February 2012

Monday, February 6

Social Learning: Key resources from January

(From Jane Hart's Learning in the Social Workplace) -- Here is my pick of 10 articles about social learning since my last posting just before Christmas. I have listed them below in chronological order, and also added a short quote from each of them to give you a flavour of what each is about. If you want to read further articles you will find many more that I have saved in my 2012 Reading List.

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Don’t underestimate the value of introverts in the workplace

(From heraldnet.com) -- Is it possible that the long-held belief among corporate chiefs and entrepreneurs that creativity and innovative ideas are best generated by collaborative teams is just plain wrong?

Susan Cain's extraordinary new book, "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking," makes some very persuasive arguments against the conventional wisdom about creativity and teams.

Hundreds of new business titles are published each year, but it's rare to find in any new book ideas that turn conventional wisdom on its head. Cain's book does this and more. We predict her ideas will change the way many people lead and manage.

Her book begins by describing why our society places such a huge value on being extroverted. This bias is communicated and ingrained in all of us starting at a young age. The results? Just look at our celebrity culture, reality television, the Facebook phenomenon and how today's workplace is organized. Everything about the workplace is about supporting the needs of extroverts.

Read more.

Career Coach: Talk to employees before they leave

(From The Washington Post) -- Some experts are warning of a “resume tsunami” as the economy recovers. They are predicting employees, particularly top performers, are likely to look for greener pastures as the job market improves. This means employers need to be at the top of their game to hold onto their talent.

Many firms have relied on exit interviews to learn why their employees decide to leave. The goal is to gain candid information about the company that can be used to address the reasons why some leave. But to do this, employers need to ask the right questions.

Read more.

Friday, February 3

How to Find the 'Star Performer' in Every Employee

(From Forbes) -- Every startup and every big business wishes that all their employees were star performers, but wishing doesn’t make it happen. Some coaches and leaders seem to have the magic for bringing out the best in everyone. Research has shown that it isn’t magic, but a focus on engaging people in their work, so that their work triggers the same emotions as play does for you.

Some of you cynics may think that such a thing isn’t possible, but Shawn Kent Hayashi, who has worked for years with entrepreneurs, as well as Fortune 500 giants, argues otherwise. In her new book, “Conversations for Creating Star Performers,” she offers examples and ten strategies to leverage conversations into game-changing moments for team members and your company:

1. Build awareness of expectations. Conversations about what effective performance looks and sounds like are an obvious strategy, but too often found missing. No team member knows what they don’t know, so regular communication from leaders is key.

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Learning Executives More Confident in Q4 2011

(From PRWEB) -- Learning executives’ optimism and confidence about the outlook and expectations for the learning function rebounded at the end of 2011 after declining in the second and third quarters of the year, according to the latest measurement by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). The current Learning Executives Confidence Index (LXCI) surveyed 408 learning executives about their expectations in four areas: impact on corporate performance; ability to meet learning needs; status as a key strategic component; and availability of resources. It is modeled on the CEO Confidence Indices reported by "Chief Executive Magazine" and The Conference Board.

The ASTD LXCI for the fourth quarter of 2011 was 66.6, up from 65.9 in the third quarter, but still below the record high of 67.3 achieved in the first quarter of 2011. The index fluctuated only 1.4 points throughout all of 2011 indicating that learning executives (LXs) remained cautiously optimistic but could be potentially influenced by economic and job market instability. The fourth quarter did see an increase in respondents who predicted that the learning function would have a better impact on corporate performance in the next six months. The LXCI is measured by a 100-point scale.

Read more.

Wednesday, February 1

Motivate High Performance by Promising Rewards

(From Business Management Daily) --Employee recognition programs aren’t quite as popular as they once were, but the 86% of businesses that use them find that rewards and in­­centives can still spur sales, improve retention and employee loyalty, and raise productivity during an era of slim pay raises and uncertain bonuses.

In fact, the Incentive Research Foun­­dation (IRF) reports that incentives of all stripes can attract and retain good employees, boost team performance by as much as 44% and increase individual productivity by an average of 22%.

A 3% dip in the number of companies using the programs since 2008—as re­­ported in a 2011 WorldatWork survey—doesn’t suggest a permanent decline, says Alison Avalos, research manager for the trade group. Instead, she notes, “The data suggests that, even with a recession, recognition programs remain an important component of employee rewards.”

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ROI and Mobile Assessments Are Important to HR Professionals in 2012

(From PRNewswire) -- SIS International Research, a Global Market Research & Consulting firm, has released its Talent Management Trends 2012 White Paper on Industry Trends in Human Resources Recruitment and Talent Management, based on the findings from a recent qualitative industry trend study across the United States among senior HR executives.

Today's Human Resources departments are being pushed in new directions, due to the continued jobless recovery, the expectations of the emerging Millennials in the workforce, as well as the introduction and refinement of new technologies. Companies are increasingly moving to online assessments, believing them to be less costly and time-consuming. In addition, corporate branding is becoming an integral part of the application experience. As a result, social media and mobile platforms are becoming an important tool to attract applicants.

Read more.

January 2012

Monday, January 30

Spending Up For Learning, Development

(From Human Resource Executive Online) -- Organizations substantially increased spending on learning and development over the past few years, according to the two new reports.

The American Society for Training and Development's 2011 State of the Industry Report finds that organizations in the United States spent $171.5 billion on employee learning in 2010, up from $125.8 billion in 2009 -- an increase of 36 percent.

It also notes that employers spent more on employees' development than ever before, with per-employee spending at $1,228 in 2010, a 13.5-percent increase from $1,081 in 2009.

Pat Galagan, executive editor at Alexandria, Va.-based ASTD, says, "The old-fashioned thinking that says training gets cut first has been disproved. Companies now realize that tough times are when you increase training spending."

Read more.

Human Capital Management Trends 2012: Managing Talent to Lead Organizational Growth

(From Aberdeen Group) -- Getting talent right is getting business right. Aberdeen's Human Capital Management (HCM) research has continually shown that in order to meet business challenges, grow the organization, and keep customers happy, the right talent must be hired, retained, deployed, developed and engaged.

Findings from this report showed that 81 percent of best-in-class companies rated themselves as "highly engaged." Best-in-Class companies have a ready and willing successor identified for 71 percent of their key positions, compared to 32 percent for the industry average. Best-in-class companies are enjoying more than three times the year-over-year improvement in hiring manager satisfaction than the industry average, 13 percent to 4 percent.

Download the complimentary report.

Friday, January 27

Follow the Leader: The Most Sought After Skills for Global Leaders

(From Chief Learning Officer) -- Executive leadership demands have evolved. Growth in the global business environment has prompted many organizations to reinvent themselves to meet the enlarged scale and scope. This places a spotlight on how leaders are developed. The modern leadership profile requires a complex yet malleable skill set.

Fifty-one percent of senior learning and leadership development executives view strategic planning as a top leadership skill to target, according to a November survey by Chief Learning Officer and Human Capital Media (HCM) Advisory Group, the magazine’s research arm. Business acumen, coaching, critical thinking, mentorship and situational leadership were among the most sought-after traits required of today’s business leaders, the survey said.

Developing great global leaders has gone beyond simply cultivating certain skills, however. In many ways, as leadership development as a learning discipline has become well defined, the valued skills it seeks to teach have grown more muddled. As a result, developing a fresh mindset or framework within which to evaluate and lead business is just as important as specific skills.

Effective corporate leadership traits are often hard to define, but many learning leaders say they know a true leader when they see one.

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Money Worries Hurt Job Performance

(From The Wall Street Journal) -- Human-resources managers say employees’ financial worries are hurting their work performance, according to a survey released this week by the Society for Human Resource Management.

About 22% of 458 HR professionals surveyed said personal financial challenges are having a “large impact” on work performance. About 61% said they’re having “some impact.”

As far as how performance is being hurt, the top-cited issues were “ability to focus on work” (47%), “overall employee stress” (46%) and “overall employee productivity” (26%). Roughly 24% said personal-finance problems were leading to employees being absent or late to work.

Read more.

Wednesday, January 25

Monday, January 23

India ahead of China in nurturing leadership talents

(From The Economic Times) -- India is way ahead of China in terms of nurturing leadership talents, and Indian business leaders are much more effective with their critical skills and are better at identifying/ developing future talents, according to a recent study.

"About 60 per cent or more of the Indian leaders are found to be more effective than their Chinese counterparts when it comes to excelling in five critical skills required for successful leadership," a study by DDI, a talent management firm, on 'Leadership at the Future's Edge: China and India', says.

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Ethical warning looming in U.S. workplaces

(From MarketWatch) -- Last year, nearly 8.8 million Americans felt the sting of workplace retaliation — a 33% increase in negative payback from the year before. That surge, identified by the Ethics Resource Center in its biennial survey of ethics in the workplace, is an ominous trend that strongly suggests that ethics violations at U.S. companies are about to go up.

Even as they focus on restoring growth, American companies need to add ethics as a priority.

For almost every form of misconduct — ranging from fudging on expenses to lying to customers to major fraud — reporting by conscientious employees is often the earliest detection system. That’s why, as members of Congress, as we focused on deterring corporate crime, we worked to protect whistleblowers. It’s also why companies that value ethical performance invest in internal programs to ensure that employees follow the rules and also report others’ misconduct when they see it.

Read more.

Thursday, January 19

Succession Planning Lags at Large Companies and Small Companies

(From PRNewswire) -- Many companies don't have proven succession planning programs in place, which could lead to disasters in the c-suite, says Succession Planning Consultant Nancy Clark, president of Leaders-Inc.com, a global management consulting firm specializing in individual, team, and organizational performance improvement.

"It takes a dedicated and forward-thinking leadership team to allocate the time and to develop a succession culture. Unfortunately, many companies don't make leadership development a priority until it is an emergency. That is not the time to plan - instead that is the time to execute the plan. If your company is not doing it, now is the time to start," said Clark, whose company creates succession plans, competencies plans, and change plans for large global to mid-size companies in the energy, technical, healthcare and other industries.

All companies need talent management plans to account for the inevitable retirement of key leaders, she said.

Read more.

Wednesday,  January 18

HR Will Have More Opportunities to Demonstrate Value in 2012

(From Bloomberg BNA) -- The U.S. economy, which is showing subtle signs of improvement, in 2012 once again will have a major impact on HR's ability to address hiring, employee engagement, compensation, and other key workplace issues, business and legal experts told Bloomberg BNA.

“The big challenge is still this question of uncertainty in trying to figure out where the economy is going,” said Peter Cappelli, a management professor and director of the Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in Philadelphia.

“The big difference now is that there's some evidence—weak evidence—that businesses are coming back,” he said. “It certainly seems to be the case that some hiring will come back.”

At first glance, it might seem that the HR profession is facing challenges identical to those it confronted last year, but there are key differences, employment analysts said.

“In 2011, we were a lot more focused on restructuring, downsizing, rebalancing the workforce, consolidation of HR into smaller, more centralized groups, budget-cutting, and trying to prepare for the economic recovery,” said Josh Bersin, chief executive officer and president of Bersin & Associates, a research and advisory consulting firm in Oakland, Calif. “This year, HR organizations we talked to are increasing their budgets. This is more a year of building, and less of retrenchment.”

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Multicultural Leadership Starts from Within

(From HBR Blogs) -- The world is getting smaller. As new technologies in social media, transportation, and telecommunications bring us closer together, it's more critical than ever for organizations to recruit, develop, and retain multicultural leaders who can skillfully navigate both the opportunities and challenges of a more connected world.

Multicultural leadership involves deep immersion within different cultures to understand their values and specific context. This immersion unlocks insight into how to best reach customers, inspire employees, and drive organizational performance in geographies outside one's "home base." Only through knowing other cultures deeply can a manager effectively connect the dots between them and highlight meaningful differences between cultures that impact business strategy.

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2012 Workplace Trends Report: Integration, Flexibility and Wellness Top Drivers of Employee Engagement

(From PRNewswire) -- Sodexo, Quality of Daily Life Solutions provider to more than 1,800 corporate clients in the United States, released its 2012 Workplace Trends Report today, offering a unique perspective on the workplace that combines insight from clients, academia, principal research, and leading facilities management and human resource trade organizations.

The research predicts continued focus on well-being and the ability to deliver a unique value proposition to business communities that focuses on not only integrated, effective and efficient use of space, but also the performance of human capital. Employees are looking to organizations for tools and resources to help them simplify their lives, stay healthy and balanced, and bring their "whole self" to work as these continue to be top drivers of engagement. Employee engagement, productivity, brand image and loyalty continue to be relevant measures of success.

Read more.

Tuesday, January 17

Infusing a "Talent First" Culture Through Integrated Talent Management

(From Aberdeen Group) -- In a competitive global economy, HR needs to take a new look at talent, creating a “talent first” culture which prioritizes employee engagement through the entire organization. Aberdeen’s HR Executive Agenda report, found that Best-in-Class organizations are deploying integrated talent management technology to achieve this goal—technology that encompasses recruitment, onboarding, performance, succession, compensation, learning and development. Integrated talent management technology may not only help HR exchange information seamlessly but help make smart decisions related to both talent and the business.

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Friday, January 13

Accelerating Time to Performance

(From Aberdeen Group) -- Time is money, as the old saying goes, and companies today can ill afford to waste either when it comes to bringing a new hire up to speed. Learning plays a critical role in transforming the onboarding process from an exercise in efficient tactical execution to an experience that accelerates performance, builds engagement, and fosters a sense of connection between new hires, their managers, and their team. This Insight will examine how learning in the onboarding phase of the employee lifecycle can improve time-to-productivity and set the stage for long term excellence.

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Wednesday, January 11

8 Ways Leaders Can Motivate Their Employees Beyond Money

(From Forbes) -- Most successful entrepreneurs will tell you that their primary motivation is to “change the world” and to build something lasting, not to make a lot of money. But the conventional wisdom is that employees work for money, above all else. Yet my own experience, and a recent McKinsey survey, leads me to believe that non-cash motivators may be more effective in the long term than financial incentives.

I agree with Charles P. Garcia, who ties motivation most strongly to leadership, in his book “Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows,” based on this group of more than 600 prominent leaders from every sector of American society. They assert that employees value having strong leaders, who incent them to do their best, just as much if not more than money.

For action, he provides a list of principles for entrepreneurs and managers alike, derived from his first-hand discussions with some of the nation’s greatest leaders. We all need to learn from these as we rebuild employee morale following tough economic times, with limited budgets:

1. Energize your team. Instead of being the type of leader who sucks the energy away from others, resolve to be the kind of leader who strives to bring passion and positive energy to the workplace every day. Your employees have just helped you pull your company through one of the nation’s worst economic periods. It’s time they had a source of positive energy.

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Monday,  January 9

Ten Reasons Performance Reviews are Done Terribly

(From Forbes) -- In the world of organizational life, there’s no single discussion that causes so much fear and dread on the boss’s side and so much anger and resentment on the direct report’s side than the performance review.

I had drinks last week with a senior guy who works for a global financial institution, who had just had his year-end performance review a couple of weeks ago.  He exploded in anger to me about the experience. “I’ve had it with those guys.  They don’t give a s— about any of the work I’ve done in the last 3 years.  I’m doing the old jobs of 4 people pre-2008 and they don’t thank me and they just want me to do more.  I’m quitting.”

“Wait a second,” I said. “In this economy? You’re going to quit over this?”

“Damn right. I can find another job in the next month for what I do.  If these guys don’t appreciate me, I’ll go somewhere else.”

Why do almost all performance reviews cause aggravation?  Here are the top ten ways you can ensure your next performance with your reports will be a total bomb:

1. Too vague. I love the bosses who have 10 minute performance reviews with their people, usually in the last week of the year — after being harassed 4 times from HR to get them done.  The meetings are usually called on the spur of the moment: “Hey Sally, could you stop in my office for a sec?”  They’re as brief as possible and give the reports no specific feedback on the work they’ve done in the last year.  There’s usually lots of “you’re doing good work” and “keep it up” sprinkled in to the conversation.  But how does a report take that as feedback and improve their job performance in the next year? Be specific about what you liked and didn’t like in their performance.

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Collaboration in Talent Mobility Key to Jobs

(From The Nation) -- A report released on Friday by the World Economic Forum highlights that collaboration in talent mobility among stakeholders on all sides of the employment equation is most effective in addressing labour-market failures and enhancing job creation.

 The report, "Talent Mobility Good Practices - Collaboration at the Core of Driving Economic Growth", is based on 55 case studies from around the world. It shows concrete actions that organisations - including companies, governments, academic institutions, and non-profit entities - have implemented to address talent challenges.

 The report finds that while there are several examples of good practices that can be adopted to help rebalance global talent markets, talent mobility is not achieving its full potential. It points out that talent markets are impeded by four key problems: widespread unemployability, skills gaps, information gaps, and private and public constraints on mobility. These issues are pervasive and daunting, with many countries and regions struggling with high unemployment and untapped labour pools while many industry sectors and employers face talent shortages and skills gaps.

Read more.

Friday, January 6

Executives Greet New Year With Concerns About Leadership Shortages Amid Shifting Economic Realities

(From PRNewswire) -- Many executives foresee leadership shortages in the year ahead and are looking at programs to accelerate leadership development within their companies, according to new research from Deloitte. The Deloitte report, "Talent Edge 2020: Redrafting Talent Strategies for the Uneven Recovery," identifies a number of significant trends driving corporate talent strategies and tracks how companies are responding to shifting economic realities.

"The standout findings from our research are two-fold: the near universal agreement about the existing and potentially growing shortage of executive leadership and the significant regional differences in talent needs around the globe," said Alice Kwan, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and talent services leader. "Talent leaders in today's business environment are taking responsibility for their futures by focusing investments and capabilities on rebuilding and developing new talent programs for leaders and critical employees within their organizations."

Read more.

Wednesday, January 4

Talent Management at Multinational Firms in China

(From Knowledge@Wharton) -- Developing the Chinese market is a top priority for many multinational companies. Across industry sectors, however, they face a common obstacle -- attracting, developing and retaining the local Chinese talent needed to accomplish this goal. Global firms realize the importance of having local leadership in tune with the idiosyncrasies and rapid shifts of the Chinese market. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Pierre Cohade, the Asia-Pacific president of Goodyear, confirmed that the number one challenge in China "is absolutely the fight for talent." Goodyear is hardly alone: Over the past 13 years, the American Chamber of Commerce has conducted annual surveys of U.S. companies in China and frequently cites management-level human resource constraints as the top business challenge.

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Firms Look to Avoid Talent Crunch

(From Vancouver Sun) -- With Alberta and Saskatchewan forecast to lead Canadian economic performance across the country in 2012, there are whispers of the b-word - boom - entering back into conversations about recruitment for the year ahead.

It is putting employees back into the driver's seat and employers in both provinces are all too familiar with the headaches and challenges that trend can entail when it comes to supplying - and keeping - the labour needed to fuel the billions of dollars of projects on the books.

An informal survey of some of the city's leading recruitment firms shows that, for the most part, they are all hearing the same things from their clients about the top labour issues that will affect them in 2012. Here is a glimpse into what they have to say about trends for the year ahead.

Read more.

Tuesday, January 3

Enhancing Success of New Executive Functions

(From Human Resource Executive Online) --Imagine walking into an empty office -- no files, no computer records, no handwritten notes. Nothing to indicate where to begin. Executives walking into a newly created position often face this very scenario.

In today's shaky economy, companies are finding it increasingly necessary to establish these new roles for strategic reasons or to address a tactical gap. In September, Bank of America established a co-COO arrangement, and in August, Lowe's created three new geographical divisions, all led by senior vice presidents whose roles did not previously exist.

While titles sometimes hint at what new executives will be doing, it is often unclear -- to both the newcomers and to others in the organization -- why they are there and what the new position is responsible for executing.

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