Get Emotional About These IT Metrics
| If you are like most IT managers, you are mismanaging metrics in one way or another. At least that’s according to an unnamed author of a very interesting recent article. Even if you have defined and publicized organizational metrics, the author warns, they are probably traditional IT metrics that do not stir the blood of corporate leaders. And you want to stir their blood in a good way! You want to show you are having clear positive business impact.
Some interesting examples are provided that are consistent with my workforce management theme:
Traditional Metric: 30% of PCs were replaced this year. (Leader judgment: Boring!)
“Emotional” Metric: Computer replacements helped improve user productivity and lowered maintenance costs by $60,000 this year.
Traditional Metric: IT resolved 1,200 tickets this month. (Leader judgment: Is this all you do for me?)
“Emotional” Metric: 20% of IT staff time was devoted to resolving tickets. 40% of requests were related to the operating system. Windows Vista training for users could reduce the number of requests and save $5,000 per month in IT productivity.
See how the “emotional” metrics can hit home when reported to leaders?
There’s more. Here’s the link to the article, although there is free registration required. Also beware that the web content manager must have been coming down from a meth binge, because some HTML flotsam and jetsam appears in the text. And there was no author’s name when I looked at the article. Must need metrics in that department. |
Posted on: September 25, 2007 09:42 AM
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Critical Tactics to Keep Top Talent
| A report by Towers Perrin-ISR on a survey 11,000 employees at 10 diverse organizations tells us there is retention, but then there is retention. Tactics to keep top talent must be based on what engages them, that is, what motivates them to give their all – all the time.
The Molson Coors Brewing Company (MCBC) in particular has found that what engages top talent has been different from what engages the rest of the staff. Let’s see if you have the instincts to keep your top talent working for you. Which three of the following did MCBC identify as unique drivers of their top talent engagement?
A. Growth opportunities
B. Recognition
C. Respectful work environment
D. Clear job expectations
E. Talent retention
They all might sound good to you, but only the bottom three got their top talent engaged at their job. And yes, ‘talent retention’ made their top talent more engaged. Do you get the implications here? If you keep top talent, they become more engaged. When they are more engaged, they tend to stick around. Now that’s a feedback loop you want to keep spinning!
Of course, as the diet pill attorneys say, your results may differ. Your top talent may prefer other drivers. Find out. If the drivers are as easy to produce in your project as ‘respectful work environment’ and ‘clear job expectations’, you may be able to laugh at those who are suffering through today’s talent shortage. |
Posted on: September 20, 2007 10:20 PM
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Overwhelming Reasons to Spend More Effort on This Project Enabler
| Even I was impressed by the list of reasons provided in this article that described benefits of a high-performance culture. (And, no, a high-performance culture is not today’s equivalent of the Roman war vessel with “workers” chained to the oars.) I summarize what a strong culture creates here:
These are just the benefits project managers need right now! It’s time to check what else you can do to improve your work culture. |
Posted on: September 17, 2007 10:06 PM
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Workers Will Replace Your Procedures With Their Own
| Forget what you lay down as work rules, employees are likely to do whatever they think is more efficient. At least that’s what a new study finds about workers at large American companies. What happens is that many more come up with their own solutions than turn to supervisors or managers. And how does the following make you feel? Thirty-seven percent say they sometimes ignore company rules “because they’ve developed better ways of getting work done.” Does that scare you? What about customer service? Regulatory compliance?
Here’s the thing: You’re going to have to deal with this. Workers today want to work autonomously, and evidently will whether you want them to or not. Set up a process that allows them more freedom to innovate. You want them to do this. Let them know the objectives of their efforts, and let them know the constraints (regulatory requirements for example). Let them know best practices. But then let them find the most efficient way. They can surprise you – in a good way! |
Posted on: September 13, 2007 08:25 AM
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Talent For You Is Out There...Really
| I have good news if you are trying to fill positions. CareerBuilder.com says college grads are increasingly up for moving even to other states to get a good position. Fifty-nine percent of all workers would move to advance their careers, so make an effort to improve your marketing and spread the word to all states. Talent is scarce, but don’t make it more difficult to find than it has to be. Need help on this? Go to our home page and key "recruit" into the Search field. It's just another topic that we have covered for years, only perhaps you were not suffering enough until recently to need our help. We promise not to rub it in if you use some of our excellent guidance. |
Posted on: September 10, 2007 10:35 PM
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