7 tips to motivate employees

Jonathan 

  

 1.     Be generous with praise – it’s so easy and praise from the top goes farther than you might think. Make it a habit to look for good things that people have done and say thank you. Once you’re comfortable delivering praise 1 to 1 with an employee, try praising them in front of others.

2.     Coach not play - Make your ideas theirs. People hate being told what to do. Instead of telling people what you want done; ask them in a way that will help them decide what to do.  “I’d like you to do it this way” turns into “What options have we got to get this done?”

3.     Never directly criticize or correct. OK, this isn’t a motivator but it is a massive de-motivator. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t look for improvement, just try an indirect approach to help people learn from their mistakes and work out how to do it better next time.  Ask, “How did it go? Was that the best approach the problem? If not, why not? Have any ideas on what you could have done differently?”   You’re looking to have a conversation about options & solutions, not pointing a finger.  

4.     Surprise them. Take an employee out for a coffee, cook the team lunch, bring in doughnuts - anything out of the ordinary.  Just remember that this is not a policy or team building exercise and never make an announcement that you’re establishing a new policy. It’s an easy way to remind staff that you’re human; you notice and appreciate their work. 

5.     Give recognition and small rewards. This can range from public recognition at a team meeting to letting your imagination riot. Try telling an employee to take their partner out to lunch on the company as a thank you for a special job.

6.     Any excuse for a party. Doing things as a group can go a long way so have a company picnic, celebrate birthdays, hold a happy hour. Organising events throughout the year demonstrates you're human and you're all in it together.

7.     Share the ups and the downs. When it goes well, celebrate (see above) to say thank you for their hard work.  They say a little thanks goes a long way so imagine how far a lot of thanks will go. This is the best time to let everyone know that you appreciate their hard work. Likewise, if there are disappointments, share those too. Be honest and transparent.

Treat Me Like A Person Not A Number

Jonathan

Any true business leader will tell you that keeping their team productive can be hard – sometimes the hardest thing a business person has to deal with. That’s why the business gurus created Human Resources – turn the management of people into a quasi-science and surely the problem goes away. No big surprise then that it didn’t work because the problem with calling humans "resources" is that you dehumanise them and treat them as an asset. The term puts human beings conceptually in the same bucket as raw materials on the factory floor. It ignores the fact that people are complicated and that getting them to work as a team requires treating them as individuals rather than as plug-and-play commodities.

When people are treated as assets the temptation is to manage them by numbers which leads to an endless round of admin – record keeping, holiday booking, sickness reporting and performance management. All necessary tasks but the end result is that there is no time to engage with the individuals – listening, coaching, encouraging, challenging. Many HR professionals recognise this and try to spend their time supporting the individuals rather than managing the resource. Smaller companies don’t have the luxury of dedicated HR so they end up with senior people doing employee related admin which distracts them from running the business.

As an example, experience shows us that many SMEs still track staff holiday allocation using paper based forms, which need to be located, distributed, collected and the data recorded on a master document each time a staff member books some time off. We estimate that a business with 50 staff, spends up to 125 hours a year just managing holiday requests for their staff. That’s 17 lost working days and much of it is senior management time!

It‘s time to let go of the outdated idea that our people can be treated as a resource and lead rather than manage our people. There are lots of opinions about the difference between leadership and management but I particularly like how Seth Godin puts it:

“Managers work to get their employees to do what they did yesterday, but a little faster and a little cheaper.”

“Leaders, on the other hand, know where they'd like to go, but understand that they can't get there without their tribe, without giving those they lead the tools to make something happen.”

“Managers want authority. Leaders take responsibility.”

“We need both. But we have to be careful not to confuse them. And it helps to remember that leaders are scarce and thus more valuable.”

http://uk.hrmanager.com/articles/share/66575/

10 Steps to a Happy Workplace

Annabel Shilton, Spirit in Business

1. Trust  your team. Step out of approval, instead pre-approve and focus on supporting your people.

2. Make your people feel good.  Make this a focus of management.

3. Give freedom with clear guidelines. People want to know what is expected of them. But they also want freedom to find the best way to achieve their goals.

4. Be open and transparent. More information means more people can take responsibility.

5. Recruit for attitude, train for skill. Instead of qualifications and experience, recruit on attitude, values match and potential ability.

6. Celebrate mistakes. Create a truly no-blame culture.

7. Community; create mutual benefit. Have a positive impact on the world (purpose) and build your organisation too.

8. Love work, get a life. The world and your job needs you well rested, well nourished and well supported.

9. Select managers who are effective at managing. Make sure your people are supported by somebody who is good at doing that and find other routes for those whose strengths lie elsewhere. Even better, allow people to choose their own managers!

10. Play to your strengths – make sure your people spend most of their time doing what they are best at.

The Art of Delegation

by Jonathan 

One of the most common pieces of wisdom quoted by coaches to owners of small busineses is to "work on your business not in it." This nearly always leads to a discussion about delegation - one of the key skills for any business owner.

Wikipedia defines delegation as 'the assignment of authority and responsibility to another person (normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific activities.'

Delegation will do three things for you:

1. Free up your time for longer term thinking.

2. Develop your team's skills.

3. Make the business bigger than you.

Many business owners make the mistake of trying to do everything and make every decision. The trouble is, this leaves little time to focus on growing your business.  It also leads to your more than capable team becoming incredibly frustrated at being micro managed. To relieve yourself and develop their skills you need to find a way to pass on the tasks that should be theirs.

A word of caution - if you are a typical entrepreneur then this won't be easy.

In case the above doesn't convince you, let me summarise - if you don't delegate:

Your business will stagnate.

Your best staff will leave.

Your remaining staff won't be good enough to delegate to.

OK so that's a bit tongue in cheek but I'm sure you get my point.

So what is delegation?

The art of delegation is all about giving your staff the authority to use their initiative. They become responsible for the outcome and you make it clear you expect them to act independently.  BUT (and it's a big but) you must never come down on them like a ton of bricks if it doesn't work out or if you would have done something different. Delegation demands a coaching style, you need to talk through the outcome, what went well and what could have gone better. By doing this they will learn from the experience and try again. Get this bit wrong and they will never let you delegate again. If you really do have a good team, they will care about doing a good job so it won't go horribly off track in the first place.

Five steps to better delegation

Next time you have a task land on your desk that you question whether you should be doing, ask yourself:

1. Is there someone else that could do this task as well or even better than me?

2. Does the success of the task depend on me? Be honest?

3. Will I be doing an employee a favour by delegating?

4. What's the upside to passing this on?

5. What's the downside to not passing it on?

I believe that every manager has successfully delegated at some point in their career but the key is to make it a habit. Try catching yourself out when you're about to not delegate and turn it around.

One last point - when delegation starts to become a habit you will find chunks of time opening up. Watch out for them as it's time for long term thinking (aka having a coffee).

Happy Staff = High Performing Staff

Rachel 

So much is said about how employees are our best asset but how much time and effort actually goes into helping our employees become happy? Not a lot in many companies I suspect.  The crazy thing is that it doesn't have to take much time or even effort.

Lets face it, 'Happy' isn't a particularly strong word in the lexicon of business language.  So if you're not convinced about the value of happiness lets look at the basics.  When I walk into an office I'll instantly sense a positive mood and will usually expect it to be a productive environment. The flip side is that disgruntled employees disengage with the company and performance will fall.

Every company is different so there's no magic bullet to creating a place where employees are happy and productive.  However there are some basics that I believe every company should consider but don't treat this as a shopping list.  The most important piece of creating a happy and engaging place to work is to consider the individual and collective needs of your employees. Remembering that small changes can make a huge difference.

A good starting point to look at your work environment.  Ask yourself a few simple questions - Is it fit for purpose? does it reflect the company culture?  What can I change to make it just a little bit better?

Any mention of 'culture' causes most small business owners roll their eyes and look away.  However it is important and doesn't need to be difficult.  Don't force it -  culture needs to create itself.  The best way to build a culture is to let your employees do it for you.  Your job is to offer support and encouragement.

There is one area that you can and must work on - you are in charge of the relationship with your employees.  Think about each employee and experiment with ways to build the relationship.  To some their family is everything so ask how their partner / kids are.  To others their car is their like so take an interest.  There's no need to pretend you love cars, dogs, houses, travel etc etc - that will be obviously fake. what you need to do is show that you understand that it's important to them.

Don't think that this is all about you making the changes.  A great way to improve engagement is to encourage employees to support each other.  A 'thank you' from a co-worker is almost as rewarding as one from you.  Make that 'thank you' public and it's effect is magnified.  We call it Kudos and many of our clients are seeing the difference a bit of thanks can make.

Another area that is in your power to influence is their daily tasks and job resources.  How can you help make their lives a little more productive. Do they have what is needed to do the job properly, efficiently and rewarding?

So as I said at the start, there's no magic bullet - perpetual improvement is key.  Make a small improvement to each employees work life and you will dramatically improve performance.  The knock on effect is that your life will become easier and a whole lot more pleasant.

Developing a Measurable Corporate Recruiting Model

                                                                       
 Kazim Ladimeji

 There was a time a few years back when HR – or Personnel as it was referred to then – was able to sit happily within the corporate business model as a cost center; there was little controversy and it did not need to justify it’s presence or exhibit a return on investment. But, the game has changed since then, due to increased competition on every level, which has forced businesses to become increasingly metrics driven. Today, there are new expectations placed on established cost centers like HR and particularly corporate recruiters, who must now be able to measure and quantify their success and demonstrate a tangible return on investment.

Below, I have set out the two main approaches that corporates recruiters can take to quantify their recruitment and interviewing process and show that they are undeniably key contributors to the success of the business.

1. Align your metrics with business strategy

To ensure that the recruitment team’s goals are truly business aligned, corporate recruiting goals should be developed in line with the business’s balanced score card.

For, example, it would be ill-advised for your recruiting team to place too much emphasis on internal recruitment success if the company strategy is geared towards refreshing the talent base by attracting more external talent. Equally, you might not want to focus on speed of recruitment if the company strategy is focused around quality/first year employment retention levels, Or conversely, maybe the company wants to improve its employer brand positioning which suggests an increased emphasis on candidate relationship management and a little less emphasis on speed. And so on… The point being, align corporate recruiting practices with your company strategy, not solely on your HR specific strategy. To compliment this alignment, ensure that costs and budget structure are geared toward the end business goal, such as reducing cost of hire, reducing recruitment advertising spend, generating more top salespeople hires to increase revenue, etc…

2. Choose your recruitment metrics carefully

Until now, the most commonly used metrics in the corporate recruiting world have been Time to Hire and Cost to Fill. These metrics have and continue to serve their purpose well. However, in today’s world there is a need for some additional measurements of performance –  as was underlined in a recent mini white paper in HR Management Magazine, called Recruiting Metrics – The Rules Have Changed –  and I have described these below.

1. Performance/Quality of Hire: The performance (measured by appraisal scores) of employees during their first year is compared to that of their more experienced peers.

2. Manager Satisfaction: The manager’s satisfaction with the service quality of the recruitment team is assessed by a customer satisfaction survey carried out after each recruitment project and/or annually.

3. Candidate Satisfaction: Survey candidates and find out what percentage of them are satisfied with the process.

4. Pipeline development: This measures the number and quality of external and internal candidates in the pipeline and should really be supported by a CRM system.

It is clear that there are a range of recruitment metrics that can be used to help steer the activities of the recruitment department. Whichever metrics you choose, it is vital that they are developed in line with the company’s balanced score card, business strategy, and HR strategy. If developed properly, internal recruiting departments can help businesses achieve measurable, clearly defined goals, which in turn should create a clear business case for increased visibility, access, and budget for the recruitment department.

The Lost Art of the Thank You Letter

                                                                                    

Marie Larsen

The after interview thank you letter is regarded by many modern job seekers as an antiquated formality. They view the thank you letter as trivial, bothersome, and time consuming – an unnecessary epilogue that might be skipped when wrapping up the interview process.

To those that subscribe to this philosophy: Not writing a thank you letter after your interview is like tripping at the finish line of a triathlon. After all your hard work and effort put into the planning and the preparation for your interview, why would you lose your focus right at the end and let this critical feature slide?

By not sending a thank you letter, you are allowing your name to fall into obscurity. As a job seeker, your thank you letter is your last chance to wave your flag and be heard – your last chance to end on a bang and send a final resounding image of a grade-A applicant to your interviewer.

Yes it’s time consuming and bothersome to compose a custom thank you letter after every job interview, but putting in the extra effort pays off. Here are the ways you go about constructing you thank you letter:

Email or Letter?: The short answer – both. Most applicants are already hard pressed to write even one thank you letter, think about how you’ll stand out if you have two up your sleeve. Immediately after your interview, send a quick and casual thank you email to your interviewer. This will get you in front of their thoughts and on top of their mind on the same day that you went in for an interview – a wise decision. A few days later, re-grab their attention with a formal, handwritten or typed thank you letter sent by traditional means – snail mail.

Your second, true, thank you letter will set you apart as a higher caliber of applicant. To really shine, make sure you adhere to all the formatting rules of letter writing. A quick Google search will show you the proper structure.

Stay away from gimmicks like perfuming your envelope to add “your scent” or using brightly colored or outlandish paper – remember this is a business document, not a love letter. It’s primary purpose is a call-to-action, not the beginning of a romance.

Finally, as for content, thank the interviewer for their time, bring up key talking points from the interview (to prove that you weren’t asleep the entire time) and end on a powerful call to action that advertises you as the best solution for their employment need. Overall, be brief and be positive – whatever happens now, at least you’ve crossed the finish line running full speed ahead.