Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y—Where to Start and What to Do

Today’s world is filled with labels from political groups, religious preferences and generations to low performers, high potentials and star performers. What does this mean? More importantly, when did we start becoming labeled groups instead of human beings?

Every week articles are published about what to do with certain groups of people. How do we change them; how do we minimize their damage? I challenge each of you to start asking this:

• How can I understand people who don’t think the way I think, act the way I act or value the way I value?
• What makes me right and them wrong?
• What can the different groups bring together to make a better organization?

People are complex and cannot be described by one group or label. As humans, we bring more to our careers than our political or religious views, generational stereotypes and current level of performance category.

So where does a business begin when trying to determine job fit, development plans and succession planning? How can a company be strategic in times that don’t allow for thinking and planning? It starts with understanding a company’s most valuable asset, their people. In order to truly value your team, you need to understand people beyond their typical labels.

• How do they think?
• What drives them?
• How do they prefer to get things done?

What could removing labels and re-engaging your workforce do to your bottom line and your most valuable asset—people?

Myth: Assessment tools are not necessary or cost-effective for all positions.

Perhaps many of you have heard the argument that assessment tools are only useful for top-level positions. Or that it is cost prohibitive to assess the entire organization. So are assessments important in every level of your organization? We’re often asked this question, and the answer is YES.

Any building is only as robust as its foundation. And so any organization is only as strong as its foundational workforce. Regardless of the position, all organizations benefit from understanding every role. A person’s assessment identifies strengths and weaknesses in the individual and the team. We often learn of organizations that identify undiscovered talent hidden within their organization as a result of utilizing assessments. This initial discovery leads to tapping the potential of future leaders and getting them started on the right development path.

When employees are in positions that are not a fit with their skills, the entire organization suffers. The benchmarking process uncovers the key performance indicators that drive results in the job critical to success. By understanding what the job needs and rewards, you should understand the best way to manage people, develop training and implement strategies.

Best of all, benchmarking is a simple, cost-effective way to set the foundation for the leaders of any organization to increase morale, improve retention and enhance overall employee satisfaction.

Hell hath no fury like an employee...ignored.

A book detailing the follies of the Bush Administration from an insider’s perspective came out this week. Matt Latimer, former speechwriter for George Dubya, has written Speech-less, forcing the ex Administration to shudder and call the author a traitor. What prompted yet another "tell all" from an employee in the Bush administration? Did Latimer and Dubya have an argument? Did Dubya not like the speeches Latimer wrote?

On the contrary, Bush never had any interaction with Latimer at all. He was basically ignored.

A recent survey published by Talent Management indicates that only one-quarter of workers are less likely to be looking for another job in today’s tightening labor market. Why the rush out of their cubicles? According to survey findings, companies seeking to retain their employees when the recovery begins should start by addressing three key areas of dissatisfaction: compensation, career growth paths and retention efforts.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, showed that two-thirds (66 percent) of American workers are not currently satisfied with their compensation. Additionally, 78 percent of American workers are not satisfied with their company’s overall retention efforts and 76 percent are not satisfied about future career growth opportunities at their company.

Other key findings of the survey included:

• Relationships are strained: Almost half (48 percent) of workers are not satisfied with the relationship they have with their boss and the majority (59 percent) of workers are not satisfied with the level of support they receive from their colleagues.
• Company vision and leadership is lacking: The majority of workers (77 percent) are not satisfied with the strategy and vision of the company and its leadership.
• Retirement contributions: 68 percent of workers are not satisfied with their company’s contribution to their retirement plans.

As we move closer to an economic recovery, managers should remember that career development begins with communication. What workers are telling us is that even during a recession, just having a job does not equate to job satisfaction. Employers need to be conscious of the concerns their staff is managing through on a daily basis and proactively come up with the appropriate solutions to improve retention and reduce the current and future high cost of turnover. Ignoring employees and their concerns will only incur their future wrath...and cost your organization.

Here are some tips to help to reduce feelings of dissatisfaction among your employees.

• Make retention efforts more visible: Behind the scenes, managers may be doing what they can to retain their employees, but staff won’t feel valued if these efforts aren’t visible to them. Retention efforts begin through mutual dialogue and building trust. Managers should engage their employees in the realities of the business challenges to foster employees’ understanding of the market and competition.
• Reward and provide reason: If increasing compensation due to the current economic climate is not possible, look to reward employees through an awards program or team contest. Improving morale just by recognizing good work can help ease compensation complaints. As the survey found, dollars and cents are not the only way to improve satisfaction, so be sure you are putting in the extra effort where extra investment is not available. In addition, employees benefit greatly by understanding the reasons behind lower compensation and how these short-term adjustments will help them and the company in the long run.
• Communicate a growth path for employees: Managers should map out a growth plan for employees and communicate it to their teams. Employees will then understand that managers are invested in their future, and they’ll be more confident in investing their time and career with the organization.

Don't ignore your employees, and you can reap the benefits of retaining your top performers when the economy improves.

Health Care Managers and Poor Performers

With all the challenges the health care industry faces these days, why do leaders and managers tolerate poor performers in the workplace? We have observed several incidences of hospital managers putting up with disruptive behavior, low productivity or lack of professionalism—sometimes at the cost of top performers who leave because they have had enough of the negative work environment. And sometimes, these managers have lost their jobs because they would not take the steps necessary to correct the employee issues.

We interviewed some leaders in health care to find out why it is so difficult to deal with poor performers. Here is just a few of the most common problems:

1. Believing that the manager can change the person's behavior.
2. The fear of loss of a specific skill.
3. Discounting the bad behavior, and not analyzing the broader implications such as retention of top performers.
4. A lack of control over the hiring process to replace the problem employee. Many managers find their internal HR processes take too long to fill positions.
5. Managers not properly trained to deal with confrontation of poor performance.

There is a broad belief that people can be fixed. Resources and dollars are spent on trying to change behaviors of people who were never a good fit for the job in the first place. The reality is health care managers need to recognize that there are specific predictors, critical success factors, behaviors and evidence-based business practices that contribute to high performance. Focusing on a better hiring process can go a long way to increasing productivity and saving money in health care, and alleviate many of the problems managers face with employees.

Select the right person

Now that we know WHAT the issues are when it comes to managers and poor performers, much of this can be corrected by looking at the behaviors needed to fit the job and decide WHO is best to do the job. Most traditional hiring processes stop with hard skills (for example, working knowledge of various medicines and their interactions, ability to read and analyze cardiac data)
and experience needed, but you must also take the time to determine what PERSONAL SKILLS (sometimes referred to as soft skills) an employee needs to be able to do the job. Some examples of the dozens of possible personal skills are:

• Ability to manage stress
• Ability to be accountable for others
• Leading others
• Planning and organization
• Results-orientation
• Ability to pay attention to detail
• Problem solving ability
• Teamwork
• Self-starting

Most people do not fail in their jobs because they lack hard skills; they fail because they don’t have the personal skills necessary to do that specific job in that specific environment. To learn a better hiring process go to http://vantagegroupinc.com/hirefasttrack.html