A series of articles that discuss best practices and strategic perspectives in human relationship management. Read about best practices that can lead to significant improvements on employee engagement and maximized return on talent investments. Learn how to lower administration and cost over heads in the HR function. These are the insights that drive EmployWise features.

SME Challenges: How We Can Start Meeting Them - Part I

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By  Nigel Copsey Tuesday, 31 January 2012 09:47

Meeting SME Challenges From the Beginning.If we seek high performance, low maintenance leaders, the first stage is really getting the right person in place whether we are promoting or recruiting for such positions. And, in a large percentage of cases, this is all too frequently where things begin to go wrong.

In the nascent stage of their businesses, many entrepreneurs bring in people they know and whose performance they trust. The only problem with this is the fact that the stock of such people is limited and insufficient to continue fuelling growth. But how many entrepreneurs learnt how to recruit/select effectively? In terms of promotion, they make the same mistake as many other companies, both large and small — giving the baton to the best performer, or the person with the greatest knowledge, or the one who has been with the organisation the longest. When it comes to recruitment, they rely on the same old “favourites” of skills, knowledge, qualifications and experience, added which is whether they seem O.K. and presented themselves well at interview. Based on this, they get handed the baton. Now the crucial question. What percentage of the new incumbents drop that baton? It is certainly far higher than is helpful to staff morale, customer service, productivity, and attrition, let alone the sanity of the Owner/Manager. 

I regularly find what companies look for, and what they actually need for high performance in the role, are poles apart.Understandably, effective leaders are difficult to find but it does help if we know what we should really be seeking in candidates, whether they be internal or external. This strong focus is vital to enable more right choices.What should HR and Business Leaders be Looking For?Unfortunately, the CV is not likely to tell us much, even if there are statements about being a manager and responsible for so many people and whatever processes. I am not saying this is fabricated. It can be quite true but it does not in any way confirm they lead people forward and whose direct reports enjoy working with them towards great results. They merely had the title but not necessarily behaved as a leader. The word “behaved” was purposely used and emphasised to illustrate a fact: a significant amount of a leader’s success relies upon behavioural strengths, contributing, in most cases, more than skills, knowledge, qualifications and experience. What are the Behaviours Leadership Demands? Different kinds of role will require different mixes of strengths and, although the tools can assist us in setting these and measuring them in candidates, the very simplified and broad brush strokes of what we train interviewers to focus upon for leaders are as follows:

A strong need to take charge, set direction, and face (non-technical) challenges. Sees the “big picture”, goal oriented and makes things happen.If a strategic approach is needed, then an analytical, thinker and planner.Who does not rush into things too quickly, taking a little time to reflect before acting. Can take a degree of pressure and deadlines.Decisive and independent, leaving detail to others and requires little supervision.

Then the “learnt” behaviours:

Maturity and judgement.Stability and persistence.Attitudes and beliefs. (We are not judging a person’s beliefs, merely ensuring they will be comfortable adopting the values the company upholds.)Self-motivation.

Finally: Aptitude and speed of thought.The interview.The interviews need to be pleasant, not a “grilling” of the candidates. Questioning must be in-depth — it is too tempting to accept the first answer given and also to assume what the interviewee means, as opposed to ensuring we establish what they do mean. True: all this is easier said than done but training and practice, with subsequent reflection and improvement, helps enforce changing of habits and, interestingly, increases success.

Editor's Note: Nigel Copsey's passion is in helping organisations and managers to create an environment in which people get great satisfaction out of producing great results. This Productivity & Performance work has taken place in the UK and, more recently, in India for which he also has the license to provide and support clients in the use of The McQuaig System® of psychometric assessment. He assists organisations in becoming more competitive by improving their recruiting, engaging, developing and retaining for high performance. Nigel specialised in the management of change, productivity/performance enhancement, and leadership development. He has lived and worked in the UK, India and Sri Lanka and also undertaken short assignments in various other

countries. Click here to connect with Nigel on LinkedIn. Click here to connect with Nigel on LinkedIn.

Photo   by: HGN Rocket Science0 Comments and 4 Reactions

5 Best Ways to Motivate Employees for Top Performance

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By  Sanat Kapur Friday, 27 January 2012 09:00

Most employers are faced with the problem of

how to motivate their employees to perform to the best of their abilities. But motivating employees requires more than just a high salary. Follow these tips to ensure your employees give their best to your organization.1. Lead by ExampleA boss who practices the "Do as I say, not as I do" philosophy can bring the whole team’s morale down. We have all heard about the boss who tells people to stay late, but he or she would leave exactly at 5pm. Or the boss who discourages employees to surf the net but is found on Facebook at all times. Employees look up to their bosses for guidance, and it is up to the person who is leading to ensure that they accept this responsibility. If you want employees to follow good work practices, your team leaders, and managers must show them the way by following the rules themselves. Good leaders are able to inspire and earn the trust of their employees. If your employees are looking at the boss and thinking "If he can do it, so can I", their productivity will definitely rise.2. Allow Access for Effective CommunicationOne of the most common mistakes that bosses make is to exude a ‘touch-me-not’ aura where they are not accessible by their own employees. Two way communications is a vital factor in employee motivation. Finding the balance between being bossy and being too friendly is the key to effective communication. You need to ensure that employees respect you and your instructions, yet feel comfortable enough to tell you about their work-related problems. A simple way to do this is to have your team leaders check in with their teams in the mornings about their previous day and their goals for the current day. This casual interaction will help you ensure bosses and employees keep an open channel of communication, and are on the same page about the employee’s work expectations. Another effective method includes getting to know employees. Studies show that when your employees feel cared for, they put extra effort to make their work better.3. Personalise the WorkplaceMake sure you pinpoint each employee’s personality, strengths and preferences. Asking employees the question, ”What do you want out of your work?“ will go a long way in achieving this objective. By learning from your employees what they like to do and why, you will be able to place them in roles that play well to their strengths. Another good way to do this is to try and fill talent voids in your organization, rather than job titles. This way you’ll be matching their talents, skill sets and what they’re really good at instead of fitting people into job descriptions.When rewarding employees for top performance, ensure that the rewards are matched to that employee’s age and career stage. For example, a worker nearing the end of his career would probably be less focused on a promotion than someone who just began climbing the corporate ladder. Personalized rewards are also one of the best ways of showing your employees that you care, and will motivate employees to strive for excellence in the workplace.4. Share Great Feedback with EveryoneCommunicate feedback from customers, whether internal or external, directly to your employees. Direct feedback, whether negative or positive, is known to be a powerful motivator. Even if an employee is working to fulfill the needs of other employees within the organization, ensure he is able to receive and provide feedback to the employee. Positive feedback will help an employee feel like his work is worthwhile, and motivate him or herself. Instead of negative feedback, focus on constructive criticism.Make sure that any negative feedback is not emotionally charged, and has specific pointers that can help an employee improve his work.5. Trust Your EmployeesYou must trust your employees, and give them room to perform. Whatever you do, make sure you do not micromanage your employees. Micromanagement leads to no communication, no trust, and no employee growth. Employees will resent their managers, leading to low morale in the workplace. Give your employees clear instructions, and ask for regular progress reports. However, beyond that, you must learn to leave them alone and show faith in their work. Give feedback, but do not attempt to manage every aspect of their work. Besides, employees who are not micromanaged will learn from their own mistakes, and will have stronger problem solving skills. Very often, employees prefer not to confront their managers about this problem, and will choose to avoid the issue. Consequently, the employee-manager relationship will breakdown, and the employee will lose interest in his or her work. Keep checking yourself to ensure that you never micromanage,

but instead provide employees with the freedom to succeed themselves.Hopefully, these tips will help you in ensuring a happy and motivated workforce that is performing to the best of their abilities. What are the other tips that you use in your daily workplace? You can share with us in the comment section below.Photo by Nono Fara0 Comments and 3 Reactions

How to Write an International Corporate Travel Policy that Works

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By  Yu Yu Din Thursday, 19 January 2012 10:23Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Jeanne Heydecker, who is an American expat living in India with over 20 years working in all possible industries from Nano Tech to Telecommunications. Back in the days she was one of the folks who wrote the book on Object Oriented Programming that is now part of our everyday technologies. She is an avid advocate for building sustainable businesses that both profit and make social impact. She has organised trade shows and corporate travel from Brazil to Burma (now known as Myanmar). Follow her exciting travel experiences live @jeanneleez or connect with her here on LinkedIn.As the head of marketing for a group of telecom companies, I produce between 15 and twenty large trade shows worldwide every year. One of the largest and most difficult to control expenses is staffing. Over the years I have developed a process that works for the group and may be of use for you as well. As the department head, I've always looked at what could possibly happen so that the company is covered in all emergencies. While it may never happen, it is always good to ensure that your company is covered for all incidents should they occur to your staff.Travel Policy TemplateWrite a policy manual that covers all guidelines for employee travel. Here are some of the points you should keep in mind: Detail the entire process, Identify the staff involved (HR, finance, departmental heads, etc.) that are part of the process, Include templates for all forms to be completed or links to your online service Include acceptable price ranges and modes for local conveyance, flight classes, and acceptable costs for hotels per staff title, e.g. our board members and CEO fly business class, all others economy. We also utilize a sliding scale for per diems - VPs get $45 a day, while sales staff get $40.Don’t Forget Cultural AwarenessThis document should also cover marketing and cultural issues when traveling overseas. A friend contacted me one day and told me that on her trip back from Bangkok, there was a drunk passenger on the plane who was sexually harassing the flight attendant and cracking loud, offensive jokes to his colleague. Guess what? She recognized the gent as someone who worked for my company. Many of the people on that plane were coming back from the same trade show, so the possibility is that someone else recognized this person as representing our company - hopefully none of our potential customers. Staff need to understand that their negative actions overseas reflect poorly on the brand.I've been guilty myself of not seeing cultural cues and providing links to cross-cultural web sites can

be very helpful. At another company I worked for, one of my staff had approached a woman in Qatar to ask directions and her male companion felt insulted. The ensuing argument turned into a physical fight and he was arrested. With a few links about local culture, this may have been avoided.Plan for EmergenciesYou may want to ensure that all staff have the phone number for their Embassy to ensure their rights are preserved. Beyond this, we've had staff mugged, their luggage stolen and at least one laptop, camera or phone seems to disappear at each show. Knowing where the closest Embassy is for getting a duplicate passport is important. (Our travel agent photocopies all pages of each staff member's passport, including all visas, just for this purpose.) These can be scanned and sent to the Embassy in question should someone's passport go missing.Another thing to mention is how the company is liable if an employee gets seriously ill while working overseas. Ensure that each staff member has a health insurance carrier to pay for any catastrophic care that might be required overseas. Flight insurance may also be well worth the money if you keep tight schedules when traveling, e.g., if you fly the night before an important meeting and the flight gets delayed or cancelled, you have recourse beyond the airline itself.Communications, Transport, and HousingBudgeting is fairly straightforward once you have the policy set in place. I can identify the cost per ticket to a location by checking any travel web site like orbitz.com or makemytrip.com. I can assign costs based on the staff member's title. Same with per diems and hotels. We also supply local SIM cards for each staff member, with no capability for international dialing to keep costs down. Email and Skype are used from the hotels for personal contact with home.My team negotiates with hotels to include breakfast and Wi-Fi as part of the package whenever possible. This stretches each staff member's per diems, so the only other costs we're charged for is local conveyance. All staff are allowed to take taxis to and from the show venue, but we encourage sharing as much as possible. All other travel, for dinner, sightseeing, etc. is part of their per diem.This process of thinking, "What's the worst that could happen?" may seem pessimistic, but it's actually pragmatic. Planning ahead and protecting the company wherever possible is always a good idea, and fixed ranges for costs keep staff under budget.If you’d like to know more about the Ingredients of a Good Travel Policy, you can join us at our webinar this Friday (the 20th) at 3 to 4 pm IST. Click here to register.0 Comments and 0 Reactions

Checklist for An Effective Performance Management System

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By  Sanat Kapur Wednesday, 18 January 2012 11:46

The words, “performance management” usually bring out a negative reaction from employees and managers alike. However, a good performance management system is vital to any organization, and can help you increase both employee productivity and satisfaction. Check out these 10 tips that should help you develop an effective system that will result in an enhanced workforce-1. Report RegularlyNever judge based solely on one mistake or one great job done. Make sure all team leaders make regular appraisals of how employees are faring at their work. A good way to do this is for bosses to keep a little notebook where they make a note of the employee’s performance at least once a day. When the time for the periodical assessment is due, compile all the data and then reward or penalize accordingly.2. Have Regular Appraisal MeetingsInstead of annual appraisal meetings, try having quarterly or at least bi-annual meetings. This way, you can regularly keep track of an employee’s performance, and suggest improvements if required. Employees would also prefer this system, as it is not fair to be basing your review on criticism from a year back. Regular appraisals will also help you pinpoint exactly what is going wrong, and rectify mistakes before they start happening regularly. Thus, regular meetings are the way to go.3. Have a 360° Feedback SystemFeedback does not only come from managers. It is essential to include feedback from the employee’s customers, peers, and even employees who report to him or her. This will help you get a more complete picture of the employee’s performance, and be objective during the appraisal. Keep in mind that sometimes bosses may be biased in their view towards a particular employee, so it’s always better to have feedback from different sources.4.Be ObjectiveNever let a performance appraisal be subject to someone’s personal opinion. Be very careful when considering feedback from peers and managers, as they tend to be biased even when they don’t mean to be. Employees also tend to feel victimized when the reports contain personal feedback. Try and base your feedback on concrete results. And whatever you do, never make a personal criticism against an employee.5. Give Clear TargetsVery often, employees fail to reach your expectations only because their goals are not clearly outlined. Make sure all your employees have clearly outlined goals whose success can be measured

easily. Achieving or not achieving a clear target is one of the clearest indicators of an employee’s performance. In addition, if the targets are defined beforehand, this indicator is objective and not subject to people’s personal opinions.6. Give Constructive CriticismMake it a policy to never criticize an employee without telling him exactly what his mistake is, and what he could do to fix it. Criticism without suggestions will only anger an employee. Even if your criticisms have merit, employees will tend to feel victimized by them if they are not accompanied by constructive advice on how the employee can improve.7. ListenPerformance appraisals should never be a one-way communication. Your employee must have the chance to get his viewpoint across as well. This is especially true if you are criticizing the employee. When giving negative feedback, it is vital that you give the recipient the chance to explain themselves. Also, an employee will tend to be much more committed to a target if he was involved in its creation.8. RewardGive people a reason to achieve their targets. Without an adequate rewards system, most employees don’t see the need to achieve their potential at work. And remember, rewards come in forms other than money. While monetary rewards are usually a powerful motivator, ensure that you also give recognition in other ways. For example, taking your team out to lunch to celebrate a success can also be a great motivator, which will also serve the purpose of building unity in the team. Remember, the message your rewards sends out is as important as the value of your reward.9. Create A Performance Development PlanIf you do find that an employee’s work is substandard, schedule a performance development meeting. Try and establish a comfortable rapport with the employee, and ensure he or she is not feeling victimized. During this meeting, after adequate discussion from both sides, create an effective performance development plan. Both employee and manager should work together to understand what went wrong, how the employee could improve on his strengths and agree upon a clear set of goals.10. Ask The Right QuestionsInstead of only considering what you would like the employee do, ask questions such as “What things have made your job difficult in this period?” “Is there anything we can do to make your work environment more productive?” and “Do you think your talent would be better utilized somewhere else?” These are the questions that will help you understand if the employee would be better suited to another role, or if the company itself is at fault anywhere. Besides, any employee would be glad to work in an organization where his opinions are valued.1 Comment and 4 Reactions

9 Simple Ways to Manage Your Creatives

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By  Yu Yu Din

Thursday, 05 January 2012 11:55

Creatives are the most misunderstood lot in the corporate world. They don't act like your 'normal' managers with MBA trainings, neither do they appear 'disciplined'. I've heard people call them everything from 'prima donnas' to 'they have issues' to down right 'useless'. But without your creatives, you won't have innovation, you won't have awesome content, and you certainly won't have solutions that came from outside the proverbial box. Creatives behave differently because they're creatives - they can't help it. It's a talent that they bring to the table. You need them to give you that extra bit of competitiveness. Once you can harness the power of your creatives or the creative team, you can do wonders to your corporate image as an organisation, market your products better, and communicate with your stakeholders and really connect to them. Here are a couple of pointers I've learned from my experience managing creatives for the past decade.

1. Know each of your creatives individually. 

Each creative person behaves differently. They have different motivations, different drives. Some like learning and the

produce the best work when they're learning something. Some can't produce great work unless they know the bigger picture.

Some like getting things done - it's like a confidence booster or another motivational factor that drives them. So if you're a

manager or a team leader, get to know your people individually - once you know those buttons you'll know what they need to

help them achieve.

2. Give them space but set ground rules.

Some creatives make it look easy and simple. For example, the first Volkswagen ad   that appeared in 1960 seems like a no

brainer but it took a lot of thought and effort to really get it right. But when they did get it right, it was revolutionary. If you

want revolutionary ideas, ideas the disrupt the norm, give your creatives some space. No use hounding after them to produce

like mules. Give them some space. On the other hand, set some ground rules before setting them off into the wild. Give them

deadlines. Give them guidelines. A lot of managers just ask, "This is what we should do so get it done." The creative process

isn't as simple as that. Let them know what you're trying to achieve, what your company stands for, and what you want your

brand to do. Give them a project brief if you can so they have it right in front of them, digest the project better, and give you

what you want exactly.

3. Give them targets and goals.

You can't have creativity for its sake you need goals and targets. Afterall you need to profit from their creativity right? Tell

them what the point of what they're doing really is.

4. Value their opinions. 

It's a real shame that most managers I've come across really don't care what creatives are telling them. If someone tells you

that your brand colors represent femine hygine product colors you should really pay attention. Unless of course you're trying

to market that product. Creatives know instinctively what colors, what words, and what ways you represent your service or

product will work best. At the same time, creatives are shy - so ask them what they think and don't cut them off in the

process. Truly value their opinions and evaluate them. If you're not going to do what they suggest, at least have some respect

and tell them why. If you don't do that you're the one who would look like you don't know what you're doing and you can

stick to a decision. There's nothing worse than a manager or any sort of leader who can't make decisions.

5. Allow them to nap or even play around the office. 

I've let my writers nap in the office after lunch. As a result they produced better pieces faster. Sleeping is such an important

activity for your brain and the creative process is ALL brains. That's why companies like Google have office places that

encourage people to play. Making work fun will keep your employees satisfied, they'll wake up and look forward to being in

the office more. I have my trusty slinky on my desk at all times. The creative brain needs simulation. Having a fish tank also

helps -- studies find that watching fish reduces stress. So if you have a high stress office, get a fish tank. There was a

company that even counted them as 'feng shui consultants'!

6. Stop monitoring their break time.

There are some offices in India where you need to log your breaktime in the registry - that gets just get people angry,

dissatisfied, and start hating the place they work in. I know of one office that started it did and all their senior managers

resigned within two weeks. All of them were highly creative and talented people who would've taken the organisation to the

next level. If you're monitoring your employees break time, it's time to end it. If you really really need to monitor the comings

and goings of your employees, put a biometric security system or a card reader. There are some corporate which are going to

have RFI tags on name badges - that's just downright a violation of privacy and people are going to hate you for it. If you

don't trust your people enough - there's a huge underlying cultural issues going on and you need to get to the root cause of

that not apply draconian methods to manage people.

7. Help your staff to be confident in their abilities.

I've found that a lot of creatives question their abilities and are not so confident. (Of course there's a lot of cocky creatives out

there, too.) Offer your prespective on why they're best at what they do and why they're valuable to you, to the team, and to the

organisation as a whole. They need to feel assured that they're the right person for the job. Once you can tackle that As for

cocky creatives - challenge them - give them challenges they can tackle. Tell them, if you're so great, just go do it. It is

important to let them know that you believe in their abilities as a creative person.

8. Have a Simple IT Policy for Internet Usage.

If you put up walls around your staff's Internet usage - they will find a way to break them. It's a waste of your resources and

their time. You'd rather have them stimulated by other things they read and see online and spark ideas instead of wasting their

creativity on thinking of ways on how to hack your IT policy. Stop blocking every social media site there is. I heard about a

startup that heavily relied on social media outreach that blocked Facebook. They were shooting themselves in the foot. Again,

trust them to use their time wisely in the office and they will value and honor that trust. Besides, young professionals value

having their Facebook access at workmore than their salaries. You shouldn't be dictating what browser they use or limit the

cloud tools that they can use either. It limits their way of discovering new cool things that they can use later on to help the

team or the organisation. An organisation I was interviewed once said that they could only use IE in the office - I said, "The

most slow and insecure browser? And you want to be 'leading' in the digital world" Needless to say, they're still struggling.

9. Have a creative to manage your team.

I hate to say this but in my experience MBAs make horrible managers for creatives. Unless they're creatives themselves who

happen to have an MBA. Creatives tend to come from a liberal arts background and having an MBA as a boss creates an

unnessary gap. A lot of MBAs also look down on creatives with a flare of, "I have an MBA and you just graduated with a

regular degree." The feelings mutual from the creatives as well. They think, "What do you know about being creative - you

can't do anything close to what we do because you're so process driven." It creates more challenges than what you need to get

great results for the organisation. Read this Harvard Business Review article on Weird Rules of Creativity.

What have been your experience with working with creatives? How do you best manage them?Photo by RHiNO NEAL.1 Comment and 7 Reactions