The Success Case Method

The success case method for evaluating impact is an approach that has been developed by Robert Brinkerhoff (2001). It is a method that can provide information on the factors which help or hinder the application of learning in the workplace and therefore sheds light on the nature and the degree of impact that learning has on the organisation. The general process is depicted below.

This method achieves evaluation efficiencies by adopting a purposive rather than a random sampling approach focusing the bulk of evaluation inquiry on only a relative few learners. The underlying principle here is that valuable information can be obtained from learners who have been either exceptionally successful or unsuccessful in applying their learning in their work. It is an economical way to account for the factors which shape the impact of learning.

Ways to use the success case method

To account for a variety of benefits and to demonstrate how learning interacts with other organisational variables.

Effective learning and development can often result in a variety of tangible and intangible benefits. The success case approach can be used to account for these. Whilst many of these benefits many not be easily quantifiable, accounting for and describing these even in qualitative, but meaningful terms will aid in demonstrating the impact that learning can contribute to.

It is important to note that as learning and development is one of the many enabling organisational functions within an agency, it may be more productive and useful to evaluate how learning contributes to impact in conjunction with other variables and as part of a larger system rather than merely attempting to isolate the effects of learning. Understanding how other organisational variables interact with learning and the impact that this results in, will provide valuable information that will help the organisation better integrate and make better use of their interconnected organisational systems and processes for enhanced overall impact.

To support rapid prototyping of significant learning and development
Rapid prototyping is a term used to describe an iterative approach to the development of products, services and programs. The information that the case study method provides can be used to form and shape learning interactions in a relatively quick manner. It can be usefully deployed in pilot programs, given its sharp focus and relatively efficient data gathering methods.

A success case approach

Reference:

Adapted from Brinkerhoff, R. (2001) High Impact Learning. Perseus. Cambridge, MASS.

Preventive measures that help form successful teams.

Organisational Behaviour

Preventive measures that help form successful teams

Key learnings:

• Even small organisations need well-functioning teams to last in business
• But well-functioning teams cannot be formed after a couple of team- building exercises and workshops

A handful of star performers cannot dictate or guarantee great business returns for long. It takes a well-oiled team of efficient performers to do that. Thankfully, organisations have realised that. A substantial increase in team- building initiatives indicates the seriousness to cash in on the huge, attractive benefits of team work. But has this increase actually translated into better work teams? A quick survey reveals that all is not well. Most organisations appear to err on fundamentals in planning team- building initiatives.

A bunch of common mistakes can impact team -building initiatives. Avoiding them can ensure the success of team- building initiatives. More importantly that would assure organisations of optimally functional teams. Part one of this two- mailer series lists the things that can go wrong with team -building initiatives. Part two will cover how they can be remedied.

Mistakes

An exclusively internal approach: There is a misconception that team- building initiatives should be entirely internal. Of course, in-house interventions are great but often outside help can address sensitive issues like trust and dependence better.

Work teams when they are first formed are characterised by a lack of trust and poor communication. Left unaddressed, these manifest in the form of increased conflicts, defensiveness and blame games. An 'outsider' is seen as unbiased, also someone without any preconceived notions. Therefore, team members are more open to receiving feedback and less hesitant in sharing their views.

Model-less: There are several aspects to team -building but in designing an initiative, the focus shifts automatically to one or two functions. Effective teams are a blend of various functions and addressing a function at a time gives team members the idea that maybe only communication is important and not conflict resolution. "A unidimentional team -building process may increase frustration and destroy the credibility of the process. It is rare that a team will benefit by focusing on only one aspect of team development," says an executive.

Experts believe that the absence of a team- building model is what creates this confusion. This model allows managers to see how inter-woven various team functions are and how isolating and addressing a couple of functions can actually be counter-productive to team -building.

Poor evaluation: Every team is unique in its strengths and weaknesses. Team- building initiatives must take this distinctive make-up into account and treat each team's requirements differently. But not all organisations begin their initiatives with a SWOT evaluation. An initiative that does not address actual weaknesses and requirements will lose its buy-in. Worse, the management will dilute its credibility for sponsoring an irrelevant, insignificant initiative.

The other aspect of evaluation deals with tracking team -building efforts. Since team -building is a long-term process, managers should be clued into its milestones. Dysfunctional teams continue to remain in the 'forming' stage of team- building. Unless managers know how to evaluate and subsequently lead their teams into the next few stages, chances are that there will be little progress. An evaluation process also helps managers anticipate obstacles and plan for contingencies.

Short-term effort: To most organisations team- building initiatives are day or weekend- long affairs at fancy resorts. Here, team members get to indulge in an array of team- building games and activities. The belief is that having fun together will lay the foundation for better collaboration and trust. Unfortunately, team -building does not happen overnight. Once team members get back to their work place, the same problems resurface. Short-term interventions are great energisers and do well to motivate teams, but they have an inconsequential impact on team- building functions such as inter-personal communication, conflict resolution, trust and collaboration.

Outsider perspective: Most managements treat team building initiatives as any other special project. This limits their involvement to sanctioning budgets and providing administrative support. However, top management support is crucial for team- building to be truly successful. This can only happen when managers, regardless of the hierarchy, think of themselves as team members and evaluate their contributions constantly as team players.

These team- building glitches are not only common but in most cases also chronic. The good news is that avoiding them does not require much planning- only a bit of effort! Look out for what that effort should be in part two of this mailer series.

Reference:
The ManageMentor

Using Social Networking as a Personalized Business Tool

Recruitment 2.0: Using Social Networking as a Personalized Business Tool

Executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles is developing a private, invitation-only social networking site for high-level job candidates. The company hopes the ability to communicate electronically and share videos, photos and other media with candidates all around the world will speed up the recruitment process and enhance its traditional face-to-face business.

"The original impetus for us was that what we are, at heart, a relationship business," said Tashi Lassalle, vice president of strategic development at Heidrick & Struggles. "We're seeing more and more ways that individuals connect with one another, and we wanted to be on the front foot of that, rather than on the back foot."

The firm first partnered with VisualCV, a company that hosts Internet-based resumes, to provide candidates with the opportunity to create dynamic digital documents embedded with pictures, videos, pop-ups and links.

"Really it's a way for an individual, a candidate, to tell the whole [story] of their life in a very engaging, fresh way," Lassalle said.

The firm will then invite candidates via their digital resumes to join the social networking site that is expected to go live sometime in the next few months.

"For us, this isn't about a numbers game any more than it is when we do our classic executive search," Lassalle said. "What it really is about is handpicking individuals in the markets we feel have most relevance to our clients, and then taking that exclusivity and bringing it online."

Users on the site are anonymous to each other but communicate directly and openly with their personal Heidrick & Struggles recruiters. Users can, however, converse with each other in the site's discussion forums, and if they choose to do so, they can mutually disclose their identities, Lassalle said.

"Something we've tried very hard to balance is the privacy element because, of course, in executive search you're talking to people who wouldn't normally talk to people, and you're basically working on jobs that wouldn't be advertised," she said. "So we want to try to keep that discretion, that really personal part, but we also know that individuals like to connect with one another."

That said, Heidrick & Struggles recognizes the concept of a private social networking site for executives is new and might take some getting used to, Lassalle said.

"It's like [Alexander] Graham Bell inventing the telephone and nobody being quite sure what it was going to be used for," she said. "We're still in the exploring phase. It's about what the [candidate] community choose to do, and we'll respond to that and accommodate it. At this moment it's very much a supplement to our core business, which is brick-and-mortar and face-to-face."

Reference:
Agatha Gilmore
[About the Author: Agatha Gilmore is an associate editor for Talent Management magazine.]

Effective Employee Evaluations.

Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations

Those who grew up in the 1970s may remember the age of the irascible boss. Think grizzly character Lou Grant from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," who was known for phrases such as: "If I don't like you, I'll fire you! If you don't like me, I'll fire you!"

These are the words of a manager who didn't pat his employees on the back, yelled when things weren't looking good and gave performance evaluations via one-way conversation. In today's workplace, these behaviors won't work. As the fight for talent becomes more competitive, conducting effective evaluations and providing valuable employee feedback become particularly important as development and retention tools.

Employee Evaluations Done Right

For an evaluation to work, managers can no longer sit down with an employee just once a year. The evaluation has to be part of a more expansive feedback system.

"I hate to use the analogy of a parent, but it's so true," said Kathy Anthony, a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and partner at accounting and consulting firm O'Sullivan Creel LLP. "If I only tell you to do something once, and then I don't come back and reinforce [it], you lose a lot of that effectiveness. If you set goals and expectations, and you let people go a year failing to meet them and you're not having conversations throughout, you really lose credibility."

Providing frequent feedback can diminish some of the angst associated with evaluations. If employees know where they stand prior to the review, there's nothing to fear.

"When to comes time for a performance evaluation, there shouldn't be any surprises," said Melanie Holmes, vice president of World of Work Solutions for Manpower, an employment services company. "If the manager is doing his or her job all year, they're not going to wait until performance evaluation time to say something either positive or negative."

If done correctly, reviews can be a powerful tool in retaining employees. When the evaluation is a two-way conversation, the employee walks away feeling his or her opinions are valued. But a mutual discussion requires both employees and managers to be active participants.

"The first thing an employee needs to do is take responsibility to make the evaluation effective, which means they need to prepare," Holmes said. "They need to be thinking about their strengths and weaknesses in an honest way, and walk in with facts about what went well and what didn't go well during the period. If things didn't go well, they can present a plan for making it better. One of the great things about a performance evaluation is it gives the employee the opportunity to tell the employer what they need from a development perspective."

This type of collaborative review process should not be exclusive to a certain workforce population. Every individual in a company needs to be thoroughly and frequently evaluated.

"Every single person in this world has this need to know how they're doing," said Dianne Durkin, president and founder of Loyalty Factor LLC, a training and consulting firm. "It doesn't matter if it's a janitor versus a senior vice president. It gives people who are on the lower ranks a sense of pride. Before you know it, you have a receptionist who then turns out to be a director in the company."

For employee to progress professionally, evaluations should have performance goals. These goals should be well-defined and customized to the individual, but they also need to align with the company's overall mission.

"You have the firm vision, departmental goals that roll up to it, and then when every person can see the role [they] play [and] how that contributes to the overall success of the firm, that's when it gets meaningful," Anthony explained.

Dealing with a bad review is a whole other ballpark, and this is where clear-cut goals become especially important.

"It shouldn't look like everything's Pollyanna," Anthony said. "We would not be where we are today [if we didn't set] the bar so people know where they need to be. It's not a surprise to them. They know when they're failing if they're failing, and we don't wait a year to talk about that.

"Work with them. [Ask], 'Why is this? Are you just not getting it? Is this not what you want to be doing in your life?' We've actually counseled people out of our profession because they just weren't cut out for it. If it's not working for the firm, it's not working for the team member. We owe it to them to go ahead and say, 'This isn't working,'"

The Stigma

Some companies don't perform employee evaluations or they have evaluations that hark back to the old sitcoms where the review is a manager-driven assessment. This kind of evaluation can be a huge turnoff for new-school employees and negatively impact their attitudes and performance.

Stereotypes have given employee evaluations a bad reputation in the corporate realm, and companies should provide a feedback-friendly environment to move away from that stigma.

"Listen to what you're calling it - an evaluation," Anthony said. "It's almost like you're looking for something wrong, [when] it really [should be about] how we're helping you develop your career. [For] so many years you would go through this painful process, but I'm not sure anything happened as a result of it. That's behind us now. We've made a turn to where people understand [an employee review] is about their own personal growth, and the goal is to help them get to where they want to go."

Because of the negative connotation associated with the term "evaluation," O'Sullivan Creel calls its process performance management, and its success relies heavily on presentation.

"If you really are evaluating and only sharing with that person the things that they have done wrong, no one is going to come out feeling good," Anthony said. "I am a 'carefrontation' person. If you care about somebody, [then] you need to confront the issues. It's all about how you talk with that person and how you help them. Instead of being a critic, you look at what have they done well, then, at the same time, what could [they] have done better?"

The Employee Perspective

Sunny Ricks, the director of marketing at O'Sullivan Creel, said receiving feedback from her employer ranks a 10 in importance, and part of that is the employee evaluation. Before joining the company, Ricks was at the opposite end of the spectrum, where there were no evaluations, and she said it spurred her to change jobs.

"Not having evaluations was actually a big part of my frustration with the company and with the job because it was hard to see where you were going and how you were doing," she said. "I was growing from experience at the job, but I didn't feel like I was growing as far as taking some of my skills [to the next level]."

Ricks said she didn't realize she needed manager support and guidance until she joined O'Sullivan Creel.

"An evaluation's only as good as what it can make you better at," she said. "A good [evaluation] is a two-way street. It opens the conversation to look at strengths and weaknesses - then the next steps and where you want to go in the future. I know when I'm doing well [here], and I know when there are some things that I need to work on."

The 20-Somethings

A meaningful employee evaluation program is even more important for the Millennials, who look for constant feedback on where they stand, how they're doing and how they can improve.

"These kids have been coddled since they came out of their cradle, and they've had special tutors for everything you can possibly imagine - from sports to language," said D.A. Hayden, partner at Hayden-Wilder, a firm that provides counsel to first-time job applicants. "Now they're getting into their first job, and there's no one there to coddle them. It's like jumping off a bridge and not knowing what's at the bottom."

But that doesn't mean managers should go overboard. There's a happy medium to providing Millennials with the support they need. A structured program may work best because then young employees know when they will be evaluated and what is expected.

Further, Hayden said annual reviews are not best for this particular generation of workers because they crave on-the-spot feedback like the "atta boys" they've gotten all their lives. If they don't get instant feedback, they may wonder whether they're being appreciated.

"With these young people, there's nothing wrong with doing quarterly evaluations because that way you can establish benchmarks that you want them to hit," she said. "[Then] they have that list of things they can check off: I've done this, I've achieved this, I'm here now [and] I see where I'm going."

The Consequences of a No-Evaluation Policy

It seems like all companies should perform employee evaluations, but they don't. The reason: Today's business world is moving faster, and the pressures to excel are higher than ever before. Often, Durkin said managers simply forget they need to treat people with dignity, integrity and appreciation.

"It's that they are under so much pressure and intensity. [But] every single day, you have to take a step back and think, 'What did I do today to help my employees feel good about themselves and feel good about what they're doing?'"

If companies don't connect on this level, they will likely lose their talent because, without an effective evaluation system in place, talent managers send an unspoken message that employees don't matter.

"It sounds trite to say, but our people really are our greatest asset," Anthony said. "If you are not meeting with them, coaching them and talking to them about their career, you're telling them they're not important. If you are not onboard with something like this, especially with the younger generation, you're going to really struggle."

Reference:
Lindsay Edmonds Wickman
[About the Author: Lindsay Edmonds Wickman is an associate editor for Talent Management magazine.]

What's your Bid?

WHAT'S YOUR BID?

Do you want to take the money and run or take the money and stay? That’s the million dollar question star performers are facing today as current and prospective employers up the ante in a bid to hire the very best.

Afew years ago, when you said, “I quit!” you actually meant it! But with counter-offers becoming more rampant today, the above infamous statement is used as a threat more than anything else. Whether to move to a prospective employer who is trying to seduce you with a fatter pay cheque or use the job offer as leverage to influence your current boss’s decision to pay you a package that would make it worthwhile to stay back is a hard choice for many employees today.

‘ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO QUIT?

“Asking for a counter-offer may put off most employers – and they would choose to look for a more sustainable option / backup instead of dealing with your demands,” says Saagarika Rai, Head-HR, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Western Region hub. “A counter-offer is a curse for all involved. The employee ends up losing his/her credibility with either the current or prospective employer and the employer making the counter-offer sets a bad precedent within the system. Prospective employers who end-up losing such candidates to their current employers, black-list such candidates. There are other risks too (see box),” adds Rai.

‘WE WANT YOU TO STAY BACK...

If an employee has an offer from other employers, it is wise for them to determine if they really want to make the move based on that new offer. If they do, they should be prepared to leave regardless of a counteroffer. Country Director Nina Woodard of SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) narrates her experience: It actually happened to me several times. Before I told my employer that I had an offer and surrendered my notice, I was fully prepared to leave. What happens from that point is in the hands of your current employer. They can appeal to your loyalty, your pocket book, your ego or a combination of all three or they could just say goodbye. You have to be prepared to make the move. I had an employee once who came forward with a job offer at a huge new salary. After much discussion, we decided to tell him that we couldn't meet his salary demands. We made an offer at a lesser amount based on the best we could do. He wasn’t too happy. The employee made a statement to the effect that if he was worth this additional amount why did he have to give notice to get it? Then the manager withdrew the offer and told him goodbye. He didn't really want to leave but then had no choice.

‘WE’LL OFFER YOU MORE...

“Many companies have instituted systems to track employee aspirations. This system provides an early signal to the HR manager to understand the reasons of the employee’s decision,” says Varda Pendse- Director, Cerebrus Consultants. Senthil Kumar P, Head (HR and Administration), Cairn India Ltd says that he too has encountered counter-offer situations and his company did retain the employee with a retention bonus for a period of three years considering the unique skill set that he possessed. “By offering a counter-offer, employees ‘may' get what they want in the immediate future but they lose out on a long term growth opportunity,” says Kumar.“Expectations of counter-offers can definitely backfire! A star performer is always in demand and may get many offers. But a resignation every six months with expectations of counter-offer may not materialise,” warns Pendse. To an employee, a counter-offer could signal the fact that his/her organisation was not ready to compensate fully for his talent till he/she decided to leave. “Simultaneously, it sends out a negative signal to the milieu of loyal employees who may then be prompted to approach the management for a counter-offer themselves,” says Harpreet Kaur, General Manager –HR, Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.“From the employee’s perspective, it’s a gamble,” says Shyamala Deshpande (Sr. General Manager- HR and Training), Cafe Coffee Day who gives a checklist Keep your resignation and counter-offer confidential Counsel to handle the detrimental grape vine effect Perform or perish!

‘WE JUST CAN’T AFFORD YOU!

Chetan Shah, Managing Director, Synygy India says, “A counter offer, like most options, is a double-edged weapon. As long you think you have options, you feel in control. But the tables can be turned at any time. Hence a counter-offer is an insult to your intelligence and to your pride knowing that you were ‘bought’.” “However, we do look into the reasons cited by employees for choosing to separate and where appropriate, we help the employee. Where we find that employee’s decision has even a minor co-relation with the negligence shown towards his professional growth, we certainly try to pin the problem by offering him a solution. But these are not a mechanism for fulfilling inequitable demands,” says Satish Venkatchaliah, V.P, SAP Labs India. “It's never a good time for someone to quit, as it may prove time-consuming and costly to replace you. It's much cheaper to keep you,” adds Shah. Pallavi Jha, Managing Director, Dale Carnegie says that for employers and employees, counter-offers are not a win-win situation. The consequences are far too many and they all might just be pleasant. At the end of it, it’s the employee who has to make the million-dollar decision. After evaluating your alternatives from both the employers, take an offer that you won’t regret. Afterall, you can work with only one employer at a time, but it doesn’t hurt to be on good terms with both of them!

Risky Business

The current employer may not consider the practice being indulged in by the employee as entirely ethical and the credibility of the employee and any future references by the employer may be impacted adversely. He/she will be perceived as somebody who is overambitious too. The employee can get branded as ‘ready to change for money’ types in the job market - making him/her relatively unattractive to prospective employers.

Reference:
Viren Naidu

It's Not About the Form!

It's Not About the Form!

Cumbersome processes, vague standards and complicated or one-size-fits-all performance metrics are just some of the reasons most managers and employees dislike performance reviews. HR leaders need to design appraisal processes so performance objectives and priorities are illuminated and corporate goals can be achieved.

A critical -- but disliked -- responsibility of managers is conducting performance reviews. But too many performance review or appraisal systems are poorly designed and deliver many unintended consequences.

The process is too often driven by forms, not job requirements. And many of those forms list vague standards, ambiguous adjectives or elaborate job descriptions that can confuse manager expectations.

At the same time, there may be overly broad performance measurements that complicate fair evaluations or one-size-fits-all elements that obscure individual results. Another common problem with appraisals is that employees are measured on behaviors or personal characteristics instead of job results.

In many organizations, the performance-review process is subjective, cumbersome and time-consuming.

All of which leads to difficulties in setting effective performance goals and objectives; in conducting on-going or formal performance-review conversations; and in assigning fair and justified performance marks. Overwhelmingly, managers and employees concur the performance-review process is littered with these concerns.

HR leaders should consider a different approach to reduce flaws in the traditional evaluation process. Such a new approach must be tailored with a focus on critical contributions; provide key performance outcomes and standards for each job; employ simple metrics; and increase concrete performance discussions between managers and employees.

Realistically, management subjectivity plays an essential part with any performance management process. The key is for managers to clarify the meaning of any subjective standards or measurements -- to themselves and to their direct reports.

Any effective process requires managers to articulate performance results that indicate success and specifically what is measured, regardless of the form.

Managers must illuminate performance objectives and priorities so employees understand what they are really being evaluated on. This eliminates the game of attempting to transfer performance the manager actually evaluates to a generic form, unrelated to what the manager deems important.

Responding to Problems

Job requirements must drive the performance-review process and become the specifics of the review form -- not pre-established performance characteristics.

A job's performance requirements should drive what the critical performance expectations are and how performance is measured. A pre-printed form for all employees never provides fair and accurate evaluation and measurement.

One-size-fits-all performance review forms are like one-size-fits-all anything -- they fit no one well and everyone poorly.

Many managers evaluate performance they consider pertinent, then conform their opinion of employee performance to pre-designed characteristics on last year's appraisal form. Most managers set their own standards of what meets acceptable job requirements anyway -- and this is what must be documented and communicated to employees and developed as elements of the performance review process.

What they think is important is going to be put in play regardless of the form -- so the goal is to make it well thought out and legitimate. No wonder research shows that over 85 percent of both managers and employees dislike the performance review process.

HouseValues, a Seattle-based realty-related technology company, changed their generic performance form to include a quarterly objective for all jobs. These objectives are created exclusively from the executive team business goals that are updated each quarter. The goal is to keep people's performance focused on meeting company objectives routinely.

To ensure that valid performance issues drive the process and not the form, HR leaders and managers should:

1. Develop job descriptions that are focused on contributions, not job tasks. The description identifies the key reason the job exists. Asking "Why do we have this job?" clarifies the job description.

2. Identify the Key Performance Expectations.

3. Identify three to eight performance expectations that contribute to the organization's business goals. Evaluating 20 expectations -- not infrequent -- creates an overly cumbersome review process.

Results-Oriented Expectations

The performance-appraisal process should ensure that performance expectations are result/outcome oriented.

HouseValues previously evaluated performance on cold calls made. This assumed the number of cold calls determined sales numbers. The unintended consequence was that sales people exceeding their quota without making the minimum number of cold calls were taking hits on specific elements on the form and were not receive a top performance ranking.

Worse, sales people making the required number of cold calls yet not meeting their quotas were getting equal -- and in some cases better -- performance marks.

Cold calls should be measured, but for developmental purposes. Considering them a "result" measurement means:

1. Employees are not measured on their true contribution to company goals.

2. Top performers become de-motivated by performance mark hits when they don't follow the pre-determined process.

3. Managers don't address specific talents that employees bring to achieve success.

It's imperative to push as hard as possible to create result/output-oriented performance expectations.

Performance review forms are overloaded with performance expectations because too many "input" expectations are included. Many key results cannot be achieved without performing the inputs -- so why bother to evaluate the input when the result measurement will suffice?

For example, HouseValues measured teamwork as a performance characteristic. Yet teamwork was not really the goal.

HouseValues realized what they really wanted was a smooth handoff of customer leads for qualified sales. That became the focus for performance.

Creating Performance Standards

HR leaders and managers must create performance standards for each key performance expectation.

A standard should reflect the acceptable level of performance required to hold the job. Standards automatically create a pass/fail measurement for each performance element. Performance below the standard doesn't meet the job's performance requirements; at or above the standard is acceptable.

Performance standards are the foundation of accurate and fair performance evaluations. To ensure accurate and fair reviews:

1. Create a valid, reliable "standards" scale for each key performance expectation.

2. Identify "acceptable" performance for each expectation, and develop an evaluation scale that describes differentiated performance ratings.

We recommend a scale of no more than four deviations, i.e., "below", "meets", "occasionally exceeds" and "consistently exceeds" job-requirement rating each performance expectation.

There is no need for two deviations below the "meets" performance level. Employee performance is either acceptable or it isn't. Performance continually below the "meets" level shouldn't be tolerated.

HouseValues moved away from the 5-scale, but interestingly, found some resistance among employees who objected to being a 2 on a 1-4 scale. Innovatively, the company created the scale to reflect 2-5 (instead of 1-4), so that a 3 indicated a solid performer, and 2 was 'not meeting expectations.'

That slight modification of numbers -- keeping the four deviation scale -- increased employee acceptance.

It's important for managers -- and employees -- to understand that performance should be evaluated against valid performance standards -- not past "expectations".

High performers may receive 'average' performance marks when they meet the manager's very high expectations due to their past performance. Such employees should not be punished for meeting these high expectations with exceptional performance.

If an IT specialist demonstrates remarkable expertise in rapidly fixing system problems, a manager might develop very high expectations. Does the employee deserve an average mark -- acceptable job performance -- when he/she continues to "pull off miracles"?

When "expectations" contribute to unfair performance evaluations, high performers will look for greener pastures.

Clarifying Standards

The next step HR leaders should take in revitalizing the performance-review process should be to clarify subjective standards and measurements with the employee.

Ideally, all performance can be objectively measured. Yet where people are called upon to plan, think, and act, many performance elements remain subjective in differentiating poor, good and excellent performance.

Managerial discretion in performance review is necessary and practical. However, an effective manager can clearly articulate to the employee what makes up the subjective performance standard.

Employees must know performance facts and specific situations that doesn't meet, meets, or exceeds the standard.

AquaStar, a Seattle based purveyor of frozen seafood, customized its performance form to clarify subjective measurements.

For instance, the marketing department managed a company test kitchen to entice potential customers with tasty seafood dishes. The test kitchen employee was required to write the recipes and prepare the meals to serve to potential customers.

The standards could not merely include objective elements, i.e., 'use easy to obtain ingredients', or 'create a simple recipe to fit on the back of a card'.

To be successful and attract new customers, the meal had to taste good. That subjective measurement was the vice president of marketing's responsibility, who was hired because she was experienced and knew what sold.

Such clarity put more demand on the employee and the vice president to make sure they were on the same page. The kitchen employees can regularly confer with the vice president and accordingly adjust their activities and recipes to meet the vice president's expectation.

Clarifying the subjectivity actually led to more communication and feedback.

Critical Elements

Performance elements of some jobs are of critical importance to the organization's success. While all performance elements are important, some do stand out as "below the waterline" performance -- where poor performance causes significant harm and superior performance makes a substantial contribution to the organization.

Critical performance elements should be recommended by the manager and decided upon by the executive team. Weight factors may give employees higher marks when their performance is at level 3 or higher. Organizations can recognize critical contributions with the same performance rating scale.

Note: Weight factors should never be given to performance below acceptable job requirements.

Also critical to the process is the evaluation of the employee related to the core values of the organization.

A 2-point performance review system -- 0 or 2, or pass/fail -- should measure established business principles or core values. The professional conduct of all employees plays a critical role in attracting and retaining talented people as well as the company's reputation. Reviewing professional conduct lets everyone know those behaviors are important.

Anyone not behaving in accordance with the code of conduct doesn't deserve a point towards their overall performance. Thus, business principles or core values are supported without complicating reviews or manager/employee relationships.

Overall Performance

To get an overview of staff performance, HR leaders should require an overall performance rating. To get that, managers can take rating points earned by each employee and divide that number by the total points possible for each position.

This eliminates the need to use the same number of performance characteristics or rating scales for each expectation.

Note: Critical weight factors don't affect the points for key performance elements. Employees can earn more points in critical job areas to improve their overall rating as a reward for good performance in a critical area.

This appraisal approach requires managers to identify the important aspects of a position; designate acceptable performance; communicate clear expectations to employees regarding performance and how it will be rated; provide feedback during the rating period; and evaluate performance on agreed-upon performance targets.

These steps will make performance management at your organization effective, consistent, fair and focused on business results.

Reference:
Rick Tate and Julie White
[About the Authors: Rick Tate and Julie White, Ph.D., are senior managing partners at Impact Achievement Group. Rick is a best-selling author and an internationally recognized expert on customer loyalty, leadership and change. He co-authored People Leave Managers ... Not Organizations with Julie, who is author of five best-selling audio and video programs, including the national best-seller, Image and Self Projection and The Psychology of Self Esteem. She is an internationally recognized expert in management development and service quality improvement.]

Automation Can Facilitate More Personal Assessments

Automation Can Facilitate More Personal Assessments

Accounting and consulting firm O'Sullivan Creel LLP found performing employee evaluations becomes a much more manageable task when it is an automated process. Where a paper-based operation is unstructured and disorganized, an automated one is clear, consistent and, ironically, more personalized.

When we were dealing with paper, and even when it would be saved electronically, I had no clue who had started an appraisal, who had finished, what the results were, [or if] we [had] any kind of consistency in and among the goals that were being set," said Kathy Anthony, a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and partner at the firm. "It felt disjointed, something I could never get my arms around. People saw it as a necessary evil that you had to do once a year."

She said employees no longer dread the company's performance management process. In the first year of automation four years ago, the company saved 386 hours that had previously been spent completing the process.

"Since we've added this, we've realized how easy it would be to add in that personal piece," Anthony said.

Employees can go into Halogen's eAppraisal system prior to the annual performance management meeting and complete self-appraisals that detail their accomplishments for the year and their goals for the next. Then the performance adviser meets with each employee to discuss both past and future, and that's when the collaboration happens and a detailed plan with specific goals is created.

"So we have the plan: It's there, can be looked at anytime through the year [and] can be updated on a daily basis if they choose," Anthony said. "They come out of it with something that is so personalized to them, but it aligns with the vision of the firm. Everybody wants to believe that [his or her] performance is going to help the firm, and it does when you slice it, dice it and bring it down to the employee level."

Anthony said performance advisers spend as much time discussing an employee's career as is needed.

"We actually spend maybe an hour or two, and that's our choice," she explained. "We want to spend that much time talking about your career, what are your aspirations, and let's help accomplish those. In the old days, we just filled out a form and went on down the road. It is a much more meaningful process now. We do touch base midyear, and we make sure everybody's on track."

O'Sullivan Creel's performance management assessments also have been successful in providing each employee with a personalized growth path.

"You know it is working because people are achieving their objectives," Anthony said. "I don't think it's any longer a one size fits all, especially in the accounting profession. Years ago, you came in at a level, you worked there for two years, [and] you'd go to the next level. It's not like that anymore. Progression, career development, everything is now very personalized, and that tells me it's a success when people are meeting their own personal career goals."

Automating employee evaluations is an increasingly common talent management strategy partly because it provides a real-time opportunity for personalization, which is exactly what employees, especially younger ones, want and demand.

"[The young people] want to know what's expected of them," Anthony said. "They want to help plan their destiny, and if we're not plugged into what they want and what they need from an employer, they're not going to stay. They're going to go wherever they want to go and do whatever they want to do, so we have to work twice as hard these days to create an environment where they want to be. And a big part of that environment is ongoing feedback."

Reference:
Lindsay Edmonds Wickman
[About the Author: Lindsay Edmonds Wickman is an associate editor for Talent Management magazine.]

Help Employees Reduce Stress.

Help Employees Reduce Stress

WFC Resources, a Minnesota work/life information and consulting firm, offers these seven tips about actions that will give line managers a little power as they try to alleviate stress in their own workplace.

1. Support work/life needs.

Our employees have personal responsibilities that will tap their resilience reserves if they're unable to handle them: issues with childcare or parenting, eldercare, financial or legal difficulties, relationships, illness or other significant life events.

A 2005 study by the Society for Human Resource Management found women and workers younger than 35 saying that work/life balance is the most important component to their overall job satisfaction. If we want our staff to be resilient, we must let them know that their work/life balance is important to us as well.

2. Point your employees in the direction of resources that can help them with personal issues.

A survey by Watson Wyatt Worldwide found four of five employees in the U.K. saying work/life balance considerations played a crucial role in deciding whether or not to stay with their current employers. Most employees who were dissatisfied chose not to say anything, but simply to leave.

Be as understanding and supportive as you can when your workers have major home life issues. Consider whether flexible-work arrangements may be a solution, even on a temporary basis.

3. Review and redesign the work.

Work overload, repetitive or redundant processes and low-value work all impact an employee's ability to be satisfied and resilient. Work redesign is a great way to enhance job satisfaction and fit, as well as performance.

Examine the number, variety and nature of the tasks each worker does.

Look to see if it's possible to reduce or eliminate duplicative work. Identify those tasks that are appropriate for remote or flexible work, and create new opportunities for those who want to work a flexible schedule.

Let your team experiment with new ways of working, including the use of flexible-work arrangements, while meeting business needs.

4. Make sure roles are clear.

Try reallocating certain tasks within the team according to competence and enjoyment level. Check with your team to make sure timetables are realistic. Assess any further training that may be needed to help employees feel confident and competent about their workload (time management training is often helpful).

Ask your team for their suggestions about both processes and outcomes, and follow up on the results to check progress.

5. Encourage career development.

The lack of career opportunities, guidance and support are major sources of pressure for employees and lead to lower levels of satisfaction and more stress. Your staff needs to know you support them in their growth and that the organization is taking concrete steps to develop their career potential.

Keep "re-recruiting" your staff. Make sure they're being challenged, exposed to opportunities to maximize their skills and helped to develop in their jobs. Help them to feel their work makes a difference.

6. Reward and appreciate staff.

Management professor Peter Drucker advised employers to be clear about the results the company wants and when it finds someone producing those results, ask them to share what it is they do that works. Companies should encourage others to do the same and recognize and reward the desirable behavior.

If people aren't rewarded for the progress they make, say other experts, like a rubber band they'll go back to what they were doing before. There's no end to the list of ways to recognize and honor employees, from a thank-you note for a job well done to a sandwich named after them in the company cafeteria. Be creative.

7. Optimize the manager-employee relationship.

Don't be a bully. A 2000 study by the Australian Council of Trade Unions found the single most common source of workplace stress is bullying, bossy and intimidating behavior from employers.

Australian doctors said they were seeing a growing number of patients claiming to be victims of workplace bullies, and one of four workers said they had taken a day off because of stress in the past 12 months.

Some behaviors that might be interpreted as bullying: Too much criticism, too much anger, too much close scrutiny (micro-managing) and forcing employees to come to work when sick.

Reference:
[For more about helping employees be more satisfied, focused and productive, check out the WFC Resources Web site.]

Stuck on Suck-Ups

Stuck on Suck-Ups

Part of my job involves reviewing and rewriting custom-designed leadership profiles at major corporations.

These documents typically feature boilerplate language to describe the leadership behaviors each company desires. Such chestnuts include "communicates a clear vision," "helps people develop to their maximum potential" and "avoids playing favorites."

I've never seen a profile that offered "effectively sucks up to management" as a preferred leadership characteristic. Yet, given the dedication to fawning and sucking up that goes on in most corporations, and how often this behavior is awarded, it probably should be included.

Almost every company will say it wants people who "challenge the system," "are empowered to express their opinions" and "say what they really think." But there are plenty of employees who go along to get along, and there's certainly no shortage of outright derriere smoochers.

Most of the leaders I meet say they don't encourage this kind of conduct in their organizations, and I don't doubt their sincerity. Most of us are easily irritated, if not disgusted, by shameless suck-ups. This raises an important question: If leaders say they discourage sucking up, then why is it so prevalent in the workplace?

Keep in mind these leaders are generally shrewd judges of character. They've spent their careers sizing up people, taking in first impressions and recalibrating them against later impressions. And yet, they still fall for the super-skilled suck-ups ways too often.

So why does this happen? The simple answer is we can't see in ourselves what we see so clearly in others.

You might be thinking, "It's amazing how leaders send out subtle signals that encourage subordinates to mute their criticism and exaggerate praise of the powers that be. And it is surprising that they can't see this in themselves. Of course, this doesn't apply to me. I view interactions with my direct reports entirely without bias."

Maybe you're right. But how can you be sure you aren't in denial? I use a simple test with my clients to show how we all unknowingly encourage sucking up. I ask a group of leaders, "How many of you own a dog that you love?" Big smiles spread across the executives' faces as they wave their hands in the air, and they beam as they tell me the names of their always faithful hounds.

Then, I ask them, "At home, who gets most of your unabashed affection? Is it (a) your spouse or partner, (b) your kids or (c) your dog?" More than 80 percent of the time, they choose (c.) After that, I ask them if they love their dogs more than their family members. The answer is always a resounding "no." My follow-up question: "Then why does the dog get more of your affection?"

Their replies are usually some variation of, "The dog is always happy to see me," "The dog never talks back" or "The dog loves me no matter what I do." In other words, the dog is a suck-up.

If we aren't careful, we can wind up treating people at work like dogs: rewarding those who heap unthinking, unconditional admiration on us. And what do we get in return? A virulent case of the suck-ups.

The net result is obvious. You get behavior that serves you, but not necessarily the best interests of the company. Worse, it tilts the field against honest, principled employees who won't play along. You're not only playing favorites - you're favoring the wrong people!

We can counter this by categorizing our direct reports in three ways:

1. How much do they like me? (I know you can't be sure. What matters is how much you think they like you.)

2. What is their contribution to the company and its customers? (In other words, are they A, B or C players or worse?)

3. How much positive recognition do I give them?

What we're looking for is whether the correlation is stronger between the first and the third, or the second and the third. If we're honest with ourselves, our recognition may be linked to how much they seem to like us rather than how well they perform.

We're encouraging the kind of behavior we despise in others. Without meaning to, we are basking in hollow praise, which makes us hollow leaders.

This quick analysis won't solve the problem. But it does identify it, and that's where change begins.

Reference:
Marshall Goldsmith, Ph.D.
[About the Author: Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders achieve positive, lasting change in behavior. He is the author or co-editor of 22 books, including The Wall Street Journal No. 1 business best-seller What Got You Here Won't Get You There.]

Provide Tools to Increase Behavioral Interviewing ROI.

Provide Tools to Increase Behavioral Interviewing ROI

"You only live once - but if you work it right, once is enough."

The above quote from comedian and singer Joe E. Lewis could easily have been referencing the practice of behavioral interviewing: If you work it right, one coordinated set of behavioral interviews is enough to make a well-informed hiring decision. And well-informed hiring decisions translate into greater productivity, less turnover and a large ROI. The key, of course, lies in working it right.

Working it right means having good tools employees are trained to use correctly. When this occurs, the ROI can be substantial. Consider a company that trains 200 people to conduct behavioral interviews. If only half of them make one fewer hiring mistake each, and a hiring mistake costs $10,000 - a very conservative estimate - that's $1 million saved.

To be clear, this is not about blindly abiding by a set of rules for the sake of the technique. It is about applying the technique in order to help the organization reach its potential and accomplish its goals. Each better hiring decision should lead to incremental performance improvements throughout the organization.

It is largely accepted that behavioral interviews lead to better hiring decisions. Research conducted since the early 1980s has put to rest any lingering doubts by repeatedly demonstrating their ability to predict on-the-job performance.

To clarify, while some variability exists, there are a few common elements to behavioral interviewing including job analyses, articulately defined competencies, job-related questions, rating guidelines and consistent execution. But most importantly, behavioral interviewing will provide the greatest benefit to an organization if used correctly and consistently.

Some companies provide daylong development efforts to help employees learn and practice behavioral interviewing techniques. This clearly needs to continue. Without it, employees will not understand how to apply the techniques correctly. But using them in a way that secures the best results is getting harder in a business world in which pace continues to increase, leaving little time for preparation and careful execution. Organizations must find ways to make behavioral interviewing technique application easy.

Employee Development May Not Be Enough

If an organization's goal is to make behavioral interviewing a regular practice, education alone probably is not enough. First, education doesn't make it easy. Writing thoughtful behavioral interview questions from scratch and executing behavioral interviews can be hard for people who don't do it regularly.

Second, a long lag time often exists between when someone learns how to interview and when he or she must apply that learning.

Third, when confronted with 120 unanswered e-mails and voice mails from peers, bosses and customers, many managers will respond to these seemingly more pressing demands rather than prepare for an interview with a candidate he or she has never met and may never see again.

If organizations want people to apply what they have learned eagerly and well, they should provide tools that make it easy. Tools are defined as any job aid, software program or database that facilitates skill or process deployment.

First, organizations can create easily accessible job aids to facilitate the ease of execution for behavioral interviewing. If someone learned the skills two months ago and the need to create or execute an interview arises today, that person should have a list of reminders on what to do that does not require total concentration to appreciate or apply.

Second, organizations can create templates to facilitate consistency of both creation and execution. The more employees can simply fill in the blanks, the better. As applied to creating interviews, templates may include a list of defined competencies and of questions you might ask for each competency. Organizations even could consider creating databases of interviews that can be edited and adapted depending on the functions.

Third, it is desirable to automate the interview-creation process. Making the aforementioned templates and databases accessible and easy to execute is a key element to ensure use of the behavioral interviewing techniques. With today's technical capabilities, such automation is not difficult. Competencies and corresponding behavioral interview questions can be chosen, edited and printed with relative ease.

Post-Development Investment: Why Also Invest in Tools?

This question likely is to come from any executive unsure why his or her recruiting investment is not enough. The said executive also may want to know the expected return on investment if the organization spends more on additional tools. The payoff lies in more frequent and comprehensive execution of the behavioral interviewing skills employees learn.

Suppose Company A and Company B each train employees to conduct behavioral interviews. In addition, however, Company A provides a set of tools to make skill application easy. This makes employees in Company A more likely to conduct behavioral interviews and bring high-performing candidates into the organization, and less likely to make hiring mistakes.

When combined with education in behavioral interviewing, the use of good tools increases the likelihood that employees will, in fact, work it right on the first try. That, in turn, will shorten the distance to achieving important organizational goals.

For more details on Behavioural Interviewing Techniques, check Recent Trends in Human Resource Management

Reference:
Tim Vigue, Lindsey Schantz, Donna McGee and Perry Alter
[About the Authors: Tim Vigue, Lindsey Schantz, Donna McGee and Perry Alter are consultants with Novations Group Inc.]

Blame Game is an Endemic Phenomenon in the Corporate World.

When something goes wrong at the office, it’s usually because of the other person. This is largely the human tendency to shift the blame. However, blaming others does not really help in tackling the situation. Not taking responsibility for a job undone or badly done (by you) shows grit of character and lack of professionalism. But as it would be, the blame game is an endemic phenomenon in the corporate world.

The temptation to pass the buck often arises when the person responsible is not in a position to justify or defend him self / her self, owing to various reasons. The blame game is common when there is a change in roles, during company mergers or when performancebased initiatives are taken. Unfortunately, a lot of employees when caught wrong are embarrassed about their mistake and hence do not acknowledge it. This gives rise to the ugly politics of ‘scape goating’. This problem can also be attributed to the company or team culture, where performance is all that matters.

People usually pass on the blame to protecting their ego passing on the blame is perhaps a quick solution. Remember, confessing and taking responsibility requires a lot of courage. It is important to understand that we are all fallible, and one should build the courage to accept them.

If you are wondering why you should take onus and invite trouble, you may be mistaken as taking responsibility does not always mean you are screwed up. In fact, it actually reflects professionalism. It obviously implies that you have understood your mistake and will avoid walking on the same track in future. It also helps one forge better relationships. If you aren’t still convinced, here’s a list of more reasons:

• Owning up the mistake takes you to the root cause of the problem. Look at it as a learning experience.
• The fear of losing creditability, in the event of a bad situation, is quite unfound. On the other hand your credibility soars up. This reflects your integrity and honesty, and makes you come across as someone who wants to learn from the mistake.
• Accepting responsibility allows transforming failures to success.
• As we have often heard, failure is the stepping stone to success. In time, accepting mistakes makes you a better person.
• Accepting a mistake may lead to panic, but it is not as bad as one makes it to be. It also builds the essential confidence to tackle unpleasant situations.
• Accepting a mistake gives you the confidence to rectify it.
• Apologizing is a sign of a healthy self-esteem.
• Taking onus for your action avoids damaging others self-esteem.
• When one shows genuine regret and signs of improvement, others forgive almost effortlessly.
• A natural outcome of shifting the blame is spite and ill feelings. When one refrains from his, you can also do away with a lot of negative emotions.

It allows you to lead by example. Your juniors or colleagues learn similar behavior, and thus, everybody finds themselves accountable to their own performance. This in turn helps improve productivity. This has a cascading effect; when a mistake occurs, the team members come clean of their own accord.Last but not the least, it allows one to take remedial action before it’s too late.

All of us need to realize that to err is human and office cultures should be free of unnecessary vices. Organizational journalism should be practiced- people should be free to express their views at all levels so that before someone tries to make a scapegoat, it is viewed in a negative light by all concerned. While we have discussed enough about why one should refrain from making others their scapegoat, it is important that one should not become a scapegoat either.

Work smartly. Take note of people who have developed the habit of blaming others, and also those who act responsibly as these are the trustworthy lot.

Ethical behavior has rewards greater than the price paid. Have a plan not to be victimized and hold your standards. Accepting mistakes and making the required changes, as suggested by the boss, increases the trust they established in you.

Reference:

Rohitash Chaube
AMAY MANAGEMENT SERVICES PVT. LIMITED

Career Cover.

Recent Trends in Employment in the Banking Sector

Which nation has the largest number of life insurance policies in force in the world? You’re right, it’s India! And with the insurance industry booming like never before, the career opportunities are plenty.

The first insurer in the country was the Oriental Life Insurance Company, set up in Kolkata in 1818 for the benefit of the European community. Many things have changed since then, especially after the passing of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) bill in 1999 that allowed private insurers to operate in the market. Consumers today are flooded with great options from Indian as well as global insurance companies. And they’re not the only ones who’re celebrating. At present, with a growth rate of over 20 per cent, and with offshore delivery poised to take off in the sector, the insurance business in India stands at the threshold of a brilliant future both in terms of growth and careers. Clearly, rapid and consistent enlargement of the insurance market is on the cards. So what exactly is driving the industry forward?

IT’S BOOM TIME...

Insurance as a business is burgeoning primarily because of the favourable financial climate in the nation. Disposable incomes are also arising and there is increased awareness about the need to insure one’s family and possessions, as well as oneself, against risk. Though the market was and is still dominated by the Life Insurance Corporation of India, private insurers have come up in a big way, forming 74:26 partnerships with international players to bring greater depth and range to the industry. The opportunities are immense. In life, as well as non-life insurance, India lags behind other countries in terms of the number of policies. Also, improved medical facilities have facilitated increased longevity. These factors have increased the operating scope for insurers and ensured rich pickings for them. But it is also a symbiotic relationship. For a rapidly developing country, a strong insurance backbone is necessary because it provides the long term funds it needs for growth. And insurers are stepping up to the task by diversifying their services to cater to several organisations and individuals, including the rural consumer. “A major revolution has taken place in the insurance sector in terms of its geographic expansion.

Earlier, the reach wasn’t that high, but insurance companies have taken class B and class C into consideration,” says Ashok Ramachandran, VP-HR, Tata AIG Life Insurance, adding, “It’s no longer viewed as means for tax saving, but everyone today wants to get insured because they have understood the importance of having a policy.” Adds Soumen Basu, Executive Chairman, Manpower India, “Insurance companies are working at a furious pace to expand their range of products, leverage on existing customer relationships as well as achieve deeper penetration into the market.”

ENSURE YOUR CAREER

At the same time, the expansion of the insurance sector has spawned several careers for bright young men and women who have a head for mathematical figures and statistics. “The insurance industry, which is a large component of the financial services sector, is witnessing unprecedented growth and to man this, recruitment in the insurance sector, both, in life insurance and in general insurance, is booming,” affirms B Anant, Head - Human Resources, ICICI Lombard General Insurance. A candidate would basically need a degree in finance to get in. Experience is not always a pre-requisite and this will vary according to the needs of the employer.

And if you thought that insurance sounds pretty boring as a career, you need to have another think! The opening market has ensured that candidates have a veritable buffet of careers to choose from. “Life insurance is one of the fastest growing industries in the country today, which, of course, makes it a very exciting, dynamic industry to be in. It offers a huge variety of job opportunities - sales, actuary, operations, underwriting, etc, some of which are quite unique to the category and hence opens up several jobs to people with diverse backgrounds in areas ranging from statistics and engineering to relationship management and quality,” enthuses Judhajit Das, Head - Human Resources, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. The growth path on offer is also pretty lucrative, and insurance firms are quite attractive as employers go. Some ‘soft skills’ that will take you ahead in the profession would be sound money sense, ethics and integrity, computer skills and the ability to communicate well.

As the economy develops, the insurance sector is making inroads into every aspect of an individual’s life. With companies looking to bring in fresh talent to feed the demand-supply gap, and given the increased competitiveness between insurers, hiring volumes can only grow in the future. This has been realised by academia in the country, giving rise to several specialised courses dealing in insurance. This sector holds the promise of a fulfilling and stable career for those who enter it. Sounds attractive enough? Then perhaps, its time for you to go out and ensure your own future in this sector!

Reference:
Nikhil Menon and Viren Naidu

Like What You See? Trends in Interviewing Human Resources

Trends in Interviewing Human Resources.

THEY’VE GRILLED AND BAKED CANDIDATES IN THE PAST AND ASKED QUESTIONS THAT WOULD LEAVE EINSTEIN STUMPED. LET US GIVE TWO EMINENT HR HEADS A TASTE OF THEIR OWN MEDICINE, BY INTERVIEWING THEM FOR ENTRY-LEVEL POSITIONS

Human Resources Heads are not evil and if they tend to relentlessly interrogate candidates during interview sessions, it is merely for identifying the right talent and skill sets. Mona Cheriyan, General Manager - Employee Engagement & Europe Liaison, i-flex solutions limited and S K Dutt, Head-HR (T & B), HED, Larsen & Toubro Ltd. undergo the experience of being interviewed for an entry-level position. Any resemblance to the rigmarole that freshers go through while entering the HR fraternity is, in fact, intentional. As for how well they perform, why don’t you take a call?

1 Tell us something about your yourself.

I am a person with strong interpersonal skills and an ability to get along well with people. I enjoy challenges and looking for creative solutions to problems.

2 What do you seek from a job?

You would see in my educational background that I have chosen to do courses which offered me a chance to do field work and thereby equip myself to be a good HR professional. I would like a job which gives me a chance to apply all that I have learned in college as well as one which enables me to grow as a professional. I would like a role which enables me to make a difference!

3 How would you present your strengths and weaknesses?

My strength is that I have very strong values and ethics and a very good eye for detail. I believe in strong relationships and have a very supportive family and very good friends. My weakness is that I tend to take on too many variant tasks and am not able to accomplish each to my level of satisfaction.

4 Tell us an incident where you had a problem with a peer. How did you handle it?

One example which I can cite is a problem I had with my colleague in college who was my partner in my field work assignment. We had a disagreement on how to present our project report. I explained my perspective to her and asked her for her viewpoint. I've found that when conflict occurs, it's because of a failure to see both sides of the situation. At that point, we found a compromise could be reached by incorporating both our ideas.

5 Give an example of a time when you felt you were right and others were wrong. How did you handle it?

We were out on a picnic and caught in a sudden rain storm. I felt we should make a dash for it but my friends wanted to stay back and wait out the storm. I did voice my opinion but agreed with the majority and stayed back in our picnic spot. The rain just pelted down and we were caught there for hours until the storm abated. Not only did we get stuck unnecessarily but thereafter were all down with the flu. I learned then that I need to voice my opinion more vociferously when I’m convinced that I am right.



6 If you were an animal/a can of soup/some other random object, which one would you be? And why?

I would be a can of soup – one that has a variety of flavours, bubbling with enthusiasm. I would associate my determined attitude with the can’s tough exterior. I would believe that whatever the label on the can, the contents are always a surprise.

S K DUTT GIVES IT HIS BEST SHOT:

1 Tell us something about yourself.

Besides the details given in my application and CV, I believe in character, values, vision and action. I am quick in learning from mistakes. I am confident that the various tests that you have conducted will corroborate my competencies, aptitude and right attitude for the job including a good culture fit with your organisation.

2 What do you seek from a job?

A long-term, if not lifetime career, great learning opportunities, challenging roles, rational career progression, good job satisfaction, and opportunities to use my strength and overcome my weaknesses. I would also like to work for an organisation that gives me an opportunity to serve the organisation, the society and above all, my country.

3 If you were an animal/a can of soup/some other random object, which one would you be? And why?

I would like to be the mind of a CEO. I would then know, exactly how complex issues are so thoughtfully analysed, how prioritising happens and how accurate decisions, which affect numerous stakeholders are made. I would know, how almost intuitively, they know what the next big things are and their risk-taking abilities.

4 Is there anything else that we should know about you that would impact our decision?

I am a continuous learner and try to keep myself abreast of all developments in the field of HR. If I get an offer, I will ensure that I master adequate proficiency about the internal processes and external environment of the business. Also, since I do not quit in the face of toughest challenges, I am certain that I would be able to achieve the targets that I set for myself and beyond.

5 Could you point out one of your weaknesses?

One of my weaknesses, as I perceive it, would be occasional compromise on time for quality/perfection.

For further details on Interviews check out: Recent Trends in Human Resource Management

Reference:
Mona Cheriyan

Organisational Behaviour - The Real Strength.

A leader's individual strength means little if it fails to bring out the best in others...

Key learnings:

• Understanding and identifying the dominant generic strengths is important for leaders


• Using their individual strengths to bring out the best in others is an effective way to ensure holistic growth across levels in the organisation


• Human Resource leaders can ensure this by instituting certain measures towards holistic development of staff.

According to Egyptian mythology the gatekeeper in heaven asks two questions at the door -did you find joy? And did you bring joy to others? While we cannot validate the authenticity of this belief it sure conveys a very important message. It provides a deep insight into the basic work principles for the entire worker fraternity. It underscores the need to leverage one's own inherent strength to develop others and help them grow. We all strive to find joy for ourselves, but real satisfaction comes from how we help others find joy .through our own strengths

As individuals we strive for happiness. And to do so we tend to indulge in things that are energising and enjoyable. However real happiness lies in helping others enjoy life by bringing out the best in them, since only when we do good we feel good. As children we are more exposed to our weaknesses than our strengths. People focus less on how well we could sing and dance and more on our poor maths grades. Most times such reactions are not planned and hence can be attributed to basic human psychology. Experts in the field of organisational psychology have used this as their basis for research on "positive work place psychology". The principle of positive psychology underscores the need to focus on the strengths of employees rather than their weaknesses. This is a very important and relevant concept since 85 percent of the staff just about manage to reach the average performance bar. Understanding how positive psychology works on the human mind is both intriguing and hugely profiting if leveraged effectively.

Generic Strengths

According to Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson , the founders of the theory of positive psychology , there are 24 generic strengths in humans that express themselves in six basic domains. These include:

The Knowledge and Wisdom Domain

This domain includes generic strengths like inclination to learn, creative instincts and curiosity

The Courage Domain

This encompasses vitality, courage to conquer hurdles, bravery and diligence

The Domain of Humanity

This underscores generic strengths like kindness, empathy and ability to build rewarding interpersonal relationships

The Justice Domain

The pivotal strengths under this domain include fairness, awareness about social responsibility and teamwork

The Temperance Domain

This domain emphasises the ability to build tolerance to absorb excess and hence underscores forgiveness, humility and self-control.

The Transcendence Domain

Transcendence signifies the ability of an individual to connect to the larger universe and see things in the larger perspective. It includes qualities like gratitude, playfulness and hope.

Developing awareness about these generic strengths and identifying personal strengths out of this menu can help individuals maximise their work output. It would also enable them to help others identify their own strengths thereby compounding the impact of positive work place psychology. The logic here is simple. Leaders who are more innovative in their approach to work are more likely to find success in organisations that are largely driven by creativity. Hence they should aspire to find a place in a creative set- up. Likewise leaders adept at making and nurturing effective work place relationships would do well in the hospitality industry. Thus, awareness about the dominating generic strength domain is important to maximise one's potential.

While it is extremely important for leaders to identify their own strengths it is certainly not sufficient. Successful leadership comes from helping others realise their potential and thus leaders need to leverage their strengths with an intention of getting the best out of others. In the context of HR , leaders in the human resources function should thus strive to use their strengths to strengthen others thereby creating a holistically beneficial solution to corporate working.

Flaunt your strengths

HR leaders can strengthen others and bring about holistic staff development by instituting the following measures:

It is the outcome that matters

Activities taken up by HR professionals should be treated as a means to achieve a particular outcome and therefore should not be fussed over as long as it delivers the intended objectives.

Leadership initiatives should be result-oriented

Most leadership programmes focus on the learning that individual leaders garner from them. They are generally leader-centric and fail to define the larger agenda of the programme. Hence, HR leaders must ensure that all programmes, while serving as a rich source of learning also define the implications for the organisation as a whole.

Focus on building a positive culture

HR leaders should aim at building a positive work culture. This can be achieved best by integrating every HR initiative with the strengths of employees and helping them perform to the best of their ability.

Adopt a business leader's attitude

HR leaders should elevate their concerns and refrain from localising their approach by working through the HR perspective. Instead HR leaders should work along with other business leaders and provide useful insights to frame strategies that would enable holistic staff development.

Identifying and understanding the usefulness of individual strengths can open a Pandora 's Box for HR leaders. Leveraging this knowledge can thus make all the difference between failure and success of a leader and the organisation as a whole.

Reference:

TheManageMentor

Retaining Skills and Knowledge - Employee Retention.

Retaining Skills and Knowledge as Older Workers Begin to Retire - Employee Retention

It is a well known fact that the average age of the workforce is steadily increasing. As the workforce continues to age, there will be significant economic and business-related ramifications for us and the companies we work for. Critical to the business will be the embedded knowledge that will be lost as older workers retire.

To help get a handle on the problem of an aging workforce, the first part of this article deals with how to identify the challenge ahead. The second section outlines possible strategies to tackle the problem. And, finally in the third section, we offer tactics for planning ahead and measuring success.

How To Identify Where Your Company Is Now

Step 1:

Initiate a Demographic Analysis

The first step in harnessing the aging workforce problem is to define “retirement eligible” and conduct a demographic study to reveal what percentage of the employee population will be retirement eligible in the near future. A possible definition of a retirement-eligible employee could be those who are a minimum of 55 years old and qualify for full benefits or pension payments (typically after about 35 years of service). Other factors to look at: age, location, retirement savings information, age of dependents, position, tenure, and salary.

Step 2:

Measure the Problem

Study the age and tenure of the employee populations to gain an accurate estimate of how many workers are retirement-eligible. Also examine how many retirement-eligible employees actually retired in previous years to forecast how many workers will leave the organization in the future. In making your projections consider things like:

• The current economy
• Changes in retirement policies, organizational structure, leadership, or demands of the current role.
• Availability of affordable health care
• Spouse’s retirement plan
• The number and ages of school-age children

Step 3:

Communicate Demographic Developments

Best practice suggests updating business managers on the demographic trends of their company’s employee population at least twice a year. Some very large companies communicate this information to its general management staff as often as once a quarter. Frequent updating keeps the aging workforce issue top of mind among decision makers.

Strategies for Retaining Organisational Knowledge & Skills As Older Workers Retire

Strategy 1:

Transfer knowledge to the next generation

To retain critical knowledge, a best practice has the HR team working with external consultants to interview employees in key positions. The consultants then create a manual highlighting the fundamental aspects, tips, and resources that will facilitate the transfer of knowledge to other employees.

Strategy 2:

Mentoring Future Leaders

In an effort to develop future leaders and retain organizational knowledge, the best practice is to pair older and younger workers together in a self-directed mentoring relationship guided by formal training. We explore this concept more fully in our Solutions column.

Strategy 3:

Job Shadowing and Rotational Programs

Best-practice companies offer employees job shadowing opportunities and rotational programs to supplement their knowledge management initiatives using:

• Job Shadowing: The company provides new hires the chance to accompany more tenured employees as they perform their day-to-day tasks. This provides the new hires a view into the resources, techniques, and short-cuts that make experienced employees more efficient.
• Rotational Programs: The company provides management employees with the opportunity to rotate to another position either within or external to their home department. Rotation cycles typically last six months, and the majority of participants move into one new position full-time during that period.

Planning Ahead & Measuring The Success Of Aging Workforce Initiatives

Prepare the future leadership bench

Research suggests that many critical talent employees who are or will soon be retirement eligible are in high level management positions. To address this risk, best-practice companies created a 12 - 18 months development curriculum for high-potential employees, which includes mentoring opportunities, interactive seminars, and other development activities.

Provide opportunity for employees to acquire specialized skills

Many of the employees nearing retirement eligibility possess specialized skills that may take years to develop. To address this challenge, one company dependent on highly specialized skills created a management-development program. Such a program places apprentices, who need four or more years of training, and a small number of other critical positions outside the authorized number of people the company allots to a particular division for running the business.

Promote success stories

Research indicates that you will need to demonstrate the success of your aging workforce programs in order to win advocates for the initiatives. Best-practice organizations shared with us that their companies analyze metrics such as feedback from the programs and the number of employees actively engaged in retaining critical knowledge or skills as an indication of success.

Contracting Success

Recent Trends in Human Resource Management
Contracting Success

The contract research industry is currently riding a crest. And with serious money pouring in, there’s plenty of reason to smile.

OUTSOURCING of research to India is not a new phenomenon. In fact, India, with its oft-praised technically proficient, low-cost talent pool has today come to be known as a high-quality research and development powerhouse in the engineering, technology (IT and telecom) and life sciences spaces. But the latter has really come into prominence in recent times. Contract research encompasses fields such as pharmaceutical research, bioinformatics, data management, site management organisations and preclinical toxicology. The outlook for this sector is extremely positive, with companies expected to pour a lot more money into getting product research, development (and even manufacturing) done in Indian labs, by Indian analysts supported by Indian infrastructure.

Global corporations have increased their spending on R&D, setting cash registers ringing in the $5.7 billion Indian Pharmaceutical sector. Clinical trials remain the main focus area, but research in new drug discovery also constitutes a sizeable chunk of the outsourced work.

The high volumes in outsourced research might seem surprising. However, this boom could have happened a lot earlier - if it hadn’t been for the weak patent laws in India. According to Dr. Vasudeo Ginde, President and MD of iGate Clinical Research, the new patent regime has cemented the faith that global companies have in Indian firms.



POTENTIAL FOR CONTRACT RESEARCH

Worldwide, the demand for drugs has appreciably risen. However, from the point of view of a Pharma/biotech firm, research is a painstaking task. It is also a rather expensive process. Plus, R&D takes up a lot of time and needs constant monitoring. It makes more sense for organisations to hand over this aspect of the business to experts who are wellequipped with the necessary knowledge, infrastructure and technology and more importantly, who can deliver on time. “The key driver for a pharmaceutical company to choose a research destination is speed, but obviously not at the cost of quality,” affirms Apurva Shah, Managing Director, Veeda Clinical Research Pvt. Ltd. Getting it right the first time is also a desirable bonus. Shah cautions, “From a pharmaceutical company’s point of view, the most expensive bit is the part which needs to be repeated. Therefore, for India to become a preferred destination for research, it will have to prove that its quality standards are equal to or better than the West. India does offer all the other benefits of highly skilled and motivated scientists, availability of patients, and above all, savings in cost. However, these do not have much value without the GCP trained staff and our ability to generate quality data.”

But there is a new sense of buoyant optimism in the air as the industry grows larger. Indian Contract Research and Manufacturing firms have been entering tie-ups with international players to boost confidence in local capabilities, say experts. Veeda’s Shah believes that Indian CROs (contract research organisations) will also grow at 30-50 percent for the next 10 years. In the face of such riches coming this way, several small and mid-sized CROs have been benefiting from the outsourcing trend.

CHALLENGES FOR CROS

Some of the challenges in the segment relate to the creation of a talent pool for all the right kinds of jobs. As companies explore more and more niches in contract research, it is imperative that they have the labour in place. “Some of the jobs that will be created will require PhDs and scientists, pharmacy, biochem and microbiology graduates and post-graduates, statisticians, pharmacologists, general medicine practitioners and even MBAs on the business side,” informs Dr. Ginde.

Another challenge for CROs is to keep the momentum going. Sources feel that a lot of investment needs to be put into training of the team, infrastructure and systems of the CRO. It is also felt that the CROs should focus on certain strengths and become masters at it rather than claiming to do everything. Quality of work should be the focus rather than cost, size and the range of offerings for sustained growth. If this is achieved, growth will be virtually unstoppable in contract research.

But with Indian companies confident that they will be able to put together the skills and resources to meet tomorrow’s demand, manpower needs will be a thing of the past. The need of the hour is for Indian companies and the government to work together and utilise the potential that this extremely lucrative industry offers.

Reference:
Nikhil Menon

How to Make a Potential Employer Fall in Love with You??

How to Make a Potential Employer Fall in Love with You??

Do the Right Things Right

Looking for ways to impress a potential employer? Want to make your resume or job application stand out from the pack? I have been recruiting for a local mid-sized beverage company and in the past month, I've reviewed dozens of resumes and applications for 14 different positions. Over 60% of applicants had no relevant experience for the role. Some of them clearly did not read the job description properly and there were a number of candidates from within the country applying for jobs in UAE, for example, thinking they are applying for local jobs!

Some of this advice may surprise you. Some may even make you angry because it doesn't seem fair or right to you. I can't guarantee that all recruiters / employers will agree with me, but why take a chance in this employers' market?

Apply for jobs for which you qualify.

My "no" pile of applications is increasingly made up of people who don't even remotely qualify for the advertised position.

Unless you can make the stretch and fit between your qualifications and background and the described opening, you are wasting your time. Each application or resume gets less than 5 minutes of a recruiter's time. You need to quickly qualify yourself as a potential candidate because the employer doesn't have or take the time to do it for you.

Write a targeted cover letter that introduces your key qualifications and highlights your "fit" with the position for which you are applying.

Address the letter to the person conducting the candidate search, when known. Additionally, the cover letter needs to specifically address the available position. Spelling and correct grammar do count. So do the font and the spacing of words on the page, an attractive overall appearance, and the "feel" of the paper if you are sending your application by post.

Target the resume to the job.

Would you like to know how many people are looking for a "challenging opportunity to utilize my skills with a progressive employer who will provide opportunities for growth?" Don't even ask; the answer will break your heart if this is how you routinely describe the position you seek in your resume. Even more importantly, in this day of instantaneous electronic publishing, no one needs to photocopy 100 resumes at an instant print store. Customization counts. Customization is everything when you are looking at substantially different opportunities, too. Say, you are looking for a training position or a marketing position. The identical resume won't sell your skills for either field.

Lead with your strengths. What makes you different from 400 other applicants?

On your customized resume, start out with the background and experience most important for the position you seek. The stage of your career is also highly relevant to the placement of information on your resume. If you are just graduating from college, lead off the first portion of the resume with your education and degree.

A seasoned veteran will start with an accomplishment summary and then list jobs, titles, companies and responsibilities chronologically. An Executive, HR applicant has to kick start from front-lining any of the HR certifications, and then listing the core HR related exposures. A network administration applicant should lead with his or her certifications (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) and list software and hardware experience (Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server) before listing jobs and education. The key is to make it easy for the resume reviewer to see that you are qualified for the position. You want your resume in the coveted "yes" pile awaiting an interview or phone screening.

Yes, I said, "phone screening." Forward thinking employers don't waste their time or yours these days without an initial telephone interview. Be prepared to schedule a date and time, usually during the 8-6 p.m. work day. (Your potential employer is already working ten hour days.) The phone interview eliminates most of the "yes" resumes from contention.

Be prepared for a mini-interview and to give the interviewer your salary expectations. People who play coy when I ask about salary are not invited to visit in person. Why would I waste our time interviewing an applicant who is making Rs. 70,000 or more, currently, for a Rs. 50,000 job? And no, you are not going to be such a wonderful candidate that I blow away the salary range. In nine out of ten situations, the salary range is set with a large number of variables in mind including the local job market and the salaries of co-workers.

Preparation counts for both the phone screening and the potential face-to-face interview.

If a company has set a time with you for a phone screening, research the company in advance. Visit the website to see what the employer does. Many organizations even describe their company culture on their websites these days. If you take just a few minutes to do your homework, the quality of the interview goes up exponentially.

Invited to the Interview?

You've done the right things right. Your materials and credentials made a good impression. You passed the interview phone screening and you've been invited to the company for that all important interview. How do you continue to build the relationship with the potential employer that will lead to an eventual job offer?

Take time off work for the interview; don't expect the potential employer to extend their day by several hours to accommodate your schedule. If you're currently working and looking for a new position, hopefully you've saved up your vacation time. A recruiting employer is often willing to interview a good candidate late in the afternoon, but rarely will the interview extend past 7 p.m.

(Remember, most potential employers start work by 8 a.m.) You don't want your potential to contribute as an employee assessed at the end of a ten hour day either.

Make the right, positive impression at both the interview and with the company staff. I am sure I do not need to tell you to arrive early, dress up for the position for which you are applying and bring an additional resume with references. Remember to treat every person you encounter with dignity and respect. The receptionist is reporting his impressions of you to the HR Director/Manager. Count on it, especially in small to mid-sized organizations. Be unfailingly polite throughout every interaction you have with the company. Each person is assessing your potential "fit" within their organization. Don't blow your chances by behaving boorishly.

You might be asked to fill out an application, so bring your resume and other needed information to complete the document. If it is a big company, it is likely your application information is entered into an employment database and used for company records. The filled out application makes the data entry easier. It also allows the company to obtain your written permission to check your references, employment history, do criminal background checks if you are hired, and more.

The actual interview is another subject. For purposes of this article, remember that the purpose of the interview is to determine if you and the organization are a good fit. The real purpose of an interview, sorry to tell you, is not to gain you a job offer. Do you feel confident that you can do the job and grow with the company? Have you conveyed this to the potential employer? If so, you'll be asked back for a more-intensive second round of interviews at most companies.

Follow up after the interview with a thank you letter, and perhaps a phone call. Good manners always count. Doing the right things right will result in more interviews, better job offers and a more successful career. Take a little more time at each step and your application will definitely rise above the others.

How to Raise Your Visibility at Work??

How to Raise Your Visibility at Work

Employees ask frequently how they can raise their visibility at work. And, especially people whose jobs are somewhat tedious request alternative activities to break up the monotony of their every day work. No matter the job, it is difficult to do the exact same work all day long, even if you love the work and the customers.

Other employees are underemployed and waiting for their next opportunity that is either not currently available or they have yet to earn the opportunity at a new employer. Unfortunately, many employees sit back and wait for their manager to give them something new or interesting to do. This is always the wrong approach.

Your manager is busy, too, and while your development as a person and employee may be important to your manager, he or she cannot read your mind.

It is helpful to work in a company with a performance development planning process in place. There, you have the opportunity to talk with your supervisor, at least quarterly, about issues such as your development and career growth. But, no matter your company's employment practices, you have the right to ask and to care about your career and personal development and visibility at work.

These ideas will help you help your boss:

• Ask for more responsible assignments so you can exhibit that you deserve them and that your skills are underutilized. Go to your manager with specific suggestions about how you think you can contribute to improvement, departmental efficiency, or creating a new process or method. Make it easy for him or her to help you.



• Volunteer to represent your department at meetings, on planning committees, and on projects. A proactive approach to work is noticed by the bosses. Working on cross-functional teams also gives your talents exposure outside of your own work area. This is helpful when promotions or lateral opportunities become available. A "known" employee has the advantage over one who is not known.



• Build your relationship with your boss. Check in with him or her periodically whether you need to or not. The boss is a person, too. Don't make fake requests or pretend ignorance if you really have the answer. But, running the answer by the boss, telling the boss what's on your mind, and making suggestions for improvement are generally welcome interactions. You don't have to share your private life, or be friends with your boss and coworkers, but a friendly, supportive relationship matters for success and visibility.



• If you have skills that you are not using in your current position, look for opportunities to keep in practice. Use them; don't lose them. These opportunities will also bring wider company exposure and broaden your organization's thinking about what you can do. So, as an example, your creative talents, your willingness to experiment or your ability to mediate conflicts will make you stand out as an employee.



• Request the opportunity to participate in seminars and training classes. Ask to belong to your relevant professional development association and for the opportunity to participate in its events. Then, visibly apply the new opportunities back in the workplace. Take the application one step further. Tell your boss and co-workers what you learned and how you plan to apply the new information at work. This has three advantages. Your improvement efforts improve your visibility and teaching others is the best way to make sure you've really learned the concepts. Finally, your co-workers benefit from the time you spent and the knowledge you gained at the session.

And the People Problem still Persists

WHILE SMB IS ONE OF THE FASTEST GROWTH DRIVERS OF THE INDIAN ECONOMY, IT’S OWN GROWTH IS PLAGUED BY ACUTE PEOPLE MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS.

The small and medium businesses (SMB) sector in India plays a very important role in contributing towards the country’s economic growth. This sector is poised for further growth in the year 2007. But this is possible only when we repair the acute people management problems that this promising sector faces.

Attracting the right talent is the toughest challenge that one has to address asap! Most SMBs lose all their valuable employees to the larger MNCs. So the need of the hour is to build a better brand image for the sector, formulate innovative HR practices, and give people more challenging work profiles in order to enhance employee motivation and engagement.

IT’S BOOM TIME

This sector is a very important growth driver of the economy and we can’t afford to have its growth dwarfed because of people management problems. According to Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, SMBs constitute one of the most important segments of India’s industrial economy accounting for approximately 95 per cent of the total industrial units and contributing a substantial amount to India’s GDP. The total revenue earnings by Indian SMBs in 2004 stood at $898 billion, of which India MBs earned the lion’s share of over $625 billion. Buoyed by their recent performance, 18 per cent of MBs expect their revenues to rise by over 20 per cent in the near term. Small businesses in India constitute approximately 99.4 per cent of the country’s SMB universe. At present SBs in India generate employment for workforce of more than 21 million people. Analysts predict that SMB will become the next big player in new age entrepreneurship. Nasscom feels the role of software SMBs are critical to achieve the $60-billion target for software exports by 2010 from $24 billion.

PEOPLE TROUBLE

SMBs have the highest attrition rate. Most of the people treat such organisations as training grounds before joining bigger MNCs. Sunil Goyal, Head India Operations, Sopra Group feels, “SMB branding is needed from the talent attraction perspective. Attrition and ‘no shows’ are serious problems and mostly at the junior levels (in SMBs). Some of the tendencies which fuel such a behaviour are salary hikes and job hopping as means for quick vertical movement, and working for brand names.”

However, Ankur Lal, CEO, Infozech Software Inc. also feels building employer branding for SMBs like his wouldn’t be easy. Though, SMBs often have a richer and better work profile and more learning opportunities, lack of resources and planning are holding them back to effectively communicate this advantage. Vipin Tyagi, President and CEO, Network Programs, feels one of the best ways of branding is maintaining a long term relationship with the employee even after he/she leaves the organisation. “Bid farewell to employees on a good note, so that they in turn can build up a positive image of the company.”

Anil Menon, CEO, SecureSynergy outlines two major people management problems that the Indian SMBs face:

Most SMB's become excellent training shops for large organisations to poach from later. Lack of strong middle managers is a characteristic of an SMB business. This prevents scaling up and
efficient people mentoring.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

The need is to consider attrition as a business problem and strive to create sustained differentiation through innovative HR practices. Also because it’s small in size, it is easier in an SMB to identify core employees and chalk out individual career plans. Due to high visibility and growth prospects, enterprising individuals prefer to work in smaller high energy setups than in large faceless organisations. Lal informs, “We found out that smart graduates from the best colleges - IITs, IIMs are keen to live through an entrepreneurial experience and it is up to the SMBs to brand themselves correctly and go to these colleges and recruit talent.

Reference:

Jhinuk Chowdhury

Know What You Shouldn't DO.

KNOW WHAT YOU SHOULDN’T DO

WITHOUT ENFORCING A POLICY OF DOCUMENTING PROJECT SUCCESSES AND MISTAKES, COMPANIES WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT PITFALLS THEY NEED TO AVOID.

KNOWING what 'not' to do is as important as knowing what 'to' do. How often does corporate India take note of the importance of making mistakes? How often does it care to document corporate failures so as not to repeat them? The truth is that there is a huge gap between the percentage of documentation of project successes vis-a-vis project failures.

There is an urgent need for transparent root cause analysis today. Problems cannot be fundamentally solved if they are not acknowledged openly and transparently. Prashant Chawla – COO and CFO, Integreon, says “Errors occur when an associate does what he/she is not supposed to do or does not do what he/she is supposed to do. Both aspects are equally important. Customers give you the benefit of the doubt when something is not done, but tend to be more critical of errors that are explicitly part of ‘not to do’ list and still occur, since this list is smaller and hence critical when ignored.”

DO WE ACCEPT MISTAKES AS A CULTURE?

But how do we score as a culture that’s open to mistakes? Well, extrememly low. The fear culture still persists and discourages companies from documenting their mistakes.

Therefore, except enterprises with a strong quality focus, others do not take pains to document their mistakes. Laments Pankaj Bhargava, Chief HR, Marico Limited, “Very often, corporates do not even document their learnings from success. A lot depends on the culture of the company. If the culture is one of taking things for granted, there will be no learning from success. Similarly, if the culture is one of blame when failure occurs, there will be no learning from failure.” Overall, in most cultures, the tendency is to own success and disown failures. It gets compounded by a false sense of pride where only success is rewarded and performance management systems that only recognise successes. However, this would not be true in an organisation that is open to experimentation and promotes it as a culture, since inherent to experimentation is failure and learning from it to make the next one better. In an environment that is demanding on both process and results, there is likely to be a healthy degree of tolerance for mistakes as long as people learn from it to produce even better results next time. In an environment that operates on fire when the first thing goes wrong, experimentation is likely to be weak and so will be the willingness to learn and tolerate errors.

Says Usha Mohan, MD, Triumph India Software Pvt. Ltd, “Our culture or society does not look kindly on mistakes and is quick to brand someone as a loser after the first mistake! A healthy performance evaluation and rewards system that does not come down heavily on mistakes will encourage individuals to admit their mistakes and also document the details.”

WALKING THE TALK

However, there are some bravehearts that not only acknowledge, but also record mistakes. For instance, at Integreon, highlighting mistakes is encouraged to that level that it is not repeated again and used as
a learning tool. They are used to find robust solutions through fundamental root cause analysis. The processes become systemdependent then people-dependent. It also becomes a useful tool for reducing the learning curve for new joiners.

All processes at Integreon operate within the frame work of the Integrated Business Management System. Informs Chawla, “We follow a practice of documenting every customer feedback or complaint in a defined format. For every complaint we conduct root cause analysis and identify and implement corrective actions.” They also define best practices for sharing it across individuals within the team and across the processes. This results in fewer mistakes and the overall performance increases because of the quality output delivery. Day-to-day errors and mistakes are captured in the Service Recovery Report and reported to the management and widely circulated in the relevant service lines through rank and file.

Elixir Web Solutions follows a similar system. As a company, it believes that knowledge management systems are built to capitalise on the knowledge accumulated by various people through the years. Therefore, it has a strong focus on quality and delivery excellence. “We have a regular practice of documenting mistakes and discussing the same on a monthly basis where we develop and fine-tune the solution in light of the pitfalls. A documenting mistake provides learning opportunities to the next generation without having them suffer the outcomes of making the same mistakes. It also helps in developing and encouraging innovativeness and originality by ruling out things that have already been tried,” informs a company spokesperson.

The company has replaced the term mistakes with ‘learnings’. There is a quality circle who are basically members nominated and picked from the operations. They document the learnings on a weekly basis and compile the same. These learning’s are then shared the Elixir Business Intelligence team who develops case studies on the same. These live case studies are discussed in the training programme for recruiters and also form a part of the curriculum for the Elixir School of Recruiting.

Marico Limited treads an identical path. Bhargava believes, “As people move on from one role to the other or one company to the other, the past wisdom of decision-making and experiences is lost if not documented well. And then many a time, one ends up reinventing the wheel. What is important in the documentation is not only the ‘what’ but also the ‘why’ and ‘how’ so that the learning is visible.” Though Marico has an overall learning culture, Bhargava believes there’s still a long way to go in terms of documenting. “The learning is often shared in learning sessions. It is also propagated forth through word of mouth. However, it is still person-lead. Thus while the culture is enabling, the practice of formal documenting is yet to be strengthened. This has helped us in building upon previous strategies rather than reinvent the wheel,” he says.

Triumph India Software Pvt. Ltd., on its part has set up a Quality Management System (QMS) wherein it captures the best practices and lessons learnt at the end of every project. Informs Mohan, “In our Project Closure Report that is prepared at the end of the project, we capture best practices and lessons learnt from the project. This knowledge repository helps ensure better quality in our future projects.”

Reference:
Jhinuk Chowdhury

How to Work with a Recruiter??

How to Work with a Recruiter

Working with recruiters often feels like a guessing game. It's nerve-wracking for job seekers to learn the process as they go. They wonder how to make time to scout, screen and interview recruiters during the workday. Perhaps you can relate. Sometimes it seems like your search is at a stand still - even with so many moving pieces. Maybe you have other roadblocks that freeze your progress - trying to sell yourself, remembering 'everything' you've ever done in your career, explaining a bad situation and why you left, or writing a simple thank you note that hits the right points.

Well, it's time to take a deep breath. While we cannot change the time required for an effective job search, there are some tips for working with recruiters to get the most out of your time. This article will provide some insights from recruiters' points of view. How they look at the whole process, what they really think when you ask for a 7 a.m. interview and what you can do to make your partnership successful.

1. Taking the Screening Call

When actively searching, the first rule of thumb is to avoid answering your cell phone unless you are in the perfect position to talk. As many job seekers have figured out, answering your phone while walking past your manager's desk does not work well. You end up sounding disorganized and unprepared to the recruiter - and your manager.

Take advantage of caller ID and let calls from unknown people go to voice mail. Only return calls to recruiters when you are in a position to speak freely. Lynn Diegel, Executive Vice President of a market research firm and former hiring manager, says, "Don't go to Starbucks. That constantly running blender in the background is a distraction." She suggests calling from your car (your parked car!) or finding another quiet place to return her call. And, don't worry about calling back within five minutes - simply getting back to the recruiter by the end of the next business day is perfectly acceptable.

2. Scheduling the Interview

Every recruiter interviewed for this story gave the same piece of advice: give the recruiter blocks of time when you will be available to interview. John Ferrel, a recruiter at The Heiden Group, advises "My job is to drive the interview process. The candidate needs to give me windows of time that work for them to schedule these meetings. When someone can offer consistent blocks of available time from week to week, it makes my job easier." And those early morning hours? No problem - recruiters agree that whenever possible they will work with your availability, whether it be 7 a.m. or 6 p.m.

What if you have a lot of freedom and can interview anytime? "Don't be too available - it doesn't give me any structure in trying to set up an interview," says Ferrel. "Stick to offering blocks."

Travel a lot? Not to worry. "I'll wait for someone to return from a business trip without an issue, especially if their resume is interesting," says Bernie Siegel, a former recruiter and current President of the International Coach Federation of New York City. Lynn Diegel agrees wholeheartedly, but on the flip-side advises that candidates should not claim to be in 'all-day meetings' constantly. She wants the potential employee to be low-maintenance. Scheduling multiple managers and candidates is already difficult enough without having to battle the unavailable job seeker.

Whatever your entry point, you need to be realistic and respectful of employers' and recruiters' time. Knowing the demand level for your particular skill set and expertise can also help you. Professionals in mid-level positions with widely-available skills can expect less flexibility, but those coming from senior-level positions and specialty fields may experience a bit more freedom. Based on that, you can gauge employers' potential flexibility and willingness to accommodate your needs in the interview process.

3. Selling Yourself

Just because a recruiter has contacted you does not mean you should stop marketing yourself. "Help me sell you to the employer; help me build a best-case scenario for your candidacy," requests Ferrel. "Articulate why the position is a good fit for you. Pull out a story about your sales experience, your best engineering qualifications, or the projects you have managed."

Tony Shea of The Heiden Group advises, "Sales candidates should be able to discuss their statistical achievements. Performance, quotas, numbers, commissions." In general, candidates need to be ready and willing to discuss their resumes in a succinct, concise manner.

Putting together several pertinent S.T.A.R. stories will help you communicate your accomplishments and selling points to a recruiter. S.T.A.R. is a story-telling strategy which stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. The strategy helps you stay on track when describing an accomplishment and drives you from the beginning to end of a story.

For example: "[Situation] At XYZ Company we had a line of widgets to market in a new territory. [Task] These same widgets were very well received in other territories, so our job was to educate buyers in the market and show the value of placing these widgets on their store shelves. [Action] I went store-to-store with samples of the widgets and requested meetings with the store buyers. Since my product was easy to demonstrate, I was often able to meet with the buyer right away. [Result] Results were impressive. Buyers liked the product and would place orders immediately. Ultimately, I achieved 85% integration into
the market and reached $650,000 in sales in just three months."

Take time to re-familiarize yourself with your career. Put together S.T.A.R. stories for each position and be able to talk about your value and your takeaways from each job over the years. If you have maintained a strong network, you can reach out to your former co-workers and managers to discuss past projects and company successes.

4. Discussing Personal Roadblocks

Some candidates feel very open when working with recruiting firms - as if they can divulge things to the recruiter that they would not in an employer-candidate interview scenario. There is some flexibility and openness in the recruiter-candidate relationship, but do not assume you can discuss anything.

Shea and Ferrel have been told about candidates' divorce struggles, potential cross-country moves, and other deeply personal issues. "It's an interview process, not a personal declaration. Keep the information you present pertinent to the job - focus on the job skills." Shea says. However, divulging something personal that affects a job requirement is essential. For example, if driving is a requirement of a position (like outside sales in a suburban market) and you do not have a drivers' license, you need to tell the recruiter upfront. This said, you do not have to go into the reasons behind that fact.

5. Sending Thank You Notes and Email Etiquette

"Yes, thank you notes are required," expresses Diegel. "Simply make a few connections between your experience and my needs. And, don't assume I'll remember you - a quick reminder of when you interviewed and something we discussed is great to jog my memory."

Thank you notes should be sent within 24 hours of the interview. Remember to collect business cards from each person you meet so you can send individual notes to everyone. Your note does not have to be long - just acknowledge your appreciation of their time and point out a skill, talent, or experience that makes you the ideal candidate for the position. While recruiters and employers will always have their personal preferences, both email and regular mail are widely accepted for thank you notes.

One thing that does not waiver from the employer's point of view is your professional presentation, especially with email. Follow appropriate grammar rules and do not get creative with spelling or punctuation. It is not a text message - make a good impression in every note you send throughout the job search process. And, always include your phone number with your full name on your signature line.

Following each of the above tips can help you in the interview process. Recruiters and employers actually want you to be right candidate for a job - it means they can stop their search - but you need to do your part to get in front of them and market yourself. Good luck!

Reference:
Kimberly Schneiderman
[About the Author: Kimberly Schneiderman is the owner of City Career Services, a company that provides job search tools including Resumes, Cover Letters, and Interview Workshops to goal-oriented professionals at all levels and across all industries.]

Talent, now a mouse click away.

Talent, now a mouse click away

Social networking websites today are used as vital tools in the recruitment process. Lets find out how they offer a dynamic, two-way dialogue between the recruiter and the candidate thus making the hiring process flexible and genuine.

Looking for a suitable candidate to fill in a very vital position in your organisation? Worry not, since the World Wide Web has a lot of help at hand. Networking sites like ‘Orkut’, ‘LinkedIn’ and ‘Facebook’ are working wonders as recruitment portals these days. Also, there are other websites like ‘CiteHR’ and ‘HR Daily Advisor’, which give a platform to HR professionals from diverse geographies to interact with each other, share their views and policies and also get help on certain issues that they might be facing in their respective organisations. HR managers today are spending hours surfing networking sites as these networking websites not only help HR managers source the right talent for specific vacancies but also give them an excellent platform to interact with their counterparts.

IT’S HANDY AND HELPFUL…

Today, the partnership between HR and IT, and their respective responsibilities in safeguarding their organisations is becoming increasingly important. Web 2.0 is here to stay and its inherent collaborative and inclusive nature means it will continue to change and evolve to appeal to an increasing number of users. Anitha Mani, Principle Consultant, Prayag Consulting admits, “The use of networking sites has been effective because of the number of middle and senior level professionals one finds on these networks which otherwise are usually hard to come by on large employment portals.” According to Rajita Singh, Head HR, Broadridge India, “The web provides different ways to get information and through networking sites, there is a possibility of identifying talent and knowing more about the potential recruits. It gives a credibility factor to the candidate and you also get to learn more about the behavioural aspects and preferences of the candidate. They also help in gauging the pulse of the organisation in addition to the other channels of information.” These networking sites have already assumed importance in the work life of HR and recruitment professionals. “As long as these networking sites are used as an ‘adjunct source’ to tap talent, these could come handy in locating the right candidates. We largely use such sites to source IT/ITES talent. We certainly depend on a clinical referral check to ensure that the talent selection is flawless and even discuss views about talent acquisitioning with other professionals and experts,” expresses Srinivasan Chari, Chief HR Officer, Amtex Systems. For recruiters, social networking sites come to the rescue when one is looking out for candidates possessing niche skills or for roles based in alien geographies. According to Singh, “Basically, the nature of issues around the world are similar and only the cultural context varies, and through these sites, a platform is provided on possible solutions, that can be adopted across and at times, they also help sharpen skills.” “Online recruitment helps in reaching out to more people across the country and even overseas. It gives a wider choice than before and makes the recruitment process easy, and the search broad, yet focussed,” informs Shebu Raphael, Global Head Capital, Marlabs Software (P) Ltd. Chari also says that these websites offer flexibility and his recent analysis has reported that around six per cent of his organisation’s recruitment happened through these networking sites in the last financial year.”

NOT JUST RECRUITMENT

Though these networking sites are used largely for recruitment purposes, they have also become an important platform for HR professionals to interact with each other. “There is excessive ‘knowledge
sharing’ on topics of HR interest,” opines Chari. Raphael adds, “These sites become an efficient platform for HR managers to discuss trends in the industry, challenges, and innovative methods of recruitment.” According to Rajgopalan Babu, CEO, Enteg Infotech Pvt Ltd, “A lot of issues can be discussed and sorted out through discussions on such sites. A lot of new ideas and practices are also shared by HR professionals from all across the globe on these sites.”

Like all processes and systems have drawbacks, networking websites also have their own set of drawbacks. “Spam and checking for credentials is the principal challenge for HR professionals. Cyber crime, hacking, forging content in the net etc. is a consistent problem that the online world is facing,” expresses Babu. According to Chari, “These sites are wide open channels of sourcing talent. So there will always be many takers for the same resource which becomes quite a drawback.” For Singh, the tendency of people to focus too much on the web can be a major hindrance. “Being too dependent on such sites may make HR lose the personal touch,” she adds.

A BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD

Though this trend of using networking sites by HR professionals is fast catching up all around the world, is it here to stay? Will this trend fade away as time passes or will it gain even more impetus in the coming days? “Yes, this trend is definitely going to grow since these networks are global. As people increasingly look to add
the ‘Indian stint’ to their resume, networking sites which unite professionals across the globe could be fruitful hunting grounds in the future,” opines Mani. Chari agrees and says, “The trend is likely to grow as days pass by. On-line recruitment process offers enough flexibility but essentially, at the decision making stage, there must be human interface for a thorough examination of the resources being recruited through the online process.”

All the above discussed facts go in to prove that though it comes with a few shortcomings, recruitment through networking websites is booming by the day and is proving highly advantageous to HR. So, keep yourself logged on, not only to make friends but also to take a step ahead in your career too!

For more Details on Video Conferencing check out Recent Trends in HR"


Reference:
Yasmin Taj

Learning Ladder.

The "Learning Ladder"

This is my term for this model. I've also seen it described as a curve or a cycle. The principle is the same whichever form you prefer. The idea is that, when you learn (especially a skill), you go through 4 stages. These are:

1. Unconscious Incompetence


2. Conscious Incompetence


3. Conscious Competence


4. Unconscious Competence

Unconscious Incompetence

This means that you can't do something but you're not aware of it at the moment.

For example, I run Train the Trainer courses amongst other things. When people first come along, they may be unaware of certain techniques they can use or of certain things they are doing which make them less effective than they might be.

Conscious Incompetence

At this point, the person becomes aware that they are doing something less effectively than they might.

In the Train the Trainer example, they might realise that they should be trying to make their training interactive and not a presentation or lecture. However, at this stage, they don't yet know exactly how to do it.

Conscious Competence

Now they have practised the skill and they can do it to a certain level. But they really have to concentrate and think about it because it's new to them.

So, when people are learning to be better trainers, they go through a period where they have to really think about getting the learners involved, about their eye contact, about asking questions, all sorts of things.

Unconscious Competence

At this point, people are doing things without having to think about them. The new skills are becoming ingrained and almost automatic.

Of course, you are going up this ladder all the time. There are some skills which you have developed to the extent that you can do things without thinking about them at all. There will be others where you are still at the stage of having to concentrate and others where you just know that you're not very good at something, but you don't yet know how to improve or you haven't had much practice.

One feature of moving up this ladder is that you may experience some stress or anxiety at different levels, specifically the conscious ones.

When you become aware that you need to develop a skill ( conscious incompetence ) it is reasonable that you may then feel some anxiety because you weren't previously aware of
this ( you were unconscious! )

And when you start to practise the skill and reach the level where you can do it, but you have to concentrate, that can also be a stressful time. If you want to see this, watch someone who has just started learning to drive.

If you train other people, you need to remember this. As they learn, they may experience a lot of stress while they go through the conscious incompetence and conscious competence stages. This is normal and you can help by pointing this out to them. Tell them about the learning ladder and discuss where they are on it.

Also, if you design skills training, see how far you are taking people.

If you make people aware that they need to develop skills, raising their consciousness, does your training then give them the opportunity to practise these to the level of unconscious competence or only conscious competence? Often it will be the latter, as full skills development will probably only take place after the course as they get more experience.

In that case, you will be leaving some learners in a state of anxiety and, again, you can help by pointing out that you understand this and that it is part of the learning experience.

Actually, some skills courses only take people to the conscious incompetence stage. These are what you might call " consciousness raising " courses where you might be introducing some new ideas or techniques to people but not giving them a chance to practice at all. I do run some of these myself. They are not ideal, for obvious reasons, but sometimes people want a course to give them new ideas and the numbers involved or the length of time won't allow for practice.

If you do anything similar, you have to accept that you are not developing skills, just knowledge. The skills will only be developed if and when the learners try out the new ideas for themselves.

And, again, the training may increase stress levels in some people. They may even begin to doubt their ability and lose confidence, so you need to be very careful how you put your ideas across and how you handle the emotional state of the learners.

I think this is a useful model to help explain the stages people go through when they learn new skills and I think it is something which trainers should make learners aware of to help them understand both the stages of development they will pass through and the emotional impact that this will have on them.

First Impression Management.

First Impression Management:

How to Handle the 30 Seconds that Set the Tone for Your Entire Interview

We all know that first impressions matter. For better or for worse, our brains are designed to make snap judgments about the people we encounter. Scientists say that this tendency probably comes from our ancient ancestors, who, without a common language to fall back on, often had to rely on their instant impressions to determine whether a stranger posed a threat.

In casual social settings, negative first impressions can be overcome if we're afforded extra time to get to know someone. But within the time constraints of a job interview, it's unlikely that you'll be able to completely reverse a hiring manager's negative first impression. That's why it's vitally important to do everything you in your power to make sure your interviewer's first sense of you is a positive one.

Micromanage the First 30 Seconds

Every hiring manager and interview situation is different, and there's no way that you can control the way that someone else will respond to you. But what you can do is to assess and fine-tune every variable that is within your power to manage. Here's a checklist to help ensure that the first thirty seconds of your next interview will be the first thirty
seconds of your new career!

1. Timing really is everything.

It goes without saying that you should arrive early to the interview, but that's only one aspect of getting the "timing" part of your first impression down pat. Get there 10 minutes before your meeting is slated to begin, and be organized and prepared to start the interview as soon as you are called upon. Stay focused, and take care to eliminate any distractions -- such as cell phones -- that could unexpectedly throw you off track.

2. Make sure your appearance is professional, down to the smallest detail.

Choose business-appropriate attire for your interview, and make sure your clothing is neat and composed. Also pay close attention to your hair, jewelry, shoes, and accessories. You don't have to spend a lot of money to look professional for your interview - just set aside some extra time beforehand to attend to all of the little details. Have a trusted friend or family member give you a last-minute once-over just before you leave the house.

3. Have a brief opening script prepared.

A big part of first impression management is saying the right words at the right time. During the Q & A part of the interview, you'll want to go with the flow and let the interviewer take the lead. But it's still a good idea to plan out what you want to say when you first meet the hiring manager in advance. In the days leading up to the meeting, practice introducing yourself in a strong and confident tone of voice. This is a great way to demonstrate poise and professionalism in those crucial first 30 seconds.

4. Pay close attention to your body language.

Now that you've planned out the words you'll say during the crucial first 30 seconds, don't let them be drowned out by awkward or stilted body language! Experts in non-verbal communication say that a firm handshake, good posture, and a confident, purposeful walk are all important parts of making a good first impression. As the interview progresses, maintain eye contact and try to avoid fidgeting.

You only get one chance to make a first impression, so it's true that the first 30 seconds can make or break your interview. But with close attention to detail, careful planning, and a bit of luck, you'll be able to parlay a positive first impression into a job offer!

Reference:
[Hcareers Newsletter April 17, 2008]

Creating Effective Survey Projects.

Creating Effective Survey Projects

Conducting surveys is a science. Since poorly designed instruments waste organizational resources, this article teaches you the fundamentals of survey strategy. Surveys are competitive advantages only if you can act with confidence on the data.

Understanding the important aspects of surveys can make the difference between success and failure of your survey project - and even of your overall organization. In this article, you will learn the fundamentals of creating or identifying good survey projects.

Questionnaires are popular tools for gauging internal and external performance and predicting future purchase behavior of customers for many organizations. There are many inexpensive do-it-yourself survey tools available to organizations wanting to save money on survey initiatives. While it is understandable that organizations may consider creating and administering surveys in-house, there are several good reasons to reconsider. Getting help from an experienced and objective (impartial) survey team can help organizations turn their survey projects into powerful business tools.

Why You Should Care about Creating Good Survey Projects

Bad Surveys:

1. Can be long and difficult to complete and can alienate respondents.
2. Waste your valuable time and money.
3. Can fail to identify the most important issues, which then continue to plague the organization.
4. Can misidentify unimportant issues as important, leading to resources wasted on ineffective changes.
5. Can fail to identify opportunities, leading to difficulty or failure to thrive.
6. Can lead organizations can make incorrect and costly business decisions.
7. Provide a false sense of objectivity and security that may not be valid, defensible or scientific.

Good Surveys:

1. Can be designed to eliminate irrelevant questions, be more valid with fewer questions, and be easier and faster for respondents to complete.
2. Ensure your time and money are spent on valid tools that gain expected results.
3. Can identify opportunities that make a real difference in the success of your organization.
4. Can identify and address your most important issues, allowing you to hire great staff, perform effective employee assessments, gain customer feedback, gain market information and/or accurately predict future behavior.
5. Can support your organization in making correct business decisions and allocating time and money where they will make the most difference.
6. Give you peace of mind because they are valid, defensible, based on proven scientific theories.

Four Key Elements of a Good Survey Project

1. Conduct a pilot study

Do not assume you already know what people think and why they think so. If you really did, then conducting a survey would be unnecessary, correct? So, instead, try to really listen and keep an open mind. What the question writer thinks is important should be completely secondary to what the intended respondents think. You should always do a pilot study before doing the main study. No matter how well you think you know people or a particular marker, you will be surprised!

2. Design your survey based on modern scientific survey theory

Do-it-yourself survey questions are often selected based on how interesting or appealing they sound - or they are based on the insights of a particular manager in an organization. Amateur survey creators tend to rely on anecdotal evidence or mistaken media reports. A survey constructed based on "instincts" or experience is rarely able to accurately predict employee or customer behavior.

Survey and questionnaire design is a science. Modern scientific statistical analysis allows behaviors to be predicted quite reliably from the right indicators. Years of research have shown that a systematic, explicit and correct theory about people's behaviors, including factors like respondents' beliefs, attitudes and intentions, is a necessary foundation to create a good survey that actually predicts behavior. Even the simplest and shortest questionnaire needs to take into account all these issues so the right questions can be included or omitted.

For example, you might think that using more answer categories is always better. In reality, most people cannot handle more than six pieces of information at a time. For the best results, do not provide more than six response categories. In fact, to be on the safe side, four categories are probably fine (e.g., "Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree"). Do-it-yourself and casual business surveys created by non-statisticians frequently impose an unnecessary burden on respondents and provide invalid answers as a result.

In another example, you may assume that some "neutral" category (e.g., "I don't know") is needed to allow people to be non-committal. Studies have shown that neutral categories are usually counterproductive and rarely give you the information you want. The selection of a neutral category often does not reflect uncertainty or indecision, but instead it is used to hide socially undesirable answers. The answer "I do not want to say" or "does not apply" may have a completely different - and possibly very important - meaning than "I agree somewhat."

There are many types of approaches to survey design, and some are better for business use than others. The 2020 team often follows Fishbein and Ajzen's Theory of Reasoned Action, because it is flexible enough to be useful for a variety of business and HR applications, while still accurately predicting behavior.

3. Use a valid data analysis method

You might be tempted to analyze questionnaire and survey data with traditional approaches like raw-score sums, percentile rankings or percentages. In fact, many "professional" survey vendors make this mistake, too! Why not use these standard approaches? Standard analysis and reporting are often incomplete, severely limited and results can even be misleading.

A good example is again neutral categories and the challenges they present at analysis time. Our method of analysis should be able to tell us whether middle categories are used inconsistently and whether someone is giving valid data in the first place. Using the right methodology, middle categories can often be analyzed to provide just such information - information that would be unavailable or misleading when analyzed using standard statistical procedures.

For these reasons, the 2020 team relies almost exclusively on the use of Rasch scaling (a form of Item Response Theory), a complex but extremely flexible approach to statistical analysis.

This approach is unique because:

a) Missing data are not a problem; indeed, they are inherently acceptable and provide additional insight into behaviors.
b) We can clearly judge the quality of the data and the questionnaire from the responses.
c) We obtain truly accurate measurements of the strength of the traits, opinions or other customer variables we wish to study and understand.
d) We can determine the extent to which the data are biased by factors such as age, gender or other demographics of survey respondents.

Surprisingly, professional survey companies almost never use Rasch scaling, or other Item Response Theory approaches, due to its complexity and the expertise needed to provide accurate analysis. This means that the business advantage is substantial for organizations who apply these methods in their analytics. Such information allows you to make more targeted and valid business decisions, confident that the survey, the data and the analysis are accurate, predictive and are as relevant as possible to your audience or market.

4. Be ready and willing to take action based on the survey results

Even the best survey is worthless if you do not plan to use it to take action. Although you should keep an open mind about survey results, you should also plan to allocate resources to address the business opportunities identified by a well-designed and executed survey.

For example, the 2020 team creates "Action Plans" based on an organization's data. We build a mathematical model of the data that allows us to identify statistical outliers. We then feed this into our software to generate an interpretation for the observed misfit. For personnel assessment, the result is a person-specific and tailor-made diagnostic profile that can be used in a variety of ways.

Action Plans form the basis for the highly successful 2020 Skills selection and training assessment. We have also applied it to educational testing where experts now tout it as a form of "curriculum sensitive" testing. Our team has recently completed the theoretical work to apply this approach to whole groups, too. We can now segment markets and organizations and provide mathematically correct profiles for entire groups and subgroups. The potential for market intelligence and targeted advertising applications is tremendous and wide open.

Your Professional Survey Team

How should you evaluate a survey vendor to help with your survey projects? An Internet search results in thousands of hits - everything from "do-it-yourself" survey software to huge multinational companies. How can you be sure the survey team you choose will help you reach your goals and be more successful? Here are some important considerations:

a) A trained psychometrician should be an integral part of the survey team.
b) The survey team should recommend the survey project should begin with a pilot study and end with implementation of a targeted action plan.
c) The survey team has years of real-world experience creating surveys, analyzing results and advising organizations to take action.
d) The team uses a valid method to analyze results, preferably Rasch scaling (Item Response Theory).
e) The team is small enough to provide customized consulting to identify your unique business challenges and opportunities.

The Bottom Line

Keep these points in mind to help ensure the success of your survey initiatives. Doing so will transform your questionnaires from uncertain exercises to highly effective business tools.

a) Do not assume you already know what your intended audience thinks - maintain an open mind and have the patience to make evidence-based, not belief-based, business decisions.
b) Writing good surveys requires special expertise to provide valid questions and data. If you do not have this expertise, consider investing in professional assistance.
c) Proper questionnaire analysis is as important as good questionnaire design. The most specific and valid findings derive from modern test theory methods, like Rasch scaling. Raw-score sums, percentages and percentile rankings are severely limited and can motivate wrong business decisions.
d) If you are not going to take action, do not bother doing a survey.
e) Choose an experienced survey team as your partner to be sure you get the best value for your time and money.

Million-dollar decisions affecting the long-term success of your organization should be based on solid questionnaire design, a valid and flexible analysis process and a targeted action plan. Doing so can save time and money, but most importantly, allow you to identify critical issues and important opportunities for your organization - and act on them! Finally, you can rest assured that you have made the right decisions for your organization - in the near term for the survey project- and in the long terms for the future success of your organization.

Reference:
Jim Houran and Alan Keith HVS International
[About the Authors: James Houran holds a Ph.D. in Psychology and is President of 2020 Skills Assessment. He is an 18-year veteran in research and assessment on peak performance and experiences, with a special focus on online testing. Alan Keith received an M.B.A from the Schulich School of Business, York University and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in Industrial Relations from the I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba. Alan joined 2020 Skills assessment as Vice President following twenty years of experience in the service and assessment industry.]

Tête-À-Tête - Performance Management

The dialogue that makes performance management simpler

Key learnings:

• A problem -solving approach to addressing performance problems might just work
• This approach revolves around a dialogue about performance behaviour

Effective coaching and regular and timely feedback can address best the run-of-the-mill performance issues. But what if the performance problem is chronic or controversial? In such cases, the typical approach to remedying performance issues might prove ineffective. However, what can work is the 'Problem Solving Dialogue Model'. Recommended by quite a few experts, this approach can address performance issues that are beyond the usual skills-will gaps. Also, what makes this approach more appealing is the fact that it succeeds in isolating and addressing the problem behaviour and not the problem employee.

Done differently

The Problem Solving Dialogue Model encourages performance managers to enter a dialogue with employees with an objective of solving their performance problems. The philosophy backing this model is that encouraging employees to identify and solve their own problems by talking about it will increase the possibility of correcting performance. However, problem-solving dialogues can be tricky.

Most managers fear upsetting employees and like to avoid confrontational situations. Moreover, performance problems could not be corrected using feedback and coaching makes the job even more challenging. But it does not have to be this way. Problem -solving dialogues can be well conducted if managers were to keep the following considerations in mind:

• It is not a confrontation where accusations have to fly back and forth
• It is not personal, only the behaviour needs to be in focus and not the employee
• Every employee, irrespective of what his performance scores are should be treated with respect and dignity

Rolling out the dialogue

Performance managers must analyse the problem behaviour before hand and come up with a set of viable solutions to prepare ground for the dialogue. This is a prudent move since most employees, despite their active involvement, find problem -solving difficult. Therefore, managers who do their homework will waste less time suggesting the right way out.

Here are a few tips on how managers can prepare for problem-solving dialogues:

Be focussed:

A problem-solving dialogue has only one purpose - discussing performance problems. Therefore, unlike other conversations there is no compulsion to begin with small talk. Managers must also avoid using this conversation to discuss other issues unless of course they are related directly. Keeping the entire conversation pivoted to performance talk also conveys how serious the organisation is about addressing it. Some managers fear that being direct might hurt an employee, but focusing on the problem behaviour and not getting personal should take care of that concern.

In addition to being direct, managers must also be specific. For instance, they can begin the conversation with saying, "Let us talk about the deadline that you missed...", "It is time we discussed your production figures...". However, the employee must, at all times, feel assured that the intention of the conversation is to resolve the issue on hand and not to play the blame game!

Defining the problem:

Soon after opening the conversation, the next few sentences should spell out the actual concern. The best way to define the performance problem is to cite concrete examples or state observed behaviours. For instance, if tardiness is the issue then a copy of the roster should be shared with the employee. Also, a part of defining the problem is to make the employee aware of how his behaviour affects his colleagues and the bottom line.

Create buy-in:

This step is to ensure that the employee understands that there is a tangible problem and is aware of the extent to which his performance behaviour impacts others. Experts recommend looking for some kind of verbal or non-verbal agreement. Resolving the problem becomes easier the minute an employee agrees that his behaviour is indeed an issue.

Suggest solutions:

It is at this stage that the manager begins to suggest solutions. Asking employees for their inputs is definitely a good idea for they are then more likely to follow through. However, as mentioned above, managers must have their own ideas in place. Also, employee suggestions must match the organisation's requirements and standards. In suggesting solutions, essential elements include the action steps, the timeframe, the consequences of either following or falling back on the plan and the review schedule.

Addressing apprehensions: The last part of the conversation should be a question- answer session where the employee is encouraged to clear his apprehensions. Also, in summarising, the manager should do a quick evaluation of how well the employee has understood the solution. The conversation should of course end with the employee committing to implement the solution. At this stage, the manager must declare his confidence in the employee and leave feeling good about the entire conversation.

Addressing chronic and controversial performance problems need not be a Goliath to fear. It can actually be as easy as sitting an employee down to a discussion.

Reference:
The ManageMentor

Create an Innovation-Friendly Culture

Create an Innovation-Friendly Culture

In my role as executive coach and leadership development consultant, I have noticed a trend in 360 assessments over the past decade. More and more organizations are naming innovation as a leadership competency that they believe will help drive their current and future success and keep them ahead of (or at least even with) the competition.

We’re not doing so well in this arena, say the experts. An extensive 2005 survey of global senior leaders conducted by Oliver Wyman-Delta Organization and Leadership indicates that 80% of those surveyed reported organizational weakness in innovation. Their 2007 study echoed these results, and added that the most threatening challenge to business results is the failure of leaders to create a climate for innovation.

I have seen senior leaders derail because they monitored only the traditional markers of success….sales, top line profits….to the exclusion of building an infrastructure and culture which supports innovation. The challenge is worse in operational, process-driven cultures where the very behaviors that have enabled them to succeed by driving performance and hitting their numbers often run counter to creating the required culture to drive innovation.

Given the increasing need for this competency to stay competitive in a changing world, what are the factors that contribute to building an innovation-friendly culture? Here are a few points that leaders must address:

1. Define Innovation.

Dr. Lawrence Levin points out that the concept of innovation is “fuzzy” until it is operationally and personally defined by an organization. Companies must ask: what specifically does innovation mean to us? What is the compelling need and what are the obstacles? To take innovation from “buzzword” to executable strategy, leaders must clearly articulate the challenges and point the way forward…tangibly. How clearly have you and your organization defined the need and created a business case for innovation?

2. Start at the top.

Whereas good ideas can come from any level of an organization, a culture of innovation must begin at the most senior levels. Senior leaders must be the drivers, and understand how they can, at times, serve as a barrier to innovation. People at all levels must understand the company’s mission, vision, priorities and strategy to decide how and when innovation must be a strong priority. How well are you and your organization, from the top down, articulating these areas?

3. Create a culture where calculated risks are embraced.

For many organizations, this is a clear break with tradition. Leaders must not only allow, but embrace mistakes and the lessons learned from them. Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes, authors of Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins, praise “failure-tolerant leaders” who help people distinguish between excusable and inexcusable mistakes. It is uniquely important to define “risk-taking” especially in industries where risk is tangible and managing risk is a priority. I’ve had numerous experiences coaching safety-conscious leaders to shift from the attitude of “we don’t innovate around here” to “we don’t innovate where safety is concerned without taking all precautions to minimize the risks involved.” How much does your organizational culture, and how much do you personally, embrace mistakes as an opportunity to improve?

4. Increase transparency.

To tie innovation to business results, leaders must convey, repeatedly, the company’s strategy, mission and goals, so that they are truly understood at all levels. Innovation flourishes in an atmosphere of encouraging questions and dialogue where it is okay for people to admit what they don’t know. Innovating is all about developing a “workable comfort zone” around the unknowns, driven by a compelling business case. Henry Ford prized finding employees who “had an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.” And remember, transparent communication is not just about what you say; it’s about what they hear. How do you communicate direction and strategy to your people, and how often do you do “listening checks” to see what part of your message is getting across, and what you need to express differently?

5. Create a culture of teamwork and inclusion.

Silos and turf-guarding are the natural enemies of innovation. Ditto command-and-control, heavily top-down cultures. Innovative ideas and perspectives can emerge at any level of the organization; encourage suggestions, feedback and FeedForward. Embracing diverse internal and external views is crucial to staying relevant and competitive in our global economy. In the words of President Harry Truman, “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.” How often do you seek the input and views of your colleagues and customers?

Bottom line, each of us can learn and lead those behaviors which drive and sustain innovation. And, given our ongoing need to adapt and thrive within a changing world, each organization…and every leader…must look at how to create an innovation-friendly culture which balances past success with evolving demands.

Reference:
Patricia Wheeler

Talking Your Achievements from Boring to Standout.

Good-Better-Best: Talking Your Achievements from Boring to Standout

When you launch a multi-faceted job search campaign, you quickly learn that employers, hiring managers, and recruiters are looking for the same thing - a unique value proposition supported by solid, measurable achievements. Therefore, if your executive resume is not providing readers with an accurate picture of why they should hire you, you are doing yourself a disservice in your job search.

The first thing to do is take an objective look at your accomplishments. There are good, better and best ways of demonstrating career achievements. And hiring managers know the difference between them:

1. Good:

'Helped the sales department reach their $500,000 annual revenue goal in the Fort Lincoln area.'

2. Better:

'Helped the sales department reach their $500,000 annual revenue goal in despite rising competition in the Fort Lincoln area.'

3. Best:

'Played a pivotal leadership role in ensuring the sales department achieved their aggressive $500,000 annual revenue goal. Accomplished this by instituting company-wide training initiatives that increased closing rates by 25% and enhanced customer retention by 15%.'

So, how do you take average sounding achievements from boring to standout without embellishing the facts? The idea is not to exaggerate, but to tell a story. For each achievement be sure to build in a mini-story that covers the challenge, the strategic action plan, and the bottom-line impact that resulted from your efforts. Remember, when developing your top achievements it is critical to provide the reader with the full scope of your contribution.

Below are three tried-and-true techniques that will help guide you in developing your high-impact accomplishments.

1. Describe the Challenge

What was going on with the company when you took over the position? What objectives or goals were you brought onboard to achieve? Don't be afraid to reveal if you were hired to increase market share in a competitive industry, reduce operating costs for one of the company's divisions, improve customer satisfaction ratings in a 12-month period or help navigate a product launch in a new marketplace.

While quantitative accomplishments may have a bigger impact on your resume, a well-written description of your challenges can be just as powerful. For example: 'Tasked with delivering a 10% return on a $700 million investment portfolio in an unpredictable real estate industry.'

2. Describe Your Strategic Action Plan

How did you address the situation and what resources did you employ? What new strategies or programs did you put in place? This portion of the story allows you to give the readers insight into your leadership, strategic planning, and problem-solving capabilities.

Be careful, however, not to overwhelm your resume with minute details of each task you completed. Instead give an overall description of key steps you took to achieve those impressive results. For example: 'Led transition team and orchestrated all facets of corporate acquisition including financial analysis, revenue projections, evaluation and pricing, and bid submission process.'

3. Quantify or Qualify the Results

What was the bottom-line impact of your actions? Was your plan successful? When formulating your final accomplishment statements, make sure your write them in a manner that speaks directly to your performance abilities and core competencies. Once you have extracted the "meat" of each accomplishment, simply summarize the main points in one to two sentences. Remember not to bury your performance impact at the end of the accomplishment statement. Place the bottom-line results first and use the remaining portion of the sentence to provide the background of your story. For example: 'Grew investment portfolio from $500,000 to $3 million in two years by executing ardent negotiations and implementing innovative investment strategies.'

You've been recruited, promoted, and managed corporate challenges. Take your resume from good to better to best, and let your experience speak for itself.

Reference:
Abby M. Locke
[About the Author: Abby Locke, Executive Director of Premier Writing Solutions, is a Nationality Certified Resume-Writer and Personal Brand Strategist who helps senior-level professionals and C-level executives achieve personal success with customized, branded executive resumes and career marketing documents. Her resume samples have been published in Nail the Resume! Great Tips for Creating Dynamic Resumes, Same-Day Resumes, and Quick Resume and Cover Letter Handbook.]

When the Grass is Not Greener on the Other Side?! -People Management

When the Grass is Not Greener on the Other Side...! Boomerangs bring advantages along with themselves

Key learnings:

• Employees who return to work for their previous employers at some later date are called 'boomerang employees'
• Boomerang employees could be a positive influence at work
• Boomerang employees are good, but choose people who left you for their career upliftment and skill enhancement and not those who left under unpleasant circumstances.

Even the best of companies and recipients of 'employer of choice' award cannot keep all their employees throughout their lifetime. Employees move on from time to time during their career either for money or better position with the thought that life would be rosy at the new workplace. Only later do they realise that their career journey at the new place is not as exciting as they thought it would be. They are disappointed because they fail to find the new environment supportive and they don't like the new people. In fact they start missing their old jobs. That's when such employees wish to get back to their safe old ruins. Since they return to work for their previous employers at some later date, they are called 'boomerang employees'!

It is not surprising that the employees wish to come back to their previous organisations. What is surprising is the fact that more and more employers these days are willing to take them back! This is because the marketplace has become a globally competitive war field demanding skilled individuals. And if the 'skilled' ex-employees wish to come back, why have second thoughts?

Boomerang employees could be a positive influence at work. So even corporate experts suggest companies to create and maintain a culture that promotes re-employment of ex-employees. "It makes perfect sense to rehire skilled former workers", says Michael Jalbert, president of Management Recruiters International Inc. in Philadelphia. And not only should you allow re-employment but also develop a mindset among your employees that they are welcome if they wish to rejoin. No longer are employees considered disloyal these days where shifting careers/companies has become the order of the day!

Most HR professionals opine that boomerang employees stay on longer the second time they join. Sarah Gutek, VP-HR at Foremost Insurance feels the same. She says that their company offers their boomerang employees continuation of service incentives to keep them longer. Incentives include vacation pay, service award programmes and the like. And two plus yearsafter the re-employed fetches employees, credit for all previous years of work experience.

Advantages with boomerangs

• They know what business you are in and how it is done
• They would have been an integral part of your company culture once and hence culture match wouldn't be difficult
• They save retraining costs both monetarily and time-wise
• They can fill vital job positions and display key talent with enriched experience
• They would have seen work elsewhere and hence desire to 'come back to work for you', thereby delivering high performance
• They can raise the morale of your company. When current employees see ex-employees coming back to work for them, they are motivated to stay on longer

At an international problem-solving firm, allowing to boomerang was instituted as a reward system. Employees considered permission to work elsewhere for short assignments as rewarding and began taking them up as benefits rather than as financial enhancements.

Says Jalbert, "People that have gone out to another employer have seen the cold, hard light of day and have a greater appreciation of their former company. They come back to a much greater level of responsibility and pay, and to a company and people they know. They can hit the ground running, and that's great for everyone."

A word of caution!

Boomerangs are good but choose people who left you for their career upliftment and skill enhancement and not those who left under unpleasant circumstances. While re-employing, you could assess them during the work-test period for any new skills that the prospective boomerang has acquired elsewhere.

Employing boomerangs may raise certain policy questions pertaining to revival of their previous service and benefits package and their pension plans. Some employers have therefore established policies and guidelines stating that an employee who rejoins within a year of leaving may be credited with past benefits.

Tips to encourage boomeranging

• Make parting formalities on a professional level and keep away any personal element
• Develop and maintain a learning environment that emphasises employee growth and development
• Create an employee-friendly workplace culture and involve employees in designing their work roles
• Keep your former employees in your network whether you plan to employ them or not.

Few tips for the employees

• Maintain positive spirit during exit interview
• Keep in touch with the old employees and the HR department and keep yourself informed of the happenings
• Get an honest answer from yourself as to why you left in the first instance and why you would wish to return to your old company!

The Endnote

It is good if employees leave your company. They realise what your company means to them. While you should make all efforts to keep them from leaving, once they leave, keep your doors open for their return. After all, you employed them in the first place because you thought they were bright enough to make your company run towards success!!!

Reference:The ManageMentor

Leveraging Playfulness.

Leveraging Playfulness

Adding fun to the workplace may increase retention and productivity. HR leaders should ensure that fun events are linked to corporate achievements -- and make sure the humor is not hurtful in any way.

Imagine that the clock strikes 3 p.m. and, rather than employees looking weary and reluctantly trudging along until the end of their work day, they excitedly blast their favorite music, jump on their desks and boogie down. Five minutes later, they go back to work laughing and refreshed.

At some companies, workers who exhibit such behavior would be met with some strange looks, or even worse, a pink slip. At Microsoft, however, such attempts at fun in the office are not shunned, but encouraged, according to Adrian Gostick, co-author of The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up, a new book about adding enjoyment to employment.

"It gives them the energy to go a few more hours and finish out the day," says Gostick, who previously wrote two New York Times bestsellers on business issues. In researching the new book with fellow author Scott Christopher, they traveled the country observing employees trying to liven things up around the workplace.

Whether it's the roller-hockey games at Google, employees zipping around on scooters at Lego America or the paper airplane flying at Thiokol, the authors found that adding a little levity to the office can go a long way toward pleasing employees.

Of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list in 2007, 81 percent of surveyed employees say they work in a "fun environment," compared to 62 percent of employees whose companies applied but did not make the list, according to the book.

A fun work environment can also help retain employees. In a survey of 1,000 working adults conducted specifically for the book, employees who rate their manager's sense of humor as "above average" rate the likelihood that they will be on the job a year from now at just under 90 percent.

Employees who rated their manager's sense of humor as "average" or "below average," rate their chances of staying at 77.5 percent.

Diane Swanson, a professor of management at Kansas State University's College of Business, says that fun activities can create bonds among employees and foster a climate of trust and solidarity.

"Instead of people sitting solemnly around and not connecting, these kinds of things can help to connect people and create bonds around a focal point of interest," says Swanson.

The "Zap Rule"

When Tim Fernandez at Yamaha runs a sales meeting, he is sure to adhere to the "Zap Rule" adding an element of fun into meetings and conferences to give the attendees a reason to "sit up and pay attention," according to the book. To add his "zap," Fernandez shows photos of employees along with a photo of a celebrity they might resemble and includes the title "Separated at Birth?"

While it may be fun, it may actually boost productivity.

"We find in research that when they're laughing, they're listening," says Gostick. "Minds are open, blood is flowing and they are very susceptible to sales message after that."

For HR leaders who want to create a workplace that's more fun, the best time to start is after a significant achievement.

"Don't just have an ice cream social, or all the sudden it's Karaoke Day with the CEO singing in the lunch room," says the author. "Instead, link fun to work. Celebrate the big new contract or record quarterly earnings."

Paul Sanchez, worldwide partner at Mercer, a New York-based employee benefit and consulting company, says that if HR executives want to create a less-serious atmosphere and aren't all that outgoing themselves, they could start by embracing that wise-cracking employee who perhaps throws in the occasional joke at the meeting.

"The manager can support that individual and laugh along with rest of the employees when that individual says something funny," says Sanchez. "It's a great team-building exercise."

Adding levity to the workplace can even work for companies in industries that are no laughing matter, according to Gostick, who adds that Southwest Airlines has been stressing fun on the job for years.

"Over the last 30 years, it has been one of the most profitable companies in the world, in one of the most serious businesses in the world," he says.

But can office humor go over the line?

Yes, says Sanchez, who says that he thinks the line should be drawn when employees are laughing, at not with another worker.

"Having humor which is at the expense of another employee, a seemingly thoughtless practical joke or making fun of an individual, that's not humor and it has no place in the workplace. It can't be done at the cost of a person's dignity," says Sanchez. "It isn't a wide-open 12th-grade exercise."

Reference:
Jared Shelly HRE Online April 29, 2008

Subtle Nuances the Panel Observes during Job Interviews.

Subtle Nuances the Panel Observes during Job Interviews

Do you know that it takes less than 30 seconds (sometimes even 5) for the interviewer to form an impression about you? So remember, first impressions count!!!

Many potentially good candidates with fantastic credentials have not got the jobs they were best suited for. And for reasons that many of us may not even be aware of!!

Did you know that ………

55% of our communication consists of body language,

38% is expressed through tone of voice, and only

7% is communicated through words.

So if you have got a job, it’s not just what you said in the interview that gets you the job but how you said it in so many different ways. Let me share with you about some of the subtle things that we give out and that the interviewers pick up during the course of the interview.

Our Non - Verbal Messages and their Importance

When we send mixed messages or what we say does not vibe with our body language, our credibility can crumble because most smart interviewers believe the nonverbal more than the verbal. The reason being that nonverbal communication is well-expressed, honest and accurate than verbal communication. Such actions reveal your inner confidence. While words can deceive -- many people don't mean what they say or say what they don’t mean -- body language is subconscious. Since it's more spontaneous and less controlled, it shows our true feelings and attitudes.

Importance of Time

It might sound clichéd to talk about arriving in time for a job interview, but I think it is still important to bring it to your notice. An interview is considered a very important appointment - after all you are the one looking for a job and wanting to make a career in that organization. Being on time shows your interest in the job.

The Wait

While you are waiting at the reception, remember that you are sending out non-verbal messages - on whether you are confident, comfortable, shifty, irritated, relaxed - without you even realizing it. Opinions are made about you even before the interview has begun. So relax, take deep breaths!!

The Start of an Interview

When you are led to the interview area, walk in tall, with a smile on your face. It shows your confidence. Shaking hands firmly with the interviewers establishes contact - and it should neither be crushing nor too limp. Crushing shows an overbearing attitude while limp could indicate otherwise. A lot of candidates betray their nervousness by extending limp, clammy palms, and shaking hands weakly.

Some candidates have the habit of carrying things more than what they can handle, leading to things falling down…..and showing their clumsiness (which is quickly observed by the seasoned interviewers).


Being Well Groomed

Well dressed and well groomed candidates looking fresh and smelling fresh are always a pleasant experience for the interviewers and creates a positive image about you.

A disheveled look will put off the interviewers. Gaudy make-up, heavy jewellery and tight clothes can make your interviewers uncomfortable and distracted and builds a negative image about you.

Sitting Close to the Interviewer

Like anyone else, interviewers also need their personal space and they can feel extremely uncomfortable if you sit too close to them and may want you out of the room sooner than you thought, instantly minimizing chances of success.

Your Posture during an Interview

Now that you are in an interview, you're supposed to relax!! Ironically, the more relaxed you are, the more chances you'll have in show casing your competencies and help you to think on your feet.

No one expects you to sit absolutely straight, but you need to sit up and not slouch to project an image of alertness and interest in the interview. Folding arms across our body in an interview can be interpreted as a defensive move. It is better to let your hands lie loosely on your lap or place them on the armrests of your chair.

Leaning forward and maintaining eye contact simultaneously while talking shows your interest and your confidence. Leaning back and looking down may be interpreted as a lack of confidence.

How Nervousness shows?

Jiggling your legs , playing with the keys, twirling hair, glancing at your watch, rocking your chair, drumming with your fingers, clicking the pen continuously, playing with your rings are some examples of bad body language and will distract and irritate your interviewers. So the bottom line is: fidgeting makes you look nervous and distracted. Don’t do it.

How Do You Speak?

How you say something often is more meaningful than what you say. Confident candidates have relaxed, warm and well-modulated voices that match their feelings, which allows them to express excitement, enthusiasm and interest during conversations in the right manner.

Low pitch and volume, mumbling away, clearing your throats often, using "uhs" and "ums" denotes nervousness. A low voice may also show low energy levels. And which company wants employees with low energy!!

Maintaining Eye Contact

During the interview maintaining eye contact with the interviewers and looking directly at them is a sign of trust. So look directly, but do not stare as if you are trying to read his/her soul. A gaze that lasts longer than seven to ten seconds can cause discomfort or anxiety.

Smiling when you are saying something friendly while maintaining good eye contact, shows openness and honesty.

I have observed that less-assured candidates don't maintain eye contact, act shyly or ashamed or smile at inappropriate times. They keep looking away from the interviewers giving them an untrustworthy appearance.

Answering in the Interview

When the interviewer asks you to speak about yourself - it basically means taking them through your professional profile - your education, your career path until now, your current role and most importantly your achievements because that’s what will generate their interest and curiosity. Irrelevant talk not relating to your job will just bore and switch off the interviewer.

Giving examples to support your competencies and your current position helps the interviewer to visualize your role and creates a better impact. Knowing about the role and doing your homework will definitely show in the way you are answer the interviewer’s questions. And that will speak volumes about you.

Reading Interviewers

Just like the way candidates send out non-verbal signals, so do your interviewers. It’s good to be aware of them so that you can steer yourself accordingly in the interview.

Nodding signifies approval and encourages the candidates to continue talking, while leaning forward shows they're interested. Folded arms, crossed legs, picking imaginary lint from clothing, getting restless are signs that an interviewer disagrees with you.

Thumb twiddling, finger drumming, staring at their nails and other fidgeting mannerisms means the interviewer isn't paying attention. If they don't maintain eye contact, it may mean they're anxious, irritated, disinterested or that they want the conversation to end. An interviewer who looks up may be uncomfortable, trying to remember something or doesn't believe your answer.

Learning to read interviewers' cues can improve your prospects as well.

End Strong

No matter how good or bad you felt about the interview - finishing the interview with energy and confidence always leaves a good impression. Ending well may just help in getting you the job or open your options to networking in the future.

By being aware of the way you conduct yourself and observing your interviewers’ body language can help you to get the job you want!!

A Twist to Telecommuting.

A Twist to Telecommuting! - Organizational Behaviour

Key learnings:

• Employees can telecommute if they are capable of dealing with distractions.
• While selecting telecommuters, supervisors must apply objective standards of selection.
• Telecommuting can be a rewarding experience for both employers and employees if they focus on achievements and not on location.

Telecommuting is not for everyone! The statement can mean two things - Not every employee possesses a rigorous self-discipline required of an individual working from a distant location to deliver peak performance; and those aspiring for senior-level jobs are not eligible if they are telecommuters, no matter how industrious they are. That's the new twist in the telecommuting tale!

Online Trends@Work survey by Futurestep, covering executives across 71 countries, reveals 61 percent opining that employees who work from home are less likely to move ahead in their office. While most companies offer flexible work options and telecommuting as perks to retain their talented few, they get 'traditional' when it comes to selecting candidates for their executive team. According to them, it is far easier to mentor them face-to-face for a leadership position and decide the company's future. Lack of face-to-face contact has also been one of the main reasons for communication-related hassles at work. On the other hand, most employers offering telecommuting have witnessed tremendous cost savings due to the initiative.Such mixed feelings have resulted in failure to attract and retain talented staff.

It could be a disappointing twist for those desirous of progressive growth with flexibility as an added advantage. But it need not necessarily be so! Let's take a finer look at the characteristics employers and employees must possess for successful telecommuting. We will also, consider the telecommuting patterns and schedules telecommuters must adopt to enjoy work -from- home benefits while being eligible for senior positions.

Good telecommuters

Employees - Employees can telecommute if they are capable of dealing with distractions. Self-discipline and a well-designed work routine can help telecommuters be productive. How would employers know if their telecommuters were disciplined? This is done by selecting staff members who would suit well for working from home. Those with professionalism, loyalty, goal -orientation, good domain knowledge and excellent communication skills fit the bill. They must have been consistent performers with positive job reviews, trustworthy, superior at managing time and good decision- makers.

While selecting telecommuters, supervisors must apply objective standards of selection. Decisions based on instinct or favouritism can backfire. Survey-based software like 'TeleProfiler' are also available to help supervisors in telecommuter selection. The software evaluates potential candidates based on specific questions pertaining to characteristics, skills, work styles, personality and job description.

Employers - Supervisors must also meet a set of criteria to make the telecommuting effort a success. They must have acceptable managerial, organisational, mentoring skills along with good communication skills. They must be able to set 'SMART' goals and review performance while providing timely feedback. More importantly, supervisors must establish a trusting relationship with their telecommuter and judge the quality of output instead of the number of work hours.

Telecommuting do's to enable career advancement

Mind 'only business' in your home office: Design a professional business environment at your home office that defines only work. Keep away books, articles and any other such things which you would not even think of keeping in a 'normal' office.

Let your work space reflect you: Being professional does not mean not being creative. Get your flair for imagination out. Do up the work space according to your taste and make it empower you. Your work space must be your reflection.

Stick to a routine: Telecommuting gives you the liberty to work as and when you please. This means, your morning routine might also be disturbed at times. This could prove detrimental to your productivity. Define timings during which you would work. Make a clear work schedule. This can be convenient to you and your employer as well lest it leads to burnout.

Be mostly self-sufficient: Improve your technology quotient. Equip yourself with high-speed technology tools to keep pace with the demands for fruitful online transactions.

Network: Maintaining better relations at work is essential. A solid support network allows proper communication and evades scope for misinterpretation. Remote meeting experience can then be fun and productive.

Ray of hope

Telecommuting is a flexible alternative to your job at office. It's a business imperative that retains good workers and grooms talent. Telecommuting can be a rewarding experience for both employers and employees if they focus on achievements and not on location. Moreover it need not be a hindrance to career advancement if one steers clear of misconceptions surrounding it. Happy telecommuting!

Reference:

The ManageMentor