ENGAGING EMPLOYEES

In today's workplace a high performance culture requires high maintenance and people issues are at the top of most CEO's to-do lists. But what does it take to build a utopia?

A large number of my friends and peers look puzzled when I volunteer that I love my job. I don't just look forward to returning to work on Monday mornings, it's more than that. I am inspired by the people, committed to the organisation and connected to my role; I am an engaged employee. In HR speak I apply discretionary effort, and when this happens everyone's happy. Happy people equal happy profits - and in a nutshell that's what they teach you at business school now.

The same friends then go into total shock when they find out that I turned down another role paying nearly $20k a year more for the one I have now. So what did my current employer do to woo me? How did their employer brand get me?

Employee engagement, what just a few years ago was conference lingo and a phrase bandied around by hip CEOs has fast become the holy grail of organisational success. What use is are a strategy and a plan without the right group of motivated people to get you there?

Engaged employees mean high performance. In an age where perception is reality; engaged employees are around three times more likely to believe that they can have a positive impact on product quality, customer service and costs. The emotional bonds that an engaged workforce develops means 'above and beyond', the discretionary effort the HR boffins refer to, becominges part and parcel of every working day. The pay-offs are mutual; work becomes pleasurable, more productive and more profitable.

In turn our willingness to recommend our employer as a place company to do business with regardless of what it sells or does, or as a great place to work sky-rockets.

What conditions do we need to become and remain engaged?

Firstly, is a flexible and friendly environment that caters for your demographic. This might mean work from home for those that prefer peace and quiet for a couple of days a week or have childcare commitments, hours to suit (within the context of the businesses' needs of course) and an at-work environment with break-out areas and even a Wii or PSP if you're high on the GenY count.

Second is the right resources to get the job the done; not everyone wants the same desk, chair, or PC, so where budgets and health and safety will allow, letting your people create their home away from home, and provide opportunities for everyone to give feedback as to what's stopping them at work. Big problems needn't always cost big bucks. I'm reminded of the story where management consultants were drafted into a logistics firm to work out why so many deliveries were made late or going to the wrong address. They discovered that the printer printing running off the delivery notes wasn't powerful enough to penetrate the multi-layer delivery notes sheets and the driver's copy was barely legible, so i. It pays to talk to your people.

Third is inspiring leadership and individual autonomy - the two can and should go hand in hand. Empowered people inspired by the organisation's vision embodied by the CEO and leadership team create their own high performance culture.

Fourth is a fair financial package; you don't have to be the best payer on the block in the same way that your product doesn't have to be the cheapest. We'll happily pay more for a pleasurable brand experience at the shops and will happily earn less for a pleasurable work experience. In the war for talent ; anything goes to attract and retain great people. Google now lets its workforce spend 20% of their time doing anything they want - which has in turn led to the development of projects like AdSense and Google News. St George offers employees the opportunity to work for four years and take year five off with an income.

Non-monetary benefits including evermore innovative reward and recognition programs are an increasingly important part of an employer's armoury to get the right people into the right seats and keep them there. There is also a growing bank of evidence to show that non-cash incentive programs improve performance more effectively. John Anderson, CEO of Gorman's Business Interiors in Detroit, created Gormanopoly, a monopoly like game that incentivized just about everything and awarded points to teams; at the end of the first year all three teams had enough points to send every member of staff and a guest on a Caribbean cruise costing over $32,000USD. "Not only was it good for the organization, it got us good PR without a lot of promotion, customers got engaged in it and learned about our culture, and it was a great recruiting tool too," reports Anderson. A recent study by the University of Chicago reported increases in productivity of over 38% against cash based incentive programs mediocre 14.6%.

What keeps me in my seat? It's culture more than anything else.

Getting the best return on investment from your employer brand budget is not an easy task and personalizing rewards and recognition is even harder.

Investing in culture is achievable by investing in relationships. Shared experiences produce relationships, they generate conversations, create memories and build emotional bonds; t, they are the currency of making dreams come true.An employer that makes dreams come true.....we might not all become millionaires but a few hundred dollars on an experience of a lifetime is definitely one more good reason to stay.

HOW TO GET RID OF BAD BUSINESS HABITS AND HOW TO OBTAIN HEALTHY HABITS

I was wondering with so much information we get today via every source of media how to become a better person or a better business owner why we were not getting the life we deserve? What is the foundation of our success? How can we describe the top ways to create wealth?

We know in our heart we must change. But do we really take action? We are a little bit hazy on finer details due to the confusing messages sent by the business marketers/ business owners. We know we must learn skills, do research, do something every day. It is like we know in order to be healthy we must eat right and do daily exercise. What is our exercise in current business activities? Do we have one? How should we develop it?

We know why we want to be successful. We want to be like that those guys who wear expensive clothing, drive BMWs and Hummers, we want to fly first class instead of feeling like "tuna in a can" in our seats. We want to feel that positive energy, inner happiness. We want to feel like kids who have no mind programming, no boundaries to what they can do. Have you heard a child saying to mommy, " I want to be a movie star" I want to be a banker" I want to be a doctor" Kids already visualize so early because they have no limits to what they believe. We want to feel good about ourselves. And we want to be attractive, happy, fun-loving, life-loving people...

The missing links is how and show me the way:

Some days we all lose focus on what we do, and we forget we must have will power. We get distracted by phone calls, chatting on instant messenger or just simple daily errands. We get started and get all excited but then.... we are fried. We lose desire, drive to do anything. Every obstacle that has been created by the mankind is there in front of us. We become self-destructive. We create those obstacles. Nobody does. Our sponsor does not create obstacles. The company does not create them. All obstacles are inner obstacles. I read somewhere and it gives a good analogy to human behavior

"A fly in a pitcher plant is, at the beginning eating the plant. At some imperceptible point, the plant is eating the fly."

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle

What we repeatedly do, defines us. Imagine your dream life and then think of your life now. The difference largely amounts to "doing and taking action." In your dream life, you'd be doing something different than you're doing now.

Our habits can be constructive and destructive. One thing every habit has in common is where it comes from: from inside. Do you remember a movie about ground hog day? they have no structure, no sense of purpose and no desire to change life. Their routine is boring and that is what can happen to us. We become satisfied with our cozy thoughts and we find excuse after excuse

But how do we get from point of being self destructive to being constructive?

We have to have three important attitudes or attributes

1. We must be committed We must have the right mindset and believe in ourselves not someone else

2. Commitment will bring clarity. We must be clear all disbeliefs. We must clear the path to success by eliminated dirt, mud and weeds growing on the way.

3. We must be consistent. It will teach us to overcome fears. Fear is the biggest doubt people have.
I think in order to feel great about ourselves we must control our habits, set attainable goals, and stay focused.

One more thing...do not forget to be yourself.

We all have bad habits but we need to learn how to get up after falling and take it the way it is and move on...

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 201 – TROUBLE-SHOOTING TIPS

When I was a college student, I got an 'A' in my Accounting 101 and 201 classes. Then I entered the "real" world and almost SUNK the family business because I had no idea what I was doing with the "real" accounting. You see, the examples in the college text book used financials that were correct. That means, the dollar amounts in the accounts could be trusted, and were assumed current and accurate.

The "Real" World...

Well, when I took a swing at entering my accounting data I made a big "Slinky knot" mess out of my Peachtree accounting file. Ooops. I didn't learn how to FIX my accounting in college. That would have been useful! I learned what I know from falling in holes and climbing out of them.

As a business consultant, I see lots of financial reports. Most of them have a few "Slinky knots" in them...accounts that are just wrong. The data in those accounts are the result of mistakes in data entry. In my consulting work, I start by helping my clients get to KFP - a KNOWN Financial Position. Let's get the accounting correct. That's the first step. From there, we can see the impact of operational, marketing and sales behaviors. The good news is that you can always improve your financial situation once you know what it is. I am kind of like Super Nanny. I show up, we work together to clean up the accounting and we put simple systems, routines in place to help you stay at a KFP.

Sometimes, we clean stuff up and then it gets messy again. Just like Super Nanny, I go away after my consulting visit. It is up to my clients to maintain the systems we put in place. I can always come back and I often help over the phone. However, the key to staying at KFP is your willingness to learn enough about the accounting systems to enter data properly and to fix things when they get balled up.

If you are the owner of a very small shop, you might be the Financial Manager of your company (as well as the Service Manager and Marketing Manager and Salesperson, etc.) That's the way it goes. If you dream of being a bigger shop, take heart that every big company was once just your size. The way out...is through. Take responsibility and do a good job as the Financial Manager. Quit looking for a magical solution (accounting fairy?) who will handle the accounting for you. Learn how to do it yourself and document your basic procedures. This will help you hand off the accounting duties successfully.

In larger shops, sometimes the accounting duties get handed to...

• The Financial Manager

• The Office Manager

• The owner's wife, mom, daughter (other relative)

• The Bookkeeper• The Secretary

• The "Girl in the Office"

Whatever YOUR title, if you are the one who is responsible for the financial information at your company, I am here to help you. The following are a few tips and tricks for finding and fixing the "Slinky knot" messes in your accounting program.

Financial Fix Tips and Tricks...

• It's probably YOU. I often hear something along these lines, "That number wasn't there yesterday. It must be a QuickBooks problem." That weird dollar amount in your financial reports probably has a very simple explanation. Somebody, maybe you, entered that information. In every accounting software program, there are debits and credits. Sometimes the debits and credits are not visible from the data entry screen. You will have to do some digging. Follow the flow of information from the entry point to the Income Statement (aka Profit & Loss or P&L) and/or Balance Sheet. (In my lengthy career, there have been only 2 cases where the accounting program was corrupt. Chances are...YOU are the problem. J Start trouble-shooting from that assumption.)

• Stay current with your financial reporting. I recommend a WEEKLY review of the Balance Sheet and Income Statement. Some contractors I know get daily reports. That's great! Once a year at tax time is just not going to cut it. Get to KFP and run the financial reports at least once a week. It is so much easier to find and fix a mistake that happened in the last few days than trying to track down something goofy from six months ago. Also, you can fix the mistake in the current month. That is better than having to re-open a previous month and adjust it. Once I "close" a month, I don't like to open it again.

• Go line by line down the Balance Sheet and Income Statement and look for "weird" things. If you are just getting started with this process, I can help. Or, your accountant may help you learn what's "weird" and what's right. What a great opportunity for him or her to add value to your relationship. KFP means that every account is RIGHT. It reflects what you have in Assets, what you owe in Liabilities and what you own in Equity. The Sales account should equal what you have sold for that period of time. The Expenses should reflect what you have expensed for that period of time. The financial reports should be current and true. Here's a list of "weird" things that may need some fixing...

o A dollar amount that is positive when it was negative last time (or vice versa.)

o A negative Asset. (Unless it is Accumulated Depreciation or Amortization. Those numbers are "contra" accounts and serve to reduce the value of the associated assets.)

o A negative Liability.

§ Pay particular attention to your Payroll liabilities. I recommend using a Payroll service like ADP or Paychex. The number one reason: The service handles the liability so you don't have to. The service will tell you what the cash requirements are to pay your team and Uncle Sam. They will do the tax payments for you. The Journal Entry to enter Payroll is much easier if you don't have to keep track of the appropriate liabilities and payments. I attached a sample JE for entering Payroll. Follow the flow of debits and credits. You could create a sample transaction for your Payroll procedure and reference it every time you enter Payroll.

o A negative Sales account (unless it is the Customer Refunds or Discounts...contra accounts.)

o A negative Expense account. Now, an account may look weird but be right. For instance, if you enter a rebate for your Insurance it will show up as a negative expense for that month. Drill down and make sure.

o An account that is very different from last week or last month. If all of a sudden your Advertising expense went from about $2,500 per month to $300,000 this month, drill down. Something may have been miscoded.

o Have your accountant help you make the weird things right with an appropriate Journal Entry or reversing entry.

o Find out how it got weird, if you can, and update the data entry procedure. Written procedures are KEY to staying at KFP.

o If you don't know how it got weird, at least get it to right. If it is a small dollar amount, create an adjusting entry and watch to make sure it doesn't get weird again. If it does...look through the previous week's transactions for that account to find the entry. This is forensic accounting!

o If you do this once a week, YOU will get intimately familiar with the accounts and the dollar amounts. You will become an expert in what looks right and what looks "weird" and how to fix the weird stuff.

• Run a transaction register report and look for the debits and credits. Different accounting programs call this report by different names. Look for the detail trial balance or the General Ledger journal to find the "guts" of every transaction. Double entry accounting is based on the universal law of "what goes around comes around." If something goes up, something else goes up or goes down by that amount. Debits and credits are the mechanics in the accounting system that cause the dollar amounts to go up and down...and the Balance Sheet to stay in balance. There are debits and credits behind every data entry screen. You can also affect accounts directly by creating a Journal Entry. I attached a "cheat sheet" of Debit and Credit rules. I reference this several times a week.

• Look for before-and-after differences. If you are not sure of what is happening at a particular data entry point, try this:

o Run the Balance Sheet and Income Statement.

o Enter ONE transaction. Run the Balance Sheet and Income Statement again and see if you can see where the dollar amounts ended up. (Make sure no one else is in the accounting system while you do this.)

o This is a street smart way to discover the "set up" behind the data entry screen.

• To recode, delete or reverse a transaction? It depends on your accounting program. With a basic off-the-shelf program like QuickBooks, MYOB or Peachtree, you can drill down to the transaction that needs to be fixed and recode it. Or, you can delete the transaction entirely and try again. With a more sophisticated industry-specific program like Successware, Ergos, etc. you may have to enter a transaction that reverses your original transaction and then re-enter the transaction properly.

• Be careful with your initial company set up. That's where a lot of the behind the scenes accounting is created. If you are entering Service Sales and the dollar amount is showing up as Service Agreement Sales there may be an "item" or other set up instruction that is sending the information to the wrong sales account. Go to Company Set Up or the Items list and do some investigating. Figure out the default debits and credits and which accounts are affected. Update the "set up" and see if that fixes the problem.

• Get bossy with your software support team. Call for help as you need it. If you don't understand what they are telling you to do, ask again for a clearer explanation. If they want to fix something for you, sit in as they do the correction so you can "follow the flow" of the debits and credits and learn from the experience. The more you know about your particular accounting software the less intimidated you will be by the accounting processes.

• Be assertive with your CPA or tax preparer. At the end of each quarter, take the time to make sure that your financials agree with the financial information your CPA is sending to Uncle Sam. Work together to enter the year-end Journal Entries needed to bring your accounting system up to accurate.

• Learn to trust your intuition. As your understanding of double entry accounting increases, trust your gut feeling that a dollar amount is wrong or "weird." So often, I help someone fix a "Slinky knot" and they respond, "I thought that might be the problem!" If you have that thought, follow it and see what you uncover.
If it is your responsibility to get the financial "Slinky knot" untangled, take a deep breath and know this: You can do it. You may need some help. Contact me if you feel overwhelmed and we'll set up a time to visit on the phone. This accounting stuff is just not that hard once you learn the lingo and accounting basics. One of the smartest Financial Managers I know is working with an 8th grade education.

Once you get a handle on them, you can delegate the accounting tasks. It is a blessing to have done the accounting yourself because you will never be held hostage by your bookkeeper (or "girl in the office.") You can coach someone to be even better than you were at the basic accounting tasks. And you will understand the Balance Sheet and Income Statement so much better for the experience.

THE APPRENTICE LEADER – MAKING THE MOST OF LEARNING ON THE JOB

Leadership is an apprentice trade. You learn some of it in the classroom and from books. You learn most if it on the job. You learn it from others and you learn from experience. Here's how to get the most out of what you learn on the job.

Improve your Odds of Getting it Right the First Time

Get some training in supervisory skills. Classroom training and reading can give you ideas of how to analyze situations and what practices to try. They can be the basis for your on-the-job experiments in leadership.
Identify role models you can use to help you figure out what to do in a leadership situation. Find a mentor who can help you.

Discuss leadership situations with other, more experienced leaders. They can give you perspective on what may work best and on pitfalls you may not see.

Experiment

Forget "trial and error." That sets up you to think of something that doesn't work out the way you expected as a "failure." And it assumes you only learn from failure, which is silly. So, instead of "trial and error," think "experiment."

When scientists experiment, there are three steps. First you set up a hypothesis or what you think will happen if you act in a certain way. Next you act in that way and observe what actually happens. Then you compare your hypothesis with reality and decide how you'll do things next time.

That's how Thomas Edison worked. When he was asked if he was discouraged because he'd tried filament after filament for his electric light bulb and failed to identify a good one, Edison had a classic reply. "I haven't failed. I've found lots of things that won't work."

If you consider your tries as experiments, you should learn from things that work and from things that don't and you'll avoid that emotionally charged word: "failure." The only experiment that fails is one you don't learn from.

Experiments give you feedback. And feedback is important if you want to get better.

Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions

In 1988, researchers took workgroups and applied different tactics to see how those tactics affected baseline performance. Feedback was the most powerful of all.

Feedback alone increased performance over the baseline by 50 percent. The more feedback you get the faster you learn.

Develop the feedback habit. Analyze your experiments. Ask your boss, your peers and the people who work for you for feedback on your behavior and performance. Critique your own supervisory performance. All that feedback will help you decide what to work on to get better.

Deliberate Practice is How Champions Train

My friend Jack and Tiger Woods both play golf. Tiger plays much better. Talent is part of the reason. But Tiger and Jack practice golf very differently.

When Jack practices, he heads down to the driving range and hits a couple of buckets of balls. When Tiger practices it's likely to be something much less fun and much more specific.

Tiger, and most top athletes use a technique called "deliberate practice." It helps them accelerate their learning. It can do the same for you.

Deliberate practice was developed by Professor Anders Ericsson of Florida State University. It involves three things.

Work on a specific skill or skill cluster and get a clear target for achievement. Instead of just banging away on the driving range, a top golfer might work on using an eight iron to get the ball within 20 feet of the pin.

Observe how you do. That's feedback. And adjust what you do on the next try. Do it over and over until you get the results you're after.

You're going to learn most of your leadership trade on the job. You'll learn faster and better if you do four things. Improve the odds of making the right choice the first time. Think of your actions as leadership experiments. Get lots of feedback. And use deliberate practice to develop specific skills.

MULTIPLE VENDOR STRATEGIES – ENSURING THE BEST PRICING AND SERVICE

Inviting competition for your business is in your organization's best interest. Vendors will go to great lengths to convince you that they alone possess your sole source solution or that you'll always get the "best buddies" platinum service plan because of a personal relationship. The reality however, is that the sole supplier is isolating you from the competition and preventing your organization from achieving a more efficient cost structure.

Having conducted thousands of audits nationwide, it has become clear that cost abuses in single vendor scenarios are quite significant in nature. Common abuses include failing to conform to established pricing, double billing and overcharges. And while you may be convinced that the dependable service you are receiving from a particular vendor justifies a little latitude, you are really overpaying for what you should be receiving anyway. Any major corporation spends more than enough money annually on the majority, if not all, of their operational and administrative products and services to entice multiple vendors to offer their best or near best pricing, terms and conditions. When you demand competition from amongst your vendors, the honeymoon never ends. Once contracts and pricing have been implemented, the selected competing vendors will bend over backwards to outperform the other guy in an attempt to secure more of your business.

An exceptionally valuable bonus provided by implementing a multiple-vendor strategy is that it acts as a contingency tactic in situations where not having a backup plan in place can create costly operating disruptions. When initially evaluating potential vendors, specific criteria must be met. This may include among other things geographical coverage, product line coverage and service response guarantees. In choosing vendors that meet the specified criteria, you will have identified overlapping providers such that if one vendor begins to slip, experience financial difficulties or (knock on wood!) goes out of business, a second vendor can pick up the slack while you qualify a new one. With this arrangement, the competitively priced delivery of supplies and services are never interrupted, and you can leave all the hair you currently have right there on your head.

REINVENTING THE WHEEL

I'm a big believer or reusing things, particularly if I know something has already proven itself to be a viable solution. As a small example, I maintain a library of templates for such things as word processing and desktop publishing documents, web pages, and simple data base designs. I select a template, and then fine tune it until I get what I want. I find this saves me a lot of time as opposed to developing something from scratch. If I find something else useful along the way, I add it to my library. In the systems world, I have always advocated the sharing and reusing of information resources, such as data and processing components, which I often refer to as "building blocks" for developing systems. It's just a smarter way of operating and, frankly, I don't like to reinvent the wheel with every project I'm working on. Instead, I want to get the job done. If that means reusing something, so be it, regardless of its age; if it works, it works.

I'm not much of a proponent of "throwing the baby out with the bath water," but I know a lot of people who are just the antithesis of this and are constantly reinventing the wheel. I don't know why this is, but I suspect it probably has something to do with human ego. It's kind of like someone saying, "Well, if I didn't think of it, it can't be any good and I'll go and invent one myself." We saw this for years when we sold our "PRIDE" methodologies for systems design. We met several people who thought our methodologies were nice, but thought they could do it better themselves and invested thousands of dollars trying to reinvent our wheel. Inevitably, such undertakings ended up as disasters and we sold them our product in the end. I always marveled at the amount of time and money these companies wasted in the process though; all because of ego.

Years ago General Motors took some heat for slipping a Pontiac engine into an Oldsmobile chassis. People thought they were getting gypped by getting a "cheap" engine. To me, I thought GM was brilliant. Here we had a company who designed products with interchangeable parts in mind. This allowed them to reduce inventory overhead, integrate their product lines, and still produce quality products less expensively. And I can tell you, there is nothing "cheap" about a Pontiac engine. Nonetheless, the public didn't see it this way.

In the systems world, I think you would be surprised to see how much computer software is thrown out with each release of a product. Instead of reusing program code, a lot of companies simply reinvent the wheel with each release. I find this rather strange and a huge waste of money. Maybe it's because people don't know how to share and reuse component parts; either that or they simply don't want to. Either way, the human tendency to avoid sharing and reusing anything, and reinventing the wheel each go around, leads to increased development costs, which, of course, is inflationary.

Another reason for not sharing is I believe we no longer have a sense of history anymore. We do not study what worked or what didn't years ago, we are only interested in the present. Consequently, this leads people into reinventing a wheel that was invented some time ago.

There have been plenty of tools introduced over the years for standardizing and sharing components; everything from Bill of Materials Processors (BOMP) in the manufacturing sector, to Repositories in the I.T. field. You can find such tools in just about every field of endeavor. The technology is certainly available to share and reuse components, but the desire and discipline to do so is not. I can tell you this, sharing and reusing things doesn't happen by itself. It requires a concerted management effort to make it happen. But if management is oblivious to the problem and doesn't care about the amount of money they waste year after year, then I guess we will be "reinventing the wheel" for a long time to come.

HR TRAINING ROI WILL INCLUDE FOUR MAIN STEPS

Whenever there is any training with the HR, many companies will be skeptical, as they will far that they will lose the knowledge when the employees move on. A lot of turnover can also be reduced if there is a lot of investment with the training in the HR department. There will be levels with which there will be a training assessment.

The participant reaction evaluation is the first and most important, the learning that has been measured will be taken into account next. The behavior on the training spot will also be calculated. The results which are business oriented will be identified as well. Soon after this you will be calculating the ROI from the investment.

The evaluation which can be comprehended will be done mostly only with the last level. Most of the companies will be looking at the first four steps when it comes to calculating the ROI. A lot of estimates and assumptions will be made using some resources. If the evaluation level is low, then the assumptions could be greater.

The action plan of a trainee for example could be looked at initially. Looking at this, you would be able to find out that the productivity has been increased at least by a certain percentage. Looking at this gain in productivity, there could be an increase in the level of confidence. This could then be related to the return of investment.

Most of the time, when it comes to analysis of the HR ROI, only about twenty percent of training programs will be taken into consideration. This could be a very costly process. Effects of training should be evaluated; they should be converted into values that are monetary. The cost of training must be calculated, and values of all effects should be compared as per the costs.

All training programs will have shelf lives, and this will be a difficult program when it comes to calculating the ROI for such programs. Employees will be looked at, whether they would be getting the right training. There will also be the need for evaluation of the changes in the workplace, as this will affect the cost.

Training effects will be collected by the HR managers, and they will face difficulty in collecting the required data. However they try hard to make the process very simple and easy. There are some good tips which could be gotten to improve the ROI for the training. The duration of any program must always be kept in check.

All the training results must be gotten with the help of professionals. They will help a great deal. There should be absolutely no deviation from the budget, as this would cost a lot of problems with evaluating the ROI. It should be ensured that the training should be effective and the service is first rate as well.By making sure the benefits are greater than the investment for training, the HR ROI will be reaching heights that can be expected.

HR TRAINING KPI WILL HAVE TO BE

When you look at HR training, there will be the teams to consider. You will have a lot of work that you will hand out to the training managers. These will be the most important people who will know how the team under them is working. Many factors again will be taken into consideration when it comes to HR training KPI.
You will need a good plan with which you can also balance the training hours. The hours will be looked at in fine detail. Goals should be set around the training KPIs, so that you really have some kind of targets. The workforce plan will have to be set with the KPIs. You will have to monitor them, and also analyze them with the related KPIs.

You cannot have training for HR without looking at some KPIs. This will help you look at the performance, as you will have to understand what the investment will do. You have to look deeply at these KPIs, during training, and then analyze and look at the results. This will have to be done on a monthly as well as weekly basis.

One of the main KPIs that will have to be looked at, are the number of productive hours that you will have with the trainees. This can be calculated on a monthly basis. Then there will be the need to look at development as well as research, about the team that is being trained. There should be a look at the staff turnover, and all the low phases that the company is experiencing.

Next there will be a look at the sickness leave, but transfers can be excluded. Employee relations are the next factor that needs to be looked at, and this will include the role of the partners in the divisions. There will have to be those who will deal with the problems that all employees will face. How the teams are being lead and the leadership management will be taken into account.

Equalities monitoring will be looked at, as there will be legal responsibilities along with that. Safety and health of all the employees will be the last but the least. The company should look at whether the trainees will be able to do the job and also continue with the job. As they are investing for the future of the company, it is imperative to understand that this is noted.

Trainees should also be checked in the beginning to note whether they want to do the job at all. Strategies are required for the improvement of results. Though the indicators will be given on a regular basis, what steps are being taken to solve them is what is important. But they should be planned with a complete goal in mind.The environment for the employees is especially important to monitor. If the teamwork is not in place, there will be a lot of insights that the company will be missing. Service users needs have to be kept in mind to take this further.

HAVING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR HR ROI IS CRITICAL

The main equation for the above mentioned will talk about the results which are the actual expectations or the performance, and this divided by the salary and the investment for human resource development. This is what will determine the return of investment for HR. we can say that the above equation will be in relation to every single individual.

Denominators related to the HR ROI will be the compensation that is allotted in any company towards an individual. The entire compensation package will talk about the benefits for the employees, the salary they get and the investment that goes into the development of the human resource department.

Most of the time, the package will overlook benefits, as this is always distributed evenly among everyone. The other two aspects will be mainly taken into consideration for the calculation of the ROI. There will be a lot of procedure to get the calculations in place. You will have to look at the training that has gone into the HR department.

You will also have to look at development programs, and this will of course be related to the investment in the company. Shifting personnel and even educational aspects can be looked at when it comes to the activities in this department. These will not be included as they will not be able to come into the calculation factor.

The results will also be of two types. As a consequence and as a result will be the two types of results that will come with the numerator. If you are looking at this as a long-term investment, then expected results will be looked at. According to what is being expected, and according to the performance of the employees, the investment will be made.

With the look at employees and how they perform, most companies will calculate tentatively what they can invest confidently. Evaluation results are best used when it comes to expectation results with relation to employees. When it comes to the application of the HR ROI, it is best to ignore what is being expected out of each employee after a look at the investments.

Fixed values which will include these results and compensation should be taken into consideration, and the investment should be looked at from this point of view. If there are fixed methods to look at this, you will be able to cut out extra as well as the shortfall of investments. You should be able to make reviews about once in every year.

There will be levels of investment that will be looked at, and this will require establishment for the development program in the human resource program. The companies will have to know how to treat the HR ROI and also how the values should be assigned. A company should first not compare itself to others.The analysis should be made on its own strength and this will help them look at better angles within the human resources development.

HR METRICS IS AN INSIGHT TO EMPLOYEES

Most companies would claim that they value their employees a lot. But not much is done to assess what they are all about. They do not know if they are productive or not, and some even say that it is difficult to measure their capacity. There should be complete training for the employees, and through metrics it should be known whether they are being upgraded or not.

Metrics will help companies get some cost effective methods to get quality work. With this, they will also have to assess whether the employees are worth the investment or not. Employees will have to stay for a while with the company if they are being invested on. Without using HR metrics, no one in the management of the company will know who is contributing and who is not.

Measuring the quality and also inputs by the employees will help the company take important decisions. Data which is meaningful and also reliable is what is important when it comes to HR metrics. Based on this data, a company must be allowed to improve its strength in all ways. It is important not to waste too much time on and money on metrics.

It is completely unnecessary to have too much information for metrics, and it will be difficult to maintain as well. Only about 8 to 10 metrics are really needed which have to be noted, that may make an impact on business. Calculation of metrics is very time consuming and will cost a lot of money, and thus it is important to keep a check on them.

Some of the important factors that will have to be looked at will be work force productivity, employee engagement, recruiting, retention, and manager satisfaction. There are several others but these are the most important. The key to getting the right metrics is all about getting only what the company wants to know.
Employee data would accumulate, and it is wise not to spend the resources collecting too much information. The information can be collected from employees, managers and share holders. It can be kept as simple as possible. Recruiting and staffing will be a part of metrics. The state of the financial health of the company is what most people would look at when it comes to metrics.

Professionals in the HR department are looking towards building better data. This part of operations is what is getting the most amount of attention by companies. The data presented to the executives should help them make a very good change in the way the company functions. All this data would include a lot of information.They will be the salaries, turnover, benefits, decisions employees take and also how often they absent themselves from work. By having the right metrics in place, you will know what exactly is going wrong with the business. This will help a great deal with doing the right thing towards setting it right. However it is important to have the right metrics in place for this.

HR KPI IS A MUST TODAY

Employees and teams can excel greatly in what they do, as they can keep track of the performance.
A lot of good questions will be part of the key performance indicators. It will include things such as whether employees want to do the job, whether they can do the job and whether they will do the job. A development plan which is very professional can be created with the system using this aspect. The most essential information can be gotten from these reports.

With the help of these reports, the employees can be helped to communicate more effectively with people in their team. Their motivational tendencies will also be looked at closely. The feedback will help improve many aspects in the organization. This will include teams which are more productive, managers who are more effective, sales force which is very powerful and many more.

You can also be assured that the customer service will improve, and conflict among employees will also be sorted. Such kind of assessments can be used in training sessions as well. This will help with communication, task management and helping complete the task as well. Most companies will use key performance indicators for various reasons.
They will include sales, relations among employees, customer service, hire orientation, team development for projects and much more. With competition on the rise in the market, it is imperative that all companies use the KPI to get themselves better feedback about their employees and the situation they are in.

It is also a good idea to get the right company to do this evaluation. This will go a long way in talking about the right assessment.

WHY ENGAGE A CONSULTANT?

Why should any business, association, non-profit or other organization, regardless of size, engage and utilize a management consultant? Most owners of small business believe no one knows more about their business than they do. Most non-profit organizations, with the exception of the very largest ones, believe they cannot afford a consultant - it's just not in the budget.

CEOs of mid-sized companies often believe that the kinds of activities performed by management consultants can and should be carried out by their own management on top of their day-to-day responsibilities. And CEOs and senior executives of large global corporations, while generally more open to management consultants that their counterparts with small and mid-sized companies often resist engaging management consultants either due to their corporate ego or in view of cost controls.

So what should a company engagement a management consultant?

- Management consultants bring an independent perspective.

They value of having a new and different perspective for a business or non-profit organization is invaluable. Most organizations, regardless or turnover and bringing in "new talent", are caught up in the day-to-day of how they perform any function or activity.

- They often have specialized skills in areas such as strategy, finance, operations, human resources or marketing.

With the exception of the very largest companies and corporations, most companies and non-profit organizations have members of their staff wear multiple hats and perform a variety of functions. As such they end up not being experts in any one of those functions or roles. Consultants often specialize in a function or type of activity.

- Management consultants work from the perspective of best practices and use these as a benchmark for evaluation and recommendations.

Regardless of how much companies and non-profit organizations know about their industry, their competitors and marketplace, they rarely have the time, resources or the inclination to benchmark against others. Best practices - a term that has been greatly overused - is a area where consultants can identify who does various functions and activities with excellence and compare (or benchmark) that against any client. While best practices change from field to field and year to year, the concept continues to reap dividends for those who utilize it either internally or through a consultant.

- They can provide additional resource in specialized areas for a limited period of time to support a project, initiative or change such as an acquisition or divestiture.

Let's face it, even in good times, businesses and non-profit organizations do not have the resources - meaning staff - to do all the things they need to do. They need to generate revenue or raise funds. They need to delight their customers or members. They need to deliver on the core activities as defined in their mission statement. As such, there is a need for additional resources for everything from fine-tuning to a complete re-engineering of processes. Consultants - who are brought in for a set period of time and for a given amount of money can fill the gap for even the most budget constrained business or non-profit organization.

While the reasons to engage management consultants are numerous, more often than not, these four are key to the decision-making of businesses, associations, non-profits and other organizations of all sizes.

DENTAL PRACTICE MANAGEMENT – ABOUT POLICY

One of the main concerns that an administrator or Practice Manager has in a dental practice is the policies for not only dental management in general, but the policies for the particular practice he or she is working for.

Here's something to know - policy doesn't just exist for the sake of itself. It exists to forward the purposes of the practice and the well-being of the patients and staff as well. Here is some important information about policy and how it should be used:

First, the policies for a dental practice should always be in writing. This should be without exception. If a new policy is needed, then it should be implemented and also put into writing. The reason for this is to keep a common agreement amongst the staff, and having policy in writing and easily accessible for reference eliminates the possibility of confusion or argument on the subject. Policies should be kept in a single place for reference. This means keeping a book or a binder containing the various policies that are held by the office. If it needs to be referred to, it should be easy to find.

Also one of the key parts of training a new staff member should be education in the policies for the office. When this is done right, then the "groove-in" period for the staff member should go more smoothly and less confusion will result.

The final (and most important) point about policy in a dental practice is that it should be followed by each and every staff member of the practice. This includes the Dentist, and any other administrators of the practice. Having each member of the team following policy keeps all "on the same page" and helps all to know what is expected of them and able to predict circumstances. Policy in dental practice management - when followed by all - will allow for expansion of the practice as well as a more cheerful, upbeat staff.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS

Operational Definitions apply to MANY things we encounter every day. For example, all the measurement systems we use (feet/inches, weight, temperature) are based on common definitions that we all know and accept. Sometimes these are called "standards."

Other times, our operational definitions are more vague. For example, when someone says a loan is "closed" they may mean papers have been sent, but not signed; another person may mean signed but not funded; a third person might mean funded but not recorded.

While here we are focused on operational definitions in the context of measurement, the concept applies equally well to "operationally defining" a customer requirement, a procedure, a regulation - or anything else that benefits from clear, unambiguous understanding.

Learning to pay attention to and clarify operational definitions can be a major side benefit of the Lean Six Sigma process.

* Y - Continuous data (Process start/stop and cycle time boundaries (such as the unit of measure (ex minutes), the unit (the thing you are measuring), will you include weekends, holidays, non-business hours?)

* Y - Discrete data (Define Success/Defect or other attribute values you will measure

* X - The subgroups values or X-factor groupings you will use on your project data collection

* Other unique terms that apply to your project that require clear operational definitions

What it is...

- A clear, precise description of the factor being measured

Why it's critical...

- So each individual "counts" things the same way- So we can plan how to measure effectively- To ensure common, consistent interpretation of results- So we can operate with a clear understanding and with fewer surprises

From General to Specific:

Step

1 - Translate what you want to know into something you can countStep

2 - Create an "air-tight" description of the item or characteristic to be countedStep

3 - Test your Operational Definition to make sure it's truly "air-tight"Note: Sometimes you'll need to do some "digging" up-front to arrive at good operational definitions. It's usually worth the effort!!

A quantified evaluation of characteristics and/or level of performance based on observable data

Examples include:

- Length of time (speed, age)- Size (length, height, weight)- Dollars (costs, sales revenue, profits)- Counts of characteristics or "attributes" (types of customer, property size, gender)- Counts of defects (number of errors, late checkouts, complaints)

Types of Data

- Continuous - Any variable measured on a continuum or scale that can be infinitely divided. Primary types include time, dollars, size, weight, temperature, speed. Always preferred over Discrete/ Cycle time; Cost or price; Length of call; Temperature of rooms

- Attribute Data: Discrete or Attribute - A count, proportion or percentage of a characteristic or category. Service process data is often discrete. Example include: Late delivery; Gender; Region/location; Room type

YOU CAN USE MODELS TO LOOK AT CUSTOMER SERVICE ROI

When you look at how much you are getting in revenue for offering service, there will be a lot to look at. First the customer will have to be looked at when it comes to a long term value of profit which will have to be calculated. Those who have problems among customers will have to be looked at.

How the problems will affect loyalty will also is looked at. And the impact on the loyalty that is caused by service system will be looked at next. What will be calculated last is the number of customers who take care to call the company if there are any problems at all. You can easily look at the problem prevention ROI with this data.

The accessibility to service also will be looked at when it comes to ROI, and also how satisfied the customers are. A lot of questions need to be looked at when it comes to the effectiveness of the customer service. The most important thing to be considering is the problems that consistently arise from customers.

In case the customer does face a problem, then it will have to be seen how much damage this is happening to loyalty. Every month in the business, how much the quality of the service as well as poor service cost the company will be looked at. In productivity wise also there should be a calculation of how poor service affects the turnover.

You might want to raise prices or fees, and then there will be a question about what degree the service quality is to do the same. ROI looks at whether there will be a good look at the customers while they have problems or whether they are being overlooked or not. When it comes to problems, there will be the need to look at all the aspects that the problem is being handled with.

It will include account management, service center, and also relations for executive customer service. If anything is missing, there will be the need to check if it should be included or not. There will be many organizational considerations that one will also be looking at. Complaints should not be ignored, and they should be instantly embraced and sorted out.

The way the customers are affected, and all the risk that the revenue is taking, will be in terms of problems to be quantified. When it comes to employee input as well as customer input, a lot of sources must be looked at. The impact of the revenue on the quality of the service as well as marketing initiatives should be looked at by all the staff.

You will also need to give a lot of enthusiasm with the employees, and the service quality needs to be taken to a different level. These will be responsible when you want to see quality initiatives with customers. In all this, the most important factor needed to be kept in mind, is that problems of customers should not be avoided.

HELPDESK METRICS ARE RELATIVELY EASY

You will not be able to see immediate profits when it comes to helpdesks, and the cost may be large as well. This normally costs all corporate companies a great deal. Some people will be surely performing better than the others. It is also good to keep track, as there would be a lot of cost that is going into training facilities for staff.

While looking at designing some metrics for helpdesks, it may look very easy. However there will be great difficult y in doing so, if you really want the metric to be very effective. Some people often forget that the metric represents the actual performance of the companies. Most of them just look at the figures, but nothing being done about it.

A lot of agents look at the time that is being spent on a call. A lot of them are also under the impression, that if this time is reduced, there will be better performance and also more people can be helped. You might find it difficult to get statistics for a helpdesk, but later with time, if the system is well designed, you will be able to look at the performance of the agents as well as the entire helpdesk.

While some problems are simple, others will take time to solve. You should not think about minimizing the call time, as this might lead to serving the customer in a very poor way. The number of calls which are taken should also not be measured, as it is really does not mean that one with more calls is performing better.

Depending on the time spent at working at the desk, the number of calls taken can be measured. With a fixed amount of time in place, this system is looking at the number of calls being taken by the helpdesk. Most of the time, there will be pressure to keep the calls short. Agents will not be affected, but there will be the need for these managers to pass on the right requirements.

It must be understood that mechanical data alone cannot be helpful when it comes to analyzing the helpdesk performance. This information we can say, is not reliable at all. It is important however to look at all areas of the helpdesk, as it is valuable to help with the growth of the organization. If there are any drawbacks, this will surely help a great deal.

But all the information must be done correctly, and then there should be statistics which should be reliable. Else there is no point, as in the end you will get all the wrong results. What the agents say must be taken into account, and they must be given the feedback instantly. Though this job is not a pleasant one, the agents take effort to put in all that they can.Their reviews must be respected, and this would help improve all the areas where there is any shortcoming. This will help the growth of the company.

JUST ASK AND LISTEN

One of the most effective ways you can improve your skills is to consciously seek input from employees. When you know what they are thinking (about projects, about the organization, about their coworkers) you'll be better able to help them excel on the job. For example, when you know an employee is not in support of a policy change you are about to make, you can use this knowledge to better craft your message so that you can win the support of the employee.

Asking questions is one of the most powerful skills you can master as a leader. When you ask the right question and wait for the answer, you gain useful information that you can consider as you go about your daily work.

Here's a challenge: Spend at least three minutes each day in a conversation with an employee where you only ask questions and then just listen. Don't interject. Don't interrupt. Don't share your perspective. Just ask and listen.

If you are asking open-ended, thought provoking questions, you are likely to leave the conversation with more information than you started with and you will have enhanced goodwill between you and the other person. We all want to be listened to.

If you are wondering where to start, try asking these two simple questions:

1. How do you feel?

This is a great question to start with because you can tailor it to the person and the situation. For example, "How do you feel about the new process for managing the budget? How do you feel about the new organizational structure? How do you feel the project is coming along?" Just start by asking how they feel.

2. What do you need?

By asking what the employee needs, it opens the dialogue to possibilities. This easy question can also be adapted to any situation. For example, "What do you need to complete this task on time? What do you need to feel comfortable with our approach? What do you need to be satisfied with the outcome?" Seeking input about what the other person needs allows you to learn about how you can help while letting them know that you have an interest in their success.

STOP STARING AT THE COMPUTER!

Admit it. You've done it. You've stared at the computer screen endlessly wondering where to start. You have a performance evaluation due (or overdue) and the pressure to "get the thing done" is weighing on you. Here are a few tips for creating well-written comments on the performance evaluation document without all the pain:

• Refer to pre-determined standards and goals - List the outcomes you and the employee agreed to at the beginning of the year and describe what the employee did to achieve them.

• Cite examples of performance - If you have kept specific and detailed records of the employee's performance, these can be the basis for comments on the performance evaluation. If you have saved e-mails, letters of commendation, and actual work samples, you can describe these in the performance evaluation, and they serve as sound support for your ratings, whether they are positive, negative, or neutral.

• Be objective and specific rather than subjective and general -The more specific examples and factual evidence you can offer, the more likely the evaluation will be well received. It's easy to argue with opinion, but it's difficult to argue with facts.

• Write in a conversational tone - Do you write "about" the employee or do you write "to" the employee? The ideal tone to use in a performance evaluation is the more personal tone of writing to the employee.

• Strive for balance in terms of positive and constructive comments - Solid performance-related comments should be both positive and constructive. Even the very best worker can benefit from a suggestion for improvement for the coming rating period. And, even the worst employee has done something right. Make sure that both ends of the spectrum are mentioned in the evaluation comments.

The next time you sit down to write a performance evaluation, think about your approach. If you focus on specific examples and refer to previous discussions, you'll have plenty to write about. Good luck!

ARE YOU DOCUMENTING?

How are you doing on your documentation? Most managers know they should be continually documenting the positive, constructive, and neutral events that illustrate an employee's performance. This documentation becomes the basis for the end-of-year performance evaluation.

In the rush of our busy lives, it's easy to put the task of documenting at the bottom of the to-do list. Here are a few ideas related to performance documentation that should make this task a little easier:

• Keep a hard copy file for each employee so that you have a place to keep those "free" items of documentation such as written reports, letters of commendation, and notes from others.

• Keep an electronic file to hold emails, work samples, or other pieces of documentation that come to you in electronic form. Write "notes to yourself" via email and file them in electronic folders.

• Start recording performance observations directly on your appointment calendar (electronic or hard copy) on the dates the events occur.

• Schedule an appointment with yourself each week (Friday afternoons work well) to remind yourself to document a few thoughts about each employee's most recent performance.

• Ask employees to help you keep good records by having them forward regular work updates or a weekly or monthly summary of accomplishments.

• Encourage the employee to keep a "me" file where they can keep their own performance records throughout the rating period.

It's not too late to start keeping better documentation! Making one note per employee per week will yield over 50 notes per year. Start now and you'll be happy you did come performance evaluation time.

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

The start of a new year is the perfect time to re-establish your expectations for employees. If you haven't shared your expectations lately, take a few minutes this month to clarify what you expect and share your ideas with your staff. The clearer your expectations, the more likely your employees will be able to meet them.

Here are four steps for establishing your expectations:

1. Take a moment to think about the things that are most important to you on the job. What are your bottom line expectations about timeliness, preparedness, and organization?

2. Write a list of your "bottom line" expectations.

3. Share your list in an informal conversation with your employees. Ask them to add to your list and provide you with feedback.

4. With your employees' input, use this list of expectations to provide day-to-day feedback and to orient new employees to the work unit.

One manager I worked with had a very specific list of expectations that he shared with each new employee. It was a list he had refined over many years. His list of expectations included expectations like:

• Arrive to every meeting on time or early.

• Always bring the necessary information and tools to each meeting (paper, pen, agenda, working documents).

• Always leave a current voice mail message on your phone.

• Return every phone call within 24 hours of receipt.

• Acknowledge each walk-in customer within 15 seconds.

• Ensure "no surprises" between yourself, your teammates, and your manager.

PERFOMANCE EVALUATION MEETING – STOP TALKING START ASKING

In employee performance evaluation meetings you probably have the urge to do all the talking - to tell the employee what the evaluation document says (or worse yet, read the document to the employee). You tell the employee what you think of their performance. You tell the employee what you think they should do in the coming year. When you are telling, you feel in control. The conversation won't turn bad as long as you have the floor, right?

On the other side of the table, the employee begins to feel as if they have little control over what is happening to them. They may begin to shrink back, feeling as if their ideas and contributions are not important. They may begin to stew about what you are saying. Essentially, they feel pain.

Because performance management is something we do WITH employees, not TO employees, it is critical that the employee have an opportunity to contribute to the discussion. In fact, one of the elements of a Painless Performance Evaluation is that the employee talks more than the supervisor during the performance evaluation meeting.

When you're telling, you're not listening and you're not learning. It may seem less painful for you, but it is certainly more painful for the employee. Effective supervisors know how to keep quiet and encourage employees to contribute to the performance evaluation conversation by asking some simple questions:

• What was the best part of this year's performance evaluation?

• What surprised you about this year's evaluation?

• What pleases you most about working here?

• What accomplishments are you most proud of?

• What's the best part of your job?

• What's the most challenging part of your job?

• How can I help you feel more successful in your job?

• What do you need to feel excited about coming to work?

And so on. . . .By using the performance evaluation conversation to find out what the employee is thinking about their work, you begin to learn about why the employee excels in some areas and struggles in others. You learn how to better support the employee. You also avoid causing them pain. And, performance evaluation pain is pain we don't quickly forget

INHERITANCE SURPRISE!

Have you ever received the "inheritance surprise?" When it comes to employee performance, supervisors inherit employees in two ways: when the supervisor is new to the work group or when the employee is new to the supervisor. Inheriting employees is a fact of supervisory life. The inheritance experience can be either positive or dreadful, depending on how the employee's previous supervisor managed the employee's performance. When supervisors "pass the buck" they create the "inheritance surprise."

Has this ever happened to you? You inherit an employee who has a history of performance challenges, and the previous supervisor has not addressed and/or documented the behaviors. As a result, you are "starting from scratch" with the employee--unable to use any performance examples from the past to help the employee improve their performance now. The employee may have been a poor performer for some time but no one has ever discussed the issue with them. Now you are the one expected to address the situation.

You can avoid the inheritance surprise by following these simple practices:

1. Discuss performance issues with employees when the issues arise. Don't wait for a "good time" to raise a concern. There is never a better time than now.

2. Document the discussions and agreements you have with the employee in your working file.

3. If your organization's policies allow it, pass your working file to the employee's new supervisor when the employee leaves your work unit.

4. When you inherit a new employee, review the notes created by the previous supervisor. You may also want to look at the employee's past performance evaluations. If there were performance challenges in the employee's history, discuss those with the employee immediately to establish common ground and a plan for moving forward productively.

5. Have an "expectations conversation" with all new employees as soon as you begin working together.

We can eliminate the "inheritance surprise" by practicing effective performance management. When you do a good job of managing employee performance, you benefit, the employee benefits, the organization benefits, and so does the supervisor who follows you.

10 QUESTIONS THAT GET EMPLOYEES TALKING DURING A PERFOMANCE EVALUATION

The typical performance evaluation discussion is one-sided. You talk and the employee listens. As a result, everyone walks away from the encounter feeling disengaged and unempowered.

The annual performance evaluation conversation CAN be a very productive and positive experience if both parties fully engage in the conversation. In fact, Painless Performance Evaluations are based on that principle. The employee talks more than the manager does.

To turn the tables and encourage employees to participate in the conversation, you must be armed with open-ended questions. Here are a few that will get you started:

• What did you think about the performance evaluation?

• What surprised you about the evaluation?

• What pleased you most about the evaluation?

• What accomplishments did you have this year that were not included in the evaluation?

• What do you like most about your job?

• What challenges you or frustrates you most about your job?

• What could we do next year to make your job more challenging?

• What could we do next year to make your job less frustrating?

• If you could do one thing to change your job, what would it be?

• How can I help you do your job better?Before you have the next performance evaluation with an employee, think about how you can involve them in the conversation. Asking a few thought-provoking, open-ended questions might be the answer to getting them involved in the process. It might be the first step to a more engaged and motivated employee.

Performance Evaluations - Read First, Discuss Second

The best way to ensure a painful performance evaluation is to leave the employee in the dark about their evaluation until the meeting begins. The build up. The inevitable surprise on the employee's face. Chances are the encounter will be painful--for both the supervisor and the employee.

You know how this goes. The employee comes into the office with a look of dread and fear. The supervisor says, "have a seat" and begins to read from the evaluation document. The supervisor uses phrases like, "I rated you a 3 for customer service" and "I gave you an overall rating of meets expectations." The employee sits and takes it--as if the evaluation is something that is being done TO them. It creates a "you versus me" dynamic and it doesn't have to be that way.

Here's a simple solution: Give the employee a copy of the evaluation document prior to the meeting. Ask the employee to read it and jot down any questions or thoughts they'd like to share in the meeting. When the employee has an opportunity to preview the evaluation meeting by reading the document, they are less likely to be shocked, defensive, or both.

If you've given the employee a copy of the evaluation prior to the meeting, the first question you ask when the meeting begins is,

"Did you have a chance to read the evaluation?"

This seemingly simple question does a few things.

1. It helps you determine the employee's mood immediately. If the employee is unhappy with the evaluation, you will know right up front and can address those issues first. If you are doing all the talking, you really don't know what is going on in the employee's mind and usually the employee is thinking about so much that they are not listening to you ramble on about the evaluation anyway.

2. It gets the employee to talk about their reaction to the evaluation. If you are doing all the talking for the majority of the meeting, you won't know what the employee is thinking. When you do stop to take a breath, the employee may hit you with anger and frustration but only with more force because the feelings have been building up like pressure in a steam engine. This simple question lets the employee blow off steam right up front, and you, the supervisor, have the opportunity of knowing what you are dealing with.

3. It puts the employee at ease because it is an easy question to answer and gives them a sense of control right off the bat. When the employee gets to talk first, they are more likely to relax.

When you ask this simple question, "did you have a chance to read the evaluation?" you are likely to get one of two answers: yes or no. If the employee responds with "no," tell the employee that the success of the meeting depends on their familiarity with the document. Ask them to take a few minutes alone to read the evaluation and then you can resume the meeting.

If the employee responds with "yes," the logical follow-up question will be,

"What did you think of the evaluation?"

This opening question tells the employee that their perspective and input is important. It signals to the employee that this conversation is going to be different than performance evaluation discussions of the past.

A painless performance evaluation is one in which the employee participates in the conversation. If you're not asking these open-ended questions right up front, the employee will not likely understand that you expect them to participate. For the next performance evaluation you conduct, try something different. Let the employee read the document first so that they can come prepared to fully participate. You'll do less talking and the employee will likely feel much less pain.

BRAND ROIIs A MAIN DISCUSSION TODAY

Building a brand today is very difficult. There will be a lot of competition in the market unlike a few years back, as people are spending millions on brand marketing. The highly critical challenge in the marketing field is the measurement. There will be a huge need to make the brand popular, and the value has to be demonstrated as well.

The value of branding activities is important as well. You will have to have an outline for primary branding, and challenges in the communication in market have to be outlined as well. Methodologies for measurement have to be looked at next. There will be several metrics to be taken into consideration, and then you will have to see if they will or will not work together.

The marketing professionals as well as branding professionals will need to have the right measurement tools in hand to figure out a good ROI. Using these techniques, they will have to reach consensus internally. There has been a lot of speculation in the market whether ROI itself could affect the performance of a brand.

What kind of impact is sought and expected should be clearly laid out. How this will contribute to the performance in business will also be a main point. Executives should also have expectations, which are realistic, and this can be brought about by making strategies about many marketing initiatives. This will happen if sales are happening in the near future.

Input driven metrics should never become your objectives. The response from the audience is most important, and this should become the objective. Metrics should be linked to the bottom line, and there should be determination to find out if the marketing is very effective or not. Sometimes there will not be good metrics, and you should have objectives in relation to the customers' purchase.

The targeting of the audience should be looked at. Those new customers that you have should be looked at and seen if you can make a better impact on them than the old customers. Besides this there will be the competitors among customers and also purchasers without a category. Those that have a high value purchase must also be considered.

With brand ROI, it is not enough if you just build an awareness as well as interest among customers. It has to be in such a way that there will be a lot of purchases from the customers. So if the purchases are dropping, then the marketing has to be analyzed. This way, you can also assess the ROI of the brand.

The brand advertising has to be analyzed, tested and also measured. Reflection on strategy as well as impact that is assumed will be an important part of projecting ROI. Sometimes an ROI may be calculated in such a way that it will show you that you cannot recover investments. Marketing initiatives will not die with this.If this is done, you can look at making better strategies as well as good plans that are tactical. All this will give you a better insight into performance.

A NECESSARY CONDITION FOR EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT

You have a plum assignment for one of your three team members-a Caribbean trip to scout out property for a key client. Who gets it?

A report is due by 9:00 in the morning-it's complete except for the final section of the report. One person can easily add the section but it will require working late. Who gets it?

How and who you choose for these tasks will determine how even-handed you are perceived. From the perspective of the employee, fairness is the most fundamental characteristic that a manager can possess. In a survey of health care human resource managers conducted by my colleagues and me, playing favorites ranked as the most frequently reported abuse by bullying managers.

It easily beat out "threatening job loss, insulting, or putting-down employees," characteristics most frequently associated with bullying managers.

When questioned, most employees judge the effectiveness of a manager first by passing sentence on the manager's fairness. Managers may be extremely demanding and even ill tempered at times, but if they are perceived as fair, employees are likely to balance these negatives against the manager's ability to distribute excessive demands and ill temper across all employees.

Why this concern with fairness? Even though we are not altogether successful, our society aspires to a merit-based distribution system. Most of us believe in Aristotle's concept of proportional distributive justice. This simply means that we believe that the management contract implies that we are rewarded in proportion to the contributions we make. Most also take this as a core democratic value.

Cultural explanations may not be the whole story, however. Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox, The Imperial Animal, argue that desire for fairness is hard-wired into our psyche. Competing demands from our primate evolutionary past for dominance and from our group hunting evolutionary past for cooperation are resolved by giving all members of a group the equal chance to excel, that is to dominate. As they write
The ground rules of the political biogrammar becomes clear: organisms are unequal in their capacity for dominance; they strive to dominate one another; they should have a roughly equal chance to compete in this process.

Since we have evolved little since our group hunting period, it's hard not to escape these fundamental feelings in the modern work environment. The requirement for an equal chance to compete is translated into feelings of unfairness when success in not a product of our efforts but of non-relevant factors, such as favoritism.
Some simple rules to keep in mind when assigning "special" work.

1. Make sure you know every employee's workload you supervise.

2. For assigning either choice or demanding tasks, select employees who can best accomplish them.

3. Make sure you tell chosen employees why they were selected; and make sure all other employees know what your choice criteria were.

4. When anyone can complete the task, use the "who's next" rule, to assign tasks.

5. Finally, be willing to carry out onerous tasks yourself with employees at least half of the time and do not be too quick to assign choice tasks to yourself.

The savvy manager is sensitive to appearances of favoritism. By following a few simple rules, the savvy manager can lay the groundwork for effective management. Although effective management is not assured by fairness, it is almost impossible without it.

MANAGEMENT – WORK, BOSSES AND OLD DOGS

One of the definitions of management is 'skill in managing, executive ability'. Having spent a good part of my working life employed by businesses of various sizes, I have encountered all types of managers or 'bosses'. Some were skilled at managing others, some could barely manage themselves. One of my first gigs was a summer job working in a paper mill. The supervisor that I worked under had the 'authoritarian' kind of style. As he would often say, "it's my way, or hit the freaking(not exactly) highway". Old John was a man of few words, and since most of them were profane, that was a good thing. Fortunately, you don't often encounter these types of bosses in the business world today. Big business understands how easy it is to get themselves into a jackpot by having one of their employees offended, and tend towards a more civil management style. In other words, they are deathly afraid of being sued!

While John was rough around the edges to say the least, not all of the bosses I worked for were so gruff. Another guy that comes to mind is Joe Smith. Joe was an interesting fellow. He was knowledgeable about every aspect of his job. If there was something you couldn't figure out, ask Joe. The only problem with Joe was that he had a split personality. One day he would be as pleasant as a warm Spring day, the next day he was sullen and angry at the world, just waiting for some trivial matter on which he could read you the riot act. You just never knew which Joe would show up at the job that day, but you could usually figure it out within about 15 minutes of his arriving. Although the owners of the business knew of Joe's personality shortcomings, they tolerated him because he was so damn good at his job. That is one thing about business; if you are exceptional at what you do, they will generally put up with a certain degree of eccentricity from you. On the other hand, if you are just the 'average Joe', be intransigent and they will kick you to the curb faster than a redheaded stepchild. The point is, if you want to be a pain in the a... from time to time like Joe, then make certain that you are an integral part of the business.

Another type of manager that I had the misfortune to work under was a living example of the 'Peter Principle' at work. This lady had risen to her position not because of any exceptional ability, but mainly because she showed up everyday, and knew how to play by corporate rules. Even though Sharon managed to screw up just about everything she had her hands in, she was very good at appearances. One day I ventured into her office to drop off some correspondence, and couldn't help but notice all the awards plastered on her office wall. I decided to take a moment to glance at some of these noteworthy achievements. I was amazed to find that they she had received recognition for such things as having emptied and cleaned the coffee pot at the August 30 meeting, to having served on various committee's, such as what color should we paint the dispatch office this year? While I exaggerate slightly, the point is, it all looked good on the surface. While most of the 'awards' were the kind that most of us wouldn't give a second thought about, she used them skillfully to her advantage.

One of my favorite supervisors was Fred. This kindly old fellow had already retired from a couple of jobs and just wanted something to do to occupy some of his time. Ten years later, Fred had sort of 'grown' into his position. While the ten weeks of vacation he received every year was a definite plus, and the company sponsored trips he took several times a year was indeed a nice perk, what Fred really enjoyed about his job was the fact that he could play solitaire and other card games on the computer all day.

On the rare occasion when something needed to be attended to, he had Tim, his right hand man take care of it. Fred managed to keep Tim on this string with the promise that he was going to be retiring next year, and Tim would soon be sitting in the 'Captain's' chair. Problem is, Fred has been retiring for the last seven years. Fred would not life a finger to help out, but he's a nice guy all in all. He's like the old dog in front of the fire, not wanting to be disturbed, all he asks is that you throw a log on the fire from to time.

While the tone of this article might lead you to believe that I have nothing good to say about bosses, I do indeed have empathy for them. They have a tough job in that they are asked to fill dual roles. On one hand, while they understand that their ultimate allegiance is to the company and it's goals, most of their day to day contact is with workers under their supervision. It's a tough balancing act to give at least a nominal appearance of concern for workers around you while still doing the bidding of your superiors. Unfortunately, few of them can be like Old Fred, happily playing on the computer while the fire burns in the background. Tim, would you throw another log on the fire?

THE GIFT OF GIVING

The Gift of Time....it's something we all take for granted. No one really knows if we'll be around tomorrow, yet, we, as business owners and people in general, are intensely drawn to help one another--tomorrow. Daily we provide services, give jobs, advice, props, criticism--you name it, we want to give it. Freely. Except when it's inconvenient and requires more time.

Inconvenience hinders our ability to give the dough, the time and our attention. It's inconvenient to focus on life's little gifts or giving of ourselves to those who need us. So we give our money to the organizations that are in our faces, constantly. The ones with the money to get in front of us.

What about the little guy? Who's taking care of the little guys/gals in your community, keeping them off the streets so you don't have to look at them? Who's pushing g-ma in her wheelchair at the nursing home, making minimum wage?

Since these are hard subjects to grasp and we would much rather over-look the needs, let us make it easy to give to these people. Do you have a business? Do you give to a cause? If so, do you have a donate button for them on your site? If not, why not?

If you're concerned with being labeled, think of it this way. You have a personal connection with that charity, ministry, church or non-profit, right? That is a bond, by a personal tragedy you faced, in most cases. What if a prospective customer shared the same experience? And subsequently supported the same mission?

Do you think they would more than likely donate to them from your site? Then, be connected to your company through this common bond? Yes, it's likely and it's time to speak up, not sit back.

Make it convenient for people to give, and they will. Get your passion & purpose and gift out there in the open for all to see. Not only will you help your cause, but you just might gain a loyal following in the process.

Let us give the gift of giving the gift.

How do I do something like this, you ask?

Suggest the following to the cause, ministry, church or outreach program you support (if you don't support one yet, find one close to your heart):

1. Ask them to go sign up with paypal through their compliance department compliance@paypal.com
(I have no affiliation with paypal, but they're the only one's that I know of with this option)

2. Get a donate button for you to put on their donor's websites.... they’ll love you more than ever.
...And it only cost you a little bit of time...for the ultra-motivated, go and give 10% of your net profits to a mission outside your business-don't think, just act.

Mission Completion.