Waste of Resources (Continued)
| Continuing from yesterday…
Your career management program has a problem if it
Hard to believe? Then it’s time you realized that your workers may approach work differently than you.
Career management for the youngest workers (“Millenials”) means succeeding in the current project, other than that they are not sure. They do not care about a future with your company because they have grown up in an environment where companies lay off large numbers of workers with impunity. Career management for them may be for you to say that they can stay on in the project if they succeed in their job.
Older workers are the most likely not to share their career plans. Perhaps this is because they assume that career management is just for the top employees in the higher floors of the hierarchy. Perhaps it is because they are included in the nearly 40% of U.S. workers who believe their next move is away from their current employer. Perhaps it is other reasons as well. These workers must be shown that their commitment and knowledge is valued in your organization and can actually be rewarded by better - and well-paid - work later. Meet the needs of all groups of workers – every individual - or forget about retaining them. |
Posted on: August 02, 2007 03:55 PM
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Is Your Career Management Program a Waste of Resources?
| Your HR people may have gone to their touchy-feely meetings with balloons and happy face stickers to develop a best-practice career management program, but, giving credence to your skepticism about that group in general, the program may still not meet the needs of your workers. A recent survey by BlessingWhite found that most workers seldom or never even share their career plans with their employer. What’s more, the survey confirms my belief that many workers don’t even have a clear plan. Members of at least one generation do not believe it is useful to plan their careers. Yet, if careers are not managed appropriately, you are not getting the most out of your workers and adding to reasons why they want to leave.
The next questions then are: Do you have a problem with career management, and, if you do, what can you do about it? I’ll look at that tomorrow. |
Posted on: August 01, 2007 02:18 PM
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How Low Can You Go? IT Worker Confidence Down Again
| There has been a sharp drop in IT workers confidence in the last couple of months. Accoring to June data, it’s nearly as bad as it has been in 12 months.
The Bad News: Fewer workers rated their finances as “excellent” or “good”. Also, fewer workers predicted their companies would be hiring in June. And more workers have concern over job security. The Good News: There was a drop in the number of workers who anticipated their company will be reducing headcount. As we have learned in previous posts, this kind of fear does not mean workers try to do better in their existing company. It means that they are looking to leave for more secure situations, so be prepared for increased turnover, and avoid problems by doing as much as possible to promote why your project is a secure situation. It is, isn't it? |
Posted on: July 30, 2007 10:49 AM
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Daily Frustrations as The Oblivious Obstruct Productivity
| Picture this:
Your worker is focused on the task at hand – cognizant of a looming deadline. Then a cell phone nearby rings, as the theme to Star Wars. The worker can’t get the tune out of his head. Say, doesn’t that guy in Testing look like Chewbacca? Never noticed it before. Wait – have to concentrate!
What’s that? Down the aisle someone is on a speaker phone! It’s a conference call about project scope change! Can’t focus!
Now what? Next door, someone talking loudly about her ex-boyfriend, who she now thinks looks like Chewbacca.
How do you expect this worker to get anything done? It won't be easy, yet yhis is not an unusual situation. In a survey last year, mentioned here, the highest rated pet peeves were loud talking, cell phone ring tones and speaker phones. What’s worse, many workers are afraid to discuss the problem with the oblivious offenders. So they suffer in silence.
It does not have to be this way. You have the power to create a more productive environment. During the activation phase, set ground rules for the work environment. Mention all the three pet peeves. Explain to all hands that they should keep it quiet, and if a co-worker comments or complains about noise, take it seriously. |
Posted on: July 26, 2007 10:54 AM
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Clock Ticking Until Bloggy Nightmare
| Oh it seemed like such a progressive idea. Allow certain workers to write blogs and use them as fun and inexpensive ways to promote the company. What could go wrong? Who needs a policy? Just tell them to use common sense!
Riggghhht. Here’s where we are now:
Look, this is little different than when e-mailing became popular. Now we have e-mail policies. It’s time for you to develop a blogging policy before you end up in a similar situation. It's just a matter of time. |
Posted on: July 24, 2007 01:17 PM
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