How to – Leverage the Younger Worker If you didn’t catch the recent episode of 60 Minutes on CBS that highlighted the challenge of the Millennial (born 1980-1993) workforce, then you might have heard people talking about the challenge of attracting, retraining and working with the newest entries into the workforce.

Many Baby Boomers winced when they heard how they would have to change if they wanted to leverage the skills and talents of these workers. Take heart, older workers – it does not mean you have to allow yoga class and parties to take center stage. You don’t have to change everything – but you do have to change some things. Select a few from the following list to get started:

• Break down the silos, functions and hierarchies that exist within your business and replace them with a talent marketplace: a free flowing, market driven work environment where your talent flows to where the customer need or the value creation potential is greatest.

• Replace your current systems with sophisticated systems that deploy your human capital with optimal efficiency and impact, and which give you the quality and responsiveness of data that you can act upon immediately. Upgrade and update your firm’s HRIS system, website, job posting and application process and have a speedy intranet that employees can access from home as well as the office.

• Celebrate the ideas of your people in relation to helping the business add value and grow. Recognize and publicize people’s contributions and accomplishments. Spread the applause around.

• Transform how you communicate with people. Utilize the technology people are using (can you underwrite some IPods?) It’s been said that a podcast has more potency, relevance and impact than any company newsletter ever has or will. Communicate in the ‘language’ of your employees and their medium of choice in order to be heard.

How do YOU feel when you come to work? If you are excited about the mission and see that the values of the company are palpable when you enter the building, there is a better chance that your workforce will too. Do you feel better by being a part of things? Do they feel cooler by being part of your team? Creating that sense of belonging and pride is one way to leverage the talent of the younger worker.

Labels: management, Millenial, Workforce, young

  9:55 AM •  0 Comments •

How to - Delegate Like a Master An essential skill to managing well is delegation. The problem is that many managers think they can do a better job if they just do the task themselves. Rather than risk losing any power or stature, they keep many responsibilities and assignments for themselves. Not delegating effectively can actually cost these managers stature and they become known as someone who does not know how to develop people.

If you want to get work done through others and build your reputation as a ‘people grower,’ here are some ideas about the best way to effectively delegate:

· Delegate the whole task to one person. Giving someone responsibility can increase their motivation.

· Assess the skills and capabilities of employees and choose the right person for the task. Know if you want to stretch someone’s skills, have the task completed as fast as possible, need to develop a person’s creativity, or want a fresh take on something.

· Be clear and specific about your desired outcome. That means letting them know when it should be completed, the constraints and parameters involved, why it needs to be done, what success might look like, and even why you have chosen them.

· Delegation means that you have given someone a task to accomplish but not the method to accomplish it (That’s assigning!) Let the person determine how to go about getting you the results you are looking for. Determine if you require a completion date; don’t make them guess.

· Employ active listening skills when delegating. Ask them what their impressions are of your delegation conversation and have them tell you what they think the results you hope to see are. Take the time to make sure they are clear about the expected outcome.

· If you need some control, they have not done this before, or they are learning the task, follow up a little more closely or frequently in order to get ongoing feedback about the progress of the assignment. Regular communication can provide information about how things are going (and you can catch problems earlier). Once you have determined how often to touch base – back off.

· If things go awry, don’t immediately jump in or take the assignment away from them. Continue to work with them and provide support and feedback.

· Evaluate the outcome. Did you get what you expected, more than you hoped for, or get an unexpected surprise or headache?

Delegation is the best way to develop employees and prepare them for growth and opportunity within your organization. As a manager, you should be doing the things ONLY you can do, and providing your employees a chance to learn, grow, get feedback about their performance, and contribute.

Labels: delegate, management, tasks

  8:31 AM •  0 Comments •

How to - Get The Right Things Done Time is a precious and finite commodity. You can't save it and you can’t manufacture more of it. You can only use it. The best use of this limited resource comes from

· Prioritizing the many demands on your time, and
· Using as many time management tools as you can.

How well do you use your time? You can inventory how you use your ‘non-productive time’ (driving, sleeping, eating, exercising, walking the dog, watching TV, surfing the Internet), and eliminate those things that are of no value. You can also inventory your use of productive time and figure out if you have the right priority assigned to things that you need to tackle (effectiveness) as well as review your skills in handling these items (efficiency).

With regard to accomplishing work objectives and increasing our productivity and effectiveness, it might be more appropriate to call Time Management, Work Management!

An easy way to get a handle on getting to the right things, is to try the following:

On a legal pad, list all of the things that you need to do. Keep an inch margin on the left hand side of the list. If you want to include personal items (send birthday card, pick out wallpaper), do so. If there are large tasks ahead of you, break them down into more manageable steps (rather than ‘design newsletter’, put down ‘select article topics for upcoming newsletter’).

If there are any items that are time sensitive, write down the due date so you have that in front of you.

Put today’s date at the top of the list.

If you have more that one sheet of paper when you are done, don’t panic.

THEN –

Go through the list and write a M in the left hand column next to any and every item that MUST get done today (upon penalty of death). Try not to put down more than 5 M’s.

Rank the M’s in order of importance. These are the things that absolutely MUST get down today.

Then you start with number 1. When it’s completed, cross it off the list.

Don’t look down the list to find easy things to do (call Mary, return Bill’s call). Do the right (most important) things first. When you have completed all of the M’s, you can then go down the list to see what else to tackle.

As new items come up, add them to the list. Determine where they fit; Are the M’s, or can they wait?

At the end of each day, write a new list with a new group of M’s. If you didn’t get to your last M today, that becomes your first M tomorrow. If something has been on your list for two weeks and you haven’t gotten to it, either make it an M 1 tomorrow, or eliminate it from the list. It’s only making you feel guilty! It isn’t getting done and it isn’t important enough to you to get down.

Why a pad of a paper and not you PDA? Because you can see the paper easily, take it with you, keep it plain sight, have it available on your desk, and the act of writing your list keeps the items in your mind while the act of crossing off completed items can be very satisfying.

Try this for at least a week before you decide whether it will work for you. It’s deceptively simple, but also highly effective. Getting the right things done requires keeping your focus on the right things. Even if you come into work and find that there are fires that need to be put out and emergencies that require your attention, this simple system allows you to return to your plan after any distraction.

Labels: management, Part time, priorities

  7:47 AM •  0 Comments •

How to – Leverage the Career Process and Manage Talent There is a lot of discussion about attracting and hiring talent in today’s marketplace. With shifting demographics, an increased emphasis on diversity and inclusion, and a new focus on the lack of career on- and off-ramps, there simply is a shortage of people to fill the openings that companies currently have. This does not bode well for filling the openings that organizations WILL have.

The cost associated with acquiring and training employees is significant. Once you have employed people, you want to develop and retain those who can move your firm forward. Significantly, there are strategies that will allow you to leverage and nurture talent.

Career Tracking

• Monitor high potential employee at all company levels
• Systems should be in place at headquarters, plants, and all business units and site locations
• Educate employees and managers about these systems

Mentors

• Coaching method training should be provided, used, and monitored
• Mentors need to be engaged in the pipeline process
• Managers and mentors should be educated about the value of this proves to the business

Incentives

• Incentives and bonuses should reward or penalize employees fro meeting or missing goals
• Use recognition and reward strategies

Data Tracking

• Develop profiles to help the company fill gaps
• Profiles of key job opportunities must be shared with managers and employees
• Review data periodically to make sure it is being communicated and leveraged

High Potential Employee Monitoring and Support

• Identify high potential employees to insure success
• Provide ongoing support for high potential employees
• Initiative leadership development programs for high potential employees

Accountability

• Regularly review data, gaps, systems and successes
• Make company leaders accountable for becoming an organization that attracts candidates
• Tie bonuses and income for executives to recruiting and retention initiatives and diversity goals

Labels: accountability, Career development, management

  10:25 AM •  0 Comments •

How to - Manage Part Time Employees Managers, Supervisors and Business Owners need to make sure they are leveraging all of the talent within their firm, and they may be missing the boat with their part time employees. There are actions you can take to support these often-overlooked employees. Encourage your part-time professionals to connect strongly when they are working so that their professionalism shines through. For instance:

Managers:

Ø Make sure you are aware how part time employees spend their time while they are at work. Determine if the goals and objectives that have been set are realistic expectations or a wish list.

Ø Request that employees let you know how much extra time they are donating to accomplish their goals. Someone who works 30 hours a week but gets paid for 20 is going to leave. Turnover costs your firm money.

Ø Invite part time employees to have a cup of coffee or a quick lunch with you, or attend a coworker’s birthday celebration so you can get to know them better. Don’t forget to include part time employees in training opportunities, and meetings.

Ø Urge your management team to follow your lead. Ask them if they are treating their part time employees like potential full timers. Encourage employees to grow professionally with your firm.

Labels: management, Part time

  7:44 AM •  0 Comments •