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*Women, Infants and Children

 

Consultant Corner

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• Investing in Your Most Valuable Asset
• No Time To Waste
• Behavior Based Interviewing: Yes or No?
• Unleash the Power of Positive Feedback

 

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Investing in Your Most Valuable Asset

January 31, 2012

 

Imagine a family that has always placed a high value on education. Surely the pursuit of a good education is an admirable goal, one that many families share. Then, imagine totally abandoning that goal due to tough economic times. No more school or lessons or formal learning until the money catches up.  Most families would view such a decision as radical and short-sighted. It would be a last resort, not the first one. Other sacrifices would undoubtedly be made before we would stop investing in the learning required for a promising future and planned human development.

 

Yet typically we see far too many companies behave exactly like the family that gives up on its highly-prized values when times are tough. Down-sizing, doubling up assignments for remaining employees, and eliminating training and development are often among the first reactions employers make. In economic downturns, organizational values are put to the test and employees pay close attention to how their employers respond.

 

In times of crisis, the smart money is spent on the people who will be ready, willing and able to respond with energy and enthusiasm when the market heats up again. In fact, slow times are exactly the right times to invest in training and development. Even if lay-offs or other plans are inevitable, investing in training the “organizational survivors” is a smart management move.

 

There are lots of example throughout the vagaries of American economic history when employers used lay-offs and downsizing as the last resort. Manufacturers who used slow-downs to engage their workforce to paint the plant inside and out, to catch-up on overdue maintenance, to retrain employees with new technologies, to demonstrate their commitment to their most valuable asset - their employees - have been the real survivors.

 

Let’s look at the pay-off of investing in training and developing your workforce when times are tough:

 

Focus on new skills:

Technology skills upgrades, new product training, beginning new manager training - they all contribute to increasing the full organizational capability once the market turns. Long-standing operational problems that a company has “lived with” can be solved once new skills and renewed motivation become the organization’s primary focus.

 

Demonstrated commitment to employees:

Staff loyalty is earned. Investing in training says loud and clear: “we’re investing in you and supporting you by giving you the tools you need to excel”. This is especially true when lay-offs have had to be conducted. The worry and fear among the “survivors” is minimized when comprehensive training is provided as a means to do more with less.

 

Increased motivation:

Employees “get it” when they see their employer investing in them during slow market times.  With a vote of confidence from senior management, they are far more willing to step up to the challenges they will be facing, especially when the market begins to turn positive again. Employees will remember the investment their managers made in them, and it will boost their commitment and motivation to demonstrate that the boss made the right decision on their behalf.

 

So, it really boils down to simple logic. Would you rather be a member of the family that really does turn its values into actual behavior commitments or one that gives up those values as soon as uncertainty sets in?  Your employees make that decision everyday.  Investing in your people is always your best bet, in any economy.

 

Posted by Wilbur Pike

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No Time To Waste

October 21, 2011

 

NOTICE:  IMPORTANT MEETING AT 9:00 am, 10:00 am, 12 noon, 2:00 pm, and 5:00 pm.

 

If meetings are so important, why are so many of them ineffective?

Some of us spend the majority of our workday in “important meetings.”  But here are some startling statistics:  approximately 11 million meetings are held in the US each day:  however, more than 50% of them are deemed “a waste of time.”  Over 90% of the professionals who attend these meetings admit to daydreaming, while 40% say they have dozed off during meetings. 

 

The reasons most meetings are unproductive? 

 

• Lack of purpose
• Too long
• No real assignments
• No definitive decisions made
• No accountability for follow-up reports/progress.

 

Is it possible for us to facilitate effective meetings every time we schedule one?

 

The answer is “yes,” but only if meeting planners are willing to adhere to the following guidelines for successful meeting planning and execution:

 

•  Make all meeting participants aware of the purpose of the meeting ahead of time
• Have an agenda that outlines what the meeting will address
• Have all technological equipment tested and ready to operate ahead of time
• Start and end the meeting on time
• Be sure all participants arrive prepared to constructively address the primary topic of discussion
• Allow ample time for all participants to share their objectives, opinions, and concerns
• Make certain that all participants understand their post-meeting assignments and deadlines, both individually and collectively
• Be sure that all post-meeting assignments are completed by assigned participants prior to the next scheduled meeting.

 

In today’s highly-competitive workplace, everyone is “meeting” more often than ever before.  To make meetings productive and goal-focused, we need to control meeting content. 

 

As everyone in today’s businessworld knows, there is no time to waste!

 

Posted by Charles Frazier

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Behavior Based Interviewing: Yes or No?

June 29, 2011

 

Most of us are familiar with the touted merits of behavior based interviewing: that posing open-ended questions designed to compel the interviewee to recall past incidents where they exercised certain competencies will reveal how the candidate will perform in these areas in the future.

 

But is this process truly effective?  Should it be considered the best and only way to conduct an interview?

While this writer found no scientific evidence that better hiring decisions resulted from use of this interview methodology, there is anecdotal evidence that the BBI approach is used more commonly than, or in addition to, age-old conventional interview techniques such as the technical interview, the exploratory interview, or the skills inventory interview.  Conversations with human resources managers reveal that employers across industries are comfortable with the BBI approach for the principal reason that it requires the candidate to describe a problem they faced, the action that was taken, as well as the result or outcome.  The candidate therefore is challenged to recall an actual situation in which they used a skill; their selection of scenario alone can be a compelling indicator of the breadth and depth of their competency in that targeted area.

 

The experienced interviewer under this approach can often detect when the candidate is fabricating or embellishing the scenario: lack of emotion or facial expression, or difficulty in clearly painting the picture are a couple examples.   Truthfulness can be further explored through follow up questions to the initial response.

 

The BBI approach by nature puts the candidate in the position of having to speak extensively.  Interviewers who are effective listeners have great opportunity to learn much about the candidate’s candor, personality, experiences, ethics, successes and disappointments.  No other interviewing technique provides this level of discovery and one-to-one engagement that can be used for virtually all positions - hourly and salary, executive and administrative, technical and supervisory.

 

Should you use behavior based interviews to screen candidates?   Why wouldn’t you?

 

Posted by Dwayne Jackson

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Unleash the Power of Positive Feedback

January 11th, 2011

 

As we leave a season of gift giving and begin a new year, it seems timely to reflect on one of the most valuable gifts managers can give their employees- the gift of feedback. We all recognize feedback as an important factor in performance and its purpose to help the receiver make changes that will benefit them in the long term, as well as benefit their team and organization.  We also know that both positive and corrective/constructive feedback, when used in a balanced way,  can quickly shape and change behavior better than negative feedback alone.

So the question is: why don’t managers use positive feedback more often and maximize the value of this  powerful tool?  Do we just have an irresistible urge to focus on what’s wrong, instead of what’s right, thinking that will correct the problem? 

 

Think about it: we’ve all been in situations when we’ve received negative or hard- to- hear feedback, as well as positive, confirming feedback.  And we know that the latter worked much better in motivating a change in our behavior. Research suggests that a 1-1 ratio of positive to negative feedback is not enough to encourage behavior change, and in fact, can be very demotivating.  The truth is, everyone wants to know when they are on the right path.  Research further confirms that a ratio of  3:1 or even 5:1, positive to negative feedback, is what’s required to have employees feel their managers have their best interests at heart and make changes in their actions.   It also aligns with other research that those who focus on strengths do better performance- wise than those who focus exclusively on their weaknesses. And so it goes with feedback.

 

Given this data, we encourage managers to take stock of how often they use positive feedback. Here’s three tips to help you do that:

• Personal Audit: For the next two weeks, at the end of each week, do a personal audit. Reflect on the feedback, positive and negative, you offered your staff in the previous five days.  See what you discover about your ratio. Were there opportunities you missed to offer positive feedback?
  

• Affirmations: Take two or three days in any given week and pay careful attention - observe and listen- only for what your staff does right. Did an employee take the time to share their knowledge or expertise with a colleague who was struggling? Was there a successful meeting with a difficult client or customer? Was a critical deadline met?  Did an employee persevere at a difficult task or overcome a weakness or obstacle? Follow up and acknowledge the effort, however small.
  

• Ask yourself: What one thing did someone on the team do over the last month/week that made my job easier? Make it a point to express your gratitude during your next one-on-one meeting with them.

 

What better time to renew your commitment to helping your employees do their personal best – through the power of positive feedback.

 

Posted by Lorna Sedor

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