - How not to complain about colleagues

3 Ways to Uncover Self-Starting Superstar Hires : Managing :: American Express OPEN Forum

It’s easy to hire people based on the raw skills for a particular job. What’s more difficult is hiring someone who can grow, innovate, and thrive within your business. We outline three key ways to hone your hiring process and uncover the self-starting superstars you need:

For the complete article, go to:

3 Ways to Uncover Self-Starting Superstar Hires : Managing :: American Express OPEN Forum

Is Employee Engagement attainable in a multiple shift environment? « The Engagement Factor Blog

Personal lives invade the work environment and work lives invade personal life.  That statement rings true to most people these days.  However, it takes on special significance in environments with multiple shifts and rotating shift work.

You hear concerns such as:

• “I can’t get enough sleep.”
• “I have no social life.”
• “There goes another ball game for my child I have to miss.”

Shift workers tend to have increased risks for health problems such as:

• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Insomnia
• Sleep apnea

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, found that people with more exposure to artificial light generate less melatonin; the hormone associated with suppression of cancer-causing tumors.

For some, working grave yard shifts may be their only option, yet their body may be hard wired to function during the day.  Others who have rotating shift schedules may have difficulty making any plans or sleeping at all.  These challenges become unique to these environments.  At best these circumstances affect productivity and at worst these circumstances impact safety, relationships and self esteem.  Many of these employees experience special family challenges including divorce because of the work environment.  In fact, in the groundbreaking study by University of Nebraska-Lincoln they found that risk of divorce increases almost 60 percent when just one spouse works shift work. 

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Is Employee Engagement attainable in a multiple shift environment? « The Engagement Factor Blog

Gay Workers To Get Family Leave : NPR

The Labor Department intends to issue regulations this week ordering businesses to give gay employees equal treatment under a law permitting workers unpaid time off to care for newborns or loved ones.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis planned to announce Wednesday that the government would require employers to extend the option that has been available to heterosexual workers for almost two decades, two officials briefed on the plan said Monday. Neither was authorized to speak publicly ahead of the announcement.

The move, coming less than five months before November's congressional elections, seemed likely to incite conservatives and Republicans who stood in lockstep against the Obama administration's earlier efforts to repeal a ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. It also appeared likely to be popular with loyal Democrats and organized labor.

The Family and Medical Leave Act allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year to take care of loved ones or themselves. The 1993 law, which also allows employees to take time off for adoptions, has previously only been applied to heterosexual couples.

The Labor Department planned to extend those rights based on a new interpretation of the law, the officials said. There was no plan to ask Congress to change the law, which means future presidents could reverse the decision.

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Gay Workers To Get Family Leave : NPR

Health Costs: Sharing the Pain - Health Care - CFO.com

Companies are shifting more responsibility for the rising costs of health care to employees, according to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers. More than 40% of the 700 companies surveyed intend to increase employee contributions for health-insurance coverage, while an equivalent number plan to increase medical cost-sharing, including higher deductibles and copayments, at the point of care. Meanwhile, the ranks of those offering health benefits for retirees are shrinking, with a 40% drop among those subsidizing coverage after age 65.

That's a level of cost-sharing that is going to "cause more employees to think about how they use [medical] services," says Michael Thompson, a principal in PwC's human-resource services group.

Average per-patient medical costs are projected to rise 9.5% in 2010 and 9% in 2011, according to separate research from PwC's Health Research Institute. Those estimates are the net results of a variety of significant trends that are pushing costs both up and down. As for health-care reform, the changes that will take place in 2011 will have a minor effect on costs, according to the research (the biggest changes don't start until 2014).

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Health Costs: Sharing the Pain - Health Care - CFO.com

The ABCs of employee engagement

Think about what makes you want to get up in the morning and go to work. Is it the paycheque? Or is it the daily things you do at work and the people you work with? If you did a really boring job, or a job that you don't really find meaningful, had a manager who was either "never there" or "everywhere," and worked with people who don't talk to you, would you enthusiastically go to work in the morning? In other words, are you engaged at work?

Businesses want employees who feel engaged in their work and who care about the success of the business. Do you know how to achieve employee engagement? Here is the ABC of employee engagement.

A is for autonomy Employees need to feel that their behavioural choices come from them, not imposed by some outside source. For example, employees feel more engaged when they have a say in some decisions, such as schedules, work methods and processes. Imagine that your boss asks you to set your own monthly goals instead of simply assigning them to you. You will need to think about what needs to be accomplished in your job: to think about what the organization wants from you. This will make you realize the importance of your job for the success of the organization.

Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/executive/ABCs+employee+engagement/3155190/story.html#ixzz0r7xpalPz
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The ABCs of employee engagement

Good News: It’s Hard to Get Fired | Punk Rock Human Resources

It’s tough to get fired in America. That’s a #fact. It’s good news for many of you who are tired, disengaged, and totally over the concept of a work ethic.

Most of my Human Resources colleagues will tell you that they are efficient and heartless. I just heard a friend say, “Violate a policy or do something offensive on my watch? You’re gone. I will personally see you suffer.”

Whatever. This is rubbish.

For some common scenarios where you probably won’t get fired, and the complete article, follow the link below:

Good News: It’s Hard to Get Fired | Punk Rock Human Resources

Chronic Joblessness Bites Deep - WSJ.com

The job market is improving, but one statistic presents a stark reminder of the challenges that remain: Nearly half of the unemployed—45.9%—have been out of work longer than six months, more than at any time since the Labor Department began keeping track in 1948.

Even in the worst months of the early 1980s, when the jobless rate topped 10% for months on end, only about one in four of the unemployed was out of work for more than six months.

Overall, seven million Americans have been looking for work for 27 weeks or more, and most of them—4.7 million—have been out of work for a year or more.

Long-term unemployment has reached nearly every segment of the population, but some have been particularly hard-hit. The typical long-term unemployed worker is a white man with a high-school education or less. Older unemployed workers also tend to be out of work longer. Those between ages 65 and 69 who still wish to work have typically been jobless for 49.8 weeks.

For the complete article, go to:

Chronic Joblessness Bites Deep - WSJ.com

Small-Business Management: Control Freak No More: Picking No. 2 - WSJ.com

After years of growing their ventures, many small-business owners end up like Eric Poses – calling all the shots and rarely getting a moment's rest.

"I do everything," says Mr. Poses, president of All Things Equal Inc., a Miami board-game company he founded in 1996 that today earns about $2 million in annual sales. "I'm still making all the decisions, which takes up a lot of my time."

For owners who've built their businesses from the ground up, letting go some control to a second-in-command can be nerve-racking. But experts warn that there are potentially worse consequences to maintaining a tight grip on an enterprise, including burnout and problems stemming from unexpected emergencies, such as if an owner suddenly falls ill.

Sandy Hansen, owner of AgVenture Feed & Seed Inc. in Watkins, Minn., understands those dangers all too well. She was thrust into entrepreneurship in 2003 when her husband, the feed-supply company's original owner, died of leukemia. He had never appointed a top deputy in the nearly 20 years he ran the business, nor did he create a succession plan. "He didn't get around to it," says Ms. Hansen. "We were in near bankruptcy for three years trying to learn information only he knew." The business has since rebounded, she adds.

For more, go to:

Small-Business Management: Control Freak No More: Picking No. 2 - WSJ.com

Overqualified Job Seekers: Beware This HR Copout | CIO - Blogs and Discussion

Has a hiring manager, HR manager or recruiter ever rejected you for a job opportunity because you're "overqualified" for it? I've spoken with numerous IT managers who've been fed this line, and it frustrates them to no end. They can understand being passed up for a job because they don't meet the qualifications for it, they've told me, but getting rejected on the basis of being overqualified mystifies them. Why wouldn't a hiring manager want a candidate who could do a job blindfolded and who would bring more knowledge and experience to the role than the average job seeker, they wonder?

In fact, hiring managers have many reasons to pass on overqualified candidates, and I detail their concerns in my article, Job Search: What to Do When You're Overqualified. The article also offers overqualified job seekers advice on addressing hiring managers' concerns about their candidacy.

One question that occurred to me while I was reporting the story on overqualified candidates was whether hiring managers and HR managers ever use "You're overqualified," as an easy letdown for candidates. After all, telling a job seeker he's overqualified could prop up the job seeker's self-esteem. It gives him some external confirmation that he's smart and competent. Plus, it sounds nicer than, "You have the personality of a gnat," which may be the real reason the candidate was rejected.

For the complete article:

Overqualified Job Seekers: Beware This HR Copout | CIO - Blogs and Discussion

Business 'Facebooks' Will Boost Innovation - IBD - Investors.com

For businesses, the rise of social networking will enable new forms of collective intelligence that can create business advantages — if managers can learn how to best use these fast-evolving technologies.

That's the main finding from a recent paper by Leading Edge Forum, a research and advisory unit of tech services firm Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC)

The group in part examines the future crossroads of business and technology.

Co-workers are collaborating worldwide through blogs, videos and wikis, in business versions of social networks such as Facebook. Such networks can build employee trust and unleash staff creativity, says Alan Matcham, head of the forum's executive program.

For more on this article and how the relationship between management culture and its influence on employee engagement is related to lessons from consumer social media, go to:

Business 'Facebooks' Will Boost Innovation - IBD - Investors.com

Are you prepared to keep your top performers as the economy improves?

"There is going to be a mass exodus of the top performers as the economy starts to turn around," predicts Razor Suleman, a consultant who helps companies retain their best workers.
Studies have shown that worker morale fell during the recession. Productivity rose as companies squeezed more work out of their employees. That points to a reason quits may keep rising: Overworked employees could jump at the chance to switch jobs as new opportunities arise.
About 25 percent of companies' top performers said they plan to leave their current job within a year, according to a survey published in the May edition of the Harvard Business Review. By contrast, in 2006, just 10 percent planned to leave their jobs within a year. The survey questioned 20,000 workers who were identified by their employers as "high potential."
Companies retained those workers during the recession but heaped more work on them, said Jean Martin, the study's co-author and executive director of the Corporate Executive Board's Corporate Leadership Council in Washington. At the same time, employers cut back on awards and bonuses, she said.
Now, top performers at some companies are heading for the exits as hiring picks up. It means companies will feel more pressure to retain them.
Read full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/09/more-employees-quit-their_n_605656.html

Job Search: New Tool Helps You Find Employment Through Facebook - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

CIO — "Facebook" and "job hunting" have rarely been synonymous. The social network, largely regarded as a place to connect with friends and family, has had difficulty bridging the gap to the professional world. Sure, there are a handful of business-focused Facebook apps, but mixing your career with your personal life on Facebook has long been frowned upon. Until now.

Simply Hired, a search engine and recruitment advertising network, recently launched a personalized job search tool that integrates with Facebook to help you find jobs based on the current or previous work titles you list on your Facebook profile. It also lets you browse your friends' employers and search for job openings at their companies.

For more on this article, go to:

Job Search: New Tool Helps You Find Employment Through Facebook - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

Going Door to Door: Talent at UPS - Talent Management

The international shipping company delivers via internally groomed talent.

Delivering to more than 220 countries, UPS covers a lot of ground, and it takes a lot of employees to do it — more than 415,000 in total, 44,000 of those managerial. The vast majority of this management staff — 75 percent — began their careers at UPS either driving or loading UPS's trademark brown trucks.

According to Amy Whitley, vice president of human resources at UPS, promoting from within defines UPS's approach to talent management; any given employee of the international shipping company has likely learned it from the ground up. Whitley discussed with Talent Management how this approach helps keep everyone at UPS on the same street.

For the complete interview, follow the link below:

Going Door to Door: Talent at UPS - Talent Management

A Checklist for Predicting Corporate Disasters — Is Your Firm the Next BP? - ERE.net

You might feel far removed from the current oil disaster taking place in the Gulf of Mexico because your firm is not involved in oil drilling or sophisticated mechanical operations. However, assuming that there are not important lessons to be learned from BP’s handling of the issue would be shortsighted. Any organization experiencing a “critical incident” needs to look beyond equipment failures and natural disturbances to determine if human factors or people-management practices were an underlying or contributing cause. Apart from establishing accountability, investigations play a more strategic role in helping identify indicators of impending disaster that could serve as a warning moving forward.

If people management practices play a role in creating situations whereby a disaster is more likely, then it stands to reason that people management metrics (long collected, rarely leveraged) could provide vital insight into disaster risk.

Put more simply, HR functions have a strategic responsibility to determine if measures of overtime, absenteeism, temporary labor use, training hours attended, engagement, etc., can be used to predict potential business problems.

For  more on this article, go to:

A Checklist for Predicting Corporate Disasters — Is Your Firm the Next BP? - ERE.net

Employee engagement needs to be high on the agenda when resources are limited Human Resources - News | HR News | HR Magazine | hrmagazine.co.uk

Pay cuts, recruitment freezes, slashed budgets, redundancies and the promise of worse to come. Many organisations have already had a tough couple of years but the white-knuckle ride seems set to continue as the new Government cuts into public spending.

The CIPD's last quarterly Employee Outlook survey suggests that staff are working harder and longer hours than ever before.  However, organisations that become complacent about their existing staff are potentially building up a storehouse of conflict that can directly and indirectly sabotage an organisation's best-laid plans.

Employee engagement needs to be high on the agenda if the organisation wants to continue to function with more limited resources.  While organisations take great care to craft their corporate communications, the reality is that for most staff, the words and actions of the line manager is likely to be the biggest key influence on whether staff are will be on board or not.

One of the most effective things that line managers can do to encourage employee engagement is to spend time talking to each individual staff member about their career as opposed to their job. Encouraging staff to be honest about their career concerns and aspirations is the key to finding ways in which organisational and individual objectives can be more effectively entwined. Yet this is a strategy that is vastly underused within organisations.

Employee engagement needs to be high on the agenda when resources are limited Human Resources - News | HR News | HR Magazine | hrmagazine.co.uk

Face of Quality: The Rules of Employee Engagement - Departments – Quality

 

Employee engagement has been a topic of much conversation and study in the corporate world for the past several years. It’s a phrase that has captured the attention of workplace workers, line management, HR managers and the executive suite.

The Conference Board defines employee engagement as “a heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work.”

Engaged employees have been shown to willingly contribute their time, talents and abilities to the success of an organization. They not only commit to achieving a company’s goals, engaged employees often, at their own volition, extend their discretionary effort to go above and beyond their management’s acceptable performance standards.

There have been many studies on the benefit of employee engagement. According to a Gallup study, 54% of employees are not engaged, 17% are actively disengaged, and only 29% can be considered as engaging their time and talents.

Read the complete article at:

Face of Quality: The Rules of Employee Engagement - Departments - Quality

Restart to Recharge: Recognition Proves Critical to Engage Employees During and Following Economic Downturn

 Globoforce survey reveals 92 percent of companies plan to maintain or increase recognition spending in 2010; Offers seven tips for how to re-ignite a workforce.

Southborough, Mass. and Dublin, Ireland (Vocus/PRWEB ) June 3, 2010 -- The economic downturn in 2008 and 2009 forced many businesses to adjust their human capital strategies and budgets. While this resulted in many companies pulling back or eliminating monetary recognition programs, it also demonstrated their importance. In fact, according to a recent study by Globoforce®, the leading worldwide provider of global, strategic, employee recognition solutions, 92 percent of business and HR leaders plan to maintain or increase recognition spending in 2010.

Today, in the midst of an economic recovery, businesses are faced with what to do next to re-ignite and re-engage their workforce. However, like many strategic HR programs, recognition budgets were impacted by the economy. According to the Globoforce study, “Restarting Recognition during the Recovery," 46 percent of survey respondents said they had cut recognition budgets during the economic downturn while just 12 percent increased spending on recognition. The impact of the budget cuts were evident, as 42 percent of organizations that had cut spending during downturn plan to increase recognition spending in 2010. Additionally, companies who had increased their employee recognition budget expressed they will continue the investment in 2010.

For the complete article go to:

Restart to Recharge: Recognition Proves Critical to Engage Employees During and Following Economic Downturn