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Wasting Time At Work - It's Getting Worse
| Salary.com has just publicized the results of their annual Wasting Time at Work Survey. I love this survey because it is deceptively simple, and very instructive. See if you can identify the way that most of respondents waste time at work. If you could not choose the correct answer, perhaps it is because of your age. Different age groups waste time in different ways. Those 50 and over conduct personal business more often than other groups. Those over 50 also report wasting less time than other workers. In the survey overall, 73% indicated that they spend part of their day on activities that are not work-related. This is a 10% increase over last year. More people are wasting time, which is interesting because you would think they are heads down trying to appear the least likely to be laid off. (More about this in a future post.) Lesson learned: There is great opportunity to improve productivity in your project by reducing time wasted at work in the areas listed above. Avoid incorrect assumptions about who is wasting time how, as you could be wrong because of your own age-based biases. There is much more to learn from this survey, so check future posts. |
Posted on: November 26, 2008 11:30 AM
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Ignore Pay for Performance?
| Pay for performance sounds so obvious a solution to better business performance (or project performance) that you may never have heard an argument against it. You'd probably be surprised to find out that there is very little evidence to support this pay strategy is superior than others. But it's true. There are particular academics at major business schools who are trying to get the word out that pay for performance is not "the answer."
They say you have to consider the big picture with its many parts:
So don't concern yourself that your organization does not clearly pay for performance. Concern yourself with getting involved in projects that improve business performance. And within your project, root out causes of inadequate performance under your control. Like that developer who sleepwalks through the day. |
Posted on: November 21, 2008 07:23 AM
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Don't Cut This. Not Even In This Dismal Economy
Categories:
Learning
Categories: Learning
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Training is one area where cost savings are found when the economy gets challenging. Leaders can stop training events, associated travel, room fees, time off from work, materials, and more. If they need more savings, they can fire training contractors and full time designer/developers and trainers. It's almost too easy.
Because it is too easy. When you cut the workforce, including trainers, you need those who are left to get all the required work done with financial and resource constraints hitting them from all directions. You need to squeeze the maximum revenue out of every employee.
A recent study (pdf) of 200 participants shows that the median revenue per employee where average learning days per employee is
That's a serious difference - easily enough for training to pay for itself as long as the trainers and trainees are not taking the corporate jets to classes.* The study was undertaken jointly by APCQ, IBM and Workforce Management, and is part of an ongoing series of data collection initiatives. The writers of the report admit that the final numbers might be different if a different population is evaluated, but the point is made: Training and development enables employees to carry the extra weight.
So if your company is cutting training, do what you can to maintain appropriate (and cost-effective) training and development within your project. Believe me, you'll need every bit of revenue your workforce can generate in the coming months.
*Interesting side note...The corporate jets of the Detroit automobile companies have been busy taking their CEOs to Washington to ask for government loans.
(Full disclosure: I work for IBM, but have no connection with this study.)
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Posted on: November 19, 2008 09:56 PM
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Weighing Goals vs. Competencies
| There is always a struggle in an organization between time spent on helping workers meet goals and time spent on helping workers develop key competencies. Project managers often suffer when the balance isn't maintained. If the organization focuses too much on reaching goals (financial, business or otherwise), then workers are more likely to exhibit behaviors such as intimidation, back-stabbing and other opportunistic tactics. If the organization focuses too much on competencies, then people may work efficiently and even work well together, but important business and financial goals may not be met.
So where is the happy medium? LPL Financial started from scratch and chose a 75% weighting on goals and 25% weighting on competencies, which seems like a reasonable balance. You can measure the balance by adding up the time spent by workers in each of the two areas, counting activities such as training attendance, completing goal-setting forms, and getting feedback on using skills. Look over your performance landscape, and assess whether you need to improve the weighting of these two criteria in your project. If you know you have an imbalance early enough, you can make improvements through your training plan. |
Posted on: November 14, 2008 07:09 AM
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Compromised Certifications Continued
| In my last post, I alerted you to the widespread abuse of project management certification tests, some of which can be found - with answers - at "study guide" web sites days after they are used for the first time.
If you don't feel that you can trust a candidate's certification, then consider creating your own test connected with the job, and deliver it under your controlled circumstances. ("See how you do on this one sucker!")
It does not have to be that difficult, though. A better way may be to add "scenario" questions to the interview, like the best interviews in the first place. Scenario questions are phrased as in these examples:
That way you can better see if a candidate can perform what you need them to perform.
I should say that not all certifications were compromised. The Project Management Institute certification seems to have come through this smelling like a rose. |
Posted on: November 10, 2008 08:46 PM
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