Posted by Janet Smith on June 27, 2008
“Put a happy and engaged employee in a bad system and the system will win every time.” I just came across this great quote from Rick Garlick, Director of Consulting and Strategic Implementation at Maritz Research, the mega-management consulting firm.
Too bad more leaders don’t understand this. Because among businesses large and small, professional athletics, non-profits, schools and institutions of higher education, municipalities, faith-based settings and health care organizations—everywhere people work for pay—you’re more likely than not to find bad systems that suck the life out of good people.
Most people have a great desire to be happy and engaged employees. Think about your workplace. Are you motivating good people…or taking them down with an unhealthy system?
Posted by Janet Smith on June 9, 2008
If you’re a boss, you need to thank your employees frequently for something specific they’ve done to contribute to the success of your organization. When I say frequently, I mean at least once every seven days. That’s what research by Gallup showed. Workers need to be acknowledged at least once every seven days to really feel appreciated and important and loyal to their employers.
Most bosses aren’t doing as well in this category as they think they are. More stats: 79 percent of employees who quit a job say a major reason for leaving is that they didn’t feel appreciated. And 65 percent say they didn’t receive any recognition at all in the entire previous year.
What are you waiting for? And why are you waiting? Maybe you think you should wait until annual performance reviews to thank employees for all the great things they’ve done for you. That’s faulty logic — and your bottom line and reputation will suffer if you don’t change your ways. It’s your best employees who really thrive on pats on the back, and they are the ones most likely to start a job search if they aren’t consistently and adequately thanked.
Posted by Janet Smith on June 4, 2008
I was recently told about a small business owner who knows a lot about his industry, but little or nothing about how to treat employees. The guy decided to hire a new manager to oversee a portion of the 21 employees. Sounds logical to me. But he didn’t tell the employees about the decision! The new manager just showed up one day—and one of his direct reports assumed he was there to fix the broken fax machine.
I feel sorry for the employees, as well as for the new manager who surely had no idea that he was walking into a situation like this. When employees receive inadequate communication—or no communication—they are insulted and demoralized. Good leaders know that employees will be nervous about having a new boss, and must be told about the change and about the new person as much in advance as possible.
Unfortunately, too many leaders think that if employees won’t be happy about something, it’s best to just keep them in the dark as long as possible. If that were the case, there’d be a management book called, “Blindside Your Way to Business Success!”
Posted by Janet Smith on May 21, 2008
Employers that don’t encourage employees to be innovative pretty much deserve what they get, which is employees who don’t really care about their jobs or the success of the companies they work for. In my last post I referred to an interview with Oscar-winning Pixar director Brad Bird, found at mckinsey.com. Brad was asked about the importance of morale at work.
Here’s what he says: “In my experience, the thing that has the most significant impact on a movie’s budget—but never shows up in a budget—is morale. If you have low morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about 25 cents of value. If you have high morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about $3 of value. Companies should pay much more attention to morale.
“Before I got the chance to make films myself, I worked on a number of badly run productions and learned how not to make a film. I saw directors systematically restricting people’s input and ignoring any effort to bring up problems. As a result, people didn’t feel invested in their work, and their productivity went down. As their productivity fell, the number of hours of overtime would increase, and the film became a money pit.”
It seems so obvious, doesn’t it?
Posted by Janet Smith on May 20, 2008
Do you expect perfection from your employees? Or do you encourage risk-taking and innovation? Have you ever had a boss say to you: “We don’t want to keep doing things the same way we’ve been doing them, so we want you to show us new and different ways of doing things. Think WAY outside the box.” Wouldn’t that make you feel empowered and challenged to do phenomenal work?
That’s pretty much what Oscar-winning Pixar director Brad Bird was told when Pixar hired him in 2000. I read an interview with him (free registration required) in the April online issue of The McKinsey Quarterly, the business journal for the McKinsey and Co. global business-consulting firm.
So big deal, right, if a company like Pixar tells its employees to do things in a completely new way. But listen to this—when Brad was hired, Pixar was basking in the glory of Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2…while the movie Brad had recently directed for Warner Bros., The Iron Giant, had flopped. So far at Pixar, he has won Oscars for directing The Incredibles and Ratatouille.
Employees working in an environment of tolerance, support, and encouragement think of new and better ways of doing things. Those that fear the consequences of coloring outside the lines just keep on doing things the way they’ve always been done. When nothing changes, everyone loses.
Posted by Janet Smith on May 16, 2008
I think there should be a reality show for bad bosses. Something kind of like Super Nanny meets The Office. A consultant (please let it be me!) would be on site, observing how the boss interacts with the staff. All the cubicles would have mini-cams, to capture the employees complaining about the latest rude thing the boss said or did. Some would cry, saying they are trying to please the boss but it seems to be impossible.
The consultant (me, hopefully) would interrupt the boss during interactions with employees. During those teachable moments, the boss would be shown how to manage people with kindness and appreciation, rather than with contempt and intolerance.
By the end of the hour, the boss would see the light and apologize to the workers for the shabby treatment they had received for so long. The boss would vow to communicate better; recognize, reward and empower the staff; nurture them; show respect; and somehow convince them that he would no longer bite their heads off if they made a mistake.
The employees would celebrate. And this time, some would cry tears of joy at the thought of working eight hours a day for someone who is actually pleasant.
Posted by Janet Smith on May 15, 2008
I’ve still got more to say on the subject of onboarding. It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out how to make new employees feel welcome, but evidently it’s just about impossible for a lot of bosses.
In my last post I talked about how to start the onboarding process the day that “Toby” accepts a job, and leading up to his first day. Now let’s talk about the first day.
- Be waiting for Toby when he arrives at the workplace at the agreed-upon time and place. Don’t make him wait for you. And it should be YOU—the person who hired him. Not your assistant or an HR person or anyone else.
- Begin the day with a welcome party for Toby with his co-workers. Have his favorite morning beverage waiting for him (see number four on the last post), along with pastries and fruit. Have co-workers introduce themselves to Toby and tell him about their jobs and themselves, and ask Tony to introduce himself last.
- Present Toby with a fun gift with your organization’s logo on it—a t-shirt, nice pen, mug, or ball cap would be nice. All four in a gift bag is even better.
- Keep Toby busy on his first day by having him spend one-on-one time with each of his co-workers. (Meet with these co-workers in advance and ensure that they will be welcoming and encouraging and positive and interesting!)
- Take Toby out for lunch, and arrange to have other first-day employees and their bosses join you. If Toby is the only one, invite a few of his co-workers to join you.
- Meet one-on-one with Toby after lunch. Find out about his interests, hobbies and family; review his career aspirations and goals; tell him about the projects you’re currently working on; and describe what he’s going to be working on.
Of course, you’ve got to give Toby a tour, point out the coffeepot and the restroom, show him his workspace, make sure he’s fully stocked with necessary office supplies, and all of that expected and important stuff. But go beyond that and you’ll your new employees will almost immediately feel connected, happy, valued, delighted they took the job, and serving as a true ambassador for your organization.
Posted by Janet Smith on May 14, 2008
Don’t underestimate the importance of making your new employees feel happy they accepted your job offer…even before their first day of work. Remember, 96 percent of all new hires say that after their first day on the job they’re not sure they’ll want to stay with that organization. And with the high cost of turnover…not to mention what disgruntled employees do to your reputation…you just can’t afford to ignore the needs of your new folks.
I’ve been writing about the subject of onboarding—a much more comprehensive and morale-based process than “employee orientation” or an “induction process.” Onboarding focuses on making employees feel like they belong as quickly as possible, which means they’ll be eager to be a productive team player.
Onboarding doesn’t start on the person’s first day. It starts the day they accept your offer. That’s when you want to begin showing a new employee that you are thrilled they will be on your staff and working for your organization.
When you begin onboarding your new hires before their first day on the job, their loyalty starts to develop before they’ve so much as sipped from your water fountain. They’ll be likely to arrive on day one anticipating wonderful experiences and friendly co-workers, rather than feeling nervous and worried about fitting in. And since they’ll probably tell a number of people about your early welcoming gestures, your organization’s reputation will get a shot in the arm.
Here are four ways to make a new employee feel welcome before their first day of work. Let’s say your new person’s name is Toby.
- On the day Toby accepts the job, write and mail (the kind of mail that uses a stamp) a note to him, saying how happy you are that he has decided to join your team.
- A few days later, send another welcoming card to Toby that includes personal notes written by the people who will be his co-workers.
- Email Toby several times between the day he accepts and the day he starts, saying you are looking forward to his being on board, and including some brief (and timely) information you think he’ll find interesting about your company and/or industry.
- Call Toby a day or two before he is scheduled to start, to find out if he has any last-minute questions and to confirm parking arrangements, arrival time, and where you’ll meet him. Ask him what his preferred morning beverage is: coffee, juice, a Coke, water, chocolate milk. Also, give an overview of how he’ll spend his first day.
A future post will tell you how to make sure Toby has a really great first day on the job.
Posted by Janet Smith on May 12, 2008
Imagine your first day of a new job. You walk in at 7:50 a.m., sit and wait for someone to come and get you. Finally, at 8:20, someone you’ve never seen before takes you to an office where you complete some paperwork. Then at 8:55 you’re told to sit and wait for someone else to come and get you. That person (someone else you’ve never met before) arrives at 9:15 and escorts you to your workstation; pointing out the restroom, break room, and copy machine along the way. You’re given some manuals to read and told that your boss (the one person you know) is in a meeting and will be back in about an hour. The boss finally shows up around 11:00 and says she’s sorry she can’t take you out for lunch but it’s a crazy day and hopefully the next day will be better. She points to a nearby conference room and tells you that a meeting just started in there that kind of relates to your job so why don’t you just walk in and introduce yourself and listen to the discussion. She ends by saying; “I’ll try to be back in my office by 3:00 so we can talk before the end of the day. But if I get delayed with this client I probably won’t make it back and we’ll have to talk in the morning.”
This scenario kind of gives you a pit in your stomach, doesn’t it? I mean, you’ve got to be a really callous person to not feel great sympathy for someone who has a first day on the job experience like this.
As I said in a previous post, only four percent of new employees say they’ve decided to stay with their company after the first day. The other 96 percent aren’t sure they made a good decision by taking the job, or at least feel un-welcome enough to question whether this is a place where they’ll want to stay for any length of time.
Onboarding is the process of welcoming new employees in a way that makes them feel like they’ve made a great decision to take the job. Does your organization have a formal process for onboarding that is followed by each manager? Or do you allow everyone in management to handle it in their own way?
Are you onboarding…or unboarding?
Posted by Janet Smith on May 8, 2008
My cat, Abbey, needs a lesson in onboarding.
That’s the word that’s being used these days to describe the process of welcoming new employees in a way that makes them quickly feel engaged, connected, eager to work and be productive and be on board with their new employer.
I recently wrote a post about my two new kittens, Bix and Bessie. We had an opening for two entry-level cats, and had many applicants to choose from. These two met every one of our qualifications and then some. From day one, they were excited and ready to jump right in and fulfill all of the requirements of their new positions. But Abbey, who has held the position of Queen Diva Cat for three years here, did a very poor job of onboarding the new felines.
Have you ever started a job and got a bad vibe from a few of your new co-workers who evidently felt threatened by you? They gave you the cold shoulder and made it clear you didn’t belong. They hoped you would quit before the end of the week. That’s the way Abbey acted.
Fortunately, these kittens were so enthusiastic about their new place that they chose to ignore Abbey’s hisses and growls. After nearly a month, the Most Beautiful and Perfect Abbey is actually starting to be nice once in awhile. I guess she’s realized the new hires are here to stay.
With your human new hires, though, you probably won’t be so lucky. Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, bestselling authors of The Carrot Principle and other employee motivation books, say that only four percent of new employees say they’ve decided to stay with their company after the first day. Think about it. That means that 96 percent of all people starting new jobs have a first-day impression that leaves them thinking they might not want to continue working there…or wishing they hadn’t taken the job in the first place.
