How is Technology Effecting Emotional Intelligence?

In 2012, the average number of corporate emails sent and received per person per day was 110¹, with over 90% of those emails being legitimate communications. That’s over 2,000 emails every month. Add to that a whopping 9,000² text messages being sent and received each month by adults in the US, and you’ve got to wonder how these thousands of electronic messages are affecting our emotional intelligence.

But wait — the advent of communication tools such as smartphones, tablets and instant messaging was supposed to make it easier for us to connect, share and communicate, right? Yes, perhaps it’s easier for us, but unfortunately e-communications such as text messaging, instant messaging and even email have contributed to a decline in the quality of communication in the workplace.

The dimensions measured in an emotional intelligence assessment include Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Motivation, Empathy and Social Skills — all of which are important for improving communication. In the case of the EQ assessment Vantage offers, well-developed Social Skills refer to a proficiency in managing relationships and building networks. Some of the specific skills that fall under Social Skills proficiency include the following:

• Wielding effective tactics for persuasion
• Listening openly and sending convincing messages
• Negotiating and dissolving disagreements
• Inspiring and guiding individuals and groups
• Initiating or managing change
• Nurturing instrumental relationships for building bonds
• Working with others toward shared goals
• Creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals

Is it possible for our workforce to develop these skills in such e-heavy environments? Digital communication in the workplace isn’t going anywhere, so we must work to maintain and develop our EQ. Emotional Intelligence workshops can help teams better understand themselves and their co-workers. Leaders who make a point to pick up the phone or walk into a colleague’s office will set an example for staff to limit digital messaging to simple, non-emotional issues. A simple awareness that our emotional intelligence is affected by our reliance on digital communication is a first step in improving the 21st century workplace.

To learn more about how Emotional Intelligence (EQ) assessment and training can affect the workplace, contact the Vantage Group for more information at 616-676-3330 or email us at info@vantagegroupinc.com.

¹The Radicati Group, Inc.
²Experion

Skills Telecommuters need for their 21st Century Work Environment

Today about one in five workers around the globe telecommutes frequently, and nearly 10% work from home every day (Ipsos/Reuters). Most telecommuter employees will say that their ability to telecommute provides them with greater job satisfaction, improves their work-life balance and reduces their expenses. According to Mobile Work Exchange, nearly three out of four employees reported increased productivity while teleworking. Meanwhile, two out of three will give preference to positions that offer telework and 16% will not even consider jobs without telework.  

But it’s not just employees who are reaping the benefits of telecommuting. Organizations that foster telecommuting workplaces are seeing increases in productivity and reduction in real estate costs, as well as reduced absenteeism and turnover. Global Workplace Analytics projects that United States businesses alone could save over $500 billion a year, which equates to roughly $11,000 per employee per year, and additional savings could come from utilities, janitorial services, security, maintenance, paper goods, coffee and water service, leased parking spaces, transit subsidies, ADA compliance, environmental penalties, equipment, furniture, and office supplies.

Yes, there are potentially huge cost savings for businesses and improved morale for staff, not to mention the thousands of tons of pollutants spared, but before managers start approving telecommuting requests from staff, it’s important to consider some of the competencies, or soft skills, that might be required for a 21^st century career perk like telecommuting:

• Self-Management. Does the employee demonstrate self-control and an ability to manage time and priorities?
• Planning and Organizing. Does the employee utilize logical, systematic and orderly procedures to meet objectives, regardless of the environment?
• Interpersonal Skills. Can the employee effectively communicate, build rapport and relate well to all kinds of people in a variety of settings?

Thinking about some of the competencies you might want a potential telecommuter to have, how does this impact your decision to hire? What if even before hiring your next employee, you could understand which competencies he or she has well developed, and which competencies require further development throughout his or her career? Our job benchmarking process effectively matches the right candidate to the right job, however unique the job’s circumstances might be.

To learn more about implementing job benchmarking in your company, call 616-676-3330, or email us at info@vantagegroupinc.com

Understanding Email Dos and Don’ts with DISC

Consider the ways you communicate for business in the 21^st century. In all likelihood, you meet with people directly; you call them on the phone; you email and instant message them from your computer, smart phone or tablet; and you’re probably also using social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter. We now have more ways than ever before to communicate with our networks, and we have the capacity to communicate clearly and effectively, or to be misunderstood.

The Huffington Post publisheda comical, yet relevant, article featuring the six ways you can offend, anger and annoy your coworkers via email. Not surprisingly to those of us who study behavioral science, the number one and number two offenders were “sending a novel” and “sending a two-word email.” Think about the last few emails you’ve sent in the workplace. Had you ever considered that your lengthy message discussing your position on a current issue might be better received as a face-to-face communication where multiple parties can give and take? While you may feel your robust, yet professional, communication is effectively defining your opinion, what kind of conversation might you be encouraging or discouraging? Whether the communication is occurring between team members or between employee and supervisor, there is the opportunity for you as the writer to come across as overly opinionated, controlling and even self-promoting.

The two-word emails, however, can perhaps cause more unnecessary stress on an employee-supervisor relationship, particularly if the employee is on the receiving end of a brief response.  Picture a new employee spending a number of hours on a project, and her proposal comes back from her supervisor via email with two words: “It’s fine.” From the supervisor’s perspective, that’s all that needs to be said. The work is good, and there’s much in his division that needs to be done. The supervisor is happy with the proposal and wants his employee to get going on the project, not realizing that his abrupt response of “it’s fine” may cause his employee unnecessary stress. “Is it just fine? Do I need to improve it? Is my work meeting his expectations?” — These are just some of the concerns that can easily sprout from a simple, two word email, particularly if the employee prefers more in-depth responses.

There are very few businesses today not using email to communicate internally, so if you manage others, what can you do to ensure yourteam is communicating effectively with each other? While the Huffington Post article pointed out a few of the more common e-communication culprits, there’s so much we can learn about our own communication style (and the styles of our employees) that will help us be more effective in the workplace.

The study of Behaviors (DISC) can quickly and easily provide teams with an avenue to make intentional adaptations in communicating with others in the workplace. If you’re interested in understanding how behavioral styles impact workplace communications, start by taking a DISC assessment: http://vantagegroupinc.com/contactform.html

Hiring (not Firing) for Soft Skills

When you’re in the process of reviewing potential candidates, it’s easy to fall prey to common biases, especially when you rely on resumes and interviews. According to a study by Michigan State University, employment interviews are only 14% accurate, and yet 90% of all hiring decisions are made from interviews.  So how do you select the best candidate to serve your company and ensure tangible results that elevate your brand and mission as an organization?

Some of the most commonly overlooked factors in the hiring process are a candidate’s competencies, or soft skills. For many jobs, soft skills are as important as technical skills in producing superior performance. In fact, soft skills are often transferable to different jobs, whereas technical skills are usually more specific.

Let’s say a candidate you’re considering has been using your CRM system for most of her career. In the short term, you may be confident that she understands the functionality of the system. Perhaps even she’s developed mastery of the system. She can run a query, invoice a customer and import/export data. However, do you know if she has developed personal accountability, a measure of the capacity to be answerable for personal actions? Does her problem solving ability require further development as she anticipates, analyzes, diagnoses and resolves problems? What about her flexibility? How agile will she be in adapting to change if the company were to switch CRM systems, and does she posses the initiative in learning and implementing new technologies that comes from having the well developed skill of continuous learning?

By identifying the soft skills that will make a person excel in a specific position within your company, you will help ensure proper job fit. Your employee will shine, and when she shines, that resonates throughout the organization, and your customers will see it too.

To read more about our selection process click here: http://vantagegroupinc.com/toptalent.html

Does Your Training And Development Plan Produce Tangible Results in Your On-Boarding?

If you’ve ever wasted a day sitting through a completely unnecessary training, especially one you easily could have taught, you’ll likely agree that great employee development is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Time and money are wasted when training isn’t personalized to each individual’s verified needs, causing more individuals to tune out or become frustrated. Sophisticated talent management systems offer development options that address the distinct needs of each individual; therefore, personalized training and development plans can be made to meet that person’s specific needs. When employees are in the wrong positions, or are lacking key skills necessary to succeed within the company, the affect on the company’s bottom line can be catastrophic.

One of our DISC-certified consultants was hired to help a company that had experienced three consecutive years of poor performance. In one year alone, the company’s losses totaled $2 million, and the company’s lender had given them 18 months to reverse the trend. Under these extremely volatile circumstances, the consultant had a keen action plan to realize significant change:

•   The turnaround process began with job benchmarking. All employees needed to be in a job based on fit, not emotion. Benchmarking positions created a foundation for superior performance, and if the employee or candidate didn’t align with the benchmark, it wasn’t a good hire for the company.

•   Two new sales people were hired using the job benchmarking technique, and the VP of sales was replaced. The rest of the sales team all matched the skills, behaviors and motivators that the sales benchmarks required, and results from DISC assessments indicated that the revised team fit the profile required for star performance potential.

•   Development plans were customized for each employee, including tasks for each person to address the skill gaps the assessments identified. These resources expanded the employees’ understanding of their own capacity beyond their current performance.

•   In some groups within the company, weekly professional development seminars were used to establish a common language of performance. For other teams, single event workshops were delivered to quick-charge skills for an immediate return.

By the time the client reached the lender’s deadline, the company had experienced a $2.2 million turnaround, posting a profit for $200,000 for the following year. From that point forward the consultant has worked with the company to ensure that onboarding of new hires automatically has an employee development focus so the type of turnaround necessary in the past never happens again.

 To learn more about using assessments in your company’s employee training and engagement, contact us at darrell@vantagegroupinc.com or 616-676-3330.

Onboarding is NOT Orientation

There is a common misconception that "onboarding" a new employee is the same as an "orientation." Orientation primarily is an administrative function such as signing up for benefits, dealing with payroll issues, getting an ID badge. Onboarding, however, impacts the business and affects the future productivity and retention of a new hire. Onboarding includes everything a new hire needs to reach their minimum productivity level as soon as possible in the organization.

According to a 2010 Aberdeen group study, organizations with structured onboarding programs enjoy a 60 percent year-over-year improvement in revenue per full-time employee and a 63 percent year-over-year improvement in customer satisfaction. Their study further explored companies ranked ”best-in-class” at onboarding -- defined as companies where 89 percent or more of the employees who had been with the company less than a year rated themselves as highly engaged. Eighty-seven percent of those employees achieved first performance milestones within the agreed to time period, and 67 percent of them achieved a rating of ”exceeds” in their first performance review.


When companies clearly understand the connection between onboarding and the operational and financial success of their organization, they are more likely to create a great program that delivers a solid return on investment (ROI) and many benefits, including:

• Engaged employees who are motivated and connected to the company culture
• Lower turnover and higher retention at a fraction of the cost of recruitment
• Employee loyalty and satisfaction
• Productive new hires adding to the bottom line quickly
• Employees who feel valued and have bought in to contributing from the start
• A better customer experience
• Increased revenue

There are five steps to consider to develop a world-class onboarding process:

Step 1: Begin the onboarding process before the new employee starts the job.
From recruitment, through signing, to onboarding, a company has an opportunity to make a great first impression and convince valuable new hires they made the right decision. To ensure that employees feel valued and important, the best time to start onboarding is before they start the job.

• Send a welcome package. This should include information about the business, a personal note, and perhaps a treat – such as a company-branded item or even product samples of what your company makes. This makes people feel valued and also allows them to formulate questions and gain context before they come to work.
• Publicize the arrival of the new employee. This includes sending an all company email, and if possible, post a picture or place an article in an internal newsletter. Ask new employees for some personal trivia they wouldn’t mind sharing with the company so there is a “fun fact” that people can ask the new person about when they meet.
• Initiate computer support and order business cards. I recall visiting a new employee that had been with an organization for a few weeks, and they still didn't have a business card!
• Set up the new workspace. Put some welcome notes on their desk. Make sure they have supplies they need and everything is working properly.
• Schedule onboarding meetings and lunches.  This includes meetings with senior leaders, managers and any direct-reports the new employee may have.
• Prepare an onboarding toolkit and itinerary. Make sure agendas and all planning is clearly outlined so that the new employee knows what to expect each day during the onboarding process.
• Assign a mentor. This would be someone who will serve as a trusted advisor during onboarding and help the new employee navigate through the procedures and politics of the organization.
• Ask the new hire questions. Take time to find out how new hires like to learn, what motivates them, and their expectations of training and communication from the company.

These are the things to prepare before they arrive. In my next blog, I will outline how to make onboarding part of your company culture.