Monthly Archives: September 2020

employee happiness

Are You the Director of Employee Happiness in Your Company?

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I am seeing more and more people using titles like director of Employee Happiness or Head of Corporate Culture these days and it points to the importance leaders are placing on the culture of their company and the experience of employees.


There is a fierce competition for good talent and especially knowledge workers as technology continues to drive change and innovation. While some sectors are suffering due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, others are thriving and lack the personnel needed to meet demand.


So, creating a culture that attracts and retains good talent has become primordial and thus the practice has emerged of using job titles to show the importance the firm is placing on the experience of employees.


I have been noticing this trend not only in large companies where they can have a person in HR dedicated to employee happiness and engagement, but also in smaller firms. In small and medium size companies this person probably wears many hats but deliberately uses a title that shows their focus on people.


This made me think of how effective this approach is to gain the engagement of employees and create a culture focused on people. After all, the role of employee satisfaction and engagement is not that of one person. It is the responsibility of everyone as the interactions between people can quickly impact a person’s experience and satisfaction with their work environment.


Engagement on the job begins with one’s work. People need to enjoy what they are doing, have sufficient challenge and feel that they are growing and contributing.


The next level of engagement revolves around the relationships they have with their boss and co-workers. Trust is the foundation of fostering good relationships and this is where the company must ensure that people are treating each other with respect and openness to get their work done.


Another level of engagement and job satisfaction comes from people’s perception of top management. This is where ongoing communication is of utmost importance especially during uncertain times. People want to be kept informed of the health of the company and plans for change so they can prepare themselves accordingly.


Another important element of engagement and satisfaction is investment in ongoing training and development. As it is extremely hard to predict the future, people need to feel they can market themselves with an up to date skill set. Ongoing training should include whatever technical skills are relevant to the job and may become important in the future. Teamwork and interpersonal skills are also important as the ability to collaborate with diverse people both locally and virtually has grown in importance.


Providing or taking on a people-oriented title for a director or executive is a good idea but a title does not produce a culture that values and invests in people. A good strategy and action are required based on a good understanding of the needs of employees. As well, everyone especially managers need to be committed to the strategy and taking the necessary actions.


Checkout my Employee Engagement and Retention Planning Worksheet to help you plan a good strategy and action plan for improved employee engagement and satisfaction.


putting people first

Does Putting People First Improve the Bottom Line?

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I have been reading about a lot of companies who have put the focus on their people to assure their needs are being met during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a business practice, will putting employees needs first have them become more productive, engaged with the company and boost profits?


When we think of people, we first think of our employees. Of course, their needs must be met in order for them to perform well and to feel motivated. But employees are not the only people associated with the company and whose needs should be met.


We must think holistically when it comes to people and consider the needs of all stakeholders. This means employees, customers, suppliers, and shareholders.


A good exercise to do with managers is to list the needs of employees that must be met for them to perform their work well and be productive. Then discuss the list and determine how well their needs are being met by management.  You can also form focus groups made up of managers and employees and conduct the same exercise.


A more holistic approach would be do the same for the other stakeholders including customers, suppliers, and shareholders. I suggest involving employees in these discussions as this would raise their awareness of how what they do daily affects everyone concerned.


By doing this exercise you will identify gaps in meeting the key needs of stakeholders and you can then prioritize items to work on to improve and narrow the gaps.


To hold these discussion groups you can use my group problem-solving techniques such as brainstorming and force field analysis.


When working with teams of employees on team training, I have often discovered that employees lack the understanding of how a business works and what goes into making profits. Providing employees a perspective on meeting the needs of all stakeholders might change their view of the impact their performance has on everyone.


It is important to take a balanced approach to meeting the requirements of people so that all needs are being met.


employee withholds

Employee Withholds are Lies That Breakdown Communication & Teamwork

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When an employee withholds their thoughts, feeling and information it is as if they are lying about something. Holding back expressing a feeling about someone or a situation means that the person is hiding something that is affecting them negatively and it must come out. Otherwise it will have an impact on their performance and productivity or could affect the team or a co-worker.


An example would be if someone is a subject matter expert and knows that someone is having a problem that they could help solve with timely information. But because they do not like the person for whatever reason, they hold back the information, and this affects productivity. Withholds are lies and result from anger or fear, which are both negative emotions.


Prevention

The best way to deal with employee withholds is prevention and this should be part of employee development and teamwork training. Often employee training is focused on skill development such as technical or software skills, but personal development skills such as communication, attitude and teamwork also need to be delivered as part of a holistic approach to employee training.


Team training for employees that incorporates discussing withholds and lying should bring awareness along with ways to deal with negative emotions and situations that could be the cause. This could be how to confront somebody or how to express feelings when feeling hurt or mistreated by someone.

 

Another way to prevent employee withholds and lying is to have regular one on one discussions with employees. These conversations are about how the employee is feeling about their job and their experience in the workplace. It is a time to let employees express what is on their minds and unload any negative thoughts through open discussion. It is also an opportunity to build trust. The more these types of communications happen the more employee will feel safe to express themselves.


Just recently I experienced two situations in my personal life where people withheld something from me, and it escalated into them no longer speaking to me. The strange thing is I could not find out what caused them to act this way. One of them is a neighbour who I was quite friendly with and now will not look at me. This person is withholding something and has let this destroy our relationship. Rather than come forth and express what was bothering him he chose to withhold it and keep it secret. This a good case of self-deception as he must have found a way to justify his behavior to himself.


The bottom line is we are adults who sometimes behave as children and need to learn to act as the adults we are.


self confidence

Great Technique for Building Self Confidence and Motivation of Employees

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Self-confident and motivated employees will perform their job better and produce superior results. This just makes sense, right?


You can increase the self-confidence and motivation of employees by applying this simple technique. But it does take conscious awareness and knowledge of each employee.


The technique is to verbally recognize a trait that someone is using to produce a behaviour that generates a result. For example, Susan is a customer service representative and you hear her dealing with a client on the phone who is upset, and she applies great listening skills and empathy to calm the client down. This saves the company from losing the client to the competition.  You realize that the quality or trait that drives the behaviour is Susan‘s interest in people and her ability to quickly nurture a relationship and win their trust.


By verbally recognizing and pointing out this to Susan, you touch her in a deep way and get her to better understand herself and her qualities. This will increase her self-confidence and motivation and make her want to use this trait more often. By continuously using a strength you get better and better at it, just like a pro athlete or musician.


To apply this technique, you might say to Susan, I see how well you handled the irate client by apply good listening skills and showing empathy. This seems to have saved us the customer and shows your quality of caring for people and building relationships. Great job; keep it up!


This technique can be applied to any position and again all it takes is for you to be conscious and observant of people’s behaviour. Of course, you could just recognize the behaviour that produced the result but when you actually link it to a natural quality and strength of the person they are deeply touched and it increases their own self knowledge.


I suggest that for each employee you write down their key qualities that seem natural to them. Next to each quality write down a related behavior and then think of how this affects their performance and contributes to the company. Then look for opportunities to observe those behaviors in action and recognize them using this technique.


Even though the technique is quite simple it does take practice and to be conscious to observe people and look for opportunities to recognize them.


Perhaps start with one employee and make a conscious effort to become aware of their qualities and strengths and their behaviours and look for an opportunity to recognize that.


You will quickly see them light up from the feedback and become more confident in themselves. This will elevate you from a manager to a highly skilled leader just by applying this one technique. It will also make you highly respected by your employees and build trust with them. This will help you retain your top performers while boosting employee performance and engagement.