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Do This to Avoid Premature Evacuation
| PepsiAmericas found that you can't treat new hires as if they are just happy to be workiing and can wait for their professional development later. This company checked and found that half its turnover came from workers leaving within the first year. That's gotta hurt.
Even in a recession (or recession-like economy), you can't have newly hired workers leaving. It's just way too expensive. If you are able to hire in a downturn, it's probably a rare situation, and you are able to choose the best from a large number of good candidates. And you want to lose that hire? Crazy. Your organization may not have 50% of turnover in the first year, but you don't want turnover costs added to your expenses.
To avoid this premature evacuation, get new workers involved right away in ongoing activities. If you have new hires in your project, take plenty time for onboarding in the Activation and Control stages. Make sure they are comfortable with the different functional groups within the organization. Once they begin to produce, recognize them for their efforts right away. These steps are not all that difficult and will fill many gaps that cause newbies to make like a tree and leave. |
Posted on: September 29, 2008 10:18 PM
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Gas Shortage Leads to Bad Telecommuting
| As I write this many of my co-workers are planning to work at home tomorrow. Why? There's hardly any gas in town. Damage from Hurricane Ike has limited deliveries. No gas at most stations and at those long lines will finish up the gas before the weekend.
Telecommuting (at least some of the time) is becoming drastically more popular at companies, prompted by recent high gas prices. In general, telecommuting is promoted as a company benefit . That approach allows telecommuting to be treated like other benefits which are not managed aggressively and can be eliminated at a moments notice.
If another approach is taken, success will be much more likely. That approach is to establish telecommuting as an ongoing program to promote work/life balance and to improve worker commitment and productivity. This approach necessitates training and monitoring for success. The other approach leads to wasted time. |
Posted on: September 24, 2008 09:18 PM
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Much More Productivity Out of Your Team?
| Maybe you can make good news out of this bad news. IT workers in particular are disconnected from their work according to a new study:
That explains a lot, you may be thinking. Still, perhaps opportunity awaits. If you can get even some of this large number of workers engaged in your project, the results will make you appear as some kind of superhero. Search on our site here (and certainly this blog, including recent postings related to the Q12) for all kinds of guidance to motivate workers and drive them positively to results. There is now a very compelling reason to act! |
Posted on: September 17, 2008 09:45 PM
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Why You May Have to Seek Your Own Management Training
| Again we see that being successful is not enough motivation for organizational leaders to require that managers know how to do their job better. A recent benchmarking survey (pdf) shows us that “less than half of senior and middle managers have attended management-development programs at their organizations.” The study organizers explain that that this is despite the fact that senior leaders at some of the best practice organizations studies spend up to 30 percent of their time on people development.
Generally, the best practice organizations have higher customer satisfaction ratings and their financials are better. Companies who do not develop their managers are making a long-term commitment to mediocrity and obsolescence, and are probably the main reason why so many still complain about their proverbial “bad boss.”
You as a project manager should look for training elsewhere if your organization does not provide it. Start with sophisticated people skills to supplement your project management knowledge. Don’t forget the one-on-one interaction and coaching skills. You’ll need these to develop your own reporting managers so they will not be an anchor to your career. |
Posted on: September 14, 2008 11:27 PM
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Good Vibrations for Better Performance
| Here’s another proven area to manage in your project that will improve worker engagement. One of the Q12 questions (described in last post) is “In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?”
How many of your workers will say “No”? Sure, you might work in a matrix organization where you do not have that much control over the management of your workers but you can send out good vibrations. You can recognize them yourself for all sorts of reasons,
Find an excuse to recognize or praise workers in your project. It will help workers become more engaged so that you can get the results you want. |
Posted on: September 08, 2008 09:07 PM
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