Employee engagement improves benefit useage and absenteeism - IFAonline

Increasing employee engagement improves absenteeism rates and take-up of benefit packages according to new research.

The report also finds that the benefits of a high employee engagement level can be significant to a company's bottom line.

This is illustrated as workers demonstrate a real commitment to their organisation and its values including showing a willingness to help out colleagues.

Read more: http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/cover/news/1735796/employee-engagement-improves-benefit-useage-absenteeism#ixzz10wHvtGKZ
IFA Online - News, blogs and analysis for IFAs. Visit the website now.

Employee engagement improves benefit useage and absenteeism - IFAonline

The biology of business: Homo administrans | The Economist

Have you got the leadership gene?

Biologists are looking to win a spot in America's business schools by studying the genetics and biochemistry of management. Researchers have already found that genetic variations can explain a leader's successes and failures, and that variations in sex hormones play a role in sales. "Management science looks set for a thorough, biology-inspired overhaul," according to The Economist. "Expect plenty more lab coats in business-school corridors."

For the complete article, go to:

The biology of business: Homo administrans | The Economist

How to encourage innovation and use metrics to make decisions

Douglas R. Waggoner, CEO of Echo Global Logistics, says the Generation Y workers who dominate his company have taught him a lot about innovation and new ways of working. "People don't really care what your title is or how long you've been around. It's more like, 'I've got a job to do; how are you going to help me do it?' and, 'These are the problems we're facing; how are you going to help me deal with them?' "

For the complete article go to:

Douglas R. Waggoner uses ideas from Generation-Y to grow Echo Global Logistics - How to encourage innovation and use metrics to make decisions

Schumpeter: Down with fun | The Economist

The depressing vogue for having fun at work 

ONE of the many pleasures of watching “Mad Men”, a television drama about the advertising industry in the early 1960s, is examining the ways in which office life has changed over the years. One obvious change makes people feel good about themselves: they no longer treat women as second-class citizens. But the other obvious change makes them feel a bit more uneasy: they have lost the art of enjoying themselves at work.

The ad-men in those days enjoyed simple pleasures. They puffed away at their desks. They drank throughout the day. They had affairs with their colleagues. They socialised not in order to bond, but in order to get drunk.

These days many companies are obsessed with fun. Software firms in Silicon Valley have installed rock-climbing walls in their reception areas and put inflatable animals in their offices. Wal-Mart orders its cashiers to smile at all and sundry. The cult of fun has spread like some disgusting haemorrhagic disease. Acclaris, an American IT company, has a “chief fun officer”. TD Bank, the American arm of Canada’s Toronto Dominion, has a “Wow!” department that dispatches costume-clad teams to “surprise and delight” successful workers. Red Bull, a drinks firm, has installed a slide in its London office.

For the complete article, go to:

Schumpeter: Down with fun | The Economist

Human Resource Executive Online - Story

Enticing Employees

The recession has left its mark on top employees -- who are both disengaged from their current organization but hesitant about looking for employment elsewhere. In addition to revisiting leadership-development and reward-and-recognition programs, HR leaders should consider changing the organizational design.

For the complete article, go to:

Human Resource Executive Online - Story

Are you giving your workers enough love? - Related Stories - SmartBrief on Leadership

U.S. business leaders need to show their workers a little more love, writes executive coach Debbie Robins. By putting their workers' well-being first, leaders inspire loyalty, boost productivity, burnish their public image and ultimately make their companies more competitive, Robins argues. "The companies that have awakened to human capital as their organization's greatest asset are raking it in," she writes. "It's time to take the word LOVE out of your CEO closet, dust it off, and put it to work."

Follow the link, for the complete article:

Are you giving your workers enough love? - Related Stories - SmartBrief on Leadership

Engage Your Employees

Connecting to their jobs and co-workers will help businesses get results.
After more than a year of worries over layoffs and downsizings, hotel employees may need some encouragement from their managers.

For the complete article, go to:

Engage Your Employees

Screen Capture Software, Screen Grabber, Screen Snapshot, SnapIt

Capture anything you see on your PC screen!

Don't waste time cropping your captures. Take a "snapshot" of anything exactly what you need, with just a click.

Easy to Learn, Easy to Use!

Screen Capture Software, Screen Grabber, Screen Snapshot, SnapIt

The Cross-Generation Workforce - Forbes.com

Are you ready to meet the tech demands of younger workers?

If employers want to attract younger talent and keep them satisfied on the job, they need to work closely with their IT departments to make sure their technology keeps up with a younger generation's expectations, Andy McLoughlin writes. At the same time, employers should use their tech-savvy employees to generate new ideas and help train other workers, he writes.

Read the complete article at:

The Cross-Generation Workforce - Forbes.com

Vegging out at work in company gardens | StarTribune.com

Employees really dig gardening benefit

Establishing a garden for employees not only promotes healthy eating, it helps them save money on grocery bills, advocates say. "It's an innovative, inexpensive way to provide a benefit for employees when times are tough," said Fred Haberman, co-founder of Haberman & Associates, which sponsors a company garden.

For the complete article, go to:

Vegging out at work in company gardens | StarTribune.com

If I Could Change One Thing About HR... | HR Fishbowl

Do you need to be kicked out of HR?

With so many qualified people on the job market, there's never been a better time to upgrade the talent in human resources, Charlie Judy writes. "There are so many great people on the streets right now -- find them, bring them on and relieve yourself of that dead weight that just sucks the life out of our collective reputation," he writes.

For mroe, go to:

If I Could Change One Thing About HR... | HR Fishbowl

China issues white paper on human resources, highlighting employment, innovation

BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government Friday issued a white paper on its human resources, highlighting the country's policies to cope with employment pressures and a lack of "high-level innovative talents."

The white paper, released by the State Council Information Office, introduced the country's human resources situation, related laws and regulations and protection of workers' rights and interests.

The 41-page paper, the first of its kind in China, says China's 1.3 billion population is "a vast reservoir of human resources," and "actively developing human resources, bringing into full play the potential ability and value of each individual and promoting the people's all-round development" is a significant aim.

China has a labor force of more than 1 billion people, 112 million more than in 2000, and the number of employees reached almost 780 million, more than 45 percent of whom were women, it says.

For the complete article, go to:

China issues white paper on human resources, highlighting employment, innovation

It's not enough to measure employee engagement, you have to act on the results Human Resources - News | HR News | HR Magazine | hrmagazine.co.uk

While many organisations are gathering information on employee engagement, only a few are actually linking feedback to action and managing to increase scores.
The Hewitt Associates study, The Future of Engagement, looks at the efforts to measure employee engagement at 150 companies across Europe.
Of these, 85% reported that they had collected employee feedback in the past 24 months, with 64% of those gathering feedback within the last year. However, only 16% of the organisations reported a significant increase in engagement levels.
The findings show that for leaders at many organisations, employee engagement data is all too often viewed as an administrative step or as simply another employee survey. They reported that while engagement surveys contain interesting facts, they lack linkages to the day-to-day decisions that management needs to take.
For more, go to:
It's not enough to measure employee engagement, you have to act on the results Human Resources - News | HR News | HR Magazine | hrmagazine.co.uk

Companies who invest in employees' happiness rarely regret it - KansasCity.com

Companies find happiness is good for business

There are few better investments a company can make than in their own workers' happiness and engagement, writes Cindy Krischer Goodman. A recent study found that firms with high levels of worker happiness outperformed the broader stock market by an average of 19%, suggesting that cultivating a cheery workplace can help companies gain a key competitive advantage. "The companies expanding, taking over competitors and shaping their industries are those with happy workers," Goodman writes.

For the complete article, follow the link:

Companies who invest in employees' happiness rarely regret it - KansasCity.com

The One Thing You Need to Get Ahead | BNET

Why hard work and talent aren't enough

To reach the pinnacle of your profession and become a powerful, effective leader, you need more than just hard work and talent -- you need the active support of those who've already made it to the top, says Stanford University professor Jeffrey Pfeffer. That means that networking and securing high-level mentors is the key to winning a corner office, Pfeffer argues. "What will make you successful are those people higher up who have power over your career. Your job is to make them want to make you successful," he says.

For the complete interview, go to:

The One Thing You Need to Get Ahead | BNET

What’s Up With Health Care Communications? (Part Two) | acommunicatorsview.com

Employees are tired of "doom and gloom" benefits message

Employees say that they don't want to see the same confusing, boring and complicated health care message delivered every year during the open enrollment period, D Mark Schumann writes. Instead, they'd rather be educated before the enrollment period about what health care cost challenges the employer faces -- and then be allowed to contribute ideas, he writes.

For the complete post, go to:

What’s Up With Health Care Communications? (Part Two) | acommunicatorsview.com

Quiz: Are You Hiring and Breeding Greedy and Selfish Employees? | Fast Company

20 ways to discover if you're hiring jerks

If you want to know whether your managers are filling the ranks with greedy and selfish employees, consider having them take the "Evaluation Gauge for Obnoxious Superstars" quiz from "Good Boss, Bad Boss" by Bob Sutton. For example, managers may be filling their teams with jerks if they hire people who "often ask for help from colleagues but rarely return the favor," he writes.

To take the quiz, follow the link:

Quiz: Are You Hiring and Breeding Greedy and Selfish Employees? | Fast Company

Fistful of Talent: An Army of Bean Gatherers

Get the inside skinny on employee attitudes

To get an accurate picture of where your company is succeeding -- or failing -- with employees, use "in the know" workers to help gather information, Marisa Keegan writes. "Talk to them about employee advocacy, get their thoughts on how the company can change, prove to them that you're in this to help build a better place to work, etc.," she writes.

Follow the link, for the complete article:

Fistful of Talent: An Army of Bean Gatherers

Survey: A fifth of U.S. workers would switch jobs - Kansas City Business Journal

More than 20 percent of Americans who have jobs are willing to jump ship if they get the opportunity, a new survey of employees finds.
Still, 53 percent would rather stay where they’re at, even if they get a good offer at another company, New York-based GfK Custom Research North America found.
Those figures will be particularly important as the economy improves. Employees tend to shy away from job changes during recessions, which also is when employers may cut investments in staff training and development.
“Employees are more likely to stay with their company during lean times, and so companies have taken them for granted,” Thomas Hartley, vice president of GfK customer loyalty and employee engagement, said in a release. “When the economy strengthens, experience tells us that employees will begin weighing their options and considering other jobs. Since it takes up to 12 months to improve employee engagement, companies need to plan ahead and take the proper steps to ensure their employee retention rates remain high.”
Read more: Survey: A fifth of U.S. workers would switch jobs - Kansas City Business Journal
Survey: A fifth of U.S. workers would switch jobs - Kansas City Business Journal

Majority of Companies Worldwide Having Difficulty Attracting Critical-Skill and Talented Employees, Towers Watson Survey Finds - MarketWatch

NEW YORK, Sep 07, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- A vast majority of companies worldwide are having difficulty attracting the critical-skill and talented employees needed to help them rebound and prosper in the wake of the economic crisis. However, the severity of their difficulty in attracting these workers varies greatly from country to country as economic recovery is proving to be uneven in different regions, according to a new survey conducted by global professional services company Towers Watson (TW 47.40, -0.27, -0.57%) and WorldatWork, an international association of human resource professionals.
The Towers Watson Global Talent Management and Rewards Survey, a study of 1,176 companies globally, including 314 from the United States, also found that a majority of respondents said the cost-cutting measures that they took during the recession and financial crisis had an adverse impact on employees' workloads, their ability to manage work-related stress and overall employee engagement. As a result, companies are beginning to reevaluate their reward and talent management programs, and how they attract, retain and motivate employees.
For the complete article, go to:
Majority of Companies Worldwide Having Difficulty Attracting Critical-Skill and Talented Employees, Towers Watson Survey Finds - MarketWatch

Next Level Blog

3 leadership lessons from Chile's trapped miners

If you want to see real leadership, take a look at the Chilean miners currently facing months trapped underground. The crew of 33 miners are taking orders from their shift supervisor, but have been delegating responsibility to one another to draw on their individual strengths and keep the team happy and healthy. "Through multiple acts of leadership they have organized themselves to take care of their bodies, minds and spirits," Eblin writes. "The way they've done it is instructive and humbling for all of us leading in much less challenging situations."

For the complete article, go to:

Next Level Blog

Kimberly Wilson, on how to bring tranquility to your worklife | SmartBlog on Workforce

5 ways to bring tranquility to your workplace

Business leaders can improve engagement and productivity by finding ways to appreciate their team members, says Kimberly Wilson, author of "Tranquilista: Mastering the Art of Enlightened Work and Mindful Play." "Small tokens of acknowledgment go a long way toward creating engagement," she says. "Be a shining example of what you are seeking in your team."

For the complete article, follow the link:

Kimberly Wilson, on how to bring tranquility to your worklife | SmartBlog on Workforce

Embrace social media to drive engagement and retention | SmartBlog on Workforce

Technology has changed almost everything in the business world except our basic management approaches. Business model, process and product innovation are well-trodden paths, but with the exception of a few pioneering organizations, management innovation is much rarer.

The challenge ahead will be to identify how the changing nature of work and the pursuit of organizational innovation through the use of IT and new technologies will create a new model of work. Because the social technology of management sets both the tone and context within which we all work, it’s sensible to identify which practices and principles are a hindrance or a barrier and work toward alternative solutions.

To read the complete article; go to:

Embrace social media to drive engagement and retention | SmartBlog on Workforce