Naughty workers get away with bad behaviour

Companies talk big about their values, but do they follow through with action? It seems most employees think their less-ethical colleagues are getting away with bad behaviour.

A study from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)showed that 40% of employees said “individuals whose behaviour consistently goes against the values of the organisations they work for are either left unpunished or are rewarded or promoted”.

Only a third (33%) of those asked said that individuals were reprimanded for consistent rule breaking, indicating that employers are not doing enough to ensure that their business values are being upheld.

Read the full story: http://www.hrmonline.ca/article/naughty-workers-get-away-with-bad-behaviour-124750.aspx?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HRM+Mon

Culture not working? Make a change

Sometimes it feels like your team or organization is running beautifully. Other times, it feels like the team is a little off track. Or a lot off track! What should you pay attention to when evaluating the health of your team’s culture? We might gain some insights from recent Major League Baseball moves at the end of the season here in the U.S.

Manager Bobby Valentine was fired by the Boston Red Sox after his team finished a dismal 69-93 (their worst season performance since 1965). Valentine was brought in only a year ago to get the Red Sox “on track” following the team’s collapse at the end of the 2011 season.

Unfortunately, the benefits the owners hoped for did not come to fruition under Valentine’s management. Here are a few key metrics that showed how the Red Sox culture was operating — and some thoughts to consider when analyzing your own team or organization.

Read the full story: http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2012/10/23/culture-not-working/

The Puzzle of Motivation

6 in 10 employees don’t trust their senior leaders

Six in 10 (61 per cent) of Canadian employees don't trust their senior leaders, according to a survey by the Canadian Management Centre and Ipsos Reid.

Only 39 per cent of Canadians trust what their senior leaders say and less than four in 10 feel that senior leadership is doing a good job of communicating what is happening in their workplace, found Build a Better Workplace: Employee Engagement Edition, which surveyed 1,200 Canadian workers. 
Less than one-half (44 per cent) of Canadian employees have confidence in the senior leadership of their organization.

The confidence that employees have with senior leadership varies considerably by industry. Those in transportation (32 per cent), government (35 per cent) and retail industries (39 per cent) exhibit the lowest levels of confidence in their senior leadership. The highest levels of confidence were reported by employees in high tech/IT (55 per cent), found the survey.

Read the full article.

Handmade Desks, “Breathing Rooms,” And Gross Happiness: Take A Look Inside Etsy HQ

Beyond just quirk, crafty marketplace Etsy offers employes a green (B Corp certified) place to work where happiness is measured and learning is encouraged (two words: therapeutic doodling).

Seven years into its existence, the online handmade and vintage marketplace Etsy is such an Internet cultural staple that its most distinctive superficial parts--the twee aesthetic of many of its shops, the earnestness of its mission (“to change the way the global economy works”)--have become fodder for popular parodies. But those straight outta Portlandia aspects of Etsy’s Brooklyn headquarters are also what make it a stimulating place to work.

Read the full story: ttp://www.fastcocreate.com/1681695/handmade-desks-breathing-rooms-and-gross-happiness-take-a-look-inside-etsy-hq#1

11 Things That Make Workers Happy

Happy Workers

Forget raises and big bonuses, there are much simpler and cheaper ways to keep your employees happy. From offering benefits to giving them flexibility, companies can find a number of creative ways to keep their employees happy and productive. Here are a few to get you started.

Read the full story: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3132-keep-employees-happy.html

The 9 Habits of Highly Engaged Managers

Based on our normative Employee Engagement database, there are a number of factors that have a powerful influence in building job satisfaction and engagement, including:

•     The level of reward and recognition
•     The opportunity to learn new skills and grow on the job
•     The opportunity to make suggestions (which we see as an "empowerment" measure)
•     To what degree their work is respected by their employer
•     Satisfaction with the resources available to do their job
•     Agreement that their job makes good use of their abilities and skills
•     The effectiveness of communications within the organization
•     Their opportunities for advancement

Click here to read the full article and learn the 9 habits that engaged managers exhibit to create positive cultures.

 

U.S. revises hiring numbers: 453,000 more jobs added in third year of recovery

The nation probably created 20 percent more jobs in the economy’s third year of recovery than previously estimated, with businesses hiring nearly half a million more workers than earlier thought.

In its latest employment revision, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday that the economy added 386,000 more jobs than its earlier estimate, bringing total hiring from April 2011 through March 2012 to 2.3 million. The private sector added more than 453,000 jobs, the report said.

In the previous calculation, based on a survey of businesses and government offices, the government said the economy had added 1.9 million jobs. The latest revision comes after the agency conducted a routine and more-thorough analysis based on far more detailed data.

Read the full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-revises-hiring-numbers-businesses-added-453k-more-jobs-in-third-year-of-recovery/2012/09/27/d2c7e29a-08bf-11e2-a10c-fa5a255a9258_story.html

Why culture is more important than strategy

It can be tempting for businesses to over-emphasise the focus on strategy whilst inadvertently underplaying the power of culture. I would argue that culture is in fact more important than strategy. Culture is all about the psychology, actions and beliefs of a group of people.

I believe there are two definitions of the kind of culture that creates momentum for any business. The first one is that "culture is what happens when the CEO leaves the room". The second definition is "the way we get things done around here." It is all about the attitude of those working for your company. The most important thing about culture is that it's the only sustainable point of difference for any organisation. Anyone can copy your strategy, but nobody can copy your culture. So why would you leave it untended?

Read the full story:

http://www.management-issues.com/2012/9/20/opinion/why-culture-is-more-important-than-strategy.asp

Top tips from the most engaged workplaces

It’s a high level concept with bottom line consequences, so how are some of Canada’s most engaged workplaces making it work. HRM talked to some of the finalists about why and how they focus on engagement.

Read the full story:

http://www.hrmonline.ca/article/top-tips-from-the-most-engaged-workplaces-124352.aspx

Is it a Mistake to Pick an Employee of the Month?

From NYTimes.com small business blogs

I recently met a management consultant and business author who asked me if I had an “employee of the month” program. I said I did, at which point he reprimanded me for the error of my ways. His argument was that it was a waste of time and was actually counterproductive; only one person wins, and the rest are resentful. My managers and I actually considered that before we started the program, but the conversation with the consultant, Aubrey C. Daniels, got me thinking about it again. As I have gotten older, I have become more open-minded about recognizing that my way might not be the best way.

We name an employee of the month in only one of my companies, the custom framing factory, where I have the most employees working together in the same place at the same time. I have about 30 employees at the factory who do everything from making frames and cutting mats to working in shipping and receiving. We have a meeting every Friday morning for 10 to 15 minutes to announce birthdays and anniversaries, review the progress of the week and discuss what is happening in the company. On the first Friday of the month we also give out the employee-of-the-month award.

Read the full post here

8 Ways to Successfully Onboard Young Workers

There has been no lack of frustration in the workplace when it comes to onboarding young workers.

Managers find themselves irked that some of these new employees seem to think nothing of showing up late for work, texting friends during meetings or “dropping in” on the CEO to chat about upcoming vacation plans.

Alexia Vernon has heard many of the stories, and as a member of the Millenial generation herself understands how some young professionals can take such wrong turns in the workplace.

But she believes much of the pain of bringing young workers up to speed could be alleviated if managers understood the role they needed to play in successfully training and developing this generation.

Read the full story:

http://quickbase.intuit.com/blog/2012/09/04/8-ways-to-successfully-onboard-young-workers/