Millennials in the Workplace

If you have a boss or a direct report that has more than a 10-year age gap with you, you likely experience some sort of generation gap.  This week we talk about how to manage Millennials, or those born between 1980 and 1999.  If you’re over 40, just about everything you value is “wrong”, and your job as a leader is more complex as a result.

Monday’s Tip: Recognize Generation Gaps. Be aware that what you value and what others value, may not be the same.  Failure to address generation gaps can result in unwanted turnover.

Tuesday’s Tip: Millennials (born from 1980 – 1999) have a completely different frame of reference from other generations.  They are often called “The Trophy Generation” because they were raised with a sense of entitlement about praise and recognition.

Wednesday’s Tip: Provide lots of feedback. Millennials cannot get enough feedback, and they crave and expect it.

Thursday’s Tip: Hierarchy is meaningless to Millennials.  This generation has very little use for titles and status.  They are far more motivated by experiences and opportunity.

Friday’s Tip: Be Flexible. Where possible attempt to be flexible with such things as working hours and work rules.  You still need to hold these people accountable, but do so for outcomes as opposed to process.

Employee Retention Strategies for Individual Managers

Learn what you (as an individual manager) can do to retain employees and reduce turnover.

Watch the ‘Employee Retention Strategies for Individual Managers’ Video (14 mins 54 sec):

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Retention of Employees

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“Good help is hard to find”

This quote is as true in hard economies as it is in good economies.  The retention of employees is something that all managers and all organizations must deal effectively with regardless of their current bench-strength.  If you current don’t have a problem with the retention of employees, it won’t be long before you do again.

Why Should I Care About the Retention of Employees?

There are a variety of reasons why organizations and individual managers should care about the retention of employees:

  • Poor retention of employees will leave to turnover, and turnover is expensive.  The Journal of Compensation and Benefits estimates the cost of unwanted turnover to cost between 1.5 and 2.5 annual salary.
  • Efforts to improve the retention of employees will allow you to capture discretionary effort.
  • Recruiting is difficult and time consuming.  Your life as a leader will be much easier with better retention of employees.
  • For the individual manager, it is worth noting that the retention of employees is not as much an organizational issue as a leadership driven one.  Most people “quit” their boss, not their employer.
  • Many individual managers assume that the retention of employees is usually drive by compensation or other organizational factors.  In fact, employee surveys show that these issues are usually secondary.

The Three-Step Process to Improved Retention of Employees

1.    ASK. Not everyone values the same things, or the things that you value.  The only way to understand what will motivate people to stay or leave your organization is to ask.

2.    Tell them they’ve been HEARD. It is useless to ask, unless people know they have been heard.  The improved retention of employees requires you report back to those asked with what you’ve heard.

3.    ACT. You now need to act on the information you have gathered to improve the retention of employees

Step 1 to the Improved Retention of Employees:  ASK

  • Figure out what people value.  A common mistake is to assume that all your people value the same things you do.  They do not.
  • Do not discount inter-generational issues.  If you are managing people of a different generation then the things that would motivate you to stay or go, will almost certainly be different than the retention of employees of a different generation.
  • The improved retention of employees requires that you ask people both collectively and individually:
    • Collectively:  Use surveys or focus groups to establish collective data and anonymous comments.
    • Individually:  The informal conversations you have with your people will give you insight into the things that they value, and whether you at risk of losing them.
  • Don’t just ask once.  Organizations that are particularly good at the retention of employees are continually asking their people for feedback.  Sometimes this is done via rotating focus groups, while other organizations survey their people once every 12 or 18 months to get a pulse of the organization.

Step 2 to the Improved Retention of Employees:  Tell them they’ve been HEARD

  • Respond in a timely manner with what you have learned.  The best way to sabotage better retention of employees is to ask people’s opinion, and then give them the impression they have been ignored.
  • Communicate the collective list of what people value but don’t betray confidences.  If surveying an employee group, report back on high level themes and trends.  It may be easy to single individual comments out, but you need to resist the urge to do so.
  • Based on the feedback given for the improved retention of employees, articulate the one or two things you intend to act upon.

Step 3 to the Improved Retention of Employees:  ACT

Below are some standard things for improving the retention of employees.  They are not intended to be a prescription, but rather thought starters for your own organization:

  • Offer constant feedback.  People can never get enough, so the more feedback you offer, the more likely to improve your retention of employees.
  • Role clarity and reinforcement.  People are most content when they have clear idea of what they are supposed to do, and this is continually reinforced in a positive way.
  • Connect people to the big picture.  Nobody likes to toil in obscurity.  Connect people to the larger, organizational goals, and let them know how their contribution is important.
  • Promote a deeper sense of cause.  Many organizations attempt to change the world in some small way.  Try to leverage this, if it applies to your organization.
  • Build a community.  If people have a community at work, it makes it harder for them to leave.  If their social network is largely tied to work, then they would lose that if they chose to leave.
  • Provide skill-building opportunities to improve the retention of employees:
    • Training and skill building can be motivating factor to stay with an organization.
    • Mentoring opportunities can help fortify relationships and build competence
    • Special assignments can build new skills, and improve the retention of employees.
  • Flexible work or flexible hours.  This can be very important to some people.  Don’t rule it out, just because your organization hasn’t done it before.
  • Provide career planning.  People want to progress, and if they have some idea of future opportunities, they are less likely to look elsewhere.
  • Allow for project ownership.  Giving people authority and accountability for specific projects or initiatives can be a motivator to stay.
  • Recognize personal needs.  Everybody wants to be treated as an individual with unique values and needs.  Where these can be accommodated, they can act as retention strategies.

3 Things to Remember about Improving the Retention of Employees:

  1. Don’t wait for HR or the organization.  Individual leaders need to take this upon themselves – particularly when the larger organization fails to do so.
  2. People may not value the same things as you.  Don’t project your own values on to others.  They may not care about an inflated title and a corner office.
  3. Don’t commit to anything you’re not prepared to do well.  You make people cynical when you say you will do something and then don’t follow through.  Ensure you can live up to any commitments you make.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Retention of Employees (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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All Employees are NOT Created Equal

OK… maybe they are created equal, but after their first day of work, they are no longer on an equal footing.

So before the letters start, let me be clear that I would never suggest inequality due to gender, race, sexual orientation or any of the other usual culprits.  I am a firm believer that once you take the time to get to know a person, there are so many other reasons to dislike them, that normally defined prejudices need not apply.

But I read in the business press that I need to install a hot tub in every other office at work to make sure that no one quits.  Here’s the thing:  I desperately want a few of them to quit.  I don’t exactly have grounds to fire them, but I know that if a vacancy comes up, I can do better.  So the last thing I want to do is make it too comfortable for them… then they’ll never quit.

The HR people hate this part: some people are simply more valuable to organizations than others.  It doesn’t mean that we don’t value all people, nor does it mean that we don’t treat all people with respect.  It does mean that we will work harder to keep some people on board than others.

Many of the employee retention programs out there are horribly misguided in this regard.  They are well intentioned in so far as wanting to create a positive working environment, but these programs miss the mark by not identifying and targeting those employees that we especially want to keep.

Yes, I know it’s problematic to only put the hot tubs in some offices, but not others.  However, the very best employee retention tactic is investing in, and developing high quality leadership within an organization.  Most people that leave a company actually “quit their boss”, rather than resign from the organization.

Interestingly, a high quality leader can also raise the performance of that employee I talked about earlier that I would rather part company with.  If the employee can’t be saved, then a high quality leader will steward the employee’s departure out of the organization in a professional and respectful manner.

The bottom line is that if organizations are serious about retaining high quality employees, they should save the investment in air-hockey tables, hot tubs, and concierge services, and funnel those resources into the attraction and development of high quality leadership throughout the organization.

You’ll get better returns, retain more high quality employees, and won’t have water damage from the steam of the hot tub.

 

 

Retention of Employees

This week at Wily Manager Jed & Bob discuss how individual leaders can maintain their best people.  Good help has always been hard to find, and as the economy recovers, the demand for top talent is going to worse.  You can’t wait for HR or your organization to fix this problem for you – what are you doing right now to make sure your good people stay?

Monday’s Tip: Ask. You need to have ongoing discussion with key employees as to what they value, and what will keep them working for you.  Hint:  It’s usually not money.  Surveys and focus groups are usually good ways to ask such questions.

Tuesday’s Tip: Don’t Impose Your Values on Others. Just because you value a fancy title, and a corner office doesn’t mean that others do.  Often people of different generations may have completely different work values than you do.

Wednesday’s Tip: Tell People They’ve Been Heard. After you’ve asked people what they think, it is important to get back to them as soon as possible to let them know what you’ve heard.  You need to state simply what you’ve learned from your survey or focus group.

Thursday’s Tip: Act on a Limited Number of Things. You will likely get a wide variety of feedback when you ask people what will retain them.  You need to pick one or two things that you can act on, and get those things done.  Once you have done so, you can move on to another one or two.

Friday’s Tip: Invest in Leadership. People most often “quit their boss” rather than the organization.  As such, you need to develop yourself as a leader if the organization will not do it for you.

Firing People as a Leading Indicator of Safety

Here’s an extreme example of the power of leading versus lagging indicators: plane crashes.  Every now and then, a plane might just fall out of the sky with no advance warning, but most often the cause was entirely predictable, and could have been caught by some leading indicator of trouble.  The tragic lagging indicator is when a plane hurls into the side of a mountain.

Now, to be fair, the airline industry has an outstanding safety record, and their ability to catch problems before they turn into catastrophe is something many other industries would be well-advised to study.

However, a recent news article by the Detroit Free Press got me to thinking about leading indicators of airline disaster.  The article was about an Air Traffic Controller who was caught watching a movie (Cleaner, starring Samuel L. Jackson, if it matters), rather than tending to the airplanes he was supposed to be watching.  I am going to go out on the limb here and say that the number and amount of movies watched while on duty by Air Traffic Controllers is a pretty clear leading indicator of plane crashes.

Once this was made public, the United States Federal Aviation Authority naturally took steps to suspend the Controller in question and his boss (even though they should have fired them both), and has launched an investigation.  And the pundits have all started to weigh in on the impact of goofing off at work.

In November of 2010, Salary.com did a survey that revealed that 36% of us waste two or more hours at work every day.  If you think your organization has any significant number of people making up that 36%, then it should be a pretty clear leading indicator of your pending implosion as a viable organization.

But back to the Air Traffic Controllers.

Jonathan Spira, an analyst that has studied goofing off at work (sounds like a fun job) said about this situation: “Clearly, if someone is watching a movie, they are bored, tired, distracted or somehow unable to perform his job.”

What Mr. Spira missed is that the person goofing off might just be an idiot who needs a kick in the ass.  Such as is the case with this Air Traffic Controller.  If this problem is widespread (which the US FAA is investigating currently), then I am going to suggest another leading indicator for airline safety:

The number of Air Traffic Controllers disciplined or fired is a leading indicator of improved air traffic safety.

Who says Ronald Reagan is dead?

Now if you really want to know what happens in the control tower, click on this week’s video clip, below:

 

Lagging and Leading Indicators

What are lagging vs. leading indicators, how to use them wisely, and why you should bother to measure at all.

Watch the ‘Lagging and Leading Indicators’ Video (14 mins 5 sec):

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Lagging and Leading Indicators

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When considering measures and metrics, every organization should have a blend of lagging and leading indicators.  Below we discuss why you should measure, the definitions of lagging and leading indicators, and how to use them wisely.

Why Bother to Measure?

Organizations need metrics to effectively operate their businesses.  Here are some specific reasons as to why organizations need both lagging and leading indicators:

  • People need to know their score. Unlike previous centuries, people are often separated from the output of their labour.  As a result, there is a strong desire by most people to have some idea of where they stand, and what their results are.
  • Lagging and leading indicators can be used to improve a business.  It is very difficult to initiate improvement, if you do not know where you currently stand.  Lagging and leading indicators should both be used to establish baselines for both results and processes that need to be improved over time.
  • Lagging and leading indicators can identify trends that can be used to better understand the business, and make better business decisions.
  • Lagging and leading indicators can help ensure people in the organization are not working at cross purposes

Lagging Indicators

Of lagging and leading indicators, it is usually the lagging ones that are better established in organizations:

  • Follow an event or measures the outcomes of past activity.
  • Often measures results or output.
  • Can confirm a pattern, or that an event is about to occur.
  • Most financial indicators are lagging (a result of past performance).
  • Examples of Lagging Indicators:
    • Unemployment rates
    • Net Income
    • ROI
    • Output measure such as production

Leading Indicators

Organizations struggle more often with Leading Indicators when they are setting up their measurement systems:

  • Often measure activities or sometimes processes
  • Indicators that signal future events
  • Measures the drivers of business results (whereas the results themselves are represented by lagging indicators)
  • Examples of Leading Indicators:
    • Bond yields
    • R&D dollars invested
    • Patents filed or pending
    • Employee satisfaction
    • Training or qualification levels

How to Use Lagging and Leading Indicators

Many organizations embark upon a measurement program by establishing lagging and leading indicators.  However, there are a few easy tips that will ensure the time spent on lagging and leading indicators is time well spent:

  • Don’t let your lagging and leading indicators take on a life of their own.  Measurement systems should make your business easier to manage, and make business decisions easier to arrive at.  If your metrics are not doing this, it is being done improperly.
  • Have a mix of lagging and leading indicators.  Most organizations have lots of lagging indicators, but fail to establish or track any leading indicators.
  • Track some things for a while, and monitor to see if they are useful.  Your measures will change and evolve over time.  To begin, you should measure what is readily available, and see if that is helping you to manage the business.
  • Change your lagging and leading indicators as the business (or measurement of the business) evolves.  Don’t become too committed to certain indicators.  Change them as necessary over time.

3 Things to remember

  1. Don’t spend more time measuring work than doing the work.  If your measurement system is too time consuming or onerous, it’s value diminishes quickly.
  2. Don’t get hung-up on labeling an indicator “leading” or “lagging”. Some indicators will be both lagging and leading indicators, and some may fall into each category for various purposes.  Don’t agonize over the label.
  3. You need some leading indicators. You likely already have a number of lagging indicators.  However, past performance is not always an indicator of future results, so you need to give some thought to what your leading indicators are.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Lagging and Leading Indicators (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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How to Use Lagging and Leading Indicators

A few years ago, the idea of business metrics was a somewhat novel concept.  Today, businesses seem to have a never-ending list of measures, but still have trouble choosing the critical few to make better decisions, and better run their businesses.  If you don’t choose your business metrics wisely, then measurement can become a colossal waste of time.  This week at Wily Manager we talk about Lagging and Leading Indicators, and how you can use them to improve your business.

Monday’s Tip: You need to measure something. Measurement isn’t just for production environments.  Service businesses need to measure their outcomes and processes too.

Tuesday’s Tip: Have a mix of Lagging and Leading Indicators. No one measure is perfect, and you need a combination of result (lagging) indicators, and activity (often leading) indicators.

Wednesday’s Tip: Measure outcomes and critical activities. Don’t be discouraged from measuring activities.  If you know an activity is a critical enabler of a longer term outcome, you should be measuring your success at executing that activity.

Thursday’s Tip: Change your indicators over time. Your business will change over time, and your understanding of certain metrics will change as well.  Don’t hesitate to change your business metrics accordingly.

Friday’s Tip: Don’t let your indicators take on a life of their own. If you spend more time measuring your business, than executing your business, then your measurement process has become useless.  Sometimes, you may not be able to get perfect data for something you want to measure.

Aligning Mission, Vision & Goals

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Many organizations fail to align their mission, vision, goals and strategies.  Most often this is because each of these documents are created or revised in isolation of the others.  Or perhaps, mission, vision, goals and strategies are something that are looked at once per year, and then successfully avoided until the following year.

The first task when dealing with mission, vision, goals and strategies is to have a clear definition of each:

What is a Mission?

When writing your mission, vision, goals and strategies, the mission statement is your foundational document:

  • A well-crafted mission articulates why you exist as an organization.
  • Answers the question, “Why are you here?”
  • Describes what the organization does in clear terms
  • Describes the purpose of the organization, product, or service
  • Your mission does not generally change over time.

What is a Vision

Of the mission, vision, goals and strategy document, the vision is the one that should provide inspiration:

  • Paints a clear and compelling view of the future.
  • Answers the question, “Where are we headed?”
  • It must motivate, be ambitious and stretch people.

Strategies

Strategies provide a pragmatic roadmap of how mission, vision, and goals will be accomplished over time:

  • Explain how the business will be successful over time
  • How the company will compete
  • How the organization will differentiate
  • What markets will be served.
  • What opportunities and strengths will be leveraged

Goals & Objectives

Goals and objectives are the building blocks of achieving the mission and vision:

  • Goals are directly related to vision, mission & strategies
  • Goals measure progress towards achieving vision, mission & strategies
  • Objectives are the plan or stepping stones towards the achievement of a goal

Alignment & Sustainment Plan

It is not enough to simply articulate your mission, vision, goals and strategies.  You need to do something about it.  Unfortunately, this is where many organizations fail.

  • Once you plan what you need to do, you need the discipline to follow through on that plan.
  • What actions will be taken?  By whom? By when?
  • How will you hold people accountable?
  • How will you reinforce and reward?

3 Things to Remember

  1. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.  Many organizations spend a ridiculous amount of time writing their mission, vision, goals and strategies.  Sometimes, a few words on a single page can be far more effective.
  2. Any plan is useless unless you execute it.  Don’t bother to write your mission, vision, goals and strategies unless you intend to do something about it.
  3. Your documents should be “alive”.  Don’t file them away, and dust them off once per year.  If you are using these tools wisely, you will use them to guide your activities throughout the year.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about aligning Mission, Vision & Goals (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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Get the Strategy Starter Kit files here

The ‘Strategy Starter Kit’ includes:

  • Strategy Starter Kit Workbook (pdf, 40 pages) – A series of questions and fill-in-the-blanks that result in your completed Business Planning Document, containing aligned Mission, Vision, Strategies, Goals & Objectives, as well as a Sustainment Plan to ensure success.
  • ‘Aligning Vision, Mission & Goals’ Full-Length Video (approx. 15 minutes) – Audio (mp3) and Visual Slides (ppt) can be downloaded separately
  • ‘Aligning Vision, Mission & Goals’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
  • ‘Mission Statements’ Podcast + Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
  • ‘Mission Statements’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
  • ‘The Vision Statement’ Podcast & Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
  • ‘The Vision Statement’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
  • ‘SMART Goals and HARD Goals’ Podcast & Podcast Slides (mp3, ppt)
  • ‘SMART Goals and HARD Goals’ Cheat Sheet (pdf, 1 page)
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