Firing an employee is usually a difficult task unless things have degraded to a point where you are eager to terminate them. Nonetheless, there are some tips available for doing it the “right” way. CareerBuilder has a solid, basic article that hits the high points of terminating an employee – What to Know About Letting an Employee Go. Here’s a good tip from the article: It’s About Time It used to be the general consensus that late Friday afternoon was considered the ideal time to drop the hammer on an employee. But experts in the Human Resources industry now believe that earlier in the day, or even the week, is… Read More
Continue ReadingThe 6 Hour Workday
Price Tag for Lost Productivity: $544 Billion. I’m always intrigued about how these calculations are made through a simple survey. How about some stats from the article? Employees spend an average of 1.86 hours per eight-hour workday on something other than their jobs, not including lunch and scheduled breaks, the survey found. More than half (52%) of the 2,706 people surveyed admitted that their biggest distraction during work hours is surfing the Internet for personal use. Other distractions cited by respondents included socializing with co-workers (26.3%), running errands outside the office (7.6%) and spacing out (6.6%). I remember seeing something about this survey since “spacing out” made me laugh. I’ve… Read More
Continue ReadingTelecommuting Town?
I haven’t heard of the phrase “The Creative Class” but I think I will have to read the book. This BusinessWeek article – The Easiest Commute of All – ties in to the previous post regarding telecommuters. This is fascinating: Mesa del Sol, designed by New Urbanism guru Peter Calthorpe, will be the first place of its kind built from scratch and targeted at the creative class. A big marketing push will be made to coastal knowledge workers looking to cash out of their million-dollar split levels, move inland, and work remotely for their companies. Mansionettes will carry price tags of up to $400,000, about the same as the average… Read More
Continue ReadingTelecommuting Trend
We have discussed telecommuting on many occassions and this morning’s JustSell.com email referenced this survey. Some points of data to consider: While only 23 percent of U.S. employees work from home or are given that option, most of the work force (59 percent) believes that telecommuting at least part-time is the ideal work situation. This includes the 38 percent who think a mix of coming into the office and working from home is preferable and the 21 percent who say working at home is the best. We are seeing this play out in our current sourcing activities. The younger generations are highly receptive to telecommuting and view it as a… Read More
Continue ReadingText Message Terminations
I understand the younger generations are voracious consumers of text messaging. This fact became clear to me when I tagged along to pick up a new Treo phone. The phone has an Internet connection almost everywhere so you can receive email at any time. The sales rep was pushing an add-on package for unlimited text messaging. Our question back to him – Why do we need text messaging when we have email? We must of looked like dinosaurs to the young sales rep. At any rate, here is an article about text messaging that is out of control. I think you will see what I mean: She turned on her… Read More
Continue ReadingReviews and Development Plans
CareerBuilder.com approaches an important topic that is often placed on the back burner – Why Do Quarterly Employee Reviews? I suspect most companies perform an annual employee review that is primarily tied to a salary review. Many companies may not even do that much. A scheduled, quarterly review is insulation against bad habits taking root in the employee’s performance. From the article, a real truth: Almost everyone performs better when held accountable. Employees who are not given performance benchmarks, goals and a vision will often fail. This fact is our first topic when coaching sales managers. Sales managers simply need to hold their team accountable. They don’t need to be… Read More
Continue ReadingCEOs are Utilitarians
CareerBuilder along with Cars.com performed a survey to find out what cars CEO’s drive. I don’t know if this data has any real application, but I found it interesting: The truth is more CEOs surveyed drive ordinary passenger cars and SUVs than luxury cars; in fact, those who drive Chevys outnumber those in Mercedes. And while most respondents think CEOs spend more than $70,000 on their cars, the average price CEOs in this study payed for their primary vehicle is under $25,000. One-in-four (26%) CEOs surveyed reported they spent less than $20,000 on their primary vehicle. Are you surprised? I’m not for 1 reason – the majority of CEO’s we… Read More
Continue ReadingReinforcing Employees = Less Turnover
I was reading my daily email from the JustSell.com guys and they referenced an interesting study: With help from Gallup, the authors surveyed more than 4 million employees and found that those who give and receive praise: increase their individual productivity increase interaction among colleagues are more likely to stay in their current jobs Gallup research also revealed that the #1 reason most Americans leave their jobs is because they don’t feel appreciated — and 65% of the people surveyed said they did not receive recognition for good work in the past year. In the past year! Granted, some communication styles need more reinforcement than others, but all styles need… Read More
Continue ReadingRetaining Employees
Here is a follow up to the previous post. ‘Career Path’ Programs Help Retain Employees discusses efforts by companies to retain workers. Some strong points: Most career-path programs outline promotion possibilities and offer training in required skills. Some employers also offer career-planning sessions. Leigh Branham, a human-resource consultant and author of “The Seven Hidden Reasons Employees Leave,” says training is particularly appealing to younger workers, who are more likely to jump ship. A real-world application: Each new hire requires 158 hours of training, at a cost of roughly $7,000, according to Purdue. So keeping workers even a little longer can mean big savings. At Huntington Bancshares, 75% of the call-center… Read More
Continue ReadingEmployees Are Looking
The modern employee can easily track sales opportunities. Job board search agents, Google agents and RSS feeds do most of the work. With that in mind, read this monster.com article – Are You Underpaid? Some highlights: Keep One Foot in the Job Market “The best way to know your value is to be on the market” — even if you aren’t looking for another job, says Lee E. Miller. The best practice for this topic is to assume your employees are aware of other opportunities and may even be considering them as you read this post. Good advice from the author: Is Pay Really the Issue? Finally, step back and… Read More
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