The Snitch

A great service culture is one where employees not only create value for their customers, but also strive to make work better and easier for the rest of their colleagues.

According to Ron Kaufman, founder of UP Your Service! College, companies need to adopt a great service culture such as this to stay competitive, keep their current customers and engage their internal employees.

“There is an increased profitability, higher margins, greater market share, more loyal customers that come to organisations that can build and maintain this superior service culture,” he adds.

In this three-and-a-half minute video, Kaufman talks about the benefits of a service culture and how HR can help create and nurture a service culture within their organisation.

Have trouble loading the video? Why not check your company or computer’s firewall settings to make sure that Youtube videos can be streamed on your computer.

Disengaged nine-to-five workers will slack off on the job

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend an afternoon talk by Right Management. At the forum, Michael Hyter, president and CEO of Novations Group was presented with a question: How do you keep the classic nine-to-five worker engaged?

Nine-to-fivers are workers who are not really looking for development. They want to feel comfortable at their jobs, and they want to go home on time. However, they are not necessarily bad at their jobs. In fact, they are capable, and they sustain the business pretty well.

Having engaged employees is crucial, as the economic downturn has repeatedly shown us. According to a Hay Group survey, companies that have remained focused on employee engagement have succeeded in maintaining or increasing motivation levels. These motivation levels are critical to deliver superior financial results and employee performance.

Productivity is dealt a blow when employees are no longer interested in their work, causing the morale of other employees to slump. These disengaged employees are also likely to jump ship to a company with better prospects.

Hyter believes we are all wired to be engaged when opportunities present themselves. Nine-to-fivers are usually under-stimulated, but it is possible to keep them engaged, especially when you show them a clearer perspective on the outcome.

He feels we should spend less time simply judging them, but instead encourage and motivate them. The key is to look at what interests them, and what their passions are. Focus less on changing them. Instead, work on developing them to achieve more, says Hyter.

Negativity can be infectious and have a draining effect on the morale in the workplace. Is there any way you can manage or even change the attitudes of negative employees?

Alan Fairweather, associate consultant of d’Oz International, believes so. In the video interview, Fairweather has a few suggestions for managers who find themselves having to deal with employees who relish seeing the glass half full.

Playing with Lego bricks can foster teamwork in employees which would translate into better decision making and effective communication in the workplace.

Other than possessing the necessary skills and creativity, a successful employee has to be able to work well in a team, says LegoLand’s creative director Tim Burnell. And it is an attribute which is specifically tested for in any recruitment exercise LegoLand conducts.

There are altogether three model building – individual skills, team skills and creative freeform building skills – tests, followed by an interview during a recruitment session for model makers. It is in the second round where Burnell would quietly observe the candidates’ ability to communicate with each other. “As team members, they try to recreate this model [a large 30cm-tall Lego man]. It’s not necessarily to rebuild it but to see how they work together as a team.”

In the video, Burnell explains why teambuilding with Lego bricks would allow HR to understand how employees connect and adapt to each other’s working styles in order to complete any given tasks.

A poorly managed restructuring exercise can result in a loss of top performers and sharp decline in morale but here’s what HR can do to avoid this scenario.

In the video below, Dr Ric Roi, senior vice president and Asia Pacific practice leader of Right Management,  shares details on how to carry out an effective step-by-step internal communication plan six months before a restructuring exercise.

For more guidelines on effective communication before any restructuring exercise, click here: Human Resources website

The one good thing that comes out of a bad economy could be the very fact that major corporations are realising the importance of customising communication with different groups of employees.

A special Buck Consultants Communications Advisory Team (CAT) conference was recently held for HR and benefits communications leaders across the US to share their employee engagement experiences and discuss ideas. At the conference, the attendees concluded that effective employee communication contains three top criteria. They are:

Tailored: Employee communications must be tailored to succeed. It is essential to align communication programmes with each organisation’s corporate culture and objectives. In many cases, effective communications need to be tailored for specific subsets of employees.

Personal: In a challenging economic environment, a “personal approach” to employee communications can help relieve employee anxiety. Layoffs cause concern and the workforce that remains behind can become less productive. CAT attendees cited how face-to-face communication by top leaders successfully outlined the steps to a new vision for the organisation and ease the workforce’s fears.

Customised: To overcome the initial employee resistance to many wellness programmes, CAT attendees are developing unconventional approaches. They include targeting specific health issues such as diabetes or breast cancer and providing related improved health incentives to personal appearance or financial savings.

Via Talent Management

Employees go wacky over social media

Tech-savvy HR professionals are rubbing their hands with glee at the rise of new media tools. For them, it means engaging employees, particularly the Generation Ys, has become dirt cheap.

With most of the companies scrambling to shave as much money off their corporate budgets, VP at Aon Consulting Ken Groh believes using Web 2.0 media and other electronic resources can do precisely that. Not only does it reduce print and postage costs, Web 2.0 media can “supplement traditional communication materials to help speed learning and employee engagement, which enables you to achieve your goals faster”.

According to an Aon Consulting survey of 8,000 employees from both public and private sectors, more workers are finding ways to use social media tools at work for work purposes. Some of the tools which they use to communicate with one another include Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, blogs, podcasts, wikis and instant messaging chats.

This should be music to employers’ ears because “corporate communicators and HR” can now align their internal communication strategies and educational material using these social media preferences. No doubt, it’ll be much appreciated by employees who have increasingly shorter attention span nowadays and need information regurgitated in a fast and efficient manner.

“Since Web 2.0 media is electronic, it can provide access to your intranet or HR portal to create a more integrated and cost-efficient way to communicate with employees, including benefits enrolment and wellness education campaigns.”

And there are some companies that have been embracing social media for quite a while now. They include Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan I. Schwartz who blogs, IBM which has its own social network for 30,000 employees called Beehive and British Telecom which uses wikis for global team projects.

While respondents who are comfortable using social media tools both at home and at work are still mostly those under age 29 (Generation Y or millennials), the rest of the generations are slowly catching up. The survey has found a “higher usage of Web 2.0 media at work than at home among employees over age 28”. So employers, you can rest assured that your  older employees would be equally attuned to any internal campaign which uses social media tools.

As the power of social media grows in the workplace, companies will find that the bond between the employer and employees who can now actively participate in online dialogues stronger than ever.

(Via Sparxoo)

High stress levels in a workplace are never good, more so these days where people are grinding their teeth and pulling up their socks to give bosses no opportunity to “cut costs”. Besides not liking it when colleagues bite our heads off over the smallest issue, high stress levels reduce productivity by a huge notch. From an article in HRZone by Annie Lawler, she provides useful tips on keeping undue stress levels down and motivation up.

1. Communicate openly

Negative mindsets can be developed in trying times. Keeping staff informed is a great way to involve them, and may in turn reduce stress. Open communication helps build rapport amongst the staff and enables them to think of ways to help the company.

2. Ensure additional pressure doesn’t become undue stress

It’s good to be alert and spot signs of undue stress among your staff, providing relevant interventions if the situation requires it. Organising short seminars and workshops for staff on ways to manage stress and maintain a positive attitude is a great way to boost morale. Government funding or grants for these workshops may be an alternative if budget is tight.

3. Maintain a positive work environment

Focus on the positives! Maintaining a positive attitude can work wonders in a workplace, where confidence can be instilled with a simple smile or from the tone of your voice.

4. Actively discourage negative talk and gossip

Encourage staff not to huddle in groups to make negative talk about other staff or the company. Negative thoughts are major stress factors, and can reduce our ability to make effective decisions. Health may also suffer from all the negativity.

5. Continue to celebrate success

Encourage your staff to report small wins and big accomplishments. Congratulating them over a job well done with small and fun treats may be more beneficial than expected. A small appreciation can go a long way in keeping motivation levels up.

6. If you have to make cuts

If you have to announce cut-backs, always remain a professional demeanour and treat staff with dignity and respect. If your company allows it, recommend relevant services which can assist them in finding new jobs.

Related posts:  Four cheap ways to keep employees happy

Best in class

With the results of Hewitt Associate’s Best Employers Survey released two days ago, I thought it would be interesting to see what HR policies and initiatives some of these companies have in place that made them a top employer.

McDonalds:

• Seeing the value in mature workers
• Investing in employer training

FedEx:

• Making employees the face of the brand
• Ensuring a fair and equitable workplace for all employees
• Acts of corporate social responsibility
• A belief in investing in women employees

Marriott Hotels:

• Ensuring line managers are trained properly
• A mutual respect among colleagues and a fun environment for all
• Ensuring a rigorous selection process to select the right expatriate for the assignment

Ritz-Carlton Hotel:

• Proactively taking steps to safeguard jobs during a recession
• Understanding the value of employee diversity

And as employer branding becomes even more important during this downturn, what steps is your company taking to become an employer of choice? Or has your company put aside employer branding to focus on other pressing issues?

Even robots deserve some funtime.

Ever felt like the king of the world whenever you’ve successfully completed a particularly tough PC game? Well, if you can channel the same excitement into your work, soon enough you can be king of your office too.

Whenever you hit a problem at work, sometimes the best way to learn or solve the complication is to start treating it like a game. Playing, it seems, makes you feel better at your job, which naturally inspires you to be more productive at work.

Rubbish, you say? Hardly so. Even if Maslow forgot to list it in his hierarchy of basic physiological needs, playing is as essential to our health as sleep or food is. So says Stuart Brown, author of the new book Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul.

Playing is actually nature’s version of troubleshooting for us. When we play, the problems we face would somehow filter through the unconscious mind and work themselves out. Just don’t be afraid of trying stuff out and to see what works. Learn from any mistakes and do it differently next time.

Playing also makes you feel alive which helps when you are back at work. Try spending a few hours doing something you love over the weekend, it can make you feel new again.

“If adults can begin to reminisce about their happiest and most memorable moments,” says Brown. “They can capture the emotion and visual memories of those moments and begin to connect again to what truly excites them in life.”

Going through this process, he adds, may also encourage someone to give serious consideration to move to another job that makes them happier or reignite their current life with elements that once brought them joy.

What’s more, with the recession upon us, there is also the worry of performing badly and getting laid off. Playing would then give you the “emotional distance to rally” as an individual or a team.

In his book, Brown cites a CEO who held an employee meeting to talk about a recent bad financial quarter. After the CEO bravely took the blame for the company’s performance, he informed everyone that there was a toy dart gun with foam darts under every seat. They were all invited to take shots at him.

The CEO then went on to explain how they, as a company, were going to turn things around. Firing the toy guns had made everyone felt better and that things might not be as bad as it seems. In a way, it inspired them to figure out ways to fix the problems.

Go on then, start playing at work today. It might just make your day.

Via USNews